..with gratitude…learn how to dance in the rain?

The following story came to me from a keen learner, Rashmi….. talking about ‘Attitude for gratitude’. I have my own experience to share about my inspirations in life… go through this story before I narrate my experience…
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The date was July 16, 2008. It was late in the afternoon and I was sitting in my hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky. I was scheduled to speak that evening for the Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA).

I was a little “down in the dumps.” I hadn’t gotten to exercise lately because of my traveling schedule and recently I’d experienced some mild bouts of vertigo (that inner ear condition that can cause the room to start spinning.) You got it…speaking and “spinning” are not good partners!

My keynote presentation was scheduled for 7:00 PM, but I had been invited to show up at 6:00 to see a performance they said I’d enjoy. Little did I know that I was about to see something I would never forget.

They introduced the young musician. Welcome…Mr. Patrick Henry Hughes. He was rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair, and began to play the piano. His fingers danced across the keys as he made beautiful music.

He then began to sing as he played, and it was even more beautiful. For some reason, however, I knew that I was seeing something special. There was this aura about him that I really can’t explain and the smile…his smile was magic!

About ten minutes into Patrick’s performance, someone came on the stage and said…”I’d like to share a 7-minute video titled, The Patrick Henry Hughes story.” And the lights went dim.

Patrick Henry Hughes was born with no eyes, and a tightening of the joints which left him crippled for life. However, as a child, he was fitted with artificial eyes and placed in a wheelchair. Before his first birthday, he discovered the piano. His mom said, “I could hit any note on the piano, and within one or two tries, he’d get it.” By his second birthday, he was playing requests (You Are My Sunshine, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). His father was ecstatic. “We might not play baseball, but we can play music together.”

Today, Patrick is a junior at the University of Louisville. His father attends classes with him and he’s made nearly all A’s, with the exception of 3 B’s He’s also a part of the 214 member marching band. You read it right…the marching band! He’s a blind, wheelchair-bound trumpet player; and he and his father do it together. They attend all the band practices and the half-time performance in front of thousands. His father rolls and rotates his son around the field to the cheers of Patrick’s fans. In order to attend Patrick’s classes and every band practice, his father works the graveyard shift at UPS. Patrick said…”My dad’s my hero.”

But even more than his unbelievable musical talent, it was Patrick’s “attitude of gratitude” that touched my soul. On stage, between songs, he would talk to the audience about his life and about how blessed he was. He said, “God made me blind and unable to walk. BIG DEAL! He gave me the ability…the musical gifts I have…the great opportunity to meet new people.”

When his performance was over, Patrick and his father were on the stage together. The crowd rose to their feet and cheered for over five minutes. It gave me giant goose bumps!

My life was ready to meet Patrick Henry Hughes. I needed a hero, and I found one for the ages. If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never forget that night, that smile, that music, but most importantly, that wonderful “attitude of gratitude.”

I returned to Chicago and shared Patrick’s story with my wife, my friends. About two weeks later, I received a letter from a friend. He said, “Mac, I don’t know who said it, but I think you’ll love this quote.”

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain!”

I thought…that’s it! We all face adversity in our life. However, it’s not the adversity, but how we react to it that will determine the joy and happiness in our life. During tough times, do we spend too much time feeling sorry for ourselves, or, can we, with gratitude…learn how to dance in the rain?

It almost sounds too simple to feel important, but one word…gratitude, can change your attitude, thus, your life, forever. Sarah Breathnack said it best…

“When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present….we experience heaven on earth.”

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I have been enjoying creating interesting learning environments and facilitating learning for over a decade now. There have been many outstanding learners in my classrooms, but One person who stands out is Pranav Lal. Every mentor in the classroom would have heard his familiar words, “Can you repeat it”, “Explain me a little slowly”, “Can you give some time to discuss”… Pranav used to sit in the first row of the class with a dictaphone in hand, recording every utterances and discussions. He would not let the class progress until the concept is clear to him. He is an extraordinary human being… visually challenged and also physically with one hand.

Pranav was then preparing for CAT, the Indian management school entrance examination. The effort that he put was beyond imagination. One of my colleagues and another inspiration, Shivku, who is a passionate and compassionate human being, and a great teacher, used to spend extraordinary number of hours every day late into the nights to help Pranav catch up with the competition. The interactions and lessons new know boundaries in those six months of preparation.

Shivku and Pranav, applied to the CAT organizers, requesting them to give additional time to Pranav, because of the unusual situation the aspirant is in. The CAT organizers in that year gave a word that they would give Pranav an hour more for his extraordinary situation. Unfortunately on the D-day when the CAT happened, the examination centre officials denied any knowledge of the promise of giving extra time to Pranav. Like all other aspirants, Pranav was asked to surrender his answer sheets at the end of the two hours. It came as a shock to all. But Pranav, proved that he is a great character, inspite of all the travails, he ended up getting an admission in one of the top 10 B-schools of the country, though could not get into an IIM.

