The Quality Council of India (QCI), Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) jointly have come up with very innovative proposal called “ZED Maturity Model” which derived its name from our honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s speech while launching “Make In India” and “Zero Defect, Zero Effect”campaigns. He urged Indian industries to adopt clean technologies in order to have zero defects in their products and hence zero effect on the environment. This can surely make Indian manufacturing industry a global competitor.

So far, most of the Indian manufacturers have very low consciousness about quality as well as environment. In the past few decades, many organizations have improved the quality of their product and services to remain competitive but concern about environment is still very low. Better quality can have immediate impact on top and bottom line but most of the organizations still see environmental compliance as an added expenditure only.
Indian Government has setup a “Japan Plus Team” that will do the performance assessment of SME in India. Accordingly, ZED rating based on 61 parameters will be given which will have lot of thrust on quality and environment. Government is also planning to give financial assistance to upgrade the technologies and enhance skills of youth so that SMEs become internationally competitive. My view is that in the coming time, Indian manufacturers and business media are going to witness a rising ZED movement.

5 tips to improve ZED rating:
1. Keep an eye on government schemes as regards to ZED and take their advantage if those are appropriate to your business.
2. Align the quality desired by your customer with your system and processes.
3. Do technological up gradation wherever feasible.
4. Do the environment impact study of your processes and products to take mitigating measures.
5. Engage your employees in ZED process.

How to align our Mind, Body, Heart and Soul to have a better Self-control.

Before I started writing this blog I was of the opinion that we can control ourselves but not others. However, when my friend questioned how we can have better control on our mind, body,heart and soul then I realized how difficult it is to control ourselves. If we have minimal control on aligning our mind, body, heart and soul then you can imagine how bare minimum control we have on others.

We may have misconception that we are controlling our spouse, our children or our juniors but in reality we control their body or mind for some time due to our position and authority. However, there is no real control on complete being. There are great personalities who have charisma and can control others, if not complete life but some aspect of their life but completely controlling life of others is impossible.

The foremost need is to have alignment of our own mind, body, heart and soul. Body includes senses and feelings. And mind, the intellect. Our senses receive input from external environment and develop feelings. Feelings awaken the consciousness. Intellect helps us to make decisions based on previous experiences, inner feelings and consciousness. Mostly it so happens that our senses, feelings, consciousness and past experiences are not properly aligned. In such case, intellect falls for senses and feelings which are contradictory to our conscious and inner voice.

Geeta has beautifully depicted this in the form of chariot where 5 horses represent 5 senses. A rein of the horses is MANAS (mind). The charioteer is intellect. Passenger is soul. You can imagine that if the mind, body, heart and soul are not in unison, we will be like an uncontrolled chariot. The question is how to have alignment of all these.

5 Tips to have proper alignment of mind, body, heart and soul:
1. To start the journey within. Most of us are after money, power, fame and lust. We cannot have outer journey without inner unity.
2. Have a better control over Body with Yoga and Pranayam.
3. Have a better control over Mind and Intellect by doing regular meditation.
4. Most often we will lose the track; persistence is the key to success on this path.
5. Do not carry past guilt along the journey.

Given a chance, would you attempt a task where the chance of success is 1 out of 300 million? Only insane will say YES. But, do you know that all of us have already attempted and succeeded too. Even after release of 300 sperms, probability of single sperm reaching an egg is exceptional and so the birth of a Human Life.
50 years ago people lived in joint families and there used to be a line of children living under one roof and struggling for limited resources. During last 5 decades, scenario has changed drastically. Mostly there are nuclear families with 1 or 2 children, raised in most possible comfortable situation. Hence the realization of need to struggle for survival is very low. Science & Technology is making life as easy and comfortable as possible. The effect of this is – we are reducing our strengths (physical and mental both) to deal with unexpected/ out-of-the-blue situations. The stress level is increasing and we are developing all sorts of stress related diseases.

Barring few, everyone is facing tough situation at some point of time in our life. The problems may be related to health, money or relationships. Due to weak immune power, small problems also appear as big as mountain and we lose happiness & peace of mind very quickly. So, make yourself physically and emotionally strong to face any situation and do not live in the illusion that your good time will last forever. If it lasts, treat yourself lucky. If you can win among 300 million, you have immense potential to win any battle of life! It’s just that you have to realize your true potential.

5 tips to realize your potential:
1. Remember you born as one among 300 million. Your genes have capability to survive & win.
2. Your own negative thoughts reduce your potential than anyone else.
3. You cannot change your genes but you have infinite capability to change your environment and circumstances.
4. Do not compare and compete with others. Competition limits your capabilities.
5. Continuously think and act for growth. It is our basic nature to grow.

We all are same and we all are unique. Call it a paradox or an irony of life. But it is the nature’s fact. We all have same body structure and organ makeup but science has proved that even the drop of our sweat is unique. At the same time, at the same place, in the same circumstances we think differently, we talk differently, we act differently and react even more differently. This is amazing! We may have the same parents, same teachers, and same friends but still we behave differently. Our talents are different and our skills are different. Upanishad says “EKO BRAHM, DWITIYO NAST” meaning whatever is created, it is one and only one. Second copy doesn’t exist.

It’s ironical that parents do not accept their kids as they are. They keep on comparing with other siblings. When kids grow, parents and teachers compare with other fellow students. When they become adults, their partners compare them with other friends/companions. In this entire process, we forget our original nature. Neither we become like others nor do we retain our originality. So there is no point in comparing with others. Rather, Compete With Self.

You are unique and everyone else is unique. Try to find your unique capabilities and passion. Developing and nurturing the unique qualities require less effort; give faster results, better understanding, stronger relationship, earlier success and more happiness.
5 Tips to find out uniqueness:
1. You can ask your parents, teachers; check your school report cards. If you have children observe them minutely and note down all important events to know their uniqueness.
2. Find out in past what you have enjoyed the most, worked for hours together but never experienced fatigue.
3. Go for psychometric test; take help of counselors and experts.
4. Meditate and try to go within, introspect.
5. Use elimination method. Stop doing things you dislike. In due course you will know what you love to do the most.

So far, visitors from 175+countries read 100,000+ pages on my website. When I was going through this report from Google analytics, I realized that most goal oriented people keep a constant eye on some kind of a score. This score may be related to money, work or passion. That score gives a sense of achievement and feeling of success. Many times that score may not make any sense to others but for that person it provides the focus to stay on the path and the drive to achieve more and more and thus move closer to or even surpass the set goals. Just to make it clear, Goal is the final destination one need to arrive at and score is to keep track how far one has reached.

It is important to achieve desired goals but the kind of goals you are pursuing is more important. If you pursue insignificant things in life your success will be mediocre. Effectiveness is more important in life than efficiency. At work, bottom line may be more critical than top line. For marketing executive total value of orders may be more important than total number of orders. For sportsman number of wins may be more important cumulative scores.

