Ponderings

Great Minds !!!!

2011-05-22T22:52:00.001+05:30

The plan of the lord

2011-05-20T11:57:00.001+05:30

Once there was a sweeper in a well known temple and he was very sincere and devoted. Every time he saw thousands of devotees coming to take darshan of the Lord, he thought that the Lord is standing all the time and giving darshan and He must be feeling very tired.

So one day very innocently he asked the Lord whether he can take the place of the Lord for a day so that the Lord can have some relief and rest. The Deity of Temple replied, "I do not mind taking a break. I will transform you like Myself, but you must do one thing. You must just stand here like Me, smile at everyone and just give benedictions. Do not interfere with anything and do not say anything. Remember you are the deity and you just have faith that I have a master plan for everything." The sweeper agreed to this.

The next day the sweeper took the position of the deity and a rich man came and prayed to the Lord. He offered a nice donation and prayed that his business should be prosperous. While going, the rich man inadvertently left his wallet full of money right there. Now the sweeper in the form of deity could not call him and so he decided to control himself and keep quiet.

Just then a poor man came and he put one coin in the Hundi and said that it was all he could afford and he prayed to the Lord that he should continue to be engaged in the Lord's service. He also said that his family was in dire need of some basic needs but he left it to the good hands of the Lord to give some solution. When he opened his eyes, he saw the wallet left by the rich man. The poor man thanked the Lord for His kindness and took the wallet very innocently. The sweeper in the form of the Deity could not say anything and he had to just keep smiling.

At that point a sailor walked in. He prayed for his safe journey as he was going on a long trip. Just then the rich man came with the police and said that somebody has stolen his wallet and seeing the sailor there, he asked the police to arrest him thinking that he might have taken it. Now the sweeper in the form of Deity wanted to say that the sailor is not the thief but he could not say so and he became greatly frustrated. The sailor looked at the Lord and asked why he, an innocent person, is being punished. The rich man looked at the Lord and thanked Him for finding the thief. The sweeper in the deity form could no more tolerate and he thought that even if the real Lord had been here, he would have definitely interfered and hence he started speaking and said that the sailor is not the thief but it was the poor man who took away the wallet. The rich man was very thankful as also the sailor.

In the night, the real Lord came and He asked the sweeper how the day was. The sweeper said, "I thought it would be easy, but now I know that Your days are not easy, but I did one good thing." Then he explained the whole episode to the Lord. The Lord became very upset on hearing this whereas the sweeper thought the Lord would appreciate him for the good deed done.

The Lord asked, "Why did you not just stick to the plan? You had no faith in Me. Do you think that I do not understand the hearts of all those who come here? All the donation which the rich man gave was all stolen money and it is only a fraction of what he really has and he wants Me to reciprocate unlimitedly. The single coin offered by the poor man was the last coin he was having and he gave it to Me out of faith. The sailor might not have done anything wrong, but if the sailor were to go in the ship that night he was about to die because of bad weather and instead if he is arrested he would be in the jail and he would have been saved form a greater calamity. The wallet should go to the poor man because he will use it in My service. I was going to reduce the rich man's karma also by doing this and save the sailor also. But you cancelled everything because you thought you know My plan and you made your own plans."

God has plans and justice for everyone....we just have to have patience!!!!!

Points to ponder

2011-05-12T23:07:00.000+05:30

Images from Jantar Mantar - charged atmosphere, great to be here

2011-04-08T12:28:00.000+05:30

Images from Jantar Mantar - charged atmosphere, great to be here

CHANAKYA QUOTES (TRUE INDIAN POLITICIAN, STRATEGIST AND WRITER, 350 BC-263 BC)

2011-03-26T08:13:00.000+05:30

CHANAKYA QUOTES

1. "A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first."

2. "Even if a snake is not poisionous, it should pretend to be venomous."

3. "The biggest Guru-Mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. If you can not keep secret with you, do not expect that others will keep it.It will destroy you."

4. "There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interest.This is a bitter truth."

5. " Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions- WHY I am doing it, What the result might be and WILL I be successful.Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions , go ahead."

6. " As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."
7. " Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it."

8. "The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

9. "A man is great by deeds , not by birth."

10. "Treat your kids like a darling for the first five years.For the next five years , scold him. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them likea friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."

11." Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere.Education beats the beauty and the youth."

12. " The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."

13." God is not present in the idols.Your feelings are your God. The soul is your temple."

14." Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."

15." A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does., loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night."

16." An egoist can be won over by being respected, a crazy person can be won over by allowing him to behave in an insane manner and a wise person can be won over by truth."

17." A human being should strieve for four things in life-- Dharma, Money , Sex and Salvation. A person who hasn't strieved for even one of these things has wasted life."

18." A rich man has many friends."

19." A woman is four times as shy, six times as brave and eight times as libidinousas as a man."

20." If you get to learn something even from the worst creatures, don't hesitate."

21." In a state where the ruler lives like a common man, the citizens live like kings do. And in the state where the ruler lives like a king, the citizens live like beggars do/."

22." Jealousy is another name of failure."

23." Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendship will never give you any happiness."

24." One who is in search of knowledge should give up the search of pleasure and the one who is in search of pleasure should give up the search of knowledge."

25." The four greatest enemies of a man are- the father who has taken a loan, the characterless mother, the beautiful but promiscuous wife and the stupid child."
26."Learn from the mistakes of others.You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.!!"

5.t

Us in HT

2011-03-01T08:59:00.001+05:30

See the article here - - TAXPAYERS ARE UNIMPRESSED

Learning to Lead by Admiral Mike Mullen

2010-08-24T10:25:00.001+05:30

Learning To Lead

Adm. Mike Mullen,

Service academies don't just provide great education--they keep us safe.

When I arrived in Annapolis in early June 1964, I was 17 and had been out of California just once in my life. The mercury read 95 degrees with 90% humidity. I started sweating right away and wondered aloud how anyone could live in such a place. I wondered even more what lay in store for me inside the Naval Academy's gates.

Then I walked through those gates, and my life changed forever.

Yet service academies place demands on young men and women that go far beyond the classroom. Cadets and midshipmen are challenged on multiple fronts--mentally, morally and physically. They learn to lead, to succeed, but also how to bounce back from failure. They learn the power of persistence and the value of service.When those less familiar with our service academies praise these institutions, they often cite conventional measures used to compare colleges and universities across the country. The remarkable facilities, beautiful vistas and first-rate faculty are certainly all there. Academically, these military schools typically rank among the best in the country.

For my classmates and me, these experiences defined us and taught us a deep will to win. In our profession, coming in second place is just not acceptable. So winning--and an appetite for achievement--is essential. This is not to say, of course, that other schools in other places don't also instill such traits. They most certainly do. But at our service academies, you don't graduate if you haven't proven your character and your leadership. Grades alone will only take you so far, and they definitely won't take you across the stage on graduation day.

Much is made of the fact that the education at a service academy is free. It's true that cadets and midshipmen do not pay tuition or room and board. But it's also true that this taxpayer-funded education has enabled many incredibly promising young Americans, regardless of their economic or social background, to earn a top-shelf degree and become more productive citizens. Our military is stronger for that diversity and those opportunities. So is our country. I note with pride the scores of chief executives, elected officials, community leaders and U.S. presidents among the ranks of service academy alumni.

Very little else, however, is actually "free." Compared to their friends at civilian universities, these young men and women live spartan lives dominated by mandatory military and extracurricular activities, room and uniform inspections and very limited social freedom. In return for their attendance, they must commit to at least five years of active service--which, for many, becomes a career. They will, over the course of that career, know other privations: frequent moves, lengthy deployments and, yes, war.

Indeed, all you have to do is read the names on any one of the academies' memorial walls, or the plaques dedicated to graduates who have given their lives in defense of our country, to see the real, high cost of their so-called free education.

Most alumni will tell you they were the last, best, toughest class. I know I certainly felt that way about my Class of 1968. I'm not so sure about that anymore.

The demands placed upon America's military are greater and more diverse than at any time in the last four decades. We're fighting two wars, modernizing our force structure and equipment, caring for a whole generation of troops and families scarred by combat, and grappling with ever-present conventional threats left over from the Cold War. Not to mention a plethora of enduring security commitments around the world.

After graduation, newly commissioned officers step out into that world. Right from day one they are expected to lead soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, often older and more experienced than they are. They are held accountable for their mission, for their people and for millions of dollars worth of state property--all of this at 22 years old.

I left Annapolis a wholly different person than the one I had been on that summer day 46 years ago. I left feeling like I was part of something far bigger than just myself--that I was now responsible in my own way and through my own efforts for helping keep our nation strong. I felt a part of a proud tradition and a sense of duty to live up to it and to the expectations of the troops I joined in the fleet.Truth is, these men and women thrive on that pressure. They welcome it. They respect it. The people they have sworn to defend can feel secure in the knowledge that the young officers our service academies produce have earned it.

I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for those troops. But I think it is fair to say that without the Naval Academy, I wouldn't have been there for them. And I can promise you every other graduate of our service academies--past, present and future--feels exactly the same way.

A pretty fair trade for a free education? I believe so, and I hope America does too.

Adm. Mike Mullen is chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff

10 Principles for Peace of Mind

2010-08-23T08:18:00.001+05:30

1. Do Not Interfere In Others’ Business Unless Asked:

Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others’ affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.

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2. Forgive And Forget:

This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.

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3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:

This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yours if in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.

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4. Do Not Be Jealous:

We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody’s life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.

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5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:

If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.

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6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:

This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control. If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.

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7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:

This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.

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8. Meditate Regularly:

Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.

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9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:

An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile. Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God’s name.

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10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:

Do not waste time in protracted wondering ” Should I or shouldn’t I?” Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over split milk?

21 Things To Remember

2010-08-07T15:40:00.000+05:30

21 Things To Remember

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.
2. Most people will be about as happy, as they decide to be.
3. Others can stop you temporarily, but only you can do it permanently.
4. Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
5. Success stops when you do.

6. When your ship comes in…. make sure you are willing to unload it.
7. You will never have it all together.
8. Life is a journey…not a destination. Enjoy the trip!
9. The biggest lie on the planet When I get what I want I will be happy.
10. The best way to escape your problem is to solve it.
11. I’ve learned that ultimately , ‘takers’ lose and ‘givers’ win.
12. Life’s precious moments don’t have value, unless they are shared.
13. If you don’t start, it’s certain you won’t arrive.
14. We often fear the thing we want the most.
15. He or she who laughs……lasts.
16. Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.
17. Look for opportunities…not guarantees.
18. Life is what’s coming….not what was.
19. Success is getting up one more time.
20. Now is the most interesting time of all.
21. When things go wrong…..don’t go with them.

7 blunders that will always haunt India

2010-07-25T22:39:00.000+05:30

No 1: The Kashmir Mess

Major General Mrinal Suman

History is most unforgiving. As historical mistakes cannot be undone, they have complex cascading effect on a nation's future. Here are seven historical blunders that have changed the course of independent India's history and cast a dark shadow over its future. These costly mistakes will continue to haunt India for generations. They have been recounted here in a chronological order with a view to highlight the inadequacies of India's decision-making apparatus and the leadership's incompetence to act with vision.

