Ice coated Chicago area

Wow!!! Last night Chicago area got Icy Rains and almost every thing got a nice coating of ice. So when I started for work this morning, it was such an amazing world out there, which despite of living in Chicago area for last 10 years I have never been able to see. I have taken some photographs of those beautiful scenes with my Phone Camera and now will let those talk to you.

Enjoy........................

Application of knowledge is more important than knowing more

Well I have been thru a lot since last post. First it was my father's death anniversary on Dec 2nd and then ups and downs of daily life with 2 teen agers and running a struggling business. Still keeping myself not only sane but also motivated and inspired; thanks to all the learning from scriptures, spirituality, Landmark education and also daily life.

I am now totally focused on applying all the learnings and knowledge in to real life. And that's what matters the most. In fact I have realized that we keep running after knowing more and more, but forget to apply whatever we have already learnt in life. This race for more knowledge is like seeking water in the mirage at desert. That's what I have been doing mostly in life; now it is the time to stop that and start acting on the learnings.

Lastly it is also dawning on me that like in most things 'less is more' is quite applicable even in knowledge. If we could apply even 2% of what we already know by the time we are an adult, it would be sufficient to lead a great life. So hence forth I committ to WALK THE TALK.

Forrest Gump

I just completed seeing the movie 'Forrest Gump' again. It was, I think, the third time. It is such an inspirational movie. It has so many messages in it without being preachy. I understand from this movie The Real Power of Surrender. Some say it is surrender to god or surrender to Goodness in you, may be its both and one and the same.

I would love to see it again and may be understand the true meaning of life or is there a meaning really to life? May be it is like Landmark Education says that 'Life is empty and meaningless and it is empty and meaningless that it is empty and meaningless'.

I will never know the real truth, as per Jainism, until I achieve the Keval Gyan. As until then whatever I would know would be the partial truth based on a particular perspective or many perspectives, but never all and hence never the full truth. And even if there is whole Truth, is it really meaningful to know it? I wonder. May be once I know it, it does not exist, as the knower and the known is the same, and what is knowing is also the same.

So our Destiny is what we make of it or what meaning we give to our floating around like a feather in a breeze or whatever else.

क्षमा मार्दव उत्साह उमंग

आज एक बार फिर मुझे क्षमा का महत्व ज्ञात हुआ। आज सुबह किसी बात को लेकर पत्नी से कुछ नाराजी हुई। हालाँकि मैंने माफी मांगी, पर वह गुस्से में होने की वजह से न केवल माफ नहींकिया परन्तु और भी नाराज हुई। यह सब देख सुनकर मेरी नाराजी बढ़ी और मैं मन ही मन उसे दोष देता रहा, यहाँ तक की उसके घर वालों, खासकर मम्मी को भी मन ही मन बुरा समझता रहा। फिर ऑफिस आने पर किसी मित्र की ईमेल से, कुछ भान हुआ कि नहीं, मैंने क्षमाभाव बिल्कुल नहीं छोड़ना चाहिए। जैसा मैं स्वयं हमेशा कहता हूँ कि क्षमा और मार्दव से परम शान्ति मिलती है, तो मैंने ही उसको मानना चाहिए।

इन्ही क्षमा मार्दव भावों के साथ मैं हमेशा उत्साह और उमंग की भी जाप देता था और हूँ भी। और आज कल मैं उत्साह और उमंग में काफी विश्वास कर रहा हूँ, और सभी को बता रहा हूँ। मेरा मानना है कि उत्साह और उमंग ही मनाव को निरंतर प्रेरित रखतें हैं। इसीलिए आज एक बार फिर प्रण करता हूँ कि मैं क्षमा, मार्दव, उत्साह और उमंग के जाप को हमेशा देता रहूँगा और जीवन में उतारता रहूँगा।

Motivation and Inspiration

Today I am again motivated and inspired and am excited to keep working with honesty, integrity and clarity of purpose. However I find it very difficult to maintain this level of motivation ongoingly. But I guess that's where my humanity kicks in. And I committ to be inspired continuously.

I have helped and supported my colleagues on Monday and have motivated them in there dire straights. However on Monday evening after meeting my partner, the realization hit that the business is not really working out and I will have to find an alternative soon enough. On Tuesday one thing led to another and I myself made lots of meanings of failure and then got totally demotivated. But having learnt several techniques at Landmark, fundamental of Jainism and also becoming mature in life, I have overcome that today. I am back to the inspiration and motivation after counselling my son Tuesday evening.

Life must go on and need to come from being inspired without the worry of results, although the focus has to be the results. So I recommitt to being inspired and motivated and to "Don't worry, Be Happy".

