Sunday, November 30, 2008

AND NOW ITS YOUR TIME.......

Hour of wolves feasting on manflesh,
Fed & let loose by nocturnal allies & backstabbing neigbours,
Self proclaimed Men of god end lives in the name of God.

Lost sons & daughters long for vengance .
A home divided within, hyenas & vultures dressed in white appear in time .
Nation's jugular bleeds, heart weeps & blood gushes from stabbed back.

Long into the night sons answer call of duty,
Innocents relieved , Terror is smoked out and killed by count.
Anxiety doused, Anger still pulsating in the viens .

We do not rejoice. Songs of victory are coming none.
We mourn the dead & lend silence for the brave.

We look to crying mothers and to the heavens ...
He is not unjust.

Make your prayers ...... when we come after your brothers.
God is on our side.
And even if he's not....... make no mistake ..... We will bring you down .

Rahul

Friday, November 28, 2008

A life less ordinary

They say one week is a long time in politics, I say one day or rather an hour or even a minute and you can possibly go on decimating it further, is a very long time indeed. Ask this to the people of Mumbai when just a seemingly harmless and benevolent night, turned the city which is the nerve centre of India into a real battleground. For those who lost their lives that one tenth of a second was what really mattered and for many others their lives further on will be a bigger fight for survival. 

In my one of the article I had mentioned about the interconnectedness of the world and explained this phenomenon with Globalization, Internet and others, where I really missed out; was terrorism. These terrorists where not trained in India, the weapons, ammunition and the dexterity with which they carried out their task, the fact that they went after killing US, UK and Israeli citizens  clearly indicates that they belong to a bigger international network and India now prominently in their jihad. 

It’s high time that we wake up to this fact and a concerted effort is required to root out this menace. A few days back i was listening to a chat show featuring Nandan Nilekani the cofounder of Infosys. He very rightly pointed out that we all are very fascinated with the concept of India we imagine, and India we actually see. For the abstract India of our dreams to come alive is the responsibility that each of us has to shoulder and this means living life less ordinary.

What I mean by life less ordinary is left to readers of the blog to imagine.... to eek out a role for themselves. For me, the cops who died, the millions of NGO's working overtime to change lives, the army and police who zealously carry out their duties in spite of the risks involved, the entrepreneurs and businessmen who has made us proud in lot of ways or even the daily wage earner who in spite of all his odd does his work diligently and make a honest living so that people like you and me can sit back and relax ........

all this and more symbolizes a life lived less ordinary.........

Sac…

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Did u ever feel like giving up.....

This is the article i came across when i just started my career and everything written there seems so very true. During my highs and lows i always make it a point to read this and it really keeps me going. The feeling of empoverment is very strong evertime i read this and i so i thought of sharing this with all the readers of this blog, i am sure all of you can relate to this in some form or other........

One day I decided to quit...I quit my job, my relationship, my Spirituality... I wanted to quit my life.  

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God. "God", I Said "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" His answer surprised me... 

"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?" 

"Yes", I replied.  

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good Care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo." He said.  

"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. 

In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo see. I would not quit." He said.  

"Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.  

It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle." He said to me.  

"Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?"  

"I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you."  

"Don't compare yourself to others." He said. "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest Beautiful."  

"Your time will come", God said to me. "You will rise high"  

"How high should I rise?" I asked.  

"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.  

"As high as it can?" I questioned  

"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."  

I left the forest and bring back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you. 


HE will never give up on you!
...Sac

Thursday, November 20, 2008

HOW MANY CAN YOU IDENTIFY??

Identify the faces in the picture ( click on above image for an enlarged view )
Go ahead post your count ! ....... highest count till date is 41 .... lets see if you can go beyond this number ! .


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

CONGRATULATIONS

Mr Avinash Sharma,
Congratulations for Solving the Sunday Mind Teaser posted by SAC. We look forward to your continued participation and would like present 2 tickets of the movie " Quantan of Solace" for Friday 21/11.

Pls mail your address at wepromiceonly@gmail.com

MANAGEMENT

Monday, November 17, 2008

The all enchanting/strangling web…..

In my last article I had talked about the interconnectedness of anything and everything in the world. The World Wide Web is one shining example and talking of web, I have been witnessing a strange chain of events last few weeks. Each time I paid a visit to my garage to drive out my car a peculiar set of web formation caught my eye.  I could see some spiders working vigorously and creating a so called trap to make a killing. A carefree guy that I am really didn’t bother much to clear up the mess, but each time I went in it definitely caught my eye. 

With every passing day I saw it growing and after few days it actually started producing results. One could see insects of different variants of getting stuck up there and struggling for their life....most would end up dead. It was a roaring business for them. For me this was a normal stuff and really didn’t bother me much being fully aware of how the nature functions.

A few days, rather a few weeks went by and it was great going for the spider. I thought that a false sense of security engulfed them because I often saw some of his compatriot roaming freely with a distinctive air of confidence. So much so one day I saw on of them on the hood of my car.