There can be no better example of shooting one's own foot than India's clumsy handling of the Kashmir issue. It is a saga of naivety, blinkered vision and inept leadership.

Hari Singh was the reigning monarch of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. He was vacillating when tribal marauders invaded Kashmir in October 1947, duly backed by the Pakistan army. Unable to counter them, Hari Singh appealed to India for assistance and agreed to accede to India. Indian forces blunted the invasion and re-conquered vast areas.

First, India erred by not insisting on unequivocal accession of the state to the Dominion of India and granted special status to it through Article 380 of the Constitution. Secondly, when on the verge of evicting all invaders and recapturing the complete state, India halted operations on 1 January 1949 and appealed to the Security Council. It is the only case in known history wherein a country, when on the threshold of complete victory, has voluntarily forsaken it in the misplaced hope of winning admiration of the world community. Thirdly and most shockingly, the Indian leadership made a highly unconstitutional offer of plebiscite in the UN.

Forty percent area of the state continues to be under Pakistan's control, providing it a strategic land route to China through the Karakoram ranges. As a fall out of the unresolved dispute, India and Pakistan have fought numerous wars and skirmishes with no solution in sight. Worse, the local politicians are holding India to ransom by playing the Pak card. Kashmir issue is a self-created cancerous furuncle that defies all medications and continues to bleed the country.

No 2: Ignoring Chinese Threats and Neglecting the Military

Memories of the year 1962 will always trouble the Indian psyche. A nation of India's size had lulled itself into believing that its protestations and platitudes of peaceful co-existence would be reciprocated by the world. It was often stated that a peace-loving nation like India did not need military at all. The armed forces were neglected. The political leadership took pride in denigrating the military leadership and meddled in internal affairs of the services to promote sycophancy. Foreign policy was in shambles. The intelligence apparatus was rusty.

Even though signs of China's aggressive intentions were clearly discernible for years in advance, the Indian leadership decided to keep its eyes shut in the fond hope that the problem would resolve itself. When China struck, the country was caught totally unprepared. Troops were rushed to snowbound areas with summer clothing and outdated rifles. Despite numerous sagas of gallantry, the country suffered terrible embarrassment. India was on its knees. With the national morale and pride in tatters, India was forced to appeal to all nations for military aid. Inept and incompetent leadership had forced a proud nation to find solace in Lata Mangeshkar'sAe Mere Watan Ke Logo.

No 3: The Tashkent Agreement and Return of Haji Pir Pass

Following the cease-fire after the Indo-Pak War of 1965, a Russian-sponsored agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in Tashkent on 10 January 1966. Under the agreement, India agreed to return the strategic Haji Pir pass to Pakistan which it had captured in August 1965 against heavy odds and at a huge human cost. The pass connects Poonch and Uri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir and reduces the distance between the two sectors to 15 km whereas the alternate route entails a travel of over 200 km. India got nothing in return except an undertaking by Pakistan to abjure war, an undertaking which meant little as Pakistan never had any intention of honouring it.

Return of the vital Haji Pir pass was a mistake of monumental proportions for which India is suffering to date. In addition to denying a direct link between Poonch and Uri sectors, the pass is being effectively used by Pakistan to sponsor infiltration of terrorists into India. Inability to resist Russian pressure was a manifestation of the spineless Indian foreign policy and shortsighted leadership.

No 4: The Simla Agreement

With the fall of Dhaka on 16 December 1971, India had scored a decisive victory over Pakistan. Over 96,000 Pak soldiers were taken Prisoners of War (PoWs). Later, an agreement was signed between the two countries on 2 July 1972 at Shimla. Both countries agreed to exchange all PoWs, respect the line of control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir and refrain from the use of threat or force. Additionally, Bhutto gave a solemn verbal undertaking to accept LOC as the de facto border.

India released all Pak PoWs in good faith. Pakistan, on the other hand, released only 617 Indian PoWs while holding back 54 PoWs who are still languishing in Pakistani jails. The Indian Government has admitted this fact a number of times but has failed to secure their release. India failed to use the leverage of 96,000 Pak PoWs to discipline Pakistan. A rare opportunity was thus wasted. Forget establishing permanent peace in the sub-continent, India failed to ensure release of all Indian PoWs - a criminal omission by all accounts.

The naivety of the Indian delegation can be seen from the fact that it allowed Pakistan to bluff its way through at Shimla. The Indian leadership was fooled into believing Pakistan's sincerity. Unquestionably, Pakistan never intended to abide by its promises, both written and verbal. Fruits of a hard-fought victory in the battlefield were frittered away on the negotiating table by the bungling leadership.

No. 5: The Nuclear Muddle

Subsequent to the Chinese Nuclear Test at Lop Nor in 1964, India showed rare courage in carrying out its first nuclear test on 18 May 1974 at Pokharan. Outside the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, India was the only nation to prove its nuclear capability. The whole country was ecstatic and every Indian felt proud of its scientific prowess. But Indians had not contended with their Government's penchant for converting opportunity into adversity and squandering hard-earned gains.

Instead of asserting India's newly acquired status of a nuclear power and demanding recognition, India turned apologetic and tried to convince the world that it had no nuclear ambitions. Strangely, it termed the Pokharan test as a 'peaceful nuclear explosion' - a term unheard of till then. The Defence Minister went to the extent of claiming that the Indian nuclear experiment was 'only for mining, oil and gas prospecting, for finding underground sources of water, for diverting rivers, for scientific and technological knowledge.' It was a self-deprecating stance. Displaying acute inferiority complex, India did not want to be counted as a member of the exclusive nuclear club.

Criticism and sanctions were expected and must have been factored in before opting for the nuclear test. Whereas a few more assertive follow-on tests would have forced the world to accept India as a member of the nuclear club, India went into an overdrive to placate the world through a self-imposed moratorium on further testing. It lost out on all the advantages provided to it by its scientists. It suffered sanctions and yet failed to gain recognition as a nuclear power. The country missed golden opportunities due to the timidity and spinelessness of its leaders.

No 6: The Kandahar hijacking

The hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar by Pakistani terrorists in December 1999 will continue to rile India's self-respect for long. According to the Hindustan Times, India lost face and got reduced to begging for co-operation from the very regimes that were actively undermining its internal security. The hijacking revealed how ill-prepared India was to face up to the challenges of international terrorism.

The eight-day long ordeal ended only after India's National Security Adviser brazenly announced that an agreement had been reached for the release of all the hostages in exchange for three Kashmiri militants including Maulana Masood Azhar. Sadly, the Prime Minister claimed credit for forcing the hijackers to climb down on their demands. The worst was yet to follow. India's Foreign Minister decided to accompany the released militants to Kandahar, as if seeing off honoured guests.

The government's poor crisis-management skills and extreme complacency in security matters allowed the hijackers to take off from Amritsar airport after 39 minutes halt for refueling, thereby letting the problem get out of control. India's much-vaunted decision-making apparatus collapsed and was completely paralysed by the audacity of a bunch of motivated fanatics. It was a comprehensive failure of monumental proportions. India's slack and amateurish functioning made the country earn the tag of a soft nation which it will find very difficult to shed.

No 7: Illegal Immigration and Passage of IMDT Act

It is a standard practice all over the world that the burden of proving one's status as a bonafide citizen of a country falls on the accused. It is so for India as well under Foreigners Act, 1946. Political expediency forced the Government to make an exception for Assam. In one of the most short-sighted and anti-national moves, India passed the Illegal Migrants - Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act of 1984 for Assam. It shifted the onus of proving the illegal status of a suspected immigrant on to the accuser, which was a tall and virtually impossible order. Detection and deportation of illegal immigrants became impossible.

Whenever demands were raised for repealing the Act, the Congress, the Left Front and the United Minorities Front resisted strongly. Illegal immigrants had become the most loyal vote bank of the Congress. Worse, every protest against the Act was dubbed as 'anti-minority', thereby imparting communal colour to an issue of national security. The government's 'pardon' of all Bangladeshis who had come in before 1985 was another unconstitutional act that aggravated the problem.

The Act was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on July 13, 2005, more than 20 years after its enactment. The Apex Court was of the view that the influx of Bangladeshi nationals into Assam posed a threat to the integrity and security of northeastern region. Unfortunately, immense damage had already been done to the demography of Assam and the local people of Assam had been reduced to minority status in certain districts. Illegal immigrants have come to have a stranglehold over electioneering to the extent that no party can hope to come to power without their support. Nearly 30 Islamic groups are thriving in the area to further their Islamist and Pan-Bangladesh agenda. It is incomprehensible that a nation's leadership can stoop so low and endanger even national security for garnering votes.

Are we any wiser today?

Two features are common to all the above mentioned blunders.

First, all decisions were taken by the political leadership and the bureaucracy. The military leadership was neither taken into confidence nor consulted. As a matter of fact, it was deliberately kept out of the decision-making loop. Although the military is entrusted with the main role in maintaining India's nuclear prowess, it was not considered necessary to take it it into confidence while taking decisions of strategic proportions.

Both Tashkent and Shimla Agreements were preceded by bitterly-fought wars. They entailed negotiating the extent, scope and modalities of withdrawal from occupied areas. Even then, no need was felt to seek military advice and no service officer was included in the Indian delegations. Political leaders and the bureaucracy abrogated the right to negotiate military matters in the egoistic belief that they were more qualified for the task. The results were disastrous, as mentioned above.

The second common feature is that no political leader or bureaucrat was ever held accountable for monumental blunders made by them. On the contrary, every single bureaucrat made it to the higher grades and was even given lucrative post-retirement appointments.

It is an obnoxious sight to see the men guilty of the above blunders masquerading as foreign policy experts on TV shows and unabashedly offering their pearls of wisdom.

The above mentioned seven indefensible blunders have had an enormous impact on the security, standing and history of India.

Future generations will rue the fact that the Indian leadership failed the nation at critical junctures due to their incompetence, ineptitude and selfish interests. Their proclivity for perpetuating personal power made them shortsighted and egocentric. But for the historical blunders, the current Indian geo-political scenario would have been totally different.

Has India learnt any lesson?

Unfortunately, none whatsoever.

Even now, the military leadership is consciously and willfully kept out of all decision-making processes.

Even issues that affect security of the nation are decided by the bureaucrats who do not possess even elementary knowledge of military matters.

It is only in India that well-connected, retired bureaucrats are offered membership of the National Security Council (NSC) as a rehabilitation measure. Merit and expertise are of little consequence.

Further, India is perhaps the only country in the world wherein NSC does not have a single military member. Bureaucrats and ex-police officers have made NSC their exclusive domain, thereby depriving the nation of expert military advice.

Such recurring blunders will continue to cost the country dear.