5 Tips to pursue right Goal:
1. Find out the most important and critical parameter of your success and performance. Set the worthwhile goals.
2. Set minimum 3 and maximum 5 major targets.
3. Create efficient system to measure and maintain your score.
4. Review your score periodically and if needed reset it.
5. Take the help of experts if needed.

Let Your Customers Say WOW!!

If any one receiving something from you, he is your customer. It may be your product or your services and even your love or your care. Why a child can never forget her mother? Because mother always exceed the expectation of a child and child feel WOW for entire life. It is not that we have customers when we are working in a marketing department. We have customers in all type of roles we are playing whether it is personal life or professional life. In business term we call it internal customer or external customers. But customer is customer. To get WoW from customer we need to exceed the expectations of customer.

5 Steps to exceed the expectations:
1. Find out who all are your customers. Make list of them.
2. Make a list of their general expectations.
3. Make a list of what extra you can give, which he is not expecting.
4. Act and exceed the expectations.
5. Take continuous feedback of customers expectations and find innovative ways to exceed.

Even though it was a weekday, I had to wait for half an hour to get the seat in a busy restaurant. On entering, they allocated seat near the entrance of the kitchen. Suddenly my eyes went on the signage on kitchen door saying, “Guests are allowed in the kitchen.” I was pleased! Because so far, I have seen the “Entry for Staff Only” signage’s mostly. After ordering the food when there was some time for dishes to arrive, I expressed my desire to see the kitchen to our waiter. Courteously, the waiter took me inside the kitchen. The kitchen was neat, clean and well organized beyond my imagination. The kitchen staff nodded with smile. While leaving, a thought flashed in my mind that if a food is delicious; it does not necessarily mean that its kitchen is in order and vice-versa. This holds true for every visible thing.

If you enter any house and if drawing room looks very attractive it does not mean happiness and peace is spread over the entire house. When you buy fruits and vegetables, it is only after cutting, cooking and consuming you come to know about its quality. We used to read that seeing is believing. But in fact most of the things and people we see is just an illusion till we analyze them outside-in and they reveal themselves inside-out. Knowing the people is much more difficult then knowing the things because people may change according to time and situation. However, it does not mean that we do not believe what we see. But the important thing is that Truth is like an onion. You know as go on peeling.

In Bhagavad-Gita Krishna says that our world is not an objective one; rather, it’s subjective, pliant, endlessly mutable. Our senses- the very means by which we gather data about the world, are unreliable because they are prone to illusion. They don’t give us direct access to an objective world; rather, they give an illusion of objectivity.

5 Tips for dealing with an illusionary world:
1. Nothing is absolutely true except some universal principles. Right and wrong is relative. It all depends on time and circumstances and changes from person to person.
2. Neither trust anybody or anything 100% nor distrust 100%. Be analytical, observant and conscious all the time.
3. Things are neither good nor bad. They are just there. They may be useful or not useful for you.
4. People are not difficult. They are different. And it is human nature to change as per time and circumstances so never feel shocked surprised.
5. Nothing is permanent. Change is the basic attribute of nature. Accept change willingly and whole heartedly otherwise you will have to accept it painfully.

When somebody asked Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, “What would you like to be remembered as? Scientist, missile man, President of India or Bharat Ratna?” His answer was totally unexpected. He said TEACHER. Teacher means Guru. The word “Guru” is derived from Sanskrit language and now a days, the word Guru is being commonly used all over the world. In Sanskrit GU mean darkness and RU mean light. So Guru means who can take you from darkness to light. Darkness is ignorance and light is wisdom.

In our life, our first Guru is our parents. We learn the first lessons from our mother and father. Scientists say that our 85% brain gets developed till the age of 5 and this is the age when we are mostly guided by our parents. We get our second Guru when we start schooling. Kabir – a great poet of 15th century in India has considered Guru as greater than God.

In ancient days, Guru was not allowed to receive and keep money. It was society’s responsibility to take care about needs of Guru. Hence, Guru used to impart knowledge selflessly. But, in present days imparting education has become completely commercialized. This has resulted into lesser respect for teachers. However, digitization and internet has made all the knowledge and information available at a click and that too free of cost. Still, we need teacher in our life that can teach us, enhance our wisdom and make us aware of what is right and what is wrong.

If a man has continuous thirst for knowledge/ learning and he/she is ready to be student than anything or anyone around is a teacher. Because no one knows everything but everyone knows something. To learn, we should keep all our senses alert all the time.

Real Guru is one who is like a candle in dark room and he lights the candle of his student so that when both the candles are lit, one cannot differentiate between sources of the light in the room

Teacher says ‘Early to bed and early to rise, make healthy, wealthy and wise’ but child see at home that his parents are healthy wealthy and wise but they believe in late to bed and late to rise. Question is whether child get confused in what is taught at school and what he learns at home. Yes and No both. Depends on how understanding and enlightened are his parents.

As long as couple has same habit about partying late or going bed early, no issues but some one said, in a party 50% people want to leave early and 50% want to enjoy till early morning and unfortunately they are married to each other. Polar opposite can become main cause for frustration in relationship.

In my opinion there is no golden rule in present era where both partners are working hard during day time and they want to have some relax and happy time in the night with their friends and family. But one can not forget and ignore ailing parents at home or early morning school going kids or strict morning times at job.

5 Tips to decide about when to bed and when to rise:
1. There is no denial that early rising is good for health and keeps the day more effective, still it depends on each persons circumstances.
2. Synchronisation between husband and wife about sleeping and rising time is one of the important factor for healthy relationship.
3. Good news is body is flexible enough to develop any habit in 21 days routine.
4. Accommodate the needs of other members of family in your routine. Do not be selfish.
5. Weekdays and weekends can be treated separately.

Entire earth’s existence is dependent on the North and the South Pole. The earth is embraced by these two poles. Just as both the banks keep river flowing, both the tracks keep train moving,similarly both parents keep family growing. It so happens that most of the couples are way apart in physical outlook, mental state of mind, intellectual level or spiritual level. However if they understand their differences then life is wonderful and if they do not then their life is miserable.

It is very rare that both the husband and wife have same opinion on various day to day issues of life. But respecting each other’s opinion can reduce the friction and can make life lovable and livable.
5 Tips for opposite couple:
1. Never put your proposal for any subject without proper thought and strategy.
2. Never react instantaneously if you have opposite views on any proposal put up by your partner.
3. Try to keep issue at discussion level instead of drifting towards argument stage.
4. If the issue has no long term significance, drop it if consensus is not possible.
5. Keep happiness and peace the main goal.

The question “Why am I” is more critical than “Who am I”. Why I came to this planet? What is the purpose of my existence? Am I doing the job for what I have been sent on this earth? The answer to these questions is not as simple as question looks. Thousands of sage and philosophers spent their entire life to find the answer and most of them failed. Honestly, I am also searching for the answer.