Pranav, became a colleague of ours for a couple of years after finishing his B-School, when he joined Career Launcher and took care of MIS and decision support systems. As he was interested in consulting, he moved to Mahindra Group. Today he is one of the very few consultants internationally in demand in the area of internet security for corporates, working with the Special Services Group in Mahindra, where he is an Associate Consultant now with a focus on internet securities. Apart from his regular office, Pranav Lal is an executive member of the National Association for the Blind, Delhi, and a member of the Managing Committee of the Volunteers for the Blind. Over the years he has represented India in the Abilympics many a times. Even in those days of preparing, he used to be so proficient with computing and internet technologies that he used to read very proficiently using speech recognition and synthesis tools. His contribution to the world of visually impaired in our country has been enormous even though he is still in his early 30s.

He has always been very independent ever since I have known him. His parents shared that he has been so since his childhood. His dedication towards whatever he does has been a great source of inspiration, since he goes all the way and make things happen. ……

This journey of Pranav’s I have been part of since a decade ago in 1999…Recently, I got to know about another visually challenged girl from one of our classrooms, who made it to one of the IIMs…

I am sure there are many such characters like Pranav out there… who enjoy dancing in the rain, even though the almighty has not been kind. They make their world a place to revel in… I salute each one…

sreeni@iwsb.in

“Magic Mirror” and “Tikki Tikki Tambi” – Stories by Mallika

I always enjoyed being with children, observing and learning from them. They keep me wondering all the time. Their ability to create, innovate, think laterally amazes me.

I have always wanted to create a website with all the works of our daughter Mallika, as she is always in the mode of creating something new… she is restless to see her next creation. She has been voracious reader/listener. Indira, my better half, has been reading at least half a dozen books to her every day for the last six years. Mallika will insist. Incentive to Mallika for anything she does, has to be reading a book!! For the last fortnight we have been observing that Mallika’s interest has moved into creating her own stories and also giving shape to them as a theatre performance (looks like this has also been shaped by our weekly visits to theatre / music / dance performances)

The photos of the earliest readings with Mallika

Here are a couple of stores that she insisted that Indira write the moment she rushed from school last evening. Indira actually wrote two stories narrated. The moment I reached home, Mallika brings the notebook with these stories and insisted on my reading. These stories seem to have been influenced by discussions in her school. Yet, I was taken in and I thought I will blog it. So here it goes.

The language typed in here is as is… ENJOY

Story 1 : Magic Mirror

Once there was a hunter, who lived in Africa. Once the hunter found a snake trying to eat an Antelope. The antelope said, ‘please save me,’ I will be of help to you. The snake said, ‘no no, do not listen to him. I can give you gold or precious treasures or exquisite jewels with stones that are rare.’ The hunter started thinking. He decided to help the snake. He took out the knife and cut off the Antelope’s head. Before dying the Antelope cursed the hunter – “Whatever you get will destroy you and your country!!”

“Give me my reward,” said the hunter to the snake. “Let me digest my food. After one week and take your reward” said the snake.

After one week, the hunter came and found the snake. “Give me my reward,” asked hunter. “Come and hold my tail and come to take your reward,” said the snake. The hunter held the snake’s tail and started following him. The snake led him to a small staircase. They started walking down the dark narrow path. Suddenly some light started emerging from the snake. He turned into a man. He told – “I am the snake king. I live like a human in my land and a snake on your land. I give you one day for thinking what you want.” The man went to his room and saw a nutcracker was cutting wood to make beautiful stones. The man asked – “How can you make wood into beautiful marbles and stones?” The nutcracker asked why he was there. The man told the nutcracker of what the snake king had said. The nutcracker replied, “Ask for Sipao, the magic mirror. He can grant you anything you wish for.”

The man asked for Sipao, then next day. The king gave Sipao to the man. “Sipao, Sipao take me to Africa.” The man became the king of Africa.

The English people wanted to wage a war on Africa because they had golden huts and the straw was as red as ruby. When they waged a war, they were surprised to see African strength. They sent a spy to see what is the small secret.

The hunter kept the magical mirror with his daughter, Jinglao. His daughter was a great friend of the spy. The spy asked her how the gold came to Africa. She told everything to the spy and even showed him the mirror and told him how to use it. He wanted to fool the girl. He told her that he wanted to drink some coconut water. The girl agreed. “Give me Sipao, I can make the coconut sweeter that way.” The girl agreed and gave Sipao to the man. The man climbed up and whispered to Sipao, “Sipao Sipao take me to my land.” Sipao went as he was bid.