Nagpur First initiatives

Well today I am extremely happy to report that Nagpur First an organization which germinated as an idea in my mind many years ago and took some form and shape in 2006 with like minded people like Sunil Narkhede, Shashank Rao, Nishad Somalwar, Amit Shah, Vivek Bhagwatkar, and others is today become a committed, dedicated and energized organisation with the help of Amit Badiyani, its able general secretary and many other new comers.

Now Nagpur First has its own website, its present on facebook, Blog and also on Twitter.

I am so happy now to see this movement grow and firmly believe that Nagpur will achieve the Vision of Nagpur First i.e. "Nagpur - A Global City by 2020"

Jai Ho!

सफलता, आख़िर क्या है,

आज की पोस्ट फिर मैं हिन्दी में लिख रहा हूँ।

मैंने हाल ही में लैंडमार्क की Success Seminar का सातवाँ सेसन समाप्त किया; और पाया कि सफलता कोई ध्येय पर पहुंचने के लिए नहीं अपितु कदम आगे बढ़ाने के लिए होती है। अगर हम सफल व्यक्ति की तरह अपने आप को सोच समझ कर किसी राह पर चल दें तो सफलता हमें अपने आपही प्राप्त होगी, क्योंकि हम सफलता की चाहत नहीं बल्कि उसे मानकर ही चल रहें होंगें इसीलिए हमें सारे रास्ते खुलते जायेंगें और हमारे सारे प्रयास सफलता की कुंजी लेकर ही होंगें।

बस आज कुछ इतना ही।

Current state and Reiki Mantras applied to life

I have come back last week after a 15 days trip to India. I went there for 10 days but extended it, as I felt my mother needed me there for the first Diwali, after my father left us. I am glad I took that decision and stayed back; but a lot of that credit goes to my daughter who germinated the idea in me and more to her mother (my dear wife) who was very supportive of the idea.

Well before going to India, I had to face difficulty with my Notebook computer twice, once when I spilled water on its key board; luckily I immediately powered it off and after 2 days of struggle and $135 I got it back working. Secondly when the power adaptor was not charging the battery, I tried my engineering on it and destroyed it so had to buy a new one for $40. But both scared the heck out of me. And hence I have down loaded Reiki poster to bless it. The end result is that I have become so present to Reiki and its fundamental mantras:

Repeat every single day that Just for Today -
I will not be Angry
I will not worry
I will be grateful for every thing
I will work hard and
I will be Kind to others.

These are defining my days off late and I find peace in it.

Now coming back to trip to India, so it was 5 days of intense business with Medical Device company, 2 days of travel, 2 days of my personal other business meetings, 1 day in the travel within India and 5 days in two trips to Nagpur with Mother and Brother. Over all very satisfying albeit a bit tiring trip.

I am glad to be back for last one week in which had my Birthday on 22nd and many emotional ups and downs. Found myself matured up quite a bit, despite of getting emotional very easily. May be sure signs of getting old.

Forgiveness - The ultimate virtue

Well I am afresh from a 3 day week end, yes the Labor Day week end here in the US of A. I planned todo a lot of hings during the week end, as my daughter was going to be home from College and this being one of last week ends of summer, so I thought of catching up with long pending work at home.

However my not following the virtue of Forgiveness caused some intense 'sulking' and that, I think, caused my body to go for a toss. My body just gave up on Saturday after noon, when ironically I had completed making calls to India for 'Kshamavani', a Jain tradition for forgiving all and asking for forgiveness from all. This happened because I was harboring Angst against my wife as she said some thing in anger due to my childish bahvior of eating Sweet water melon despite of being Diabetic. Since I have now taken a vow of not 'creating scenes' at home front, I just kept quiet, but did not forgive her not so kind words towards me (funnily this definition of 'not so kind' was/is also given by me).

Although by the late evening Saturday I was OK healthwise, but did not give my resentment of her words. Sunday went away in the excitement of teaching Religious and Hindi calsses at the temple after many weeks and then going for dinner with family and visiting family friends, but again Sunday by the evening whole body ache and fatigue showed up, as I raised the grudge intensity inflamed by certain other behavior, which I did not like. Finally this morning around 4 am when I got up again due to same issue, I realized the futility and irony of the whole thing and felt enormous feeling of FORGIVENESS and love. Once this feeling of forgiveness descended upon me, autiomatically the peace enveloped me and I slept off till 6:30 am. Later in the morning I apologized to my dear wife and then created a wonderful, enjoyable and achievement filled day at work and home.

So all in all forgetting the importance of Forgiveness caused me a whole week end of troubles and remembering it made peace reappear. I like this sweet little victory over my own vices and Thank GOD for this realization.

