Some Story Telling Session…

This moment is filled with sheer nostalgia. A chip off the memories at the IMDR personality development classes.. I do wonder at times about the things that haven’t changed, looking back at those days when we did that four princes story telling session and impersonated one of the prince’s exile story with utter glee. What I loved was the beginning of the story, the entire group gathering and the joy of offering the non-material gifts.

That was some day when that sane wise man started his session like this: “Once upon a time, long long ago, just about yesterday, far far away from here, just around the corner was a kingdom a kingdom not too large, not too small and like all kingdoms its boundaries extended to East, West, North and South to the extent of the known world…” And then we went through a racy ride over a kingdom blessed with four princes, each with his own unique skills and two unique gifts from his fairy grand mother, all set to reign the world.

The two gifts for each prince were intriguing too. While one gift fetched success in public, the other gift acted as a mirror in the closed quarters. First Prince got the Book of Knowledge and an Ever Smiling Doll, the Second Prince was gifted the Magic Sword and the Roaring Mouse, while the third prince is left with the Magic Box of Potions and the tear bag and the Fourth Prince had the Magic Cap and the Magic Wand. Faced with a challenge to live a two year exile period out of the comfort zone of his kingdom, each prince marches in the designated direction at a certain age to make his life. There the story was left open and the participants made their own journey impersonating the prince of their choice.

Little did I know at that time that my instinctive choices haven’t changed even after three long years. I am still that rolling stone, the prince of laughter, gifted with magic cap and magic wand.. What felt like fun sounded frivolous at times, yet I guess the beauty of that experience lies in its inherent contradictions. It engaged our creativity while making us introspect and reflect on our choices. It held our interest and spread a lot of cheer while making us ponder over the deeper implications. We all need mirrors at times, to see how we have evolved and how we have changed over the sands of time.

Devil’s Most Used Instrument…

This little story is most profound as it sinks in the thought. I couldn’t help sharing it!

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It was advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the date of the sale, the tools were placed for public inspection; each tool being marked with its sale price. They were a treacherous lot of implements… Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Deceit, Lying, Pride, and so on.

Laid apart from the rest was a harmless looking tool, that appeared to have been heavily used, and was priced very high.

“What is the name of this tool?” asked one of the purchasers, pointing to it.

“That is Discouragement,” replied the devil.

“Why have you priced it so high?”

“Because it is more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open and get inside people’s hearts with that when I cannot get near them with my other tools. Once I get inside, I can make them do what I choose. It is badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since very few people know that it belongs to me.”

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There are some stories which require a moment to read but a life time to comprehend. And discouragement is like a slow poison. Who says language doesn’t matter? One word can lit someone’s face and one moment can change somebody’s life. We love, live, cry, smile, share and care through it. So be careful while using it. Hope you would remember this little story next time when you are tempted to indulge in destructive feedback.

I Wish You Enough..

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Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, “I love you, and I wish you enough.”

The daughter replied, “Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom.” They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there, I could see she wanted & needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy, but she welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”

“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?”.
“I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is – the next trip back will be for my funeral,” she said.
“When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.’ May I ask what that means?”

She began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and she smiled even more.”When we said, ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough goo d things to sustain them.” Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to cry and walked away.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them; but then an entire life to forget them. TAKE TIME TO LIVE…..

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A Story that I love to Share.. To everyone who paused by, I Wish You Enough.

Put The Glass Down..

Here is a beautiful story that offers a sensible perspective and profound advice on how to deal with stress, problems and challenges of everyday life. Do Enjoy..

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Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.
He held it up for all to see & asked the students,’ How much do you think this glass weighs?’
’50gms!’ …. ‘100gms!’ …..’125gms’ …..the students answered.
‘I really don’t know unless I weigh it,’ said the professor, ‘but, my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?’

‘Nothing’ the students said.
‘Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?’ the professor asked.
‘Your arm would begin to ache’ said one of the students.
‘You’re right, now what would happen if I held it for a day?’
‘Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress & paralysis & have to go to hospital for sure!’ ventured another student & all the students laughed.

‘Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?’ asked the professor.
‘No’
‘Then what caused the arm ache & the muscle stress?’ The students were puzzled.
‘Put the glass down!’ said one of the students.

‘Exactly!’ said the professor.’ Life’s problems are something like this.

Hold it for a few minutes in your head & they seem OK. Think of them for a long time & they begin to ache. Hold it even longer & they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything. It’s important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to ‘put them down’ at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh & strong & can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!’

Love And Time..

Here is another forward that I have received a long time back. There is no specific reason to post this apart from the fact that I liked this.  This story brings out quite creatively that time is much needed to appreciate the richness of love.. Muse on..

