Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Take your writing to the next level

As I have been blogging for a pretty good time now for more than 500 days, I have found out that or rather I have realized that repetition takes away the flavour from the writing. I have to innovate something new either in terms of concept or writing style or vocabulary or point of view or narration to make the article more interesting and intriguing for my readers to read. Along with impressing the readers with my writing art and school of thought, I also need to satisfy the writing artist inside me who is unhappy staying at the same level of art. He wants to move to the next level.
 
In this blog post I want to share some of the inhibitions that I had to shed during the course of my blogging career and the amendments that I had to make to my writing style to make it more challenging so that it motivates me to continue pursuing my passion for blogging. One of the factors that always challenged me was the consistency. Whenever I missed blogging, I used to feel a high amount of guilt which would push me to make up by writing two blog posts the next day. The mental pressure to maintain consistency helped me continue blogging for so long. When I had to express the same emotions with the same words, it somewhat irritated me. I felt as if I was bound just by the same words for these emotions time and again. That's when I started to search for new words which could express the same emotions. Hence my vocabulary improved.
 
These two are basic examples which improved my blogging and writing skills. Thanks to Almighty and my mentor that I have been able to coach people on blogging front nowadays. I have been entrusted with the responsibility of judging blogs of young bloggers and I hope I have done justice to the trust vested in my judging capacity. Adding pictures has definitely elevated my blog posts to a visual plane which catches the eyes of the reader who lands on my blog and drags him into reading the blog post. With every progressing day I just try to take my writing to the next level.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

He, in his own words

Recently, I finished reading one more book within a matter of 2 hours and that was 'Bill Gates, in his own words'. I also got to know that even my friend had read a book with a similar title, 'Barrack Obama, in his own words'. Both of us were shocked to know that we had read these books on the same day though we hadn't decided to do so together. Both these books have titles which denote that they are the autobiographies of the respective celebrities but it is a complete misleading concept. These books are mere collections of the quotes of these people quoted at different conferences, speeches, interviews etc. But both my friend and myself were mislead by the titles and had bought the books.
 
While we are buying the books online, seldom do we get a chance to go through the content of the books. We are moved by the title and the cover page to buy a book. Unfortunately some of the authors (so called authors) are taking advantage of this loop hole. They are framing catchy titles which convey something else apart from what the real meaning is and are making money out of it. However, not everyone falls prey twice to such nonsense. Customers are not fools. One fooled customer shall definitely spread a bad word about the author who compiles just the quotes of a person and showcases it as the autobiography of that person. Though these kind of authors might fetch some initial monetary benefits, they will suffer in a long term. Writing a book is about creativity. It's an art with which one should not play around and definitely must not play with the feelings of the common man who spends his hard-earned money on a book for knowledge and wisdom.
 
However, never giving up the optimistic spirit that I carry, I must suggest that, it's not the author who decides how to cheat us with a book. It's up to me as to how I can use the book to take the maximum benefit out of just the quotes mentioned in the book. I learnt that there is already an existing book authored by Bill Gates called as 'The Road Ahead'. I learnt about the various conferences that he has been a part of and the focus areas of Melinda Gates foundation. I learnt about how the perceptions of a billionaire like Bill Gates are with respect to different topics. It's completely up to us to learn whatever we want from the book we read and understand what we feel is right by seeing the word around us.

Respect and regard

In our email communication we write 'Regards' at the end of the mail before writing our name. We use a greeting such as 'Good morning', 'Good evening' or 'Dear', 'Respected' to begin the mail with. The email already shows at what time the mail was sent. It also indicates as to from whom it was received. So these simple words of formality or greeting might seem redundant but they are necessary. There is a particular format in which a formal letter must be written. The way we write in expresses our respect towards the person to whom the letter is concerned. No one is obligated to respect another person, it's just common sense to understand the philosophy of 'give respect and take respect'.
 
Communication is one of the most intricate parts of our daily life because every moment we are communicating something or the other to the world around us. Conveying the right respect and regard to people with whom we are communicating is highly essential to ensure the right flow of communication and relationship sustenance. No one likes to be asked about work at the first shot. Everyone expects a warm greeting before even beginning a conversation. People are already pressurized from all sides by commanders who keep asking for reports from them. We are humans and not computers. Even animals expect care and love before getting ordered to sit in a corner. Likewise even humans expect courtesy before being asked anything. This warm feeling can only be expressed through respectful greetings and warm regards which everyone needs to learn else the simple straight forward words might sound just too offending.
 
