Art of Diplomacy

      I recently had a chance to serve for two years in a Non profit organization and had a chance to experience some of the best practices of human behavior. One can do Yoga either in the morning or in the evening but earlier the better since you gain more mileage out of it. So I wanted to take up the role much earlier just to make sure I learn from people regarding the various traits of human relationships. Being a guy who observes people I could have not asked for a better atmosphere to learn things.
      

     Diplomacy is one of the most powerful words in English dictionary as it is basically as ‘Art’; Cooking is an art since everyone gets the same ingredients to make a dish – what makes a great dish compared to a good dish? Well it just depends on the nuances of cooking and that what makes it an art. Same way being diplomatic is an art by itself. The way you respond/react/talk has so much to do with your individual behavior. Diplomacy at time may even be boring or tend to be cliché but do we get tired of a nice dish irrespective of the number of times we had tasted the delicious dish. It just depends on what context we use our words and actions. Observing few senior people I learnt one of the best practices to have in your kitty is to be diplomatic.

      Being diplomatic comes with experience though. Once we are exposed to real world situations and conversations that we are normally not used to accustom in our day to day lives we may tend to act in a very immature way. That’s where the learning curve starts. At times even beating round the bush may seem to be appropriate. It takes time to get into your system to acknowledge some of the ways in being diplomatic.

     Diplomacy has so many different dimensions to it – a very slight variation in a sentence may tend to be more diplomatic. How exactly you draft an email, how exactly to react to a situation, on what basis a decision was taken, how you stress something and you subtly convey something everything plays a role if you are to be considered a diplomatic person. At times you might wonder am I losing my own individuality by adjusting to things around you but later you come to know best way to handle anything is to be balanced in your approach by giving yourself enough time for dust to settle.

     Diplomacy is definitely signs of maturity – I used to dream that I wanted to pen my thoughts on any single topic and come up with a book. May be this is the topic which I should cash upon since I have so much of contents to write. I am aware this is just a wish list but nevertheless I am happy that I have gained some invaluable lessons which are much more worth than writing my own book. 

How does Luck work?

The literal definition of ‘Luck’ is “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions”. It clearly means irrespective of one’s effort consequences happen this way or other. Luck plays such a crucial role in this era where everything is competitive. Winners are losers are not distinguished by huge margin, difference between both is very minimal. Luck plays a role where it just elevates you onto the next level which is a good enough launch pad to get further up in the ladder.

Does Luck work in such a way that it carries from our past lives? I don’t know the answer but I have heard people saying when something really good happens that they must have done something very good in their past lives. May be there is just one balance sheet per human being versus being every single life. If this happens to be true and let’s say person XYZ was a gardener in his past life with humble living nurturing thousands of plants then he might lead a sophisticated life in his current life where lady luck may keep showering.

        Is Luck directly proportional to hard work? I believe this is true as it fulfills the basic philosophy that hard work never fails. Sometimes no matter how hard you try things never click; this phase can be so frustrating. This is the time where not just one but many things go out of your reach and it really tests your patience. But all of a sudden everything seem to work and it just amazes you how quickly life changes. So does that mean you keep working hard and lady luck will take its course later in the game?

       Is Luck anything to do with Intelligence?  People who trade stocks take a big gamble but their instincts are backed up with sound intelligence. Intelligence is build by sound knowledge and sound knowledge is built by keeping abreast with industry news by reading articles, following strategies, following best practices etc., Though people lose money once they learn their lessons and try to be more wiser than before then there is a good chance lady luck may favor them.

      So I believe Luck has several dimensions to it – keep working hard, being wise and also leveraging on the goodwill earned from our past lives. But nevertheless Luck is a very interesting topic to explore. 

It’s all about Selling!!!

        As consumers we follow certain metrics before we end up buying a new product. Obviously one of the things we do is to go over the label. I just wonder people get smarter each day when they try to sell the product due to the stiff competition. There are various different ways one can come up with in their advertisement material but taking a closer look would baffle many. Same with the case of surveys, statistical reports, Job reports etc., All these are used to lure the consumer towards buying their product. It is true that sometimes even people with lots of awareness overlook some of the pitfalls.

