NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

As the year 2008 moves to its end, a familiar ritual will make its annual appearance in our lives – the ritual of making New Year resolutions…the most popular resolutions range from breaking of flawed habits to the pledge to inculcate desirable habits, from putting the bulge in to bringing the biceps out, from vows of self improvement to socio-centric commitments, from pledges to become more economically or environmentally responsible to charity towards the disadvantaged…

Though born of innocent intent, most resolutions remain unfulfilled or abandoned by the very minds that conjure them. Hence, for many of us, the process is just moving through a mechanical ritual. Therefore it is prudent to give up the meaningless practice or we need to re-invent our attitude and approach to what is essentially a well meaning exercise.

It is pertinent for our resolution to have “RESOLVE” which must translate into an action plan. It is not enough to know where one wants to go… we must also chalk out the path to get there. The larger destination needs to be seen as a link of lesser goals. Only then we would be able to recognize partial successes at every step along the way. Just as a resolution isn't realised the day it's made, neither is it realised the day we reach our goal. It is accomplished in small wins along the way.

The execution of the action plan to realise the resolution that we make defines ground-zero. Simply put, New Year is not the only time to make resolutions… rather, every moment that flags off the journey to fulfil a worthy resolve, heralds the beginning of a New Year in our lives. Anais Nin said it so well, “I make no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a DAILY event for me!”

New Year is the moment when we choose to walk the path of transformation,
to BE BETTER at fulfilling every resolve we need dedication & determination…

- Pravin-da

INTROSPECTION

This Monday Muse is triggered by the recent statement of Goa’s Chief Minister that recommends introspection to his citizens. Clearly, he is distressed by the opposition to projects by increasingly vigilant and vocal villagers. If the Government were to introspect itself, it would be unambiguous that rather than blind opposition to development, the voices are of concern for the land, lives and livelihoods – all under attack by a planning process fuelled by greed rather than the need of the people

One of the most effective lessons is that “lessons are not meant to be taught, they are meant to be learnt.” Introspection is one knowledge process that stipulates personal initiative rather than be a diagnosis for somebody else. The results of introspection are liberating in terms of the widened perspective of understanding the situation and our role-connection to that very situation.

The word itself is derived from the Latin term of introspicere which literally means to look inside. It is the self-observation of our own reasoning and behaviour. It involves reflection on the impact of our thoughts and actions on others as well as ourselves. However, introspection that only remains inward looking tends to be selfish. We must utilise its value as a valid tool for the development of scientific hypotheses and options and find effective results in practice for goal-oriented functional challenges

Imagine a traveller on a journey. Introspection would include looking at the path covered (past), the location as of now (the present) and the road ahead (the future). Introspection will involve looking at our original intentions, our actions and the impact of them on ourselves, our thinking and also on the situation that surrounds us.

The most important thing to remember is that introspection is a personal exercise as well as a personal initiative. And hence it involves taking ownership as well as responsibility of what we are and where we find ourselves. Rather than insist that others do it, it would be better if we involved in introspection ourselves!

It is so easy to indulge in sterile extrospection
To BE BETTER, we must involve in introspection…

- Pravin-da

WANDERING

The National Trekking Expedition – Goa (NTE-Goa) begins today. 16 teams of trekkers will travel the waters, beaches and forests of Goa over a trekking expedition that lasts eight days. At the same time five sets of 20 bikers will pedal their way across Goa’s marvellous terrain on a 5-day biking expedition. 5 sets of family campers will set base at the Base Camp at the Sports Authority Grounds.

Over the next 25 days, over 1200 persons will connect with the unique experience of the NTE-Goa, wandering across shell strewn beaches and forests full of flora and fauna. So many others have done it before to realise the motto of the Youth Hostels Association of India – “Wandering one gathers honey”. The wanderers are seized by a desire to connect with the unknown through an expedition of adventure.

The industrious bee has to travel many distances to collect honey. So must we, if we wish to be enriched by the lessons that our planet holds for us. Not just as environment enthusiasts, but also as responsive human beings we need to wander around our world to understand it better. However, just aimless wandering cannot suffice. We need to involve a sense of purpose as well.

M. K. Gandhi turned Mahatma by embarking on a year-long wandering trail across India to understand his motherland better. Four years before he led the Cuban Revolution, a young Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend covered 5,000 miles, on a rickety old motorcycle. These are just two lives that were transformed by the lessons picked up on the way while wandering. And both underline the need to render wandering into a trail.

Wandering is not just an inspiration to set sail
To BE BETTER, wanderers must leave a trail…

- Pravin-da

A WEDNESDAY

My link up with this year's IFFI (International Film Festival of India) was restricted due to personal constraints. The conventional priority is to see rare foreign films. Yet in my reduced number of films-to-view, I chose to see a local Hindi film involving my favourite actor, Naseeruddin Shah.

The film "A Wednesday" shows the plight of the aam-aadmi (common man) who finds himself cornered by the uncertainty of life threatened by terror. One such aam-aadmi turns plight into power by manipulating the media, playing puppeteer with the police and using the same method as the terrorist to counter the agents of terror.

The aam-aadmi's outburst in the end received deafening applause from an audience anguished by the terror attacks at Mumbai of 26 November 2008. Incidentally, it was a Wednesday! We found ourselves collectively thinking, 'this is precisely the way to counter terror'. And that would be ignoring the real lessons of the film.

We need to understand that while the agents of terror have to be crushed, we cannot lose focus that terrorism is facilitated by a corrupt political and administrative system. It cannot be ignored that the same Government machinery which pre-empts peaceful, democratic protests is found to be in numbed slumber while responding to all types of terror attacks on innocent citizens.

A J Muste said it so well, "We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack that way of life." The war on terror has to be a battle to cleanse our Government and its systems of corruption and inefficiency. And the change, as the Mahatma put it, has to start with us!

As active citizens, let's strive to BE BETTER
And replace the systems that facilitate terror…

- Pravin-da

THE COLD WITHIN

James Patrick Kinney wrote the allegory "The Cold Within" in the 1960s. Though the Saturday Evening Post rejected it as "too controversial for the times”, it remains as meaningful today as the day it was written.

The verse sketches the attitude of six persons trapped in a bitter cold… Each has a stick of wood as they surround a dying fire… But each holds it back so that the other does not benefit… Their motives are varied… the stubborn stance is born of chauvinism against skin color, religion, race, class or just plain selfishness. All of them eventually succumb to the cold, that they refuse to fend lest the other benefits.

The poem captures the lesson so well when it confirms that “They didn't die from the cold without, they died from the cold within.” So often we find fault with others to the extent of considering them as undeserving of any human rights. We are consumed by a devastating hatred that does destroy our sense of logic and values. For the hatred that kills without, first devours us from within.