Even if we go back to the days of old stone age, humans definitely existed and they lived. Even in the modern age people are thriving in their wonderful lives. Hundred years later too, humans shall exist unless there is a drastic sudden catastrophe that might wash away the human race from the face of the earth. People are here to stay. The work came later. All that people need to live is food, clothing and shelter. More than the hunger for food, there is a greater hunger for care and love in this world, said Mother Theresa. Respecting the feelings and emotions of people is far more important than the work to happen. Hence expressing the right respects and the best regards to others while communicating should be our way of living.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 4

Lesson 10: Excite your work
 
No matter how many leaves we take from our college or office, ultimately we need to accept the truth of life that we need to work to earn our bread and butter. We need to work to earn our livelihood, we need to work to accomplish our dreams. Ultimately majority of our life is spent only on working because life is just the other name or work and vice versa. As we are aware that we need to work throughout our life, it's mandatory for us to make our work exciting. No one can come and make your work exciting. You've to innovate different ways of exciting your work all by yourself to enjoy doing it day and night.

Lesson 11: Every new skill matters
 
There is no other option but accepting the fact that there are a billion talents and skills existing in this world today. Every skill has its advantages. So no skill is small, no skill is big as long as you know as to when to use it and where to use it. No opportunity comes to us with a pre-invitation. We must be prepared to meet any opportunity whenever it strikes to achieve success. Developing new skills goes into the category of preparation. A new skill which you're interested in may or may not be useful currently in your work but there's no harm in developing it today because it might be of help tomorrow or sometime later. Hence I claim that every new skill matters.

Lesson 12: Surprise the world with something new frequently
 
The world around us and the people in it always like and love surprises. Monotony is ruling the lives of many in current times. People are trying to find solutions to breakthrough the doors of daily work schedule. Unfortunately some are bound by honesty while some others by salary. As a result, they work in spite of all the hard feelings at heart. What brings a fresh feeling in them is that of seeing someone who has broken the shackles of the world, broken some rules, taken some risks to boast of some achievements. When the audience is awaiting, the superstar has to arrive and he cannot repeat monotony. He has to bring something new for every show to entertain the audience . Likewise, each one of us will have to get something new often to surprise the world around us which is waiting for it.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 3

Lesson 7: Capture the collection on the way
 
How many photos have you taken of the street that you travel through everyday? How many photos have you taken separately with each of your friends? Probably the answers for both these questions is very less in number. We go through a lot of things but don't capture them as memories. Sometime, during the course of our journey when we need a collection of all such things we have no clue as to how to build it. Hence it's always advisable to take a photo at a new place where you are the first time on the way to your work. Like this you can have a huge collection of memories stored with you to refer back at any wanted time.

Lesson 8: Categorize your To-Do list
 
Writing down a to-do list is very important for our work to get distributed into a format such that not even one activity escapes our notice. However, putting all the work to be done under just one list gives no priority or consideration exclusivity for any single task. Each item on the to-do list is equivalent to the ten other tasks that exist there. It's just like training a lion and a chicken in the same training room with the same hunter which is totally irrational. Hence we must categorize the tasks on our to-do list so that we can prioritize accordingly and work.

Lesson 9: Targets are the most essential
 
No run can be scored if the crease is not marked at all in cricket; not even a single goal can be scored if the goal post is absent in the football field. Likewise in life nothing can be achieved if we don't have targets to achieve something. Target need not be only what we need to achieve, target should also be the time limit within which we need to achieve what we desire to achieve. Unless our target is time-bound, we will not be able to drive our energy at the highest peaks possible in order to exploit our complete efficiency. Associate your work with a target and enjoy the benefits.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 2

Lesson 4: Wake up, Take up, Dress up, Make up
 
If you've to go up in life, then you have to follow the 4 UPs of life. This was taught to my mentor by his mentor. Here are those 4 powerful UPs which can make us go up and grow up in life. Firstly, it's essential to wake up from our sleep early. Secondly, we must be ready to take up every responsibility that comes our way by seeing it as an opportunity. Thirdly, dressing up to be ready for work is the next UP. The world recognizes you by your dress first than your words. To err is human. So, it's very natural to find mistakes happening and we will have to respect the Murphy's law as well. Finally, we must be ready to make up for all the wrong decisions taken and unanticipated events that take away our intended results from us.

Lesson 5: Be time conscious
 
Time is eternal and immortal but humans are not the same. Hence, everything that's associated with us has a limited quantity. Likewise even time is a limited resource that God has gifted us of which we must make a wise choice of while using. A penny spent can be earned back but a minute lost can never be regained. That's why it's important for us to keep a check on where our time is being invested in and be totally time conscious.

