Reform

Seven words with the prefix ‘re’ suggest the best practices to ensure that our only home – planet Earth is nurtured and sustained not just in our life time but for future generations.

 

RETHINK: we must relook and reconsider the choices we make. Are they the best for our planet?

 

REFUSE: have the courage to say ‘no’ to the things that are not good for our environment.

 

REDUCE: lower unnecessary consumption of energy, material and resources which leads to their depletion.

 

REUSE: most things be reused instead of contributing to the growing pile of single use stuff

 

REFURBISH: old stuff can be set new with innovative ideas to reinvent and repurpose what we are using now.

 

REPAIR: before you replace, go for all ways to retrieve usability by opting for necessary repairs

 

RECYCLE: collect and process materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turn them into new products. 

 

Eventually, it is all about ‘reform’ in our attitude and approach. Such reform will benefit our community, the economy and the environment. Otherwise our casual indifference will trigger a devastating storm.

 

Careless apathy stirs a dangerous storm

For sake of our Earth, we have to reform!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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V-formation

Experts have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important functions: 

First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. They take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest. 

 

The second benefit is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Flying in formation assists with communication and coordination within the group. Fighter pilots use this formation for the same reason.

 

The natural unity that exists among geese illustrates the benefits of teamworking. Working together, individuals perform better due to the support system that comes along. The combined synergy is always greater than the sum of its parts.

 

Secondly, team must focus on communication and coordination within the team members. They must be able to see, listen and speak to each other. Connectivity adds to the power of the collective. After all, the V-formation empowers ‘we’.

 

Together we can, together we shall
V-formation takes to a greater call!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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ASK

Three monks practised meditation together, sitting by the side of a lake. One day, one monk said, ‘I forgot my mat.’ Instead of walking around the lake to their hut, he stepped onto the water and serenely walked across the lake!  

Upon his return, the second monk declared, ‘I forgot to put my clothes to dry.’ He too walked across the water and returned the same way.

 

The third monk rose to declare, ‘your learning cannot be greater than mine… I too can match any feat that you two can perform!’ he rushed to the water's edge to walk across it. He promptly fell into the deep water. 

 

He climbed out and tried again, only to repeatedly sink. The other two monks watched as this went on. After a while, the second monk said to the first, ‘Do you think we should tell him where the stones are?’

 

Just because something appears easy for others; it may not be so for us. Overconfidence arises from presuming that we can easily do what others do. We belittle the method and attach undue importance to our capabilities.

 

Tasks can be emulated, only by humble learners! That’s how we learnt to do many things in childhood. Let’s shun childish arrogance and embrace childlike humility and eagerness to ask and learn.

 

To learn, be humble to ask
To emulate the tough task!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

Peace Table

 Abraham Maslow developed a theory of a hierarchy of human needs, of which the highest were the need for ‘self-actualization’ through creative and productive living. He considered promoting peace, happiness and building a psychology for the peace table as his task. 

 He had a vision of a peace table, with people sitting around it, talking about human nature and hatred, war and peace, and brotherhood. He wanted to prove that humans are capable of something grander than war, prejudice and hatred.

 

The peace table is an opportunity to work out our problems by talking about them, sharing our feelings and understanding one another more deeply. It helps us to cope with conflicts and helps resolve issues. It requires one person to invite another to have a peace talk. 

 

The initiator begins to share feelings by using an “I” message. (I didn’t like the way…; I felt sad when…; I was not happy when…) The other person listens and responds. If the problem is not solved they may invite a third person (peacekeeper) to the peace table to listen to both sides fairly and then suggest a way to solve the problem

 
The problem may not be solved completely or the solution may not make them feel better. When they leave the peace table what they need to take away it the most important part of this whole process, to understand each other better in the situation.

 

Ease the conflict bubble

Choose the peace table!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Diversity

DOn occasion of the festival of colours – Holi, social media will have uploads of selfies of coloured faces. However, the preferred pictures will be where various colours are distinctly distinguishable and not ones where the colours have merged to make a mixed shade that appears like a shady smear.

 

The colours look attractive together, but only as long as they do not lose their individual attractiveness. Coming together is good but it is better to maintain diversity. So often, when we move to unite, we insist on uniformity. But by stifling diversity, we cripple the impact of unity. 

