I think I have been smitten by the communication bug off late, otherwise I wouldn't have come up with two posts on communication in the same month. This post is more from a formal communication perspective but it has some application on the informal side as well.
I had some thoughts on communication which as of now i feel are very relevant and apt. I am sure the list is not complete and if you feel i have missed out on something please feel free to add.
Speaker related
-----------------
Confidence of the speaker
Enthusiasm/passion/drive
Analogies
Description
Effectively explaining to all
Humor
Personality of the individual
Relating to the audience / Understanding the audience
Command over the language - Simile, metaphors
Body language
Eye contact
Voice modulation
Choice of words/ Vocabulary / Jargons
Accent
Improvisation
Listening
Responding/reacting to questions
Honest replies
Short and crisp messages
Clarity of thought
Tone of voice
Approachability/ Accomodating
Subject related
-----------------
Clarity / Understanding of the concept
Providing the audience what they want than what one knows
Improvisation
As one can say there is more attributes at an individual level than at the subject level. Most of us classify these skills as soft skills. If one has to reach high up, i think it is a good idea if one keeps a not on the above while communicating.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Face of the Company ....
Most of you know that I work in a consulting company. We get to face the client on a day to day basis and our top management keeps insisting that we are the 'face of the company', any interaction with the client is an opportunity and it has to be treated so,We need to put up our best at any given instant, so on and so forth. All these had not sunk in till today.
Today i was part of a presentation made by few members from a reputed company. I was one among the audience.
The first presenter was kind of OK, not all that impressive. Given that the Vice Chairman of the company was part of the audience i expected him to put up a good show. But a lot was desired or expected from him. The presenters who followed him were not great too. This actually made me think about the company. All of a sudden i realised that i was trying to judge a company based on the very few people I had met. I was not sure whether it is right on my part to judge the company based on the few people I interacted with ?
I know the company very well, few of my friends work for this company. During my undergrad days I wanted to be part of this company. So I didn't pass any Judgment on it. But I am not sure whether I would have stopped myself from judging it, if I didn't know the company at all. Assume that the company's name was something like XYZ and Co., would it have made a difference. I think yes, I would have built an opinion and next time anyone would have asked me about it, I would have given my not-so-favouring opinion.
So the question still persists, "Is it right on our part to judge a company based on the people we interact with?"
My hypothesis is that most of us do it. We make opinions or pass judgements based on the people we interact with.
It makes sense to a certain extent. These days almost all companies make tall claims, one cannot distinguish the bad apples from the good ones, untill a deep dive is done. Well no one has the time to do it too. So one makes impressions based on the employees of the organization. Interesting thing is, it is such a fast paced world, one might get very few opportunities to interact with different people from the same organization. So that the balancing between good and not-so-good might not happen, and probably the client might create a not-so-correct opinion about the company.
Now, I understand what the top management in our company mean when they make the sentence, "You are the face of the company". Every word we say, every action we make is passing messages to other people and we need to be watchful of that and probably use it to our own advantage. Good people will always create lot of good will to the company, as its face.
Well, as the popular saying goes, "Face is the index of the mind", we are the index of the company we represent.
Today i was part of a presentation made by few members from a reputed company. I was one among the audience.
The first presenter was kind of OK, not all that impressive. Given that the Vice Chairman of the company was part of the audience i expected him to put up a good show. But a lot was desired or expected from him. The presenters who followed him were not great too. This actually made me think about the company. All of a sudden i realised that i was trying to judge a company based on the very few people I had met. I was not sure whether it is right on my part to judge the company based on the few people I interacted with ?
I know the company very well, few of my friends work for this company. During my undergrad days I wanted to be part of this company. So I didn't pass any Judgment on it. But I am not sure whether I would have stopped myself from judging it, if I didn't know the company at all. Assume that the company's name was something like XYZ and Co., would it have made a difference. I think yes, I would have built an opinion and next time anyone would have asked me about it, I would have given my not-so-favouring opinion.
So the question still persists, "Is it right on our part to judge a company based on the people we interact with?"
My hypothesis is that most of us do it. We make opinions or pass judgements based on the people we interact with.