Lesson 6: Feel the superstar in YOU
 
No matter how much ever one tries, one cannot be exactly like someone else is. Each human being on this planet is unique in himself/herself. Being so, everyone has unique capabilities and the skill levels to excel at them. It's completely up to us to decide how far we want to reach in life. Everyone dreams of being a superstar by mastering certain skillsets. While you dream of becoming a superstar you should feel the superstar in you. You will have to behave as if you've become the best in what you do and that influence itself shall make you a real superstar someday in the eyes of the people around.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 1

27th July was yet another remarkable day when I went to my mentor, Sujit Lalwani sir with a problem seeking for a solution only to learn that the problem was not the problem at all but there was something beyond that. The discussion started with just a request of one minute to discuss about the plan on work timings but it took an entirely different course as the real reasons for the confusion started unfolding. A one minute intended clarification went on for more than two hours of discussion and some of the best lessons were shared by my mentor. There is no point keeping these 12 powerful lessons with me alone. They've helped me a lot and I wish to share them with my dear readers so that whoever wants to uplift their lives can use them.
 
Lesson 1: Feel your dream
 
All of us have dreams but not all people feel their dreams. The reason you will find people with dreams but no destinations is because they don't cherish the feeling of accomplishment of their dreams even before dreams come true. Only when you can feel the thriving effect while imagining the dream coming true only then will you be able to accomplish the dream with the drive it gives you. Hence it's very important to feel your dreams while working to achieve them.
 
Lesson 2: Reignite your dreams
 
I am sure that you can go back to your past and recollect a lot of dreams that you had in your childhood. As we grow up we tend to forget the dreams and start building new ones. The same process repeats and old dreams are forgotten while new ones are built. There is no point in forgetting a dream once dreamt. Hence it's very essential to reignite our dreams time and again only to not allow them from dying away. There is no point in allowing your dreams to die away because we are alive to realize our dreams in reality.
 
Lesson 3: Even you're a human
 
While working towards multiple accomplishments in life, we tend to get pressurized by the number of tasks on our to-do list/s. Too much of competition from all directions bog us down. At one point, the frustration reaches its peaks and we might even decide to just get away with all the work at hand and not do anything just to attain some bliss in solitude. At such times, it doesn't mean that you're one of those who run away fearing work; it's just a temporary feeling which is very much natural for a human to feel.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Indoor Cricket: The Next IPL for India?

Cricket is a religion in India, one would not oppose this statement even under hypnotized conditions of their minds. Indoor cricket which is truly exciting and a game that wouldn't get abondoned even due to rain, isn't loved as much, may be because of lack of its reach and infrastructure too.

Its all about how long we stick to the sport that truly counts in making it a part of the culture of a nation. Its been close to 4 years as we share this with you, that Indoor cricket, through this lovely brand Action Sports, has existed in India. Now Inspiration Unlimited (IU) envisions to take its baby steps in realizing this dream of having Indoor cricket reach every corner of India. We are working hard towards finding out if there is enough craze and zeal in India for this GAME.

India is a land of opportunities and of passionate people who would endorse new ideas to try, test and learn unlike before when many a people were closed to new ideas. Lets together fathom the sea of Indoor games really deep and drown into the beauty of these games.

Every Industry takes its time to grow. The foothold anywhere only gets stronger with years that passby if the commitment levels are a testimonial for that industry & even others. Indoor cricket is one such platform in Indian Context that hasn't got much recognition equivalently as compared to IPL or other popular names and games have got. Its now a rising industry.

There is already a young budding team of players coming from different backgrounds for Indoor cricket in India. If you attempted to study how they got together to become the Indian Indoor Cricket team, you would go through a maze that would have no parallel to leave you bewildered.
 
                        

These guys have hair-rising stories of how they fought to win every single match for the team and now they are aiming to win it for the country as a team in Sri Lanka. A sport which doesn't quite easily find sponsors because of lack of attention, is something these young boys are putting their time and efforts for, simply to represent the nation and win back pride, as their aint other profits or benefits to strive for.

The determination of these boys is of steel, their love for the game is deeper than the deepest beds of ocean and their passion is higher than highest peak of everest.

IUeMagazine takes a step forward to recognize their brilliance and reward them with best wishes from all of its readers to win the Title In Sri-Lanka for India and make their way to World Cup in NZ in 2014. GO GO GO!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Social media - the messenger

"Did you tweet today?" "What was your status update today on facebook?" These have become the lingo of the current generation. Social media is engaging a vast mass of the population. Greeting cards are getting converted into e-cards and included as attachments with mails. Meetings are happening on hangouts virtually. Overall, the social media space is filling the space of communication amongst people. Even call or SMS feel outdated in front of the Whatsapp and ChatOn mobile applications. The least money is charged for people to throw their messages on social media.
 
