Learn to Relax - Take a break

Learn to Relax - Take a break

"We're far more complex than any machine and we have vastly more moving parts. Still, most of us are more vigilant about refueling and maintaining our cars than we are about taking care of ourselves," observes Schwartz, the author of a recent book (The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance). "When demand in our lives intensifies, our pattern is to hunker down and push harder, rather than to refuel more frequently."

Sound familiar?

It is high time that folks in the corporate world learns the importance of those old-fashioned breaks. Not just the annual vacation, but even that lunch break that old-timers would be able to enlighten you about - a leisurely hour-long "sit-down" lunch that involves not just food, but also a nice long chat with a friend either from a different function within the organisation or, better still, a friend who is not even your colleague.

Oh! do remember to lock up your blackberry, shut down your laptop, banish all thoughts of shop-talk, etc. before you move out to take that break.

Enjoy the break (if possible, 3-4 times a day) - Daily!

Regards,

N

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Fake journalism to malign India & CWG!

Fake journalism to malign India & CWG!

In my circle of friends, I've been among the most vociferous critic of M/s Kalmadi & co - and a staunch supporter of the way our media has been highlighting the entire gamut of corruption, nepotism, incompetence, et al.

However, I was shocked by this instance of a fake report about a purported security breach. The whole thing has been so well-chronicled that it doesn't need a separate comment from me.

Do read on and be shocked!

Reporter walked past a thoroughfare barricade with an empty case to create security scare in Delhi, according to this rather thorough media watch report.

In effect, what it says is:

1. The suitcase shown to us on TV was an empty case with just foam inside, not laden with explosive
2. The detonator was a dummy
3. The so called explosive was ammonium nitrate, a common fertiliser
4. He never entered any games venue but just crossed a traffic barricade on a main road away from any games venue.

Read yourself

http://bit.ly/fakereport

 

Regards,

N

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Electricity Mohan

Electricity Mohan

Just got a mail from a friend that led me to a dangerous link (Oh! not a danger that is a simple virus - this is a more real and live danger - one that can impact you physically if you try to "copy the act" shown on the video) that is preceded by a stern warning from me:

Warning If you're a kid or faint-hearted or are likely to be tempted to try out anything that you watch on youtube, don't even read a word beyond this.

The dangerous link:

• 
  
  Electricity Mohan!

This is apparently a real video showing how a living human being has become a live conductor of electricity.

A couple of quick observations:

• 
  
  This is not meant for kids or the faint-hearted
• 
  
  This is certainly not something that you should watch if you're tempted to try out things that you watch
• 
  
  This is most certainly very risky looking - and can kill you if you try to follow suit
• 
  
  I was watching the video clipping with a combination of amazement and disgust
• 
  
  Was amazed because of the incredible nature of the act
• 
  
  And disgusted because it appears without any adequately strong warning to dissuade people from emulating.

Regards,

N

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Letting out houses to Muslims & other groups of people

Letting out houses to Muslims

(or more precisely, not letting out houses to Muslims)

Today, I was watching on TV (CNN-IBN) a very interesting discussion - Virtually the entire prime time was focussed almost exclusively on a self-admittedly selective survey of landlords claiming to be reluctant or unwilling to give their houses to Muslims on rent in Mumbai, Delhi, Noida & Gurgaon.

Almost all the people on the panels were essentially being politically correct and claiming that it is indeed "something wrong, regrettable, and almost bordering on a criminal act".

Laughable, indeed, if one were to look at the ground reality.