 

Various instruments in an orchestra play together, but melodious music is created because of diverse sounds. Languages are empowered by varied vocabularies of different dialects. The rainbow looks beautiful as the colours in its spectrum retain their colours. The same holds true for teams.

 

We mistake uniformity for alignment. Diversity involves acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing different dimensions of ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, ideas, beliefs and ideologies. 

 

The exploration of this diversity in a positive and nurturing environment helps us understand each other such that we can move beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of assorted capacities of each individual in the team. 

 

Colours of the rainbow look good in unity…

As they align without losing their diversity!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Falter

If something, say a table, is not steady, we say that the table wobbles. If a child sways while moving, we refer to it as wobbling. While it may seem a problem, the learning is in the wobbles!

 

As children, we learnt to walk and ride a cycle through a long process of trial and error, of falls and repeated efforts. Our enthusiasm and encouragement by others made us stay at the task until it was accomplished.

 

The child keeps stepping ahead despite the falters. However, as adults we are swayed by failure. So often, so many of us resist the time to learn something new because we don’t like wobbling.

 

We must give ourself the permission to falter. Failure is an important part of the journey to success. We must choose to accept the faltering, learn from it and do what is required to correct the wobbles. 

 

The wobbling table can be set right by putting something under the legs. The wobbling child can learn balance by trying other ways. For the result to alter to a positive result, we must address the falter!

 

Move beyond the falter

The outcome will alter!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Perseverance

Ernest Hemingway was in Switzerland, on assignment as a correspondent. Journalist Lincoln Steffens was impressed with Hemingway’s writing and asked to see more. His wife carried all his writings in a suitcase from their home in Paris. She lost it in the train.

 

At that point, nothing of Hemingway’s fiction had been published. Now, there was nothing left as his wife had packed both the originals and their carbons. Only two short stories survived the disaster. 

 

But when he lamented the loss to poet Ezra Pound, Pound called it a stroke of luck. Pound assured him that when he rewrote the stories, he would forget the weak parts and only the best would reappear. Hemingway rewrote the stories and became a major figure in literature.

 

Indeed, with the loss of the manuscripts, and with time pressing to replace those vanished words in his bid to become a respected writer, Hemingway may have adopted and adapted the lean prose style for which he became famous.

 

Perseverance and failure cannot coexist. Failure happens when you quit. We can instead learn from it. We can unlearn the unnecessary and rewrite our efforts afresh. Perseverance can turn failure into an opportunity.  

Don’t get stuck at failure’s gate

Perseverance scripts your fate!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

Null Set

In algebra, a Null set refers to an empty set. A teacher mentioned the Indian woman astronaut as an example for a null set as until then no Indian woman had become an astronaut. One girl exclaimed, 'one day this null set will not exist!' The girl, Kalpana Chawla went on to fill the set!

 

In college, she was the only girl to opt for the aeronautical engineering course. During admission when asked to state her second option, she replied that she had none! 

 

During counseling, teachers tried to dissuade her as aeronautic engineering had limited job opportunities in the country. Most girls had opted for electrical engineering. Kalpana stuck to her passion. This was the first step to much greater achievements of India’s first woman astronaut. 

 

Imagination is important, but it is not enough. To be better, it needs to be transformed into a clear vision and backed by a motivated mission to achieve it. 

 

Null sets get filled when dreams are empowered by steadfast belief and committed actions. Indeed, it took courage of conviction for a small town girl to become the first Indian woman to straddle outer space. 

be better at achieving every desirable vision

null set gets filled with committed mission!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Horizon

Speaking at an event of JCI Alumni Club at Goa, Ashrafali Nizari spoke about the horizon. He pointed out that the horizon gets wider as we go higher. His message was to stretch out and rise up to see newer horizons.

 

The horizon is the line at which the earth's surface and the sky appear to meet. It is also used to refer to the limit of a person's knowledge, experience or interest. Hence, our perspective is wider as we rise up in any team.

 

The word originates from Greek as ‘horizōn (kuklos)’ which meant ‘limiting (circle)’. The visible horizon represents the edge of what is known or manifest. But when go up in life, we tend to see things in wider outlook.

 

Even though we see it way off in the distance, the horizon is not the boundary. It’s not the limit. It’s just as far as we can see in the moment. But the possibilities are always greater as our horizon turns wider.

 

Where we are now is not the limit. Even if it feels that way right now. When horizon is based on a limited self-definition, with concepts that are false, then our horizon is artificially adopted. We must move on to the real horizon.

