Real T!me

Sohaib Athar an IT consultant, living in Abbottabad, unknowingly tweeted details of the US-led operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. He twitted the operation in “Real Time”.

Nature is timeless. Man divided time and lost his peace of mind because he has tried to get away with timelessness of nature. Division of time has led us to this concept of “Real Time” which as wikipedia says is  a narrative technique in which the events depicted take place entirely within the span of the depiction, and at the same rate. Thanks to our modern day technology today we can have real time news, updates and control system. We want to be updated every second. We want to know where has Veena Malik gone? Which politician has been slapped? Which is the new Kolaveri song? What is the dollar rate? How is sensex moving?  Of course in “Real Time”

Raju lives in a dynamic world. And the flux of updates, news and thoughts is beyond his absorption capability. Google throws millions of search results in fraction on seconds.(I searched for Real Time it gave about 751,000,000 results in 0.27 seconds). But he has become so used to being in Real Time that if his smart phone does not flash light for 5 min he gets restless and subconsciously his fingers start moving the frames of his touchscreen gadget. He checks it out hoping for some new updates. Raju wants to know how many likes his new profile picture has got. Of course in Real Time. He wants to be informed continuously. He is addicted to being bombarded with information. Something must keep happening with his facebook wall or with the news website that he follows or at least with his twitter account. In elevators when he is with strangers or even with know people his gadgets become his friends. He keeps staring at it, playing with it and he is glued to it till he reaches the desired floor. If there is nothing he will recheck the message box, as if he checks it someone will actually send an sms. Ask him why. You wont get any proper reason. In reality its a tool for him to escape strangers and to behave like strangers with known people.

While travelling if he looses his 3G connectivity he plugs the ear phones and listen to some music. When he has enough of music he picks up a magazine or a book or a newspaper and feeds his mind with anything that he gets. His intention is to keep his mind engaged with something; anything; but himself.

Raju’s situation is similar to the coolie from Rajasthan who used to carry 80kgs of weight (food grain/cloth) on his back from town “a” to town “b”. From town “b” he would return with some other goods and drop it in town “a”. He was so much addicted to this habit of carrying luggage that on the days when he would not get any return luggage he would carry a sack full of sand. He could not help the weightlessness.

Raju is the poor coolie of modern times. The moment of weightlessness are too heavy for him. The moments of peace and silence cause anxiety to him. He is used to speed but he gets restless when things are at rest.  He is too much uncomfortable in being with himself. He wants to get into depth of everything but himself.

Key point: Man by his foolish intelligence divided time and now by the same foolish intelligence he wants to beat time. Raju does not know in his attempt to be in “Real Time” he is loosing out on his “Real Time”.

Seven Shots to make the best out of your MBA days

1. It is Master of Balanced Administration:

It is about learning how to balance work-fun, theory-practical, duties- hobbies, man- machine, brain-emotions, following- leading, listening- speaking, obeying- challenging, classes- events,  failure- success and most importantly outer you- inner you.

It’s not about This “Or” That. It’s about This “And” That.

Ex: IQ and EQ both are equally important. Followers are as important as leaders are.

2. It is studying subjects in the light of other subjects:

Most common mistake done by students who have an inclination towards a particular subject is: While studying their favourite subject they forget about the subjects that they do not like much.

Ex: While studying Marketing one must understand it within the light of Finance, HR, Operations, and Systems etc. Because, in market every marketing manager has to handle numbers, people, systems and distribution. A creative marketing manager who does not understand finance and systems will never be able to create and execute a profitable marketing plan.

One must understand that these subjects cannot be studied in isolation because each area is dependent on other areas. The student must ask for numeric solutions while studying marketing and human resource management cost of solution. And while studying systems management one must study it from an HRs eye too as it is people who would run the system.

3. It is being in the shoes of the head:

While studying management or solving a problem or a case study one must put himself into the shoes of the boss/ leader who is tackling the issue. Unless you consider the case being discussed as your own business problem/ opportunity you will never be able to get to the depth of the issue and the solution generally will be superficial. 

To learn the most: One must analyze the problem/ case study from each stakeholder’s point of view. Because the solution provided by a typical Marketing Manager might not be feasible to the operations manager for technical reasons or the finance manager would not approve it because of it might not be financially feasible.

A good manager will not provide solution for his department by creating problems for another department. 