When a farmer plant 20 seeds to grow oranges, his entire efforts are to get best oranges from all the trees but in spite of growing on the same field, using same type of seeds, on similar soil, using samewater and fertilizer, each tree gives different quality and quantity of oranges. The reason for this differentiation is beyond comprehension. But one thing is sure; the purpose of every seed is to become the best tree and purpose of every orange to become the best orange.

If we apply the same logic, purpose of our existence is to become best human being and best in our field. If you are a farmer, become the best farmer and if a janitor, become the best janitor. The problem with us human being is, we focus less on our present role and keep on thinking more about future by comparing or criticizing others. We focus less on task-in-hand and waste our creativity in performing irrelevant tasks. We focus less on our circle of influence and interfere more on circle of no concern.
The best way to know “Why am I here” is to focus on present role, discharge present duty as diligently as possible, keep enhancing present capabilities and expanding level of wisdom. As you walk on right path, vision will keep becoming clear and destination more certain.

5 Tips to find your purpose:
1. Find out your present role/current duties and do it diligently.
2. Keep enhancing your abilities and wisdom, which will help in getting clarity about future path.
3. Find a Guru or mentor to get guidance about personal and professional life.
4. Look at others to get inspiration without envy.
5. If you are not getting answer of “Why am I”, don’t worry. Keep walking on the right path.

We are masters of making opinions, doubting people, guessing situations. These all leads to lot of thinking and forming our next moves in form of words or actions. It is not necessary that these doubts and opinions represent the truth. Main reasons of these doubts and opinion is our upbringing, surroundings and prejudices gathered in past or wrong information circulated in present. It’s obvious that taking any action based on false opinions and doubts leads to unwise actions and later to the regret.
It is not possible to verify all opinions and doubts but if we make fairly good efforts, we may be better informed. Always doubt your opinions which are not backed by fairly authentic facts. Many times we have to take action based on opinions because facts are not available in such cases be prepared for consequences if premise proves to be wrong.

5 tips to uproot doubts:
1. Check whether your opinion/ doubt is backed by any facts or not.
2. Make reasonable efforts to find facts. How much efforts shall be put in, depends of gravity of the action based on opinion.
3. Be prepared for consequences if opinions are not backed by proper facts.
4. Uproot the doubts as early as possible otherwise that will be rooted strongly in your mind and memory that can lead to wrong decisions in the life.
5. 100% clarity is not possible so be cautious while taking decision based on doubts and opinions.

Indian astrology has divided entire human race in 3 categories depending upon their basic qualities like:
1. Dev (Angel)
2. Manav (Human)
3. Raakshass (Demon)

If you want yourself to be remembered in the history, then either be Dev or Raakshass. Normal human being has never been remembered. We remember Ram-Ravana, Krishna-Kans, Arjun-Duryodhan and Gandhi-Hitler. Normal human being has to remain at mercy of both Dev and Raakshass. Raakshass wants to kill and Dev wants to protect. In a fight of Dev and Raakshass, normal human beings are crushed. Every one of us has all the 3 characters sitting within. Who will become strong depends upon to whom we feed more. As per Indian mythology, Dev are more powerful than Raakshass as they use power for good whereas Raakshass use power for bad/destruction. It is a rule of nature that weak shall not survive.

The message of Ahimsa (non-violence) by Buddha, Mahavir and Gandhi is misunderstood by the masses. Non-violence does not mean to be weak and not to protect self. Protection is basic need of all. How it is possible that such great philosophers will give us the message to stay weak. Dev and Raakshass both gather power but the intentions of both are different. Gain and gather high power. Be powerful but keep your intentions like Dev. Use power to save weak & kill the Raakshass/evil. It’s an eternal fight everywhere around as well as within. Continuously move towards becoming Dev. Being human means becoming Dev.

5 tips on how to become Dev:
1. Dev and Raakshass both collect ASTRA (weapons) to be powerful. In modern world main Astra/weapons are money, political and bureaucratic power, fame and social contacts. Collect it as much as possible but through good means and with good intentions.
2. To become powerful one need to be fearless. Strong character makes one fearless. Never compromise with principles otherwise you will have money, power and fame but fear within.
3. In today’s world creating social network is not difficult. Connect with good powerful people.
4. Whatever the capabilities you have, help and train your surrounding people to become Dev from Manav. They will become your force in future.
5. Utilize your power to protect weak and fight with Raakshass. Demonstrating your power is as important as having it. Raakshass outside and within should know that you are more powerful than them.

Who doesn’t want to standout? Even the spiritual guru also wishes that he becomes the best yogi and is known to as many people as possible. A fruit or a flower wants to standout so that it gets attention of all. Most ladies dress and apply make-up and wear jewellery so that they standout in the crowd.

To standout one needs to be outstanding. To become outstanding one can focus on 4 aspects of his/her personality. Mind, Body, heart and soul. The most visible part of the personality is body. Though the body is genetically given by Parents, a person can use clothing, makeup, jewellery etc to standout. These are the most basic methods of efforts to standout. Let us term it is PQ- Physical Quotient. PQ plays critical part in outstanding performance. Physical appearance is first impression. Study shows that average height of great leaders in the world is more than average of general population. Though height is given by God but we can make efforts to present ourself better by having proper clothing and right body language.

The second level of efforts are in the area of intelligence (IQ). In initial years we make all out efforts to get first class first in class and give outstanding results to our parents. At later stage when we go for professional studies we make efforts to become best professional in whatever area we chose. IQ gets improved by formal education and experience. The real race starts when we start our career. The canvas become bigger and requires continuous focused efforts to perform outstandingly. As we go higher, space becomes narrower and competition becomes tougher. It is not necessary that if at education level you were gold medalist but in career also you will be number one.

The next aspects of personality is emotions and relationships (EQ). Nowadays emotional intelligence is more crucial than IQ. Whether at home or at work, one needs to have strong relationships so that one can maximise results through collaboration. It is easy to develop intellectual skills but difficult to learn emotional skills. Emotional skills are mostly derived from basic nature and behavioural pattern though with training and practice some of these pattern can be modified and emotional skills can be improved. Most of the people may be emotional but very few are emotionally intelligent.

The last aspect of personality is spiritual quotient (SQ). To be spiritual means when one can realise the importance of higher spirit, the ultimate creator and tries to connect his/her soul with supreme soul in whatever way he feels appropriate.

To be outstanding is developing all 4 aspects and having highest average of all 4 quotients. PQ, IQ, EQ and SQ.

The term “Tit for Tat” is explained through many children books/fable stories. Camel and Jackal or Fox and crane etc. are mostly the terms which are used in negative sense. If someone hits you, you hit back may be with the double force. However, in India we read about people such as Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi who propagated the concept of Ahimsa – the non violence. Gandhiji’s famous quote is that “If someone slaps you, you offer your another cheek”. When children or even we adults read such type of contradictory stories, it is obvious to get confused.