Then the ill-fated happened as if it was written all over the place. I saw one of them struggling to get disentangle in the web they had built. I watched this with amusement and the following day there were two of them, one had given up on struggle and the other was hoping against the hope.

Those were spiders, who had to abide by their basic nature and the only survival tool they have but for the man we know; creation of web is the additional tool for satiating his insatiable appetite.

I am sure we all can draw parallel to this in our own lives and all around us in which ever part of the world we live. Be it relationships we have built, people around us, nature of our work or anything and everything we do. Also one cannot help relating this to the current financial mess which is the creation of the complex web we built and the incidents that followed is an open book now.

Some one rightly said “We design our lives with the power of our choices” do we want to make it a complex web or keep it simple is completely our decision…..

Sac

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Mind Teaser

         T A T E 
+      T A K E
=    A E X I X
Find the value of AEXIX...
Each alphabet represents distinct single digit from 0-9.
post the answers with explanation in the comment section. 
...Sac

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Modern Mystique

Last few days have been very eventful, Barak Obama has arrived at the centre stage and his call of the change has finally been answered. They said: “Change we need” and Change they got. A few days back India ended the Aussies dominance to the world cricket…"Change we got”. Everyday the world changes in more then one ways.

From the complete American dominance we have seen how even this highly arrogant superpower has been bought to the knees by the world financial crises. How a kingmaker who lived all his life in palaces adorned with gold was caught in a rat hole and finally died in prison. How the 9/11 episode, the breaking of Berlin wall, the anti-apartheid movement, the French revolution and many other events changed everything.

Change we know is a fact and an accepted phenomenon but what is surprising is how these changes affect us all at a very functional level. How a totally unrelated event in some part of the world can make huge changes in our lives.

Let’s looks at economics point of view…. a hurricane Katrina or Gustava in US, or a fire in the oil fields or a bad monsoon in India can really change the scheme of things for us. Even more surprising is a 100 basis point increase in lending rate by bank of Japan can see world stock market crashing and FII’s pulling out money like droves.

Global Warming the most debated topic is truly global phenomenon. The impact of the pollution caused by US and now by developing nations like China & India is felt globally. Portions of the world like Africa or Artic Circle that contribute least to the warming, are most affected by its impact.

Take the example of World Wide Web…the internet has affected us in more then a handful of ways. It has bought world closer …so close that it is there virtually in your drawing room. Emotions flow over net, people develop life long relationship, new contacts get build and some also get annihilated over net…strange things can happen.

The whole concept of eastern philosophy is based on interdependence of things and the mutual interrelationship of all things and events and everything is the manifestation of one ultimate reality. This basic oneness is not only the central characteristic of the mystical experience but is also the most important revelation of the modern physics. It becomes apparent at sub atomic level as one penetrates deeper into matter. As we probe further beyond neutrons, protons and electrons we find that the basic building blocks of all matter are energy that travels at the speed of light. Probe further and we find that everything is nothing but energy as very well depicted by Einstein in the theory of relativity…E = mc^2.

So next time you think of doing something small or something new…be careful you might just be changing a lot of things in a way that you may not have foreseen at all.

As the name of our blog suggest's, comments from the readers on their perspective will be highly appreciated. 

 ….Sac

Monday, November 3, 2008


Beginning of the End

In my article “The Balancing Act” I had highlighted how India will go on to a celebration mode from October and this will continue right till December. The other day we as a nation celebrated Diwali, Dusherra and Kali Puja and the recurring theme in all of these was the ultimate triumph of ‘Good over Evil’. The gloom and doom world scenario has affected all and sundry but that did not stop us from staging a grand celebration. In fact festivities like this, reinforces our belief and gives us the confidence to surge ahead in spite of all the impediments.

If we look at the human history we will see that at various points of time human beings have made great strides but at the same time in some other period there were moments of anxiety, depression and destruction. The important thing is we have always been able to evade all of these and looked ahead to a brighter tomorrow. In fact more often that not, just after the bad patches we have had some of the most glorious times. This interplay of good and bad actually can be traced to the Chinese philosophy of “Taoism” which is very well depicted in Yin and Yang. The Taoist saw all changes in nature as manifestations of the dynamic interplay between polar opposite’s Yin and Yang. Whenever you want to achieve anything they said, you should start with its opposite. Thus said Lao Tzu:-

“In order to contract a thing, you should surely expand it first

  In order to weaken, one will surely strengthen first.

  In order to take, one should surely give first”

This philosophy talks of eternal truth and the basic building block on which the world today stands. Having understood this and know very well that in order to strengthen one has to weaken first, I cannot help but correlate the recent chain of events to this all powerful wisdom. Even in our lives there are bound to be turbulent times, setbacks, failings and disappointment, but unless we have witness such events how much will our appreciation be for the good times is anybody’s guess. From the biographies that I have come across I have recognized that the best people have undergone the worst of times and invariably they have come out as a better human being. Good, Bad, Boom, Doom, +ve , -ve and so on are the two sides of the same coin and to maintain equilibrium both these contrasting events have to live in harmony with one another. Hence it won’t be wrong to say that what we are witnessing today is just the beginning of the end….

....Sac