       Let us consider a jar full of cookies. Cookie may contain 20 grams of sugar for each piece and it is very natural for people to have at least 3-4 in one shot due to the size of the cookie. The company may label in such a way it may say 40 grams of sugar and it may say serving size to be two pieces. This is all true but for a common man who is trying to get some cookies into his shopping cart without paying attention to details may end up buying. Same with the case of Job reports – unemployment rates are calculated by leaving people who are unemployed for more than two years. This is just to bring down on the percentage and come up with false news. When people prepare statistics saying these many number of units have been sold does that mean the product reaches the end customer? They may sell it to their retailers and wholesalers but it may still be sitting somewhere in the supply chain before it reaches the end customer.

      There is nothing wrong in trying to sell your product by highlighting the selling points but why the common man does not kept aware of the rules that go into the making of these gimmick?  Why do the sellers take buyers for granted? Whom do the buyers contact if they see a contradiction? The intelligence of a common man should not be tested. There are countries where Illiteracy rates are very high and this is where laws and regulations have to be tightened enough for a common man to have his voice be heard. I guess public awareness is the key for common public in order to keep him from falling into these modern day gimmicks. 

Photo Album ...

     I recently went to one of my friend’s place and happen to see hard copies of some of their Photo albums. It was so nice to flip over the album and see the faces of people. It brings fond memories of the past and it was fun to see people when they were young. I was just wondering with the advent of digital cameras we have the extravagance to take hundreds of photos but do we really go back and see them? Digital cameras are so inexpensive these days that every household has one or two cameras. With the memory we have we tend to take hundreds of clicks and then store it in a folder which is then secured in a hard drive. But the key thing is we seldom open the folder.

     On the other hand those old days where we used cameras based on rolls every click we are so careful since we can afford to take only 36 pictures in a roll. It takes lot of effort to go to the studio, print it and then assort it in an album. Albums also needs to be maintained since there is a good chance it may get spoilt upon time. Albums also consume storage space. But the best thing is we tend to see more often than soft copies. The joy of seeing a hard cover album cannot be matched with seeing soft copies of photos.

    As time rolls on Technology replaces some of the time consuming tasks we used to do earlier. If everyone around you follow the latest trend you have no choice at times other than to follow the trend. If someone disrupts the pattern and goes back to the old way of doing things suddenly it becomes hot news which once upon a time was quite normal.

LEGACY ....

      Everyone builds Legacy during his/her lifetime and it varies with each person. There definitely has to be some meaning and purpose for your existence into this world. People define the boundaries with respect to their legacy and they have the right to go far and beyond their proposed target. I just wanted to throw some light on this interesting topic ..this topic gets more interesting upon two way communication. I had some conversations about this topic with my better half and also with myself and just want to pen my thoughts.

     Is Legacy planned or gradually builds through consequences? Planning is organized way of doing things but reality is always chaotic; since this is contradicting to each other I guess one should have open ear to changes and adapt themselves as things evolve. As the individual goes through ups and downs and gets more matured the determination to build your own legacy grow stronger. Also the extent to have a positive influence on your near and dear ones grow @ feverish pitch in this phase.

    Does Profession has anything to do with Legacy? I guess very much. I can just talk about Medicine profession since I know what exactly it takes to become a doctor. When one finishes high school around 17 or 18 a person who wishes to pursue medicine pretty much starts career around 32/33. Fifteen years of struggle goes into the making only to build a strong legacy. Ask a doctor and they will explain true definition of the term ‘Legacy’. They make a difference to society every single day and their answer of how purposeful a life should be will stun many people. I just happen to read the personal statement my better half was preparing and felt proud as well as bit embarrassed.

   Being an avid movie lover I just loved this scene from Tamil movie “Unnal mudiyum Thambi” which talks about LEGACY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dg9rE_Ihhg

Special day celebration !!!

      Looks like Mother’s day and Father’s day commemoration is slowly getting into every family. Is this Cultural change? Is this face of the new modern era we are stepping into? I had no clue about these days when I was in my childhood. Now these days are celebrated widely across different cultures and it’s a trend gaining more and more attention. Even the most conservative society started celebrating these days and adding more emotional quotient to these events.