The English and Africans waged a war on each other. “Please Please Jinglao, give me my mirror,” said the hunter. “I don’t have it,” told her daughter. The man was upset. That way the Africans lost and became a poor country.
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Mallika at Crafts Mela, Suraj Kund

Story 2. Tikki Tikki Tambo

There was a man and a woman who had two sons. The elder one was Sam, the younger one was “Tikki Tikki Tambo No Sarimbo Hurry Kurri Bushy Perry Pem Do Hurri Kari Pom Pom Nikino Mino Dom Barrako”

One day sam fell in the well. The other boy went home and told his mother – “sam has fallen in the well.” Mother went to father – “your son has fallen in the well.” The man took it seriously. He got a ladder and sam came out.

They started playing again. This time, Tikki Tikki Tambo No Sarimbo Hurry Kurri Bushy Perry Pem Do Hurri Kari Pom Pom Nikino Mino Dom Barrako, fell in the well. So Sam went to his mother and said – “Tikki Tikki Tambo No Sarimbo Hurry Kurri Bushy Perry Pem Do Hurri Kari Pom Pom Nikino Mino Dom Barrako has fallen in the well.” Mother went to the father and said “Tikki Tikki Tambo No Sarimbo Hurry Kurri Bushy Perry Pem Do Hurri Kari Pom Pom Nikino Mino Dom Barrako has fallen in the well.” Father ran and got the ladder. When they reached the well, he had already died.

[Mallik said it was a sad story, the boy dies. He died because it to so much time every time to repeat his name. That is the reason Chineese do not keep long names for anyone]

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Mallika @ SPIC MACAY gotipua/odissi intensive performance, IIT Kanpur

The day before I was wondering what she was writing on a note book from an Amar Chitra Katha, Shakuntala. I noticed that she was scribbling all the characters from the story book. Against one of the characters, Shakuntala, the main protagonist of the story, she had written her own name – Mallika. On asking, Mallika shared that she has already planned the drama, Shakuntala and she is going to play the main character, and she is on look out for other actors… Then she went on to narrate how the story will unveil on the stage.. One of the scenes “When Dushyant has to go on a chariot, do you know how it will go? Two of the characters, who do not have a role in that scene, will hide inside the chariot and hold it and run across the stage. Dushyant also will be inside the chariot with his bow and arrow, and he will run along with the ropes of the horses in his hand.. It will look as if Dushyant is riding the chariot.” and her production narration went on…

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Amazing how children can really imagine, relate and create…. If only we can facilitate their blossoming… I have to do a lot more..

A view through the Patina with Anjolie Ela Menon – by Indira Ganesh

With her creation Dropadi

A nice monsoon evening at India Habitat Centre turned into an art Odyssey for our family. As I entered the precincts of the hallowed premises, right at the entrance my daughter pointed Anjolieji’s painting of Guru Shishya to me. Well she knew that Anjolieji’s works were on display thus making the identification of the artwork easier.

We walked into the gallery and the next hour passed on by looking at the colourscapes on masonite and canvas. At the outset anybody will be drawn into the seductive world of colours with the familiar motifs of the crow, the chair, the window and the frame within frame themes. A deeper study revealed an artist with myriad moods, playful in a trice and melancholic in a moment. Anjolie jis works are mostly in response to stimuli around her at that moment. Her latest muses were the Naga Sadhus in their gay abandon.

Also considering that she is a much sought after artist, the pieces on display were largely from personal collections and hence autobiographical. There is an unmistakable resemblance between the artist and many of her artworks. It gives a surreal sense of someone entering a canvas and taking on a new life, idiom and metaphor. There also seems to be the recurring theme of mother and child reminiscent of Mother Mary cuddling the infant Jesus. She has painted both her daughters-in-law with their infants.

There are artistic responses to the happenings around her at any give time – be it the war in 1971 which was the midwife in the birth of Bangladesh. She has depicted the birth of a nation drenched in blood and a war which claimed two of her close friends. Similarly there are other expressions of events that have left a mark on her psyche. She is touched by the places she has visited and the textures of things that she has experienced urging her to creatively document her experience for posterity.

The nudes in her collection have a softness to them as only a woman can draw them because while drawing a nude, perhaps a woman sees her own reflection and is kinder in their portrayal. The result is sensuous and not sensational or titillating. All her works in this particular exhibition is displayed theme wise—There is a family and friend wall, the landscape section, the nudes, the kitsch, so on and so forth. We were quite happy being together as a family wrapping up the day watching the retrospective of a great artist but hardly did we know that the evening had much more in store for us.

Anjolie and OP .... half a century of journey for the sake of arts...

What we were to witness was camaraderie between two artist friends who were discussing each other’s contribution to their art. Mr. O.P. Jain, a visionary in Indian Art world, and is founder of Sanskrit (the artist village) had come to see his friend Anjolie’s exhibits and he got a very warm welcome from his friend of more than 50 years. “Hey OP, I drew your picture without even looking at you. That is how well I remember your face” remarked Anjolie. OP on his part mentioned how she had refused to sell his portrait when it was being sought by a buyer in Shridharini gallery.