Those who condemn theory/ theoretical knowledge must realize that an established theory is always based on inferences drawn from practice (or what is being practised). Theory is a reflection practice.

Ex: What came first: Marketing or Marketing Theory?

The problem lies in not using theory intelligently. Just because one is not intelligent enough to use theory does not suggest that Theoretical knowledge is useless.

Management theory is a not prescription it is just a description. Theory might not give you a solution; it can definitely help you to discover a way to approach the solution.

Any theory has some assumptions. One must study theory in the light of those assumptions. One must understand the constraints of a theory and the constraints of the actual problem at hand. Theory can definitely help a person to understand the problem and crystallize it to get a solution.

 4. It is understanding theory practically:

The aim of MBA should not be to make you learn theories but to make you capable enough so that you can develop your own theories and solve problems in your own way.  Experience helps you have your own ever evolving theories. An experienced person can run many simulations simultaneously and has a brain to consider multiple numbers of constraints and visualize the effect (based on his previous self discovered theories or as the world calls it as experience).

MBA case studies are meant to give the candidate a variety of experience but under a limited number of constraints and wide number of assumptions.

One can very well start from theories but one must not stop at them only. 

5. Learn from everyone:

A good student can learn more from a bad teacher than a poor student from a skilled teacher. 

A student should not solely depend upon the efforts of faculty for his learning. He must strive to get the best out of his teacher. Make the best out of the worst teacher. You will never be able to say “I had a bad teacher for this subject” as an excuse in the industry. By having the courage to take the responsibility of self development a student can make the most out of the situation.  “Don’t sit on your ass and depend on others for your improvement.” You be the driver.

Question, ponder over examples, search for more analogies and demand for in-depth explanation, have an open mind and urge to learn. Learn from friends, library, non-teaching staff, the canteen manager, the hostel guard. Learn from anybody and everybody. 

Even if you have not reached IIMs you must behave and develop habits that can make you at par with IIM students and thus prepare you to give a tough fight to the graduates from top notch B-school. The best students always keep searching for more avenues for learning. They believe that they are going to use the learning. Most importantly they actually use them!

6. Managing pressure and expectations:

A typical B-school would have parties, cultural programmes, sports, exams, competitions and classes all at the same time. A candidate might want to excel in exams as well as cultural programmes. One must understand that there is opportunity cost associated with every action. One must figure out creative ways to manage the trade offs. One must stretch his capacity but without burning out.

Following crowd will at best make you a part of the crowd.  

Multitasking might appear to be a smart way of handling things but one must not forget the power and the need of concentration. Concentration requires good mental and physical health, discipline with mind and work and organising things properly. If one reaches late in the class he is bound to take more time to get in sync with the class. If ones phone is vibrating in the bag he is bound to loose on the topic being discussed.

The basic thing that our school teachers always demanded from us: “Be there physically and mentally” remains important throughout the life. 

Sleeping on time, doing some warm up exercise, and meditating a bit is the least you can do for making the most out of your young - productive days. Relaxing a bit during breaks and going into hibernation mode can help a lot.

One of the most common things the students do when under fire (assignments/ exams etc.) is to skip meal. Skip meal for what? For studying during exam days because you were lazy earlier? How can a person who cannot manage his meal, can think of managing a company?

7. Knowing oneself, being with oneself:

In life there is only one person who is going to be there with you always. And it is “You”.  

Know thyself and the world will know you.

A manager who does not know about his business will never do justice with the business. A person who does not know himself cannot do justice with his potential.

Spend time with self to understand yourself. Ask yourself: how are you, what you like, what you don’t, what makes you happy, what kind of work would suit you, what kind of boss you want, what is the environment that you are seeking, are you improving every day, where have you reached so far, where do you stand, what do you intend to do, how do you intend to do it, where will this rush and hurry take you, are you a good human being, what is it you can do for others, do you really have good friends, have you ever helped someone inspite of being busy, are you becoming insensitive and calling it professionalism,  do you still find a little quality time for your mother,  have you looked at the moon and felt the  peace as you used to,  ...there are enough questions that no one would ask you but the answers to them can make you closer to your true self, to be at peace with self and thus solve the riddles life would present you. 

Spend quality time with yourself. Explore yourself. Work on yourself. Believe in yourself. Evolve yourself.

Written for Seventh Sense

Download the post:  B-School Days by Seventh Sense

The Curious Case of Anna's Protest!