      So how did these events transform the current generation? Where did these events evolve? There is a big commercial viability attached to these special occasions and every shop starts selling gifts, flowers, cards etc., Schools start to edify the children to offer something special to their dad or mom by means of drawing, writing, some creative activity etc., by this way they can please the parents to some extent. Media run special programs acknowledging the occasion by ways of bringing celebrities and making them dedicate gifts/songs to their parents. Restaurants do some brisk business and seats gets reserved pretty quickly. Every one seems to catch on the mood by being bit ingenious and touching the emotional quotient.

     The problem I have is looks like I am the odd man out; I am afraid that I will either be forced to celebrate these events or I will at least be obligated to commemorate these days. When everyone surrounding you celebrates I am not sure how am I to escape from these modern day fantasies. I personally feel these are unwanted and don’t see any reason to celebrate these days as a special occasion.  We slowly imbibe this culture to the next generation and then it becomes a custom practice within our tradition. The more I think the more I get confused J

Modern Day Hypocrites!!!!

      I was watching an awards function and the channel has always been one of my favorites due to its creativity and the way they package their programs. Their awards function is becoming more and more popular which was pretty perceptible from the number of sponsors that was read out. Awards functions are always with lots of glitz and glamour and it attracts lots of celebrities naturally. Channel was very vigilant is choosing jury members and they change the members every year just to make sure the integrity is not questioned. Channel also does a good job in spotting good talents and recognizing them in a big stage and hence persuade budding talents and make the general public aware of such talents.

      Because I like the channel very much I am prompted to question them on what basis did they give the coveted Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan award to SRK and not to some of the legends in the state like MSV, Raja sir, Manorama achi, Janaki madam etc., There definitely got to be a protocol in choosing the recipient of this award; Can the Channel publish that to public? Who decides the recipient? Does Glamour and popularity play a role in choosing the recipient? Does Box office results alone good enough? The Channel got to respect the intelligence of the audience and should not test them.

     The anchor is stalwart on public stage and who can talk on any topic embarrassed many by asking the audience to give a standing ovation to this north Indian figure. Why does he want to hang his brains in front of a celebrity? He talks about so many things about dignity and the way one should carry themselves by why all of a sudden this change in attitude? Is this called Hypocrisy at his best?

     Every time I see the cricket stadium full of people I wonder how responsible the cricket officials should be. This entire spot fixing scandal is taking the cricket frenzy nation for granted. Often double standards are employed and the people are been taken for granted. Can these officials be called as modern day hypocrites?

Ecstatic ….

        Today’s life is like an action packed movie with racy screenplay and high voltage action. In case if we tend to slow down we happen to feel bit timid. This being the case it just happened that I had opportunity to participate in two back to back events for noble causes on two consecutive days. Nothing was planned and it was a mere coincidence that I had to chance to get involved in both events. I had good excuse to skip at least one of the events since I was weary after my drive the previous night. Somehow thought I should participate on both events and express my gratitude and humanity.

        First event was a 5K walk – a cancer awareness program and the program’s main objective was to reach out to people and families affected by breast cancer. The walk was just three miles and it was fairly simple to walk which demanded just one hour of our time. I was spell bounded to see the crowd that gathered for this event. Those who wore pink shirts were cancer survivors and it was great to see the crowd cheer for these people who have fought their way back to life. There were lot of people who lost their family members due to cancer and it was great to see them having something like a tag at their back indicating who they are dedicating this noble cause to. The best thing according to me is that the moral support from people in reaching out to cancer community saying we will do our part in every possible way to help people affected by cancer. Just to gain momentum I also happened to buy book about Lance Armstrong to know what did he went through and how did he overcome this disease. Though he is caught for various reasons now I think he was a good fighter to overcome this disease and come back again to life.

      Second event was DC kitchen – a volunteering opportunity to prepare food for 4000+ people per Hindu style of cooking. It was a bunch of people and I personally thought it was a very good way to spend time on Mother’s day. The entire logistics of how this DC kitchen operates is very interesting. It was basically a Rajma sort of curry with many vegetables as part of ingredients. Menu was very simple but since it has to be a huge volume the effort was more.