And it is not just negative actions that lead to ruin… intentional indifference does wreck as well. It is important for us to realize that our prejudices not only harm others, they incinerate us as well. Hence it is for own sake that we need to unlearn prejudices that instigate us to being inhuman in our response to other human beings.

To BE BETTER at fighting the killing cold without…
The cold within must be contested… have no doubt!

- Pravin-da

LIBRE KNOWLEDGE

Yours truly conducted two training workshops at the JCI World Congress held in Delhi from 4 to 9 November. Participants tend to be lavish in their praise if they like the workshop and we, as trainers, endeavour to sift the grain from the chaff so that we can connect to real feedback. The maximum appreciation is reserved for my action of giving away my entire presentation to the participants for free.

However, some question the wisdom of sharing knowledge so freely. In fact a couple of trainer friends advised me to stop the “professional hara-kiri” I was committing by sharing training anecdotes in my Monday Muse series. My response is to quote Rabindranath Tagore who wished for a land “where knowledge is free.”

It is ironic that in today’s internet driven knowledge world, some people insist on claiming ownership of learning which itself is based on an understanding based on the learning shared by others. Knowledge flourishes only when shared freely. In fact, knowledge is threatened by efforts to confine or control its sharing.

Learning needs to be freed of fetters to enhance collaboration and cooperation. The scope for development of knowledge is enhanced when it is allowed to be acquired, interpreted and applied freely. A choice to walk the path of libre-knowledge is very liberating. An individual who shares knowledge freely is considered worthy of not only affection, respect, trust; but also as deserving of greater sharing by others, too.

To BE BETTER at walking the way of the wise…
Choose to share knowledge freely to rise!
- Pravin-da

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Today we celebrate the Festival of Lights where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.

Diwali or Deepavali has many legends associated with it. In North India, it is associated with the story in Ramayana where people of Ayodhya welcomed Rama (after a 14-year exile) by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa). In South India, it is celebrated as the day Lord Krishna defeated Narakasura.

Founder of Jainism, Mahaveer is said to have attained Nirvana on this very day. Additionally as the day, chief disciple of Mahaveer, Gautam Swami attained complete knowledge, makes Diwali an important Jain festival. Sikhs celebrate Diwali as the day of the release from prison of their sixth Guru, Hargobind along with 52 other princes with him, from detention in the Gwalior Fort in 1619.

For the Hindus, the festival marks the triumph of good over evil and the homecoming of goodwill and faith. For the Jains it is a celebration of complete knowledge. For the Sikhs, it is a struggle for freedom. And it is a confluence of all these reasons that will add meaning and purpose to our lives.

Hence when we seek to banish the darkness, it is not enough to light lamps only during the Festival of Lights. We must join the fight of the “right” against “might”. We have to connect with our faith in human values of equality, justice and peace for all. We need to connect to knowledge and a better understanding with what’s happening around us. And of course, let’s embark on the struggle for freedom from darkness, both, within and without.

To BE BETTER at banishing the bleak shade…
Stop cursing, and light the lamp within instead!

- Pravin-da

SIEGE

Way back in 1990, thousands of Goan students came down to Panaji to join the rally called by the Architecture students who had been protesting peacefully for 18 days. Since the Government was not responding to their valid demands, as a last resort, the students laid siege to the entry points of the city thus crippling all traffic.

As the leader of that agitation, I was called upon to sort a commotion at one corner. A local salt-farmer was vociferously objecting to the obstruction of his cart. Since our intention was only to create a nuisance for the Government, and not the people, fresh instructions were given that all pedestrians and vehicles of farmers, fishermen, elderly and ailing persons were to be allowed passage.

By afternoon, our siege brought us success. The Government succumbed to our demands. The next day’s newspapers carried headlines of our success. But one vernacular daily carried a small news item about an ailing woman‘s being denied passage by our siege. They had to take a long winded route to get to the hospital and the woman had died enroute.

My smile disappeared. I felt responsible for her death for I had planned everything about the siege but I had not planned for ensuring that those who were not responsible for our problems should not be adversely affected. I told my friend, Sunil that I wanted to go and apologise to her family. Sunil cautioned me against doing so as I could get beaten up by the angry family members. However, I decided to go and Sunil insisted on coming along and sharing the consequences of my mistake.

When we reached the house, there was a huge crowd there that had just returned after the cremation. I pushed my way through it till I reached the dead woman’s husband and introduced myself as the person who had organised the siege that was responsible for the delay in his wife getting access to life saving medical treatment. I stood there ready to be slapped but the man said, “Don’t be too harsh on yourself… it was destined to be so…” I broke into tears as he hugged me.

“Protesting is fine, son, as long as it does not punish the innocent”, his words guide me in every cause that I associate with. Every time we have to lay siege as a tool of protest, we must ensure that we are not forcibly obstructing the lives and livelihoods of our fellow citizens.

To BE BETTER at protesting with a siege for a cause…
We must save the innocent from a painful pause!

- Pravin-da

Space Pen

My friend, Sunil Sardessai brought me a very special gift from London: a replica of the writing instrument used by Soviet cosmonauts on early manned space flights. He had heard of the writing instrument from me. And I had read about it in some version of Modern Myths. The story went thus:

When NASA first started sending astronauts into outer space, they stumbled upon a major problem: they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity. But the determined Americans were made of stern stuff. The search for the alternative began in full earnest.

A million dollar investment and two years of tests and toil by the best of their brains, the Americans developed a very special space pen that could write at zero gravity, work upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from freezing to high extremes.

The modern myth further mentioned that when confronted with the same problem, the Russians used a pencil!

So often we waste our time, money and energy on searching for alternatives when the answer may be staring us in our face. Quite often, the way out is exactly the one we are standing on. Advancement is all about being able to notice the solutions that lie in our grasp instead of ignoring the obvious and pursuing stranger substitutes.

To BE BETTER at finding a remedy for any ailment under the sun…
Just look around and you are likely to find an already available one!

- Pravin-da

EMPATHY

Incidents that celebrate the spirit of humanism often escape our scrutiny. On 2 October, the local newspapers highlighted the exemplary empathy shown by the Muslim community of Jodhpur in response to the tragedy where many died in a stampede at a temple on 30 Sept. Besides, ferrying the injured to the hospital in their auto rickshaws and taxis, entirely on a voluntary basis, the Muslims queued up for blood donations and "offered water to those coming from cremation grounds after performing the last rites of their loved ones."

Jodhpur's Muslim community chose to scale down Eid celebrations. The move was in response to the human tragedy that affected their city brethren. While, such empathy may be a natural response, we cannot ignore the significant lessons emanating from Jodhpur. It not only challenges the blatant stereotyping of Muslims, but also shows that bonds of love can transcend every wall of hatred.