It makes sense to a certain extent. These days almost all companies make tall claims, one cannot distinguish the bad apples from the good ones, untill a deep dive is done. Well no one has the time to do it too. So one makes impressions based on the employees of the organization. Interesting thing is, it is such a fast paced world, one might get very few opportunities to interact with different people from the same organization. So that the balancing between good and not-so-good might not happen, and probably the client might create a not-so-correct opinion about the company.
Now, I understand what the top management in our company mean when they make the sentence, "You are the face of the company". Every word we say, every action we make is passing messages to other people and we need to be watchful of that and probably use it to our own advantage. Good people will always create lot of good will to the company, as its face.
Well, as the popular saying goes, "Face is the index of the mind", we are the index of the company we represent.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Pen it, while it is HOT !!
There were a few articles that i wanted to write for sometime now....
Few of them were
o Status Update
o Mind of a group
o Proof Reading
o Attention span/interest
and this was a long time ago.
Last week i wanted to write on the Great South Indian Entrepreneur, not on any specific individual, buy my hypothesis about the lack of entrepreneurs from South India, but i couldn't manage to find the time to do that. I am happy that i could manage to pen my thoughts on communication though.
My 2 cents on this is, One has to pen it down as and when one feels like. If one waits for the right time or opportunity, the thoughts would have vanished or the desire to pen diminished.
So Pen it, while it is hot!!!
Few of them were
o Status Update
o Mind of a group
o Proof Reading
o Attention span/interest
and this was a long time ago.
Last week i wanted to write on the Great South Indian Entrepreneur, not on any specific individual, buy my hypothesis about the lack of entrepreneurs from South India, but i couldn't manage to find the time to do that. I am happy that i could manage to pen my thoughts on communication though.
My 2 cents on this is, One has to pen it down as and when one feels like. If one waits for the right time or opportunity, the thoughts would have vanished or the desire to pen diminished.
So Pen it, while it is hot!!!
The weekend ....
It has been a quiet a busy weekend for me. Friday nite i spent my time with Pepsy. Saw 'Iron Man' in a local mall here. The movie is pretty good.
Started reading 'One' by Richard Bach, till the wee hours of morning and completed it too. Went to Delhi on saturday, had lunch with a colleague of mine, visited Crossword, bumped into friends who took my case big time for the free reading i was doin in Crossword. Bought couple of books, came back to Gurgaon, had dinner with Pepsy and Shaddy, saw Mumbai lose to Delhi in a nail bitting match. After the match, i managed to watch 21 Blackjack.
Sunday morning started with 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', completed it by afternoon, cleaned my room, saw F1, felt miserable for Sutil, saw RCB driving the nail on DC's coffin, went out had dinner and now blogging.
Well kinda hectic weekend with two movies, two IPL matches , two books ... with a long day tommorrow i think i need to rest now. i think i will watch a movie now or start reading another book.
i write reviews of the book i read on my blog, but not the reviews of the movie, i think i will start that sometime soon.... well u will get more to read about if u check this blog regularly...
Started reading 'One' by Richard Bach, till the wee hours of morning and completed it too. Went to Delhi on saturday, had lunch with a colleague of mine, visited Crossword, bumped into friends who took my case big time for the free reading i was doin in Crossword. Bought couple of books, came back to Gurgaon, had dinner with Pepsy and Shaddy, saw Mumbai lose to Delhi in a nail bitting match. After the match, i managed to watch 21 Blackjack.
Sunday morning started with 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', completed it by afternoon, cleaned my room, saw F1, felt miserable for Sutil, saw RCB driving the nail on DC's coffin, went out had dinner and now blogging.
Well kinda hectic weekend with two movies, two IPL matches , two books ... with a long day tommorrow i think i need to rest now. i think i will watch a movie now or start reading another book.
i write reviews of the book i read on my blog, but not the reviews of the movie, i think i will start that sometime soon.... well u will get more to read about if u check this blog regularly...
One
Read Richard Bach's 'One' this weekend. The book is good but it is not in the same league as 'Jonathon Livingston Seagull' / 'Illusions'. I expected more from Bach than what i got out from One.
The book is about alternate world or parallel universe.