Team Anna has got a tremendous response from common man. The large number of people turning up at rallies and dharnas in the colors of patriotism with Gandhi Topi is a reflection of the success of Brand Anna. 

Let us try to analyze the reasons for the overwhelming support that this historical protest has received.

1. Common Need: All the sections of society have faced corruption. Corruption is the common denominator problem of every level of the society be it a Driver or a Businessman or a Student. Unless the problem is common such big revolutions are not possible. The anger and frustration of people caused due to inflation/ corruption/ reservations.. any problem for which as per common man govt is responsible needed a way out. A peaceful protest proved to be the right way to demonstrate.

2. Solution: There have been many dharnas and protests against corruption earlier too but this protest also talks about a very relevant, practical and concrete solution in the form of Janlokpal Bill. This protest is more than just a demonstration. People believe that by protesting against govt. Janlokpal Bill will get clearance in parliament which in itself is going to reduce their problem. And this solution is in the form of a "System" and not in the form of " An Elected Person" who, once elected, betrays common man every now and then.   

3. Production House: The trust factor played a crucial role in rolling the stone. The clean image of "Team Anna" (the production house) deserved faith of the common man. Different members of Anna Team proved appealing to different segments of people. 

Example: 

Anna: His clean image, past deeds, simple lifestyle, grandfather like figure attracted Rural People, Emotional Urban Youth and Elders. These people trust their leader...and anything their leader says/ do is right. They generally do not debate. They prefer to follow their leader. They are large in numbers. But caution this is the group that can suggest the attitude: "If you are not with us, you are against us. You are not true Indians."

Kiran Bedi: To educated people from urban areas. And rural girls who proudly say "Desh ki Beti kaisi ho, Kiran Bedi Jaisi ho!".  

Arvind Kejriwaal: Educated, tech savvy reason seeking section of the society who analyse the situation and proposals by doing their own research. Who will not support you just because of your clean image.  This section of society knows about the bill and a bit about the law. This section of society can debate on the topic and convince and convert others too. They are more likely to form any personal opinion based on facts rather than on just emotions. In marketing jargon these are " Opinion Builders".

4. Planning: The scheduling of protest during extended holidays helped team Anna to get as much number as possible. The Facebook page, the sms, the emails, the viral videos passed on the message directly from team to the protesters. 

5. Control: The replacement of Bharat Mata poster with that of Mahatma Gandhi's poster on the stage to avoid any politicization of the protest, preventing Ramdeo Baba or any other uninvited guest to share opinion on stage, requesting people to not to indulge in any violence and keeping a check of it and making govt authorities take steps to maintain hygiene on the ground so as to avoid any epidemic....are some of the examples of control that Team Anna displayed.

All said, the most important reason for the success is  the protesters believe that Team Anna has Right Intentions.  People might not understand Janlok Pal Bill. But they understand corruption that they face every day. They might not understand the technicalities of law. But they are sure that Team Anna is clean, has pure intentions and is more intelligent. They believe anything that comes from such team "Has to be Good" as compared to "The Parliament" that has over 150 MPs with criminal records.

Anger Vs. Patience

Anger is not always bad. Patience is not always good. Anger helps you take the bold steps that u might not take with a patient mind. And at times these bold steps make you choose the road less traveled and thus explore a new you in you. Anger makes you forget the limitations, weaknesses and constraints that you have. Patience makes you hopelessly hopeful about hopeless things.

So Raju shows patience with the corrupt system and with his need to change for better. He shows anger on the innocent child who cries when he is reading and gets furious when the the internet is not working. 

He gets angry only when the problems are smaller than him. He gets patient when they are bigger than him. 

Thus, we use anger to show our shallow heroism and pseudo patience to hide our timidness.

Let us get angry with our patience. Let us get patient with our anger. 

The Corporate Maayajaal

"What am I doing here?" is the question that most my friends have been asking themselves.  They  tell themselves "I am loosing myself. I was much better previously. I used to be more active and creative. And worst of all I do not have any vision about my future. I am here, just beacuse I can not see any other place for myself. I feel I am blind. Infact I can't even think about myself. I do not remember when was the last time when I really thought about myself. Forget about the future I can't undersatnd even my present"

Those who feel as above would also somewhat agree with me in coming lines.