 

When we come to the completion of a project or a vision of ourself, we must choose to expand into a new direction. We must opt to tap innate abilities within that we have not yet realised. New horizons bring along new frontiers.

 

Stretch out to rise to newer heights

A wider horizon will come to sight!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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GUERILLA TACTICS

The legendary Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was an exemplary leader with high values, lofty vision, earthy humility and endearing responsiveness. One of many leadership lessons are his strategies for battle and governance. 

 

He maintained a small but effective standing army. Aware of the limitations of his army, he knew that conventional warfare methods were inadequate to confront the big, well-trained cavalry of the Mughals, which was equipped with field artillery. He chose and mastered guerrilla tactics.

 

His guerrilla tactics perplexed and defeated the enemy. He knew that the most vulnerable point of the large, slow-moving armies of the time was supply. He utilised knowledge of the local terrain and the superior mobility of his light cavalry to cut off supplies to the enemy. 

 

He refused to confront the enemy in pitched battles. Instead, he lured the enemies into difficult hills and jungles of his own choosing, catching them at a disadvantage and routing them. He used several methods to undermine his enemies, as required by circumstances, such as sudden raids, sweeps and ambushes, and psychological warfare.

 

Looking at the limited resource he faced, he chose effective utilisation of people and natural resource including warfare material and weapons. His method has been trigger for military related and governance related topics of research, besides competitive strategies in business as well.

 

Learn the lessons from Chhatrapati Shivaji’s life 

Guerrilla tactics can overcome every tough strife!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Impartial

'Kabira khada bazaar mein, mange sabki khair

Naa kehu se dosti, Naa kehu se bair'

(Standing in the public square, Kabir wishes all well

No friendships with anyone nor any enmity as well)

 

Sant Kabir's doha (couplet) urges an impartial approach in public space. While we may have friends or enemies in personal space, in public we have to rise above petty positions.

 

So often, so many of us are consumed by an arrogance of power that emerges from the public position we hold. We allow the dust of our personal prejudices to affect the need to be fair and just. We end up being non partial.

 

It is said that 'with great power comes great responsibility'. The ability to have the right response, never mind the stimulus, is responsibility. The person before us is the stimulus but our response should not be affected by who the person is but what is the right thing to do.

 

Avoid rigid perception to be fair and just

Impartial is the way to be, sans any dust!

 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

 

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Mistakes Allowed

Goa based, Ethernet Foundation organised its first edition of VAA! – Vivekananda Angel Awards on 2 February, birth anniversary (as per Hindu calendar) of Swami Vivekananda. The inaugural award was conferred upon Rudolf Schwartz, Goa’s guardian angel from Germany.

 

77 year old, Rudolf facilitated skill development of underserved students through his initiative:Indian Students Educational Aid Foundation which now runs 3 technical training schools, an Open School, a Nursing Bureau besides providing scholarships to over 3000 students for higher education.

 

He was 44 when he set off on his mission. He paid from his pocket for multiple trips to Goa to follow up with the local team. He convinced over 500 active sponsors from Germany. His consistent efforts bore fruit because he and his team believed that ‘it is allowed to make mistakes’. 

 

Many of us believe that errors are unforgivable blunders, fostering a culture of fear and stagnation. Mistakes are learning experiences. We must shift focus from the mistake itself to the decision-making process that led to it. We must understand that not all decisions will yield the desired outcome. 

 

Decision-making is primarily an act aimed at an uncertain future, making all decisions prone to potential error. If the thinking was sound but the outcome unfavourable, it is still regarded as a valuable decision in the quest for progress. Hence Rudolf says, ‘it is allowed to make mistakes’.

.

Efforts are important, Outcomes may break

Remember, it is allowed to make mistakes!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

Tie that knot

"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

 

The quote is attributed at various times to various personalities.Whosoever may have first said it, suggests to not give up when things are going wrong. Giving up never made anything right. It’s only when you hang on and keep doing what needs to be done, you are likely to get there. 

 

However, to ‘hang on to the rope’, we need something to hold. That’s where ‘the knot’ comes in. You must find one thing that you can specifically hold onto. It will provide for the hope to hold on to at the end of the rope.

 

It could be an accomplishment or a task you have complete control of. Something that you can grab with both hands and feel like you’ve made progress or maybe just stop falling!