If you understand trees, i think it is very easy to explain. A tree in mathematics is actually inverted real life tree. It has a root at the top and it has branches going down, and it has nodes where more branches branch out.
"One" talks about one such tree. Here the reason for branching is the choice one has. If you pick up one choice you traverse the branch corresponding to that or if you take the other one the other branch. In life usually one may not revisit the choices again. Effectively in life, each one of us traverse a particular path by making the choices we make. The alternate world or parallel universe is a phenomenon where in, the other choices exists or the other branches are traversed.
"One" connects these branches by making Bach and Leslie move across the tree, thereby making them realise the magnitude of the choices they had to make. Bach has put in lot of imagination into the book.
While reading the book, i could imagine the move 'Matrix' - becoz the movie talks about choices , the red pill or the blue pill, the left door or the right door, so on. The question is 'What If?'. The problem with choices are, it is difficult to estimate the significance/consequences/effects of the choice when we are supposed to pick one of the choice. The reality hits hard sometimes, sometimes one gets lucky. After all that one goes through, there is no way of telling that one can get their choice right the next time.
You can talk about alternate world / parallel universe, but what matters is right here and right now. I am not sure if there is a standard way of looking at the choices or going by intuition/gut feel is the right way to make the choices. But one thing that resonates in the book is "The choice is the difference". One is whatever he/she is, is due to the choices he/she has made during their course of life.
The book is about alternate world or parallel universe.
If you understand trees, i think it is very easy to explain. A tree in mathematics is actually inverted real life tree. It has a root at the top and it has branches going down, and it has nodes where more branches branch out.
"One" talks about one such tree. Here the reason for branching is the choice one has. If you pick up one choice you traverse the branch corresponding to that or if you take the other one the other branch. In life usually one may not revisit the choices again. Effectively in life, each one of us traverse a particular path by making the choices we make. The alternate world or parallel universe is a phenomenon where in, the other choices exists or the other branches are traversed.
"One" connects these branches by making Bach and Leslie move across the tree, thereby making them realise the magnitude of the choices they had to make. Bach has put in lot of imagination into the book.
While reading the book, i could imagine the move 'Matrix' - becoz the movie talks about choices , the red pill or the blue pill, the left door or the right door, so on. The question is 'What If?'. The problem with choices are, it is difficult to estimate the significance/consequences/effects of the choice when we are supposed to pick one of the choice. The reality hits hard sometimes, sometimes one gets lucky. After all that one goes through, there is no way of telling that one can get their choice right the next time.
You can talk about alternate world / parallel universe, but what matters is right here and right now. I am not sure if there is a standard way of looking at the choices or going by intuition/gut feel is the right way to make the choices. But one thing that resonates in the book is "The choice is the difference". One is whatever he/she is, is due to the choices he/she has made during their course of life.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
I read this book "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid today. I had bought this book couple of months back and could read it only today, thanks to my friend Devendra who slept on it all this while. I had to go to Delhi to fetch it back.
The book is kind of captivating, if you can relate to the story. I could therefore i finished it in a single sitting (sometime lying down).
About the book:
The book is about a young pakistani discovering himself amidst the hustle and bustle of global politics, terrorism and love. The interesting part of the book is its narration style. One has to give it to the author here. The main character of the book Changez is walking back in the memory lane and narrating it to an American Tourist, who never says a single word in the entire book. Hamid throws in some fillers during the narration which acts as stress releasers and gives the book its unique touch. I am not sure it is common, but this was the first time i came across this narrative style, where the other person doesn't even utter a single word.
Coming to the story line, the story is about the young aspirant Changez, who clears several hurdles to get into Princeton. Once there he continues to study hard and manages to be one of the best in class. Post Princeton he gets into a top firm doing valuation and also finds the love of his life.
I could easily relate to he making it into Princeton, his campus life, studies and then managing to get into one of the top firms. I happened to study, during my graduation and post grad days, with set of students who went to Harvard, Princeton, Stern, Stanford, so on. I have personally experienced the hunt for the best company. I think this made me to pursue the book with keen earnest, i walked back on my memory lane with each sentence i read. I had something or the other to think about in the initial chapters.
