Lessons from my experience* – Part 1 of n

1) Being content in life gives happiness. [Make the most of what you have / get]

2) When you pray, don’t ask anything. Just pray. Things will be taken care off for you.

3) Whether it is your friend or relative, trying to see yourself in them, will only result in a troubled relationship. Understand that each and every person is unique.

4) Newton’s third law – for every action, there is an, equal and opposite reaction – holds good for life too.

5) Baranyasam in Vaishnavism is a good thing to follow. Makes you focus on one God and attain salvation.

6) Extending point 5 to real life / day-to-day living, focus on priorities in hand, would help you attain a better position in life.

7) Do not lie unnecessarily (preferable, not to lie at all!). By following this point, you will face lot of challenges & tension but one can stay away from lot of mega troubles, trust me when I say this!

8 ) Being a cynosure, may work for some but may not work for all. Answer this question before you want attention: What are you going to achieve by being a cynosure? If you do not get a convincing answer, move on.

9) One can be happy with life, if the person, treats it like a portfolio. Overall, is everything ok for you? Then, be happy! Do not expect ‘Return on Investment (ROI)’ from every page of your life.

10) Invest, yes invest time, to understand your religion, custom or belief. There would be lessons which one can pick up and use.

11) Humility, empathy and a smile, would win you loads of hearts.

12) Formula to reign Power and Influence among your group (relatives, friends, colleagues or anybody): Help them unconditionally.

13) Smouldering is not a good thing to follow – vent it out, pleasantly.

14) Do not wound anyone by being acrimonious (acid like words). The person whom you hurted would not forget it ever. I mean, EVER!

15) You become, what you think you are!

16) Selffulfiling prophecy works!

17) Each and every person has his/her own sphere of superiority. So, respect everyone. [Can you beg as proficiently as a begger? Can you show perseverance as shown by a begger?]

18) As a dad or mom, you can wish your son to be an Einstein or Sachin in their field / studies, but, understand that your kid has his / her own sphere of superiority. If one is not good in studies, he/she might be good in something else. Instead of putting undue pressure on them, sit with them and understand their needs and work with them to satisfy those – if they are reasonable enough.

19) One who doesn’t respect his wife, carries no respect for himself, vice-versa.

20) Parenting is second childhood.

21) Read Dalie Carnegie’s book on ‘How to win friends and influence people’ once

22) More you suppress once feelings and interest, the more rebellious they become

23) Be respectful and keep parents happy. You are here because of them

24) At 30 you can be arrogant, egoistic and rude to others & make others life miserable, you will not feel the heat at that time. At 60, you will go to the same people or depend completely on them for your day-to-day living, I have seen this happen!

25) If you are selffish with your kids, no doubt, they will not even wink their eyes, when you suffer. What you sow, is what you get.

26) To sustain a good relationship, whether it is with your dad, mom, wife, brother or with relatives / friends, be open to accept feedback & be open with your feedback. Your feedback will hurt them for a while, but you will be rewarded with a good relationship.

27) Beauty might help till 30. Education might help till retirement. Good IQ / EQ / SQ might help a little further. But Attitude (good), can help all the way in your life.

More to come…

[*For all of the above to work - conditions apply ]

Timid Boy!

This photo brings back wonderful memories of a mischievous boy (an imp!).Until this moment (even after 20+ years) I am the proud person to hold on to the title of ‘THE MOST INNOVATIVE MISCHEVIOUS KID’ in our family Have I changed a bit now?! Don’t know!

The people in the photo competed for the title but in vain Let me see if any one in future can make me timid!

While writing this piece, loads and loads of memories are coming back – I am happy that I enjoyed my childhood!

Ooty & Topslip Trip

I have three best friends two are from my college and otherone my colleague – Kannan, Bala and Aswath. All four of us made a trip to Bangalore & Mangalore in 2006 about which I will write about soon. 

