Friends
Yesterday been to Mumbai and while passing through the new four lane at worli sea link I was thinking about the controversy created due to the presence of Amitabh Bachchan. Politicians behave more like hypocrite than any body else. Travelling also provides me opportunity to read books and just finished a wonderful book named "The Ultimate Life" by Jim Stovall. Book is an all weather friend full of knowledge and which is always available to share the knowledge. It never complains, never demands anything. This is the best companion one can have. So when ever I travel, I try to use maximum time in reading books and grab whatever information/knowledge I can. I liked this Book very much. It reminds that the life is nothing but series of days. It has lot to offer us and we should also make it better by Giving, Gratitude, dreaming, learning and Love. Good Book I wd say. Meanwhile me catching up another book " The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni.
cp

Friends
Yesterday I was in Delhi. Today is Ramnavami, Birthday of Shri Ram Bhagwan. It is being celebrated all over the world by we Hindus. As we learned through out the life that Lord Ram was the best human being on the earth born so far. That is why he is designated as " Maryada Purushottam". There are in fact no word to decorate Lord Ram. He is the ultimate Power. If we read his life as mentioned mythological, it was full of challenges since his birth. Initially sent to Gurukul to the Ashram of Guru Valmiky which was surrounded by lot of Asuras. He had to fight there and clear the area. When came back to palace again sent to Jungle for 14 years along with his wife Mata Sita and Bhagwan Lakhshman. It was a long, full of challenges life till first 13 years which became worst after the Kidnap of Sitaji. We can imagine how a person starts loosing every thing and at the end even his wife. Top of that he could not take the help of his brothers, kings,army etc. Forget this he could not get support of humans even to search and get back his wife. It was supported by non humans like Monkeys (Lord Hanuman, Sugrive, Bali, Angad etc.), Beers, Birds (Lord Garuda) and so on. Again when he came back to Palace, he was forced to send back his wife to the Jungle because of certain comments from the public. This happened when she was pregnant. Again Bhagwan Ram was left alone. It is said that Bhagwan Ram lived for about 11000 Years and out of that only for a fraction of period he enjoyed married life and luxury of a king. In fact the life of most of the Gods has been very challenging be it Lord Shiva, Jesus Christ, Lord Krishna, Bhagwan Mahavir, Lord Gautam Budha and so on. They came on this earth learned and taught us many things but never enjoyed their personal life. They were best humans and showed the world value of truth, humbleness, sacrifice, Ahimsa etc. Does it mean that if you are good, challenges would also be too much? I don't have answer to this tricky question but wish to share with you one advise by a very old man to me that "Behave like Ram at home (means with family and socity) and like Krishna with outside (means in business or job or profession). If you do reverse it would spoil every thing". My best wishes on this auspicious day of Ramnavami.
CP

Friends
A slight change in the model and money pours. This is happening in the sports world these days. Cricket was a boring five day test game which gradually turned into one day match about 30 yrs ago. There was no change in the game module in almost 100 years and when it changed to one day game, the public interest developed to a great extent. IN last three years the model has further been changed to 20 overs and the result is that billions of rupees is pouring in the sports. Who could anticipate that a team would be bought by some one for Rs. 1800 Crs. in India. Yesterday Pune and Kochi teams were auctioned for Rs. 3200 Crs. approx. India has about 10 teams now and technically the market value of all the teams taken together is about Rs. 15000 Crs. A figure no one could imagine three years before. Same thing happened in many sectors. Bottled water was never anticipated to be a must product while travelling or dining outside. It has changed the whole game plan. Aviation sector changed a lot in last 10 years. Telecommunication is another sector which changed the definition of business. One day we would see the change in many other sectors of business, society and life.
This means the opportunities are just around us, probably we need to change the module. We are pulling on with same old modules and expect miracle. I don't think it is going to happen, yes it can happen if we make minor amendments in whatever we are doing or pursuing in life. Any body looking at some thing differently would change the whole game and the rest would follow.