The love story is beautiful brought about, well i cannot add much to it apart from appreciating it. When it comes to working in the best firm and the competition in it, it is what most of us do. It does not matter, where one passes out from or where one lands up, the race against time, the race to outperform the others will always be there. It is not just monetary, power or ego, i think it pulls someother strings beyond that. So our dear Changez enters the corporate world at an early age of 22, and excels! He is the no. 1 amongst the new recruits, pet of the big boss and there is no stopping him.
Comes 9/11 and the whole thing turns around. Changez starts questioning about the way he is, the way world is, ways of the people. He starts looking at his life in a totally different lens and the whole world changes its colour for him. As with most people, who begin introspection, even Changez goes through a period of confusion. His love life is in a turmoil, not because of him or maybe because of him, poor thing had nothing to do with it. He couldn't understand or completely comprehend Erica's behaviour or her feelings towards him. Her love towards the deceased Chris and his attitude towards the world he had left behind, takes him through a journey of discovering self.
The way this change has been explained and brought about in the book his splendid. The reader feels that the reason for change is pretty obvious. Nothing is thrust upon, the change flows through very easily. Changez embraces 'Focus on the Fundamentals', the tagline of the firm he worked for, in his pursuit and the Fundamentalist rises. Changez transforms from a young career oriented boy to a questioning man! He searches for answers, the land that he had got used to so well, becomes an alien land and he longs to go back to his country. He gives up everything, the job, the pay, the love and goes back to his country, to be with his people.
As per me, what the books fails to capture is what next, he discovered himself, he went back, what nexxt?? A smart, intelligent kid, goes back to his motherland, and then what?? I am not sure whether Hamid should have proceeded further, but i think it stops at the right time for the reader to completely observe what the author wanted to.
Overall an interesting read.
The book is kind of captivating, if you can relate to the story. I could therefore i finished it in a single sitting (sometime lying down).
About the book:
The book is about a young pakistani discovering himself amidst the hustle and bustle of global politics, terrorism and love. The interesting part of the book is its narration style. One has to give it to the author here. The main character of the book Changez is walking back in the memory lane and narrating it to an American Tourist, who never says a single word in the entire book. Hamid throws in some fillers during the narration which acts as stress releasers and gives the book its unique touch. I am not sure it is common, but this was the first time i came across this narrative style, where the other person doesn't even utter a single word.
Coming to the story line, the story is about the young aspirant Changez, who clears several hurdles to get into Princeton. Once there he continues to study hard and manages to be one of the best in class. Post Princeton he gets into a top firm doing valuation and also finds the love of his life.
I could easily relate to he making it into Princeton, his campus life, studies and then managing to get into one of the top firms. I happened to study, during my graduation and post grad days, with set of students who went to Harvard, Princeton, Stern, Stanford, so on. I have personally experienced the hunt for the best company. I think this made me to pursue the book with keen earnest, i walked back on my memory lane with each sentence i read. I had something or the other to think about in the initial chapters.
The love story is beautiful brought about, well i cannot add much to it apart from appreciating it. When it comes to working in the best firm and the competition in it, it is what most of us do. It does not matter, where one passes out from or where one lands up, the race against time, the race to outperform the others will always be there. It is not just monetary, power or ego, i think it pulls someother strings beyond that. So our dear Changez enters the corporate world at an early age of 22, and excels! He is the no. 1 amongst the new recruits, pet of the big boss and there is no stopping him.
Comes 9/11 and the whole thing turns around. Changez starts questioning about the way he is, the way world is, ways of the people. He starts looking at his life in a totally different lens and the whole world changes its colour for him. As with most people, who begin introspection, even Changez goes through a period of confusion. His love life is in a turmoil, not because of him or maybe because of him, poor thing had nothing to do with it. He couldn't understand or completely comprehend Erica's behaviour or her feelings towards him. Her love towards the deceased Chris and his attitude towards the world he had left behind, takes him through a journey of discovering self.