Last day of Paryushan Parv and Uttam Kshama

Today is the last day of Paryushan Parv as followed by Digambar tradition. It is the day of 'Brahmacharya', one of the ten virtues also known as 'Das Laxan Dharm'. Basically 'Brahmacharya' word consists of two words 'Brahma' means the Soul or Spirit and 'Charya' means to dwell in. Hence today is a day to dwell in one's own soul, in other words focu internally to soul and not be external i.e. tend to bodily (sensual) needs.

In Jain tradition this day is followed by a day of Forgiveness of Khshamavani Day; which means that we need to Forgive all beings and ask for their forgiveness for whatever hurt we may have caused them whether knowingly or unknowingly. And we need to begin afresh with a clean heart.

The last two months, Nagpur visit and Celebrating Paryushan

Well, I am here on the blog after almost 2 full months. A lot of has happened in these 2 months, let us see what all I could remember.
- Closed a deal for consulting with a Device company, whom I met during DIA
- Followed up with people met during CalAsia and DIA.
- Left for India on July 14th with family.
- In Nagpur until 26th July - Very busy with family, Harrier, Nagpur First and getting dental and medical tests.
+ Got dental work done for all, Blood tests done for Shubhra and self. Shubhra's Cholesterol is fairly high and Hemoglobin quite low. In my case my Sugar is pretty high both fasting and post meal. Hence we need to take care.
+ Abhay, PK's younger borther died in unexpected circumstances and police made it a case of suicide. This unfortuante incident took two full days for completing all last rites etc and also consoling PK and his family.
+ Had great progress on Nagpur First front. The press conference we held on July 24th precipitated permanency of the venture. More details on it later.
+ Also met with Harrier team and its sales team. Conducted Board meeting and other general meetings with Amit.
+ Visited VNIT twice once to meet Director Gokhale and on July 25th to address the Commencement of incoming class of 2009 and their parents.
+ Organized and had a gala time during the Silver Jubilee Reunion of Nagpur MBA Graduates of 1984. 17 Students and 2 teachers and their family attended the function at Hotel Center Point. It was fund time and also got well connected with so many people, with most after 25 years.
+ Visited Pusla Jain temple and did Puja there along with the Jains of the town. Also had a felicitation function there and I addressed the gathering including sharing my Impossible promise with them.
+ Spoke at a Jain Pathshala (Religious class) of kids and their parents on 21st. The best thing there was I connected with Kids very well and another one was that Ma was present to see all my felicitations and honor. In fact she got felicitated too, besides Shubhra.

Later I visited Delhi and Mumbai for business. Then Jabalpur for 4 days, came back to Nagpur for Rakhi - the first one after Babuji's departure and then visited Bhopal, Sagar and Khurai, before returning to the US on 12th with a day's stop at Mumbai with Arvind Iyer family. Details of this latter portion in the next post.

Now I am writing this on the third day of Paryushan (as per Digambar tradition) and today is Uttam Arjav day. That means I must follow the Simplicity (Straightforwardness) in toto.

The quote which have been with me for last one week is "When your shadow becomes longer than you, you must sense that Sunset is not far." What I have learnt with that is 'I must do more than I talk or talk about'.

Gratefulness

I have confirmed the earlier learning about BEING GRATEFUL recently. This confirmation came while dealing with my children. I see them, especially my son, these days (may be due to the teen age) that they feel angry about not getting some thing silly, while having all the important things for their life. While counselling them I realized that what is making the anger arise is the fact that they are not being grateful for what they have; instead they consider all what they have as their entitlement, which SHOULD have been there any way.

Since there is no gratefulness in mind and/or heart, not getting simplest or silliest of the things make them lose temper or get angry and do things which they will never do in their right minds. Hence while counselling this fact that we need to be grateful for every little thing we get in life, even as simple fact as that we are alive, we have food to eat, clothes to wear and a home to live in and family and friends to share our life with; all these things we take for granted, but in reality we need to be THANKFUL (Grateful) that we have all this and much much more available to us. We are so fortunate compare a lot many people in the world who do not have one or many of these simplest of the things in life.

Just writing this makes me feel good and makes me appreciate my fortune, fate, luck, fortitude or what ever else a name you give to that way of being. I feel content, satisfied and also get a sense of happiness and joy. In this state I realize that anger or unhappiness has no place to arise.

I pledge that I will always be grateful for getting this life as the highest form of living being i.e. Human Being; using which I could really perform at the highest plane of life in nature. THANKS, THANKS and MANY THANKS.

True Indian Secularism

I have just come back a week ago from hectic travels to San Francisco, Atlanta, New York and Orlando. Since this also meant many meetings, conferences etc. it took toll on me and my time, hence the delay in composing myself and writing this blog.