"So called Bosses and Corporates" are generally very smart. They overload you with work. Regular-Routine- Pressure Oriented Work. They do it very cleverly. They know it very clearly that the moment you start thinking (about yourself) you will be a disgruntled employee. You will start discovering that you are not doing justice with yourself and so you will plan for a switch. So they will make sure that you do not get time to think. They want execution machines and not thinkers. They want people who can take calls, reply to emails, do followups achieve the desired target/ result. They want people who can do more and more of these things. These bosses do not want you to give them simple yet really good ideas that may ease the cumbersome procedures. They want executioners.

They hire you just for your "utility" and never for your "prosperity".

While you should be at place where you are utilized wisely for your prosperity (needless to say- your organisations prosperity too). 

Luckily Raju gets some free time(two holidays back to back). And he starts thinking- "Am I doing justice with myself?". His thinking takes the shape of frustration. He spends time crying/ worrying/ talking to his friend about his problem...in vain. But before the time he could actually get a solution to end this frustration....his holiday/ free time gets over (he has many other pending works to do on these holidays: shopping, dropping clothes at laundary , rearranging clothes in almirah etc etc..). And on next the back to back holidays the cycle starts repeats it self..without any solution.

So when you ask Raju about his job and future his typical relpy would be "Switch karna hai yaar". or"Soch raha hun kuch khud ka business karu" . When you will ask him about the companies he has applied or about what kind of business he would say "Time hi nahi milta hai yaar. Kuch samjh mein nahi aa raha...mera dimaag hi nahi kaam karta hai aaj kal".

Reason I repeat: Tumhare boss nahi chahte ke aap apna dimaag jarurat se jaada chlao.

These smart bosses and so called corporates don't want Raju to understand how they are "Using" him and how he can use himself. And over the time Raju gets so far from himeslf that he actually stops thinking. He losses his sensitivity for himself, he even stops dreaming and becomes a virtual machine who in future would be similar to his boss and produce more similar machines.

Raju becomes a master in using his resources and his employees...but never actualy discovers how to use Himslef for Himself.

--

Vinay Sarda

Ravan

रावण -

हर साल इसे जलाया जाता है, 

हर साल ये अपना कद बढ़ा कर  फिर आ जाता है, 

हर साल इसके अंत पर हम खुश हो जाते हैं, अपने आप को बहलाते हैं, फुसलाते हैं;

और अगले ही पल नए रावण की तैयारी में लग जाते हैं.

देखो शर्म से झुकी हुई है अच्छाई,
क्यूंकि उसे भी मालुम है सच्चाई,

कि ये जीत, ये ख़ुशी, झूठी है, 

क्योंकि अगले बरस यह रावण फिर आयेगा,

सच्चाई को कोने में खड़ा देख फिर मुस्कराएगा. 

 इस बार दृड़ मन की अग्नि में इसे इतना जलाएं, इतना तपाएं,

 के अगले वर्ष हम बुराई की झूठी हार नहीं, अच्छाई की सच्ची निरन्तरता  मनाएं.

- विनय 

Worrying Vs Thinking (Chinta vs Chintan)

My last post generated interest of a few readers in worrying and thinking part. So I decided to think about - worrying and thinking.


"If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today."  ~E. Joseph Cossman

Worrying generally does not give intelligent solutions. It puts you back to the square one. When the problem is not directly related to Raju (emotional you)and Raju is asked to give a solution, he thinks more and worries less. But when Raju has some emotional chords attached to a problem he thinks less and worries more.

While worrying the focus is on problem and the damage being done by the problem(e.g I failed so now I won't get a good job and I will not get good money) and not on ways out of it. While thinking you look at the problem, its cause and focus on solutions (e.g Why I failed, how can improve and if I can't improve how can I earn even without studying)

"Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere."  ~Glenn Turner

In my opinion, while in a problem, human mind works in following manner:
1. Realizing 

2.Worrying 

3. Settling

4. Thinking

5. Acting 


I am sure many of us have come across people who do not realize a problem and hence do not worry / think  about it. So, Raju crosses Pakistan's  border unknowingly and does not even realize what problem he is into and hence, never thinks/ worries about it. This generally happens with the first timers. For example, in LKG I scored zero in Mathematics and yet came back home dancing happily because I did not realize that it is a bad score and can earn yelling of parents.  "I do not know about anybody who worried about his very First exam result." During our initial exams our parents worry, think and act for us. It is only after realizing the value of results one starts getting butterflies in stomach just before the exam or the result. Realizing is thus followed by worrying.

