In the Lap of the Buddha : By : Gavin Harrison

This is a book by a person, who chose bhuddism as his religion. A person, who was afflicted with HIV+ diagnosis and whose life lay shattered, he tells us his story of how he decided to fight the war of the disease, how he fought the demon within himself, how he fought off the anger and the fear and the self hatred which comes with the diagnosis.

He goes on to tell us about how to confront the physical pain and also the fear of death. He talks about the eternal question of "Why me?"

He gives guidance on his method of how to meditate. How to look at your body with love and kindness. How to meditate with love and kindness for your enemies who have wanted nothing but your downfall and destruction. How to love those who used you.

How to finally free yourself from the clutches of revenge seeking behaviour and fill yourself with love and affection so that there is nothing but love is left in you.

When I started reading the book, I was curious but also suspicious of what I will gain from this. The book looked like one more book on meditation. But, boy, was I wrong. I am glad I read the book.

When you read this, you understand the words of the one who has suffered through and in spite of his suffering and his still continued pains and ravages, has chosen to forgive all, who has chosen to love all, including himself. Unconditionally.

Beautiful book.

What are you going to be when you become big?

I was talking to my son Balaji as I drove him to his school this morning. I was asking him, playfully, "what are you going to be, when you become big?" He thought for a while and said "I am going to be a Doctor". I was asking him what kind of a doctor that he wants to be. He didn't know. He is all of 4 years now. And he has not yet made up his mind on which part of the human body that he wants to take up as a Doctor.

He then smiled at me and asked me : "what are YOU going to BE when you become big?"

I was taken aback. I haven't really contemplated my future in exactly those terms. Becoming big? For me? I was at a loss for words. I told him that I have already become big. That I am going to office.

He laughed. He disagreed with me. "I don't think you have become big. You are small only, only bigger than me". I smiled at him, again being at a loss for words. He asked again. "When you are through with the office, what are you going to be?"

By that time, his school had come and I dropped him off along with his sister Meenakshi.

I still haven't figured out the answer..

At times what kids ask you make you think a lot deeper than you have previously done...!

Guess I have to figure out!

I remember asking my daughter, Meenakshi the same question couple of years back. When I asked her, she thought for a!while and said, emphatically, "I am going to be a Mother!".

Well. One never knows how the kids will answer your questions. But, one can be sure that whatever their answers be, they make you wonder and make you think of things that you haven't really thought before!

Kapil's Korner : Blog Review

Kapil's Korner is a very nice blog. Interesting thoughts. Very interesting reflections. There are some reviews too. Nice photographs adorn the blog. Uncluttered. Simple to read. Flowing.

My pick of the blog posts :

1) the most recent "walk in the mama's garden" - superb photos...
2) 5 super tools which power my office PC - very useful...
3) Picks from Cannes Lion 2010 - I agreed with the selections. Most interesting ones...
4) 5 things I didn't know last week - I didn't know them either. If only I can put a list like this every week...!!
5) The wall project - the great wall of Mumbai - what an idea!

There were other entries as well which are worthy of mention - but I just stopped with my top 5 picks.

Thoroughly entertaining and really thought provoking.

Thumbs up for this blog!

The Montissori Method :

Vandana and I went to our kids' school on Saturday (7th August). It was an outreach program conducted by the school. Navdisha school has a few basic tenets that it lives by - all of them derived from Dr. Maria Montissori's teachings : 

•	Every child has the inherent right to life
•	Every child, irrespective of background and ability, should enjoy a full and decent life
•	Every child should be nurtured in an environment which ensures dignity, promotes self-reliance and encourages an active participation in the family and the community
•	Every child has a right to a standard of living adequate for physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development

The school is very well kept and is a very good environment for all kinds of children. Each of the teachers know about their kids by name and what the kid is doing and what the kid is capable of.