We entered the corporate jungle in 2002 and three years had gone by with no real break, so three of us (Kannan, Bala & I) decided to take a tour.
Lot of deliberations happened over email & phone. Since Bala was in Bangalore we were looking at a convenient place. We first decided to do it in Jan 05 but as in any corporate life things were hectic and we planned in Apr 05 during Tamil New year’s time.  Our destination was Ooty and Topslip (valparai). Since it was season beginning we booked our rooms in a decent place. Bala and myself started from Srirangam and Kannan from Chennai. We met in Coimbatore. We planned to cover Topslip on Day 1 and return to Coimbatore that night. Day 2 and Day 3 would be in Ooty. Day1 : We started by 7 in the morning in INDICA. It was really refreshing for us and a real break from the hectic corporate life. Drive and climate was really too good. Funny things started happening to Bala, every now and then he would stare at the tender coconuts and would insist in having atleast 2 or 3 in every pit-stop! We warned him that the climb is going to be tough (Topslip is known for its steep inclines and hair-pin bends) as always it fell on deaf ears!!! Result – As you know  In PK Tea estate there is a Balaji Temple with beautiful lawn and scenery. We had good darshan and since we wanted to reach the temple before the afternoon closing time we didn’t take many photos. Kannan had brought his digital camera and we kept clicking it while coming down! We didn’t leave a single waterfall or tea/coffee estate; every now and then we would stop by to enjoy the nature and attend to nature’s call  End of day1 we were tired and slept of early.  Day 2 and Day3 :We started off early by 5.30 am and were accelerating hard before the traffic slows us down. Journey to Ooty was much more enjoyable than Topslip. This time Bala learnt to control his urge to have tender coconut instead concentrated on potato chips – Result As u all know  We paid visit to a temple on our way to Ooty and crossed black thunder. The scenic beauty that surrounds black thunder was awesome. It was groove after groove of trees and cool breeze was blowing – IT WAS JUST AWESOME!  We reached Ooty early by 8 am. After a brief rest (mainly to the car) we went to ooty lake and botanical garden. We were enjoying the natural beauties and also the beauties out there. Bala’s Basic Instinct came to life here also and started to look for a potential partner Sorry Bala ha ha! Wanted to take a boat ride in the lake but the waiting time was more than an hour so left the place with just a click! Ah now I remember Kannan took horse ride (hmmm…as he was afraid for most of the time…he didn’t allow the horse to move…) so technically he just sat on the horse and made me take a picture!  The best part was we took walk in the old lake road (it is closed for traffic). It is a km plus walk but worth it. There was absolute silence except for momentary bird chirpings. You should have a look at the size of the trees, my god so massive and beautiful. We were just completely enthralled by the beauty! We returned to the hotel and took rest. Here comes my part of comedy, I had to get some audio cassettes for the trip to a dam nearby. I  went, bought and came back with a cassette. As these guys were resting they didn’t have a look at the cassette. The next day, driver played the cassette eagerly – damn it was a HINDI Remix of some kind of some unknown songs! Kannan who has a natural love over Hindi (he doesn’t like) literally threw me out off the car. To add to the insult, the driver traded the cassette with another driver and got another cassette! You should seen Kannan’s face ha ha! We only went for the dam and only I took bath there – these guys were scared to bones! Return journey was good and we entered the corporate jungle again with full josh!

Will write about our trip to Mangalore & my overseas travel soon! Bye

My Gang

Bala – A cool guy, a great dancer, a movie buff (seriously he even watches Ajith’s movie J) and a person with high energy level. 

Balaji R – He is one of the few who make me laugh, you would just enjoy his company. IT head of ADCOM. Super Singer and lot more. 
 

Neha – Oh my GOD! This girl rocks when she dances and an altruist by nature. Though she is in India she works in American Standard Time J. She seems to be innocent (but she is not!) and she has been my bakra. Will soon post a video J 

Vasu – She gave me the name VATSA. She is awesome character with very very high energy level. The decibel level in Great Lakes shoots up when she is around! Her project for Brand Management brought laurels to her..he he J  Nagi / Nagu – We both have one common thread, we SLEEP in class – whenever Professor speaks. A finance wiz and dedicated person. He is a PICASA man (reason?! J) 

Sainath – An intellectual person. He hardly laughs. Point to be noted he is not lured by girls – so he says!!! 

Balapradeep – THE GURU 

Gaurav – Amazing GUGU. He plays with numbers like anything and he is known for his mumbaikher’s language! He found a pair in junior crusaders!!! He he 

Srivathsan Raghavan – Smart guy!