Major General Mrinal Suman, AVSM, VSM, PhD, commanded an Engineer Regiment on the Siachen Glacier, the most hostile battlefield in the world. A highly qualified officer (B Tech, MA (Public Administration), MSc (Defence Studies) and a Doctorate in Public Administration) he was also the Task Force Commander at Pokhran and was responsible for designing and sinking shafts for the nuclear tests of May 1998.

Listen with Care

2010-07-15T22:49:00.000+05:30

A teacher teaching Maths to five-year-old student asked him, "If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have? "Within a few seconds the student replied confidently, "Four!"

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three). She was disappointed. "Maybe the child did not listen properly," she thought. She repeated, "My boy, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?"

The student had seen the disappointment on his teacher's face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy. This time hesitatingly he replied, "FourÃ¢â‚¬Â¦"

The disappointment stayed on the teacher's face. She remembered that this student liked strawberries. She thought maybe he doesn't like apples and that is making him loose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, "If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?"

Seeing the teacher happy, the boy calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed. With a hesitating smile the student enquired, "Three?"

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself. But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, "Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?"

Promptly the student answered, "Four!"

The teacher was aghast. "How my boy, how?" she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice. In a voice that was low and hesitating young student replied, "Because I already have one apple in my bag."

Moral of the Story:

When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect, don't think they are wrong. There maybe an angle that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined notion

God and Science

2010-07-14T10:36:00.001+05:30

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty.
He asks one of his new students to stand and.....

Prof:
So you believe in God?

Student:

Absolutely, sir.

Prof

: Is God good?

Student:

Sure.

Prof:

Is God all-powerful?

Student

: Yes.

Prof:
My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him.
Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?

(Student is silent.)

Prof:
You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?

Student:

Yes.

Prof:

Is Satan good?

Student

: No.

Prof:
Where does Satan come from?

Student:

From...God...

Prof:
That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student:

Yes.

Prof:
Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?

Student:

Yes.

Prof:

So who created evil?

(Student does not answer.)

Prof:
Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?

Student:

Yes, sir.

Prof:

So, who created them?

(Student has no answer.)

Prof:
Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you.
Tell me, son...Have you ever

seen God?

Student:

No, sir.

Prof:
Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student:

No, sir.

Prof:
Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?

Student:
No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof:
Yet you still believe in Him?

Student:

Yes.

Prof:
According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist.
What do you say to that, son?

Student:
Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof:
Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.

Student:
Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof:

Yes.

Student:
And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof:

Yes.

Student:
No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student
: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat.
But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go

any further after that.
There is no such thing as cold . Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of

heat
. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy . Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it .
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre..)

Student:
What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Prof:
Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?

Student :
You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright
light, flashing light....But if
you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In
reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make
darkness darker, wouldn't you?

Prof:
So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student:
Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof:
Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student:
Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it..
Now tell me, Professor.Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof:
If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student:
Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)

Student:
Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class is in uproar.)

Student:
Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student
: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain,sir.
With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof:
I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.

Student:
That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

Railroad tracks

2010-07-14T09:05:00.000+05:30

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/ procedure/ process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?' , you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything.. . and CURRENT Horses Asses in Washington and New Delhi are controlling everything else

The Chain of Commandy

2010-07-09T06:01:00.000+05:30

THE CHAIN OF "COMMAND"

THE following was written some years before the war (I found the article on Page 248 of The Naval Review, Vol 2, 1941), and was intended to illustrate a dangerous tendency which the writer thought he detected in the Service at that time. It is obviously not applicable to-day. (Possibly in our case it still is!):

SCENE I

Able Seaman: "I don't much care for the marmalade which is served out to us, Sir. If I put in a complaint, do you think that we could have a different sort of marmalade sometimes?"

Divisional Officer: “Some of you men are never satisfied. I have never heard such a frivolous complaint. The marmalade you are getting is excellent and I don't see why you should want anything different. I will mention the matter to the commander, but I have no doubt that he will chew your head off. That will be the end of the matter."

SCENE II

Divisional Officer: "Able Seaman Jones in No. 5 mess, Sir, does not like the marmalade that is issued and wishes to put in a complaint about it."

Commander: “Tell Able Seaman Jones to go to the devil! When first I came to sea there was no such thing as marmalade, and he is very lucky to have any at all. I suppose I had better tell the Captain about it as he is very anxious to have all complaints properly ventilated; but it certainly won't go any further."

SCENE III

Commander: “There is an able seaman in No. 5 mess, Sir, who wishes to put in a complaint about the marmalade. He thinks that what is issued is unsatisfactory and that there ought to be more variety."

Captain: “I will not have these frivolous complaints, Commander. They are an indication of an undisciplined ship. This able seaman should be severely dealt with. However, as I do not like to neglect the smallest thing which can add to the comfort of the men under my command I will report the matter to the Commander-in-Chief; but I am certain it will stop there."

SCENE IV

Commander-in-Chief: "Ah, Captain, about that matter of the marmalade, concerning which you wrote to me, of course my private opinion is that it is all nonsense. The marmalade, as supplied, is excellent, and as good as that which I have on my own table. You must really prevent your men putting forward such childish complaints. However, as I am always anxious to do anything in my power for the benefit of the ships' companies serving under my flag, I have forwarded your letter to the Admiralty, but I have no doubt that it will have short shift when it gets there."

SCENE V

A Sea Lord, studying an Admiralty docket on which three departments have minuted "No objection” and two others have added unhelpful platitudes, telephones to the Commander-in-Chief:-

"About the able seaman in the Non Such who wants better marmalade; of course, privately, I think the whole thing is absurd and the complaint should have been squashed at an early stage. However, just to oblige you, we will forward it to the Treasury to see what they think about it; but I am afraid there is not a hope."

SCENE VI

The Sea Lord's telephone rings and a voice speaks: -

"This is Mr A from the Treasury speaking. With reference to the Admiralty's request for an improved brand of marmalade to be included in the ration for naval ratings; we should have been delighted to have agreed; but most unfortunately the cost has proved to be quite prohibitive. It has been calculated that the increase to the naval estimates will be of the order of £123 4s 5d in the current financial year and £678 9s 10d in an average financial year. We are very sorry, but we are certain that Parliament would never consent to this and there might even be questions in the House about it."

The Sea Lord: "Thank goodness, someone has the guts to say 'No!' "

Military Leadership A Slim View

2010-07-04T09:53:00.005+05:30

MILITARY LEADERSHIP( Courtesy Brig R Kukreja)
1. In all my professional readings on Military Leadership I have not come across a better piece than Field Marshal Sir William "Bill" Slim's address to officers at Fort Knox USA on Leadership during a visit to that country .

2. I am reproducing it below. Courage, willpower, initiative, knowledge and ------ self sacrifice.

3. now we know why the Team Most Fine is special. Read On.

LEADERSHIP

Field Marshal Sir William Slim, GBE, KCB, DSO, MC

(Taken from an address delivered to Officers at Fort Knox, U.S.A., during a visit to that country)

I have chosen to speak to you on leadership but I am a little diffident for two reasons. The first is, that if anybody who has had any command, talks about leadership, he is awfully inclined to talk about himself and that gets horribly boring. I shall try not to, but I probably shall. The second thing is that I have very often sat where you are now sitting, and to get up at this time in the morning to come and listen to a foreign General talking about something that lot of people have talked to me about already is not really my idea of a happy morning.

Now you are all officers, and the be-all and end-all of an officer is to be a leader. You have your men in your own hands, under your own eyes, and that is the basis of leadership-your handling of men. I have been very lucky in my service. In getting on for forty years of service, I have commanded everything from a section of six men to an army group of a million and a quarter, and, believe me, while it gets sometimes more difficult and sometimes easier, the bigger your command, the essentials of command and leadership are always the same. It does not matter whether you command ten men or ten million men. If you ask me to define what leadership is, I should say it is the projection of your own personality so that you get men to do what you want them to do even if they aren't very keen on doing it themselves. Leadership is the most intensely personal thing there is in the world, because leadership is just plain you. I have told you that leadership is the projection of your personality, so it is not much good starting off to be a leader unless you have got personality, and you have got to have a certain kind of personality. In that personality, you must have certain qualities. The first of these is courage, the next is will power, the third is initiative and the fourth is knowledge-courage, willpower, initiative and knowledge. If you do not have those, you will not make a leader, and I would like, if you will allow me, to talk for a moment or two about these qualities.

First of all, courage......An officer requires something more than mere physical courage. He must have that. You must take the lead when it is most dangerous. The officer must accept the greatest hazards, but, in addition to the ordinary physical courage, an officer is required to have courage of two kinds, much more than the men he leads. Now the first thing that an officer must have is the courage that goes on. A British soldier is no braver than a German, or an Italian, or an Arab, or a Persian, or anybody else, but he is, thank God, brave for a little bit longer, and that is the kind of bravery that the officer has to have. You have to go on being brave. Any body can be brave for five minutes, but it takes something to go on being brave for five weeks. That is what the officer has to do, that is what his men look for that when things are bad, they look to the officer. We can all get along all right when we are winning. I am a hell of a general when I am winning, but I have not always been winning. If you have been a British general at the beginning of a war, you will know what I mean. There always comes a time when things go wrong -when your airplays are shot out of the sky; when your guns run out of ammunition; when it is cold and it's wet and your men are hungry, and when a chap’s heart sinks down into his empty belly. When that happens, it doesn't matter whether you are the general commanding an army or the officer commanding a platoon or a section, you will find-a lot of you have found it-you will find there comes a pause and your men just look at you. They want to know what to do, and they look to you to tell them, to lead them. That is the test of an officer- the test of leadership, and you won't pass that test unless you have thought of if and practised it. Sometimes is it very difficult , it has happened to me-men have looked at me to see what I was going to say and I have not known what the hell to say.

I stepped out of a tank once which was the only means of communication I had, and standing outside that tank there were three of my subordinate commanders, a couple of staff officers, and one or two other chaps. The situation was bad. We had a division cut off and nothing to get it out with. It didn't look as if we should last very long, and, as I stepped out, I saw those fellows waiting. They didn't do anything-they just looked at me. I didn't know what the hell to say, but I had to say something to cheer them up, so I said "Well, Gentlemen, it might be worse," and one those fellows said "how?" The only thing I could think of answering was "Well, it might be raining", and by golly in an hour it was. Well, I don't hold that up to you as an example of leadership, but it is the sort of thing that does occur, the sort of thing you have to steel yourself against-that moment when the courage and morale of the men you lead falters, and you, the officer, it doesn't matter whether you have one bar on your shoulder or a couple of eagles- you are the man who has got to put that courage and that morale back into them. For that, you need a long-term courage. The other kind of courage that you have to show as on officer is moral courage. Moral courage, believe me, is a much rarer thing than physical courage, much rarer, All men I have know who have had moral courage have had physical courage as well. I can give you a very small example of moral courage in your everyday life. A junior officer passes an enlisted man that doesn't salute him. The officer has seen it; he knows the man ought to have saluted him, but he doesn't say anything, doesn't say anything because, first of all, perhaps he is a bit shy and he doesn't say anything because he is afraid that if he stops this big husky doughboy, he may get a bit of lip from him, and then there is trouble. The real reason why he doesn't do what he knows he ought to do, is that he is frightened that he doesn’t have the moral courage to do it. You want to start young and practice it, because unless you have moral courage, you won't be much good as an officer.