But the great thing about travel is its enormously rich experience due to abundance of contact with humanity. One of the things which made me really think hard during this time was the nature of Indian secularism. This was brought about by two incidents.

First happened during BIO show on 19th and 20th May. We had kept Ganesha statues made of Sandal wood in our booth for giving away as gifts to prospects. One Indian lady came to our booth, her first name was a very typical Christian name, but Family name was Indian. She requested if she could have the statue of Ganesha and said she wanted it as 'He will bring me good luck and removes obstacles for me'. Those are Hindu beliefs. So I thought she might have changed her Indian (Hindu) name to a Christian name for the ease of Americans, as some Indians and most Chinese do. But on inquiry to my utter surprise she declared that she was a Christian from Goa and married to a Parsi, meaning neither the family she was born in to nor married in to, believed in Lord Ganesha, yet growing up in India, she certainly wanted that statue.
Interestingly the story with her did not end on that day. Second day she came and this time just grabbed another statue from the booth, saying that her yesterday one was taken away by a friend and she certainly needs one. First the audacity of her action made me a bit angry, as we had only 2 statues left and were keeping them for real good prospects for whom it was meant, But looking at her devotion, we could not refuse and just laughed at her 'grabbing'.

Second incident took place in Orlando Florida during ASCO meet. We visited a Luxury items shop, which was selling expensive watches, diamonds, jewellery, high value porcelain etc. We again saw a beautiful Ganesha Statue of high value porcelain made by Spanish company Lladro displayed prominently in the middle of the shop. So I intelligently assumed that shop was owned by an Indian of Hindu faith. But later in our interaction we found out that it was owned by a Muslim that too of Pakistani origin (Well his parents were from India and he was also born in India, but moved to Pak when he was a baby and was a Pakistani national). Again that was not the end of the story, the real discussion took place on another day, when we visited him for some thing else and interacted further. He told us that the staue of Ganesha is priced for only $1550, but he will not sell it even though he has received the offers as high as $16,000 for the same. He said "I will never sell this statue as I believe in Ganesha as so many people (around 800 Million Hindus) of the world believe in Him, obviously He must be a great benefactor". This muslim gentleman also said that he respects all beliefs as they all come from human experience.

After mulling over a lot on both these incidents, I realized that there connection with India and growing up in Indian millieu had made these believers in monotheism (which inherently preaches monopoly over the concept of God) were truly secular in Indian sense, which means 'Equal Respect to all Faiths'.

Jai Ho, India and its Great Heritage!!! May all people start believing in such Secularism.

forgiveness and equanimity to handle self doubt and bad things happening to you

I am just not on my own today. Some thing has happened and I have doubted the truthfulness of it. When I tried to look for some evidence, I found them to be corroborating my doubt rather than the narrative told to me. This has made me really sad and has created a real unease in me. I am unable to sleep and do any thing else other than wallowing in self pity and worthlessness.

Although I have counselled many on such matters, as recently as 5 days ago, but when a doubting situation has arisen for me, I am unable to handle it. Is this my insecurity? Is it my doubting nature? Is it my giving disempowering meaning to what happens in life? What ever it is I am in real pain and unable to bear the thought of what I am making the incidents mean.

I am going to live from an empowering context and face the reality in the eye. I will further investigate and if all evidence are in the same directions then I must confront and ask the reality with the person. Living in a doubt will not be helpful to any one and living with that I will myself behave in strange manners and as a result create troubles for every one. So I must face it and then live in an empowering context. I should be worrying and sad myself, only if I have done some thing wrong. If others are doing wrong then it is their issue and not mine. They are the ones who will face consequences and not me. What ever is happening to me is caused by me i.e. is the result of my karmas.

I must stand for full belief in self and the theory of karma. And so even if my doubt is true then it is my karmas which are coming to fruition to provide me pain, others are just being catalyst in me having the pain. And I must be happy that bad karma are getting completed and now what I would do with the situation will create my future. So I must be equanimous with what ever is happening to me. Equanimity and forgiveness will bring peace to me for ever.

मैं और मेरी सोच

आज की ब्लॉग तो मैं हिन्दी में लिख रहा हूँ क्योंकि इस में मुझे बहुत आनंद आ रहा है। जीवन में शायद पहली बार अपनी बात इन्टरनेट पर अपनी भाषा व्यक्त कर पाने कि खुशी है।

मुझे निम्नलिखित चीज़ों पर बहुत गर्व है और हमेशा इनके उत्थान में प्रयासरत रहता हूँ और लगा रहूँगा।
मैं स्वयं, मेरा परिवार, मेरा धर्म - जैन धर्म, मेरी अपनाई भाषा - हिन्दी, मेरा शहर - नागपुर, मेरा पैत्रिक राज्य - मध्य प्रदेश, मेरा अपना देश - भारत, मेरा निवासी देश - अमेरिका, मेरा जगत और उसमे बसने वाले सभी जीव।

