Why M.S.Subbulakshmi was the most Iconic Carnatic Singer ever?

Year 2016, will be the centenary year of this Music Legend, a time to look back and see what made M.S, the Iconic Legend that she is.

Nehru on M.S Subbulakshmi
Nehru on M.S Subbulakshmi

In South, it is very uncommon to have any pictures in the wall, even of the families themselves. No wedding pics, no pictures of children. The only pictures that ever adorned the walls were that of Gods, Dead Great Grandparents and that of M.S.Subbulakshmi fondly called as M.S. I remember going to a friend’s place where every wall had a picture of M.S, every album ever released of M.S.Subulakshmi was in their music collection in every conceivable form of audio recording that had existed till then from Gramaphone records, audio Cassettes, Compact Discs and Mp3.

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Poke’moan’ GOOO [Short Story]

I am meeting Rahini today after nearly a decade. We were best buddies in college, almost inseparable. But life got in the way and some how we had lost in touch. Thanks to Facebook, she somehow found me and messaged and now we are going to meet in a Cafe’ Coffee day by Besant Nagar Beach.

Coffee

I’m pretty excited, I’m sure she would be too. I can’t believe that we were in the same city all the while and we never met. But thanks to Facebook 🙂 I love you FB.

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Traveller and Solo Back Packer – Anee Verma

Anee is  a dear friend from my mountaineering days. I remember seeing her sit up all night due to the altitude related insomnia, but never once missed a single day of training. She was an incredible leader for her team (Rope) and a great support to all of us. She went on to do more wonderful stuff in life, that continues to inspire me and hope it is to you too. Continue reading Traveller and Solo Back Packer – Anee Verma

The Four Phases of Successful Habit Building !!

You probably already know that building good habits is the shortcut to building success. Determination and Willpower are good traits. But they are fleeting and limited and to count on them for building a habit is like having Hope as a strategy.

setyourselfupforsuccess_grande

Most people rely on their will power to stick to a new habit. No wonder new year resolutions don’t even last a few weeks. We have all set resolutions to get fit, study harder, spend more time with family, travel more, start a business and we clock another year without doing any of it.

How can we create and sustain change? How do we set our self up to succeed ? If will power does  not work, then what works ?

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Would you invest in ‘Me, Inc.’?

Do you know of a company that…

  • Has no mission and hence no articulated mission statement?
  • Has no vision of where the company wants to be in 20 years?
  • Has no values as guidelines to help in decision making?
  • Has no council of advisors or board of directors?
  • Occasionally sets annual goals but does not review or track them, and soon forgets about them?
  • Has no financial plan whatsoever? Does not know its cash flow? Does not have a profit and loss statement or a balance sheet?
  • Does not feel accountable to its stakeholders to keep them abreast of significant changes or consult when appropriate?
  • Does not have an incentivisation system that promotes the right behaviour?

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Where is my money, honey ?

Money Thoughts:

Have you wondered “I’ve been working for nearly a decade or more now. How is it that my Zero Balance Salary account is stuck forever at that ‘Zero Balance'”

“I started my career with a salary close to what my dad retired with, and in spite of all the generous increments and all these years of hard work I’ll probably own nothing more than what he did when he retired and to top it all I don’t even have a pension”

I dont know
“It’s only 5th, how come it’s showing zero balance again”

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Why does the standard gauge in US have a distance of 143.5 cm or 4 ft 8 1/2 inches ?

It is not a whole number in either meters or feet…how did the engineers come up with this number.. what made this the standard in this standard gauge.

Let’s examine the reasons:

– Because that’s what it is in UK, who were the original Pioneer of the railways.  Ok. But why?
– Because that was the distance of the tram in Pre- rail road era. Ok. But why?

Apparently this is the average distance between the two wheels of a horse pulled carriage of the yester years. The engineers who were developing the rail system, for lack of any reference points took this to be the standard.

And do you know why a two wheel horse pulled carriage had this really odd wheel distance?

horsedrawn-carriage
horse drawn-carriage

Continue reading Why does the standard gauge in US have a distance of 143.5 cm or 4 ft 8 1/2 inches ?

iSpeak: From a nervous kid to a competent communicator

The first time I gave a speech to an audience was when I was in school. It was an English eloquence competition. Although I had written good essays for a long time, I had never participated in a speech competition. My motivation to enroll was that there were only 4 participants including me. So statistically I had a 75% chance of getting a prize for just showing up.

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The 15,500 ft view of life

The D-Day: Preparation and Training

It was the most important day for the batch 292 Basic.

It was the day for which we had all been rigorously training for the last 21 days, waking up at 4 AM to run uphill in the mall road of Darjeeling oblivious to the beauty of Kanchenjunga around , climbing and rappelling rocks, rigorous ice craft training, trekking up the hills of Sikkim with backpack weighing over 25 Kgs and camping at temperature sub zeroes.

Renok Peak Summit
At the Renok Peak Summit

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Goal Setting – Process Vs Outcome

My Goals – Hits and Misses:

I love to set goals. I totally believe in the process of goal setting, although I don’t always achieve them. I looked back and saw a pattern on things I get done and things I don’t. The kind of Goals I set seemed to make a lot of difference in the ultimate outcome. My most important learning was about the process vs outcome.

Edwards Deming
Edwards Deming – Pioneer of Total Quality Management

American Vs. Japanese Goal Setting:

This can otherwise also be considered as the American Vs Japanese approach to goal setting. Americans have a very goal oriented approach and are focused on achieving the targets. The outcomes are binary, you either Win or Lose.

However, Japanese are a process oriented culture where they are keen on continuous improvement or Kaizen, the improvements are marginal and always have a scope for improvement.

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