Bring it on baby!

It's new year time and time for resolutions! No.......not this time please. Why should I commit and feel sorry for not keeping the word. Instead this year I'm gonna take things head on... the way it comes and no expectation whatsoever. Life is beautiful the way it is and I'm loving it through all my sorrows and happiness. I just wanna thank God for what he made me this year and I'm sure next year some plans are waiting for me. Hope is what I have and believe in firmly for a better tomorrow for you and me. Everything happens for a reason may it be good or bad and let's be strong and passionate towards this wonderful life. I'm not gonna give up and I'm gonna keep climbing the mountain of hope. Let me end this year's last blog post with a wonderful musical by Katy Perry and lets welcome 2011 head on....bring it on baby :)

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Why you should watch Bigg Boss

This is my first post ever on Bigg Boss, and this is not about any gossips or fights. This about my take on why people should watch Bigg Boss. This particular reality show catched my attention recently and I have to accept that I am somewhat addicted to it! So what's the Bigg Boss show all about? Why should they actually do this show?
                    Bigg Boss is nothing but a commercialized version of a training model that's specifically used in the HRD world - the T-Group training. What happens in this training? People from different walks of life are put together in a house or a closed facility to be specific. Mostly corporate professionals from a clerk to a CEO are put inside this facility. The real catch is that the people are stripped off their title - i.e., no matter who you are, what position you have acquired in the society, your family background, your bank balance etc. Nothing matters here, you are just an another human being. The inmates of the house are given tasks to perform as a team or otherwise to put the put the participants in real time situations to see how they react. The ultimate idea is to bring out the real person in an individual. We all wear a mask in our real life, don't we? we wear a mask at out workplace, we wear a mask while spending time with our loved ones. But its only you who knows exactly what kind of an individual you are! Am i right?
                           So this is what T-Group training is all about, it creates situations to actually force people to exhibit their real behaviour. People are forced to exhibit their ego, selfishness, smartness etc. Each participant's behaviour is observed carefully and a detailed study is made out of their behaviour trends. After the end of the training, an analysis of the behaviour trends is shown to the concerned individual so that they can realise what their flaws are and what their strengths are. Research says that this method is very effective and can change a persons life completely.
                   In Bigg Boss, famous personalities and celebrities are made as participants to attract the viewers attention. That's smartness! But end of the day what you can actually learn is that you can find yourself in the behaviour of some xyz participant and start realising that, should you really behave in that fashion in future situations. That's wonderful isn't it? Bigg Boss is much more than, Dolly Bindra's crazy fights, Veena Malliks stupid seduction stunts or Ash-mit's world of cribbing. Its about self introspection. Irrespective of the argument whether its a adult show or not, whether its scripted or not, I will just say hats off to the producers of this show. Thank you Bigg Boss.

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Can you help me feed 50 children?

A few weeks back I had a discussion with some of my 'Bhumi' friends regarding the Right-to-Education Act in India. This Act was passed earlier this year, but in real time it has not been implemented fully. The discussion was on what steps can be taken so that this wonderful Act can benefit millions and millions of poor children across the country. As per the law every child gets the right to free education but the law doesn't mention any clause to ensure social security to the children. The child labour evil still exist in our country. Poor children are forced to go to work mainly to support their family. Many poor families don't have answer for their next square meal, in that case can we expect them to send their kids to school? One extra hand assisting to balance the family burden is always welcomed here. Constitutionally if we see, the government's answer will be that they are implementing mid-day meal scheme across various parts of the country. Are they really implemented? Last month we heard news of scam in that also! Our politicians don't wanna spare even the kids.
            Corruption is like cancer and our country is infected in an alarming scale. We cannot eradicate this disease completely at the moment, we have to accept this. Last week I happened to visit Hyderabad for a two day training workshop, thanks to Bhumi. I met many bright minds there, among them two volunteers happened to be from Germany - Tanjya and Phillip, I had a conversation with them about the education system in Germany. What I found out was that the kids in Germany are considered as an asset of the state. The expenses of bringing up a child is completely taken care by the Govt. Parents get a fixed amount as grant for the maintenance of each kid. So there is actually no question of child labour here. And that is why Germany is called a social state. It's not only Germany, many other developed countries have this system in place.
                Now we can't imagine to implement such things in India, not for another two to three decades for sure. So how can we address this issue now? Recently I came across an event in Indiblogger, it was about "The Akshaya Patra" Foundation, the largest non-profit organisation in the world to implement the school meal programme. What started in Bangalore 10 years ago as a pilot programme has now expanded to 18 locations across 8 states in India to feed over 1.2 million children today. The deal with the contest is that every time the word about this programme is spread we will end up feeding 50 children! isn't that amazing? Please have a look at this video.