It is not necessary that once you stop worrying you start thinking immediately. For thinking efficiently one needs to have calm and settled mind. The concept of God enables you to worry less and get settled. So they say : "Do not worry, God will set everything all right". The movie 3idiots famous line " All is well" also does the same thing.  There are many people who reach to the settling stage but do not climb to the next stage. They get comfortable and leave the solution to come through someone else. They are optimistic about getting it but mostly passive in finding it.

The problem with most of Rajus and Radhas in this world is they stop at " All izz well " or at " God will take care".

Our ancestors derived the concept of God not to make us think less; but to make us worry less and think more.
But we modified it to suit our passiveness.
"Believing is easier than thinking.  Hence so many more believers than thinkers."  ~Bruce Calvert

In 3idiots whenever Rancho sees a problem he says" All is well" but does not stop at that. He starts thinking how to Escape Ragging? How to design hospital equipments by a vacuum cleaner? etc. The people who are mature solution finders either skip or quickly pass the second and the third step. It becomes their habit and then they become so much used to it that subconsciously they realize, think and act; almost simultaneously. Corporates do not need managers who spend a lot of time on worrying and settling and thus to crack CAT one needs speed.

But Raju knows worrying is of no use still he worries. Why?
    May be because,
1. He has become used to it.(Habit)
2. He does not know about any other option (Ignorance)
3. Because of unpredictability (Uncertainties)

Then, how can Raju stop worrying and start thinking ?
He can try following things:

1. First Raju needs to get aware in which stage he is. The moment he starts thinking about the stage; he actually starts thinking. Getting aware is a step towards thinking. He can further push himself to not to crib but find at least one solution.

2. Story:

Radha went for a trip to a jungle with her friends and got lost. Her cellphone was not working as there was no network coverage. She was worried how will she get back to her hotel. She started blaming, cursing, cribbing and crying. While wandering she found a small wooden hoarding of a " Tree House" . Her hopes got alive and she started moving towards the given direction. Although she could not locate the Tree house she could see a Car on a Highway. The hope and belief that there is a solution called "Tree House" landed her on a some different solution called "highway" and now she could reach her hotel safely.

So, One stops worrying when he knows that there is a solution.  So one needs to know that there exists a solution or at-least believe that there can be a solution and then work it out.

3. While uncertainties can not be eliminated they can be reduced.Raju can reduce the uncertainty by proper planning and execution. When Raju's work is dependent on somebody else's work  he can make followups or find some creative way out instead of worrying.
For the things that you have no control it is stupid to worry.

Ask yourself:
"Mrs Raju is pregnant. Should Mr Raju worry if the baby will be a son or a daughter?"

4. By acting like Rancho or someone else Raju can disconnect his emotional chords with the issue and come out of the problem to discover some some practical steps.

5. Raju can write the problem and the solutions too. While writing the solution Raju must not repeat the problem. He can check how has he moved forward. Defining a problem and writing solutions need concentration, efforts and clear thinking; not worries. Writing can be of great help.

 "Chinta nahi Chinatan Karo"

Well this post is just another opinion.
BUT: Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.  ~John F. Kennedy

Foresight (Part 2)

Continued...visit " Foresight Part 1" for initial part.
2. Thinking:
About past- present- future. An event of future; at present can occur only in a mind.We mostly confuse our act of worrying with the act of thinking. We mostly worry about future and rarely think about future. We mostly talk about past but we rarely think about past.
Bhavishya atith ki kokh se janm leta hai. We do not think about how, why and when we reached the present that we have today. We do not even think about the most certain thing in life i.e Death. Have we ever thought about the way we want to die? In Mahabharta Bhishama once said to Dhritrashtra " Itihaas hame kya bulyega" ( How would history explain our acts?). We should act in such a manner so that when our next generations talk about us they would not have feel ashamed". How many of us think like that? Visionaries do. Dhirubhai did, Mahatma Gandhi did, Arjuna did. For that, one has to think. But in our super-fast world where everybody wants us to be updated with current affairs and use every minute of a day in doing something productive(tangible) we do not have time to think!


