Reaching There

I'm not a manager but I've managed small teams and have been managed by bunch of managers during my career so far. I've come to a personal conclusion (with a strong chance of being completely wrong) that I've a Real value and a Perceived value. And from one manager to another there is a difference in these two values from time to time. This gap can lead to good career opportunities or a stale period in the career. So what is the Real value - these are the capabilities and differentiators I show on my resume. It's there on a piece of paper that goes to the manager and he makes a decision based on the black-and-white letters he sees on it. I'm experienced in some of those things and in others I would be a complete novice. Also these are tagged to you for future reference as well. A bit shaky definition, eh! Well, it's what people know about me, it could be simple definition about me - like an engineer, analyst, singer or a programmer etc. And what is...

It feels so much better to work out if you have a workout partner. It not only keeps us motivated which results in energy that constantly push us. So often your fitness partner would come up to you and shows you how much he feels good because of the muscles bulging out, during the exercise! He or she is not showing-off (maybe consciously he or she is showing-off) but subconsciously there is a bigger emotion at play. I like to call it 'back-me-up-mate' theory . It's like when we're happy we like to share it with others; it's not the pride that's causing it but it's the simple old sharing the joy. Research has shown if we share our goals with our friends or peers we tend to perform better. Workout is like any other training that begins with goal(s) that are laid out as per our desires. It could be looking like ‘Stallone’ or your any other favourite movie star, or it could the desire to lead a healthier lifestyle. Having an aim isn't enough - workout...

How often do you pass a small temple on the sides of busy roads? Very often, if you travel to any part of the country you'll see a temple dedicated to a God ranging from a huge temple with sprawling lawns to smaller ones that are serving a local community. India probably has thousands of major temples that pilgrims visit each year to mark momentous occasions in either the religious calendars or a special occasion in their earthly life journey. And then there are hundreds of thousands of smaller temples that occupy the nooks and crannies of the Indian maps. These are smaller in size, probably no bigger than a mid-sized studio apartment and house one or two Gods. Some time back I wrote a post on the majestic Prem Mandir inVrindavan , comparing any temple with a house of God. The concluding paragraph from the post is as follows: Temples are places of divinity but nothing seems to change in between the moments we go in and come out. However if we go inside a temple as a ho...

A s the world reels under another crisis at a global level there are some questions that linger about the origins of all this. It is difficult to understand the origins of the crisis as any investigation into it seems to mirror the puzzle - which came first chicken or egg. There are a few theories floating around that try to give prominence of one's existence over other. Leaving the science behind and coming back to our global crisis. Whether it's the crash of #MH17 or #GazaCrisis or just a fight among neighbours; all seem to have roots in the primordial human crisis that we can call #Ego. There could be economic or social or geographical justifications to crises. However if we follow a 5 Whys approach there is only a psychological justification (I'm ashamed to call it a justification). Ego can be interpreted as materialistic energy that hides the truth from us and separates us from the true identity. The simplified version of truth & the true identity (as pe...

W hat is creativity? It's a very difficult thing to describe. Some may call it a gift and other will call it divine inspiration. Some say its use of imagination to produce something valuable. It's an idea, work of art, a poem, an essay, a dance movement, a melody or recycling. If you Wikipedia 'creativity' you'll get a page that describes various approaches towards defining this elusive thing. While standing on the balcony on one evening I let my mind wander away while staring at the dusky sun about to set in a few minutes. I was trying not to think about anything as I was staring at a distance with no purpose or intention or expectation. While staring I decided to look up at the sky, an activity I've rarely done in the past few months. The dim voices of children playing in the park created a background melody that wasn't loud enough to distract my walk in the 'nothing-zone'. As happens often that a thought creeps into the mind when expec...

W hat does a saint feel? This is a question that struck my mind in the wee hours of last night. It is something about that time that magically erases the boundary between the conscious and the subconscious mind. It is the time when the mind seems to be bombarded with beautiful divine thoughts rather than just the fortuitous wandering it engages in most of the time.  I've   digressed too far from the question I asked you at the beginning. Somehow I felt the urge to describe the moment of origin of this post. So, what would a saint feel? I'm still clouted by the judgemental and biases of a materialistic human mind. But I can definitely imbibe some of the divinity through pretentiousness. Really! Of course I can pretend, or what's the other word for it, 'daydream'. The only thought that came to my mind was - constant love. Viola! That's how it must feel (my best guesstimate). A constant love for the world and beyond; that must be the feeling the saints mu...

W ell, it's notoriously difficult to get people to be far-sighted. But one thing that psychologists have tried that seems to work is to get people to imagine the future more vividly.  From Dan Gilbert's Ted Talk on 'Why we make bad decisions' Perhaps this observation from the professor of psychology at Harvard University hits the root of the question that has been hovering in my mind for some time now. The question is pretty simple one and been around since the mankind began exploring his or her mind. 'What happens after Death’? No, this isn't the question that's been bugging me. Although this is a significant question that can draw emotions ranging from pleasantness to worry. When  Yuddhishtra was asked 'what is the biggest wonder' by a disguised  Yaksha , he answered that people are aware that thousands of their kind die every day yet somehow the 'alive' feel they will live forever. Death is the most certain of all the certaint...