You can also be a part in feeding the children, please visit this weblink and make your contribution towards building a healthy and educated India. If you are unable to contribute directly you can still feed 50 children by spreading the word. Kindly share this piece of information through email, facebook, twitter or through any other means, by this you can actually feed a lot of needy children. Thanks for reading and sharing...Jai Hind!

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It's time to say thank you!

It's Christmas eve, a few hours to go before the entire world erupts in jubilation over the birth of Christ again. Hallelujah! what a  wonderful year this has been to me. The year end has left me with so many good memories to cherish. First of all I thank God to blessing me abundantly this year. One of the best things that happened this year was that I started this blog and I am really happy for this. I got a means and source to improve and inspire my life. I made friends and foes, they became my fuel for expression. I wasn't that consistent in updating this wonderful platform but I take this as a missed opportunity which I should work on the new year. I will do my best to make this blog a purposeful platform for you and me. Thank you my wonderful readers....thanks for inspiring me all along. Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Eve

Morning looks wonderful, its cold here. The Christmas eve has set in. Looking froward for a wonderful day ahead. I really want a lot to put forward for my blog. Only a few days are left for this year to end. Overall it was a wonderful year for me.There were a lot of surprises, twists and turns. I took a lot of sudden decisions which I could have never imagined otherwise. Some very special people graced my life throughout this year, I wanna thank them individually through a separate blog post later. Today,on the Christmas eve looking forward to join the family in celebrating the joy of sharing, hope and togetherness.
                Mom will be busy preparing snacks and other delicacies for the big day, I too wanna join her and bake some cakes. Its been a long time since I entered the kitchen. I will soon write a post to summarize  all the important happenings of my life in the past year - only the positives, may be one or two get inspired! I am heading towards a long weekend, Sunday I have a big party to attend, the bhummi fun day!. Looking forward for all the fun and I will keep you folks updated on this. Bye for now....Merry Christmas!

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Let me think back

Image by jmsmytaste via FlickrA storm just calmed down! I don't know what I was really going through for the past couple of months. I was drowned with work so much that I forgot to value relationships at times. Work really took a toll on my relationships, I forgot to press the pause button when required. There were times when I reacted too much for simple things. Mistakes do happen but I don't know why I unknowingly created a zero tolerance scale for myself and started making assumptions of people around me. Sometimes I forgot that we live in a imperfect world and spoil our happiness searching for perfectness in anything and everything we do.
                   Slowly I started to realise that the beauty of people rests in how different and unique they are. I was getting emotional easily, yes my stress levels have played the spoil sport here. I want to recover from this situation, I want to learn to forgive people. Accept life the way it comes. I am making myself accountable through my blog and you readers are my source of inspiration. The one thing I learnt over the past few months is that we must learn to forgive for ourselves if not for others. The moment we forgive somebody the heart does feel very light. Its a fact and I have experienced and still cherishing the fact that I am really happy for myself on this. Criticism will come on your way to success, politics will be played to demoralise you but the key to overcome all these is to be calm and just forgive all those who hurt you.

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Jaago re!