The way this change has been explained and brought about in the book his splendid. The reader feels that the reason for change is pretty obvious. Nothing is thrust upon, the change flows through very easily. Changez embraces 'Focus on the Fundamentals', the tagline of the firm he worked for, in his pursuit and the Fundamentalist rises. Changez transforms from a young career oriented boy to a questioning man! He searches for answers, the land that he had got used to so well, becomes an alien land and he longs to go back to his country. He gives up everything, the job, the pay, the love and goes back to his country, to be with his people.
As per me, what the books fails to capture is what next, he discovered himself, he went back, what nexxt?? A smart, intelligent kid, goes back to his motherland, and then what?? I am not sure whether Hamid should have proceeded further, but i think it stops at the right time for the reader to completely observe what the author wanted to.
Overall an interesting read.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Weather in Gurgaon ....
As a write on an early Wednesday morning sitting at my table in my room in Gurgaon, the weather outside is terrific. It is raining for the past one week, the temperature has come down drastically, the humidity is superb, the whole atmosphere is so very romantic. It reminds me of my school days in my hometown Bangalore. The weather used to be so good, all those early morning cycling to get to the school, walks in the afternoon, cricket in the evenings, chaats thereafter. During those days i never thought weather is something people crib about. Well i realised it the hard way, when i landed at Delhi airport when the thermometer read 49.5 Celsius.
Bangalore has lost most of its weather, but there are instances such as today which takes me back to those days and engulfs me with the blazes of my sweet childhood memories.
So you can ask me what am i doing inside the room when the weather outside is so pleasant. Well, i have a job and i need to get to that, pleasant or unpleasant, the job has to get done. Moreover, if i want to share a cup of coffee with anyone in this romantic weather, there is no one here, i am all alone and tied to my room. So i think it is better to get to office and join those innumerable conversations about the weather and how v r subjected to sit inside the office and generate revenue for the company !! :)
It is very hard to imagine Delhi/Gurgaon to be this way in the middle of may, instead of the sun breathing down our back it is the rain which is providing an umbrella of clouds for us!
Bangalore has lost most of its weather, but there are instances such as today which takes me back to those days and engulfs me with the blazes of my sweet childhood memories.
So you can ask me what am i doing inside the room when the weather outside is so pleasant. Well, i have a job and i need to get to that, pleasant or unpleasant, the job has to get done. Moreover, if i want to share a cup of coffee with anyone in this romantic weather, there is no one here, i am all alone and tied to my room. So i think it is better to get to office and join those innumerable conversations about the weather and how v r subjected to sit inside the office and generate revenue for the company !! :)
It is very hard to imagine Delhi/Gurgaon to be this way in the middle of may, instead of the sun breathing down our back it is the rain which is providing an umbrella of clouds for us!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Communication
The third dimension of communication ...
All this while i thought there were only two dimensions to communication. One Verbal and the other non-verbal. I think these two needs no introduction. I have come across people who are good at both verbal and non-verbal. If there is a good co-ordination between verbal and non-verbal that shows the confidence of the person and his/her command/clarity over what they are talking about.
I have learnt a great deal by watching those people.
Command over verbal comes from ability to express oneself in the vocabulary one has or the vocabulary the audience has. For the communication to be effective, the confidence of the person should be reasonably good and the co-ordination between verbal and non-verbal should be excellent.
There is a person in my office who has exceptional communication skills. He is part of the top management. He chooses his words carefully and when he completes a sentence there is hardly any ambiguity or misinterpretation in whatever he says. He is very particular about communication and he has consciously made efforts to reach that pinnacle in communication. He has lot of energy and pumps in huge amount of passion in whatever he does. His speeches are always captivating.
The third dimension of communication that i talked about came through noticing him. There is an organizational wide process we have to do and this person is driving it. He is very passionate about that. As with most of the organizations and organizational initiatives, most of the people do not feel that the new process is going to do any good and few of them feel that it is a waste of their time and energy.
Time and again he speaks to these people with the same passion and drive i was talking about in the earlier part of the blog. It is very captivating. He takes you through a journey and expresses his vision with crystal clear clarity and lays down his plan of how to get there. Usually people get convinced then and there, but over a period of time they get back to their original state. It is not a one-off case, but most of them oscillate from no-opinion to complete buy-in and then back to no-opinion.