I was thinking about the kind of schools that I studied at. The Susilabai Government High School in Pondicherry, where I studied upto 5th standard. The dingy classrooms. The teachers who did not mind beating the kids. On the head. I remember the number of hits that my head took. The window there without the bars, through which I escaped out everyday after the attendance was taken. I remember the 3rd standard class room vividly. Most of the time, I was on the street with the other few kids who knew the secret of escaping. We also used to go out and buy vada and idly for the teachers. Who cared!

But, there were a few who cared even there. Mahalaxmi teacher who took maths in my 4th standard. Vijaya teacher who took English and Science in 5th standard. They really cared.

How to bring about an educational system which cares? Which allows for individual differences? Which allows each child to develop at its own pace? Which nurtures each child well? Which encourages the curiosity in the children instead of asking them to mug up facts and figures?

That is perhaps why I love this method. When my children come from school and they are still happy to learn, I know that they have not been under any pressure to learn. When they want to go back to school the next day, I know that the learning has been a pleasure for them. That is important.

Ad Review : Pepsodent - ShahRukKhan Ad : Pappu & Pappa

You can watch the ad by clicking the above or by logging into the following Youtube link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-CIzogOaD8

This is one ad which I liked. The idea of putting a cine star - one whom even the kids can relate to, is a good move. The presence of Shahruk Khan and his voice lend good entertainment value to the film. The 2 minute germ kill is coming across nicely.

But, the star can also be the problem in the ad. The Shahruk performance is so good that you forget that you are watching an ad for a toothpaste. Also, the proposition seems to lose its sting a bit by the time you finish seeing the ad.

But, overall, an extremely likeable ad. HUL seems to be taking the "time" as a measure of performance across its product categories...!

Personally, I would rate it at about 7 out of 10 on how much I like this ad...

Life After Death -  The book of answers : Deepak Chopra

The  book opens to a lot of promise. It puts evocative questions such as "what happens after death?" and whether "death is the end of life" as is naturally believed to be. With 4 deaths in the family over the last 18 months, I have been looking for some of this stuff. It starts well. It starts with the Savitri Satyavan story - which is familiar. It offers fantastic thoughts and points : "there is nothing which gets truly destroyed. everything gets transformed from one form to some other form". The eight standard physics. Energy can not be made nor can it be destroyed. The sum of energy in the universe is a constant. One just needs to know how to harness the energy which is in abundance in this universe. That thought is echoed in the book.

But, the book then gets into all the advaitic thoughts. It quotes a lot of stories from after life incidences which I have heard and read about.

At the end of the book, I did not get a handle on how to understand death. There are a lot of thoughts and points here. But, the essence is "death is not the end and it is a mere continuum into another form" gets repeated in so many words and so many pages throughout the book.

Where the soul goes, how the rishis understood all this and so on and so forth are all put over here. But, none of that has helped me understand the "why" of death. Why does it occur so very suddenly? So very violently at times? What really happens after that? Why are we unable to communicate to people who are "dead"? How do we communicate? How can we understand "death" while we are alive? After all, Ramana Maharishi was supposed to have understood "death" while he was a mere boy and that incident was the one which drove him to Tiruvannamalai...So, what happens when you die? And, how can you die before you really are dead?

I did not get a clear handle on these. Probably, one needs a lot more maturity to figure this...

ஒரு தமிழ் புஸ்தகம் படிக்க இவ்வளவு நேரம் ஆனது இதுதான் முதல் தடவை. என்னால் தொடர்ந்து படிக்க முடியவில்லை. உக்கிரமான எழுத்து.

ஜெயமோகனின் நினைவுகள். அவரது தாயின் மரணம். மரணம் அல்ல. தற்கொலை. தந்தையின் தற்கொலை. சிறு குழந்தையாய் இருந்தபோது நிகழ்ந்த நிகழ்வுகள். அம்மாவிற்குப் பிடித்த நாவல்கள். அம்மாவிற்குப் பிடித்த பாட்டுகள். கேரளத்து ரமணன் பாட்டு.