The second quality I talked about was willpower. Your job as an officer is to make decisions, to tell people what to do. Well, it is not very difficult sometimes to know what you want to do; the difficulty is to get an order or make plans that you want carried through, you will find there are an awful lot of things that will turn up to oppose it. First, there is the enemy. Well, that is all right; you expect them to be like that. I remember a long time ago in the First World War in 1915, when they kept on asking us for reports. We were up in a front line trench and they sent us up a big form to fill in. One of the questions was, “ What is the attitude of the enemy?" One of the young officers in my regiment filled that in as 'hostile'. The form was sent back to him with a reprimand, and he was told to fill it is again. He sent it back altered to 'still hostile'. You expect opposition from the enemy, but you will get it from all sorts of other places as well. You will get opposition from your own side; you will get opposition from people who want to do it in another way; you will get opposition from your own staff, especially your administrative or logistical staff, who, in my experience, jolly good chaps as they are, always tell you that anything you want to do is quite impossible. Of course, too, you will get opposition from your allies. When you fight in the next war, you will probably fight with allies, and some of them will be worse than the British. Allies are frightful people. They are narrow-minded. They can’t see the big picture. They have extraordinary ways of doing things,, really they don’t appreciate how broad-minded, how sound, and how big-hearted you are. When you begin to feel like that-and you will-I used to sometimes when I was discussing things with Joe Stilwell-when, you feel like that just remind yourself that you are an ally too. All you have to do is to walk around and sit on the other side of the table and you will look just like that to the fellow sitting opposite you. When you have realised that start again, and you will get on all right. As a commander, you will have all this opposition, opposition of every kind, and you have to have the strength and will to break it down and force your plan through. Without strength of will, a commander is no use at all. However, there is a trap in it. I have seen some very good fellows fall down on it. You have to distinguish between what is just plump obstinacy and strength of will. You must keep a flexibility of mind so that you can change your mind when it is necessary. That is one of the trickiest things to do, and when you solve the problems of keeping a balance between strength of will and determination and flexibility of mind, you are well on the way to being quite a big chap. However, willpower is an essential of any commander.

The next thing I said you need is initiative, which is very simple. It simply means that you don’t sit down, do nothing, and wait for something to happen, because, if you do that in war, it will happen all right, and it will be most unpleasant. The way an officer shows initiative really depends on how, much he thinks ahead. Your job is to be several jumps ahead of your men. If you are a platoon or a section commander, you probably think only half an hour ahead. If you are a company commander, it may be a matter of hours; a battalion commander, perhaps a day; and if you are an army commander, you are probably thinking three months ahead. The higher you go, the further ahead you must think, but whatever you are; whatever your rank, you have got to think ahead of your men. That is the way you will get initiative; that is the only way you will make things happen instead of just have them happen to you. So think ahead, and keep the initiative. The fourth quality is knowledge. Now you and I set us up to be officers. You have bars and leaves and stars on your shoulders, and I have a thing on mine you have never seen before, but it all means that we are officers . We have no business to set ourselves up as officers at all unless we know more about the job than the men we are leading. If you are a junior officer commanding a small sub unit, you ought to be able to do everything that you ask any man to do better than he can do it himself. If you can't, just go out behind the hut and practice until you can...

You will see here in this school of yours all sorts of things which will make you more efficient killers and more efficient soldiers, but the whole lot isn't worth two-pence if the men who handle it aren't right, and if the men who handle it are not properly led. The first bit of knowledge you have got to get, if you set yourself up as a leader, is how to deal with men. Get to know your men; learn which man is the sort of fellow that needs a little encouraging; which responds when you go around your posts at night, and put your hands on his shoulder and talk to him about his home town; which man wants barking at and which is occasionally the sort of fellow who wants a good kick up behind. Know your men! The basis of all leadership is knowledge of men.

If you have these qualities that I have given you –these qualities of courage, willpower, initiative, and knowledge-you will be a leader. People will follow you, but there is something else that you have got to have-something that will make men follow you when things go wrong. If you have these four qualities you will be a leader, but you won't be a good leader and you won't be a leader for good or for long. You have to have one more quality, and that is self-sacrifice. If you have the quality of self -sacrifice, your men will follow you not only in good times, that is easy, but in hard bad times.

I remember after a bit of a battle-one of the many battles I lost-I was told that a particular battalion had not done well, and so I went along to see why. I found this battalion just behind the battle line, where they had been brought out. The men were sitting about . They were very, very tired, very dirty, a lot of them were wounded. They were hungry and miserable. I looked around, walking amongst those men, I could not see an officer anywhere, and I thought, as sometimes happened, all the officers had been killed. I went around a corner and I found a little bunch of officers. They were siting there having a meal, and they were having a meal before their men had fed. Then I knew why that was a bad battalion. You, as officers, you will put the honour of your country and of your unit first; you will put the well being the comfort and safety of your men second and your will put your own comfort, your own well being last and last all of the time.

If ever you have that kind of leadership with that ingredient of self-sacrifice in it, then your men will follow you anywhere. The sorts of men you lead are worth that. Now I have talked long though, I will end by saying one thing, as a rather old officer to a lot of younger officers, and that is this. In the Army......there are no good regiments and there are no bad regiments, there are only good and bad officers. See to it that you are good officers.

- This article was originally published in the July 1951 issue of the Infantry

(India).

Make the world eco-friendly through MSN Green Drag n’ drop

The Young Officer and Staff Duties

2010-07-04T09:53:00.004+05:30

The Young Officer and Staff Duties

By Michael M. O'Leary, Captain, The RCR

Time, time, and the saving of it, should be the soul of every order and instruction, of every report and of every message. - J.F.C. Fuller, 1943

The line officer despises the lowly "staff officer," and rues the day he might become one himself. But every officer, regardless of rank, position, or responsibilities requires the fundamental skills on which the capable staff officer depends. These skills are best acquired when opportunity presents at the most junior levels, for they are much more difficult to master (or fake) if early years of commissioned rank are spent avoiding putting pen to paper, for this, when dealing with the bureaucracy on behalf of one's troops, is where the rubber meets the road.

Even the most enthusiastic platoon commander, between assaulting enemy objectives and leading troops to hell and back, must be ready to write a brief, comprehensive and clear memorandum ensuring one of those troops for which he is responsible receives an entitled benefit or is identified for an opportunity. Whether writing Performance Evaluation Reports, letters of recommendation, Summary Investigations, or requests for adventure training funds, young officers are never far from occasions requiring the development of their personal military writing skills. As painful as it may seem at the time, each time a Company 2IC, OC or Adjutant, bleeds red ink over a carefully crafted memo it should be seen not as a condemnation of effort, but as a chance to refine one's abilities. No less important than indications of MPI and individual hits on a rifle range are to an infantry rifleman.

Officers who write well spend less time fighting the bureaucracy and more time training with resources they managed to convince the staff to provide them. Those who see staff duties as a dead or unneeded art spend a lot of time running in circles and finding things unobtainable when the good old boy net fails them. Easy to set the blame on those others when one's own staffwork is non-existent, even if it means you've set aside one's own commitment to doing the best for the troops.

In this age of e-mail and instantaneous passage of information and queries, it is hard to develop a concrete understanding that good staff duties are as important as ever. Let me set forth one example:

In the days of hand-written drafts, and clerk-typed correspondence, a staff officer might take a day or two to mull over the perfect wording for a set of four or five questions to another unit or headquarters. Passing this to a clerk, it might be a day or two before the typed version of the draft was returned. By then, the staff officer had time to consider the issue, and then to view the content, structure and tone of the letter with fresh eyes. Amendments might be in order, to either remove or insert points, or even to completely alter the tone or format of the letter. Extra work for the clerk perhaps, but it did ensure that the final product was as good as the staff officer could produce - in this case the staff officer's contribution was the intellectual effort to create and revise the document, the clerk's was to prepare it in the requested format.

With external correspondence, most units had a very limited number of appointments who could sign letters leaving the unit lines. And this limitation in itself ensured due focus on the preparation of correspondence because senior eyes would see the product before it was signed and dispatched.

Contrast this to today's methods. The staff officer sitting at his desk, able to immediately dispatch a question by e-mail to any other staff or line officer with instantaneous delivery. Now the officer, on conjuring his first (of the four or so) questions, sends an e-mail to his lateral counterpart. Perhaps he adds an info addressee or two to ensure they are aware of the request. Later he derives his second question, and another e-mail follows in the wake of the first. Shortly, there's another. The next day, sober second thought wants to revise or combine questions already sent, perhaps already answered or rejected for the very reason an amendment is desired. Responses may have their own alternate info addressees. It's not hard to imagine the information morass that can quickly be created by a too hasty approach in using available technology with what is literally a lower degree of applied intellectual effort than the pace of the predecessor staff process allowed.That letter was then sealed in an envelope and mailed. A week, or so, in transit, time for the recipient to absorb its content, a week or so to staff a response. Perhaps a month might go by before the sender bothered to call looking for confirmation that a response was on its way (excepting of course emergency requests or imposed deadlines).

The point here is not so much the imbalance between effective execution and advancing technology, but in the loss of focus on the importance of credible staff processes and good staff work. Imagine the difficulty in sorting out the ensuing problems if this contrived information morass is dealing with a pay or leave problem for one of your soldiers, or an exercise ration plan. Use the technology to streamline delivery and development processes, don't permit it's sense of immediacy to overrule common sense deliberation in the creation of staff work.

Being a good staff officer, either as a primary function (like the Adjutant), or in support of a line job (like a platoon commander submitting training requests), doesn't have to mean you have to like it. Effective staff officers seldom have to do things twice, or spend time sorting out their own paperwork messes. They get to spend more time with their troops, or working on other staff projects that benefit their units, because the routine administration was done right the first time. Clear staff writing that achieves a desired effect or response is as important to the fighting efficiency of a unit as skill at arms. It ensures beans and bullets are where they need to be in the right quantities, that troops have minimal lost training time for administrative reasons and that intentions and goals are well defined in support of the training requirement.

The education of officers has never been more highly proclaimed as an essential requirement for commanders. This requirement, however, to be useful, must also be expressed in ways that support and forward the intellectual development of the army as a whole. It is one thing for an officer to continue his own intellectual development through personal study, but the effects of this are limited if he is unable to concisely express the synthesis of original thought in military matters to his peers, subordinates, and the Army as a whole. The mechanism by which this must be done is the written word. Expansion of the body of knowledge particular to the direction of doctrine, process and technology in use by our Army can only be achieved by personnel who are able to express these new ideas in a form readily digestible by others. Despite their modern appeal as methods to communicate with the masses, sound bites, vertiginous PowerPoint presentations or single screen web pages with dancing penguins are no way to further the sharing of knowledge. The officer who effectively develops his staff skills will also be able to craft credible position papers on any matter of technology or process within his expertise.