15 years ago, on the same date: 30 Sept, a deadly earthquake devastated lives and homes in Latur and Osmanabad. Many were engulfed by the emotion of pity for the grief of the affected. Some showed their sympathy by collecting and dispatching money and materials. And there were yet others who chose to scale down Diwali celebrations like they would have if the tragedy to visit one of their own family members.

We easily feel pity for the pain of others. Sometimes we stretch our words and actions to show sympathy. But it is the emotion of empathy that puts us in the other person’s shoes and adds greater meaning and purpose to our reaction. Thus we transform ourselves into responsive and responsible human beings.

In the wake of human pain, it is natural to feel pity and show sympathy…
But to BE BETTER as human beings, let’s embrace the response of empathy…

Regards
Pravin-da

REMEMBER?

Fiery Orator, Satish Sonak has a habit of reminding his audience that in our increasingly violent world torn by riots, bloodshed and indifference it has become necessary to repeatedly remind ourselves that we are human beings. How better the world would be if we could forget everything else and just remember that we and others are human beings.

Surely the essence of human being is to have reminiscence. It is recollection of the emotions and experiences that connects the past with the present and the concept of self emerges from this glue called memory. If memory is lost the very stuff which makes us human being will be lost.

Yesterday was World Alzheimer’s Day. Today 25 million suffer from memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease that is invading the young and the old in our world. Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating disease of the nervous system that leads to progressive degeneration of brain cells. Seemingly innocuous lapses of memory, progress gradually into stark decline of mental abilities. Victims show marked changes in behaviour, mood, thinking and intellectual tasks. Memory, judgment and systematic thought processing takes a beating and normal life is badly affected. The progression of the disease differs with patients, though detecting the disease early can be crucial to effective management of the condition. As the disease takes a toll on the mental abilities of the patients, they are completely dependent on their care givers to carry out daily tasks.

When a patient starts showing its symptoms, we become impatient and label him insane, lunatic or mad. Consigning them to a bleak cell or a dangerous street, we forget all about them. Why do we forget to remember? Can we spare a thought for unattended Alzheimer's patients? Can our society remember its responsibilities to the ones who forget?

If to be responsive and responsible, we can remember…
The situation of the Alzheimer’s patients will surely be better

- Pravin-da

REPRISAL

One of our school teachers was real weird. He had a peculiar method of enforcing discipline in his classroom. Every time, a back-bencher would say or do something that would infuriate him, he would shout at the one who committed the mischief and… and strike (with his knuckles) the head of the boy sitting nearest to him.

A similar attitude is reflected in the communal carnages that occur in our country. It has happened in Delhi, Gujarat and so many other brutalities. Now it is happening in Orissa… A Swami and his four followers are killed on 23 August 2008. Immediately, communal goons unleashed horrendous violence against innocents.

The culprits are yet to be identified, but an entire community has borne the brunt of murderous slaughter and inhuman bloodshed. The death count is rising. Over 4000 homes have been razed to the ground and nearly hundred places of worship have been torched. Nuns have been raped, innocent and disabled persons have been lynched, pregnant women, toddlers, orphans and the elderly are being forced to leave their homes and languish in the safety of the jungles!

In the case of our weird teacher’s unfair reprisal, all would find it funny except the one who was unfairly penalised for somebody else’s mistakes and the others sitting in the front row who would be on the edge fearing that the odd predicament would come their way, too. The rest of us were detached because it did not affect us.

It is this detached indifference that provides bizarre logic for the indefensible. How can anyone justify the inhuman killings and brutalisation of innocents? We must ask ourselves whether we have learnt any lessons from the numerous killings, brutal attacks and rapist rioting, born of divisive religious fanaticism… if we do not speak up now against the communal fanatics, we will strengthen their hands… and we will be in their murderous reach someday.

Let’s BE BETTER at the values of empathy, justice and compassion
By ensuring that we connect to the solidarity of responsive action…

- Pravin-da

DAILY DOSE OF HUMOUR

The cartoon is the first thing that most people choose to read in their daily newspaper. Surely it is one of the most important essentials in forming public opinion –- because a visual generally has a greater impact than a sentence does. Hence cartoonists have a bigger influence on the way readers look at various issues.

While Cartoons make us laugh, they are no laughing matter. They have the power to express as well as provoke thinking. The much loved Goan Cartoonist, Alexyz has been doing just that… provoking his readers to think through his caricatures which are accompanied by creative verse.

Seeing Alexyz’s works it is clear that cartooning is not just about a skill. The eventual cartoon is the tip of the iceberg of larger knowledge of the concerned issue. Alexyz is not a distant observer… rather, he is a wandering traveller who connects to his land, environment and people around!

Most importantly, cartooning requires a proactive, positive attitude. We see all that in Alexyz… an ability to discover hope amidst despair, humour amidst sadness, vision amidst darkness… And it is this quality of cartoonists that we need to connect to be better as citizens who seek to be part of the solution to the problems that surround.

- Pravin-da

LITERACY

Just the other day, a friend was showing me an interesting statistic about our state. Goa recorded 82% literacy in the 2001 Census. But the ground reality also reflected a very strange behavioural trait. Nearly 80% (our estimate) of the citizens showed a lack of ability to follow simple instructions. Cars zoom past signposts that restrict speed. No parking boards become pegs for parking vehicles. Spit accumulates under the do-not-spit directive.

This is surely a common civic phenomenon all over India. But surely it is not about the ability to read or the lack of literacy. It is about the attitudinal paradigms which annihilate the ability of the literate. In fact, most such civic signs are graphic enough to be understood even by illiterates. But we literates tend to veer to civic behaviour which we ourselves might find uncivil, offensive or even boorish, when committed by others.

We must examine whether we measure up to the standards of literacy. We must confirm whether our acquisition of the ability to read is underlined by the consecutive learning. Knowing to read, actual reading and appropriate response based on such reading can be totally dissimilar in terms of actual behaviour. To be better it is not enough to be literate, we must use the literacy to good effect. We need to accept the responsibility of being responsive.

The sign-boards before us are literacy tests, after all
Let's BE BETTER at responsive behaviour to walk tall.

cheers
Pravin-da

SELF DISCIPLINE

“What makes a kite fly high?” a young boy queried of his father. He was flying a kite on the beach and expected his father to appreciate his personal ability and skill. However his father replied, “The string makes the kite fly high.” The boy was aghast, “the string is holding the kite down… it’s the wind that makes it fly high… and of course the way I can use the wind to make my kite fly higher…”

The father wisely replied, “If you think the string is holding the kite down, then go ahead and break it. Set the kite free… let it go higher… let it soar.” All those who have flown kites will tell you that when the string is cut, the kite comes down… in a lifeless and listless manner. The young lad had learnt a valuable lesson. So, can we…

There are things that we believe are holding us down and preventing us from soaring higher in life. However, if we look closely, they may be the ones that can help us grow and glow in life… they may be like the string that makes the kite soar high…. This string is called discipline. But, discipline is considered a dampener. It is found to be irritating and infuriating. Human beings, by instinct, abhor rules. We hate to mould our lives to somebody else’s set of rules.