The social media has all the options of like, share, retweet, comment etc. These options are virtually providing an environment for feedback for whatever the people post on different social media platforms. These are more public than they appear to be. They showcase our thoughts and feelings put in words to a number of people completely unrelated to the topic of interest. It's not always the set of people who LIKE or RETWEET what we update, who are the only ones to whom our messages reach. We must be really careful before updating any content online. As more and more people are glued to the internet learning what's happening in the lives of others, more the people are feeling the lacking of a friend who can give an ear to listen to them. As a result, frustrations pile up in the hearts of people which come out as baseless self-realizations on the social media platforms as posts, tweets, comments and status updates.
 
Indirectly, social media has become a platform of messaging the things running in the minds of people. When a person is hurt by his/her friend, there's an instant message online depicting the incident and the conclusion from the experience which might be completely wrong also as in most of the cases. The status update is posted to make sure that it hits the person who has hurt than just to merely update a status. Social media doesn't put an obligation on people from coming on to the streets of timelines and shouting nonsense their heart and mind out. As a result, everyone feels the freedom of not being questioned or condemned by anyone while updating online whatever that comes to their mind which might lead to bitter results later. Hence it's important to use social media only as a platform for connecting with others as a means of communication rather than as a messenger to spit our negative emotions and feelings. The right use of the modern technology is highly important.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Brahma na mele Gubbi asthra

I am sure that the title would have been a bit difficult to understand for the non-Kannada speaking audience of my blogs. There is a proverb in Kannada, "Gubbi mele Brahmasthra". The meaning of the proverb is as follows; Gubbi means a sparrow and Brahmasthra means a mighty weapon which is granted as a boon to anyone who does severe penance praying to Lord Brahma by the Lord Himself as per Hindhu mythology. Brahmasthra was the mightiest of all the weapons that existed of those times. The proverb says that using such a mighty weapon on a sparrow is not worth it and is very much intimidating. One shouldn't use a very strong weapon against an enemy who's weak is the meaning of the proverb.
 
In the title of the current blog post, I have reversed the proverb and have stated it as, "Brahmana mele Gubbi asthra", which means that someone is trying to attack the mighty Lord Brahma with a weapon of a sparrow which is very comical to even hear but there's a lesson to learn from this. When the opponent is very weak, we mustn't use a very strong weapon against him to win over him. On the other hand, when the opponent is a very strong person, you cannot use a weak weapon to fight against him/her. The weapon must be in accordance with the might of the opponent. As people grow in life, there is a tendency to undermine the younger potentials. They tend to feel that they have understood everything in life and start imposing their philosophies on others. Unfortunately on rare occasions, they are mislead by the young age of the person that covers the huge amount of experience s/he holds and end up showing off their small tricks to impress and all efforts go in vain.
 
We must never prejudge the person in front of us unless we have heard from him or about him. Trying to use any kind of tactic to win over the opponent without understanding the opponent will always lead to ruin of reputation and loss of credibility in his eyes. We must gauge what card to use at what time against what kind of a person to win his heart and trust. When we focus on how we and our opponent can collaborate in the future, we won't use time to talk about our past and while away time impressing the other person. Instead, we will listen to the other person then share our ideas on the necessary topic.

The 8 YOUNG SUPERSTARS of Bangalore

Today's youth is useless. This is one of the most offending statements that I've heard from the mouths of many elders. I wish to claim here like other great men that today's youth are used less and not useless. Swami Vivekananda would say, "Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India." IU (Inspiration Unlimited) was born with the same vision to transform the world and that is where, we also needed youth to take part in this auspicious crime. It was May 18th, when we officially launched IU1010, wherein we chose 10 mad and crazy people from different parts of Bangalore to build leaders in them. Through a journey of 8 challenging weeks of tasks and lessons, IU team was successful in moulding these young leaders for our society who astonished the Bangalore crowd on July 14th.
 
Aditi, Anusha, Harikiran, Harshitha, Nikhil, Pavada, Spoorthi and Vishwesh were the youngsters from Bangalore who organized a massive conference on the topic, 'Being Entrepreneurial' for a gathering of close to 150 Bangaloreans. I was glad to be one of the speakers on the list who was invited along with Mr. Bharath GC, Mr. Anil Kumar KN and Mr. Sujit Lalwani. The conference happened on July 14th afternoon, from 2:30pm up to 7:30pm in Telugu Vijnana Samithi auditorium and was indeed highly inspiring.
 
