The Sunday that went by was marked by a unique felicitation of Goan social activist, Ramesh Gawas. The excuse was the recent award he received from the President of India for his excellent services as a teacher. But the real reason was that his students, colleagues and friends wanted to put into practice the very lessons of social responsibility of Ramesh… The function was simple and humble (just like Ramesh) but the highlight was an ultimate act of generosity!
Generosity is a desirable habit. In times of natural disasters, we see relief being provided voluntarily by individuals or groups sharing gifts of time, money, labour and other resources. However, generosity should not be limited to times of great need such as natural disasters and extreme situations. Hence, donating blood is encouraged as an exercise, not only when needed, but also as blood banking.
Ramesh’s friends chose to initiate a commitment to the ultimate act of big-heartedness… Over 50 persons led by Ramesh signed up declarations to donate their bodies after death! They further resolved to create awareness about the worthy cause and widen the circle of influence to get more and more people to sign up for the mission born of the emotion of empathy.
Everyone would like to leave a legacy so that they are remembered after death. What act could be a better legacy then to help a blind person see the world, or help the need to transplant a heart, kidneys and other organs… especially, when the eyes, heart, kidney, liver are ours. We must connect and commit to this act of generosity that shall live even after our death…
Death shall not punctuate our ultimate act of generosity…
Our resolve of body donation shall BE BETTER for humanity!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
LAWN
The best of institutional edifices are enhanced by the relief of lush green lawns. A visitor to one such exciting creation was so impressed by the meticulously maintained lawns that he insisted on meeting the gardener who looked after the lawns.
When asked by the visitor of the secret behind the lawn, the wise gardener replied, 'The first part is difficult… levelling the land as per design, choosing and adding the right top soil, arranging the drainage and other things that are available in books. The second part is simple and easy… we need to just regularly mow the lawn, weed it and water it. Keep doing that and you get a lawn that continues to be like this.'
What is true for the lawn is true for every endeavour for excellence. So often, we give our best while creating something. We manage the difficult part but falter at the easy part. Well begun, it is said, is half done. But if we do not keep the consistency, our best start can be undone.
Consistency is the hall mark of the real achievers. For they keep working to maintain a positive attitude and approach to the things they start. They buttress their vision with a mind-set of mission and the ability to be both, dogged and diligent. Steadfastness holds the key to greater successes. Persistence is a value that ensures that we can BE BETTER at optimising a good start.
No lawn can remain beautiful without a gardener’s sense of mission…
To BE BETTER we must back initiative with dedicated determination!
- Pravin
When asked by the visitor of the secret behind the lawn, the wise gardener replied, 'The first part is difficult… levelling the land as per design, choosing and adding the right top soil, arranging the drainage and other things that are available in books. The second part is simple and easy… we need to just regularly mow the lawn, weed it and water it. Keep doing that and you get a lawn that continues to be like this.'
What is true for the lawn is true for every endeavour for excellence. So often, we give our best while creating something. We manage the difficult part but falter at the easy part. Well begun, it is said, is half done. But if we do not keep the consistency, our best start can be undone.
Consistency is the hall mark of the real achievers. For they keep working to maintain a positive attitude and approach to the things they start. They buttress their vision with a mind-set of mission and the ability to be both, dogged and diligent. Steadfastness holds the key to greater successes. Persistence is a value that ensures that we can BE BETTER at optimising a good start.
No lawn can remain beautiful without a gardener’s sense of mission…
To BE BETTER we must back initiative with dedicated determination!
- Pravin
Monday, January 12, 2009
THE BELL
Zen stories have been a big favourite with me. They highlight profound truth in very few words. One story tells of a new student seized by a sincere desire to learn. At the very first meeting with his master, he asked how he should prepare himself for his training. "Think of me a bell," the master explained. "Give me a soft tap, and you will get a tiny ping. Strike hard and you'll receive a loud, resounding peal."
Life is like that. To make the most of it, we must give it our all. We need to be unbridled in our attitude and make the most of every prospect that comes our way. Somebody said it so well, “If it is going to be, it is up to me.” So the next time, we see the bell of opportunity, let’s realise that it is the intensity of our strike that will decide the magnitude of the resonance.
To BE BETTER at striking the bell of potential expectation…
Let’s remember that it is we who control the reverberation!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Life is like that. To make the most of it, we must give it our all. We need to be unbridled in our attitude and make the most of every prospect that comes our way. Somebody said it so well, “If it is going to be, it is up to me.” So the next time, we see the bell of opportunity, let’s realise that it is the intensity of our strike that will decide the magnitude of the resonance.
To BE BETTER at striking the bell of potential expectation…
Let’s remember that it is we who control the reverberation!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Monday, January 5, 2009
REMEMBERING
The film “Ghajini” delves into a case of anterograde amnesia. The memory of the hero is reduced to a recall of just fifteen minutes, following a violent attack by the killers of his girlfriend. To avenge the past as well as remember his present-day plan, the protagonist uses memory pegs in terms of Diaries, Polaroid photo-images, permanent tattoos on his torso, scribbled notes and memory alerts on his mobile. While the film takes creative liberty to tell its tale of fiction, it has a lesson for us…
Consider our own predicament. There are times when we are seized with a passion and a mission to respond to a challenging situation. It could be a brazen terrorist strike… or a shameful act of corruption… or the murder of humanity in a communal riot… or an exploit of exploitation… or a criminal lapse in governance! But, as time passes our noble intentions begin to detach from our consciousness… we suffer from memory loss of our own cause…
Righteous intentions need to be guarded against loss of focus… Like the protagonist in the film, we need to use memory pegs… We need to maintain diaries that account for what we are thinking, what we are doing and what we are going through… We must document our dreams and plans through notes, sketches, photographs, blogs, etc… We must surround ourselves with knowledge resources like books, quotations, vision and mission statements, and the like.
Amnesia patients may have no choice but to prop up their memory with methods and mechanisms… But for the rest of us, “remembering” is about making a choice… We can choose to remember what we believe in or we can choose to forget to walk our own talk…It is all about putting in the crucial extra effort to fasten our thoughts, plans and actions with the glue of a convergent memory…
To BE BETTER at remembering what we tend to forget…
Peg in extra effort today, lest the future be one of regret!
- Pravin
Consider our own predicament. There are times when we are seized with a passion and a mission to respond to a challenging situation. It could be a brazen terrorist strike… or a shameful act of corruption… or the murder of humanity in a communal riot… or an exploit of exploitation… or a criminal lapse in governance! But, as time passes our noble intentions begin to detach from our consciousness… we suffer from memory loss of our own cause…
Righteous intentions need to be guarded against loss of focus… Like the protagonist in the film, we need to use memory pegs… We need to maintain diaries that account for what we are thinking, what we are doing and what we are going through… We must document our dreams and plans through notes, sketches, photographs, blogs, etc… We must surround ourselves with knowledge resources like books, quotations, vision and mission statements, and the like.
Amnesia patients may have no choice but to prop up their memory with methods and mechanisms… But for the rest of us, “remembering” is about making a choice… We can choose to remember what we believe in or we can choose to forget to walk our own talk…It is all about putting in the crucial extra effort to fasten our thoughts, plans and actions with the glue of a convergent memory…
To BE BETTER at remembering what we tend to forget…
Peg in extra effort today, lest the future be one of regret!
- Pravin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
