Saturday, December 19, 2009

Power of words

The Power of Words
  There once was a wise sage who wandered the countryside. One day, as he passed near a village, he was approached by a woman who told him of a sick child nearby. She beseeched him to help this child.

 So the sage came to the village, and a crowd gathered around him, for such a man was a rare sight. One woman brought the sick child to him, and he said a prayer over her.

"Do you really think your prayer will help her, when medicine has failed?" yelled a man from the crowd.

"You know nothing of such things! You are a stupid fool!" said the sage to the man.

The man became very angry with these words and his face grew hot and red. He was about to say something, or perhaps strike out, when the sage walked over to him and said: "If one word has such power as to make you so angry and hot, may not another have the power to heal?"

And thus, the sage healed two people that day.


God knows what to give

Once a boy went to a shop with his mother. The shop keeper looked at the small cute child and showed him a bottle with sweets  
and said 'Dear Child..u can take the sweets...

But the child didnt take. The shop keeper was surprised.. such a small child he is and why is he not taking the sweets from the bottle. Again he said take the sweets....

Now the mother also heard that and said.. take the sweets dear.. Yet he didnt take... The shopkeeper seeing the child not taking the sweets... he himself took the sweets and gave to the child. The child was happy to get two hands full of sweets.


While returning  home the Mother asked the child... Why didnt you take the sweets, when  the shop keeper told you to take?..

Can you guess the response: Child replies... Mom! my hands are very small and if i take the sweets i can only take few.. but now you see when uncle gave with his big hands.... how many more sweets i got!


Moral: When we take we may get little but when God gives... HE gives us more beyond our expectations... more than what we can hold..!!


Monday, December 14, 2009

Management Review

THE SAGA OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW OF WRITING STYLE







Question: How many feet do mice have?






Original reply: Mice have four feet.


Mgmt. Comment: Elaborate!






Revision 1: Mice have five appendages, and four of them are feet.


Mgmt. Comment: No discussion of fifth appendage!






Revision 2: Mice have five appendages; four of them are feet and one is a tail.


Mgmt. Comment: What? Feet with no legs?






Revision 3: Mice have four legs, four feet and one tail per unit-mouse.


Mgmt. Comment: Confusing -- is that a total of 9 appendages?






Revision 4: Mice have four leg-foot assemblies and one tail assembly per body.


Mgmt. Comment: Does not fully discuss the issue!






Revision 5: Each mouse comes equipped with four legs and a tail. Each leg is equipped with a foot at the end opposite the body; the tail is not equipped with a foot.


Mgmt. Comment: Descriptive? Yes. Forceful? NO!






Revision 6: Allotment appendages for mice will be: Four leg-foot assemblies, one tail. Deviation from this policy is not permitted as it would constitute misapportionment of scarce appendage assets.


Mgmt. Comment: Too authoritative; stifles creativity!






Revision 7: Mice have four feet; each foot is attached to a small leg joined integrally with the overall mouse structural sub-system. Also attached to the mouse sub-system is a thin tail, non-functional and ornamental in nature.


Mgmt. Comment: Too verbose/scientific. Answer the question!






FINAL REVISION APPROVED BY MANAGEMENT: Mice have four feet.














Friday, December 4, 2009

proud india

Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard (hp) ?
A. Rajiv Gupta


Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)?
A. Vinod Dahm


Q. Who is the third richest man on the world?
A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Azim Premji, who is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6 th position now.

Q. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)?
A. Sabeer Bhatia

Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun Netravalli

Q. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?
A. Sanjay Tejwrika




Q. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar..

Q. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America , even faring better than the whites and the natives.
There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,
38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
12% scientists in USA are Indians.
36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.


Some of the following facts may be known to you. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA .
1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
3. The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to h uma ns.
6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now k! nown as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have in the year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.

9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India . Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 53.
10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

13. Chess was invented in India .
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India .
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley ( Indus Valley Civilisation).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.


Quotes about India .
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.
Albert Einstein.




India is the cradle of the h uma n race, the birthplace of h uma n speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.
Mark Twain.

If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India .
French scholar Romain Rolland.

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.
Hu Shih
(former Chinese ambassador to USA )


ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS.
BUT, if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an evershining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow.
I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA .

Project manager and Soldier

A conversation between a soldier and software engineer in Shatabdi Train.

Mr. Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. He was the project manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.


'Are you from the software industry sir,' the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.

Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

'You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized.'

'Thanks,' smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation.

'You people always amaze me,' the man continued, 'You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.'

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naiveness demanded reasoning not anger. 'It is not as simple as that, my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it.' 'It is complex, very complex.'

'It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid,' came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone. ' Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in.


'Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a  system?'

The man was awestruck; quite like a child at a planetarium. 'You  design and code such things'.


'I used to,' Vivek paused for effect, 'but now I am the project manager.'

'Oh!' sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, 'so your life is easy now.'

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, 'Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work..

Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other, wanting something else, and your boss, always  expecting you to have finished it yesterday.' 'My friend,' he concluded triumphantly, 'you don't know what it is to be in the Line of Fire'.