CP

Friends
We as human beings have one face which is visible to the outside world. But behaviour wise we have multi faces. We advise so many good things to our friends, neighbours, clients, relatives, kids and all as if we are the best person on this earth. In fact the advise we give or commit to the society is different then how we would react if the same situation we are also dragged into. We pretend and advise to be open minded, honest, broad heart, cool, satisfied, confident and so on. Give lot of examples but do we follow the same advise? I don't think so. It is always easier said than done. One of my friend recently lost his son in accident. The saddest moment in life of every father is to carry the body of son on his shoulder for funeral. He had come from that and at home when he was crying like a child, every one was giving him advise to keep cool, have faith in god, think beyond the loss, care for rest of the family members and all. I understand, it is very easy to say some thing but most difficult to follow. In another incidence one of my known relative was being advised to have faith in husband, open minded, never suspicious and so on.. The same person when slightly dragged into such situation became the most vocal and tried to spoil the life of her all family members.
I am not the expert in behavioural science or human psychology and hence fail to understand the multi faces of we humans.
cp

Sundays

We get about 4200 Sundays in our life time. In fact we get almost all week days equally i.e. 4200 in normal healthy life. Sunday is always taken as the best day of week. The treatment to this day is very special as compared to the other days of the week. Initially it goes on without noticing but soon when education starts, it becomes the most preferred day. After attaining maturity we start planning for this day and finish off many pending chorus at home and office. It is the day we repair ourselves most, we worship the God, we take afternoon rest, we go for shopping, we touch base the social gatherings and interactions. All in one day. Probably this day comprises all activities and still we say,"Sunday is Rest Day". It means we are tired of work only and if any day we don't have regular work or school, it is always treated as rest day. This mindset is worldwide, because through out the life we are never tired of social work, entertainment, play etc. what tires us is work and study. In western part and now in almost all the continents, we have doubled the number of Sundays by working five days a week. Soon it would be tripled also (Four days is being asked in developing nations). Are we really tired or it is just the mental sickness of feeling tiredness. If we enjoy the work and study, there would never be any need of so many rest days. God is not going to enhance the life by additional Sundays. Whatever we lost, it would be from our own account and hence should be planned accordingly. In my view we should change the mindset and working days should be treated as rest days. Though it may sound bore to feel so but if we reverse the mindset, it would give long and healthy life. Most of the people feel stress of business, job and study. All this would have gone and the life would be different.
CP

Friends
Yesterday was Duleti, the second day of color festival. Infact Holi is the festival of colors but next day of Holi, Duleti, we all play with colors. The festival is celebrated for two days. On day one we worship Prahald , who was innocently put in the fire by his Bua Holika , who took him to the fire to kill him but with God's grace, Prahalad was saved and holika burnt. Bad person gone and good remained even in fire. This is the well known story we are hearing since birth. The point here is Holika believed in her brother Hiranyakashyap and took the risk of burning an innocent. She forgot that job is too risky but still the faith prevailed upon her and the result was death. No one should have blind faith and take only calculated risk.
My best wishes to every one on this festival.This festival gives us the chance to forget and forgive and all whether rich or poor or black or white look same.
One thing which always hits me is that celebrations are causing lot of damage to the nature and human beings too. The year starts with Makar Sakranti and thousands of birds are trapped in the kite thread and get killed. That day also causes lot of human casualities across the country. Then Holi Pooja is done through out the country and lacs of trees are cut to burn the holika. Further people use dangerous colors which affects the body and also the water is spoiled. Janmashtami is more remembered for gambling, drinks etc. Even Diwali is more popular for gambling, air and noise pollution. Lot of silent birds get disturbance for almost three days. I dont say that we should not celebrate festivals or the systems and methods of celebrations are wrong, what I mean is that during the course of time, we have forgotten the nature completely and now the damage is apparent.
We should seriously look into the methods of celebration to maintain ecological balance.
CP