Hope is a good thing !

Sometime life brings us to a point where logic leads to difficult situations ahead but people who stay hopeful comes brilliantly out of it. Needless to say the dialogue from Shawshank Redemption is truly legendary " Hope is good thing ",indeed it is the best thing..

When I look and analyze various kinds of individuals, I found that people who have very strong belief in God tends to do better than others. The faith in God gives them hope that they will do well in life and odds are with them. This leads to increased passion of achieving things which may not seem plausible if looked with reason. Religion provides hope to people and is very important as it leads to positive outcome in life.

Second category of people who I feel at times achieve much more than their potential are the one who are little stubborn, cocky as they tend to remain confident about their abilities and this hope leads to better results..

I feel that Logic by no means is second to hope but when logic seems to be not helping and their are no more option left for someone, Hope is a good Thing !

Barkha Dutt Episode : Not a surprise

Although very few newspapers are reporting the controversies of alleged lobbying by the celebrated journalists like Burkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi, people are slowly getting the feel of the reality. Media does not want to publicize or comment on the episode as it might lead to problems for them . "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones on other."

It was not at all surprising to find Burkha and Sanghvi involved in such practices. The whole media is like that Only the stories which are well paid are told by the media. Needless to say all controversies relating to page 3 people, linkages of actors and actresses just before a movie release, editorial with a biased stance are the profitable products of our media. We all know now why one of the leading newspaper of India was so critical about CWG scams just after loosing its bid to be the media partner of the event. Its all about conflict of interest and media have power to portray anything in the way they want.

Burkha dutt has always been a loud mouthed women, making big statements which catches public attention. I still remember her article , " Like Father , Like Son" she published after the son of Late Promod Mahajan was found involved in a drug overdose case. In her article she critiques Promod and tries to suggest that the son of Promod is so much like Promod Mahajan himself. It was a profound insult to a dead man. The lady leaves no one when it comes to publicity . Now if we just use the same analogy in case of Burkha, the character of whole Dutt family can be easily sketched , but will any sane person do it .

Its so easy to be the one, holding the mike and asking difficult question, making witty remark and commenting on the integrity of the person but its so difficult to be a real genuine person using your power responsibly.

100th Post !

Never knew that this blog will remain active for so much time , Its been more than 1.5 half year and today I am writing the 100th post of freedom . Initially when I started writing the blog there was no fix theme of the blog and infact I never realized that Freedom posts has a theme. It was Sidharth Bedi , my close friend and and one of my inspiration for blogging who noted that Freedom does have a theme, He told me that your topics of post might vary but all of my posts make some kind of business sense. I must say that it was purely the confidence of few of the admirers which kept the blog alive and the frequency of post was maintained during all my phases of life .

Hope to continue this journey which I am finding very enjoyable . Thanks to all the readers of Freedom for your constant support and motivation throughout this journey.

Dream Car finally a reality ..

When everything starts going all wrong for a particular dream of yours, than its nothing but a celestial conspiracy , to check your capability , to check whether you are determined to  make that dream of yours into reality  .The final outcome will be nothing but pure brilliance which will give you tears of Joy and happiness.  I have seen this happening time and again with people; nothing comes easy in this world. Follow your dreams, for as you dream you shall become.

Today when Tatas has finally launched their Dream Car, I really feel elated about this new beginning. This ain’t an ordinary car or another reverse engineering wonder but it’s something which has changed the whole dynamics of the auto industry in India.  People are saying that it’s the biggest product from India so far, Lets hope it’s only the beginning and we are going to see whole new era of innovation and creativity not just in making better products but marketing and selling them in different parts of the world.

Peer Pressure ..

How many times it happens that when we make decision, we try to enquire about what others are doing. It can be termed as lack of confidence but most of the time it is Peer Pressure. “Peer pressure can happen when we are influenced to do something we usually would not do, or stopped us from doing something we would like to do”.

When we talk about the art of decision making and psychology behind it, I believe that peer pressure has the most significant influence behind our decision making. We may live our own life but the rules of the life are mostly defined by the people with whom we work or study. The reason is simple, we spend a significantly high portion of our time with them and hence their personalities and reactions affect our decision making process.

The more important the decision, the more is the peer pressure. Infact even the decision of selecting a job or going for higher studies is sometimes influenced by the peer pressure. People constantly fear that they will be judged by other people on the basis of their decision.

A study was conducted in a Top Business School, the students were given a set of activities, after the research was over the researcher told `They can't really step back and take a critical view, They're totally defined by others and by the outcomes of what they're doing.' . This is one of the main reasons behind the herd behavior what we see a lot of times.

