Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Utsav 2013 - Concerts and Bhajans
45 Life Lessons
I read it at least once every week. Its the most simple, direct and authentic set of life lessons that I have read.
Here they are:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short enjoy it.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.
16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19.. It's never too late to be happy. But its all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
View from Kitchen balcony
I make my cuppa tea with this view staring at me every morning. I admit that I am among the few lucky Bangaloreans to enjoy something like this.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Kiran - My new friend
Kiran hardly fits the hairdresser stereotype. He is smart, talks good English and is highly knowledgeable about his clientele and the general happenings around him and the world!
I met him at his salon on a Sunday afternoon in the township where my wife presently lives in Hyderabad. He welcomed me with a warm smile and asked if I have joined GMR Airport recently, I said no but quickly added that I am a fortnightly visitor at the township. He asked me a series of questions in a manner that conveyed a certain eagerness and sincerity.
His knowledge of the airport business impressed me immediately and I said "...Kiran you are really smart and communicate so well, you are the most knowledgeable hairdresser I have come across..." to which he modestly replied that his 6th grade class teacher once asked the entire class what-do-you-want-to-do-in-life? Kiran raised his hand and said " I want to be a barber", stunned by his answer the class teacher asked why, standing in front of the entire class, he replied , that was his family profession and his father will be pleased if he continued. Touched by his honesty and innocence the teacher asked the entire class to applaud. That incident left a deep impression in me for life and has only strengthened my resolve to never abandon this profession no matter what else I pursue later in life, said Kiran.
Kiran's life and story is that of a man with a village-simplicity, directness, steely resolve, pride and loads of self-motivation.
Hailing from Shamshabad a non-descript and not-so-sleepy village 22 kms south of downtown Hyderabad, he heard about the development of a new airport in his village in 2004-5. When he saw L& T arrive with a workforce of 2500+ people for a project spread over 36 months, Kiran identified a great opportunity for himself and his family. He approached the project-director and convinced him to allot a tiny workspace at one end of the project site and struck a deal to provide hair-cutting & shaving service to this large workforce at a contracted rate Rs. 15/- per person.
With the airport operational in 2008, he approached the management of GMR with contract & recommendation letters from L&T to set-up a similar shop in the airport-taxi holding area. He told the GMR team that the 1500+ taxi drivers will need to look clean-shaven and smart to complement the world-class customer service that the airport operator promised. The rest as they say is history, he now runs a 15'*15' salon that serves the airport taxi drivers 24*7*365 (we are open on Tuesdays also!).
Some people just cannot stop, their life may have commas but no full-stops. Business-acumen and service mindedness runs vein-deep in Kiran, he next approached the township committee with a similar proposal and the result of this was the setting for my Sunday hair-cut and navaratan-tail maalish.
As the accumulated stress around my shoulder blades were slowly vanishing, I asked Kiran what he does during the weekdays - he shyly whispered that he works as an area sales executive for a leading Mumbai-based plastics company handling the sales responsibilities for Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mehboobnagar and Rangareddy districts. In these last 5 yrs he has managed to complete his MBA, marry and add 2-floors to his ancestral home in Shamshabad.
I was stunned and my throat was feeling dry unable to fully come to terms with my new HERO, who was here and now!. Very few people make such an impression with so many wonderful achievements - all of this done with 100% devotion, dedication and simplicity. No business-plan, incubation, R&D, P&L, balance-sheet, top-line, bottom-line, etcetera.
I happily handed him the township-contracted rate with the full realization that it felt much easy on my wallet than what I paid the O2 spa at the Novotel Hotel just a month before.
I met him at his salon on a Sunday afternoon in the township where my wife presently lives in Hyderabad. He welcomed me with a warm smile and asked if I have joined GMR Airport recently, I said no but quickly added that I am a fortnightly visitor at the township. He asked me a series of questions in a manner that conveyed a certain eagerness and sincerity.
His knowledge of the airport business impressed me immediately and I said "...Kiran you are really smart and communicate so well, you are the most knowledgeable hairdresser I have come across..." to which he modestly replied that his 6th grade class teacher once asked the entire class what-do-you-want-to-do-in-life? Kiran raised his hand and said " I want to be a barber", stunned by his answer the class teacher asked why, standing in front of the entire class, he replied , that was his family profession and his father will be pleased if he continued. Touched by his honesty and innocence the teacher asked the entire class to applaud. That incident left a deep impression in me for life and has only strengthened my resolve to never abandon this profession no matter what else I pursue later in life, said Kiran.
Kiran's life and story is that of a man with a village-simplicity, directness, steely resolve, pride and loads of self-motivation.
Hailing from Shamshabad a non-descript and not-so-sleepy village 22 kms south of downtown Hyderabad, he heard about the development of a new airport in his village in 2004-5. When he saw L& T arrive with a workforce of 2500+ people for a project spread over 36 months, Kiran identified a great opportunity for himself and his family. He approached the project-director and convinced him to allot a tiny workspace at one end of the project site and struck a deal to provide hair-cutting & shaving service to this large workforce at a contracted rate Rs. 15/- per person.
With the airport operational in 2008, he approached the management of GMR with contract & recommendation letters from L&T to set-up a similar shop in the airport-taxi holding area. He told the GMR team that the 1500+ taxi drivers will need to look clean-shaven and smart to complement the world-class customer service that the airport operator promised. The rest as they say is history, he now runs a 15'*15' salon that serves the airport taxi drivers 24*7*365 (we are open on Tuesdays also!).
Some people just cannot stop, their life may have commas but no full-stops. Business-acumen and service mindedness runs vein-deep in Kiran, he next approached the township committee with a similar proposal and the result of this was the setting for my Sunday hair-cut and navaratan-tail maalish.
As the accumulated stress around my shoulder blades were slowly vanishing, I asked Kiran what he does during the weekdays - he shyly whispered that he works as an area sales executive for a leading Mumbai-based plastics company handling the sales responsibilities for Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mehboobnagar and Rangareddy districts. In these last 5 yrs he has managed to complete his MBA, marry and add 2-floors to his ancestral home in Shamshabad.
I was stunned and my throat was feeling dry unable to fully come to terms with my new HERO, who was here and now!. Very few people make such an impression with so many wonderful achievements - all of this done with 100% devotion, dedication and simplicity. No business-plan, incubation, R&D, P&L, balance-sheet, top-line, bottom-line, etcetera.
I happily handed him the township-contracted rate with the full realization that it felt much easy on my wallet than what I paid the O2 spa at the Novotel Hotel just a month before.
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