अगर आप पाएंगे कि मैंने हर एक के आगे मेरा लगाया है तो उसका कारण यह है कि मेरी समझ में जब तक हम किसी भी वस्तु को अपना नहीं समझते हम उसके प्रति अपनत्व नहीं रख सकते। और जिस वस्तु के प्रति हम अपनत्व रखते हैं केवल उसी की प्रगति में हम सतत प्रयासशील रह सकते हैं।

आज पहली बार हिन्दी में ब्लॉग लिखने का बढ़ा ही आनंद आया, पर आदत नहीं होने से कुछ थक गया हूँ। तो बस आज इतना ही।

Is it BAD or is it GOOD?

First of all, I must apologize for breaking my own resolution of writing the blog every single week. I recommitt myself to do so.

Well, today I got confronted by the day, as I kept hearing the 'bad' news one after the other almost entire day. Or so I thought. Towards the end I realized that the person who was saying these are the 'bad' news, is me. And if I can (or want to) 'see' them as 'good' news and say whatever happened today has been 'good', then I can. In fact while talking to my wife I realized this and then I turned around and starting 'seeing' them as good and they all turned out to be 'good' from another perspective. I also discussed this with my co-worker and we agreed that whatever happens to us, we are the ones who say it is good or bad, so why not say good to every thing whatever happens to us. That way, we keep feeling good and are empowered to work towards the solution, rather than focussing on the situation as the problem.

I also realized that this fact or concept been told to me or I have known for decades and even I myself coached many people about it, but to really implement in my own life, it really takes internalizing it like the incidents of today. So I resolve that whatever happens, I will always believe that it has happened for good. The key is in having the perspective from which it looks good.

जो होता है अच्छे के लिए ही होता है। शक्ति हमारी नजर में है कि हम उसे अच्छा देखें या बुरा। जय हो। । ।

The three laws of perfomance

I have been reading a book called - 'The Three Laws of Performance - Rewriting the future of your organization and your life' by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. It is a phenomenal book, which has put a lasting impression on me. I have been transforming my life and my company Aagami, Inc. using these laws.

Here are the laws in short:
1. How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
2. How a situation occurs arises in language
3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.

For more information please click on to http://www.threelawsofperformance.com/.

I hope it will be as useful and valuable to the reader of this blog as it has been to me.

What can we pass on to the next generation

I am writing this post sitting at San Francisco airport. It is amazing what all we can do these days from all possible places.

Well the dominant thought present to my mind today after certain discussions yesterday and today is what can we really pass on to the next generation. I am totally in synch with Great poet Kabir - who wrote
"पूत कपूत तो क्यों धन संचय, पूत सपूत तो क्यों धन संचय"
(If child is bad why collect wealth, if child is good why collect wealth).
In other words just make your child good and not waste time in collecting wealth. Wealth can be lost and made depending upon whether we have skills (education), Attitude and most importantly values.

Hence I have decided for many years that I will provide good values, all possible education and positive attitudes to my children in inheritance. I will ask them to make their own money and not provide any wealth (money) to my children. I will put all my funds for doing social work in providing the above 3 aspects to as many children as possible in the world.

So that all, folks!!!

Maturity comes from experience and patience

Today I am writing after a gap of 2 weeks. A lot has happened during these 2 weeks and what I have learnt is that I have acquired tremendous maturity in handling all kinds of emotional and stressful situations. I think this maturity has resulted mainly from experiences in life and also with patience, which has been the key learning for me in last couple of years.

Also I have started dealing with happenings of life with equanimity, which comes from the deep internalization of the fact, 'all is normal when life looks like this'. In corollary what ever happens, happens for good. Hence now I deal with the situation in pretty even handed manner and move one.

I Have handled teen ager scenarios, separation from business collaborator, handled co-worker's separation from his girl friend, wife's car accident, her citizenship interview, meeting with different kinds of people for education and in dealing with their mid life crisis, handled friends car breaking, my own car stalling in the middle of very busy road, children's sickness etc. etc. The main thing is that since I handled all of this with maturity and patience I brought in equanimity in all.

Wish every one can learn - What ever happens, happens for good - and quickly.

Double whammy? STILL get up and Go - You have not failed until you can get up one more time than the times you fall

Today I had double or shall I say triple whammy right in the morning; when I saw my children doing poorly in their school academically and then as soon as I reached office I heard the voicemail from a client that we have lost a major business opportunity on which I have been working on for over a year. I was already thinking 'negative' and the loss of business opportunity really sent me to pits.