We were asked if we would like to join a guided tour of the art on display by the artist herself. A few students of hers also joined in and it was nice to see the SPICMACAY protégées sharing space with her. It was a proud moment for me and sreeni for we facilitate the Guru Shishya scheme every year for SPICMACAY. Sreeni put the camera on ready mode, mallika put on her —I -don’t- believe- it –you- want- to- see- it -again expression and yours truly joined in the walk that was replete with anecdotes and tales.

In one of her exhibitions, Anjolieji was required to frame a picture. She went to OP and said, Isska frame nahin hai, kya Karen. OP went to his backyard and pried a window for its frame. They stuck (thokoed) some nails and lo and presto, the frame was ready. Anjolie did not want the painting to sell. So between her and OP, they devised a price of 17000 for that painting making it unappealing to the buyer. Anjolie did not want OP to loose out on his window and by her own admission, she found the whole idea tacky. But there was a surprise that evening. Anjolie gets a call from OP saying that the painting is sold. Anjolie’s first reaction was one of complete joy for having secured the tuition fee for her children for three years followed by another realization that the window that was to be used temporarily was permanently gone!!

OP added that a few years back he went to the house of Modis whose daughter-inlaw had purchased the first window painting and that painting with OP’s window was still very much on their wall. Anjolie seems to have requested OP to get her many more window frames from the Kabaddiwala. While discussing this, they stopped in front of a painting which was ensconsed in an antique door frame from Gujrat. It was nice to hear OP adding to Anjolie’s description of that particular painting. It was one of a kind, as it was the only painting that Anjolie made to fit the door, otherwise it has been other way around!!

We saw a nude painting that she had drawn as a 17 year old. Sunil Batra, one of our enlightened mentor from the space of education, was curious to know as to why she used the rough side of the plyboard for painting. She nonchalantly said—-“Well I usually painted on both sides as I did not have the money to afford my canvasses”

Then she fondly recounted how OP had taken her to the Chor Bazaar of Bombay and how he would just point to things and say—two of these and three of that. On the way back they realized that OP had lost his wallet in Chor Bazaar. They were mentally writing off the purse when it was restored to its rightful owners. Her sacred prism collection was also explained.

Two students of SPICMACAY started chatting with me and they were reprimanded by Anjolie for not listening to OP. She said, he was an institution in himself. OP then discussed about art and how increasingly it was subjected to newer classifications and prejudices. He said for every good artist making it big, there were at least a few hundreds who don’t get their due and are languishing in anonymity.

Anjolie rued the fact that systemically history has undervalued the contribution to art by the women – women who had assisted the likes of Da Vinci and Michael Angelo and never got any recognition for their contributions. The conversation veered to how art was classified as high art and low art. Anjolieji wryly remarked that maybe in five years, her art won’t be relevant. Then after thinking for a micro second, she added —–but then I really don’t give a damn. It was nice to see her feistiness alongside her childlike enthusiasm while showing off her work to her friend OP who had been a co-traveller in the artscape with her for over five decades.

Long live art and long live friendship!! A memorable evening for all of us !!

Education – An interesting interaction with Mr. Kapil Sibal, Hon. Education Minister of India

With Kapil Sibal @ Anjolie Ela Menon ji's Show

With Kapil Sibal @ Anjolie ela menon ji’s show of life time work at IHC, Delhi.

We were discussing about -

what does education really mean? how we can make education wholistic? How important is art and culture in the growth of child? How do we bring vocational education into schools? How to broaden the perspectives of children…

Visionmaking Should be a Daily Activity by Patrick O’Neill

contributed by one of the perennially learning school mentor I have come across – Rashmi Virendra

One of the most important responsibilities of every leader is to envision the future. Visionmaking should be a daily activity … and deal with practices of inventing the future, a future that frees us from the quagmire of the status quo and allows us to enter a “field of possibility.” Possibility is the geography that supports individual and collective growth, development and achievement.

Every leader has an enemy … and that enemy is the status quo. The status quo is defined as “a state of stasis where there is neither motion or development and where there is no hope of change.” It is common knowledge that in business, as in life, we either advance or decline and there is nothing in between. The status quo disguises decline. We are seduced into the false sense that things remain exactly the same, when we’re actually heading downhill but so slowly that it is virtually imperceptible until free-fall occurs. By the time we recognize we’re falling, it’s too late.

Wise leaders see that the status quo is the breeding ground for organizational inertia, the inability or unwillingness to move or act. Once this condition arrests an organization, team or individual, the result is lethargy, apathy and disinterest. These are the signposts of decline…and an announcement that leadership has been abandoned. Sir William Ostler, the father of modern medicine, suggests that such conditions can be formidable in their ability to undermine our energies and jeopardize our preferred future: “By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy — indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of satisfaction.”

