Friends
We are at the fag end of the current financial year 2010-11. This month is very very important for the purpose of accounting. In few days every thing would change. World cup final is approaching, new financial year is very near now, employee reviews are going to commence and so on. The outgoing year has seen lot of activities, events and happening in finance sector. I would say this was the year which exposed maximum number of scams and wikileaks through out the world. The US economy has started growing up and Europe would be following soon. With a powerful earthquake and Tsunami in Japan the economic activities after initial lull would definitely kick start.
CP

On this auspicious day I wish to all my friends a very warm, colorful and happy holi. We all know the story of burning Holi and Lord Krishna protecting Prahalad. The festival brings the message of friendship and peace. This is the day when even the biggest enemies buries their differences. The color takes away the malignancy of relationship. The festival is a great day in all sense but the modification in past centuries has stretched it beyond its beauty. The pollution of colors, burning of trees, and consumption of alchohol, Bhang etc. has turned this auspicious day into a very disturbing day. However, still this day brings peace, enjoyment and stronger relationship.
This week I was in Jaipur and hence enjoyed a lot with family. Last week also witnessed the worst ever earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. There is no power beyond the Nature. In few seconds it can change every thing. We all are helpless against Nature and can do nothing except pray for Good of every one.
The global events like earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, Jasmine effect in Egypt, Libya, Behrain and many other countries , Corruption Scams in our country and horrible disclosures by wiki leaks would continue to affect the business and political environment in the country. This may push towards unwanted recession. We need to be prepared for this.
CP

Punar Musako Bhava

Friends
I wish to write blog every day but practically it is becoming weekly affair. There is no reason except the carelessness on my part. Just finished a wonderful book "The Difficulty of Being Good" by Gurcharan Das. Mr. Das is a renowned writer and I had chance to read his other book named "India Unbound". The book has been written after thorough research of various Indian epics and literature. The book is all about the subtleness of Dharma, the price of being good,. It analyses Guile, Remorse, Revenge, Despair, Rajdharma etc. Every human being comes across to various situations representing all these and takes the decision on the basis of his attitude, nature and circumstances. It develops into his/her character gradually. The books revolves around the Dharma and every thing is linked with this. I appreciate the book very much and feel grateful to the author for such a highly researched book. Now I have picked up another book "Screw It, Let's do it" by Richard Branson.
Life gives all kind of experience and every experience is an important lesson in life. In my case all experiences cost me dearly in terms of money and time. It shatters the confidence, faith, belief, vision, actions every thing. But there is always some superior power which guides me to come out of such tough times. We as human have always two options in every circumstance i.e. i) Act and be ready to face the result. It may be good or bad; and ii) Don't Act and hence no Result. In my case I prefer the first option but mostly the results are undesirable. God always give me power to come out of this and move towards another action. In childhood, I used to read a story in text books where a Saint was taking bath in a river and suddenly a mouse came under his foot. The mouse got crushed but with super powers, the saint made him alive. He also made the mouse an handsome boy. When the boy grew older, he started dating with the daughter of the saint. Finally they both decided to marry against the wish of the saint. The saint got very much annoyed and cursed the boy. Not only this he made the boy mouse again. In Sanskrit he said " Punar Musako Bhava" (be Mouse again). The poor young man became mouse again. God also plays the same game with we humans and he can make us mouse again. But the only consolation is that God loves us and always gives many chances to become a boy from mouse. One day the mouse becomes boy permanently, if he acts consistently and persistently. We are always put to test before becoming a young man from mouse by God. This consolation is the real power to try again and again.
CP

Friends
Last week witnessed lot of happenings. Railway and Finance Budget were out of the mystery. Share market took lot of ups and down and on sport front World Cup fever started . Personal front both kids came to Ahmedabad for 2 days and went back. Thus the week was full of action.
It always gives great feeling to see the kids maturing, gaining confidence, discussing various subjects and daring to take own decisions. I find them less demanding these days or feeling shy of demanding. When kids start growing and maturing they understand the value of money and always think twice before demanding. It is good sign of getting matured. It also reflects the result of sanskars we parents have inculcated in kids.
Character is built in valley. It means that the behaviour, attitude, nature etc. are all put to test when we are in valley (Valley means a situation where every thing happens wrong and mentally we feel too low in life. The performance is not upto mark and situation worsens day by day). When we are on mountain every thing changes but the real color would be seen when we are in valley. Valley also builts the character of a person. It is the situation which makes one prepared for grand success in life. If some one is not passed through the valley, success would never be under his/her control. So when ever we feel to be in valley, enjoy it , cause we are heading towards greater success.
CP