However, surely we can have our own set of rules… our own self-discipline. We need to create our self-discipline because we wish to soar high, like the kite in the sky. Look around and we notice that winners and achievers stand out in a crowd because of their ability to ensure the highest levels of self-discipline. It is said so well, “If it is going to be… it’s up to me!”

- Pravin-da

SPEED

Yesterday recorded two years since the passing away of Goa’s most doted poets, Dr Manoharrai L Sardessai. He was a gifted communicator, not just as a writer, but as a speaker as well. In oratory as well as in everyday speech, his words would conjure up the finest of poetry, prose or philosophy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his quotes over a month could fill up a decent quotation book.

Dr Manoharrai’s family, friends and colleagues were fortunate to be the recipients of such fine gifts of wisdom on a daily basis. One such privileged person is Mukesh Thaly who worked with him on the compilation of the Konkani Encyclopedia. He has many interesting inspirations to recall. One such incident was mentioned by him at a program, held on 2 July 2006, to pay homage to the great poet.

The Himalayan task of putting together the entries for the Konkani Encyclopedia was always running against time. The dedicated team was giving it its all. Everyone was in full gear. The urgency was turning the working environment into a pressure cooker. All that changed with a subtle quote by Dr Manoharrai, “Do not sacrifice accuracy at the altar of speed!” The paradigms changed with the clarification of the vision that the assignment demanded nothing less than accuracy.

In a highly competitive world where things move at furious speed, it is necessary to ensure that efficiency is not a victim to the test of deadlines. Too often in the urgency to finish the task at hand, we ignore the fine details and end up with a below par result. Surely it is not enough to do tasks in time; we need to be better at doing them well as well.

Hey, don’t rush such that efficiency goes for a toss…
Pace yourself to BE BETTER and deny eventual loss!

- Pravin-da

SCRAP ART

When Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier, was built up in the early 1950s there was a lot of waste material left over as a result of the building activity. A road inspector had a dream of creating a beautiful fantasy out of bits and pieces, which otherwise would have been a problem to dump around the beautiful city. He created a fantasy, which he called the Rock Garden.

Passages of rock and concrete open out into spaces with human figures studded with tiles and marble. Walls are studded with broken tiles, bathroom fixtures, old crockery and switchgear. Discarded water pots form trellises. Whimsy birds fashioned of concrete sit on the roof of a little hut. A waterfall cascades over an open-air theatre paved with broken slate. Turquoise bangles are used to fashion peacocks. An upturned enamel basin serves as a soldier’s hat!

The Rock Garden illustrates that what is one man’s garbage is another man’s dream. The creator Nek Chand has been honoured by many cities around the world including Washington, New York and Baltimore. While the Indian government conferred the prestigious Padma Shri on Nek Chand, the French awarded him the Grande Medaille de Vermeil. All these achievements seem more spectacular when one is told that he had no formal training in art of sculpture.

It is said so well that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. However, it is a greater to be able to draw out this beauty from what seems to be useless and allow others to see it as well. Thousands flock to see Nek Chand’s fantasy that teaches us that nothing is really scrap… and more importantly that everything can be turned into a piece of art… only if we back our a positive vision with proactive action.

Look again at what seems scrap to BE BETTER at art,
The world of possibilities awaits your proactive start.

- Pravin-da

TWO PEBBLES

A farmer owed a huge sum of money to a village moneylender. The ageing moneylender, who fancied the farmer's daughter offered to forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. However, the cunning money-lender made it look like a fair deal. He told them that he would put a black and a white pebble into an empty money bag. If the girl picked the black pebble, she would have to marry him and if she picked the white pebble she need not marry him.

The moneylender picked up two pebbles from the pebble strewn path. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. It seemed like an impossible situation for the young girl.

The girl intentionally fumbled while drawing out a pebble from the moneybag and let it fall and be lost on the pebble-strewn path. "Sorry," she said. "But never mind, if you look at the one left in the bag, you will know which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it had to be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

This story seeks to make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma could not have been solved with traditional logical thinking. Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't attempt to think. To be better at handling difficult situations, we need to think out of the box.

The limited choices we see may not all that be
to BE BETTER at solutions, set your thinking free

- Pravin-da

MIRROR

Some stories we hear in school make greater sense if we connect to them. One such story was about the House of 100 Mirrors.

A puppy learned of this place and decided to visit. He happily scaled the stairs and looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. He found himself staring at many other happy little puppies with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled and was answered with many great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little puppy, who was perpetually unhappy, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw many unfriendly looking canines staring back at him, he barked at them and was horrified to see all the angry puppies growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

In the real world, all the faces we encounter are mirrors. And more often than not, the immediate reflection we see on their faces is our own. We choose the kind of reflections we see on the faces of the people we meet. And hence we must choose to be better at the mood we allow ourselves to be in.

After all, hope and despair, cheer and frown are all very infectious. It is our approach and our actions that trigger an aligned response. So if we want to be surrounded by happy, positive faces, we must begin with making the right changes in our own mental makeup and behaviour. Mirrors, they say, don’t lie.

The people around mirror our own selves you see
For the world to BE BETTER, I must start with me

- Pravin-da

MAKEOVER

Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin ("There is none like Jassi") was a popular TV show that told the story a bespectacled, ordinary girl, with braces over her teeth and an odd style of dressing. Though somewhat naive, Jassi was an intelligent woman. The show chronicled how after a makeover, she looks so different that even her friends and family cannot recognise the new attractive and confident personality.

The person who scripted the success of Jassi is Venita Coelho, writer-director-filmmaker with an impressive journey of work and accolades. Presently, Venita stays in a small, picturesque village of Goa called Moira. And it is here that she and her team are putting together the script of the collective destiny of Moira. They have started creating the Village Development Plan of Moira.

Moira has drawn inspiration from the villagers of Chandor. In 2006, while Goans were agitating against the Regional Plan 2011 that threatened the lives, livelihood and environment of Goa, the Chandor Development Forum was putting together the basic systems and mechanisms, that were found to be absent in the Government plan. The ‘Five Year People’s Plan for the Sustainable Development of Chandor (2007-2012)’ reflects the attitude, approach and action plan of community that has connected to its needs, vision and mission of community solidarity.

Chandor’s model is inspiring more and more villages of Goa to script the desired makeover – to be better as a village. For too long, too many of us only complain about the way things are. We need to learn from Chandor and Moira that our dreams will happen only if we combine our individual competencies to script the collective makeover of our villages.

If the village that we love has to BE BETTER
We must put our heads and hands together!
- Pravin-da

RIVER PERSON

People are of two types: river people and goal people – Earl Nightingale

Goal people are individuals who write down their desires and deadlines for reaching them, and then focus on attaining them, one by one. By envisioning the roadmap of future targets, goal people give their creative minds a clear set of stimuli to work on. Their subconscious minds can then get to work incubating ideas and insights that will help them to reach their goals.