This person has lot of respect in the organization and no single soul doubts his abilities or leadership qualities. Still i didn't understand why the people didn't have a complete buy-in to the cause. After some thought, i think i figured out the reason behind it. This person's communication is good, he is expressing himself very well, he has clarity, he has confidence and he has the power equation towards him but what i think he is failing to achieve is, he is not able to rub-off the passion and the drive he has for the initiative to other people. People listen, understand the words, but not the passion or the emotion behind it. So the third dimension to communication really communicating these emotions to the listener or the audience. If one masters that one can move the crowd in which ever way they want to.
I think history has people like Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr. , Lincoln who could do that. King Khan does it in many of his movies, rather to think of it, i think it is his most significant USP. You remove Khan and put some1 else there and ask them to deliver the same dialogue i think mose of the audience will not be moved at all. King Khan ensures that most of them walk out of the cinema hall with tears in their eyes. He communicates the emotions too. Agreed there is the dialogue, background score but one cannot ignore the Khan element in them .
In everyday life too there are people who do that or instances where people rub-off the emotions, may be due to the nature of the emotion itself. If one is in a very good jovial mood and someone works with this person for sometime the other person will (might) also get into a good mood but the same may not be true if the first person was in a bad mood. There is some rub-off of the good mood across individuals.
So this communication of emotions, is what i refer to as the next dimension in communication following verbal and non-verbal.
All this while i thought there were only two dimensions to communication. One Verbal and the other non-verbal. I think these two needs no introduction. I have come across people who are good at both verbal and non-verbal. If there is a good co-ordination between verbal and non-verbal that shows the confidence of the person and his/her command/clarity over what they are talking about.
I have learnt a great deal by watching those people.
Command over verbal comes from ability to express oneself in the vocabulary one has or the vocabulary the audience has. For the communication to be effective, the confidence of the person should be reasonably good and the co-ordination between verbal and non-verbal should be excellent.
There is a person in my office who has exceptional communication skills. He is part of the top management. He chooses his words carefully and when he completes a sentence there is hardly any ambiguity or misinterpretation in whatever he says. He is very particular about communication and he has consciously made efforts to reach that pinnacle in communication. He has lot of energy and pumps in huge amount of passion in whatever he does. His speeches are always captivating.
The third dimension of communication that i talked about came through noticing him. There is an organizational wide process we have to do and this person is driving it. He is very passionate about that. As with most of the organizations and organizational initiatives, most of the people do not feel that the new process is going to do any good and few of them feel that it is a waste of their time and energy.
Time and again he speaks to these people with the same passion and drive i was talking about in the earlier part of the blog. It is very captivating. He takes you through a journey and expresses his vision with crystal clear clarity and lays down his plan of how to get there. Usually people get convinced then and there, but over a period of time they get back to their original state. It is not a one-off case, but most of them oscillate from no-opinion to complete buy-in and then back to no-opinion.
This person has lot of respect in the organization and no single soul doubts his abilities or leadership qualities. Still i didn't understand why the people didn't have a complete buy-in to the cause. After some thought, i think i figured out the reason behind it. This person's communication is good, he is expressing himself very well, he has clarity, he has confidence and he has the power equation towards him but what i think he is failing to achieve is, he is not able to rub-off the passion and the drive he has for the initiative to other people. People listen, understand the words, but not the passion or the emotion behind it. So the third dimension to communication really communicating these emotions to the listener or the audience. If one masters that one can move the crowd in which ever way they want to.
I think history has people like Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr. , Lincoln who could do that. King Khan does it in many of his movies, rather to think of it, i think it is his most significant USP. You remove Khan and put some1 else there and ask them to deliver the same dialogue i think mose of the audience will not be moved at all. King Khan ensures that most of them walk out of the cinema hall with tears in their eyes. He communicates the emotions too. Agreed there is the dialogue, background score but one cannot ignore the Khan element in them .
In everyday life too there are people who do that or instances where people rub-off the emotions, may be due to the nature of the emotion itself. If one is in a very good jovial mood and someone works with this person for sometime the other person will (might) also get into a good mood but the same may not be true if the first person was in a bad mood. There is some rub-off of the good mood across individuals.