The question again arises, what’s the use of all this education and knowledge if we can’t even make our own decisions.

About victories and defeats ..

Life is full of constant up and down , a sine curve will be a ideal definition of how God has planned our lives. Its full of pleasant surprises and disgusting shocks. 

At time one will feel that he is on top of the world , nobody can compete with him , he has got all the things to succeed and at times one feel that how disgusting the life is , and one is the bloody biggest looser in the world . This is the way I feel life is for most of us.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my life is to be “ Humble in my victories and graceful in my defeats “ , as I know I may loose at times even when I had put my best efforts and at times I may win even when I have not worked even half as good as others . The rule of averages is very clearly fits for glories in life, there are very few people who always win and there are very few people who always loose. 

Its very easy to curse your luck or blame others for your hard times in case of failure and its very easy to go overboard and announce yourself as the ultimate winner when you achieve something big , but the real gentleman are the people who stay in control and stay humble in their victories and graceful in their defeats .

The Art of Living ...

Yesterday we had the guest lecture session of Mr Khursheed Batliwala , popularly known as Bawa , He holds a masters degree from IIT Bombay and now a senior teacher at Art of Living , relaxing mind for people across the world including likes of Harvard’s and MITs . 

He Shared lot of great thoughts on stress management, anger management , Entrepreneurship etc . I am sharing most of them here as it might be useful for everyone.

1. Anger and Regret comes from the past, fear and anxiety comes from thinking about future, Anger heats up the body, anxiety makes the body cold , our thoughts constantly travel in past and future , which causes stress . Its not the job which is stressful , its our thought process . He gave the ‘ Samosa’ analogy and told us that how this heating and cooling can spoil the samosa.

2. Bawa told us that there is no point analysisng your past , its like a garbage cane , no body analyzes their garbage , so Don’t try to manage anger or stress , just eliminate them .

3. Anger is just the emotion which shows our helplessness , when we cant do anything , we should try to postpone the anger like we postpone to propose love.

4. Meditation improves your efficiency , Gandhi ji use to meditate regularly , he once said “ Today I’m so busy , I don’t have time to meditate for one hour , I’ve to do it for 2 hours . It is a process to improve your efficiency .He told us not to use books for learning meditation.

5. Don’t feel bad about loosing out , defeats , it’s the process . Winner is a person who keeps failing until he succeeds . Give yourself the permission to fail.

6. Try to do difficult and different things. Have the guts to face failures.

7. Entrepreneurship should be the aim of all the young professional, we have such great scope. Your parents might fret now, but after the end of 4-5 years they will feel very proud of you .

8. Don’t compromise your dream due to losers opinion about your venture. Most of Bawa’s college seniors told him that “those 2 years of college were the best days of their life “ , why should one do a job which won’t even give them happiness . We should not let our educational qualification decide our choice of our career.

9. 1 love failure and one professional failure is a must for very one in student life so that he or she learns from it. 

Art of living runs several short term courses all over India , one can very easily benefit out of it .

Threat or Opportunity

The economic slowdown has engulfed the whole world in a matter of just 6-8 months. It has created a cause of concern among students passing out this year from engineering and business schools . The scenario which was looking very conducive just a year back has totally changed today. Many of my friends here, who have come leaving their high paying jobs in search of better career opportunities and now are in threat of getting reduced salaries even after 2 years of hard work and training. The recessionary scenario which has caused huge layoffs is giving sleepless nights to thousands of people.

I think this scenario is not a threat to the young professional but a great opportunity. There is a old saying that when God closes one door he opens several other doors for us. One of the best opportunity available now for young ambitious graduates is to start their own venture. Making their own dream a reality. Its like becoming the lord of our own destiny. In the internet enabled world today it is much easy to start a venture than it used to be 5-10 years before. But the Indian mindset makes us thinks of going for secured jobs rather than thinking about taking calculated risks .Lot of people think that there are lot of hassles and risks involved in this kind of initiative. You can lose the high paying job , the capital invested and even your reputation . I think these are all just lame excuses , The truth is that it does not require money , it does not need a great brain and it does not even require a great idea to be a Entrepreneur , what it needs is shear GUTS . The risk taking ability and the degree of passion defines any Entrepreneur. When someone asked Mr. Sunil Handa, Professor of IIMA that he is not getting good ideas about the business venture he wants to start, he said “Quit your job and sit for 10 days at your home and than see how the ideas starts hitting you “. Even in the bestselling book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad ‘ Robert Kiyosaki says “A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem “ . The message is loud and clear, it is just the test of our nerves , patience and willpower.

