Today is the Black Friday - the so called Friday after the Thanks Giving holiday in the United States. On this day most Stores give huge discounts for early shoppers and most Americans take benefit of this. The shopping on the day after Thanks Giving i.e. Black Friday is also taking shape as a modern American tradition.
Also in a strange turn this year again we decided to go for a long drive on Thanks Giving day, that too on the whim, absolutely without a plan. However this year it was just to the Chicago Down Town albeit thru newly built or unexplored highways like I-355 extension to I-80 and then thru I-57 North. These were the highways we traveled for the first time. It was an interesting ride of about 150 miles (insted of straight route of 80-90 miles) and we enjoyed it thru talks and sight seeing from the Car windows.
Last year we went to Quad Cities on Illinois-Iowa border and also without any planning. That was about 250 Miles trip and also was completely unplanned on the whim.
Any how some other initiatives I have worked on this year are - Nagpur First, Hindi teaching and Support to Pusla Jain temple renovation-cum-expansion.
Nagpur First is a group of Nagpur related enthusiasts, who are coming together to support and contribute in Nagpur becoming truly Global City very soon. This is being achieved thru various initiatives. We have listed all the details at http://www.nagpurfirst.org/
Hindi teaching has been revived this year by finding a new teacher - Ajay Jain, who has taken it up really sincerely and is teaching at the Jain Temple in Chicago. He has already taken 7 classes, where in I could only participate in 3 of them. Hopefully during December class on 10th I will be there. Now we have a proper curriculum, the notice gets published in JSMC yahoo group email and number of students have increased to double digits.
Lastly I have been inspired by the story of Mr. Sharad Bhagwatkar, who is renovating and expanding a Jain temple in his native village of Pusla - 80 Kms from Nagpur. This temple has been built originally in 1878 and was in not so good condition. Although Mr. Bhagwatkar has been a simple accountant in Nagpur Police commissioner's office and was not working since 1993, due to major accident, which kept him bed ridden for 4 years and another 2 years walking with stick. But now due his Will power, tenacity and perseverance he runs marathons, for raising money for the temple. This he had started at the age of 62 in the year 2002 and have so afr completed Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Chicago Marathons. I am helping and supporting him and his son Vivek's efforts here amongst Chicago Jain Society. Some day I would like to write a great story of this inspiring gentleman for providing motivation to young people.
Also there are possibilities unfolding with Vivek that I could fulfill my dream of social entrepreneurship at multiple places in Central India. More on that at a later date.
Today I would again like to emphasize the learnings of last year that Forgiveness, Patience and Love (Kshama, Dhiraj aur Prem) are the KEYs to solve all major issues including relationships in life. Also I have realized in last few days that Controlling Anger is most important thing and that's the reason why Jainism says 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' - Non-Violence is the Supreme Religion. As with violence comes from anger.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
After 8 months - The Monk has arisen again
It has been almost 8 months since I have blogged. Any way, a lot of things have happened in between, some of which are:
- After remodeling, sold the old house at 1907 Tufton Ct, Naperville. Thanks to aggressive stance of the realtor, good deal offered to her and most importantly wonderful cooperation received from the renter.
- Dropped the idea of buying a larger property as business growth has taken a beating after initial successes in the year.
- Exhibited along with Clinical Research collaborator in 3 major conferences namely BIO2007, ASCO and DIA, but with no results.
- Drifted away from the clinical research collaborator and now seriously considering evolving in to Consulting and Investing business.
- After working for months have finally signed the consulting agreement with the Biotech pioneer for their India initiative.
- Have started Partnership Exploration course with Landmark on June 23rd at Los Angeles. Already attended 3 weekends so far. In 1 of them went around meeting people and companies in Southern California.
- This course is also giving me a lot of insights especially about 'relationships' and 'communication'.
- During the above course, we have to do seminar courses in our home city and hence completed 'Commitment' Seminar along with Vikram Desai at Chicago. A fabulous 10 sessions course over 3 months and learnt a lot about Commitments, especially the undeclared and hidden ones.
- Now will start 'Velocity' seminar from November 28th.
- Have planned to visit India and attend 'Silver Jubilee Reunion' of 1982 Graduating class of VRCE (now known as VNIT). This will be a short but hopefully a worth while trip. I am going there along with family, as due to high school schedules they will not be able to go to India until summer of 2009 after this.
- Will attend J P Morgan Healthcare conference immediately after the return from India in the Bay area.
