New IPod Nano

Apple has done it again. They have unveiled
Ø the new models, with “shake control technology”
Ø new media player for PC, iTunes8
Ø Nano has Apple’s genius technology which automatically creates play lists from songs in the music library
Ø I Phone feature, ‘accelerometer’ technology extended to Nano. (Adjusts screens to how the devises are held and lets people shuffle music with ‘a shake’!)

Upgraded, slimmer Touch, with built in speaker (Now I am going to regret this. I now own an outdated Touch, though acquired not very long back L. I always it could have been lighter and should have provided a built in speaker, for that size! )

True to the reputation of Apple to keep continuously improving on their IPod. Apart from the new features, the new Nano is made with toxin-free components and is made of recyclable aluminium and glass. Great !

Happy Onam

Onam greetings to all...
Onam, though a Hindu festival, is a festival for all and celebrated by all in Kerala and beyond( true to the spirit of hinduism, Sanathana Dharma)
This is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, who visits Kerala, his erstwhile Kingdom, thanks to a boon bestowed by Lord Vishnu in His Vamana-avthaar. When King Mahabali ruled there was equality, purity and happiness. Something, we terribly miss today.
To bring back the true spirit of Onam is the need of the hour, and our individual responsibility. Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavanthu...

5 Oct 08

Took off on time, thanks to almost an empty airport, being off season.
Sudha Murthy's book, Gently Falls The Bakula , kept me glued to the same and did not realize as time 'fly by' too. Occassionally, I looked outside. As we took off, it was desert, with different patches of landscape. Lateron, it was just sand all over ! After sometime, it was the grandeur of the sea ! ( The grandeur of desert landscape, sea... is almost Divine !)
As we came closer to India, it was raining outside. Thankfully, it was just overcast when we hit Mumbai... !
Mumbai's slums always made me feel sad. But this time, the city, esp areas which have slums had a blue-tint. Lot of these dwellings have blue plastic sheet on the roof, to protect from rains. That is spirit of Mumbai, they handle the problem in hand and just MOVE ON !
The airport has got more than a facelift. But, the quality of service, lot of scope to improve. As we drove into the city, taxi guy warned me of some traffic jams. I realized, I would hit the highway just in time to catch the office-crowd, returning home after a tough day. To add to it, it was first ( 1.5 day) Ganesh Visarjan. Not much traffic though, but got few glimpses of Ganesha procession, with its music and dance. Indeed, it is auspicious to be around when Mumbai celebrates its favourite festival...

It is great to be back HOME ! :)

Dhoni for test captaincy

Going by the press reports, a case is slowly getting built up for MSD as test captain. Gary Kirsten's interview to NDtv is the latest, though he confirms Anil Kumble is doing 'a great job'.

MSD is a good cricketer and a good leader. But, test captaincy is a much bigger challenge. MSD needs to pick up the nuances of test-captaincy from the seniors in the team, full of ex-test-captains !!! MSD has exhibited this learning aptitute and also the humility, apart from the skills. We will be unfair to MSD by putting on him the responsibility of same, immediately. Couple of years later, as and when Anil retires, would be the right time.

PS. The final ODI loss to Sri Lanka was almost as humiliating as the test series. What we want is the consistency of Australians, not even of Kirsten's home team (after their white-wash by British team)

We too need A CHANGE

Just look around :

• Floods in Bihar – a natural calamity or a man-made catastrophe for being irresponsible to our environment ?
• Jammu and Kashmir – the state hit a new low
• Communal violence in Orissa
• Tata Nano project is a project of international relevance. It may our own ‘Ford T model’. But politicians will not allow the project to go beyond personal egos and look at common good.
• There are other pockets of problems, such as the sign-board issue raised in Mumbai, etc. !!
  
  What is the root cause ? I think it is failure of our Political Leadership.
  Whose fault ? Our fault. We were irresponsible ; else incompetent politicians would not have been our leaders.
  Solution ? this is not easy. We need to be responsible. Need to feel empowered. Need to wholeheartedly accept Gandhian values such as non-violence, Satyagraha.. BE proactive.
  We can not wait for next election ( panchayat/municipal/state/national) to punish one set of politicians to be replaced with another set in their musical chairs.

Camel Race in Jordan

Camel in Middle East is more than a mere animal.

This animal is so much an integral part of desert life.

Among other things, camel used to the main source of transportation, till cars entered the scene.Check out the link for info on Camel race in Jordan, ME

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index2.php?option=com_gallery&id=528709&img=0&mment=p

Let us live frugally

The author has defined frugality as
•Acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner.
•Resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to achieve a longer term goal.

