Dream Destination

चल कल्पना की उड़ान लिए, चल कही दूर निकल चले
दुनिया का कोलाहल ना हो, ऐसी एक जगह चले

जहाँ सिर्फ तन्हाईयाँ हो , ऐसी एक जगह चले
जहाँ खुद को पहचान सके, ऐसी एक जगह चले

सिर्फ पक्षियों की चहचहाहट हो, ऐसी एक जगह चले
झरनों की सरसराहट हो, थपेड़ो की कल्कलाहत हो, ऐसी एक जगह चले

टीलो पर अपना आशियाना बने, नीले गगन की चादर हो, ऐसी एक जगह चले
चांदनी से आखे लड़ाए, चाँद को काम्प्लेक्स दे ,ऐसी एक जगह चले

जहाँ न हो कोई जनएनेवाला, न कोई पहचाने वाला, ऐसी एक जगह चले
जहाँ न हो फ़ोन की बीप, न मेल का टिप, ऐसी एक जगह चले

आ ऐसी एक जगह चले

Surviving the odds…

Every one of us in some or other part of life has undergone a sleepless night phase, may be because of job worries, economics equation, affection/hatred towards an individual/person who is responding/not responding and what not. But I’m undergoing a different kind of trauma from last 2 years and wanted to share with you.

This trauma is in a form of a lady, She has harassed me like anything, I can’t approach her and tell her that she is annoying me a lot, I can’t tell her that I need a break and for heaven sake she should forgive me, She has given me sleepless morning, she doesn’t understand my situation, she doesn’t understand that I may need a sound sleep, may be because I might be tired enough.

You might be feeling pity for me and must be having sympathy for me; you might be also cursing probably my better half isn’t it.

Allow me to make myself clear it’s a family staying backside of my flat. The family wakes up at 6.30 and start creating all sorts of noises, washing clothes, utensils, chatting up loudly, washing the courtyard and what not.

Arrogance attitude of there’s has ruined my morning sleeps, to avoid waking up with those idiotic noises I prefer to place an alarm of 6.00 and ensure that I wake up before they start rioting. They even don’t take a break on Sundays the day I prefer to sleep till the clock touches 9.00. So for Sundays I have a different strategy, I Thanks god that I’m blessed with an additional room, So on Sundays I wake up @ 6 and shift my base to other room with fan moving at full speed to avoid any sort of noise.

Because of improper sleep I’m not able to concentrate properly and my decision making skill is getting hampered, but these are odds and one need to find a way to survive the adverse conditions. So on Sunday’s I sleep after shifting to another room and for the rest of days I wake up @ 6.00 and then do warm-up and yoga to boost up my concentration and energy levels.

Life has different challenges at every level and one need to struggle and find unique ways to overcome those challenges



Image source: bigappleaday.blogspot.com

Hard cash is a pain killer.

Recently I was going through an article published on Harvard business school and came to know an interesting observation. Till date every one of us has been hearing that Money can buy bed but it can’t buy sleep, Money can buy food but can’t buy desire to eat and There are a lot of things that we can’t buy and Money is not every thing. I agree to all of the above statement with a precondition that “before making such statement one should have enough of it”. Money hai to honey hai.

Well coming back to the Observation

Kathleen Vohs create two team of subjects; to one team she gave a task of counting cash and to the other team she asked to count slips of paper. After that, she asked the subjects to dip their hands in extremely hot water or play a computer game which is not known to them and they’d be excluded by other players.

After this exercise The subjects who dipped there hand in hot water were asked to rate their pain and the game players were asked to rate their feeling of exclusion.

To a surprise subjects who had counted money felt less pain and less excluded as compared to the subjects who counted slips of paper. So the question being; “Does cold, hard cash really make us stronger and increase our physical and psychological resilience?”

According to Vohs the effect of handling money was quite pronounced in the four scenarios she tested. The people who handled money reported significantly less pain or social exclusion. The effect was so strong and to a surprise a reverse of that also worked.

In another experiment she asked some subjects to jot down their expenses from the past month and others to record the weather. And when the subjects were put in the same painful settings, those who’d itemized their bills felt more physical and emotional pain than those who’d described the weather.

So It’s a consistent effect. Having money makes us feel strong. Lacking it makes us feel weak.