 

Try breaking your to-do-list up into actionable and achievable knots in the rope. We must re-focus on smaller tasks and avoid the overpowering overwhelm when you find the rope running out. 

 

When at the end of the rope, tie that knot and hang on

Many little things contribute to make the success song!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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On Time!

‘Better three hours too soon than a minute too late’ - The phrase is said by a character in William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’. It can be applied to any situation when you need to take a chance to change things. 

When you do something on time, you do it right when you should. If you're always on time, you're punctual. You can be depended on to arrive when you say you will. 

 

Punctuality is about fulfilling a commitment before or at a previously designated time. If we do not honour our commitment to be on-time, we must not accept others to value our time. 

 

Some cultures have an unspoken understanding that actual deadlines are different from stated deadlines. In cultures that value the commitment to be on-time, being late is seen as disrespectful of others' time. 

 

Quite often, we are late as we do not factor for delays on the way. Hence, we must move to defeat the deadline and reach before time. It is better to spend time waiting than miss the chance to honour the commitment.

 

No excuses are justified for being tardy and late

Be always ‘on time’ or before the deadline gate!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Normal

The word came from the Latin ‘normalis’, which means ‘made according to a carpenter's square, forming a right angle.’ Normalis had a number of extended meanings, such as ‘according to rule’.

 

In present day, ‘normal’ is most often used to mean ‘conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern’. But types, standards, regular patterns or what is considered ‘regular’ undoubtedly shift, and even when static are largely subjective things. 

 

‘What is normal?’ is a question that has been posed innumerable times in rhetorical and non-rhetorical functions. The role of this question is to show how certain widely accepted concepts are merely recent social constructs, and that what is considered ‘normal’ is a fluid sort of thing. 

 

Lexically, the definition of ‘normal’ has continued to change and grow, and today may also mean (among many other things) ‘occurring naturally’. Hence what occurs naturally is normal and we should accept it as such.

 

Too often, too many of us are judgemental in deciding what is normal. We see things around in a restrictive view coloured by conditioning. We must learn to accept everything (and everyone) that occurs naturally as normal.

 

We must learn to be inclusive towards diversity. And for that we have to stop looking at ‘normal’ as a prejudiced view. We must accept that both, the different and the new, is as ‘normal’ as the similar and the old.

 

Let ‘normal’ be a fluid sort of view

Don’t deride things diverse & new!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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Reunion

 The term comes from the Latin root ‘unus’ or ‘one’ and the ‘again’ prefix re-, so reunion means to ‘make as one again.’

 

Since a union is a state of togetherness, a reunion is when people get back together after some sort of separation. At high school and college reunions, people see friends they haven’t seen for years.

 

Efforts for a reunion start with a remembrance of the joyful times with the person. The desire to relive and recreate those memories, leads us to actions to search and find whereabouts of the ones we have lost touch with.

 

Interestingly, reunions are about connecting with times when motives were not materialistic. It is about times when joys were in simple things and success included little achievements and new discoveries. It is about times when we were children and so were most around us.

 

We must strive to create reunions with the child like attitudes and approaches that made us happy so easily. We must reconnect with simple joys and eager excitements. We must reunite and reclaim the child in us.

 

Recreate the good times and relive happiness again

Reunite the child within with the friendship domain! 

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

Resolve

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ - Mahatma Gandhi

 

Some years ago, at the New Year’s eve family get-together, the children organised activities. One activity was for everyone to pen down, at the stroke of midnight, personal statements on two charts. One was a Wish-List; the other was a list of Resolutions. A few seniors questioned the distinction between the two, but the children had got it right! 

 

One may wish to be healthier and fitter, but it would be better to resolve to make the lifestyle changes necessary for the transformation. One may wish for peace, harmony, friendships, relationships, success, worthy causes… but it would be better to resolve to create and participate in processes to make the wish happen. 

 

What we wish for and what we resolve to do are as different as just craving for a desired destination and creating a road map to get there. A wish is just a thought, a dream. A resolve is a commitment, a mission to actualise the dream.  A wish is an imagination. A resolve has to be real. A resolve is about making choices and backing them with action. 

 

While we put together wish-lists for ourselves, our families and our communities, we must move beyond desire. Let’s resolve to make the wish happen by our commitment, determination and persistence. May our wishes be well meaning and backed by the resolve to be the change that we want to see in our world!

 

Let’s fully back resolves for action

Wishes fly on wings of dedication!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 

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