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Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all repaired their boats and left.

Love wanted to persevere until the last possible moment. When the island was almost sinking, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”

Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel, “Vanity, please help me!” “I can’t help you Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat.” Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by so Love asked for help, “Sadness, let me go with you.” “Oh….Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”

Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her! Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come Love, I will take you.” It was an elder.

Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that he even forgot to ask the elder his name. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way.

Love realizing how much he owed the elder and asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who helped me?” “It was Time,” Knowledge answered.

“Time?” asked Love. “But why did Time help me?”

Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because, only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is.”

A Story On Excellence..

Here is a story that I wanted to share as it had a grain of truth.. ( Courtesy: Forwards)

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A gentleman was once visiting a temple under construction. In the temple premises, he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he saw, just a few meters away, another identical idol was lying.

Surprised he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statutes of the same idol”. “No” said the sculptor. “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage”.

The gentleman examined the sculptor. No apparent damage was visible. “Where is the damage” asked the gentleman.

“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.”

“Where are you going to keep the idol”.

The sculptor replied that it will be installed on a pillar 20 feet high. “When the idol will be 20 feet away from the eyes of the beholder, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose?” The gentleman asked.

“The sculptor looked at the gentleman, smiled and said “God knows it and I know it”.

The desire to excel should be exclusive of the fact whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from ”Inside” not ”Outside”.

Playing Process Executive..

This goes as a humble attempt of mine to sketch a life like story in BPO…

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Suma has always thought that she should have a first hand experience of a BPO or call centre. All that glitter, media talk and allure of that career is enticing enough. She is a first class degree graduate and finally she landed in a plush job as a process executive in one of the most popular BPO’s in the Metro. After her hectic training she ended up dabbling in the billing operations to learn reality the hard way.

Suma walked to her desk. Her maniac monday regime is set to begin now. Its 9:05 AM and she is already five minutes late! Her mistaken sense of punctuality is at draggers with her again! It doesn’t make a difference that her office starts at 9:30 AM. Its an internal sense of commitment that gets her going!

One look at the inbox work, and Suma is longing for her carefree times again! She has to finish off a lot so that her team leader can audit it in time. People work for around 16 hours a day in her team, resolving escalations or raising plain bills in India for some UK or US customers. Their celebration of life starts by switching on their monitor to prune through the innumerable mails dealing with several requests and hours roll on in characteristic nonchalance..

Just 3 days old into this and she wonders at all those bright minds entangled in the routine humdrum of mundane activities. She discovered new friends along the way.. Anusha is an MCA, ended up in this role as she wanted to enjoy financial independence in marriage; Ketan is preparing for GMAT and wanted to make his own dough; Leela is an orphan and this job is godsent. Everyone is always on run, helping eachother in their issues, dealing with escalations, managing workload and trying to scrape some moments of personal time in that maddening rush…

Suma has found a shortcut to tackle the situation though. She prompty switches off those inner rantings which drive her crazy and gets herself going at that insane pace which her work demands.. There isn’t time enough to be with herself or is it that she hates to take a maverick stance?

As she muses over herself, she considers ‘Hey what’s wrong with me? I earn 20 grand, family is happy, I got great friends and I freak out every other day. What’s wrong with my job anyways? ‘ Suma has always based her life on rule book.. Yet, when she opens it to check what she really wants to do, the pages are all blank!

The Amul Story..

Just finished reading The Amul India Story by Ruth Herediya. The book traces the development of dairy movement in India, starting from a small place called Kaira district, backed by the vision of Sardar Vallabhai Patel to build institutions like GCMMF and NDDB and the brand called Amul. The initiative and dynamism shown by Verghese Kurien-a professional manager, Tribhuvandas Patel-a visionary farmer,H.M.Dalaya- technologist to fight against all the odds is quite commendable. The book describes the toil and hardships faced by these committed individuals in shaping the co-operative movement in India through Kaira Co-operative. I was quite surprised to know that a lot of technology that involved spray drying and processing of buffalo milk was first developed in India and Amul dairy in Anand was the largest milk processing plant in Asia when it first got started. The amazing part of this co-operative is that it collects milk from direct village primary co-operatives or the villages and does the value addition in the product and markets it. So the Villagers concentrate on producing more milk where as the GCMMF takes care of the sales and distribution part of it. This way, the rural India is enriched by the creation of micro-enterprises leading to the formation of self-sufficient and developing communities. Its truly delightful to see how a profitmaking enterprise aids in community enhancement leading to the fulfillment of the altruistic vision. Truly Amul is a dream realized through grit, passion and conviction of all the members! The triumph of rural India!!