3. Necessity :-
Necessity is the mother of invention. Today we do not need to book a trump call to talk to a person; we do not need to wait for 2 years to get a scooter. We do not even need to worry about the duration of our calls as we pay per second! If one has to go to Australia, one has tickets available at a click with the best of hotels according to the budget. I am online on my mobile so I do not need to worry if I am in office or not. We do not need to foresee too much. As we have ready options at every, we do not need to plan very much. That is why we react to situations on time. In addition, somewhere due to this "Real Time" convenience we are loosing ability to foresee things. Everything is available on rent so you do not need to worry about the lifetime cost and thus we follow use and throw mentality. We buy handsets for six months only, we buy clothes for the current season, we recharge mobile only for today, we withdraw only that much money from ATM, which we will use in next two days, we take a job and switch it the moment we get a better one. We do not need to plan for future as we used to.
We work for future like a Ferrari car with maddening speed. However, when we think about future we are like a car with a headlight, which has a range of 200meters.

In life, as in chess, forethought wins.

- Charles Buxton


I am not against modern technologies but somewhere I feel to fight the bigger problems coming in future we need foresight more than ever. I feel software or a technology cannot solve a NEW problem. A soft ware can be developed to solve it but, latter. Only human brain can predict and solve the newer problems of future.

Think about the future because that is where you are going to spend rest of your life.

Foresight (Part 1)

"Those who have vision can make some provision, others might always live in illusions"

I feel that although we are advancing, our ability to visualize future has not improved much. Probably we have better technology to predict how many foot prints of carbon India would be producing in 2017 but we also know that the current recession is a result of the incompetence of highly paid corporates and officers to foresee the wrong effects of sub-prime loans.

Raju is a young boy. You give him a problem he will solve it. But ask him to predict problems. He is at loss. He can be problem solver but not a problem predictor. So for recession he has an answer- Stimulus Package.

We enter a problem and then only we realize that we need to find a way out. In Mahabharta Vidur said to Yudhishtira " Kisi bhi ghar mein ghusne se pahle , ussse bahar nikalne ka maarg dhund lena chaiye". In management terms we call it as Exit Plan.

I believe Indians always have had better foresight but somewhere something is going wrong.
Let us think " how one's foresight is developed and why we could be loosing our this knack (if we are at all)"

1. Knowledge and Experience-

Those who do not know past and present cannot predict future. The person who does not know that Bulbs came first and then CFLs and then LEDs will find it difficult to extrapolate and find next light emitter. A politician’s single statement is enough for an experienced person to predict the next move. While deciding upon the architecture of my new house my dad purposefully kept his room and bathroom small. I insisted on keeping them big. He gave a simple reason "Dear, I am thinking 20 years ahead of you, when your mom and I would find it difficult to move in a large room just to get a towel or a medicine kept in a cupboard. We would prefer everything nearby so that I will not have to disturb you. I want my bathroom to be small so that when I will get old and my bones will get weak I can take the support of walls even if happen to slip." I was speechless. Here is a healthy man who can get better looking house but has visualized his life 20years hence and is planning accordingly. My father suggested a better utility design for a home than I could and probably a young architect can, reason- Experience. We feel the experience available with our parents is not useful today, but we forget even if the course books change the formula of water will not. One should always use the readily available experience with parents just like a reference book.

When we think about our future, we mostly think about our career, but we forget that career is part of future and not the other way round.

Happy Diwali

I know its too late but when these thoughts came to my mind I did not have access to the net.

इस बार दिवाली कुछ अलग मनाये

एक दिया अपने दिल में, एक किसी गरीब के घर जलाएं

पटाखे कुछ कम फोडें , धुआं-कचरा कम फैलाएं

पूराने दिनों को याद करें , अपने पूराने टीचर से मिलकर आयें

झूटी हंसी कम हसे , कुछ चिट्कुले अपने दादा दादी को भी सुनाएं

दुसरो से ज़रा कम मिलें , अपन को अपने आप से ज़रूर मिलाएं

इस बार दिवाली कुछ अलग मनाये

"Hocus Focus"

"Hocus Focus"

A well known story about Arjuna exemplifies his powers of concentration. Guru Dronacharya decided to test his students in their skill of archery. He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. He asked the first one to aim for the bird's eye but not shoot just yet. He then asked the student what the student could see. The student replied that he could see the garden, the tree, flowers, etc. Drona asked him to step aside and not shoot. He repeated the same process with a few other students. When it was Arjuna's turn, Arjuna told his Guru that the only thing he could see was the bird's eye. This satisfied the Guru and he allowed Arjuna to shoot the bird. The lesson here is the power of focus.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna)

From childhood we have been taught to focus on the thing that we want to do. But irony is nobody taught us how to know what we want to achieve. Nobody teaches how to know - what to do. For Arjuna it was easier as Guru Dronacharya asked him to aim the bird's eye. But unfortunately most of us not do not have a Guru like Dronacharya.