There's no such thing as a "natural" staff officer. The skills to write well must be learned, though some may pick it up sooner than others, there is no substitute for practice, even when this requires subjecting one's work to the editing depredations of a cranky old Adjutant. Like many painful training experiences, this is best experienced while young; unlike others, the scars are usually invisible and do not support good Happy Hour "war stories."

How Military Values hold Meaning for the Corporate World

2010-07-04T09:53:00.002+05:30

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

How Military Values hold Meaning for the Corporate World

Navinder Narang

Economic Times, an Indian National Daily, recently covered a news item on the rising popularity of recruiting military officers for leadership roles in the corporate sector. It is easy to understand how someone whose leadership skills were honed in combat would be more qualified for leadership than the candidate whose only leadership test could have been winning the school summer camp obstacle race.

The correlation between military service and leadership ability is well documented. Studies show that companies with military leaders outperform their peers.Many of our nation's most respected companies have discovered a source for talent that traditional recruiting methods often overlook - the men and women of our Armed Services. The leadership skills, core values, integrity, and work ethic of our military transition members provide a bridge to span the leadership gap in our current workforce.

There are seven core values associated with the military: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honour, Integrity and Personal Courage. Let us examine each military value for its usefulnes to the corporate world.

Loyalty - Bear true faith and allegiance to the Nation, the Army, and other soldiers.

This means showing your faith in your organisation, your leaders and your colleagues. People want to know they can trust you. And you want the same reassurances from others.

Duty - Fulfill your obligations. Accept responsibility for your actions and those entrusted to your care. Find opportunities to improve oneself for the good of the unit.

You've got a job to do and people depend on you to get it done. If someone needs help, give it to them. If you need help, seek it from your peers. Be consistent in action and deed.

Respect - Treat people as they should be treated.

How we consider others reflects upon each of us, both personally and as a professional organization. Act courteously toward customers, colleagues and seniors. If you disagree with an opinion or point of view, challenge the position, but avoid the personal attack. Remember that your actions speak volumes about yourself and your business or organization.

Selfless Service - Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.

Selfless service leads to organizational teamwork and encompasses discipline, self-control and faith in the system.Take care of your co-workers. Go the 'extra mile' for your customers and clients, even if gains you nothing more than some personal satisfaction. Volunteer to take on the tough job, or the mundane job that others avoid.

Honour - Live up to all the Army values.

Live up to the values of your business. Act accordingly, and others will recognize you as an individual of principled character. Don't fall into the trap of, "but I just did what others did before me". Given the choice, take the 'high road'. Distinguish yourself from those who would be satisfied to do less.

Integrity - Do what is right, legally and morally.

Ask yourself, "Is this the right thing to do? How does it reflect on who I am?" If your inner voice is sounding the alarm, it's doing so for a good reason. Avoid shortcuts, cheats, or otherwise doing less than what is expected. Don't compromise yourself, your friends, family or business for some short-term satisfaction. Integrity offers long-term rewards that can't be acquired any other way.

Personal Courage - Face fear, danger, or adversity with physical and moral courage.

Is a boss asking you to do something questionable? Been in a group that disparages a certain race or ethnicity? It may be safer to go along with the crowd, or do nothing at all. It takes inner strength to stand up to peer pressure and moral dilemmas. It's easy to be a follower - anyone can do that. True leadership requires all of one's audacity, nerve and 'guts' to negotiate the difficult roads that lie before us.

Yes, these men and women who wish to launch their second careers have battle proven leadership ability. But even more importantly they have honour. And the courage to do what is right, even if there is risk of casualties. They are worthy of respect and worthy of trust. They are ready to lead, with integrity.

And they are looking to leading their way to the corner office instead of capturing the hill.

Memos From Your Child

2010-04-24T08:01:00.001+05:30

Memos From Your Child

Don't spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not to have all I ask for ... I'm only testing you.
Don't be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it .. it makes me feel more secure.
Don't correct me in front of people if you can help it. I'll take much more notice if you talk to me in private.
Don't make me feel that my mistakes are sins. It upsets my sense of values.
Don't be too upset if I say "I hate you." It isn't that I hate you, but only that I need your attention.
Don't protect me from consequence. I need to learn the hard way.
Don't take too much notice of my small ailment. Sometimes they get me the attention I want.
Don't nag. If you do, I shall have to protect myself by appearing deaf.
Don't make rash promises. Remember that I feel badly let down when promises are broken.
Don't forget that I cannot explain myself as well as I should like. This is why I'm not always accurate.
Don't tax my honesty too much. I am easily frightened into telling lies.
Don't be inconsistent. That completely confuses me and makes me lose my faith in you.
Don't put me off when I ask you questions. If you do, you will find that I stop asking and seek my information elsewhere.
Don't tell me my fears are silly. They are terribly real and you can do much to try to understand.
Don't ever suggest that you are perfect or infallible. It gives me too great a shock when I discover that you are neither.
Don't ever think it beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An honest apology makes me feel surprisingly warm to you.
Don't forget how quickly I am growing up. It must be very difficult for you to keep pace with me but please try.
Don't forget I love experimenting. I couldn't get along without it, so please put up with it.
Don't forget that I can't thrive without lots of love. But I don't need to tell you all the time, do I?

__._,_.___

views of an Officer's daughter

2009-12-22T21:26:00.000+05:30

A very nice piece I received from one of the forces groups – thought it deserved to be forwarded. Unfortunately the lady’s email ID is not mentioned, or one could have congratulated her on her thoughts.

Rohit

Absolutely genuine views of an Officer's daughter!

It's very simple. A military coup, that is. One collective word
is all it needs to convert this nation from a democratic country to a
progressive economy with martial law. The armed forces will take over the
nation, and no one can do a thing about it. Not the police force, not
Manmohan Singh(=Sonia Gandhi), not A.K. Antony. No one. A movement will
arise so suddenly and with the fury of a raging tsunami, that it will
rewrite India's future, inject discipline in the blood of every Indian,
unscrew unopened bottles of potential and terrorise the intestines out of
those who dare to oppose them or irrigate the minds of others with vile
thoughts. Corruption will be eliminated 90% and progress will double..
Indeed, the souls of our forefathers who fought for real freedom, will rest
whole-heartily under this military control. Ironic, but true.

The question here is, why won't they do it?

Let me tell you what bothers me. I am the 19 year old daughter of a retired
government servant, an army officer to be specific (note the 'Servant'..
absolutely true in case of the armed forces)

My father, who retired as a Colonel, is not a receiver of the PVSM, AVSM,
VSM, or even the VC for that matter. He was a part of the army, served an
ordinary Colonel's role, did not jump in front of a bullet to save his men,
or plan an intelligent strategy to capture some enemy territory. He was a
part of both major wars with Pakistan and China, returned without being a
decorated war hero, served in regiments in both borders, saw extreme weather
conditions and backward technology and most importantly, he enjoyed and took
immense pride in doing all this and serving the nation.

Yet, I feel my father is a greater man than many 'greats' in this nation.
Shahrukh Khan, or Pratibha Patil,to begin with:neither of them have
sacrificed more than a sleepless night or compromised on their Saturday
morning sleep for the nation.

I don't blame you for saying, 'Oh, she's an army officer's daughter,
obviously that's why she's biased'. I don't deny it. It is true. I am
biased. And I want every single person in this country, if not the world to
be biased. I can only tell you what it is like to have seen these people up,
close and personal, to have heard true incidents of bravery and selflessness
and then know they're are being paid peanuts, to sacrifice their lives
without hesitation for the nation.

When I was 16, my family took a holiday to Arunachal Pradesh, to the
regiment where my father had been in command, more than 20 years ago. From a
scenic , quaint little town called Tenga, on the banks of a gushing river,
we travelled to a snow desert near the Chinese border called Bumla. Here, in
the middle of nowhere, one could see a small board stuck in the ice reading
'Welcome to India'. For as far as our eyes could see in all four directions,
there was nothing but snow. Beside that board stood a guard, probably of
south Indian origin, in 6 layers of clothing, a giant wind-cheater and the
heaviest pair of snow-boots imaginable, against constant rapid winds,
endless lengths and immense depths of ice, pacing an abandoned minefield
from the 1962 war, looking through a telescope at Chinese vantage points to
track enemy positions and moves.

He didn't opt to be there, but when he chose the forces as a career he knew
what he would be facing, and he faces it with valour, for he has the
patriotism that you and I and many of our politicians lack. Tomorrow he may
die in battle, but I know for sure, that no one who has joined the forces
will ever regret taking up that profession. If he dies in an act of bravery,
he will most probably be awarded a VC or PVC medal for the same,
posthumously. Then the government might give his family a lump sum and/or a
measly monthly stipend of Rs.850 to Rs.1500. I ask you, is that all this
man's life is worth?

What about a serving soldier? He mostly hails from small areas or rural
backgrounds with an uneducated wife and 2 children back in his village
alone.Typical, but true. This man, who has time in the forward areas only to
eat, sleep and watch the enemy, hardly sees his family. His entire salary is
sent back home to his spouse, who faces the brunt of yet again uneducated
parents-in-law ready to blame her for anything that happens to their son. In
such a situation, a soldier's wife receiving the pitiful salary of her
husband will be left an orphan in the middle of the road, simply for the
lack of money.

Then, these war heroes, and martyrs are forgotten within minutes, no, wait,
seconds of their death. No one forgets to come for the Republic Day parade
,or to place that wreath they didn't order on the grave of some memorial
they don't know was built for what on Independence day. Just because it is
protocol. Protocol to 'remember' (or forget?) these people on these 'days'
meant for our nation, to 'remember' them for the 30 seconds it takes you to
read patriotic forwards and messages in your in boxes on email and on your
cellphone.

Like a 90-year old war veteran said, I guess it's the forces who are to be
blamed. Right from the 3rd pay commission-who screwed up royally- the three
forces have always put the pride of serving the nation over money. I guess
it's their fault they didn't demand it then.

My father and I have been discussing this issue for a while now, and my
blood boils, every single time I see our so-called Defence minister
Mr.A.K.Antony defending his stupidity on a podium which he does not deserve.
Have you for a minute stopped and thought about why you at home are able to
enjoy your evening spent listening to your iPod, or watching a DVD on your
42-inch LCD? It is because you live in India, where the borders, threatened
by invasion every second, are guarded constantly, by the watchful eyes of
some 27-year old son of a mother who sits far away in a remote town, praying
consciously every second for the safety of her son. If that guard decided to
look away for even a minute, he would be dead, within seconds, and there
would be an invasion leading to chaos everywhere. Soon, India would become a
replicate Iraq, pandemonium prevailing,where you would need the permission
of your invaders to even use the toilet, which under normal circumstances
would be your birthright.