On the other hand, river people don't follow such a structured route to success. They are happiest and most fulfilled when they are wading in a rich "river" of interest -- a subject or profession about which they are very passionate. While they may not have a concrete plan with measurable goals, river people are often successful because they are so passionate about their area of interest. River people are explorers, continually seeking out learning opportunities and new experiences. For river people, joy comes from the journey, not from reaching the destination -- exactly the opposite of goal people.

Both types can experience personal gratification and success in life, but in different ways. There are situations and responsibilities that require us to be goal oriented. At the same time, we can extract the maximum "juice" out of being an explorer, learning new skills, connecting to fresh knowledge, innovation and technology. A combination of these two personality types can BE the BETTER choice to make. After all every river has its destination, too!

Enjoy your journey… now, not later
Learn from the river to BE BETTER

Regards
Pravin

TWO SIGNS

It is many years since my favourite teacher Fr Gatti departed. But his many inspiring lessons continue to guide me. One such story of his went like this…

A blind boy was sitting with a mat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." A sage walking by noticed that there were very few coins on the mat. He took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the mat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That evening, the sage who had changed the sign, passed by again. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The sage replied, "I wrote the same thing as you but in a different way." He had written, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."

The two signboards while saying the same thing conveyed totally different messages. Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first simply said the boy was blind. The latter one told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Surely the second sign was better at its impact and effect!

This is an enduring lesson. How we communicate is very important. We need to be better at exploring the various ways that our message may be interpreted. And we must choose the option that conveys our message best. We must be like the wise sage who chose to express instead of trying to impress.

To BE BETTER at communicating our message
Let every word of ours hold the wisdom of a sage!

- Pravin-da

JIGSAW PUZZLE

This is about an incident that took place 15 years ago. On a visit to the home of my friends Ashwin and Nishta, the maid told me that they had gone on an evening walk. I chose to wait in the verandah reading the newspapers lying there. When they came back, Nishta went into the living room only to return with a query, “How did you solve it?” Seeing my quizzical expression, she pointed out to a jigsaw puzzle.

The jigsaw puzzle was one of pieces of different sizes which had to be joined to form a rectangle that could fit in the box that contained the puzzle. Nishta could not put it together and she thought that I was able to solve the puzzle. Realising that I had not even seen the puzzle, she called out to the maid to enquire whether somebody else had come visiting while they were away.

When the maid replied in the negative, a puzzled Nishta asked, “Then who did this?” and pointed to the box in her hand. The maid was immediately apologetic, “Didi, the pieces were lying around. I just put them in the box while cleaning up the room.” She had cracked the puzzle without even knowing it.

The lesson is simple. Jigsaw puzzles can be also solved without trying to solve them. Too often we look at life’s puzzles and are overwhelmed by their imagined magnitude. Most of the complications are just blocks in our own minds. To BE BETTER at solving life’s puzzles, we must take on challenges as normal interventions and not be overawed by them.

Surely the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle will fall in place …
To BE BETTER let’s every challenge at our own pace!

regards
Pravin-da

DUST

Most shops choose to have transparent glass partitions as their front facades. They not only make the space look bigger from inside, but they also showcase the wares to the people walking outside. Besides they help the people inside to see the world outside.

The owner of a café would keep an eye on his competitors and share his critical observations with his customers. His favourite condemnation was about the lack of cleanliness of the shops across the road. He would point out to their dirty windows to illustrate his point.

While most customers would avoid entering into a debate with the very opinionated personality, a visiting tourist was appalled to hear the man’s criticism. He dragged the café owner to the outside and showed him that it was his own panes which were dusty while the others were spotlessly clean. The dust he noticed was on the window panes of his own shop!

Too often we find fault with others and quite often we are wearing coloured glass. To BE BETTER is to notice one’s own shortcomings and work on areas to improve. Being judgemental about others is easy. We should strive to be developmental about our own situation.

The dust that we see is quite often in our vision…
To BE BETTER let’s be careful about condemnation

regards
Pravin-da

DECISIONS

This chronicle is about the famous personal development guru - Napoleon Hill. Born to a poor family, he fought his way out of his backwoods Virginia town with a burning desire to be successful. He was always searching for ways to improve himself and was involved in numerous ventures, including managing a coalmine, practicing law, and becoming a business journalist.

His big break came at a meeting with Andrew Carnegie, the "Steel King". Carnegie asked Hill if he would take up the challenge of devoting 20 years of his life in order to prepare a formula of success for helping others to become successful. Carnegie would provide him with letters of reference to meet hundreds of successful people in the likes of Woodrow Wilson, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller.

Hill chose to take up the challenge in less than 60 seconds. Later he came to know that Carnegie had given him only 60 seconds to make up his mind, failing which he would have lost his chance of undertaking the important assignment. After 20 years of dedicated research, Hill compiled the best seller, Think and Grow Rich, in 1937. Imagine, history would have been different if Hill had procrastinated.

Effective people make up their mind fast and are slow at changing their mind once they make their decision. Others tend to be slow at making up their mind and quick to change after the decision is made. In fact, most people do not make their own decisions, because their decisions are made for them or influenced by others. To be better at taking decisions is not just about choices, but more importantly it is about making timely choices.

That timing is crucial to decisions is a fact we find
Let’s strive to BE BETTER at making up our minds

regards
Pravin-da

REFORM

We are seized by a spirit of rebellion at different times… some as a child, some as a teenager, some as a youth, some for life, some for occasion and some for emotion… Such rebellion moves from disobedience to actions more severe… Invariably, the rebel seeks to challenge the situation as it is and change it in alignment with his own perception as to what is better.

Reform is rebellion with a noble purpose. It is about positive change. However, it can include a reversion to the basics to what is distinguished to be an unadulterated, original state. While rebellious revolutions seek radical change, the scope of reformation is careful not to throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater. Given such an affirmative outlook, reform is rooted in the principles of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity… all familiar words. They are penned in the preamble to the Constitution of India by the person whose birth anniversary we celebrate today.

Dr B R Ambedkar with a Ph.D from Columbia University returned to India to lead what is today considered to be the greatest battle for human dignity on planet earth. He could have launched a violent revolution. Instead he asked people to find dignity, strength and prosperity by converting to Buddhism and its tenets of rationalism and humanism. He described his movement thus… "Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."

50 years after his death, Ambedkar’s vision of for reclaiming the human personality remains far from being accomplished. And the reasons lie with the rest of us. We speak about reform, yet we do not begin reforming our own regressive attitudes which are born out of social conditioning. Never mind how much we progress technologically, we must halt our regression as human beings by personal reformation followed by social renovation.