      On Sunday evening when I looked back at my weekend somehow felt very happy and satisfied. My role was a very minor one but I thought if every human being played a minor role this world would be lot better. The root cause of any social work is to feel the gratitude of where do people stand and this would automatically trigger people to spend time and money for social causes. Once the family grows bigger I am not sure how much time I can spend on social causes but right now I am happy and proud I am making the maximum use of my time by registering my name in some meaningful social activities. 

Mutual Understanding

   What does it really take for two persons or say a set of people to mutually understand between each other? There can be several factors to be taken into consideration before we can answer this question. Let me tap my imaginary world and create fictional characters to exemplify this one. Every paragraph I plan to pull two characters and go over their habitual pattern.

     Let us say there are two people. Person ‘A’ is kind of very short tempered in nature; Person B is kind of much matured, soft spoken person who maintains a low profile. Person A nonchalantly browses the credit card bills online and goes mad seeing a big transaction happened due to one of the shopping activity of Person B. Without getting into the actual details starts to find faults with person B and then later comes to know that person B did shopping to present gifts to person A.

    Let us say there are two people. Person ‘A’ is kind of belligerent in all his/her actions and person B is kind of subtle in all his/her actions. Person B buys a patio plant and waters everyday to nurture; Person A being aggressive wants the plant to grow fast because of his aggressive nature. One fine day rain along with mighty winds blow the plant away and starts to find this as a good reason to find faults with person B saying person B was poor in taking care of the plant and instead should have done many other ways to protect the plant.

   Again let us assume person A belongs to old school and person B belongs to modern era. Let’s say both of them decide to go to restaurant for dinner and person A orders the traditional same dish over again and person B tries something new in the menu. If the new dish happens to be bad then person A argues with person B saying that ‘known devil is better than unknown angel’ and if the new dish happens to be tasty then still argues saying that person B should have recommended the dish for both.

  Now on all three occasions Person A did not completely understand person B and jumps to conclusion right off the bat. This is very common in every household and in any relationships. So what do we got to do in these situations? We just got to mutually understand each other....I guess

Wonderful evening !!!!!!

    Evening OF February 23^rd 2013 is etched in my memory …it was purely magical, just that I didn’t happen to see the magic but heard the magic. I always wanted to go for a Raja sir concert but with him doing few concerts and myself being outside India was always speculating when would that day come. I was very excited when I came to know that Raja sir concert is going to happen in New Jersey.  The trip to New Jersey was fun to start with and then came another sweet surprise - I didn’t realize that my ticket would fetch me so closer to the stage. Before you see a good movie on your way to theatre if you face traffic jam it is both good and bad; it is bad because you are aggravated and good because it automatically mellow down the mood to some extent. Same thing happened – the so called MCs tried their best but I was patiently waiting for the man to appear on stage. Lot many times our money is wasted in front of our own eyes but that day I felt happy that I am spending on something I am going to cherish.

     Clock ticked slowly and boom audience saw the man coming onto the stage in white dhothi in a typical Tamizhan style.  He didn’t allow any of us to take a breather ….he came …he started ..he mesmerized. Orchestration was mind blowing; the sound comes from instruments and he has written the notes and passed on to the musicians. Its not just the instruments ..it is also the number of people who bring the sound ….none of us had any clue when he said there are small mistakes happening and boy he made the musicians play all over again on few occasions. This is called perfectionist ….one who is pretty clean will feel perturbed even if they see a mustard seed in a dining table …same was this man ….

   The good thing I liked about the concert was that he went with the plan …though audience was demanding more telugu songs he went ahead with what was prepared. When we go to basement we tend to be in party mood and we step into pooja room we tend to catch onto the atmosphere. Same was the case …in Ilayaraja concert we are supposed to enjoy the music and show our appreciation by clapping our hands. He doesn’t like whistling and bustling and audience listened to his words.  When the clock was slowly inching towards its maximum number still he did not play the fast peppy numbers instead had a village folk song. Man ..this is called playing to your strength….

  Considering the number of Musicians and the logistics involved I am not sure about the profit margin. But money is just a legal paper …no one can take the memory of a wonderful evening provided by Raja sir.  On a personal front with so much of stress it wouldn’t have come at a better time. I relished, enjoyed every bit of concert. I wish him good health and lot of happiness and wish he continues to enthrall his fans with his soul touching music.