கம்யுனிஸ்டுகளின் கதைகள். அஜிதன் பிறந்தது. கேரளத்து கவிதைகள்

வ்ர்ம வ்வைத்தியரின் சிகிச்சை. தங்கை விஜி. அருண்மொழியை மணந்தது. வேலைக்கு சேந்தது.

துரவியாய் ச்சுற்றியபோது கண்ணில் பட்ட பேரழகி. குழந்தை வளர்ப்புக் கலை.

எதையுமே கதை போல் படிக்க முடியவில்லை. ஏதோ, நானே நின்று ஜெயமோகனுடன் சேர்ந்து நின்று, அவருக்கு நிகழ்ந்தவற்றைப் பார்ப்பது போன்ற உணர்வு.

இது மனதைத் தொடும் எழுத்து இல்லை. இது, மனதை அடித்துச் செல்லும் அலை. அற்புதமான உணர்வு இது.

The book which won the man booker prize.

A very angry story. Story of a boy who ran away from his home, who learnt how to drive, who drove around his master and who learnt how to survive in the city of Bangalore.

The way the story is writtin is very different. It is a letter to the Chinese Premier. The language is fantastic. It is dark. It is funny and a brand of humour which is absolutely angry and which spits at you.

It presents India as one of the filthiest of the nations. It paints the people here as those who are cunning and deceitful and cheating on a daily basis. It shows its leaders as all suckers and absolutely self centered ones.

At the end of the story , I didn't know what the story tried to tell. Is it okay to muder? Is it important to get out of slavery and being a servant to being your own master? Is survival very difficult in India? What?

The story left me troubled. I was wondering whether it deserved the booker....probably it doesn't, in my eyes.

எஸ்.ஷங்கர நாராயணன் என்பவர் தொகுத்த கதைகள். எல்லாமே சங்கீதத்தை அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்ட கதைகள். அற்புதமான கதைகள்.

"சரிவாரிலோன" என்ற தியாகையர் கதை. தியாகராஜ ஸ்வாமிகள் ராமனை நினைந்து நினைந்து உருகி பூஜை செய்து பின்னர் ஊரார் பேச்சால் காயம்பட்டு மனம் வெதும்பும் கதை. அற்புதம்.

"ஏறும் இறையும்" என்று இன்னொரு கதை. ஜெயமோகனின் கதை. அற்புதமாக எழுதப்பட்ட கதை. 'ரிஷ்பம்' என்ற பெயரிலே விளையாடும் கதை.

"உக்ரம்" என்ற ப்ரபஞ்சனின் கதை. நீஜமாகவே உக்ரமான கதை.

"வீணை பவானி" என்ற கல்கியின் கதை. அவருக்கே உரித்தான பாணியில், அழகான, உருக்கும் கதை.

"சின்னம்" என்ற வாஸந்தியின் கதை. தாஸி குலத்தில் பிறந்த பாவத்திற்காக, பாடகி படும் பாட்டைச் சொல்லும் கதை.

"திரிவேணி" என்ற கு.அழகிரிஸாமியின் கதை. இராமன் வருகிறான். தியாகையரின் வீட்டுக்கு வருகிறான். அவர் பாட்டில் மயங்கி, ஸீதாப்பிராட்டியுடன் வருகிறான். அழகான, நெகிழ வைக்கும் கதை.

இளங்கோவனின் "நகுமோமு". சின்ன கதை. ஒரு சின்னப் பெண், ஒரு பெரிய பாடகிக்கு பாட்டின் பொருள் சொல்லி, எனவே அந்தப் பாட்டு எப்படிப் பாடப்ப்ட வேண்டும் என்றும் சொல்கிறாள். நல்ல கதை.

"ஆர்மோனியம் சிரிக்கிறது" என்ற அனுராதா ரமணனின் கதை. தன் மனைவியின் அற்புதமான சங்கீதத்தை ரசிக்கத் தெரியாத மனிதர், கச்சேரி நுணுக்கங்களை பற்றிப் பேசும்போது சிரிக்கும் பெண்ணின் கதை.

