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| Monday, August 27, 2007 |
| Management Course |
Lesson 1
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.
When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you £800 to drop that towel."
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her £800 and leaves.
The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?"
"It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.
"Great!" the husband says, "did he say anything about the £800 he owes me?"
Moral of the Story :
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time , you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.
Lesson 2 (No Offence)
A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest removed his hand.
But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.
It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."
Moral of the Story:
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.
Lesson 3
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish."
Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.” Puff! She's gone.
Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Puff! He's gone.
"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."
Moral of the Story:
Always let your boss have the first say.
Lesson 4
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?" The eagle answered: "Sure, why not."
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the Story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on so me of my droppings?" replied the bull.” They’re packed with nutrients."
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.
Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.
Moral of the Story:
BullShit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.
Lesson 6
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.
Moral of the Story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!!!
This ends the 3-Minute Management Course...!!! |
posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 10:39 PM  |
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| Sunday, May 20, 2007 |
| India will become bigger than USA |
 "India is poised to become one of the three large economies of the world. By the mid century I think India could overtake US by absolute size," says Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals and one of the world's foremost economists.
And it's no wonder that he seems clearly excited about the fact that India's President is a scientist and the Prime Minster, an economist. In an exclusive interview with The Smart Manager, Jeffrey, author and coauthor of over 200 scholarly articles explains among other things, as to why problems don't go away without money and why you have to throw money at them.
"By mid century India could overtake the US by absolute size," says Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals and one of the world's foremost economists. In this interview with The Smart Manager, he offers a realistic course of action which India could follow to achieve this.
Time Magazine in April 2004, declared Professor Jeffrey D Sachs as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. As the Special Advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Anan on the Millennium Development Goals, he says, "India is poised to become one of the three large economies of the world. By the mid century I think India could overtake US by absolute size.
Professor Sachs (born in Detroit, 1954) an alumini of Harvard University, is director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University where economists and scientists work together on environment and social issues. And it's no wonder that he seems clearly excited about the fact that India's President is a scientist and the Prime Minster, an economist.
Being internationally renowned for his work as economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa he says as far as India is concerned, "We are going to see growth led by services, export oriented manufactures, and by parts of the agricultural sector."
However, Professor Sachs, who is also Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University is clear about the fact that governments should not be running industrial and insurance companies, hotels and banks. But when it comes to agriculture, he emphasizes that the government has a role in promoting basic scientific research in improved crop varieties, bio-technology and agricultural expansion so that farmers can adopt modern technology.
In an exclusive interview with The Smart Manager, Jeffrey D Sachs, author and coauthor of over 200 scholarly articles explains among other things, as to why problems don't go away without money and why you have to throw money at them.
increasing the productivity level of the agricultural sector is critical, what are your suggestions?
I don't think an economy as complex and diverse as India's is going to be led by any single sector. India is clearly on its way to becoming one of the largest and most diverse economies in the world. And we will have to see if the economy is well managed, that the international system remains open, and that is some-thing that India will have a role to play in accomplishing as well.
We are going to see growth led by services, export oriented manufactures, and by parts of the agricultural sector. I should say right from the start that I am not a doctrinal, laissez-faire economist. I am a strong believer in inter-national trade and in market forces; but I believe there is a role for governments as well as the markets in agriculture, and, to a lesser extent industry.
Now it's a matter of defining what the appropriate roles are. Governments should not be running industrial companies or hotels or banks and insurance companies. But if you turn to agriculture, there is no doubt in my mind that the government has a role in promoting basic scientific research in improved crop varieties, biotechnology, in helping agricultural expansion so that farmers get the information they need in order to adopt modern technology. Governments also have a role in liberalizing markets and helping ensure that India's competitive farmers have access to foreign markets, in providing basic rural infrastructure, such as road to villages and electrification.
In some areas it doesn't matter letting private companies provide electricity, but there is a role in making sure that the power effectively reaches the poor. I don't believe that this has been done well, giving away free energy has not translated into reliable energy.
you mentioned the use of IT in agriculture. Can you elaborate?
Agriculture is a very technology based sector. One of India's fundamental breakthroughs, without question, was the Green Revolution of the 1960s which helped India escape from decades of extreme suffering. It was achieved using what was then the most modern technology in terms of improved crop varieties and combining them with what was then modern systems for irrigation and fertilizers use. There is no question that what was the state-of-the-art technology 25 years ago is very backward by today's standards.