Image source: www.prlog.org

Invitation for investment

Since the initiation of the economic liberalization process in 1991 most of the sectors have attracted considerable investments (automobiles, chemicals, food processing, oil & natural gas, petrochemicals, power, services, and telecommunications). Today India offers exciting business opportunities in virtually every sector of the economy. I’m having affection and inclination towards Non conventional energy (the obvious reasons being clean and environment friendly). In spite of having benefits in investing in India, raising fund for clean power projects is bit difficult and the hunt for investors to invest in clean energy project is on.

Investment Policy
Foreign Investors can enter into a joint venture with an Indian partner for financial and/or technical collaboration and also for setting up of renewable energy based power generation projects. The liberalized foreign investment approval regime is aimed at facilitating foreign investment and transfer of technology through joint ventures.
100% foreign investment as equity is permissible.

Government of India encouraging foreign investors to set up renewable energy based power generation project on Build-Own-Operate basis.

Opportunities
In India, investment opportunities are available for the following types of investors and users:-
Investment by foreign investors in renewable energy:

Wind, Solar Photo-voltaic, Solar Thermal, Small Hydro, Biomass, Co-generation, Geothermal, Tidal and Urban & Industrial Wastes based power projects.

Investment by foreign investors for manufacturing of renewable energy systems and devices based on:

Solar Photo-voltaic, Solar Thermal, Small Hydro, Biomass, Co-generation, Geothermal, Tidal and Urban & Industrial Wastes for their utilization in India and also for exports to developing and Third World countries.

Information Source: http://iic.nic.in/iic3_a.htm
Image source: : thewe.cc

My composition

The other day when I was talking to my wife (actually she was annoyed and me and kids were trying to please her) she asked that can I write a poetry for her, as me and kids pick up some words & music from all the available mediums and sequences and compose a new song. We sing it loudly (kids for there mom and me for my wife) and all of us enjoy a lot.

But during the out of box thinking I landed up with five lines of poetry which I dedicate to her, obviously kids who are too small to pronunciate and understand will not sing it, so the only singer she have is me.

Though this is just a prototype of what I have though of, but I promised her that I will keep on writing on her. The obvious reason of coming with a prototype is because of the industry which I work with. Software’s and IT industry always work on prototype, project scope and Project management plan. So the scope and prototype is approved and plan is ready and now the poetry will be an progressive elaboration

तुम जब से मेरी जिंदगी में तुम आये हो बहारें ठहर सी गयी है

सावन भी तुम, भादो भी तुम और ग्रीष्म और शीत भी तुमसे है

जब भी आस को शीत रूपी चादर ने अपने में लपेटा है

तुमने ग्रीष्म बनकर बाधाओ की बरफ को पिग्लाया है

जब भी नाकामी की गर्मी ने ग्रीष्म बनकर मुझे झुलसाया है

तुमने शीत बनकर उस तपन से मुझे बचाया है

जब भी उम्मीदों के बदल असमान से हटने लगे है

तुम्हारे चहरे में मैंने उन्ही उम्मीदों को चेतन पाया है

Daily interest

We are all aware that the money kept in saving bank account attracts an interest of 3% annually, come April 1st and we will be given interest on a daily basis for the money lying in our account. The new directive by RBI to the banks referred as “daily interest “

Till date bank use to consider interest for a particular month based on the closing balance on or before 10th of that month. For example say I have 50,000 bucks in my account on 1st of march and I withdrawn 45,000 before 10th of march, my closing balance on 10th march was 5000 so I’m eligible for interest of 3% on 5000 rupees only and not on the 45000.

The new directive will make one entitle to get interest for the money on a daily basis. But this will automatically push up the cost of funds of banks, depending on the proportion of current accounts and savings accounts (CASA) they hold. So a direct effect of this would be the rate of interest on saving bank will go down or the cost of borrowing will go up, I believe the days are not far away when one will be charged for putting his money with the banks.

Surviving 100 years

Change is inevitable and time forcibly changes a lot of things, whether they are international boundaries, life style, mindset and even big corporate. I’ve observed that even for big corporate to survive for more than 100 years and maintaining a continuous growth is an uphill task.

The three generations duration is sufficient enough to change the mindset of people operating the business, challenge the business objective, challenge to value proposition and sufficient enough for the competitors to come up with there own product or service as an substitute and on top of it “time” a powerful factor to challenge the business dynamics.

Any organization who survives for three generations creates enough of customer base, goodwill and value and act as a major player in the economy of a country. Those organization presence and growth provides employment, foreign exchange and many other dimensions to the country and such organizations become inevitable.