Carelessness, distraction and narcissistic pre-occupation undermine a chief resource in leadership — the practice of reflection. Reflection is the act of turning the eyes from the outer world to the inner landscape of our aspirations, dreams, and possibilities and opportunities. This is the domain of the future and vision is fashioned in the silence of careful contemplation.

– Patrick O’Neill, from “Envisioning a Preferred Future” i

Pleasures of an Entrepreneur !

Micro-Entreprenuer

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

Venky Venkatesh : so how long were those initial “few” years srini?

Ans :

I read a very interesting story a few years ago about a Japaneese Bamboo Shoot. And I realized that its life journey is very akin to that of an entrepreneur.

The Japaneese Bamboo shoot grows three inches in the first three years, when you give everything you have in terms of nurturing. If you continue to nurture the same way, the next three years will see the Shoot rising to 30 ft into the sky.

So, it takes at least six years of sweat and blood, and continuous nurturing to get the most wonderful journey head into the next phase. Yes, once you get on to this journey, it is a never ending journey. You, as an entrepreneur, would keep creating many more new bamboo shoots, as the first six challenging years are the most exciting and you would never want move out of such a phase….and you would easily find many who are more eager to take care of the next phase….

SPIC MACAY 25th National Convention in Media : Photos taken by me adding some value to the articles

Well-known Art and dance critiques Mrs. Manjari Sinha, Mrs Leela Venkataraman and Mr. Ravinder Sharma attended the Spic Macay national convention at IIT, Kanpur early this month. Manjari ji contributes to various dailies, including The Statesman and Jansatta, while Leela ji contributes regularly to The Hindu among other magazines. Ravinderji also contributes to a few Hindi Dailies. It was very gracious of them to seek photos from me for accompanying their articles in the various publications and I hope it added some value to the articles. Here I am enclosing the scanned copies and links of various newspapers wherein photos of the convention taken by me have appeared. Thanks to all the three for co-opting me in their endeavour.

Manjari ji’s articles in The Statesman and Jansatta are here..

Celebration of Indian Art and Culture at SPIC MACAY National Convention 2010

Celebration of Indian art and culture at SPIC MACAY National Convention 2010

Leelaji’s article in The Hindu is linked herewith..

The Hindu : Arts : Splendid saga

If you happen to see any other article on the SPIC MACAY national convention, kindly let me know to include here.

Sreeni
sreeni@iwsb.in

Every child is gifted… How do we facilitate her? How much technology should we use?

If we can expose the children very young to various art forms – performing and fine art, indulge in simple science experiments, read read and read a lot of books, my experience in the last few years shows that we can facilitate development of a phenomenally inquisitive, bold, well informed child who challenges the world. I am experiencing a few at SPIC MACAY national convention @ IIT Kanpur.

Why as elders we need to be more involved?

Evolution of a human being is significant in the first 14 years of life. In the first three years the mental faculties develop to the extent of 80% of an adult; by age of 8 it reaches almost 90% and by 14, 98% of an adult. Rest of the life it is consolidation / building up on what has been acquired in the first 14 years.

So it is very important for us to expose the child to as many a activities as we can to stimulate various intelligences that exist in human being. Howard Gardner has classified these intelligences into 8 broad dimensions -

Linguistic – ability to learn and speak – Children have amazing capabilities to absorb. By age of five they can speak as many as 8 languages if we help. So read read and read variety of books – develops language as well as imagination;

logical and Mathematical : Expose to maths and logical puzzles, riddles – this can be done everywhere playing, cooking, driving….build felicity with numbers and logic

Natural – children play with dogs, only an adult stops her from doing so by inducing fear : expose to nature – trees, animals… go for walks, discuss about plants, play with animals…

Kinesthetic – Mind and body both have to be trained. More you train more fit they are : ability to utilise all parts of the body – play play and expose to varieties of games

spatial – colors, shades, shapes….. Have a painting corner with an easel and lots of colors..create a wall with bhoosa board one corner to the other in one room to display all the work of children..they will be thrilled

Musical – music stokes many of these intelligences and along with arts and nature explorations gives a lot of patience, empathy etc..

interpersonal – ability to thing and organize oneself…. by giving room and space to children to introspect and decide for oneself we facilitate it.. we can be with them to ask questions that will help them to arrive at their own decisions..

Intrapersonal – ability to interact and socialize with other fellow beings.. so create opportunities for children to interact….

Simply said as parents we need to create as many opportunities for children to explore than a uni dimensional approach..

So when we look at working with technology only… then a child is losing out on many things. Yes 5-10% of learning can be through tech-facilitation..