We can still live well, but yet be frugal

Master calls it CEILING ON DESIRES... we owe it to this world, to our future generations and to ourselves

For the full article: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080821/OPINION/619066641/1080

Olympics trivia

McDonalds in China
Ø Has focused on the traditional menu
Ø Offer Corn Cup with Happy Meals
Ø Condiments, different, reflecting local spices
Ø Focussed on traditional menu, emphasizing on beef, as beef is a luxury to many in china, and suggest success and virility !!!

A city in USA is planning to ban setting up new fast food joint.
World has tried to reduce the number of smokers through persuasion, but failed miserably.

Mac went ahead with aggressive promos, trying to get more customers and increasing consumption from existing customers :)

It is our choice - to eat or not to eat, junk food !

London 'School of Life'

The Maser says EDUCATION IS FOR LIFE... ( not for living)
We study...end up working and making a life.. but, we forget 'life' or 'art of living'.

Now a group of artists, writers and intellectuals has launched a new "university" in London, to help those too tied up with work to appreciate the finer things in life, like art, books and travel.

• 'a chemistfor the mind' to dispense 'cultural solutions to everyday ailments'
• operates out of a small shop in Bloomsbury, an arty district in central London
• has a large free lance faculty
• will cover subjects such as Life, work, family and politics
• faculty will draw ideas from philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature and art. will try to discover what Plato, Shakesphere, Tolstoy and Freud had to say on compassion, empathy and self life
• also on topics such as importance of punctuality, what books to read, etc.

How beautiful ! God bless them

Relationships

India lost the cricket match. No action at Beijing... Oprah show continue to be relevant.

• Guest spoke about the integrity of her partner, over and above honesty...'her partner oozes integrity', she says !
• She also took the discussion to capture the essence of a relationship: rise to a SPIRITUAL level

A Value System that cuts across all cultures and all relationships...

My Raksha Bandhan message

Repeat : Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland, a 36-year-old mother of two, won the women's Trap gold medal in her maiden Olympic appearance.

A new online survey by Bayt and YouGovSiraj
- collected information from more than 2,600 women across MENA
- 41 percent of working women in the MENA region feel they have a lower chance of being promoted than their male colleagues
- nearly 50 per cent feel that they receive less pay than their male counterparts.
- nearly 30 per cent said that they were dissatisfied with their jobs

A feature in NDTV showed how some working women have opted out of their jobs and chose to be a Home-maker. They feel it was their choice. They were happy about it
(In fact, this is a new segment being tapped by the malls!)

Ultimately it is the question of proper evaluation of options, clarity on priorities and then, making a choice.

Oprah show carried an interview with Shriver. An important message was women should take out time for themselves. ( I would add, also MEDITATE)

"Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe" Oprah Winfrey

Mother of two also wins a gold

Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland, a 36-year-old mother of two, won the women's Trap gold medal in her maiden Olympic appearance.

• "It is amazing," said Makela-Nummela. "I did not believe I would win today.
• "I could not concentrate in the final because I was thinking of home. But it's good I did not think of the results or who was breathing down my neck.
• "That made sure I was not under any pressure."

She is having best of both worlds !

Abhinav Bindra

India wins first ever solo Olympic gold, says a report in this part of the world. Some other points were inspiring ...:

• "It's the best feeling of my life," said an elated Bindra, a winner of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (sports jewel), in 2001.
• "I was just trying to concentrate on shooting, I was not thinking about making history.
• "For me life will go on. All my life I have just been punching holes in a blank piece of paper target". I think that is the secret behind his success... Focus and Descipline
• "But I sincerely hope this win will change the face of Olympic sport in India. In our country, Olympic sports are not really a priority, I hope now they will get more attention." Indeed, we need to go beyond Cricket. Jeev Milkha Singh, Vishy Anand, etc deserves more from us, the sports-crazy nation !

You can check out his blog from my list of blogs ...(http://abhinavbindra.blogspot.com/)

Happiness

HAPPINESS !!! We all want to be happy. But how many of us are truly happy…? One of my senior colleagues would say, ‘happiness is a state of mind’. Indeed, but how many of us are aware of it ? How many of us are able to reach that level too… ?

Happiness is key to longer life, says a report. How many of us want long life ? What we want is ‘happy life’ – long or short ! Some excerpts from the report:

- Happiness does not heal, buyt protects against falling ill. ( Acc to Ruut Veenhoven of Rotterdam’s Eramus Univ)
o I always believed in this. I feel, if we are mentally low, higher are the chances of falling ill. Perhaps our immune system is linked to ‘the state of mind’. I have personally experienced this more than once.
o At the same time, once ill, then I go thru some kind of internal cleansing. This is because I end up reading spiritual books and listening to devotional music.
- Growth in material wealth loses its charm and does not add to happiness once the threshold level of $ 10,000 a year per head, is reached.
- Happiness can be bolstered by friendship & human community. Also, freedom, democracy, rule of law etc.