In my opinion we should adopt a policy forgiving for the first time and adopt Tit for Tat rule then, instead of immediately giving back with the equal force or complete Ahimsa. If someone treats you badly, first time give him a benefit of doubt. However, express firmly your concern with indirect threatening that if same is repeated then you may retaliate with the double force.
Further, we can use the concept of Tit for Tat in the positive sense in case someone treats us with love & care. Then we shall give back that love, care and help with bonus and topping. So for all good things it should be extra giving back.

Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision-making used for the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule). The idea is that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80% benefit out of the entire job. In any given task, job, report, project, situation etc. 5% or less is vital task and the rest 95% is not very significant. Many a times, it so happens that we are hooked to that 95% of tasks wasting our energy, time and resources. The 5% tasks which are more significant are often overlooked.

For example, in accountancy; less than 5% items in the financial statement are vital which needs your attention. If we talk about production, less than 5% machines are most critical which are critical for whole process. In case of marketing, less than 5% customers are most important who can give your maximum business. In other words, this principle is applicable in almost all type of situations.

5 tips to focus on Essentials:
1. Find out maximum 3 vital areas which are critical for achieving your goal.
2. Focused and priority efforts in essential areas will give much better results as compared to non-significant areas.
3. Develop skills and talent to manage those areas.
4. Focusing on vital areas will increase your efficiency as well as effectiveness.
5. Vital areas may change from time to time and according to the circumstances.

To-Do-List
(A tool towards perfectionism)

Dr. Atul Gawande in his book “The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right” has rightly said that collective knowledge on any subject has become so vast in the present era that individuals do not have the ability to deliver it correctly, consistently and securely. Till the 2nd half of 20th century there were more generalists than specialists. In last 50years, the repository of human knowledge has become so vast and varied that one person cannot be a master of all. One needs to choose or one can hope to master any one field. It needs years of dedication to choose and master the field whether it is Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Commerce, Arts or any other field.

To complete any task, whether building a high rise tower, producing a film, manufacturing thousands of cars every day, performing life saving operations, making an aircraft, launching rocket to the moon or simply baking a cake; one needs expertise and inputs from multiple sources and everything needs to be coordinated and synchronized properly for a successful endeavor. Meticulous planning, coordination and monitoring have become critical for completing any project within time, in budgeted cost, of required quality and (with) appropriate safety.

A To-Do-List is an important tool for all professionals to schedule, collaborate, coordinate, follow up and monitor tasks and projects. You (may) call it a task list, check list, schedule or agenda. It is an effective tool of control that helps in setting priorities, ensuring execution and eliminating errors. And best part is that it is so simple and un-demanding.
A proper Daily-To-Do -List helps in ensuring that tasks and sub-tasks are completed within time, flawlessly. A daily review and follow up of To-Do-List makes sure that mistakes or goof ups arising out of omission are avoided, plan is well executed and perfection is approached. It also allows quick response when adjustments or modifications are required. In short it is a great tool- a sword and shield combined, that enhances execution and also prevents us from being surprised.

5 Tips on How to make and Follow Daily-To-Do-List:
1. Identify the various agencies/persons/actions required in completing a task/project.
2. Ask all involved parties to make a task list with their subordinates and send it to a co-coordinator.
3. Depending on the level of complexity, use software or manual chart to plot all activities.
4. Each person/group should update and review their Daily-To-Do-List and modify if needed.
5. Use internet or intranet to have widely shared, real time communications among all concerned.

WhatsApp has become an essential part of our life. It has several advantages but few disadvantages also. To be a member of any group has become more of pain than pleasure. I salute those who strictly avoid becoming a member of any group but for most of us it is not easy to avoid groups. The pain is more severe when one is member of several groups and receive the same message several times a day. Problem is aggravated by the people who are experts in creating fake and spicy news and then posting on the social media platforms. Sometimes an emotional stuff is circulated long enough where it has already lost its significance and relevance long back. Most disgusting is when post is to demean any particular religion, community; political party or social group and when that group has few members who belong to such backgrounds.

My appeal is to follow certain rules before forwarding messages. Let us be emotionally intelligent while posting messages in the social media groups.
Tips to use emotional intelligence before forwarding messages:
1. Rotary’s THE FOUR-WAY TEST of things we think, say or do is very
useful.
A. Is it the TRUTH?
B. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
C. Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
D. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
2. Never ever forward messages which may hurt anyone’s religious,
communal or political sentiments.
3. Do not forward messages without checking it.
4. Groups are formed with specific purpose. Your message may be very good but if it is not in line with the purpose of the group, refrain yourself from posting. Or at least take permission of admin before posting it.
5. Think before forwarding. Messages should be forwarded when they are absolutely necessary.

Imagine a cube with 6 square faces each painted with different color. While looking at the cube from one angle, we can see only one colored face. Unless we change the angle, we cannot see other 5 colors. And so is Life. Every situation and every problem have various dimensions but we fail to see other dimensions and often we cannot find any solution or the best possible solution.

Paradigm shift is changing the fundamental thinking and assumptions. While having conversation with my friend who worked at top position in the world Class Company earning best package, he expressed dissatisfaction. According to him, his peers were better taken care off. I told him, the reason for your unhappiness is not your problems but it is your inability to see others happy that is making you discontent. This simple sentence changed his entire thought process and he had a paradigm shift in his behavior. Another day, one of my friends (highly learned) was discussing with me about his parents extreme affection for his younger brother even though he is not successful in any sense. I told him that normally parents are intellectually attached to a strong child but emotionally to a weak child. Since then his thought process changed and he is not having any problem regarding his parents’ favoritism.

Moreover, paradigm shift is needed when your growth is stranded or traditional solutions are not working. It requires innovative and different thinking. Paradigm shift can give breakthrough improvements and help you in taking to next level.

5 steps to have paradigm shift:
1. Identify problem/area where paradigm shift is needed.
2. List your present fundamental assumptions.
3. Try to see the present situation from various angles. Use innovative and creative thinking.
4. Sometimes brain-storming sessions can help in visualizing the situation from various angles.
5. Take the expert’s help if needed.

The scriptures, holy inscriptions of religion or philosophy, are expressions of enlightened people. But the scripture don’t necessarily express the real feelings of those enlightened people. Like it is not possible to exactly describe the smell of sandal wood, the sound of Om, appearance of Kohinoor diamond, taste of Amrut or feel of clouds. One has to experience it. Enlightened people experienced the spirituality, the soul, the God, the nature, the energy or whatever the name you call it. To express one takes the help of words and words do not have power to express 100% what you feel. The other problem with words, sentences, paragraphs and book is that everyone finds different meaning. Even one person reading same thing at different point of time or in different situation, finds different meaning.

In my opinion scriptures work like a lamp. They show you the path but one has to walk himself and find the meaning of life and eventually feel the god. Scriptures work like a path. One has to walk to reach the destination. Scriptures are not god. Scriptures give food for thought to reach the god. Our planet earth is no more than a sand particle in this universe. All the enlightened souls whose scripture we read are born on this planet. We have not been able to explore our own solar system which is also like a sand particle in the universe. There may be planets which are more advance than us. Their knowledge and wisdom may be much more that what we have.