Sometimes it's scary, how something so simple and routine is linked to
something so complex and out of hand. From all of you who saw these reports
of the military's peaceful war against the government on television, some of
you changed the channel since it didn't concern you, some saw the report and
took it in as general knowledge, and some burnt rage over it for a few
seconds. Those whose blood still boils, would be the ones who have actually
some patriotism left in their blood.

Am I being too philosophical for a nineteen year old? Most of you might say
yes, but I say, why not? You would too, if you saw the fire in the eyes of
these people the way I do.

And what is it, with Mr.Antony's comment on discipline? I'm sorry Mr.Antony,
but you politicians, who hit each other with chappals, and microphones, use
unparliamentary language in the parliament, come half an hour late to a
meeting, and do not know the words of the national anthem, are talking about
discipline.Please, don't make me laugh.Or with the panel that is enquiring
the pay commission having IAS officers in it!? Why don't we have a separate
pay commission for the Military like most other countries do? Why do we have
to put up with a cock-eyed system? Why does a DGP get paid almost twice as
much as his equivalent in the forces? Why does the army have to replace the
fire-brigade, police force and everyone else, when it is specifically
mentioned that the forces are only for training during peace and attack
during war. Why does the government involve the forces in flood relief ,
earthquake relief, tsunami relief, and more recently, rescuing of children
fallen in pits? Then to put the cherry on the icing, you pay them in a pay
scale adopted in 1948?

I have faced and will face a lot of criticism for my views.As some of my
friends say, we do get good rations, accommodation and cheaper FMCGs and
alcohol. Rations and accommodation -anyone in a decent government service
gets that. Cheaper FMCGs- The least the government can do is to remove the
taxes off the MRP of many products and make it available to the average
soldier, who in return is willing to pay the price of his life for his
nation. Cheap alcohol- yes, a bottle of rum is relatively cheaper. Why don't
you spend one year of your life to replace a soldier in snowy altitudes, in
nothing but a tent or in the blistering heat of the Thar with the only wind
bringing sandstorms along with it or in the jungles of Nagaland with the
leeches sucking your blood out and I'm sure ANY soldier you replace to give
him precious time with his family will gladly give you all the rum he can
ever get in his life, simply so you don't die of exhaustion and depression
and actually live to tell your tale.Simply, so you can survive.

Let me remind you (non)patriotic souls, that the life of a person in the
armed forces is one filled with dignity and pride, and I believe it should
reflect in how much s/he is paid, for glamour and corruption rule the roost
today, and that bias will take our country nowhere.

Hoping for the best to come for our brave men and women..

JAI HIND.
--
Vaishnavi Prasad

Rohit Agarwal

9868967224

http://jottingsofmine.blogspot.com

http://www.goodnewz.in

http://www.linkedin.com/in/1agarwal

! PaUNa-mad: PaUNa-imad\ma pUNa-at\ pUNaa-maud\cCyato .

pUNa-sya pUrmaaVa pUNa-maovaaiSaYyato .

Absolute perfection comes from the absolute.

That which is well built
will never be torn down.
That which is well latched
can not slip away.
Those who do things well
will be honored from generation to generation.

(Tao Te Ching)

Good but Tough to Practice

2009-11-11T11:45:00.001+05:30

Too Good but Tough to Practice

1) Apologizing doesn't mean that (apologetic? ????) You are wrong and the other is right. It only means that you value the relationship more than your ego....

2) If everything is going according to your wish, then you are lucky...... If its not, then you are too lucky, because it is going according to Gods wish......

3) Ever noticed your parents spend the first 18 months trying to make you stand up and talk....and the next 18 years trying to make you sit down and listen?

4) Either walk as if you rule the world.... or, Walk as if you don't mind who the hell rules the world...That' s the attitude...Rock your life....

5) Confidence never comes if we have all the answers, Be ready for all the questions... .Be bold to face the world....

6) When you are depressed... When you are confused.... When you have been hurt the most...Don't ever get carried away...rather just get in front of the mirror, and there you will find the right person who could actually help you get out of this....

7) There is always a little truth behind every "just kidding" A little knowledge behind every "I don't know" A little emotion behind "I don't care"

8) Two aspect of life: If we become too sentimental, it is too hard to lead life and if we become too practical, it is too tough to respect relations... ..

9) No on in this world is afraid to speak the truth. They are afraid only about the consequences that are to be faced after speaking the truth.

10) Truth of life: What is status?? "Spending money which we don't have to buy things which we don't need....To impress people whom we don't know..."

Great Sayings

2009-10-30T19:54:00.000+05:30

Think out of the Box...For All kind of Employees

2009-10-20T13:23:00.001+05:30

Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure the effectiveness of its employees.
Employees are normally rated in most of the companies in the above categories. Apart from the above non performance category is also there, which is not depicted here ) . Needless to say everyone wants to be rated Outstanding.
What is the yard stick and how do you measure these aspects?

Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day?
The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.
"A" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said "GOOD JOB"

Next day Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.

The Employee "B' before starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank. He realized "C" has the same task.
Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross the river.
"B" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and said "VERY GOOD JOB"

The following day Employee "Q" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.

Employee "Q" before starting the work did some home work and realized "A", "B" & "C" all has done this task before. He met them and understood how they performed.
He realized that there is a need for a guide and training for doing this task.
He sat first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly.
Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with documented procedure and training material.
The manger said "Q" you have done an "EXCELLENT JOB".

The following day Employee "O' reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.

"O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole task.
He realized company is spending lot of money in getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to any one".
The manager smiled and said "Outstanding job 'O'. I am very proud of you."

What is the difference between A, B, Q & O????????
Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at play….,
Most of us end up doing what is expected out of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation.

Let us compare ourselves with "B". Helping some one else the problem often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author) "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of view "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.

"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,

Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset to the team.
If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team performance" over an above individual performance; also they have demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".

Initiative pays of every where whether at work or at personal life. If you put initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year.
The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread.
Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what every one constantly looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the stepping stone to success.
Initiative should be life long. Think of out of the box.

Self Appraisal

2009-10-04T13:48:00.001+05:30

"Self Appraisal"

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a
soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He
climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the
buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven
digits (phone numbers).

The store-owner observed and listened to the
conversation:

Boy: "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your
lawn?
Woman: (at the other end of the phone line): "I
already have someone to cut my lawn."

Boy: "Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of
the person who cuts your lawn now."
Woman: I'm very satisfied with the person who is
presently cutting my lawn.

Boy: (with more perseverance) : "Lady, I'll even sweep
your curb and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will
have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach , Florida
."
Woman: No, thank you.

With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the
receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all
this, walked over to the boy.

Store Owner: "Son... I like your attitude; I like that
positive spirit and would like to offer you a job."
Boy: "No thanks,

Store Owner: But you were really pleading for one.
Boy: No Sir, I was just checking my performance at the
job I already have. I am the one who is working for
that lady, I was talking to!"

This is what we call "Self Appraisal"

Highly Recommended. ....

Thoughts

2009-09-11T06:18:00.000+05:30

The Masters...

2009-09-04T09:19:00.005+05:30

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language was taken over by American slang and curse words and got boiled down to 4-letter words, not to mention waving middle fingers.

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, 'If you were my husband I'd give you poison,' and he said, 'If you were my wife, I'd drink it.'

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.' 'That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.'

'He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.' - Winston Churchill

'A modest little person, with much to be modest about.' - Winston Churchill

'I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. 'Clarence Darrow

'He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.' - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

'Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?' - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

'Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it.' - Moses Hadas

'I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it..' - Mark Twain

'He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.' - Oscar Wilde

'I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....

if you have one.' - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

'Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second.... if there is one.' - Winston Churchill, in response.

'I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here.' - Stephen Bishop

'He is a self-made man and worships his creator.' - John Bright

'I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial.' - Irvin S. Cobb

'He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.' - Samuel Johnson

'He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.' - Paul Keating

'There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure.' Jack E. Leonard

'They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.' - Thomas Brackett Reed

'In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.' - Charles, Count Talleyrand

Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?' - Mark Twain

'His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.' - Mae West

'Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.' - Oscar Wilde

'He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts.. . for support rather than illumination. ' - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Isn't it strange??

2009-09-04T09:19:00.003+05:30

Isn't It Strange...??

Isn’t it strange how a $100 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to the temple, but such a small amount when you go shopping?
Isn’t it strange how endless an hour seems when we are serving God, but how short it is when we watch a Football game or Cricket for 60 minutes?
Isn’t it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you’re at the temple and how short they seem when you’re watching a good movie?
Isn’t it strange that you can’t find things to say when you’re praying, but you have no trouble in thinking what to talk about with a friend?
Isn’t it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of Bhagwad Gita, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?
Isn’t it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit in the last row in the temple?
Isn’t it strange how we need to know about an event for the temple 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events at the last minute?
Isn’t it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?
Isn’t it strange how we believe everything that Magazines and Newspapers say but we question the words in the holy books like Ramayana?
Isn’t it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven, but they don’t want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?

Once upon a time...

2009-09-04T09:19:00.001+05:30

HOW TRUE

Once upon a time leadership mattered, now dealership rules the world.

*********

Once upon a time quality was craftsman's pride, now it is a departmental mess.

*********

Once upon a time mouse was an untouchable mammal, now it is handheld pest...

*********

Once upon a time wisdom was cultivated by wise people, now it is flashed on T-shirts.

*********

Once upon a time teacher taught and students learned, now teacher trade and students

consume.

*********

Once upon a time population was a problem, now it is a flourishing mass market.

*********

Once upon a time competition brought out the best, now it brings out the worst in people.

*********

Once upon a time there was a golden rule, now if you have gold, you rule.

*********

Once upon a time truth telling was good for your soul, now it is bad for promotion.

*********

Once upon a time success meant living by ideals, now it is about using above all principles.

*********

Once upon a time beauty was in the eye of the beholder, now it is booming business.

*********

Once upon a time the government was clean and s** was dirty, now one doesn't know.

Coffee Cups

2009-08-30T07:59:00.001+05:30

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other ' s cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn ' t change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

Don ' t let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead.

How True

2009-08-07T08:46:00.001+05:30

1. ATTITUDE IS WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT....... SOLDIER : SIR WE ARE SURROUNDED FROM ALL SIDES BY ENEMIES , MAJOR : EXCELLENT ! WE CAN ATTACK IN ANY DIRECTION.

2. EVERY ONE KNOWS ABOUT ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL WHO INVENTED PHONES, BUT HE NEVER MADE A CALL TO HIS FAMILY. BECAUSE HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER WERE DEAF. THAT'S LIFE " LIVE FOR OTHERS " .

3. THE WORST IN LIFE IS "ATTACHMENT " IT HURTS WHEN YOU LOSE IT. THE BEST THING IN LIFE IS " LONELINESS " BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU EVERYTHING AND WHEN YOU LOSE IT. YOU GET EVERYTHING.