But time changes a lot of things and any fear factor with the deliverables of such organization causes problems not only to the company and to the operating country but ripple effects of such trouble are sufficient enough to shake the global economy There are examples which can justify my argument (Lehman brothers founded in 1850, General Motors Founded in 1908, Toyota Founded in 1933) are the list of corporations which were in existence from last so many years and any probable problem with the organizations deliverables or services have create worry clouds on global economy.

image source: commons.wikimedia.org

Worst not yet over for me.

I (a poor/common man) have struggled a lot to reach to a so-so level (which I’m today). Being from a lower middle class family struggle was a part of my day to day life, I struggled a lot for each and every necessicity of life right from my childhood till the day I started earning and so was also the story with my father. Though he is no more today but the legacy (called as Life and struggle) still continues.

Struggle which was and which is; is for reaching to a decent level; a level which is above the existing level (we call it growth), to impart good education and good upbringing to my kids; shape up there carriers and give them the best of amenities and avenues to grow, have a good bank balance and some amenities for myself and my family. I believe except peace and death you can buy everything, virtually everything provided you have enough of money and I am a strong believer of the adage “Money is not everything but before accepting this one should have enough of it”. I have seen people shaping the carriers of there wards only by money. So the extract of the story is money is everything and I’m not able to make money and so I feel worst not over for me.

My bad time started Last year when I was hit by a new monster which I have never heard and though before until he came roaring, he is none other but the recession and my revenue stream (salary) dried up, no no don’t think I was jobless, I voluntarily opted for a salary cut. Some days later a new monster called inflation came up roaring. I was already in a shock and pressure of low margins and on top of this the new monsters ate whatever was left. Day by day the prices of commodities started rising first were grain &pulses, then sugar, than milk and literally nothing is now available cheap, the prices are jacked up by at least twice then what it use to be a year back.

Both monsters, that I have mentioned are getting powerful day by day and I’m running pillar to post to arm myself and to get victory over them. The later one is going to roar more as the oil prices are bound to rise. Come price hike in petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene and my monthly budget will go haywire. I don’t know whether I will get victory on both of them or not, but if I don’t, then my dreams will crash and my children will inherit “struggle” as an ancestral property.

Petrol has a weight of 0.88 per cent, while diesel has a weightage of over two per cent in the Wholesale Price Index, on the basis of which inflation is calculated and if the prices of petrol and diesel rises, inflation is bound to rise. Petrol and diesel prices, which have gone up by 11 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively, will increase the inflation rate by about 0.3 per cent, while LPG cylinder would add 0.2-0.3 per cent to the rate clubbing all together we can assume an increase of 1% approx in the inflation figures.

I’m worried about my present as I have stopped thinking about the future as future is always uncertain, but looking at the current situation of mine the present also seems uncertain. You will be interested in knowing whom am I.

I’m a common man the alone bread earner of the family,
I’m a poor watchman at the entrance gate of your society.

I’m a working woman with small children and supporting my family
I’m a farmer cultivating land for your meals.

I’m a daily wager shaping your dreams to reality
I’m a widow having children and no source of earning.

I’m retired person, and fully dependent on my small kitty.
I’m a graduate with ambitions but no money to fulfill them.

I’m a common man and feel that worst is not yet over for me.

Struggle has been an inherent part of my life, a silent monster that has always haunted me during my childhood and has also motivated me to strive hard. It has taught me to be strong and face all challenges in life. I don't want my kids to go through the same, I do want them to realize that there are no free lunches in life but still I don't want to expose them to struggle, as I personally believe that there are other ways to teach children to be mature and responsible. I am going to make sure that my children inherit values and security not "Struggle" as an ancestral property.

image source: emtr.com.br

Challenges of Indian Energy Sector

Fossil fuels are the source for 70% of 90,000 MW installed capacity for electricity generation, Hydro-electricity contributes about 25%, and the remaining is mostly from nuclear power plants. Current stocks of Fossil fuels in India are not sufficient enough to suffice our needs of power (about 70% oil is imported), with currency getting dearer, government imposing emission norms and widening gap between demand and supply, Power sector is facing new threats and opportunities.

Coal stock depletion and pollution: Coal accounts to half of the country’s energy consumption. India is the third largest manufacturer of Coal (fossil fuel) and mainly found in eastern part of the country. Though the quality of coal is not very good and has very high ash residual content and humidity and the power plants running on coal are high source of pollution too. (It is accepted that Indian power plants are highly polluting Refer CO2 emission by Indian power plants increases)

Oil Import: Oil consumption, which accounts for roughly a third of India’s energy use, has increased sixfold in the past twenty-five years. India now depends on imports for about 65 percent of its petroleum requirements. With energy demands rising, the figure could be as high as 90 percent by 2025, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. With currency getting dearer imports will become costlier and the cost of operation of power plants will rise.