So this communication of emotions, is what i refer to as the next dimension in communication following verbal and non-verbal.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Secrets by Rhonda Byrne
I spent my sunday reading Secrets by Rhonda Byrne. I didn't know much about the book just that it was the no. 1 bestseller in Crossword, Landmark and Reliance Time-out. I had read the preview of the book in the bookstore and thought that it is more of an inspirational kind of a book, so didnt buy that.
Now, how did i get my hands on the book? I got the book as a gift from one of our vendors as part of their relationship management exercise. The interesting part is the relationship manager had written something like 'Sharing with you the spirit that drives our team'. I am not sure whether she meant this or not, it made me read the book.
About the book:
It talks about the secret law, the law of attraction, the entire content of the book revolves around this law. There are quotes by the people who have internalised it and certain illustrations of people who are benefited by it. The book is well structured. It starts off with introducing the law and simplified it further for better understanding. It provides processes for using the law and illustrations of the application of the law in certain aspects one values the most, like money, relationships, health, world, life and the self !
While reading the book what came to my mind was the quote from Paulo Coelho's Alchemist, "When you know what you want the whole world conspires you to achieve it". Secrets is about this and much more, in secrets the whole world is replaced by the entire Universe and the contribution of the self in order to achieve the "it".
Another thing that struck me was, Secrets talks about thoughts. If you have good thoughts you attract good thoughts and you feel good and if you have bad thoughts you attracts bad thoughts and you feel bad. Along these lines, in Mahabharata, Yudhisteera, the elder brother of the Pandavas, goes around the world and comes back and informs Lord Krishna that there are no bad people on earth whereas Dhuryodhana does the same thing and comes back and says that there are no good people on earth. As per the Mahabharata, Yudhisteera is the good guy and Dhuryodhana the bad guy. So is it because of his thoughts that Yudhisteera attracted only good guys towards him and Dhuryodhana attracted the bad guys. I am not sure if the tale itself is true, but if it is it just reinforces the message in Secrets !!!
The book is not heavy and written in a simple language with lots of illustration and does not promise heaven on earth. One can finish it in a single sitting.
There is a movie on Secrets as well. I haven't seen it yet but surely will do so.
Regarding the book, it is worth a read !
Now, how did i get my hands on the book? I got the book as a gift from one of our vendors as part of their relationship management exercise. The interesting part is the relationship manager had written something like 'Sharing with you the spirit that drives our team'. I am not sure whether she meant this or not, it made me read the book.
About the book:
It talks about the secret law, the law of attraction, the entire content of the book revolves around this law. There are quotes by the people who have internalised it and certain illustrations of people who are benefited by it. The book is well structured. It starts off with introducing the law and simplified it further for better understanding. It provides processes for using the law and illustrations of the application of the law in certain aspects one values the most, like money, relationships, health, world, life and the self !
While reading the book what came to my mind was the quote from Paulo Coelho's Alchemist, "When you know what you want the whole world conspires you to achieve it". Secrets is about this and much more, in secrets the whole world is replaced by the entire Universe and the contribution of the self in order to achieve the "it".
Another thing that struck me was, Secrets talks about thoughts. If you have good thoughts you attract good thoughts and you feel good and if you have bad thoughts you attracts bad thoughts and you feel bad. Along these lines, in Mahabharata, Yudhisteera, the elder brother of the Pandavas, goes around the world and comes back and informs Lord Krishna that there are no bad people on earth whereas Dhuryodhana does the same thing and comes back and says that there are no good people on earth. As per the Mahabharata, Yudhisteera is the good guy and Dhuryodhana the bad guy. So is it because of his thoughts that Yudhisteera attracted only good guys towards him and Dhuryodhana attracted the bad guys. I am not sure if the tale itself is true, but if it is it just reinforces the message in Secrets !!!
The book is not heavy and written in a simple language with lots of illustration and does not promise heaven on earth. One can finish it in a single sitting.
There is a movie on Secrets as well. I haven't seen it yet but surely will do so.
Regarding the book, it is worth a read !
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Motorcycle Diaries
I just now finished reading motorcycle diaries by Che Guevara. The book is more of a diary of Che during his travel across Latin America.