However I decided to go through it and take the total responsibility of the world, as it occurs to me. My dear wife tried her level best to console me and also the collaborator who is partly responsible for the loss of opportunity also did his best. Certainly their consoling words helped but ultimately what got me back up is that I continued to take actions and kept myself totally busy. In fact I completed many tasks today than most days at work.

So the learning again got reemphasized that in life you are responsible for the world as it occurs to you. Also one has not failed until he can get up just one more time than the number of times he falls.

The great thing is that instead getting in to blame game and making others and the world wrong about what was happening to me, I took charge and took full responsibility. Hence completed a conference call, another conference call, wished coworker Happy Birthday, called up a CEO for new consulting assignment, coordinated for a lady to learn conversational Hindi, went through another conference call on a current consulting assignment, where in almost finalized a visit to India towards end of the month, had one more call with a CSO and Board member of several Pharma and Biotech firms, took stock of Bay area initiatives Aagami has taken, added several companies to that list, confirmed booking summer vacation tickets to India, talked to a current customer, who despite being unhappy about slow progress of his project assured of giving a new project, coordinated his meeting with my friend visiting from India, wrote email for business opportunity fulfilling them with latest collected information and sent several reminder emails to Indian companies for investment opportunities working on. All this besides handling other general emails and phone calls. Wow!!! Now that's called an action packed day.

Lage raho Pappu bhai...........................

my Impossible Promise

Today is the first day of March 2009 of common era and I am here to share and declare my 'Imposiible Promise' thru my Blog with the world. My impossible promise is that by 2030 all children in the world believe that imagination creates limitless possibilities and all dreams can be achieved and realized.

So Imagine, Dream and Realize.

Earlier I was confronted by the choice of the word 'impossible' in the promise, but today after sharing it with my Landmark Education 'Power and Contribution' course group I have truly realized that 'impossible' does mean 'I M Possible'. In fact in my own life I have achieved so many of seemingly impossible dreams in very short time. One example being going around the world, which I had declared around the age of 12-13 to a close friend and made a bet with him. This caused that dream of my going around the world come in to existence in time and space and by the time I was 25 I had already gone around the world at least once and since then have done in many more times, and now it has become so routine that I do not even think about it.

So here by I make the declaration of my promise again "By 2030 all children believe that imagination creates limitless possibilities and all dreams can be achieved and realized." Wow!!! There is a certain power in writing this. I frees one from the concerns and also the enormity of the task.

Again today during our conference call with the group there were many sharings and learnings. What stayed with me till now is that 'In future the competition among groups, nations and/or communities transforms in to Cooperation or more like Coopetition i.e. Coperative competition, which means that they compete not to defeat or eliminate others but to excel themselves or 'to push the envelope to the next level' for creating new records of human achievements.

Also the Militaries and armies of today transform in to natural disaster management forces, instead being the creator of disasters for 'enemies'. Well that would be such a great world to live in to and I am sure very soon, we will find ourselves living in such a world through coopetition.

Jai Ho!!!

Difference between Intellectual understanding and experiencial understanding

Wow!!! This is a record that I am writing a second post in a day. And I chose it this way, because the topic is a bit different and I did not want to mix the two, although they are similar in nature.

Last weekend I have been preparing for my teaching of Jain religious class . Where in I read that 'intellectually we may understand some thing, but to really know what it is, we need to experience it'. That made me think. After a lot of mulling over, I realized the truthness of the statement. I have always been saying that until one becomes father or at least feels like a father, after seeing his child, one does not 'really' know what it is to be a father. Although one may 'intellectually' understand what it may be like being a father.

This is actually true for most things in life. And different cultures, societies and human experience have said the same thing in different ways. Like the saying in English 'Put yourself in that man's shoes and then find out how he feels'. That's why Mahatma Gandhi favorite hymn was 'Vaishnav jan to taine kahiye, je peed parai jaane re' (means A really religious [pious] person is the one who knows the pain of others).

Hence I have resolved that before giving my opinion or judgements on other person's condition or their actions in a certain situation, I really need to know, what they have gone through. And a certain feelings and aspects of life I would never 'really' know; like being a Mother, Woman, Sister, White Man, Black Man, Mongoloid person or so many other identities people carry. Being a secular person, I must respect all those and accept their uniqueness whole heartedly without judging or evaluating.

'I am responsible for my own world'

What is present for me these days is that we create our own world and live in it. And this world is specifically unique to us and is not necessarily shared with others always.

Well simply it can be explained by saying that what I like, other may hate it. So that thing will be dear to me and if I get it I will be happy. But if the other who dislikes it, gets it, he or she will feel sad or angry. So that thing is 'good' for me but 'bad' for the other. So what is it really. Well as the old Indian saying goes "Sansar Maya hai" the world is but an illusion.