Reform is an expedition to BE BETTER as human beings
First we have to transform ourselves… then, other things

regards
Pravin-da

HOPE DAY

Diye humare ashaaon ke kabhi bujh naa paye
(May the lamps of hope never wane)
– Mitwa song from the Hindi film, Lagaan

All over the world, 7 April is celebrated as Hope Day. UNESCO dedicates this day help prevent and treat child abuse. The day is meant to give hope to children who have suffered from child abuse and neglect. Hope Day is an occasion to share your hopes and dream with your friends, family and community.

Hope is a potent sentiment that empowers us and facilitates us through demanding and tough times. Hope makes us believe that things will get better. It instils in us the courage to keep persisting. However the emotion of hope is not the same as joy that things are heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good and we want it to be better.

In a world seized by furious pace and the immediate gratification of every desire, we now regard “waiting” as an unbearable ordeal. We tolerate no time, not even a second, between desire & fulfilment. However patience is integral to the quality of hope. Look around and you will see impatient people frequently getting alienated from the emotion of hope.

The real power of hope is when it invests in others. Hope converts our belief into trust for ourselves and into enabling confidence for the other person. Hope is like the candle that lights up the darkness not just for the person who holds it, but also for the others in the vicinity. Hope therefore is an act of sharing. It transforms not just the owner of the sentiment but every person with whom it is shared.

Hope empower us and others to BE BETTER with persistence
Remember that it goes hand-in hand with the virtue of patience

regards
Pravin-da

CLEAR?

An Italian priest, Fr. Gatti who taught me just for one year in school, was my guiding muse for over three more years. His influence on me has been a part of earlier posts of Monday Muse. His stories opened my thinking to see both the larger picture and the intricate detail. One such story literally cleared my vision.

A shopkeeper was forever disparaging of his competitors' storefront windows. "Just look at them”, he would say, “Surely, they are the dirtiest windows in town.". Everyone was tired of the man's continual criticism and fault-finding remarks about other peoples’ windows.

However, one day over coffee, when the man carried the subject just too far, his smart customer suggested the man get his own windows cleaned. The shopkeeper followed the advice, and the next day at coffee, he exclaimed, "I can't believe it. As soon as I washed my windows, my competitor must have cleaned his too. His windows are clear and you can see them shine."

It was all very clear. The problem was with HIS windows. Since they were dusty, the others appeared shabby, too. Too often we are seized with identifying drawbacks and weakness of others, but the reality remains that our own minds are in negative condition or conditioned negatively. So before we categorize others as worse, we must discover how we can BE BETTER ourselves. After all, Confucius once declared, "Don't complain about the snow on your neighbor's roof when your own doorstep is unclean."

The singling out of the worst in others must go
Lets’ BE BETTER ourselves and may our actions show.

regards
Pravin-da

SOUP?

Job Interviews are conducted to assess a potential employee to see if he/she has the required competencies and attitude. And in recent times, innovative situations are created to assess the reflexes and responses to find out who is better than the rest. Just consider the following case:

All the candidates for managerial positions are educated about the organisation’s vision, mission and systems through a striking audio visual presentation. Next the presenter announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the interview shall commence after a 30 minute recess. Till then, help yourself to some delicious soup.”

Everyone begins to queue up at the serving table… even those who do not want the soup, choose not to be part of a slight. The atmosphere is one of discipline… no pushes and shoves… smiles flash around… everyone knows they are being watched and hence the best behaviour is out on display.

The bowl is gracefully lifted… a prompt “thank-you” is uttered as the waiter pours the soup… One moves further, to gracefully add a series of additives that await… chilly sauce, vinegar, pepper, salt, etcetera. The assessment is complete! Everyone who adds without tasting and checking out whether the soup actually requires add-ons find themselves in hot soup as far as the interview is concerned

In the quest to assess who is better, the ones who fall aside are the ones who use resources without considering whether they are needed. To BE BETTER than the rest, we must ensure that our behaviour is based on situational thinking instead of perfunctory behaviour. And we have to start with unlearning habits and embracing a responsive approach that shuns the mechanical unthinking.

We must unlearn habits of mechanical inclination,
To BE BETTER lets indulge in responsive action.

regards
Pravin-da

ANALOGY

My favourite orator, Dr Oscar Rebello was speaking at a public meeting about the land grab taking place in Goa and the complicity and connivance of the Government in aiding the illegalities… He could have rattled off facts and figures to buttress his argument. However, he once again exhibited his genius in connecting his communication with his heterogeneous audience. He spoke thus…

Consider the case of our lovely mother who is a nice human being. She is caring and has done only good to others. Now consider our father who is an aggressor against our mother. He abuses her and worse, snatches her jewellery and household things and gives them to another woman. What should we, as children, do to our father who is brutalising our mother? The audience roared to say “teach him a lesson”…

Oscar immediately made his analogy… Our lovely mother is our motherland, Goa.
Our father is the Government that rules us. The other woman is money bags out to circumvent the law and loot Mother Nature of her precious possessions. Nothing more was required to be said. The message had been communicated in all its clarity.

Analogy is the expression of the cognitive practice of transferring the message as understood by the speaker to the listener in a way that the listener can understand. It is based on the principle that effective communication is all about keeping it simple. The hall mark of a good communicator is the ability to BE BETTER at using the power of analogy as against the agony of wordiness.

To BE BETTER in getting our message across,
The use of analogy can sure reduce the fuss.

regards
Pravin-da

PROGRESS

“We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C S Lewis

Progress is a connotation that means different things to different people. It can be as personal as our self-centredness or as global as wider concerns. It can be conditioned by immediate needs or liberated by a desire to leave a legacy. It can be seen as a corollary to development of technology or the advancement of humanity. It can be about a better present or about a better future.

Once while educating students on the need to re-look our tendency to abuse water as a resource, I stressed that drinking water was going to get scarce, due to indiscriminate development. A bright boy asked, “With technological developments, one day it will be possible to treat sea water and convert into drinking water”. The point he was making was that it was always possible to find new solutions to the problems created by certain aspects of development.

After appreciating the lad for the intelligent intervention, I communicated thus: The Jaipur foot is an important technological development for those who lose their limbs. But would it be correct to amputate our healthy limbs just because we have a remedy? We cannot BE BETTER by scouting solutions for problems we insist on creating.

Embracing fundamentals based on a vision of equity, justice and self-reliance, for the entire humankind, should always be the priority. Progress cannot be walking the path to the future whilst destroying the present. And most importantly, as Lewis says, it is about having the courage to leave the wrong road and walk only the one which benefits all the people and the environment around, not just of today, but of tomorrow as well.