Huge improvements in every aspect of agriculture are taking place. Biotechnology is improving crop varieties through pest-resistant seeds. And now biotech scientists in both public sector and private sectors have made breakthroughs in drought resistant seeds, which may be one of the most important breakthroughs for India in the future. India has a chronic crisis of water, and the advances in drip irrigation are tremendous, so that whatever water there is reaches the roots of the plants and is therefore used far more efficiently. The water crisis is getting worse all over India. Water which has been millions of years in the making is being drained in a matter of years. We need more scientific approaches to water management.
Today one can help farmers identify when to plant through climate modeling. For example, better modeling of the monsoon cycle can be used to improve water reservoir management, irrigation practices and timing of crop planting. Satellites or global positioning systems can help farmers identify where the exact nutrients are in the soil.
So instead of using massive amounts of fertilizers which end up running into rivers and polluting the water ways besides being expensive waste for farmers, global positioning systems help farmers identify exactly where on their farms certain nutrients should be put, how to use less fertilizer and in which areas exactly it ought to be spread.
The continuing gains in crop productivity that have been achieved in the United States are now underway in many other countries. Farmers need to have incentives to use scientific and technological inputs; they need to have access to high technology. That requires a significant governmental role.
apparently new research shows that a black cloud is hovering over India, one which is adversely impacting weather conditions in China, leading to the drying up of Northern China. What exactly is happening here?
 This again is an area where science is proving helpful. Big improvements have been made in recent years in understanding the Asian climate system. And one of the shocking discoveries is the black smog that has spread over India. The smog is coming from millions and millions of households and small industrial users burning fuel wood and coal in dirty, polluting and inefficient ways. They are not just polluting homes and causing respiratory diseases, but they are creating a chronic smog that is spreading over much of Asia. Researchers, including researchers at the Earth Institute, are beginning to get a better understanding of the effects of this massive cloud in Asia.
It is changing the cloud formation, the amount of radiation reaching the earth and weather patterns, especially the rainfall pattern. It seems to be leading to a significant drop of rainfall over Northern China, Beijing and regions to the west of Beijing. Of course hundreds of millions of people depend on rainfall for food production. This is a serious phenomena that will have to be addressed. At this stage, the scientific hypothesis is based on modeling and recent rainfall evidence.
the Earth Institute is perhaps the only research organization in the world where economists and scientists work together on environment and social issues. You are excited and happy about the fact that our President is a scientist and the Prime Minster, an economist. So is the feeling then of, "Oh, the people in power are like us, they understand my lingo!" Do you see India as your new laboratory?
I do not see countries as labs. The things that we are talking about are not wild experiments in a laboratory. We are talking about tried and proven methods of using international trade or using investments in science and technology for agriculture, using increased investments in health to promote economic development. So in this a sense I wouldn't say the word laboratory but what I would say is that India is poised to become one of the three large economies of the world.
By the mid century I think India could overtake US by absolute size. My rough back-of-the-envelope calculation says that by the mid century, if India manages the economy properly, and we do not make disasters on the international scene, India could have one fourth the per capita income of the United States. Combine that with roughly four times the population, and what you have is an economy bigger than the US economy. Now I think that this is not only possible, it is extraordinarily exciting and positive not just for India but the whole world. The whole world would benefit fantastically from a dynamic, prosperous and scientifically productive India. This is going to be of global benefit.
I think the new government is absolutely a dream team. The Prime Minister is a leading figure in development economics and the father of economic reforms in this country with an experienced cabinet and a tremendous social agenda. The advancements in health and education, in rural infrastructure and agricultural productivity that are being talked about right now aren't concessions to a left wing agenda or a painful compromise.
These were investments that should have been made in the last ten years but weren't made. And I kept asking on every visit, where is politics in this country? Why are young girls still not completing school in this country? Why isn't there more public pressure? Frankly I was very gratified by the election results.
during the recent elections, some progressive chief ministers were booted out of power. What do you make of that signal?
In all democracies one group gets booted in one day and out another: governments will keep rotating. It may look like instability but it actually is one of the deeper and better ways of controlling corruption and not allowing it to become entrenched. What it has not done is to derail economic reforms.
I am sure Indian politicians are asking themselves, that if they make investments in IT, if they try to create urban centers of excellence, they are not going to stay in power… Politicians in this country understand that they are going to be in and out of power. What happened in India after the elections was amazing. Incumbents were booted out, yet the handover happened so incredibly peacefully.