The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.


'I know sir. I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire'. He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.


'There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the Tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive.'

'You are a...?'

'I am Subhedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment. But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the "Safety and Welfare of the Nation foremost followed by the Safety and Welfare of the Men" he commanded and his own personal safety came last, always and every time.' 'He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir. I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire.'


Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom velour and duty was a daily part of life; velour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes. The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subhedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.


'It was nice meeting you sir.'

Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This hand had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute. It was the least he felt he could do for the country.


PS: The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war. Capt. Bart sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and various other acts of bravery, he was awarded Param Vir Chakra, the nation's highest military award, and after that as is known about this nation, all such sacrifices of our soldiers are conveniently forgotten and that's the saddest part.


Please live humbly, there are great people around us, let us learn, winners are .....

• too busy to be sad,
• too positive to be doubtful,
• too optimistic to be fearful
• and too determined to be defeated
• Self-trust is the first secret of success.

Innovative Auto rickshaw wala ---

Suvendu Roy of Titan Industries shares his inspirational encounter with a rickshaw driver in Mumbai

Last Sunday, my wife, kid and I had to travel to Andheri from Bandra... When I waved at a passing auto rickshaw, little did I expect that this ride would be any different.

As we set off, my eyes fell on a few magazines (kept in an aircraft style pouch) behind the driver's back rest. I looked in front and there was a small TV. The driver had put on the Doordarshan channel. My wife and I looked at each other with disbelief and amusement. In front of me was a small first-aid box with cotton, dettol and some medicines. This was enough for me to realise that I was in a special vehicle. Then I looked around again, and discovered more -there was a radio, fire extinguisher, wall clock, calendar, and pictures and symbols of all faiths - from Islam and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. There were also pictures of the heroes of 26/11- Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare and Unnikrishnan. I realised that not only my vehicle, but also my driver was special.

I started chatting with him and the initial sense of ridicule and disbelief gradually diminished. I gathered that he had been driving an auto rickshaw for the past 8-9 years; he had lost his job when his employer's plastic company was shut down. He had two school-going children, and he drove from 8 in the morning till 10 at night. No break unless he was unwell. "Sahab, ghar mein baith ke TV dekh kar kya faida? Do paisa income karega toh future mein kaam aayega." (Sir, what's the use of simply sitting at home and watching TV? If I earn some income, then it will be useful in the future.)

We realised that we had come across a man who represents Mumbai - the spirit of work, the spirit of travel and the spirit of excelling in life. I asked him whether he does anything else as I figured that he did not have too much spare time. He said that he goes to an old age home for women in Andheri once a week or whenever he has some extra income, where he donates tooth brushes, toothpastes, soap, hair oil, and other items of daily use. He pointed out to a painted message below the meter that read: "25 per cent discount on metered fare for the handicapped. Free rides for blind passengers up to Rs50?. He also said that his auto was mentioned on Radio Mirchi twice by the station RJs. The Marathi press in Mumbai know about him and have written a few pieces on him and his vehicle.

My wife and I were struck with awe. The man was a HERO! A hero who deserves all our respect. I know that my son, once he grows up, will realise that we have met a genuine hero. He has put questions to me such as why should we help other people? I will try to keep this incident alive in his memory.

Our journey came to an end; 45 minutes of a lesson in humility, selflessness and of a hero-worshipping Mumbai - my temporary home. We disembarked, and all I could do was to pay him a tip that would hardly cover a free ride for a blind man.

He has got a first aid box on the left and a newspaper box on right (which had all hindi-english- marathi-gujrati and economic times)

He has got a tv on the top with cable (I was watching colors channel) and below that is the tissue box. on the left is the mandir types and dont miss the "Only gandhigiri" written there, below that is the calender and a notepad and pen along with a blue fan (which is blowing towards the customer who sits)
25% discount for handicapped!! who on this earth can expect somethin like this from an rickshawala yaar!!

Its amazing there are ppl still alive like him in this world!

I hope, one day, you too have a chance to meet Mr Sandeep Bachhe in his auto rickshaw - MH-02-Z-8508

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Good Day...


Twenty minute story


silly jokes

Girlfriend: And are you sure you love me and no one else?


Boyfriend: Dead Sure! I checked the whole list again yesterday



*********



Waiter: Would you like your coffee black?



Customer: What other colors do you have?



*********



Manager: Sorry, but i can't give u a job. I don't need much help.



Job Applicant: That's all right. In fact I'm just the right person in this case. You see, I won't be of much help anyway!!



*********



Dad: Son, what do u want for ur birthday?



Son: Not much dad, Just a radio with a sports car around it.



*********





Diner: You'll drive me to my grave!



Waiter: Well, you don't expect to walk there, do you?



*********



Husband: U know, wife, our son got his brain from me.



Wife: I think he did, I've still got mine with me!



*********



Man: Officer! There's a bomb in my garden!



Officer: Don't worry. If no one claims it within three days, you can keep it.



*********



Father: Your teacher says she finds it impossible to teach you anything!



Son: That's why I say she's no good!