When technology exceeds our humanity, it is surely regressive…
to BE BETTER is to let our shared advance to be truly progressive

progressive regards
Pravin-da

LEARNING LESSONS

There are days in history which are painful.
Yet if we learn from our mistakes,
we can ensure we are not revisited by
the same painful history and its accompanying hurt…

It is been two years since Goa joined the mainstream of the organised communal violence. After the riots, there was more shock than outrage, because Goans had actually relied on the myth that their famed communal harmony could never succumb to such brutal violence. The smug belief, that peaceful Goa could never be synonymous with hateful agendas, came crashing down.

The seed of hate gets planted in the fields of prejudice. And these prejudices are ploughed by the divisions of religion, ethnic, regional, economic and every divide that sees one human being as lesser than oneself. And when, this hate in full bloom is harvested, the community sees the final manifestation of communal politics which is communal violence.

In the aftermath of any riot, as peace returns, everyone, save the brutalised victims, starts getting complacent. And the vested interests, on all sides, start planting the seeds of hate again, under the garb of nationalism, religion, ethnic pride and the like. These messengers of hate talk about “teaching them a lesson”. And they forget that lessons are not meant to be taught. Lessons are meant to be learnt.

To BE BETTER is to have learnt from the lessons. We must learn the lessons for ourselves. We need to sift the grain from the chaff. We have to begin with cleansing our own minds of prejudice and hate. We need to initiate and participate in dialogues to undo the divisions within human beings. We must strive to BE BETTER as human beings by actualizing the humane values of sensitivity, tolerance and peace.

The lessons of history are meant for learning, not fighting…
Prejudice can never be the path to BE BETTER as a human being.

yours-in-hope
Pravin-da

AGAPE

John Lee identified six basic styles of love that people use in their interpersonal relationships: Eros (romantic love), Ludus (love as a game or sport), Storge (friendship), Pragma (love driven by head, not heart), Mania (obsession) and Agape (selfless altruistic love). Agape is akin to caritas (charity) where the gift of love is sans any expectation.

Every 14th February, across the globe, the emotions of love are out on display. Flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. The immensely popular Valentine's Day greeting cards have turned into a highly profitable industry. Some go on to celebrate other occasions, like birthdays, anniversaries, etc, to display their true love to their loved ones. But more often than not, Ludus and Pragma overrule Eros & Storge and Agape is at sea.

It is pertinent to note what happens on “non-occasion” days. It is back to “routine” for most… a routine that is mechanical and impersonal… a routine that finds little time to see, speak or listen to our loved ones… a routine that plays blind, deaf and dumb! Invariably we presuppose our loved ones and hence, we take them for granted. In the fast moving world, the expression of love has become a circumstantial commodity whose display is dictated only by occasions.

To be better at love, we must move from need-love to gift-love. The spirit of agape cannot be an occasional emotion. We must share quality time with the ones we claim to care about. It is about enquiring and listening to our loved ones rather than supposing and speaking. It is about wishing people with a smile in the morning, evening, night… every time we meet them (we are more likely to wish a stranger more often than one’s spouse or child).

The measure of love is to love without measure
Indulge in agape and as a human be better!

yours-in-agape
Pravin-da

NERO’S GUESTS

Nero fiddled while Rome burned – is an oft quoted statement that is not based on historical reality. However, the real fact of what happened after the burning of Rome remains out of our information. That dark incident was exposed by Magsaysay award winner, P Sainath while speaking at the D D Kosambi lecture series, in Goa.

After the ruin of Rome in the fire, the atmosphere was one of depression. The time was also one of rebellion. To deflect the attention from the incident, Nero hosted a lavish dinner party. The guest list was a virtual “who’s who” of Rome. The elite, the learned, the artists… everyone was invited. However, there was a problem of illumination. The torches were running short of oil. Nero ordered for his captive prisoners to be tied to the torches so that they could be the fuel for the torches.

Sainath said that Nero’s action though barbaric, was in keeping with his royal attitude of insensitivity. But, Nero’s guests who devoured the feast, despite the screams and the scene of this inhuman act, are the ones who are greater culprits. Not one of them raised a voice of protest. They just gorged! Sainath raised the question – who were Nero’s guests?

Neros’ guests were educated men of art. They were people who took pride in describing themselves as cultured persons. They were people like you and me. People living in comforts. People who get entry into the social circles of the powerful elite of politicians and businessman. We are Nero’s guests, partaking in the feast while the oppressed poor burn at the torches of injustice.

Indifference is said to be a greater crime than hatred. No matter what we do develop our lives, it is of no consequence if we kill our conscience. To be better as a human being is to connect better with our humanism. And humanism is all about standing up to the values of truth, justice and equality. To be better, we must be sensitive as well as responsive to what is happening around.

to BE BETTER as a human, shed the indifference and inaction…
Quit playing the Guest and stand up to Nero’s brutal actions!

Regards
Pravin-da

RECORDS

6.00 am. 26 January 2008. Mangalore.
Konkani Nirantari begins.
Eric Ozario leads his team in creating history of 40 hours of marathon singing and enters the Guinness Book of world records. They overtake the previous Brazilian record of 36 hours. Surely in the sometime of tomorrow, somebody else will break the new record too

We see old records being overtaken and new records being established. In cricket Bradman’s record of 29 centuries seemed unattainable till Gavaskar overtook it. Since then, Tendulkar has set the new record and Ponting seems in striking distance of breaking that, too… only until somebody else comes and overtakes him. Pole vaulter, Sergie Bubka kept breaking his own records and taking the bar higher!

So is breaking records all about bettering somebody else’s achievements? If we look at the above individuals you notice that their greatness remains undiminished even when their records are overtaken. This is so because they are seized with bettering their own previous best rather than that of others. Hence they race against their own performance and retain that unique quality that underlines a winning attitude.

Eric Ozario has been reinventing himself and setting new challenges for his team of Maand Sobhann. Since 1986 when the Sahitya Akademi awardee Chafra D'costa, Poet Melwyn Rodrigues and musician singer Eric Ozario started the Maand Sobhann as an initiative to nurture Konkani music, the team and the dream has only grown. Like the name Maand Sobhann which literally means Scenic Stage, they have engaged mega challenges in line with their lofty vision and mission.

It is the passion for newer experiments that transforms Eric and Maand Sobhann into inspiring winners! It is this attitude of Eric and his team that we need to applaud and embrace. The attitude of walking the path to BE BETTER than what we are in terms of our efforts, our challenges and our attitudes

Let’s BE BETTER than our previous best…
Instead of being seized of outdoing the rest!

Regards
Pravin-da

BISOCIATION

In 1971, the twin blade joined the single blade in the Gillette shaving razor. Then a pivot was added in 1977. Further a lubricating strip was attached. In the early 90s, springs were inserted to create the Sensor. The inclusion of microfins created the Excel. The addition of a third blade created the Mach3, battery power was supplemented to create M3 Power and last year Fusion came along with five blades.