There was not even a small power struggle to try to cling to office. It was an amazingly smooth transition. There is such an unbelievable amount of social capital in India. One appreciates and admires to the limit what has just happened in terms of what it really means about the capacity of this country to absorb change and manage itself peacefully. It is a phenomenon because I see the opposite all over the world.
whether it is population control, healthcare, education, we all know what to do. How can India implement better and scale up faster?
There are issues of political correctness, of knowledge and of money. I do believe in throwing money at a problem. Yes, I understand the corruption issues, but without money, the problem is not going to go away.
India should increase public spending on health to at least 3% of GNP within three years. The increase should come mainly at the state level and mainly to finance prevention and treatment of primary health conditions such as infectious diseases (AIDS, TB, malaria, respiratory infection diarrhea), nutrition and reproductive health. In education, public spending should rise to at least 5% of GNP.
Again, the increase should come mainly at the state level, and mainly to finance universal education through age 14. Mechanisms such as a school midday meal program are extremely effective for increasing school attendance, for example.
when you are in India, you talk about how the Indian economy has the potential to really grow. What do you say when you go to China?
China is absolutely booming. I have been regularly going to China as I have been coming to India. China's economic reforms are real, the growth is dramatic. China is eating your lunch. You should be doing what they are doing. They are creating millions of jobs in manufacturing and exports. Why isn't India doing it? Their exports have grown from about $20 bn to $300 bn, why is India's merchandise exports only $65 bn to $70 bn? While India is still debating whether foreign direct investment is good or bad, China has attracted $60 bn, dollars which you aren't receiving. I have been watching Chinese reforms and I believe in them. I think China could overtake the US economy in absolute size within the first quarter of this century, by 2025.
But China has some very, very serious problems. First, its political system is out of date, and out of sync with the modern bustling dynamic economies. A centrally ruled administrative state could make sense for a country of rice growing villages but it does not make sense for a modern dynamic economy. So China has a major issue of political change in the coming decades. There is major poverty in the Western parts of the country. China, like India, neglected the public health system.
The environmental management is as precarious in China as in India: a massive water crisis, climate crisis and unreliable energy system. It faces economic reform challenges; it faces political restructure challenges from a completely traditionalized centralized state to a much more open and democratic system, which will come in a decade in China. There is a long term transformation under way.
Both India and China have similar problems in environment, in the lack of proper social investment, in the challenges of catching up. The fact that China is ahead in the economic reforms means that India can learn from China in regard to a role in the world economy. The fact that India is ahead in political decentralization and democracy means that China has a lot to learn from India in that regard.
economic development is both the cause and consequence of urbanization. Clearly in the Indian context massive rural to urban migration is not an option, because the urban sector is already fairly very crowded. What do you recommend? The urbanization rate in India depends on how you measure it. Currently it is about one third of the population. India will certainly become a predominantly urban society. The question is how, when and where? Traditionally, economic development takes places not only in urban areas but also in coastal areas.
Take the US for example, which is a continental country. As its economy developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, a significantly rising proportion went to the coast from rural areas. India already has an important coastal economy, and I expect that India's coastal urban areas will continue to grow. Mumbai is one of the largest urban centers in the world with probably 15 mn to 20 mn people living in the greater metropolis area. It will continue to grow to 20 mn, 30 mn and 40 mn over time.
The urban center will spread up and down the coast in the same way that in Japan you have a continuously densely settled urban area from Tokyo all the way to Osaka and Kyoto. It is much harder to get economic development taking place in the deep interior of India than it is along the coast.
in 2001, you published a paper on India's Decade of Development. What are the top four goals you set out?
This paper, written with Nirupam Bajpai, was a response to the government's announcement from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15 August 2000, that it aims to double per capita income by 2010. In the paper, we suggest some development targets. First, a decline of infant mortality rates from around 80 per 1,000 live births to below 30 per 1,000 live births by 2010. This should be combined with explicit targets for halting the AIDs epidemic, and treating key diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
Second, a reduction of adult illiteracy from around 45% to less than 20% by 2010. Third, universal primary education for ages 5-14 for girls and boys with a school for all within five kilometers of home. And last, all villages should posses electricity, a trunk road, telephone and internet connectivity, a school, clean water and sanitation, a village health worker and local self-government. As I said earlier, problems don't go away without money. You have to throw money at them. |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 8:27 PM |
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| Thursday, May 3, 2007 |
| Some Insipration!!!!! |
I am posting a lecture by Subrato Bagchi, founder of Mindtree Consulting. He is a great ideologist, revolutionary in thots, n u can find his weekly column in "Business World" mag.