Natural gas demands: Demand of Natural gas has risen faster than any other type of energy source, but India’s has a limited domestic gas reserves and depend major on imports to meet its demand. Though the power producers are switching from highly polluting coal-fired power plants to plants using natural gas but continuous supply of natural gas remains a major concern.

Nuclear Power: With fourteen nuclear power plants run by state-owned companies, nuclear energy accounts for just 3 percent of India’s energy consumption. Large scale expansion of the nuclear energy sector is not possible in immediate future because of slow implementation and the relatively higher expense as compared to other forms of energy.

Looking at the challenges of capacity expansion, implementation, switchover cost, shortage, cost of input and pollution the “Clean energy projects” seems to be a promising domain.

Image source: istockphoto.com

Reference: cfr.org

Open book policy

Sharing the financial information, details of policy, guidelines, future projections and future plans with the employees is never been a practice with many companies. People who are in charge of running the enterprises are not very open with the thought of “Open Book Policy”, though for the listed entities the person in charge is left with no options but has to disclose the financial information to the public in form of Balance sheets. But for the unlisted companies there is no way through which one can have the insight of the financials of the companies.

The bosses are averse to “Open Book Policy” fearing that there leadership might have to face challenge and the employees may seek answers for non performance of company and imprudent/ faulty decision. Such Bosses generally push there decision without understanding the utility, outcomes and impact; they are also not open for discussions because of the fear factor that their subordinate will challenge there decision and may suggest a better way to do the things. They just don’t want to see themselves in that situation. They also try to avoid suggestion and discussion because if every time there subordinate suggests a prudent way their leadership will be questioned and it will hurt there ego like anything.

Such leaders are instrumental in the downfall of the organization; employees moral, loss of productivity, stress and dissatisfaction and all that at the cost of their ego. They neither grow not provide a platform for others to grow. Leaders are legitimately given the stature of leader, but egoistic leaders force their decision on their subordinates and try to register his/her authority in employees mind. But in doing this they tend to loose the faith and respect of there subordinates.

Organizations following the ideology of “Open Book Policy” and “leader should not pretend to know everything” have done exceptionally well. The policy divulges in making the innards open and transparent for key employees to be able to see and understand the financials, rating company's performance as up-and-down arrows, singeing profit and loss, and asserting stance in moving the numbers in the right direction. This makes better policy advocaters and makes them feel that they have a direct stake in the company's success makes the enterprise stronger. The more they understand about the business and the consequences of their actions, the more clear the horizon. It certainly pays off down the road, when they determine the cost centres and imply their might in the graceful reduction of overheads.

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Active listening

Every good conversation starts with good listening. The skill which can be only developed and it is not the skill by birth is the Listening skill. Active listening is the most neglected skill in corporate communication by the leaders and if they developed this skill then they can improve interpersonal relationship with co workers and can add to the professional image of the person

Active listening helps to increase knowledge and one’s ability to absorb new information faster and retain it longer. It also improves marketing skill and negotiation abilities which are very necessary for the improvement of business.
It also increases one’s ability to communicate the things because good listeners are effective communicators also.

Poor listeners always lose opportunities to show their hidden talents to the world. Many failure and problems in business and personal lives are due to poor listening. Poor listening may ruin one’s career and relationships.

Good leader must be a good listener. Effective leaders and managers who carefully listen to their employees are sure about professional success. The big difference between hearing and listening is: hearing is related to the physical occurrence. Hearing doesn’t require any efforts or skill. But listening is a learned skill. Listening is hearing with a purpose.

Listening is a highly dynamic process, which requires a lot of careful attention and concentration. Careful listening is an essential factor to take wise decisions. When one listens effectively one can understand the information by analyzing and interpreting it. Hence listening with full attention makes understand the subject properly and gives a complete understanding of what the speaker means. Undoubtedly one won’t become a good speaker unless he is a good listener.

Listening is hard work that requires determination and energy. It is challenging activity. Effective listeners can look for positive purpose to their listening. If one is a good listener, then there will be benefits that strengthen personal relations.

Listening is a strong interpersonal skill which increases communicative competence. Good listener acknowledges the speakers message with great respect and honor.

Reference: expertscolumn.com
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