லா.ச.ராவின் "ஈ ஜகமுலோ திக்கெவரம்மா". உணர்ச்சி மயமான கதை. கதையின் போக்கிலே, நம்மையும் அப்படியே படாத பாடு படுத்தும் கதை.

இன்னும் சில கதைகளும் இருந்தன. ஆனால், இந்த சில கதைகளே மனதைத் தொட்டு, உணர்வில் கலந்து, உயிரிலும் கலந்து நிற்கின்றன. புஸ்தகம் கிடைத்தால், நிச்சயம் படிக்கவும்.

The Oracle of the century:

I was wondering about the octopus which seems to have made a fantastic prophecy yet again on the german football outcome. And, exactly as it had predicted, the Germans have lost the match to Spain.

The Oracle of the Century

Suppose this octopus was in India? What would we have done with it? Oh! A lot of things.

One, we can disband with the whole process of elections to start with. Such a massive exercise can be replaced with just asking the Octopus as to which candidate is going to win.

Two, we can disband market research for most things and instead of going and asking consumers, we can ask the esteemed oracle on which product will win and which idea will win. It woudl save a lot of money and effort also!

Three, we can send all our dogs and cats and beloved fish varieties to this octopus and at least make them observe the oracle make those predictions so that all of us end up having a "predictionist" at our homes. This can even help us phase out all the astrologers and have only the animal oracles to help us with decide on the future.

Well, I think you get the drift. It is a pity that the orale is talking about football and that too, only the German matches.

Finally, I am not personally sure whether the Oracle will survive a few more days, given the wrath of the fans. They are surely going to take revenge on it!!

Finding out leaders is difficult. Why is it difficult? Typically because it is difficult even to define what leadership is all about. Also, it is made even more difficult because of the pace at which we need to do things. However, unless you have fantastic leadership, the company starts floundering at some point in time.

This is what Ram Charan takes and looks deep at.

He looks at the conundrum of "how to get the supply of leaders at different levels?" and tries to answer the question of how does one plan for succession.

He advocates an apprenticeship model. This sounds really radical. However, as he points out, it is not as radical as it sounds first. The apprenticeship is the basis in which almost all the professions prospered in the previous centuries. It is still in vogue in professions such as Medicine and engineering and so on. People learn from the teacher / boss and learn the tools of the trade and then become master over a period of time.

However, the same is not really applied in the case of management.

And, Ram Charan points out that it is perhaps time that we started doing this.

He also looks at and gives a probable framework of evaluating people on leadership. That is a good framework. He gives plenty of examples of how different organizations started grooming leaders from early on. How to have a proper process in place for this identification and grooming. How to take bets on leaders from early on. How to separate temporary successes or failures from long term possibility of success or failures. How to look at different situations and why those situations might require completely different styles of leadership.

He talks about a set of key points : identification, nurturing, how to mentor the leaders, how to set challenging tasks to them early on to spot the real leaders, how to put a process of continuously offering them great tasks which will refine their skills, how to manage the talent pool of leaders, how to continuously monitor them and what kind of frame work might work to take care of all of these.

Made me wonder how I would go about if I have to look for leaders. Made me wonder whether I do any productive and useful mentoring. I was also thinking about who are the potential leaders around me. There seem to be a number of them.

Very good book for any one who is passionate about leadership.  For anyone who wants to mentor and nurture talent under him. For both the bosses and the HR teams.

One of the tamil books that I have enjoyed in recent times. The actor's another dimension is celarly visible here. His erudition of ramayana and that of kamban is clearly available to all.

He has selected about 100 poems from Kamaba ramayana and has given fantastic commentary on the same. He has simplified the tamil a bif of the poems so that even people like me can read them.

Gems!!

I am going to read kamba ramayana fully now!!

A psychological thriller. I have read about the author and have seen some rave reviews. The writing is indeed taut and as good as there is. The girl who cannot remember what really happened. The police enquiry lines. The murders which have piled up. The circumstantial evidence for anyone of the dozen people who can be the suspects.