Indira and I try to facilitate Mallika by taking her out at least 4-5 days in a week…with exposure to all of the about said intelligences…

Apart from Mallika insisting on reading 10-15 books every day, and painting and craft works for a couple of hours; Maths and creative puzzles; impromptu music sessions with Indira, she indulges in Swimming almost daily, Music classes once a week, 3-4 performances every week; Bird and botanical walks a couple of times in a month; a couple of times in a year 4-5 day breaks for SPICMACAY national conventions; experiencing the wild and country side by road etc…

Yes she does spend 5-10 hours or so in a week with TV and Comp playing on her maths games, paint brush or going to her favourite websites of Disney, greeting cards making, story watching on Youtube etc..

Looking forward to your comments too for being a better parent.

Sreeni
sreeni@iwsb.in

Sharpening the Saw: What you should be doing before reaching your B-School campus?

Once an admission offer from a B-School lands in your lap, your friends and family are as excited as you are and you end up having to throw a party for all well wishers and then-on wait for the D-day to board your train or flight to reach the campus. Yes, you do go out shopping for essentials for the next two years at the hostel.

One question that should spring into your head is that – “Can I do a few things from now till the date of my journey that can have a positive impact at least on my first term, if not the next two years!!” Is this an important question to address? Yes, indeed.

I am very keen that you gain maximum from your two years at B-School. Having met over thirty five thousand aspirants in the last one year during my ‘Bharat Bhraman’, having been part of the panels for selection for B-Schools, and having been a facilitator to a couple of lakh B-School aspirants over the last two decades, and also as an alumnus of an IIM myself, I have few things to ask you to work upon –

Working on your Communication Skills and General Awareness
It is very important that you work on your ability to think, organize and articulate your thoughts. Whether you are already good at it or you feel challenged, you need to work on it. It needs a constant endeavour from each one of us every day. Kindly read a good newspaper – The Hindu / Indian Express every day, especially the features and editorial pages.

Listen to 9pm news on DD and Day’s round up on one of the business channels every evening. You can also catch up latest business news from one of the business dailies. Study the graphs and data to understand the situation depicted.

Make sure you write an article every day – create a blog to express yourself (you can check my website www.sreeni.org for any ideas). Alternatively, take a topic and speak in front of the mirror while recording it using a Dictaphone or a tape recorder. Play it to listen and introspect – where you got stuck and why? How can you overcome the shortcomings? Take action to be better.

Interaction with eminent leaders

Working on some basics
Three subjects that would form the core for any business education and thereby your performance during the MBA programme are – quanititative ability (statistics), economics and accounting; I strongly urge you to pick a basic book on these to familiarize yourself even before you reach your campus for the pre-term / first term. The best place to start is CBSE Class XI and XII books.

An Introspective Write-up: What I want to be?

There is something even more important. You should be able to first figure out what you really want to do in life. I suggest you spend some time to introspect about this question ‘What I would be remembered for when I leave this world?’

A few questions to help you start off –
1. What do you really enjoy doing? Which industry or company will benefit maximum from your passion.
2. Once you short list the company / industry, start reading about them through various available data and feature sources
3. Are there any personalities you admire and why? Is there and values they espouse or abilities that they have that you want to inculcate? Work on them consciously.

Once you are able to write this note for yourself, I am sure you will get to know what you need to do from now on to achieve your ultimate goals, and how you would like to make maximum of your next two years at the B-School of your choice. Put all these in a note for yourself. I hope this will be a great exercise for your journey.

understanding how butterflies impact success of economies!

Involving in a few Out-of-the Box activities

You can associate with an organization or movement that espouses a cause very close to your heart for a few weeks and contribute there. This will help you understand a whole lot about yourself, working of an organization and also can give ideas about what all you could do during your two years of B-School and after..
A few movements that I am involved actively are – NIF and its Shodhyatras (www.sristi.org); SPICMACAY’s (www.spicmacay.com) promotion of culture and art forms among youth etc, engaging in improving learning environments in schools through mentor training (www.clef.in)etc. I am sure you too can identify a cause and contribute during your free time to gain something that can be significant for your journey of life.

25th Shodhyatra (May 14-21st)

I strongly recommend each one of you to try and participate in the coming Shodhyatra, especially those who are very close to Chattisgarh (MP, Bihar, UP, Orissa, Andhra) as this time the yatra is happening in Narayanpur. I will be there along with a few of our past IWSB students too. To know more about it read ahead.

Shodh Yatra is a journey for the search of knowledge, creativity and innovations at grassroots. Shodh Yatra is an attempt on the part of SRISTI/NIF to reach out to the remotest part of the country with a firm belief that hardship and challenges of natural surroundings are the prime motivators of creativity and innovations. Shodh Yatra aims at unearthing such traditional knowledge and grassroots innovations that have not only simplified the lives of men, women and farm labourers but have also significantly contributed towards the conservation of bio-diversity. Shodh Yatra is a journey of mutual exchange and sharing of knowledge. Whatever knowledge and practices that we have pooled in, over the years are shared with the villagers during the Shodh Yatra. We also share the Honey Bee database with the villagers. Shodh Yatra is also a journey to spread green consciousness and we do it by involving women and children to display their ecological knowledge through various competitions.