Story:
Raju loved all the things which a young boy would love to. With time passing he focused hard on studies and ignored everything else. He excelled in academics but failed in relations, he read a lot about life but never lived it, he read literature's on love and humanity but could never feel it.

This is not a drawback of power of focus; the problem here is of improper understanding/ definition of the area to be focused.

Had Raju understood that education is not just getting good marks in academics which ends with schools but adding value to life through out the life; things would have been different. Raju focused on his role as student but never understood that life itself is a school.

A company focusing only on product forgets customers. A job seeker focusing on a job might ignore the career. If Dhirubhai had focused only on Textiles we would not have seen mobile revolution. If I focus only on thinking I might not ever try to execute. If you focus only on not loosing you might end up with a draw.

Game of chess can help us to understand the game of focus. A chess player's ultimate aim is to win the game. Many a times an amateur chess player would focus only on the kings protection. If you focus only on the protection of your king or on killing the other players king you will loose the game more often than not. For winning the game focus on the game. If you want to be successful/happy in life then one should focus on life. I can not understand how focusing on business or on studies or on sports can assure a successful life. Focusing only on single flower can not help to develop a garden.

Focus causes us to develop a boundary but its on us to define the boundary. A mother focuses on family and so she can define her boundary as- her husband & children. But she can extend her boundaries and include her in laws and play a bigger role. A king may focus on the Raajgaddi or on the rajya, or on the praja or on all of them and a few things more.In Mahabharta, object of focus of different characters made them different. Dhritrashtra focused on his son- Duryodhana, Duryodhana focused on the Raajgaddi, Karna focused on his friendship, Bhishma focused on the possessor of the Raajgaddi; but Arjuna focused on Dharma which was above all these. And Arjuna could understand it only after understanding the Game of Life when he saw the Viraath Roop of God; he got the complete view. Till the time we focus on parts of life we will be ignorant.

Object of focus is more important than the power of focus. Let us spend some time on knowing what to focus on rather than increasing our focus on a less important thing.

We got birth to live a life.
I think it is very logical- Focus on life to live a life.



Note: If you focus on Diwali you might not enjoy Holi. But if you focus on festivals you will enjoy more than both. PJ. Happy Diwali.

Job Vs Joy

This post is for all those who got the job but are not happy with it and are planning to switch. Others who are fortunate to have the right job can try to find out something meaningful for them.

CONGRATULATIONS!! You got a job. Great! You are earning in spite of the recession. But are you really satisfied with the job? Are you doing something which really interests you? Or you are paying the interest (of your loan) at the price of your interest (Career, liking, passion). I can imagine the pain and worry of the people who got the job but are still looking for a job. Let us get into the recent past and answer a few questions.

Why you took the job:

1. Pressure (Money, Loan, Parental)
2. Learning
3. Convenience ( Location, Job on platter)
4. Money
5. Brand name
6. The promises made by the company
7. Recommendations
8. Just took it
9. Gut feeling
10. Fear

For whatever reasons you took the job it must be clear by now that by keeping the same reasons in mind may not help you get the Right job for you. The point is to convey you the reason for your today. “ Bhavishya ka Janam Attith ki Kokh se hi hota hai”. Next time you take a job be very clear about the reasons for taking it. While there is no guarantee that you will land up at the right place by knowing the reason but it will surely reduce the spread of the risk involved. Joblessness is just like a disease and you need to find the right cure otherwise you will keep getting some or the other disorder. And for the right cure you need to know the patient and the disease very well. To escape from one well do not jump into another. Wise people stop digging the well the moment they realize that they are into one.

Let us try to sustain this phase of life. Let us be more patient. All of us want to be exceptionally good like Dhirubhai, Tata’s, Sachin, Sania etc. but nobody is ready to fail that many times. Failure to get a right job does not mean that you have failed. An event can be a failure a person can never be. We need to be patient, sensitive, wise, alert, disciplined and hopeful. Let us not sit on our ass and wait for others to make us learn things. For god’s sake let us not depend on others for our motivation and up-gradation. Let us not depend only on luck for our next job and career. Let us not be desperate. Let us try something different.

Let us pray that the agony: “Those who got placed are still looking for a job” does not last for long.