- Have hired an Intern at Aagami, who is a PhD and now working as clinical Research business development person with me.
- At home front, Kids are doing very well in general in life and they are still well behaved and good; however they both are slipping in their grades BIG TIME. This is a cause of concern to both me and Shubhra.
- Also in July our whole family went to JAINA 2007 in Edison NJ and then attended Pranayam Shibir of Baba Ramdev in Chicagoland. The breathing exercises learnt from Shibir are being practiced by Shubhra and me and are really useful.
- Celebrated Aayami's Sweet 16 on October 26th at Tall Grass Club House. Over 90 people attended. Presence of Aman, Gudiya, Arav, Aditya and Navin Jain family brought a lot of family to this function of Aayami's coming of age.
- Gudiya and Arav stayed 10 days after that also and that was quite satisfying.
- Navin and family visited on September 1st & 2nd and then we visited them for Nishita's Sweet 16 on Sept 8th too.
- Now last week I have attended AAPS annual meeting at San Diego and also CHI Drug Discovery conference in Philadelphia and visited companies in NY and NJ. It was pretty hectic trip and very physically demanding; got really tired. This whole week is going in follow up of all the visits.
The main learnings during this period:
"Whatever Happens, Happens for the BEST" - reinforced
"Life Happens, Live It"
"Play the game of life, full out. Be committed to win without attachment to outcome."
"Results - are the only things, which count in life"
With this, enough for today and with a hope to return soon and more frequently.
- After remodeling, sold the old house at 1907 Tufton Ct, Naperville. Thanks to aggressive stance of the realtor, good deal offered to her and most importantly wonderful cooperation received from the renter.
- Dropped the idea of buying a larger property as business growth has taken a beating after initial successes in the year.
- Exhibited along with Clinical Research collaborator in 3 major conferences namely BIO2007, ASCO and DIA, but with no results.
- Drifted away from the clinical research collaborator and now seriously considering evolving in to Consulting and Investing business.
- After working for months have finally signed the consulting agreement with the Biotech pioneer for their India initiative.
- Have started Partnership Exploration course with Landmark on June 23rd at Los Angeles. Already attended 3 weekends so far. In 1 of them went around meeting people and companies in Southern California.
- This course is also giving me a lot of insights especially about 'relationships' and 'communication'.
- During the above course, we have to do seminar courses in our home city and hence completed 'Commitment' Seminar along with Vikram Desai at Chicago. A fabulous 10 sessions course over 3 months and learnt a lot about Commitments, especially the undeclared and hidden ones.
- Now will start 'Velocity' seminar from November 28th.
- Have planned to visit India and attend 'Silver Jubilee Reunion' of 1982 Graduating class of VRCE (now known as VNIT). This will be a short but hopefully a worth while trip. I am going there along with family, as due to high school schedules they will not be able to go to India until summer of 2009 after this.
- Will attend J P Morgan Healthcare conference immediately after the return from India in the Bay area.
- Have hired an Intern at Aagami, who is a PhD and now working as clinical Research business development person with me.
- At home front, Kids are doing very well in general in life and they are still well behaved and good; however they both are slipping in their grades BIG TIME. This is a cause of concern to both me and Shubhra.
- Also in July our whole family went to JAINA 2007 in Edison NJ and then attended Pranayam Shibir of Baba Ramdev in Chicagoland. The breathing exercises learnt from Shibir are being practiced by Shubhra and me and are really useful.
- Celebrated Aayami's Sweet 16 on October 26th at Tall Grass Club House. Over 90 people attended. Presence of Aman, Gudiya, Arav, Aditya and Navin Jain family brought a lot of family to this function of Aayami's coming of age.
- Gudiya and Arav stayed 10 days after that also and that was quite satisfying.
- Navin and family visited on September 1st & 2nd and then we visited them for Nishita's Sweet 16 on Sept 8th too.
- Now last week I have attended AAPS annual meeting at San Diego and also CHI Drug Discovery conference in Philadelphia and visited companies in NY and NJ. It was pretty hectic trip and very physically demanding; got really tired. This whole week is going in follow up of all the visits.
The main learnings during this period:
"Whatever Happens, Happens for the BEST" - reinforced
"Life Happens, Live It"
"Play the game of life, full out. Be committed to win without attachment to outcome."
"Results - are the only things, which count in life"
With this, enough for today and with a hope to return soon and more frequently.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)