learnings

Clothes matter...Wearing the right clothes to the right place at the right time matters most!!1

Being short has its advantages.After all Alexander, Ashoka and Akbar were short!!

A bunch of us have begun a series of activities after class hours. Today we had an informal music session- Music unplugged.. I was amazed at the talented youngsters. They compose their own tunes and lyrics!! Music indeed surpasses all barriers. Students from the east and north east of India were singing a famous Tamil song!! Good cheer and laughter rained through. I am all geared to unearth more gems in the University!

As I walked hurriedly down the green path at my workplace I stooped to pick up a chocolate wrapper. As I bent down I chanced upon crushed coffee cups and Pepsi bottles thrust beneath the shrubs. I was pained. The University has staff that maintains the gardens and lawns regularly and they do a pretty neat job. There are visible dustbins every nook and corner. Yet after the breaks there is litter. These are  students who belong to the elite class and to think that they would be the future engineers!!!  So why is this happening. It is appalling. We are given buildings, we litter them. We have the second longest beach yet we deface it. We have two rivers which run like sewage.  If we cannot maintain what is given to us then how do we create? How do we invent? How do....  Well the answer is we are not' doers' . we are a nation of talkers- we talk and talk and talk and forget that there is a dustbin, a beach, a garden, ...

What is said is not as important as how it is said!!

When a female says we need to talk, be prepared for a verbal war!!

I got acquainted to Kandaswamy on the very first day I joined my new job. Kandaswamy is a boy of  maybe 18 years who serves tea/coffee to all the staff. First day- K ( that's how I shall refer him as) serves tea at 10.30am and coffee at 2.30 pm. He does not bother to look at me. He serves the much needed hot beverage in a routine manner. Second day- K arrives. I make it a point to talk to him. He is shocked. I ask him his name and he is rather abrupt in his answers. Third day- Once again I begin getting to know him. He has done schooling up to 9th ! So i asked him why he did not continue with his education. He said he did not like school. Fourth day- K arrives and in spite of me offering a beaming smile he hardly returns one back.. But to my surprise he offers me an extra cup of coffee!! Fifth day- K tells me that he left school. because his teachers were bad! He didn't give much explanation but I gathered that he had not been treated kindly....

Using sarcasm to hurt others indicates low self esteem!!!

Systems, systems everywhere but no system to get them working!!!

Tribute to Stephen Covey-- read a page of a book everyday!!

Attachment  begets violence!

My Standing desk! My son introduced me to the concept of the Standing Desk. I am easily excitable by nature so anything new is a wonder! I was enamored by the idea . I read some blogs, checked out images on Google and presto began to conjure one for myself. As I did not want to. spend money right away I thought I would make do with whatever I had at home.. The key points here are: 1. The monitor has to be at eye level and the key pad on a lower plane to enable easy typing. So I am going to buy a key pad to operate with ease. 2. Standing desks are available at Damro. 3. You would be thought crazy but that is where the fun lies. 4. Standing is healthier than sitting-- posture, spine, health.. what more do u want? 5. Initially like anything else you need to allow your body to get used especially the legs. 6. It is easy to move around. 7. You burn more calories. 8. For those who have a sedentary life style this ...

When elephants fight the grass beneath gets trampled- borrowed Management learning from a senior colleague !

It was with great pain I read a news item on a young boy being rejected admission ins a college in Madurai because he has leucoderma ( depigmentation of skin). P.Ayappan was at first given admission and stayed for a night at the hostel. But his mother was asked to take him away. Reason? Other students'parents did not want their wards to mix with Ayappan. One (half0 dalit boy of 25 years eloped with a girl from the Backward Caste. Since then they have never been able to live in peace. He gets death threats everyday. He was even kidnapped by her father's goons and tortured. His head was tonsured and he was beaten black and blue!! Reason: casteism A young Rwandan student lies in coma having been ragged and beaten by the sons of a police officer and other VIPs in Punjab.His father is still seeking justice and the  Indian government is not being of much help. If this had happened to a white boy would it be the same treatment? When something happens to an Indian abroad why d...

There is nothing as heavenly as a simple meal- mine is rice with curd and ...!!!

It was appalling to read about the warden who forced a Std V girl to drink/lick her urine after she wet her bed! It is even more shocking that this took place in Shantiniketan- the very place sanctified by Rabindranath Tagore! They have trampled upon his vision. I have been so inspired by Gurudev's methods of teaching that this incident brought tears. Imagine the trauma that little child. I shudder! Even more shocking is that the teacher was jailed for just one day and she is out on bail! She should have been assigned to a psychotherapist! It is common knowledge today that bed wetting happens to due to either physiological or psychological reasons. No human would do it on his/her will. It is an involuntary action. If only the teacher had empathized ? If only the teacher had thought of the girl as her own ? How much does it take to be humane??

Anything in excess is bad even if it is love!!

Walls can be scraped and cleaned for a new coat but cracks would still show!

one kind act= smiles, joy and a reason to live !!!

A charming smile is the best cosmetic!!

One step makes the difference!!

An idle mind is the devil's workshop! We have been drilled with this idiom during our school years. As a solution we have been asked to fill our minds with thoughts and constantly urged to think , think and think!! Wow then we should have churned out a nation of thinkers! It just struck me this morning that most of our problems and issues are based on what 'others ' think - what will 'they' say/ think?? It is indeed hilarious but sadly true.  As a nation we are still plagued with the problems of acquiring basic necessities like potable water, enduring electricity and toilets! Politics, caste-ism, education blunders, admission into schools& colleges, burning prices of vegetables and fruits are enough to keep us occupied for ten lifetimes!! Yet we have time to 'think' of others?  Citizens of developed nations have such hassle free living and no mundane problems. So their minds have lot of 'free space'. Yet they do not face stuff like what wil...