Address by Subroto Bagchi (a man who was vice- president for Lucent Technologies and Wipro with just a Political science degree from Utkal University ) Chief Operating Officer, Mind Tree consulting to the Class of 2006 at the IIM, Bangalore on defining success.
I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.
My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today. As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not ''his jeep'' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary.
That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never does. The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.
To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.
Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha -an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late.
We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly.
Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.
Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply," We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.
Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions. Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited".
That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success. My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan . My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.
Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success. Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.
To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light. Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and
frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.
There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.
My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.
Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.
My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.
In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum. Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,
"Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!
Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.
Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God's speed. Go! , kiss the world. Subrato Bagchi |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 8:35 PM |
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| Wednesday, February 21, 2007 |
| A letter to Ex-Girl Friend |
Dear Monisha,
Thanks for being my love for one and half years, when you receive this letter I
believe you might have selected a new boy friend and started enjoying your dating.Every lovers needs to struggle a bit to get a boy friend or
girl friend.
Monisha
… In order to recover your missing, I got another girl from next street & as you know this is my forth love, from all my past experiences I have learned a lot.When the love blossoms everyone starts writing love letters, you know very well… I have written many love letter to you , and writing a love letter in poetic way is not so easy nowadays MONISHA , and it’s a time consuming work, In order to avoid all this I need all my lover letters back so that I can put corrector and send to my new girl friend , please send it back to me , I don’t have poetic references or any photocopy of these letters.
Another thing MONISHA, I have given you one cute photo of mine , can you send it to me please , you know better that this is the only photo I look very cute & and some nd this photo I have taken when I was in my very first love. And also, during my 1 ½ years of love days I have spend lot of monies for impressing you , I am attaching
a list of expenses which I request you to clear it at the earliest.
The expenses are as follows:
Lunch / Dinner ; 895, Cool
Drinks 2938 Rs,
Snacks 5645 Rs. ,
Juice 3845 Rs.
Cinema 1235Rs.
Internet Chatting 1499 Rs. ,
Mobile 2546 Rs.
Petrol 4255 Rs.
Gift Items 7850 Rs,
- Grand Total : 30,708 rs (in Words : Thrity Thousand Seven
Hundred and Eight Rupees).
Please try to clear the above amount so that I can spend these monies on my new girl friend, and more over if you have any of my gift lying with you, am ready to take these packs in half prices. Please calculate the value of packs left over and deduct it from the above statement of account.
I am enclosing herewith your love letters (Weigh around 4 Kg) so that you no need to write again to your boy friend and your photo so that you can give to your new BF.
Also, please advise your expenses which incurred during our dates, I don’t think you have got any expenditure during these dates, I have seen many time that you always forget your purse when it comes to pay. Anyway I hope you will clear the above outstanding at the earliest and wishing you a very wonderful 6th love
affair with Subil.
Your Ex-lover ….
Manaasu
manaasu@hotmail.com |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 10:12 PM |
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| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
| Letter to Girl Friend -- From HR |
Ever wondered how an HR Manager could write a love letter to his girlfriend? Hope you would enjoy it.
To, My Dear
DarlingSub: Offer of love!
Dearest Ms Maya,
I am very happy to inform you that I have fallen in Love with you since the 14th of October (Saturday). With reference to the meeting held between us on the 13th of Oct. at 1500hrs, I would like to present myself as a prospective lover. Our love affair would be on probation for a period of three months and depending on compatibility, would be made permanent.
Of course, upon completion of probation, there will be continuous on the jobtraining and performance appraisal schemes leading up to promotion from lover to spouse. The expenses incurred for coffee and entertainment woul d initially be shared equally between us. Later, based on your performance, I might take up a larger share of the expenses. However I am broadminded enough to be taken care of, on your expense account.
I request you to kindly respond within 30 days of receiving this letter, failing which, this offer would be cancelled without further notice and I shall be considering someone else. I would be happy, if you could forward this letter to your sister, if you do not wish to take up this offer. Wish you all the best!
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours sincerely,
HR Manager |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 10:52 PM |
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| Tuesday, January 23, 2007 |
| Just Laugh |
Disclaimer : I am not responsible if you forget the basics of
English grammar after reading this mail...
English at its best?
In TN , well Known Person, Mr XXX, Chairman of a College Association,
who is always speak in English...