4. LIFE IS NOT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO ACT TRUE TO YOUR FACE ........ ITS ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN TRUE BEHIND YOUR BACK .

5. EGG BROKEN FROM OUTSIDE FORCE........A LIFE ENDS . IF AN EGG BREAKS FROM WITHIN.......LIFE BEGINS .GREAT THINGS ALWAYS BEGAN FROM WITHIN .

6. ITS BETTER TO LOSE YOUR EGO TO THE ONE YOU LOVE. THAN TO LOSE THE ONE YOU LOVE ....... BECAUSE OF EGO .

7. A RELATIONSHIP DOESN'T SHINE BY JUST SHAKING HANDS ON BEST TIME. BUT IT BLOSSOMS BY HOLDING FIRMLY IN CRITICAL SITUATION .

8. HEATED GOLD BECOMES ORNAMENTS. BETTED COPPER BECOMES WIRES. DEPLETED STONE BECOMES STATUE.SO THE MORE PAIN YOU GET IN YOUR LIFE YOU BECOME MORE VALUABLE.

9. WHY WE HAVE SO MANY TEMPLES , IF GOD IS EVERYWHERE ? A WISE MAN SAID : AIR IS EVERYWHERE , BUT WE STILL NEED A FAN TO FEEL IT.

10. TOLERATION IS THE GREATEST GIFT OF THE MIND : IT REQUIRES THE SAME EFFORT OF THE BRAIN THAT IT TAKES TO BALANCE ONESELF ON A BICYCLE ..........

11. WHEN YOU TRUST SOMEONE TRUST HIM COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY DOUBT................ AT THE END YOU WOULD GET ONE OF THE TWO : EITHER A LESSON FOR YOUR LIFE OR A VERY GOOD PERSON.

Thoughts from great personalities

2009-06-25T20:58:00.000+05:30

Ponder over these

2009-06-11T06:08:00.000+05:30

Triple Filter Test

2009-06-03T07:47:00.000+05:30

In Ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.
One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance that ran up to him excitedly and said, 'Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students called Plato?
'Wait a moment,' Socrates replied. 'Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test'.

'Triple filter?'
That's right,' Socrates continued. 'Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first Filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?'
'No,' the man said, 'actually I just heard about it and....
'All right,' said Socrates. 'So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the Filter of Goodness.. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?'
'No, on the contrary...'

'So,' Socrates continued, 'you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?'

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. 'You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter - the Filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?'
'No, not really....'
'Well,' concluded Socrates, 'if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good, nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?'

The man was defeated and ashamed.
This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.
But it also explains why he never found out that Plato was sleeping with his wife!

Bhagwat Geeta

2009-05-29T22:22:00.001+05:30

An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson.

Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavat Geeta. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavat Geeta just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavat Geeta do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the Bhagavat Geeta. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our lives."

The Soup Story

2009-05-23T07:29:00.000+05:30

The Soup Story...

An old friend of Nasruddin once came visiting and brought along a big

chicken. Mullah's wife cooked the chicken and they enjoyed the feast for

dinner. The next morning, they had delicious chicken soup that Mullah's wife

prepared. The friend enjoyed his short stay with Mullah.

The next day when he was leaving, Mullah returned his friend's profuse

thanks by thanking the latter for bringing the big chicken along.

An hour after his friend had left Mullah heard a knock on the door. When

he opened the door, a man introduced himself and quickly entered: " I am a

friend of your friend who brought you that big chicken!"

Reluctant to insult the friend of a friend, Mullah invited the man inside

and asked him to stay back for lunch. They had some lovely chicken stew for

lunch, which the man also enjoyed. Having eaten like a glutton, the man left

thanking Mullah profusely for the tasty chicken.

A couple of hours later, there was a knock on the door and Mullah beheld

another stranger before him. "I am the friend of your friend's friend," the

man smiled.

Again, not wanting to turn away the friend of a friend's friend, Mullah

invited him inside and asked him to stay back for dinner. The man accepted

hurriedly. He too feasted on some delicious chicken stew and left smacking

his lips some time later.

Barely had the man left, there was another knock and another stranger at

the door! The friend-of-a-friend story all because of a chicken was now

getting Mullah's goat! "My house has been turned into an eating house!"

Mullah muttered to himself as he permitted the man to enter.

The next day too there was no respite as another man entered with the same

tale: "I am a friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend

who had come here with a huge chicken!"

Mullah smiled weakly and asked the man to come right in and have a meal.

The man entered hurriedly, smacking his lips in anticipation of a tasty

chicken meal. A few minutes later, a bowl of soup was placed before him.

Just one sip told the man that this 'soup' was nothing but boiled water.

" This is nothing but boiled water!" the man protested angrily.

" Not at all!" Mullah smiled wickedly. " This is the soup of the soup of the

soup of the soup of the soup of the soup of the chicken!"

Moral of the story:

When people take advantage of your generosity and hospitality, do not turn

them away rudely. Instead, invite them in and serve them a lesson they will

never forget for a long time to come - just as Mullah did by serving the

soup of the soup of the soup . . .

Fifteen Things God Won't Ask

2009-05-20T07:22:00.000+05:30

Fifteen Things God Won’t Ask

· God won’t ask which car you drive, but will ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

· God won’t ask how big is your house, but will ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

· God won’t ask about the fancy clothes in your wardrobe, but will ask how many of those clothes helped the needy.

· God won’t ask about your social status, but will ask what kind of class you displayed with others.

· God won’t ask how many material possessions you had, but will ask if they dictated your life.

· God won’t ask what your highest salary was, but will ask if you compromised your character to obtain that salary.

· God won’t ask how much overtime you worked, but will ask if you worked overtime for your family and loved ones.

· God won’t ask how many promotions you received, but will ask how you promoted others.

· God won’t ask what your job title was, but will ask if you reformed your job to the best of your ability.

· God won’t ask what you did to help yourself, but will ask what you did to help others.

· God won’t ask how many friends you had, but will ask how many people to whom you were a true friend.

· God won’t ask what you did to protect your rights, but will ask what you did to protect the rights of others.

· God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, but will ask how you treated your neighbors.

· God won’t ask about the color of your skin, but will ask about the content of your character.

· God won’t ask how many times your deeds matched your words, but will ask how many times they didn’t..

Apple in the bag

2009-05-16T07:06:00.001+05:30

A teacher teaching Maths to seven-year-old student asked him, "If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?"Within a few seconds the student replied confidently, "Four!"

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three). She was disappointed. "Maybe the child did not listen properly," she thought. She repeated, "My boy, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?"

The student had seen the disappointment on his teacher's face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy. This time hesitatingly he replied, "Four..."

The disappointment stayed on the teacher's face. She remembered that this student liked strawberries. She thought maybe he doesn't like apples and that is making him loose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, "If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?"
Seeing the teacher happy, the boy calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed. With a hesitating smile the student enquired,"Three? "

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself. But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, "Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?"
Promptly the student answered, "Four!"

The teacher was aghast. "How my boy, how?" she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice. In a voice that was low and hesitating young student replied, "Because I already have one apple in my bag."

When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect. Don't think they are wrong. There maybe an angle that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined notion.

Quotable Quotes

2009-03-10T17:22:00.000+05:30

The Value of Cooperation

2009-02-24T22:07:00.002+05:30

SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION (Courtesy Maj Gen Surjit Singh)

There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honour and prizes.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbours'.

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbours when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbours grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.

If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn."

The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbour's corn also improves. So it is in the other dimensions!
Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbours and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well. The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.

SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION. IT IS VERY OFTEN A PARTICIPATIVE AND
COLLECTIVE PROCESS.

So share the good practices, ideas, new learning with your family, team members, neighbours.

Retreat Ceremony at Wagah

2009-02-24T21:27:00.004+05:30

Here are a few clippings of the retreat ceremony (courtesy youtube). The ceremony at Hussainiwalla (near Faridkot) is actually a lot better, though much lesser known.

Here is another clip :-

Chanakya's Quotes

2009-02-20T06:33:00.002+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Chanakya's Quotes - Worth Learning

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"A person should not be too honest.
Straight trees are cut first
and Honest people are screwed first."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC 75 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"Even if a snake is not poisonous,
it should pretend to be venomous."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"There is some self-interest behind every friendship.
There is no Friendship without self-interests.
This is a bitter truth."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply
and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"Once you start a working on something,
don't be afra id of failure and
don't abandon it.
People who work sincerely are the happiest."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"The fragrance of flowers spreads
only in the direction of the wind.
But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"Treat your k id like a darling for the first five years.
For the next five years, scold them.
By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend.
Your grown up children are your best friends."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ***
"Education is the best friend.
An educated person is respected everywhere.
Education beats the beauty and the youth."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC)

The Art of Wellness

2009-02-19T10:30:00.000+05:30

Origin of Names of Great Companies............

2009-02-18T09:05:00.000+05:30

Origin of Names of Great Companies

Mercedes:

This was actually financier's daughter's name.

Adobe:

This came from the name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers:

It was the favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobbs.He was three months late for filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.

CISCO:

It is not an acronym as popularly believed. Its short for San Francisco.

Compaq:

This name was formed by using COMp, for computer and PAQ to denote asmall integral object.

Corel:

The name was derived from the founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.

Google:

The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol',a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor; they received a cheque made out to 'Google'.

Hotmail:

Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters"html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

Hewlett Packard :

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel:

Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'MooreNoyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Lotus (Notes) :

Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or'Padmasana' . Kapor used to be a teacher of transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Microsoft:

Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.

Motorola:

Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.

ORACLE:

Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same name for the company.

Sony:

It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

SUN:

Founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it, and Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.

Apache:

It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon.. The result was 'A PAtCHy'server --thus, the name ApacheJakarta (project from Apache):A project constituted by SUN and Apache to create a web server handling servlets and JSPs. Jakarta was name of the conference room at SUN where most of the meetings between SUN and Apache took place.

Tomcat:

The servlet part of the Jakarta project. Tomcat was the code name for the JSDK 2.1 project inside SUN.

Dennis Ritchie improved on the B programming language and called it 'NewB'.He later called it C. Earlier B was created by Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon programming language (named after his wife Bonnie).

C++:

Bjarne Stroustrup called his new language 'C with Classes' and then 'newC'. Because of which the original C began to be called 'old C' which was considered insulting to the C community. At this time Rick Mascitti suggested the name C++ as a successor to C.

GNU:

A species of African antelope. Founder of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked the name because of the humor associated with its pronunciation and was also influenced by the children's song 'The GnuSong' which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it fitted into the recursive acronym culture with 'GNU's Not Unix'.

Java:

Originally called Oak by creator James Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his window, the programming team had to look for a substitute as there was no other language with the same name. Java was selected from a list of suggestions. It came from the name of the coffee that the programmers drank.

LG:

Combination of two popular Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar.