Spoorthi and Harshitha were the two young ladies who shouldered the responsibility of compering the entire event. These 8 young STARs were the reason for close to 150 people to learn about entrepreneurship. Right from booking the hall to winding up after the event, every part of this mega event was taken care by these 8 inspiring individuals. The event kicked off with inspirational videos followed by an energetic introduction by Mr. Bharath GC. Then the stage was taken over by Harshitha and Spoorthi, who introduced the concept of entrepreneurship. I was glad to be invited as the first speaker and I spoke about the 'E' of 'Entrepreneurship' and that 'E' symbolizes 'EXPLORING'. I explained about how exploring every talent, skill and opportunity can make one entrepreneurial in life.
 
The next person to rock the stage with his technical bent of mind was Mr. Anil Kumar KN, who introduced the requirement of energy and enthusiasm for one to be entrepreneurial. He was followed by none other than the One Young World Ambassador from India, Mr. Sujit Lalwani who shared his entrepreneurial journey and showed how he had made it so big in life at such a young age. The climax was the feast of the entire event. It was all worth listening to the first 4 hours because the last hour held the proof of all that was spoken during the initial 80% of the conference. The time had come to know and witness about how ordinary students in their graduation had gone on to transform their lives in just a matter of 8 weeks and had impacted 5 lakh lives. The last hour ignited tears of happiness in the eyes of parents of these 8 powerful young souls. Each of the IU1010 candidate was invited on stage to share his/her experience in IU1010.
 
 
The first person called upon the stage was Spoorthi who shared about how hopeless she had felt just 8 weeks back and today how she stood as the hope for many and about her project on dignity of labour. She was followed by Aditi who filled her speech with her attitude of gratitude to her mentors and shared about her project of 'Help Women Lead'. Then came in Harikiran who shared his dream of becoming the youngest Chief Minister of Karnataka. Then came in the ever smiling Harshitha who blew away the audience with her powerful words. She was followed by Pavada who showed that language can be no barrier to become a leader. He was followed by Vishwesh who shared his dream of owning a Hayabusa by his own earning in the next one year. Then, we had Anusha who showed that she could be an inspiration to thousands of students even though God had taken away her parents from her. Finally, came on the stage the Indian indoor  cricket team player, Nikhil Kanchan who rocked the stage with his words. These 8 young leaders were the superstars of July 14th and will remain for times to come to stand as live examples of what youth can do and how they can change the country.
 
Last but not the least, I cannot forget the people from the audience who jumped onto the stage to share their feedback. One person also shared about how his friend had survived cancer by watching inspirational videos of Sujit Lalwani sir online. This was the cherry on the cake for the entire event. I wish and pray to God to bless all of us and keep blessing to repeat such success stories again and again.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Appa amma peche kekaame...

I  have been a crazy movie buff from a long time. In fact, I have learnt some of the best lessons from movies. Movies have been an inspiration and a reason for rejuvenation for me on many occasions. Once again, I am here to share one of the most profound lessons of life that got reinforced while watching a movie recently. In this movie, the hero is a cop who gets to meet some big shots in business. During the conversation, he mentions some of the lessons taught by his parents which he follows honestly. In return, they question him about his obedience towards his parents. At that point, he replies, "appa amma peche kekaame, vere yaar pecha kekunu?"
 
The title of this blog post is in Tamil language, one of the regional languages in India which has lived for centuries together. The last statement which is the reply of the cop is also in Tamil. Translated version goes like this - "Without listening to parents' advice who else's advice should we listen to?" With the age gap between parents and children yielding a vast gap in the technology and the kind of environment the kids are surrounded with today, it has become highly difficult for parents to hold on to their kids along their school of thought. Parents' beliefs seem far alien to the current generation of youth. As a result of this widening gap between the closest ones and absence of right guidance, today's youth is getting entangled into lot of problems, both physical as well as mental. When one doesn't listen to his/her parents' advice then s/he will be bound to listen to some random stranger's advice who appears in the form of a friend or a lover. What guidance can a fellow being give who himself/herself is left unguided in the darkness of ignorance!
 
Our parents have been the reason for our existence on this planet. They are the reason for us to have our basic necessities fulfilled to the best extent possible. Man undermines the value of people who always stay with him and provide him daily service. Being pampered by our parents, we forget that we are indebted to the kind and amount of care and love that they shower on us and take them for granted. As a result, we get misled in life because of others' words. It's time to remind ourselves that our parents' are the ones who shall always think about our profits more than their losses and turn our attention back towards our parents and their thoughtful words.