Note that with every addition the value and the price increased too. Ditto for the original radio that became a two-in-one with the addition of a cassette player. A audio recorder was added, then a CD player, yet later a VCD player was inserted and then the DVD player too joined the ranks to create the multi-product sound system.

This practice of bringing together two things is called BISOCIATION. Arthur Koestler coined the term ‘bisociation’ in order to make a distinction between the routine skills of thinking on a single ‘plane’, as it were, and the creative act, which always operates on more than one plane.

Koestler stated that “every creative act involves bisociation, a process that brings together and combines previously unrelated ideas”. While association refers to previously established connections among ideas, bisociation involves making entirely new connections among ideas. Koestler’s definition addresses all forms of creativity, whether in design, art, science or humour.

To be better than we are we need to associate with bisociation in everything we do. That will ensure that we will be constantly innovating and approaching every routine situation with an open mind and a readiness to connect to the unconnected. It is pertinent to note that most successful bisociations have been rendered with already successful products. Hence even if something seems to be the best, it can always be better!

To BE BETTER we need to embrace bisociation…
Bringing two things together can result in innovation!

Regards
Pravin-da

POWERFUL?

A famous Zen story tells of the stonecutter who passed a wealthy merchant's house and craved to be powerful like him. To his great surprise, he transformed into one. Soon a high official passed by, and everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow before him. "How powerful that official is!" he thought. "I wish that I could be him!" Immediately his wish came true.

It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable. He looked up at the sun and wished to be the sun. However, when he became the sun, a huge black cloud obstructed him. He thought. "I wish that I could be powerful like the cloud!" Then he became the cloud only to be pushed around by the powerful wind. Immediately, he craved to be the wind! Then he became the wind.

After a while, he ran up against a huge, towering rock. He wished to be the rock and that’s what he became! Soon he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel and changing his very form. "What could be more powerful than I" he wondered. He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stonecutter!

So often, we rue our status and position. So often, we wish to be like someone else who seems to be better off then we are. Therefore, often, we ruin our peace of mind by cursing our state and status… all actually just a state of mind! We crave to jump from one situation to the next, one desire to the next, one point of view to the next, never resting content with how things really are, never grasping the whole.

The grass may seem greener on the other side -- until you get there. It's a matter of perspective. Satisfaction is a personal choice. Choose to green up your own grass rather than hopping that fence. We have to learn to celebrate who or what we are. When there is a way that we can better ourselves we must work for it and not just wish and pine for it.

It isn’t a bad thing to crave to BE BETTER
But it is bad taste to just envy and be bitter!

Regards
Pravin-da

DEFEATING EVEREST

"We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest… even using oxygen as we were, if we did get to the top, we weren't at all sure whether we wouldn't drop dead." – Sir Edmund Hillary

Beekeeper, Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, did not drop dead at the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, when they set foot on the highest point on earth. It took 32 years of failures for dedicated climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest, a peak scaled so often now it hardly makes the newspaper headlines! At over 29,000 feet of altitude, snow never melts atop Mount Everest… winds at the summit reach 200 miles per hour… overall a very difficult challenge!

George Leigh-Mallory is first recorded as attempting the climb in 1921. On his third try, in 1924, he disappeared into the mist, never to be seen again. It is believed that he reached the top but slipped and did not live to tell his tale. The mountain had won. However, friends of Mallory one day gazed upon a large picture of Mount Everest and declared, “Mr. Everest, you defeated us once. You defeated us twice. You defeated us three times. But, Mr. Everest, we shall some day defeat you because you can’t get any bigger – and we can!”

Eight more attempts were made on the mountain resulting in eight more failures. Finally, Hillary and Tenzing defeated Everest. Since them, over 1,200 men and women from 63 nations have reached the summit.

Actually, failure comes only after we have given up. If the odds of winning are slim to none, they might be worth taking. Surely, we can get bigger and be better – better in ability; better in experience; better in wisdom; better in faith. Hillary, who passed away on 11 January 2008, remains a shining example of courage and endurance! Besides mountaineering, Hillary dedicated his life to environmental causes and to humanitarian efforts for the Nepalese people.

Hillary showed us how to blunt failure’s knife …
"BE BETTER" is the way to be, to justify our life …

Regards
Pravin

NO SHORTCUTS

Every visitor to Pedro’s college was treated to the spectacle of his ability to jump over ten steps from the mid-landing of the staircase to the landing below. However, one visitor was not amused. He was an athlete and sought to prove that Pedro’s feat was ordinary.

Pedro pleaded with him not to try it out. It was not prudent for a winner athlete to consider an ordinary person’s feat as a challenge. But the athlete would have none of it. He went up to the mid landing and jumped off only to fall spread-eagled on to the last three steps.

Pedro helped him to his feet and told him an enduring lesson. Pedro had initially started jumping off the fourth step. After a few days he moved to the next step. One step at a time over four months, he was able to develop the skill of jumping from the tenth step. Pedro asked the athlete, “why did you go straight to the tenth step?”

Things are not always as easy as they seem. And there are no guaranteed short cuts to acquiring the abilities of those who make it seem easy. We can cover ground faster by putting in more effort and following a well planned process. But things will not happen immediately even if we believe that we are better equipped than the one who can do it. Getting better is a process that requires time, thought and most importantly confidence that is not clouded by conceit.

To ‘BE BETTER’ take one step at each instance…
There are no real shortcuts to cover the distance!

Regards
Pravin

LET GO OF THE PAST (31dec07)

Today is the last day of the calendar year. For many it is a reason to celebrate the year that was. Some use it as an occasion to evaluate their journey of events. While this can be a very good thing to do, quite often, we tend to look back more out of being judgemental than developmental. We get caught in the passionate perceptions of our past rather than learn the lessons from our experience.

My artist friend, Hanuman Kambli illustrated the need for the appropriate approach towards looking back to the days that have gone by. He said that "the past should be the fertiliser to be used for nurturing further growth, but alas it is used like a chewing gum that is chewed on even when it loses it taste!" The many dimensions of our past experience should be a guide to our future… they should not be the deadweight that weighs us down and prevents our progress.

I like to state during my unlearning seminars that while the past tells us where we have come from, it does not decide where we will go. An impressive past does not guarantee a positive future and a not-so-impressive past does not condemn us to continued mediocrity. We need to hold on to only the valid lessons and cast ourselves in a fresh attitude and approach towards the immediate present and the desired future.

Let's use the metaphor of our life as a ship. The past is a dimension like the harbour we sailed from. The present is a dimension like the waters we ride. The future is a dimension that beckons akin to a lighthouse. The connection between these three dimensions decides our personality. However, there is nothing really that can be called the end of a year. But surely, there can be a beginning to take off on a new year in our lives… every day… every moment… if we only "develop new dimensions"!

Let go of the past and the moments old,
Cast yourself in a brand new mould!
Get set to rise on newer horizons
Let's "develop new dimensions"!!