What point does one make by bothering others business and achieving personal gains? Ok if at all someone achieves then also I can give some credit, whats the point in doing a task with all effort and no gain? Confused about what I am talking about? Hmm ... same was my situation when I was put through a sudden unpleasant surprise by the inmates of M.C. Raja Adi Dravidar Students Hostel. You don't know them? They are all over the news man! Today these guys put the city traffic to a halt just to convey a message that they didn't have adequate facilities in their hostel! How smart isn't it? Sudden media attention, popularity wow, these guys are genius. Today's youngsters are so smart.

Image courtesy - The Hindu

Look at the guys on the right, what a wonderful statement they made today. How responsible our Indian youth are today? For more than 2 hours Chennai city's traffic came to a standstill just to know that some hostel is not providing facilities to students? Are these guys aware of how many patients suffered on the way to hospital? How many unemployed youngsters missed their interview today? How many senior citizens were baked out in the scorching morning sun today? How many office goers reached their office late today?.....Will they ever realise this? Oh its a democratic country and people have the right to strike...What's your agenda boss? You want your issue to be noticed by the concerned Minister so that the Minister takes some steps to resolve the problem. So why the hell you wanna trouble the public? The world has so much things to worry about, we don't have time to worry about your hostel problem please. If you wanna make the statement, stage a protest in front of the concerned Minister's house or at the highest level before the Chief Minister's house - these guys are paid to solve your problem and people like you and me only elected them, why are you involving the public for your cause? Isn't that selfish? If you want publicity call for a press meet, there are a lot of XYZ media houses in the country today who are hungry for news and be assured that you can give them a mouthful. Today any Tom Dick and Harry can become famous thanks to our Indian media. And for that reason you need not put us through this trouble. Youngsters need to think sensibly and get their point across and not by sensationalizing a simple issue and acting stupid. Wake up people, its getting late!

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What Should I Study?

Ahh very edgy question isn’t it? There are only few in this world who choose their career early, some are influenced by the career choices of their parents, relatives, friends etc. They don’t have much distraction either. Definitely I am not one among them; I am an internet freak I guess most of them in my generation are also like me. We are a generation cursed with information overload, internet can confuse you sometimes. We all love options, but what will you do if you are flooded with options, gosh making a decision becomes hell.

Image couresy - newton007.com

                       When I ask someone for help in my close circle of friends and relatives they strongly recommend what they like or what they wished to be like. No one actually care what I wanna be like. Hmmm, what should I do now? Ok I know now some of you will say “why not try a career counselor?” ahh again there are plenty of counselors available to choose from!! Who should I choose? Options are driving me crazy these days. This can also be considered as an excuse of a witty teenager who don’t wanna shell out some pocket money for “paid advice” or otherwise called “counseling”, I would rather spend that buying an Ipod or investing on a date – sometimes these type of investments do pay back :)
 

Image courtesy - istockphoto

I wish there was some source of information which can guide me through this process of career counseling free of cost. Don’t misinterpret me as a stringy jerk, internet is famous only because it’s free. I’ve tried subscribing to many education newsletters, but I am getting bored of their stereotype sales approach  - study-this-study that types. Oh please I don’t want recommendation I want suggestions mate. A lot of marketing mails that find shelter in my inbox actually don’t get my attention. But I don’t know exactly why most of the times I get attracted to a typical series of mails from senders like ‘6 day course’ ‘career guide series’ ’10 day guide to perfect living’ compared to ‘buy this buy that mails’. I guess the continuity attracts me.

                                        And you know what I love lists, and I guess everybody loves list. Fag end of the year it’s a season of list’s now – top 10 movies of 2010, top 10 sportsmen, top 10 influential people etc etc.. ‘Forbes magazine’ are you listening? Or is there anyone who does this Forbes magazine like job for education? All the top 10’s manage to top my fascination every time. I would be delighted to see a list of top ten careers for 2011 from a trusted source; it will be great and it can actually blow the whistle to commence the rat race to choose the ‘HOT’ courses!

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