I expected the book to be more about Che, how he became the revolutionary, what influenced him to move away from his profession . Well, the book just falls short of that. There are 3 or 4 pages in the end which talks about the revolutionary Che. It is more like a speech Che is making to the general audience than the transformation. I think i had wrong expectations about the book, but if you treat the book as a travel diary, it is an interesting read.
It gives a brief account of the life and culture in Latin America. It throws in some history of the land as well. The interesting bit about the book it never compares each country with Argentina (Che's home) or to any of the previous countries visited. There are fleeting comparison on the economic drivers, dress and the language. The regions visited were poorer, the mines were a typical owners exploiting the locals. Che is moved by all these, but at any point there is no connect between things that moved him across regions. There is an instance in the book were a couple talk about communism, but there is no build-on after that. He comes across a rebels planing a strike but he keeps away from it. It is more of taking things the way they come and hardly any contemplation thereafter.
What i feel is Che observed the pain of the people during his tour but there was something in the later part of his life which changed him and his attitude towards the way he saw life and the people. And his previous observation of the people in Latin America got new meanings which might have strengthened the cause he believed in and probably fuelled the revolutionary che became.
More insights into this change in nature and the new interpretation about the life in Latin America will be useful and will be very handy to understand one of the greatest revolutionaries of the century.
I expected the book to be more about Che, how he became the revolutionary, what influenced him to move away from his profession . Well, the book just falls short of that. There are 3 or 4 pages in the end which talks about the revolutionary Che. It is more like a speech Che is making to the general audience than the transformation. I think i had wrong expectations about the book, but if you treat the book as a travel diary, it is an interesting read.
It gives a brief account of the life and culture in Latin America. It throws in some history of the land as well. The interesting bit about the book it never compares each country with Argentina (Che's home) or to any of the previous countries visited. There are fleeting comparison on the economic drivers, dress and the language. The regions visited were poorer, the mines were a typical owners exploiting the locals. Che is moved by all these, but at any point there is no connect between things that moved him across regions. There is an instance in the book were a couple talk about communism, but there is no build-on after that. He comes across a rebels planing a strike but he keeps away from it. It is more of taking things the way they come and hardly any contemplation thereafter.
What i feel is Che observed the pain of the people during his tour but there was something in the later part of his life which changed him and his attitude towards the way he saw life and the people. And his previous observation of the people in Latin America got new meanings which might have strengthened the cause he believed in and probably fuelled the revolutionary che became.
More insights into this change in nature and the new interpretation about the life in Latin America will be useful and will be very handy to understand one of the greatest revolutionaries of the century.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
IF by Rudyard Kipling
This is one of the poems that i like.
Each time i read the poem a different line stands out. I don't know why. It might be due to the state of my mind then or different things to be significant for me at different points in time. Whenever i read it takes me to a different place and soothens the mind and brings in tranquility.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Heaven of Freedom
I came across this poem in Kishore Biyani's Retail book "IT happens only in India" . I somehow got hooked onto it and googled it out. Tagore has woven the words very beautifully, it is his vision for the nation. We have the preamble which is about how the country should be but it is no where closer to Tagore's vision.
One of my colleague's in office came to know about my liking for this poem and mentioned that i am looking at Utopia. Utopia is something ideal and anything ideal is kind of impractical (the way i see it), but Tagore's vision for the country i dont think it is impractical, it is something that is doable.
What i feel is we do not have to look at country here, we can replace country here with the company that we work for. Is it Utopia? Is Utopia what we need? Why is our company the way it is? Can we do something about it? Can we be the harbingers of change?
The poem is as follows:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.
-Tagore
One of my colleague's in office came to know about my liking for this poem and mentioned that i am looking at Utopia. Utopia is something ideal and anything ideal is kind of impractical (the way i see it), but Tagore's vision for the country i dont think it is impractical, it is something that is doable.
What i feel is we do not have to look at country here, we can replace country here with the company that we work for. Is it Utopia? Is Utopia what we need? Why is our company the way it is? Can we do something about it? Can we be the harbingers of change?
The poem is as follows:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.
-Tagore
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