As an institution, IWSB encourages students to be part of Shodhyatra anchored by one of the foremost thinkers of the country Prof. Anil Gupta (professor at IIM Ahmedabad and also anchor of National Innovation Foundation). You can know more about the movement from my website – Check the NIF related link here

For details of the May 14-21st shodhyatra kindly check the link. check for the shodhyatra details

This shodhyatra is just a strong suggestion and not a compulsory agenda..

Before winding up, I would like to just say that – Kindly be hungry for learning, devour magazines, journals and books; do not hesitate to interact with professors beyond your class requirements, plunge into all activities that are happening around you, take additional responsibilities on the campus that can build your personality.
I am sure you would have got enough ideas to build upon what I have stated here that can be invaluable for your journey ahead.

Wishing you the very best. Enjoy your B-school life.

Sreeni
sreeni@iwsb.in
.

CSK – deserving champions…

Finally Chennai Suprer Kings lifts IT! Missed the first one by a single run!!

The Championship Victory due to brilliant captaincy, outstanding fielding, daring batting…..all came on the D-Day!!

Of the two teams, CSK was a more balanced team…more all round team not depending on only one or two, unlike Mumbai.. If Tendulkar did not play, MI would have been thrashed by a big margin. Tendu knew it and played the game with painkillers.. He could not have afforded not to play the game…

Sorry Mumbai ! One bad day at the office..unfortunately on the most important day.. Kudos to Sachin for taking the field with his disfunct hand still almost seeing them thru with Pollard taking everything apart! Mumbai deserves a standing ovation tooooo.. for the way they carried thru the tournament..

Key turning points – Putting down Raina twice.. and 110 coming from last 8 overs….. Pollard grabbed by Hayden…

SURESH RAINA – An individual with an amazing fighting spirit – all the time, whatever he does. He is always seen in the thick of it…. ironically very similar to Tendu… Raina, only player to score more than more than 450/500 in each of the IPLs… Mr. Consistent and Mr. Dependable… with ball and fielding too…

My learnings from the whole IPL hungama -

1. Believe in self

2. Work towards building the base (do not panic whatever be the target)

3. Once you build the base, you can really take risks and accelerate

4. There is no substitute for hardwork

5. Give everything you have, do not worry about the result

6. Above all, be humble and continue contributing your best as a team player irrespective of what you achieve in life!!

The greatest contribution of IPL (or ICL to start it all) to INDIAN Cricket has been to give opportunities to spot youngsters resulting in a fantastic bench strength in all areas…… Uthappah, Rohit, Ambatti, Murali, Tiwaris…..Ashwin, Djakati,…. Fast bowling has not really found new exponents thought!!

Thankfully IPL 2010 ends…..days ahead will be more productive for all! Ahahahaha

Hopefully IPL will be cleansed of all rubbish to keep it going….(many more areas need cleansing anyways – wherever politicians are, cleansing needs to be done; in most cases – telecom, mining…). and hopefully one day too soon, Indians would support other sports and sportsmen as much as they adore cricket! We need to replicate similar successes elsewhere too… Let us figure out, how!

Sreeni@iwsb.in

We will miss you CKP!

We lost a great mentor in the sudden demise of Prof C K Prahalad. Apart from being a thinker to the world who has been able to see a few years ahead into the changes that will impact the global economy, CKP as we call him, has been a great mentor to the entire CL team. There have been numerous occasions where we had interaction with him and on one such occassion in June 2006, he spent the whole evening with the CL team. Our vision for schools and especially the BOP schools emerged from interactions with him and his mentoring. With fond memories I retrieve these photos from our school album of IWS Hyderabad, our first school endeavour, where he spent time with children on the occasion of the first dedication day of the school.

Prof C K Prahalad being welcomed by the children of IWSB, Hyderabad; Satya and Sreeni escorting CKP.

Prof CK Prahalad with children of IWS, Hyderabad. June 2006

Dear CKP – We will continue to be inspired by your thoughts and we dedicate ourselves to realize all ideas we have been discussing with you. God bless on you onward journey! Love, Sreeni

India never ceases to amaze me – Mahakumbh @ Haridwar!!

‘Kumbhmela’ reminds me of the old movies where one comes across huge crowds and two brothers ‘bichde’ (get lost) giving raise to dramatic storylines. For one, my Kumbhmela experience did not have such an ending. In fact it has sprouted quite a few beginnings in my head and heart, of course touched the soul too!

I surrender!

I had promised my better half, Indira, that we will go to the Kumbhmela (comes every 12 years) this year, about four months ago in January. And here came the last ‘Shahisnan’ of Kumbh on April 14. We jumped on to our ever-friendly carrier – Scorpio – and headed towards the Mahakumbh. The journey from the moment go has been very eventful!