5 tips to read scriptures:
1. Read scriptures of all the religions with open mind.
2. Scriptures are lamps. One need to walk himself for enlightenment.
3. No scripture can be final word on wisdom of entire universe.
4. The written wisdom is no more than a sand particle on a sea beach.
5. Respect the scripture and keep enhancing your wisdom.

Our life is always moving on scale of extremes from one end to the other end. Scale may be related to love relationship, work, money, fame, knowledge, performance, spirituality, skills, and our nature or for that matter anything. The scale is normally in the inclined position where good things are on the higher side and bad things are on the lower side. It is always little difficult to move up towards the good things but easy to slide down towards the bad things.

It may be necessary to be at the right position towards the most positive end always. Sometimes staying at the neutral position or little more towards positive side is enough. More important is to make sure that we do not slide towards negativity or do not stay on negative side for a long. The right position on scale is decided taking into consideration the people, time and situation. For example take the scale of hate to love which has different points in between such as dislike, neutral and like. It is not possible to love everybody in life but it is important that we do not hate or dislike anyone. Another example can be the scale of money. Where at one end there is an extreme poverty and at other end there is an extreme affluence. Your journey shall always be towards becoming rich/better than what you are today. You may not necessarily become the richest person on earth but it is important to have enough money to take care of worldly needs and live a comfortable life.
Important is to understand the scale of extremes about every aspect, to know where you stand on this scale, to decide your reasonable goal on the scale and move towards achieving that goal.

5 steps for walking on eScale:
1. First determine which aspect of life you want to check your position on eScale.
2. Create your milestones between 2 extremes from worst situation to the best situation with respect to time, people and circumstances.
3. Decide your goal on that scale which shall be rational and realistic.
4. Start making efforts to walk towards that goal.
5. Review in between – your position, efforts, strategy and goal. Keep walking forward.

Often question arises in life whether I should speak out or be silent. Many times silence at wrong time gets converted into unwise situation. On other hand an argument may take the shape of violence if not planned properly. Silence and speaking-up, both have a capability to make or break relationship. Keeping silence or confronting depends on time, person and circumstances. One needs to apply both the tools at the right time with right people and in right circumstances. The key of relationship is trust. If the trust is absent neither silence nor speaking-up is going to work.
Confrontation can be private or public. For example, if you are travelling by taxi and driver is drunk where it becomes a risky situation, then keeping silence is foolishness. However silence or speak-up is more crucial in close relationship. Private confrontation at work may be between employee and boss, peer to peer or with external agencies such as clients, suppliers bankers etc. Personal confrontation may be between couples, families, friends, neighbors etc. Whether you decide to confront or keep silence, it is important to plan it properly, think of consequences and then apply. Unplanned confrontations mostly results in regression.

Question arises why people remain silent where situation demands to speak-up or why people confront for irrelevant issues. Probably a person’s basic nature is also a crucial factor whether one will go in a shell or confront. Nature ranges between highly introvert to highly extrovert, highly dominating to highly submissive or highly organised to highly disorganised and so on. Lack of wisdom, fear of losing relationship or lack of speaking skills can also be cause of person opting for silence over confrontation. There is an another view point that our education system, society and work teaches us more how to hide our thoughts and feeling rather than how to express it effectively.

5 Tips for effective use of silence and confrontation:-
1. Whether to be silent or speak-up should be a conscious decision. Tool of silence or speech shall be applied taking into consideration the factors such as time, people and circumstances.
2. Sometimes “let-it-go” can be a right approach for insignificant matters which hardly have any effects in the long run.
3. Keep the higher goal in mind. At home, relationship is more crucial whereas at work, performance is more important.
4. It is not necessary that you are always right. Look at the situation from other person’s perspective. Be empathetic. If needed seek apology for your wrong behavior irrespective of your position.
5. Use suggestive language more often than judgmental language. That creates better environment of listening and understanding.“World has suffered more because of silence of good people than violence of bad people”.

Most of us are not very conscious about what we speak or what we do not speak. People fall between highly introvert to overly extrovert category. Reason may be genetic, upbringing etc. over a period slowly it becomes our habit and it becomes our nature. Generally it is observed that comparatively men talk less than women.
Psychotherapists says that communication happens at 3 levels. Cognitive is more related to exchange of information. Affective is exchange of emotions and conative is exchange of intentions. To be wise, one shall have more communication at cognitive and conative level at work and more communication at affective level at home.
My personal view is one must talk minimum required at work and maximum possible at home. At office talking more may lead to less productivity and unnecessary confusions where as talking less at home may lead to dryness in relationship.

5 Tips about Talking.
1. Be alert and conscious while talking. As far as possible, think before talking.
2. At work prepare well before talking. Quality of words matter more at work.
3. At work use less emotions in talk and use more intellect.
4. At home use more emotions in talk and less intellect.
5. Take full interest in talks at home though most of the matters may look very trivial and unimportant. One may be taking million dollars decision at work but at home participating in maid problem is equally important.

During last 33 years I have worked with several organisations, in India and abroad. I have been part of various non profit organisations also. Some time as member or some time got opportunity to lead the same. My conclusion is, head of the organisation has capability to either make organisation better or break it in pieces. Many times you might have observed that organisation remain the same but as soon as the head changes either it get so efficient, vibrant and captivating or becomes dull and lifeless. The quality of organisation is complete reflection of quality of its leadership. An energetic and efficient leader can single handedly make, even a very big organisation, efficient and effective. Selection of right leader is the single most critical factor to make organisation successful or failure.

5 Tips for selecting Head of Organisation:
1. Leader must have good communication skills.
2. Leader shall be competent enough to Head of Organisation.
3. Leader shall be willing and energetic to take the responsibility to run the organisation.
4. Leader must have enough time to lead the organisation and create successor.
5. Change the leader immediately if any of the above attribute is missing otherwise organisation will have slow death.

I read somewhere that one should not share his/her pain or problem with the people always. Because 50% people are not interested in your problems and the rest are happy to see you in pain/problem. This compels me to think whether one should share his/her pleasures or not. Because 50% people may not be interested in your pleasures and rest may get jealous with you.

In the era of social media this question has become more pertinent whether one should share his/her pains/pleasure or not. Many a times we accept totally unknown persons as our friends on Facebook and other networking sites. And sometimes we even share insignificant matters in public. And people who have never seen you hit like buttons or comment on it, which seems that it is just an artificial show of happiness or concern.

Research shows that in-general men are hesitant to share their pain as compared to women but are liberal to show off their pleasure. The reason is probably men are more target oriented and as soon as they achieve their goal they like to disclose to entire world. And they prefer to hide their pain because that would expose their weakness. Whereas women are more emotion oriented and empathetic which makes them share pain or pleasure irrespective of differences of opinion.