So, BE HAPPY !!

If you want to transform the world, to promote all-round prosperity in the country, pray that "All people should be happy." – Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Leaders in India Business Forum 2008

If leadership is your area of interest too... check out this




http://www.leaders-india.com/?gclid=CIjp2MGFk5UCFRLRugodd3lDgw

Happy Independence Day

Greetings to all Indians, in India, outside India, and all people world-wide who understand INDIA

Dr Singh next PM?

Sonia Gandhi would have surprised many a politician by clearly indicating Dr Singh would be Congress' prime ministerial candidate. It is an unusual announcement, for Congress especially, even before the elections ! Mrs Gandhi has always surprised by her smart moves.

Dr Singh has the image of a 'Mr Clean'. India, known for its brain-power, truly deserves an educated person to be its PM. But, though Dr Singh can not be expected to become a 'politician', we expect him to be an aggressive Leader. For this he need not be a 'politician'. He exhibited some streaks of that right aggression in taking a stand in the nuclear issue, indicating he was willing to risk the survival of his government. He can count on the experienced people and more importantly the young brige, including Rahul Gandhi, Pilot, Scindia, etc.

He needs to be a strong Leader

Life at K

11 Aug 08 :

All TV channels went overboard to talk about the fantastic success of Abhinav Bindra ( I am proud of his achievement, as per my earlier posting). After dinner, good old maggi noodles, I kept surfing the channels.

The movie on Star Gold was one of those movies I wanted to see, but had not been able to... The Morning Raga. The story was fantastic. Shabana and all other senior actors did a great job. But the lead pair were not as good. The photography and the choice of location, awesome ! Music was good too. Well narrated...

The main strength of the movie was its story-line. Story of the lady who had to endure the loss of her son and her good friend. Also, the guilt of the 'responsibility' for her friend's death. It was also the story of another ABHI, the lead actor !

We all get stuck with past and find it impossible to overcome it and go forward. Indeed, Master rightly says, FORGET THE PAST, LIVE IN THE PRESENT

Abhinav Bindra

The hero is back home....
News channels have been chasing AB ( 'AB' has a magic !) right from airport to Rashtrapathi Bhavan and thereafter...
AB has earned a new nickname, 'MONK' ! I continue to be impressed by his composure. A true winner !

11 Aug 08

We won all earlier golds in team event, hockey. Yes, a team sport… Great!
To achieve as a team is indeed more important than to win as an individual, a la Japanese Management funda...

While the hockey team failed to qualify and as the cricketers went down to Sri Lanka or Ajantha Mendis, someone else did India proud.

Abhinav Bindra has won India’s maiden gold in an Olympic individual event. While the world around him went crazy, he remained cool as a cucumber. That was just cool!

The best wishes of a billion people are with Abhinav for his future success.. . .

With a little help from my friends on NDTV

I had observed the rushes of the program earlier and wanted to see it. Why ?

Aamir is an active blogger !
Amir is a good actor. He is a great artist…
He takes a stand as a responsible citizen
His ensures even his ads clearly has his unique stamp of identity – whether coke and titan earlier.. or titan and Samsung now..
He has the guts to make a film such as Taare Zameer Par

I do not experiment with films, esp in theatres. At home, you can just walk away/switch off if bored. When I checked on T-Z-P among my friends, everyone gave ‘five stars’.
As I sat through the movie, there were so many occasions I struggled to keep my emotions under control. Very few movies have ever made such an impact on me. Hats off to Amir!

The movie captured the struggle of a dyslexic child. Also, that of his family… Just sit back and reflect on our childhood. Every one of us suffers from some form of dyslexia… Only the degree varies. We push our child to be the No.1, a Sachin ( in cricket) or a Hrithik, as Amir rightly said. But, then every child is unique. Every child is actually God’s gift…( till he grows up :))

As one of the panelists said, WE SHOUD DISCOVER OUR CHILD

Interestingly, 15 % of world population suffers from (not disability), but gift of Dyslexia.
Few names of dyslexic people who were lucky to blossom into higher levels of greatness:
Ø Picasso, Beethoven, Da Vinci,
Ø Carl Lewis, Richard Branson, Agatha Christie
Ø Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise.

Indeed, the challenge is to accept, through love/understanding help the child to achieve self confidence… then achievement is automatic.