Gokul – Mr Maddy

Shriram - Fun loving guy & unfortunately I have been at the receiving end most of the time – through his mimickry

ADCOM

Committee work is part of
Great Lakes culture and lot of people take this work seriously. So for the past one year I have been part of 20+ member team. We started our work from May 06 and it is still going on (Apr 07) – it started off with Meet the Dean session and it is coming to an end with orientation program to Junior Crusaders.

 

Team showed confidence in doing a real job than a facilitation of various activities. We were part of negotiations with vendors (IT, Video & Media planners), testing of the products and even recommendations for policy frame works – list goes on! In the process we were exposed to praises, criticisms (internal / external), abuses, PR issues and even our integrity was questioned. Since the team was strong from within we survived and it was a good learning too.

 

When I wanted to write about ADCOM, Balv can’t be missed! So little bit about this fellow J

 

In our team we have one OVER enthusiastic guy who would go to any extent to finish a job – he won’t think whether it is the committee’s job or not! We call him ‘Balv’. We take decisions in an informal set-up mostly in HUDDLE (the control room for ADCOM) and here is where fights (figuratively) happen. Whenever it comes to doing an activity I and balv would always have arguments (filled with not so good words!!). Arguments were always about ‘WHOSE JOB IS THIS?’ though he would agree that it is not ADCOM’s job, he would insist on doing it so that no goof-ups happen but I would take the other side. Now he has come down a bit but has taken up another activity now – CAN’T CHANGE THIS GUY!

 

In the coming weeks will write about other interesting characters in my team!

People whom I admire

As you can guess, I would be definitely writing about my Appa  & Amma. But the person who is going to be written about was, is & would be a guiding factor for our family and especially for me.

The life of this person started off like this (pre-independence days) – a Sanskrit scholar in an Agraharam in a village, active participant in Ahobila math (Vaishnavites), a single father for two kids (a boy & a girl). His expertise in religious area, Sanskrit & a great heart for poor earned him respect in the heart of the then Jeer of Ahobila math.

During early 1960s this person became the head of AHOBILA MATH (the holy pontiff, His Holiness Sri Sri…). As the norms for any Jeer, he traveled throughout
India and spread the name of the Lord Vishnu. He settled in Srirangam (No.1 in 108 Divya desam) in 1970s.

There came an occasion where Sri Ranganathar’s Temple in Srirangam was not getting enough funds / donations to run it properly. Temple administration depended on devotees donations. But during those days number of devotees who visited the temple was less and hence the temple could not be run properly.

Temple administration would seek the help of nearby temples to atleast take care of day-to-day operations. A day came when those funds also stopped. All operations virtually came to a stand still in the temple. What could be done? Who is going to help? These were some of the questions the people of Srirangam had in the mind (with no answer).

It was the time this man decided that he should act and he acted. What did he do? And how did he do?

When I connect the dots, I find how great this person was in strategy & marketing. He wanted to increase the devotee traffic to Srirangam which would solve the revenue problem for the temple. This was one of the reasons for the creation or erection of
ASIA’S TALLEST TOWER (256 FEET) – SRIRANGAM RAJA GOPURAM!

 His charisma and good heart brought lot of funds to build the Raja Gopuram. The problems he faced were from many quarters international (Srilanka), Tamil Nadu government, Politicians, threats, etc

In these situations he stood by his decision taken for the people. He was threatened that he would be arrested if he is not cooperative (stopping the construction). Even though he was 70 years plus of age, he brushed aside all the threats and boldly proceeded with the construction of the RAJA GOPURAM.

The construction was completed in late 1980s. The activity associated with construction and constant buzz about the gopuram attracted lot of devotees, tourists. This started generating revenue for the temple and now Srirangam temple is one of the wealthiest temples in
India.

Though I was barely 7 years of age when Sambrokshanam for the gopuram was done, I vividly remember this GREAT MAN walking, talking to people, blessing them. He was, is & would be a great source of strength for me & my family.

He is none other than the 44^th Jeer of the Ahobila Math. And I am proud to say that my family was very close to him & as a kid I have experienced the POWER, CHARISMA & AURO of this great man!

(This is just one of the great things done by H.H. the 44^th Jeer)