In olden days, they believed that if you share your sorrow it becomes half and if you share your pleasure it gets doubled. But is it still relevant in a world where people are jealous with your progress and secretly happy for your pains? It’s really difficult to conclude! However, I would like to give my personal views about sharing of pain and pleasure in following tips.

5 tips about sharing of pain and pleasure:
1. Share the pain with genuinely closed people. Share with those who really care for you or have capability to reduce the same.
2. Share the pleasure in as humble manner as possible.
3. Remember that pain and pleasure both have short duration. With the passing of time, either it becomes irrelevant or pain may get converted into pleasure or pleasure may get converted into pain. Too much demonstration of both is not good.
4. Use your emotional intelligence while sharing pain or pleasure. Time, person and circumstance should be taken into consideration before sharing.
5. Public demonstration of both should be minimized.

In this world, 99 out of 100 people wear mask while interacting with others. Few people are so expert in changing the mask while dealing with different people, at different time and in different situations,that it is impossible to know the truth. Honestly, we have become so used to change the mask that we ourselves have forgotten our true identity; leaving a little chance for others to know our real nature, intentions and personality. Whether you are dealing with an employee, customer, supplier, boss, colleague, friend, relative or even your own spouse, possibility cannot be ruled out that person has something beyond his words and actions. However success of a person whether at home or at work depends on how accurately one can see beyond the mask and understand the real intentions of people. When our actions are in accordance with real intentions of people, effectiveness increasesmanifold. It is not that people always have bad intentions, even good intentions are hidden and one needs to know what lies beyond the mask. Sometimes it is almost impossible to know the real intentions of people but if we are alert and conscious, most of the time we will know that person has some hidden agenda and we will be alert next time.

5 tips on how to see beyond the mask:
1. Initially, start with zero level of trust with other party. It does not mean that we distrust the person. Even a person we trust the most, sometimes do not have right words to clarify his/her intentions.
2. Be alert in interaction. Be conscious. Keep alert your all senses. People convey 65% of their message through body language only.
3. Ask questions where answers are not just limited to Yes or No, but one is compelled to describe more and more.
4. Every person has his own reputation, aura and past record. If dealing first time, take referrals. More you know about a person, more it will be easy to crack his masks.
5. At the end if you have doubt on your judgment about a person’s intention, either withdraw or take no action or minimal action.

Except when we are sleeping, our mind is engaged in one of the 3 activities – Receiving, Reflecting and Responding. We receive inputs from our environment through our senses then we analyses those inputs by reflecting and finally we respond as per the decision/signal given by our brain.

Even the animals do all these 3 things. However, their capacity of reflection is limited to food, safety and sex. We human beings are fortunate to inherit better brain which reflects by analysing and understanding the situation based on present circumstances and past experiences. But irony is that most of us do not use full capacity and potential of reflection and very quickly respond without thinking about consequences.

5 Tips for better reflection on thoughts:
1. Do not react quickly. Hold your response if possible.
2. Analyze the inputs from various angles.
3. Try to see the situation from various stakeholders’ point of view.
4. Listen views of others who are concerned with situation.
5. Always keep plan B ready in case your response is not giving desired results.

Our behaviour fall between highly rational to highly emotional/irrational. On 1-9 scale say 9 is for highly rational and 1 is for highly emotional. Geeta explains it beautifully. Every living being have combination of 3 qualities. º\, oª Ä Ìo. I will relate highly rational as rajoguni and highly emotional as tamoguni. If you balance between rational and emotional than you can be termed as satoguni.

Whether we will act as rajoguni, tamoguni or satoguni depends on 4 aspects. Self, other person, time and circumstances. The problem with humans is that in same circumstances they may act differently with different people or different time. That way we are unpredictable.

Self is guided by gene, upbringing, education, experiences and self interest. Our tuning with other person also plays big role. What phase of time we are going through can also change our behaviour and what circumstances we are going through also decides our actions and reactions.

So our behaviour or behaviour of other person depends on complexity of time, situation, person and self (emotions and intellect). It is easy to predict satoguni (balanced person) compared to rajoguni (rational) or tamoguni (emotional).

Often we face dilemma, whether we are performing right actions or not. Most of the time it is easy to distinguish between right and wrong but very difficult to differentiate between right and more right or wrong and more wrong. Right or wrong can vary on scale of universal truth and individual perceptions. Since it is subjective and depends on society, religion and profession we belong to; it is very confusing. If we leave apart the universal truth, most of the value system is governed by country, religion, society and work groups. Keeping 4 wives is considered doing dharma in one religion whereas in other religion it is not at all accepted. Eating non-veg food is well accepted in one society but in another society it may be strictly prohibited. Such a paradoxical system we have.
According to Stephen Covey, principles are universal and they are like the light houses. They never change but values and belief system change as per time, individual, group and circumstances. This is the main reason that definition of righteousness also changes from person to person. Righteousness needs to be understood at different levels and from various points of view. In my view righteousness can be explained at following 6 levels.

Universal Righteousness: There are certain universal principle and practices such as honesty, love, duty etc. that are acknowledged by all the religions and societies in every part of the world. Every human being is expected to follow these principles otherwise that person may not be treated with respect. So keep walking on the path of Dharma.
National Righteousness: Every nation has its own constitution and legal system. Every citizen of that country is expected to follow and abide them.

Religious Righteousness: Every religion has its own belief/faith system and if you belong to that religion then you are expected to follow their principles and holy book of that religion.,/p>
Social Righteousness: Every community and society has its own value system and if you are part of it, you are expected to follow otherwise that community may disown you.
Professional Righteousness: Every profession has code of conduct and ethics defined and if you belong to that profession you are advised to follow the same.
Individual Righteousness: Individuals can have his own moral system based on their education, society, personal beliefs etc. However, same may not be acceptable to others.
5 tips to decide the path of righteousness:
1. Identify all the groups you belong to. Find out their code of conduct and follow them.
2. Don’t worry if you are not on right path, having knowledge that you are on wrong path is the first stage of awakening. Most of the people are ignorant.
3. Sudden change in behavior and attitude is not possible. It’s a slow process. As long as you are progressing on right path, it is a good enough.
4. Identify which is the most dangerous value system you are ignoring and first work on those so that you can be saved from major consequences.
5. It is a continuous process till you get enlightenment and liberation. So keep on walking on the right path.

Role Decide Duty

In Mahabharata, Arjuna had identity crisis on the battle field of Kurukshetra. He came as fighter on the battle ground but when he saw his relatives, guru and friends on opposite side he forgot that he is fighter and remembered just his relation with each of them. Facing the duty as a warrior to fight the Dharma Yudhha or righteous war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Krishna counseled Arjuna to fulfill his duty as a warrior and establish Dharma. This conversation in Geeta made Arjuna realize his real role and real duty.