As per my understanding this is the ideal time to start a venture as the opportunity cost is very low. The salaries and job profiles are already on decline, a person is not loosing much when he quits his job. Infact we can make a mental excuse of it that the job is not good enough for us to devote our time. The credit crunch might reduce the financing options for the Entrepreneur but it is better than the scenarios before . Its just a matter of decision to take on the next challenge … I mean the next opportunity.

Cricket Field Entightenting ...

A welcome break from run of the mill life, we have the sports week coming up. The enthusiasm is on top, something I love about Mba Junta . Somehow they manage everything with full energy and commitment. So we have a match tomorrow and today we had the practice session. I really found myself out of practice but anyway I was never a great exponent of this art.

Cricket in Mumbai is different from other places , In a small ground roughly half the size of a football field there were around 10-12 independent cricket matches taking place . Half of the time in such conditions you will find yourself worried that the ball from other games might hit you on your head, especially when you are not used to this mode of Cricket. But somehow everyone was managing everything really well without any altercations or hostility.

After few overs I was directed to field at deep square leg. There was a interesting match going on there .I was more engrossed in that match rather than our practice session as the ball was rarely getting hit in my direction. I was listening to their conversations. It was real interesting conversation :-) ,the kids there in half torn clothes ,roughly in the age bracket of 10-16 , were fully engrossed in the match . It made me think with amazement how sports and cricket can take your mind out of everything and provide you healthy way of recreation. Those kids may not be sure about their next meal or their future but still enjoy the game with full concentration. 

I sometimes feel that it’s the educated and learned who waste more time in fretting about future and opportunities rather than people who just live life without any fears and high ambitions.

About Critics and Criticism….

Today Oct 02, a national holiday, each one of us is very happy atleast for the holiday we are getting in the name Gandhi Jayanti. I too very relaxed woke up at 9:30 , sipping coffee and sitting in front of my laptop , thinking of the significance of this day for us with my sleepy eyes.

Actually it’s a thought which visits me every year. I still remember good old school days when I first heard about Mr Gandhi, I was amazed by the description given in NCERT books of the father of the nation. I wondered how one person can lead such a great movement for independence, without any selfish motives, so selfless. His patience and persistence were always the quality I thought will make any one a complete man. All of this adulation was contested as I started getting information from my friends and teachers which was in stark contrast with the information I earlier absorbed. I started interacting about it with other people who I thought could bring more clarity on the topic, but there was no consensus on the controversies attached with Mr Gandhi. It was an unending debate and a disappointment for that child who was seeing a hero in Gandhi Ji.

All those ugly thoughts didn’t lasted for long time and I still think even if all these controversies associated with him are true which I believe are not, He is still a Hero, a forcing personality, a person who contributed greatly to the cause of the nation . How can we forget that we all are vulnerable to do mistakes in life? Everyone is criticized on the unintended mistakes one commits, it’s the way society works. Nowdays even people who buy cell phones from grey market, who have done nothing for the nation are very comfortable in blaming Gandhi Ji for the past events. I think if something happens for good no body praises it but if it doesn’t pays off we all start the criticism. It’s like if Sehwag swings hit mighty bat to hit a six and gets caught on the boundary line no body sympathizes with him. They will surely criticize him for the reckless batting.

In this era of terror and violence I think the principles of Mahatma can do wonders to improve the condition of the society. I may not be a pure ‘Gandhi Waadi’ but I still believe that Gandhigiri is a very effective way of fighting without tears and bloodshed.

Idea of a blog..

The Purpose of writing a blog was different to me few years back when i just wanted to use my creative thinking and write on divergent topics . It was pure and precious to me and I never shared my name or url with any one as I thought it will only make sense to just float it in the cyber space with anonymity . But these days when i read people's blog on various facets of life it makes me admire the peculiarities of people's life and expression , I feel that it is actually a sense of freedom , a freedom of expression . A place where people actually can share thoughts . Some of the people are gifted with the art of storytelling and some are like me , but it still gives us a place to put our random thought where there is no one to edit it , no one to judge and people just reading it as a pass time .

The technological revolution may have changed the way of doing things but the intent is just the same , initially people use to maintain diary which they use to restrict to themselves but now with evolving world people find it better to share their peice of mind and take suggestion from others .It also speaks loud about a gradual shift in the mindset of new generation which doesn't believe in keeping things to themselves , they rather put their argument without any fear and ill will.

Technology is a great enabler , It really Is !