But the ending was not very good. Introducing new facts and figures to finish off the story? Never liked that kind of an ending.

Wow!

What a book.

It is not everyday that I read a book and sit up and want to go back to office and tell all my colleagues what all we can do together. But, that is exactly what this book made me do.

A few key learnings :

1) The top guy should be passionate about innovation and getting it right
2) The entire company should move forward and the consumer should become the boss
3) It is possible to work with the competition and other outside groups profitably
4) It is possible to make growth exciting and learning rewarding
5) It is possible to make innovation and consumer the central tenet of every single thing that you do

Very good book. It demonstrates what is possible. Written also very well by Ram charan and Leafly.

I had read this book during my college days.  It had caused much heartburning and pain. When I read it again, it could bring that pain and burning sensation all over again.

The person who is trying to trace his family history and who traces it back to 7 generations and 2 different continents and 2 different religions has done a remarkable job. The story telling is tight and fast in the first half. Then, as Kunta Kinte leaves the scene and his daughter and grand children take over, you can kind of figure out the plot and where the story is going.

The way the story unfolds is also remarkable. I was wondering about many things of the story. The way the women were supposedly treated in the Juffure village in Gambia, Africa. How they did manhood training. The village elders sitting together the giving judgements. All are very similar to what has been happening in India.

One almost longs to find out what happened to the Kunta Kinte's family post Kunta was captured by the toubobs. One wishes to find out. And, that is the success of the story.

I got interested in my family history and genealogy after reading the story. In fact, the book seemed to have a similar effect on many people who have read when it was released.

Haley got into many troubles post he became an icon for writing the story. There were defamation suits. There were plagiarism suits which he agreed and accepted and also settled out of court. There are lots of evidences that Haley's story may not be completely founded on facts. There are evidences and researches done to show that Haley's genealogy itself is not really related to Gambia.

Yet, the story's power lingers on. The power of how the story has been told and what a struggle the blacks had to undergo has been told and told very powerfully.

What a story.

This is a tightly written story. The financial markets collide with the technological superstars. Un innocent person and his wife get caught in the cross fire. People trying to take total control. Believable characters and a very racy story style make the reading very entertaining. The end alone is quite abrupt and it is like in tamil films. Exactly when the villain tries to escape, the police comes and cleans it up. But, a quite good read.

I am sure reading some seriously boring stuff.

I thought this book would give me some glimpse of the ideas that Jack Welch had. But, sadly, all I got to know was the ego of Jack and next to nothing beyond that. Some nuggets such as "presentation is only as good as how you present it" are there. Probably I don't know how to get value out of this!

The only point I picked up is this : most CEOs take only seconds to size up a candidate and if you don't offer some insights from what you have to offer, then probably you are dead in the third minute. That is true.

Vitage Sujatha. Right from the first article to the very last. In his inimitable style. What a range. The sanga period poetry. To the electronics of the voting machine. To his younger days when he first tried smoking. To the story writing and the methodologies.

Felt good reading such a range. What a writer.

It made me feel like reading whatever I can find. To think through as to what I have learnt in the last 38 years that I am there. Very good read.

The Brethren is simply unbelievable. I didn't think I would end up reading such a trash from Grisham. 3 judges scheming a plot for milking money is certainly an interesting plot. But snaring a would be President of USA? And, getting away with it? in Grisham's novels, most of the times the bad guys do get away. It is actually difficult to figure out who the bad guy is in his novels. An interesting read but by the time you are reading both the parallel sets of events, you have no difficulty imagining how the story is going to unfold. It felt pretty drab read.

The Summons is interestingly written. Very slow pace but worth it. Just a few characters and a decent story. What money can do is what the story is all about. As usual, Grisham does not venture into right or wrong of it. Just a good narrative is all that he offers. Good to read. The usual torts and the king of torts also comes in. Somehow at about 80% of the story, you know what is going to come by. The only reason why you still read on is to see how Grisham is handling it. Actually, not a bad handling of the end.