Linux:

Linus Torvalds originally used the Minix OS on his system which he replaced by his OS. Hence the working name was Linux (Linus' Minix). He thought the name to be too egotistical and planned to name it Freax(free+ freak + x).His friend Ari Lemmke encouraged Linus to upload it to a network so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave Linus a directory called linux on his FTP server, as he did not like the name Freax.(Linus' parents named him after two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling) .

Mozilla:

When Marc Andreesen, founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace Mosaic (also developed by him), it was named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) .The marketing guys didn't like the name however and it wasre-christened Netscape Navigator.

Red Hat:

Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (withred and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!

SAP:

"Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBM employees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applicatio ns/Projects' group of IBM.

SCO (UNIX):

From Santa Cruz Operation. The company's office was in Santa Cruz.

UNIX:

When Bell Labs pulled out of MULTICS (MULTiplexed Information and Computing System), which was originally a joint Bell/GE/MIT project, KenThompson and Dennis Ritchie of Bell Labs wrote a simpler version of the OS.They needed the OS to run the game Space War which was compiled underMULTICS. It was called UNICS - UNIplexed operating and Computing System by Brian Kernighan. It was later shortened to UNIX.

Xerox:

The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say `dry' (asit was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying). The Greek root `xer' means dry.

Yahoo!:

The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver'sTravels' . It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.

3M:

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company started off by mining the material 'corundum' used to make sandpaper.

Amazing Aviation Pictures

2009-02-11T09:12:00.000+05:30

FW: Fw: [DB64] FW: When a Soldier Comes Home...must look at this one

2009-02-10T21:37:00.007+05:30

WHEN A SOLDIER COMES HOME ...

When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard....

...to listen to his son whine about being bored.

....to keep a straight face when people complain about potholes.

to be tolerant of people who complain about the hassle of getting ready for work.

...to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night's sleep.

..to be silent when people pray to God for a new car.

...to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower.

..to be compassionate when a businessman expresses a fear of flying.

...to keep from laughing when anxious parents say they're afraid to send their kids off to summer camp.

...to keep from ridiculing someone who complains about hot weather.

...to control his frustration when a colleague gripes about his coffee being cold.

...to remain calm when his daughter complains about having to walk the dog.

...to be civil to people who complain about their jobs.

...to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a year.

...to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is t o have a new baby in the house.

The only thing harder than being a Soldier..

Is loving one.

NAIL IN THE FENCE

2009-02-07T22:21:00.001+05:30

Make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence. (Most importantly the last sentence)

There once was a little boy who had a bad

temper.

His Father gave him a bag of nails

and told him that every time he lost his

temper, he must hammer a nail into the back

of the fence.

The first day the boy had

driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next

few weeks, as he learned to control his

anger, the number of nails hammered daily

gradually dwindled down. He discovered

it was easier to hold his temper than to

drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the ! day came when the boy didn't

lose his temper at all. He told his father

about it and the father suggested that the

boy now pull out one nail for each day that he

was able to hold

his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally

able to tell his father that all the nails

were gone. The father took his son by the

hand and led him to the fence He said, "You

have done well, my son, but look at the

holes in the fence. The fence will never be

the same. When you say things in anger,

they leave a scar just like this one. You can put

a knife in a man and draw it out.

It won't matter how many times you say "I'm

sorry", the wound is still there. A verbal

wound is as bad as a physical one.

Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They

make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

They lend an ear, they share words of praise

and they always want to open their hearts to us."

YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED!

Now send this to every friend you have!!

Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole. J

Boy and the Apple Tree

2009-02-03T06:02:00.001+05:30

The Laws of the Workplace

2009-01-31T17:42:00.001+05:30

The Laws of the Workplace

A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the butt.

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.

You can go anywhere you want if you look serious and carry a clipboard.

Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

There will always be beer cans rolling on the floor of your car when the boss asks for a ride home from the office.

Everything can be filed under "miscellaneous."

Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he/she is supposed to be doing.

Important letters that contain no errors will develop errors in the mail.

If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.

You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.

People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.

At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens that person is carrying.

When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.

Following the rules will not get the job done.

Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.

Amazingly zoomable photograph

2009-01-31T11:01:00.000+05:30

This is something really awesome – a panorama photograph of Obama’s Inaugural address made up of 220 images, and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. Taken by a photographer called David Bergman, It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images and the final TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Use the controls to zoom and pan around the photo. You can also double click to zoom in and double click again to get even closer. The degree that you can zoom on to is AMAZING. You can see what is on Obama’s clipboard, in his hand, or in Bush’s glass. You can even see faces and expressions of each of the million people who attended. You can even zoom into the bandstand and read the music on the sheets!

See the top level:-

And here is the max zoom level

Go to the following link to see it :-

http://www.gigapan.org/

http://www.davidbergman.net/blog/2009/01/22/how-i-made-a-1474-megapixel-photo-during-president-obamas-inaugural-address/

Put a Shark in your tank

2009-01-22T09:26:00.000+05:30

Japanese Fish Theory

The Japanese have a great liking for fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring back the fish.

The longer it took them to bring back the fish, the staler they grew.

The fish were not fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little hashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive.

Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, it has got over that crisis and has emerged as one of the most important trades in that country! How did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan ?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. And they survive and arrive in a healthy state! They command a higher price and are most sought-after. The challenge they face keeps them fresh!

Humans are no different. L. Ron Hubbard observed in the early 1950's:

"Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment. "

George Bernard Shaw said: "Satisfaction is death!"

Moral of story -

1. If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy. Your challenges keep you energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive! Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them.

2. Do not postpone a task, simply because its challenging. Catch these challenges by their horns and vanquish them. Enjoy the game.

3. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Giving up makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help.

4. Don't create success and revel in it in a state of inertia. You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.

So put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

Saying Happy New Year in Different Languages

2009-01-04T14:41:00.000+05:30

Afgani

Saale Nao Mubbarak

Afrikaans

Gelukkige nuwe jaar

Albanian

Gezuar Vitin e Ri

Armenian

Snorhavor Nor Tari

Arabic

Kul 'am wa antum bikhair

Assyrian

Sheta Brikhta

Azeri

Yeni Iliniz Mubarek!

Bengali

Shuvo Nabo Barsho

Breton [Celtic Brythonic language]

Bloavezh Mat

Bulgarian

×åñòèò� Íîâ� Ãîäèí� (pronounced "Chestita Nova Godina")

Cambodian

Soursdey Chhnam Tmei

Catalan

FELIÇ ANY NOU

Chinese

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Corsican Language

Pace e Salute

Croatian

Sretna Nova godina!

Cymraeg (Welsh)

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Czech

� ťastný Nový rok (or Stastny Novy rok)

Denish

Godt Nytår

Dhivehi

Ufaaveri Aa Aharakah Edhen

Dutch

GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR!

Eskimo

Kiortame pivdluaritlo

Esperanto

Felican Novan Jaron

Estonians

Head uut aastat!

Ethiopian:

MELKAM ADDIS AMET YIHUNELIWO!

Finnish

Onnellista Uutta Vuotta

French

Bonne Annee

Gaelic

Bliadhna mhath ur

Galician [NorthWestern Spain]

Bo Nadal e Feliz Aninovo

German

Prosit Neujahr

Georgian

GILOTSAVT AKHAL TSELS!

Greek

Kenourios Chronos

Gujarati

Nutan Varshbhinandan

Hawaiian

Hauoli Makahiki Hou

Hebrew

L'Shannah Tovah

Hindi

Naye Varsha Ki Shubhkamanyen

Hong kong

(Cantonese) Sun Leen Fai Lok

Hungarian

Boldog Ooy Ayvet

Indonesian

Selamat Tahun Baru

Iranian

Sal -e- no mobarak

Iraqi

Sanah Jadidah

Irish

Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit

Italian:

Felice anno nuovo

Japan:

Akimashite Omedetto Gozaimasu

Kabyle:

Asegwas Amegaz

Kannada:

Hosa Varushadha Shubhashayagalu

Kisii:

SOMWAKA OMOYIA OMUYA

Khmer:

Sua Sdei tfnam tmei

Korea:

Saehae Bock Mani ba deu sei yo!

Kurdish:

NEWROZ PIROZBE

Latvian

Laimīgo Jauno Gadu!

Lithuanian:

Laimingu Naujuju Metu

Laotian:

Sabai dee pee mai

Macedonian

Srekjna Nova Godina

Madagascar

Tratry ny taona

Malay

Selamat Tahun Baru

Marathi :

Nveen Varshachy Shubhechcha

Malayalam :

Puthuvatsara Aashamsakal

Mizo

Kum Thar Chibai

Maltese

Is-Sena t- Tajba

Nepal

Nawa Barsha ko Shuvakamana

Norwegian

Godt Nyttår

Papua New Guinea

Nupela yia i go long yu

Pampango (Philippines)

Masaganang Bayung Banua

Pashto

Nawai Kall Mo Mubarak Shah

Persian

Sal -e- no mobarak

Philippines

Manigong Bagong Taon!

Polish:

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

Portuguese

Feliz Ano Novo

Punjabi

Nave sal di mubarak

Romanian

AN NOU FERICIT

Russian

S Novim Godom

Samoa

Manuia le Tausaga Fou

Serbo-Croatian

Sretna nova godina

Sindhi

Nayou Saal Mubbarak Hoje

Singhalese

Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa

Siraiki

Nawan Saal Shala Mubarak Theevay

Slovak

Stastny Novy rok

Slovenian

sreèno novo leto

Somali

Iyo Sanad Cusub Oo Fiican!

Spanish

Feliz Ano ~Nuevo

Swahili

Heri Za Mwaka Mpyaº

Swedish

GOTT NYTT ÅR! /Gott nytt år!

Sudanese

Warsa Enggal

Tamil

Eniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal

Tibetian

Losar Tashi Delek

Telegu

Noothana samvatsara shubhakankshalu

Thai

Sawadee Pee Mai

Turkish

Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

Ukrainian

Shchastlyvoho Novoho Roku

Urdu

Naya Saal Mubbarak Ho

Uzbek

Yangi Yil Bilan

Vietnamese

Chuc Mung Tan Nien

Welsh :

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Some Interesting Facts

2008-12-10T01:46:00.000+05:30

VERY INTERESTING STUFF

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have 'the rule of thumb'

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Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden'....and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.

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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

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Coca-Cola was originally green.

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It is impossible to lick your elbow.

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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

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The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

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The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar

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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321

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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

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Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?

A. Obsession

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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?

A. One thousand

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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?

A. All were invented by women.

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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

A. Honey

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In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.

When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...... ... 'goodnight, sleep tight.'

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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.'

It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'

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Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

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At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

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- Now....

Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Does GOD Exist...

2008-12-08T05:03:00.000+05:30

God doesn't exist.

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.

As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation.

They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."

" Why do you say that?"asked the customer.

"Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.

Tell me, if God exists,would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.

The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist."

" How can you say that?"asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber.And I just worked on you!"

"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me."

"Exactly !"- affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Gateway of india peace March - Dec 3rd

2008-12-05T18:37:00.000+05:30