Friends
Two quotes came into my mind :
1. "You will waste a lot less time worrying about what others think of you if only you realized how seldom they do." That is why we can say that:
2. "To be happy one must not be too concerned with the opinion of others. One should pursue one's goals single mindedly, with a quiet confidence , without thinking of others."
Most of the time we worry about others be it social, professional or personal matter. We loose focus on our goal and try to behave what others wish. In the process we lost every where. Socially, in Hindu tradition we spend under the pressure to remain one up in society despite the fact that such spending is beyond capacity and also of no use. To impress the society we stretch ourselves to such an extent that it adversely affect the financial health. I have seen in villages , poor farmers are forced to spend much beyond their capacity on the occasion of marriage or post death rituals. One such occasion push them under heavy borrowing from mahajans. Also in educated , upper caste also the spending in marriages go much beyond the capacity and brings the borrowing pressure for a long time.
Professionally our behaviour is always to show off the others. The show off does not allow a professional to do the assignments of so called lower levels. He wants to do but just because of fear of "what others would think about him", he does not. This kind of thinking process closes the opportunity doors.
On personal front, I have noticed such things mainly in cases of personality development. When we do not adopt new technology or update ourselves regularly, later on we repent it and feel shy. Not only this, such technologies influence life so much that we can not afford to keep away and any delay in adoption/updation causes frustration and shyness. We don't show the world about our ignorance and start criticising the value of such technologies. We should understand the fact that there is nothing called delay or late. Knowledge is continuous flow and can be adopted/learnt at any stage of age. It is our own feeling about what people would think about us. If we can get rid of this thought, the life would be much easier and successful.
CP

Friends
I had mentioned some comments on relations in my recent blog. To explain it further, I wish to share some more views on this topic. In present educated society where the families are shrinking and migrating, the value of friends, colleagues and neighbours have multiplied many times. They are the first to help you in time of need. When we move to new and unknown locations, the social relatives are almost absent there and we have to build the relationship a fresh through references, friends, colleagues, peers, business associates, community associations etc. The relationship so created is mostly a live relationship and becomes stronger day by day. Such relations may not be through the blood relatives or any traditional relatives but always play role better than blood relatives. Also in many situations, some relatives may be called distant one due the distance in family tree, but they are more closer practically due to better interactions and understandings. The importance of such relatives is always more than the one who are close as per family tree but not close by way of interactions and understandings.
In this pretext, I was opining that in present world the relations should be measured by the closeness in understandings and interactions and not only by the family tree.
CP

Friends
Back to Ahmedabad after hectic trip of Rajasthan. It is always fun to visit the native place and interact with relatives. More fun if it is some function like marriage. The memories of childhood, family relatives, old friends all give exciting feelings. I met one of my college friend after 28 years.
When we meet some one after gap of 20-30 years, we notice lot of change in face and body structure, voice and maturity but still there is some thing intact (intimacy) which keeps the relationship alive. When analysing the past, we arrive at the conclusion that despite the best efforts in life, we all are at the same level from where we moved on. What has changed is some economic status, some addition in family, grown kids, some specs, either baldness or grey hairs. Life moves on with all these addition deletions.
One particular thing I noticed in my native is that people there are too much surrounded by the relatives. This does not leave any space for friends and hence the parameters of status of a family are decided by the number of relatives. In present world relatives are scattered. In many cases I noticed the infighting between relatives over money, properties or ego clashes.They don't talk to each other or very friendly but the social fabric is so strong/thick that people don't look beyond the relatives. In the process they can not build strong relationship through friendship and hence end up with very slow progress. I believe the relationship created, or rather gifted, by being in social relations are mostly pulled on by compulsions and not of choice. such relations always give heart burn and create distances. Where as a person can build better and stronger relationship out side the blood/social relations. A good and supporting person may be distant relative socially but he may be close friend. In society such persons are always considered as distant relative with long distance. On other side a close relative may be of no value practically but just because he is in close relation, he gets due credit.
CP