In our day to day life also we face identity crisis. Our identity changes according to people, place and circumstances. At work we are boss and at home we are life partner. With parents we are children but with children we become parent. Before taking any action if we can recall our real role in given circumstances, place and people; our actions cannot go wrong.
Difficulty arises when the role is complex and duties are contradictory or conflicting. In such situation deep and clear thinking can help in realizing right duty. Many times it is advisable to be just observer and onlooker rather than taking any action.

5 Tips How to decide real Role and Duty:
1. Think about your real role before speaking or acting.
2. In case of confusion, clarify and get clarity about your role from all the concerned people.
3. Do not speak or act till role is ascertained.
4. As far as possible use suggestive tone instead of judgmental language in dealing with others. Use decisive language only when you have clarity about role.
5. Take advice of right people in clarifying your role before taking any action.

Shri Ashit Sinha, an HR guru, always say that keep clarity of role and goal in the organization. Role and goal clarity improves the performance, efficiency as well as effectiveness. In most of the Indian organizations, particularly in the family run businesses, the role and goal clarity is either missing or present in abstract form. Consequently employees are clueless about their accountability, authority and lines of hierarchy. On the top of it, if systems are not robust, entire organization runs in chaos. Blame game, abdicating responsibility etc. becomes very common. This can be controlled as long as organization is small but as it grows, inefficiency grows along after a certain point organization starts collapsing.

In such organizations many times HR head is hired but without much of freedom and authority. The paralyzed culture doesn’t allow professionals to work efficiently and effectively. Mediocre employees stay and smart performers flees.

5 step process for role and goal clarity:
1. Vision, mission, values and strategy shall be finalized at top level in consultation with senior management.

2. Proper organization structure shall be created with clear authority and accountability. One employee, one boss and span of control shall be taken into account. Organization structure shall not be made as per availability of people rather it should be created as per need of organization keepinglong term vision in mind.

3. Job profile shall be created from top to bottom and KRAs (Key result areas) shall be decided for each position.
4. Periodical review system shall be in place depending on criticality of position. Most of the organizations finalize the goals of employees but they fail to review.
5. Proper training program across the organization shall be introduced so that people can grow their skills and attitude as the organization grows.

Leaders of any field whether business, politics or philanthropy they
share few basic qualities.

1. Visionary : they all are visionary. They can imagine forest in a small seed. They have capability to imagine which even does not exist. They are big dreamers. While dreaming they do not feel any limitation. They can visualise impossibles. Gandhi dreamt of getting independence by non-violence. Which was unheard of that time. Ambani visualised giving mobile in the hand of poorest of poor. Ambedkar have spread the philosophy of Buddha in the life of masses.

2. Strategist : once their vision is set, great leaders have ability to find most simple and effective strategy or path to achieve their goal. They can see the path even where no path exists. It’s like climbing Everest and finding easiest and quickest path. They have amazing capability to explore all possible options and select the most effective one.

3. Hire Smart People : Successful leaders know that to reach the goal they need the help of most competent people who have quality of execution which he may lack. He will always hire and surround people who are smarter than him. He understand that his mission requires several capabilities which neither he got all not any one person can have. He believes in collective and team efforts.

4. Action Oriented : great leaders are action oriented. Always full of energy. Very quick in giving decisions. They have quality to see weak link in the chain. They never waste time and energy. They create efficient system and delegate responsibilities so that collective efforts give them exponential results.

5. Positive Thinker : Last but not least, great leaders are positive thinkers. Very optimist. Every leader and his team has to pass through lots of ups and downs but they are always full of positive thinking, positive attitude and keep morale and motivation of team very high. It is not that they do not fail but failure work as lesson and experience for them and they come up with alternate strategy and plan very quickly. They bounce back with even higher zeal. Even multiple failure do not raffle them.

In India, as the summer approaches; you will come across sugarcane juice extracting machine on the road side. When they put sugarcane from one end, the sugarcane gets crushed giving out sweet juice and the waste goes out from the other end. The same practice can be used for processing our thoughts. Our mind keeps on receiving thoughts continuously which generates emotions. Mostly people do not keep watch on those thoughts and very few process them intelligently and hence can keep control on emotions. Our thoughts are like sugarcane. Sweet juice is like positive emotions and waste is like negative emotions. In short, our mind is a juice extracting machine.

It is imperative that every day we get thousands of good as well as bad thoughts and if we do not process them properly then the negative thoughts will generate negative actions/ emotions whil epositive thought will create positive actions/ emotions. If we keep our mind and intellect always alert, negative thoughts will get destroyed and only positive thoughts will materialize into positive actions.

5 steps for processing thoughts:
1. Watch your feelings. Broadly it can be categorized as positive, negative and indifferent.
2. Analyze the thoughts behind those feelings. Feelings are normally accumulation of thoughts. So, go deeper to know root cause of those thoughts.
3. Imagine the consequences of actions you take, based on such feelings and thoughts. If they are negative, try to eliminate those thoughts. If they are positive, go ahead.
4. Initially you will need conscious efforts to do that and may fail many times to eliminate negative thoughts but slowly your subconscious mind will take over this process and success rate will improve.
5. Sometimes in spite of knowing negative consequences, your senses will force you to take action for pleasure of body and mind; however continuous efforts will be needed to destroy negative thoughts.

All living beings have 2 main purpose. Survival and recreation. For survival they want food and safety and for recreation they mate. However human beings think beyond survival and recreation. Since we have better mind, intellect, conscious and ego, we do millions of different things than animals. The question is why we do what we do apart from survival and recreation. We are a highly action oriented breed.

Every action is backed up by thought. Thoughts preceded action, some time we consciously know it, but most of the times subconsciously we do it. So we can divide actions in 2 parts. Conscious actions and subconscious actions. I am excluding here inner body actions which are controlled by the system of our body. Whether it’s conscious action or subconscious actions, both are backed by thoughts( present thoughts or past thoughts). Thoughts are generated by either our past experiences and memories or present learning through senses. Intellect analyse our present learning and past experiences and decides for actions. However many times we ignore our intellect and conscious but follow the instincts which can leads to either creativity or disaster.

Action leads to reactions and destiny so better action leads to better destiny. The wise is one who keeps pause between thoughts, words and actions. Research says that well paused thought can lead to 25-40% better decision and action. The key of success is PAUSE between thoughts and actions.

When you pause, search answer for what, why, when, which, where and how and you will find that your life has become many fold better than previous. Pause before action is key success mantra.

I will divide the ego in 2 categories. Real ego and false ego. Real ego is about ‘what you have’. False ego is about ‘what you do not have’ but you think that you have.
We shall not keep false ego and shall drop it as early as possible. Real ego is also an illusion but we need to keep that illusion as long as we are living SAMSARIK life. But we need to make real ego powerless by removing attachment with things, peoples and titles we have.

The process to remove attachment would be as follow.
1. Make the list of all real egos.
2. Take one at a time.
3. See and observe that ego as drashta.
4. Imagine that ego is destroyed and has no effect on you.
5. Make that ego powerless and tiny in front of you.