So I have really learnt that in reality the world as it occurs to me is pretty unique to me and its creator is I and only I and no one else. Similarly it is true for each and every individual. Every single person's world is as it occurs to them and it happens based on their thinking to what ever is happening around them, they give it either a 'good' or a 'bad' or a 'neutral' meaning and then the 'world' seems to them like that meaning. Hence they are creator of their 'own world'.

So I have decided that with this learning, I will always endeavor to be HAPPY, always give every thing a 'good' meaning. Completely believe that 'All is well' and 'whatever happens, happens for good'.

With LOVE you can WIN one and all

Today the concept in the TITLE has been reinforced in me by my dear wife. Today Feb 14th is the day of LOVE as is practiced in modern times. During breakfast we were just glancing at the TV in which one commercial about little kid's love to her father made me comment that "Little kids are so nice, if you just love them they will do any thing for you", to which my wife commented "Isn't that true for everyone?".

I immediately realized that it is. We have forgotten to LOVE people because of our own complexes and insecurities; as we feel that if we love others i.e. show our affection or love to them like what we do with children, they will make it mean this and that, it will look strange or bad or good or so and so. Because of all this we all hold back our love to others.

I kept thinking about this incident during the day, it reminded me of another saying of a friend of mine, "I buy people cheap; I just be NICE to them and they generally they do any thing for me." Although the comment sounded a bit funny in the beginning, but has truth in it. If we are nice to people (just love them), they will do any thing for us. I have totally experienced this in life. How TRUE and so simple, but human beings are such complicated beings, that we forget simplests truths of life so easily.

Later when we were having our 'Valentine Lunch', that is I and my wife, the two some, as kids had other plans, I saw a 2 or 3 year old girl having lunch with her family. She was all dressed in Indian clothes with typical Indian make up (bindi etc.) [although Mom was wearing western clothes] and enjoying her lunch with innocent questions about restaurant food to her parents. Seeing her I realized that why it is so easy to love little children and not teens and adults is because of their innocence and purity. We all know that whatever they are saying and doing is what they are thinking and they do not have any complexes or grudges against us. This thought in our mind makes us love them fully without expecting any thing in return. This makes our love to them also pure and genuine.

It would be so wonderful, if we remove our judgements, opinions and ideas about others and just love them for who they are. Well that's where my relationship mantra of FORGIVENESS, TRUST, LOVE & PATIENCE comes in to play.

LOVE to all.

Patience requires TRUST, as Love requires FORGIVENESS

Well, yesterday and today I truly felt that in the 4 words Mantra on Relationship, there are relationships in two pair of them.

I have realized that Patience can not exist until you TRUST that all is well and 'Whatever happens, Happens for the Best'. If there is any deficit at TRUST front then patience will wear thin.

A similar sort of relationship exist between Love and FORGIVENESS, meaning if forgiveness is less than 100% then Love will not be total. And then relationship will not work.

Hence again I would like to reiterate that 4 words mantra of great relationship:

Foregiveness, Trust, Love and Patience will make every relationship perfect.

Also it need to practiced, realized and internalized; not just know and understand intellectually. Intellectual knowledge and understanding does not provide much to human beings, as I could know and understand what it may be like being a mother, but I would never feel or realize it, as I am a man and can never have a baby come out of my own body.

Patience, an essential virtue in life

"Patience is an essential virtue"
I have known this for several decades, yet I find it so hard to practice.

Also this is a fundamental of any great relationship; the fundamentals, which I have learnt myself.

Forgiveness, Trust, Love and Patience.

Earlier I had understood that these four were in that order of preference, but over the week end I have learnt that Patience is as important as Love.

I think, I need to apply these to self too i.e. I need to be patient with myself to practice it.

Hectic 2 weeks and some learnings

Well I have had real hectic 2 weeks since I last wrote my blog. Have come back from San Francisco, but had 4 hectic days non stop and then left for New York for 4 days and then went from there to San Francisco again for 4 more days. Have come back and got immersed in to work.

The great thing is that I am still doing plenty of exercises including Pranayam and walking, despite of all these travel.

Major learning is that FUN, PLAY and EASE has ignited the interest in my HINDI classes at Jain Temple in Chicago. This last time, that is on January 18th class not only small kids came in, but were actually looking forward to the class. Also when class was about to end and parents wanted to go, it was the children who were saying that they wanted to stay, in fact one girl forced her parents to stay longer, so that she could play games.

I MUST bring this Fun, Play and Ease in every walk of life to become the Remarkable person to the world for which I am undergoing an expensive course with Landmark Education http://www.landmakeducation.com/.

I have also realized that unless I say I am tired, I am rarely tired despite of any amount of physical activity. But if I say or think I am tired without any rhyme of reason I would feel tired.