X college Students have Collected & published the Book XXX's Spoken English...
Njoy with his English ....
Now, here are some classic English sentences from the great Mr.Xxx.
The stalwart talks to his students:
# About his family :
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* I have two daughters. Both of them are girls...(?)
# At the ground:
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All of you stand in a straight circle.
There is no wind in the balloon.
The girl with the mirror please comes her...{Means: girl withspecs please come here).
# To a boy, angrily:
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I talk, he talk, why you middle middle talk?
# While punishing students:
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You, rotate the ground four times...
You, go and understand the tree...
You three of you stand together separately.
Why are you late - say YES or NO .....(?)
# Sir at his best inside the Class room:
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Open the doors of the window. Let the atmosphere come in.
Open the doors of the window. Let the Air Force come in.
Cut an apple into two halves - I will take the bigger half.
Shhh...Quiet, boys...the principal JUST PASSED AWAY in the corridor
You, meet me behind the class. (Meaning AFTER the class..)
This one is cool >>
"Both of u three get out of the class."
Close the doors of the windows please. I have winter in my nose today...
Take Copper Wire of any metal especially of Silver.....
Take 5 cm wire of any length....
Sir was too angry at one of his students ..
he wanted to turn himout of the class.. but he forgot to say "Get Out" !!! what did he do?
he walked up to that boy and said: Follow me. the boy followed. Both of them went outside the class.
Now Sir said: "Now dont follow me" and returned back to his classroom...
Last but not the least some Xxx experiences...
Once Sir had come late to a college function, by the time he reached, the function had begun, so he went to the dais, and said, sorry I am late, because on the way my car hit 2 muttons (Meaning goats).
At XXX college day 2002:
"This college strict u the worry no .... U get good marks, I the happy, tomorrow u get good job, Xxx the happy, tomorrow u marry I the enjoy"
At St. Xxx1 fresh years day 2003:
"No ragging this college. Anybody rag we arrest the police"
" Boy Boy mingiling Xxx will allow
Girl Girl mingling Xxx will allow
but No Boy Girl mingling . " |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 1:03 AM |
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| Wednesday, January 17, 2007 |
| waana to Marry -- Think twice |
Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that somemen should be happier than others. --Oscar Wilde
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Don't marry for money; you can borrow it cheaper.--Scottish Proverb
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I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years. --SamKinison
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A psychiatrist is a person who will give you expensiveanswers that your wife will give you for free. --Anonymous
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Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't, they'dbe married too. --H. L. Mencken
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Men have a better time than women; for one thing, they marry later;foranother thing, they die earlier. --H. L. Mencken
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- "A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle."- U2
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I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her wayback home always. --Anonymous
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I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for ouranniversary?" She said,"Somewhere I have never been!" I told her, "Howabout the kitchen?" --Anonymous
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We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
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My wife was in beauty saloon for two hours. That was onlyfor the estimate. --Anonymous
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She got a mudpack and looked great for two days.Then the mud fell off.--Anonymous
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She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for thegarbage?" Following her down the street I yelled, "No, jump in."--Anonymous
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Badd Teddy recently explained to me why he refuses to get married. Hesays "the wedding rings look like minature handcuffs....." --Anonymous
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If your dog is barking at the back door and your wifeyelling at the frontdoor, who do you let in first? The Dogof course...at least he'll shut up after u let him in! --Anonymous
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A man placed some flowers on the grave of his dearly parted mother andstarted back toward his car when his attention was diverted to anotherman kneeling at a grave. The man seemed to be praying with profoundintensity and kept repeating, 'Why did u have to die? Why did you haveto die?" The first man approached him and said, "Sir, I don't wish tointerfere with your private grief, but this demonstration of pain in ismore than I've ever seen before. For whom do you mourn so? Deeply? Achild? A parent?"The mourner took a moment to collect himself, thenreplied "My wife's first husband."
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A couple came upon a wishing well. The husband leaned over, made a wishand threw in a penny. The wife decided to make a wish, too. But sheleaned over too much, fell into the well, and drowned. The husband wasstunned for a while but then smiled " It really works ! " |
| posted by சுந்தர் / Sundar @ 4:05 AM |
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| About Me |
|
Name: சுந்தர் / Sundar
Home: chennai, tamilnadu, India
About Me: பெருசா சொல்றதுக்கு ஒனும் இல்ல
Nothing Spl to tell
See my complete profile
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