While giving title to my blog, I recalled Marshall Goldsmith’s book titled “what got you here won’t get you there”. In business and profession most of the time it so happens that one person is so efficient and effective at one point of time that he takes the organization to new height. But at some point he reaches to a “level of incompetence” as doctrine by management guru Peter Drucker and organization gets stuck with that person. The problem is more severe when that person is either owner or so senior in hierarchy that removing him just becomes impossible. But most of the time it has been seen that it is bad for that person as well as for the organization. I have worked in an organization where the top executive was seen as most indispensable and most of the outsiders misunderstood him to be owner rather than executive. When shareholders finally decided to part away, that organization grew multifold as well that person became successful Entrepreneur.
One needs to understand that parents can handhold a kid but he/she needs school teachers to pass away primary education and a professor to get the university degree. It’s the rule of nature that you need different people and circumstances at different level. The person who brought you to the base camp can’t take you the peak of Everest. It does not mean that importance of that person is vanished. It only means that now you need a different person to take you to the next level. If my primary school teacher would not have taught me ABCD then how I would have written this blog. The importance and respect for that teacher will always remain but to get further knowledge and wisdom I needed different people in my life.

5 Tips to deal with people who are becoming bottleneck in your progress.
1. If your organization is not growing with fast speed or it has got stagnant or slow down, identify whether it is due to complacency of the people or some outside forces.
2. If it is due to person then either gracefully retire that person or sideline with specific responsibilities and authorities.
3. Hire a consultant and take un-biased view for reason of stagnancy or sliding down.
4. Try to invest in raising the competency of that person. Sometimes proper training and exposure can raise his bar and may be useful for organization.
5. Do not mix the emotions and profession, time has come to move forward with different people and disruptive strategy. Or you will lose both in future, business as well as person. Mind it well that the person or circumstances that brought you here, cannot takeyou there!

A very intelligent couple of parrot gave birth to 2 children. It so happened that one was taken by the sage and another by some uneducated notorious person. Both the child parrot got an excellent ability to articulate the human voice. The parrot that grew up in sage’s hut learned excellent civilized language and used to greet new comer with NAMASTE and other welcoming remarks. Whereas parrot nurtured at devil’s house learned very rough language and used to speak abusive words.

Often there arises a question whether our DNA is responsible for what we are or it is the environment we raised in. In my opinion both play an equally important role. An excellent seed can’t guarantee an excellent tree unless it is nurtured with care.
As a human being we fall on the scale of destiny at one end and our Karma at another end. Some people are extremely destiny dependent and some believe only in karma. But one must understand that as soon as we are born our DNA freezes & the cycle of karma begins. We can make our personality as we want, based on the intrinsic qualities. The tree is the product of a seed but every seed grows the way it is cultivated. We have no option but find out our basic nature and nurture it. Rather than blaming our destiny, we must focus on the present karma.

5 tips for best nurturing:
1. Every child is different. Find out the best quality and nurture that quality rather than focusing on attribute with no traces.
2. Do not compare and compete with others. It can be like a lion is compared with shark.
3. A successful human being is not who has accumulated power or wealth but who had maintained and nurtured his basic quality which is humanity.
4. People are not difficult, they are different. Try to find their nature and environment they grown in and deal accordingly.
5. As a human being our 3 main purposes are:
a) Love all Beings b) Perform Duty Rightly c) Enhance Wisdom

Person like Stephen Hawking and Abdul Kalam never retires. Not even after death.
Recently when I was devising a retirement policy for the company, the question- “When really a person should retire?” stuck my mind. Most of the companies set an age limit for retirement (normally between 58-65). But in my opinion it is not a wise policy. I have even seen septuagenarians with a very active & creative brain and also people in their 40’s, lethargic and uncreative. An organization should have a policy that the day the person stop adding any value or his contribution falls short in comparison to his compensation or he is not performing his duties diligently, he/she should be asked to retire. People who are doing purely physical job may start losing physical strength as they age. However, people whose job is purely intellectual; they may become more productive with age and experience.

However, if you are working for an organization that has a retirement policy then you have no option but to plan your next inning after retirement. I have seen many people at the time of retirement are physically and mentally fit but only because of not having planned about work-life post retirement, they suddenly start losing their physical and mental strength. And they start ageing rapidly. It may be social work or work with minimal remuneration; one must keep working till he is mentally active. Read about top 10 celebrities who despite of having some kind of physical disability became super-successful. Case of Stephen Hawking is worth reading. http://techblogbiz.blogspot.in/2006/09/ten-famous-disabled-persons-who-became.html?m=1

5 Tips for Planning Life Post Retirement:
1. One should never retire from work unless & until one becomes physically and mentally incapacitated.
2. In case your organization has a retirement policy, plan well in advance about how you are going to keep yourself occupied in constructive way.
3. Sometimes it becomes imperative to give chance to next generation, so it is better to handover reins at appropriate time but plan your future engagements properly.
4. In world there are lots of needy people and organizations who can benefit from your experience. That may not give you a monetary satisfaction but will give lot of spiritual satisfaction.
5. Last but not least; planning your finances, regular income, wealth and will is foremost.

Once upon a time God decided to conduct competition among all the things he created so far. Various things, plants, animals and human being came forward to participate. The first competition was for the Best Smell. Sandal-wood won the competition because it didn’t lose its amazing smell inspite of rubbing till end. The second competition was for the Best Taste. Sugarcane won the competition because it didn’t lose its sweet taste inspite of all twist and turns. Last competition was for the Best Appearance. Gold won the competition because it didn’t lose its shine inspite of continuous heating.

When God called all the three objects to give away the prize, he found that all of them were sad. He asked all of them for their reason of sadness. Sandal wood said, “God you gave me the best smell of universe, but didn’t bestow me any taste or beautiful appearance.” Sugar cane said, “God you gave me best taste, but neither smell nor good appearance.” Gold said, “God you gave me best appearance but neither gave any taste nor any smell.” God smiled and said, “I have all the 3 qualities, what you individually have. I have given one of my best qualities to you. You are supposed to maintain what is bestowed upon you and be happy.”

The man was standing and witnessing the entire event. He asked the God, “Sir you have given one specific quality to every creature. What about me? What is my inherent quality?” God said, “My son, you are unique! Objects, plants and animals of same type are similar in nature but every human being is unique. I have given you the mind and intellect to find that unique quality and continuously explore and flourish the same. However, humanity is the common quality I have granted to every human.” Humanity is defined as compassion, fellow feeling, brotherly love, empathy, benevolence, generosity, magnanimity etc.

5 tips to flourish your uniqueness.
1. Find out what you are best at. If not able to, take help of experts.
2. Parents and teachers have a greater responsibility to find out uniqueness of child. Flourish/ grow and refine it.
3. Focus on that unique quality and invest your time and energy to make it continuously better.
4. Whatever you do and wherever you reach, never leave humanity.
5. People may criticize you for the qualities or abilities you are not good at, just ignore them.