When a typical middle-class Indian wants to let out his/her house on rent, what are the typical priorities? Here are some ideas that come to my mind:

• Regular receipt of reasonable rent, along with equally regular periodic increases in rent
• A tenant who will vacate the house on request from the landlord
• A tenant who will maintain the house reasonably well
• A tenant who does not create problems for the landlord directly
• A tenant who does not create any meaningful problems for immediate neighbours (who may be close friends or relatives of the landlord, with years of past acquaintance)

Keeping the above in mind, if I were to be a typical ordinary landlord, I would refrain or at least think a hundred times before giving my house on rent to a whole host of groups of people for one or more of the above priorities being likely to be violated:

• People from other countries
• Bachelors
• Spinsters
• Members of specific professions like Politicians, Lawyers, Journalists, Policemen, TV / Film persons, Air Hostesses, Employees of a Hotel / Bar / Mortuary, etc.
• Single women / men of any kind
• Couple living together without a marital relationship
• Gays / Lesbians
• People with a "problem" family member (the "problem" can be real or imaginary - and may potentially include people with certain specific disabilities, diseases, habits, etc.)
• People with "Large families"
• People from a community / religion / sect / caste / social class that is completely different from that of my immediate neighbours
• People from a "completely different" geographic location
• People with unwed parents
• People working in graveyard shifts
• Divorcees
• Ex-convicts
• People who have civil or criminal cases pending against them
• People against whom criminal cases have ever been filed in the past
• Social activists of any kind

If we were to logically think through the whole matter, each of the above is driven by a very strong bias, prejudice, unstated fear. Most often, the reasons, though unreasonable and unpalatable, are neither improbable nor illogical.

At the root of it all, we must realise that when we let out a house, we are doing so just to get an income from a property bought with our hard-earned money. We certainly would not be keen on inviting any trouble by doing so, especially when we have an alternative of very easily locating a perfectly "normal" tenant - a typical young married couple with one or two kids, with a steady income and middle class mentality, or, a simple retired senior citizen couple whose children have settled overseas with a software job!

For all those people who talk from Ivory Towers about an egalitarian society where we ought not to discriminate while choosing our own tenants, I just have to say the following:

• Please buy your own house and LET OUT THAT HOUSE to exactly the kind of person to whom you wish to do so. And let me do likewise with my own house.

Regards,

N

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Rotting Foodgrains and TRP Led Debates

Rotting Foodgrains and TRP Led Debates

Of late, I watch most news channels (both English & Regional Language Channels) more for entertainment than for news. The more serious the subject, the more comical the discussions tend to be.

Many debates leave me with varied emotions ranging from fury to laughter at the lack of depth, lack of knowledge, lack of perspective displayed by anchors as well as the so-called and/or self-proclaimed experts.

Today I was watching a few debates on the issue of Rotting Foodgrains and the Supreme Court's order / observation on the same.

Across a whole range of TV channels, without exception, the discussions were meandering around pet themes of the individual concerned rather than the core issue.

• The anchors were focussing on trying to create "a lively debate" with an eye on TRPs
• The left-leaning thinkers / experts were asking the government to "Give away" the foodgrains
• The right-leaning thinkers / experts were demanding privatisation of storage systems
• The politicians were busy finding fault with the rest of the gang
• Anyone who was remotely sensible was either shouted down or was not given adequate time to even give a coherent expression of his/her thoughts on the matter
• All this was interspersed with the usual quota of commercial breaks, making the point about TRPs abundantly clear.

Despite shifting across the whole range of TV channels, I was unable to fathom as to why specific debates / discussions dedicated to each of the following aspects were not being deliberated upon for any meaningful length of time:

• Meaningful postmortem of what happened and why the foodgrains were rotting in the first place
• An "Immediate" Action Plan on what ought to be done "Right away" within the next 2-3 days
• An "Intermediate" Action Plan on meaningful steps that need to be taken within the next 4-6 weeks to solve the problem of rotting foodgrains for the current season without any significant adverse side effects.
• An "In-depth" discussion on a lasting solution taking into account all aspects of the problem, including systemic changes, changes for the processes of procurement / transportation / storage / distribution, exploring private-public partnerships, etc., keeping in mind all the stakeholders involved, ranging from landless farmers to end-consumers

Let me see if at least tomorrow's newspapers have any in-depth analysis of the above!

Regards,

N

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