Lastly I have dedcided now to publish my father's life store, a short biography by commissioning a writer to do so. Since his life was such an exemplary one, every one needs to learn from it. Earlier I thought I could do it, but my dear wife brought the fact to the fore that it is a quite time consuming task and I do not have that much at this juncture in life. I also realized that if I want the book to be fairly unbiased, it should be written by a person who is not related and also who does an extensive research.

For this I have already sounded out many people for a suitable writer and prepared a short note on how and what to do for research work. I need to commission the writer by my July trip in India.

Sayings of my father - Babuji ki suktiyan

Well as a tribute to my father, I have decided to publish a small compilation of his sayings, words and proverbs he used to say often; here is a small list of the same.

1. सबलन को नहीं दोष गुसाईं Sabalan ko nahin dosh gusain - God, looks like the powerful are not held for their mistakes.
2. प्रभु जाको पीड़ा देहीं ताकी बुद्धि पहले हर लेहीं Prabhu jako pida dehin, taki buddhi pahle her lehin - Who ever God wants to inflict pain on, He takes away the person's wisdom (judgment making ability).
3. जीवन में ऊपर चढ़ना सरल है किन्तु नीचे उतरना कठिन. Jeevan me upar chadhna saral hai, kintu neeche utarna kathin - In life it is easier to climb up, but difficult to go down.
4. If you have made real difference in few people's lives, that is more important than doing big social work which is uninspirational.
5. You can only lead people by example (doing) and no so much by words (saying) alone.
6. One could only show others paths to follow, they always find their own way.
7. हर व्यक्ति को अपना जीवन का उद्देश्य स्वयं बनाने का और उसे पूरा करने का अधिकार है. Every one has a right to make their own goals in life and pursue them.
8.

Six points to note on Jainism

This last Sunday I attended a prayer meeting in Jain temple in memory of a person's mother. There they recited a prayer written by Shrimad Rajchandra (Guru of Mahatma Gandhi), a Jain person, who lived like a monk and have written many scriptures in modern Gujrati. This prayer was to teach 6 basic understanding in a Guru-Shishya (Teacher-Disciple) Q&A style. Here are the highlights as I understood it.

There are 6 basic points to understand in life:
1. Atma hai (Soul exists)
2. Atma anitya hai (Soul is eternal)
3. Nijkarm ka karta hai (Causes its own deeds[actions])
4. Bhokta hai (Bears the fruits of its deeds[karmas])
5. Moksha hai (Moksha exists - a state of eternal bliss with freedom from life-death cycle)
6. Sadharm hi sadhan hai (Righteous ways are the ways to achieve Moksha - as propounded in Jain scriptures).

These fundamental thoughts on Jainism were quite revealing to me, as before then I never read about them or contemplated on. Although it was known in various ways, but presentation in this way is quite unique and makes the understanding quite clearer and simpler.

First of the year 2009

This is my first post of this new year 2009 of Common Era. I really wanted to write on first hours of the year itself, but did not. Later it was just laziness or procrastination.

All 4 days have been quite hectic. On the new year day I woke up with cold sweat and giddiness, which was a bot scary as I thought I was having some sort of an Heart Attack or some thing. But having clarified with Aman worked.
Went to Jain temple with family that day and then visited a friend's place where an old social group met to say good byes to people shifting to Canada.

On second spent with morning calling India and with kids as Shubhra had gone to work, Later a friend invited me over for lunch, so spent time discussing inspirational thoughts at his home. Subsequently helped Aayami with her college applications and in the evening hosted Andurkar family.

On Saturday we all first went to Celebratory lunch at Mongolian Barbecue in downtown Naperville followed by a visit to Lemont Hindu temple to see Mrs. Talluri's decoration with Shubhra. In the evening hosted Pepping family and in the night completed Aayami's application to Purdue University.

Today on 4th Jan after Pranayam, talk with Aagam, breakfast of Pani-Puri, we all went to Jain Mandir. There I was taking Pathshala for young adults, but some area school students came for knowing Jainism for their school project and hence spent time with them. This I followed with Hindi class and then attended the prayer meeting for Anil Mehta's mother's passing away.

Now while helping Aayami write her essay for IIT, Chicago, I am writing this first post of the year.

Here are the resolutions for the new year:
1. Instilling Babuji's ideals in my life; be the living example of his principle as my tribute to him.
2. Exercise at least 4 times a week, morning Pranayam and evening 1 mile walk on the treadmill or in the fresh air.
3. No yelling and shouting at home or any where; convey my feelings calmly and firmly, without getting angry.
4. Write my blog at least once a week.
5. Be the powerful transceiver of positivity, health, wealth and peace.