All roads led to Haridwar : An ocean of humanity -15 million – descending for a single day dip in the Ganges on the April 14 (New Year day for many). It is considered to be a journey for redemption in life – the Mahakumbh’ @ Haridwar. I was told during interactions that just like going to Haj (Mecca), most save everything to make this journey of their lives.

The curious child floating in the human ocean! Brave parents!

I noticed people walking hundreds of miles (mostly elderly) for those 10 minutes of dip with the mother – Holy Ganges – and a few minutes of solitude even in the midst of the human ocean. It was a profound revelation for me. I went through my own internal journey. Certainly a journey of life-time!

It amazes me what India is all about, as I keep traveling across India. This trip to Mahakumbh moves to the top of all our travels. Imagine a city of about fifteen lakh population hosting almost six crores of visitors in four months, and that too about 1.5 crores in one single day. I am sure each one of us can imagine what stress this kind of numbers can put on the city and local population. Yet, the whole city is cheerful to host this human ocean.

Children of Haridwar experiencing their first Mahakumbh

I came across quite a few teenagers of Haridwar who are surprised and were at their wits-end as they were witnessing first such congregation in life. They must have heard quite a few stories from their parents and grand parents.

I was surprised to see huge number of guest houses, choultreys built by various kingdoms of the nation only to host the travelers from those places when they come visiting.

Rajasthani Haveli - Every kingdom has built a rest place for its citizens

This seems to be a standard way of dealing with huge crowds, as I have stayed in such places in Rishikesh and Gangotri too. At Gangotri, a couple of years ago, a Gujarati Ashram saved our day as we landed in a deserted town with only twelve poeple on December 29 with temperatures hovering in minus!! I happened to see large communities from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal staying in such dwellings created by their past kingdoms. Each of these dwellings make travelers resting reasonably comfortable. Jai Ho Rajas – Visionaries of the old age!

Shahisnan is the much awaited event during the kumbhs. There are twenty akharas in Haridwar that participate in the Shahisnan, the holy dip by the SADHUS. To my surprise, I found huge following for many of the gurus of akharas from abroad too. Each of the akhara has over 30+ gurus who head different locations of the Akharas and every akhara has a couple of expat gurus too!! They all rode different caparisoned trucks sitting on their Silver thrones with their Silver/gold maces. Each of these akharas indulge in a long, vibrant march with spiritual dances all the way. The marches are very competitive between the akharas.

Cavalry Nagasadhu heading the Akara march. Nagasadhus are the major attractions of every akhara

Infantry Nagasadhus heading for the Shahisnan

Each akhara march is lead by horse riding ash smeared Nagasadhus, followed by its nagasadhu infantry, all nude. Then come saffron wearing sadhus and then trucks of gurus with all chelas. The whole world descends to watch these Akharas heading to have their shahisnan. The crowd falls onto the ground to role and smear the mud on which these SADHUS marched! Before the march reaches the ghats, they are purified with milk to welcome the Sadhus of these Akharas to have their holy bath. It takes the whole day for these twenty Akharas to finish their Shahisnan.

The dip with holy mother, The Ganges

The gentry visiting the holy city for the dip spreads across the banks of The ganges and its canals. You get to see only bathers through out. If you find a water body, you will find people taking a dip!

Getting ready for dinner - cooking and sleeping under the stars

traffic jam. Sunsets but dust in Kumbh does not settle!!

Coming to the amenities and arrangements, it was grossly inadequate – from sanitation, food, transportation, police support, parking, routing…….every thing went by ‘Bhagwan ke bharose’. It took us almost six hours to come out of a traffic jam of two kilometers… Every one wants to get out first. I donned the role of a traffic cop for all of these six hours to see the traffic inch ahead. Finally a police battalion landed after six hours to regulate the flow!! We exited only to discover that the road to Delhi is completely blocked, as a few lakh people are trying to exit… We headed to Rishikesh for the night, and took a long detour via Dehradun, Pontasaheb, yamunagar and GT road to reach Delhi in 10 hours…

Robinson, Mallika and Indira @ Shivananda Ashram, Rishikesh

Thanks to patient Indira who kept Mallika busy in the parked scorpio hours on end. Mallika waited in the car the whole day by surviving on a few gulps of drinking water and a couple of biscuits! It was indeed very kind of one of our dear friends, Robinson, an accomplished theologist, to accompany and guide us all the way. All in all it was a wonderful experience worth cherishing for the life time. Don’t miss it next time. Har har Mahadev!

Check the photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreenivasan/sets/72157623866821296/

Looking forward to your feedback.

Love and regards,

Sreeni
sreeni@iwsb.in

Indus World School, Raipur gets its own campus today!

Greetings to all facilitators

(My message on the occasion of launch of IWS Raipur, Campus)

Good evening ladies and gentleman,

On behalf of IWS family, I extend my heartfelt greetings to all our facilitators – parents, families and friends, elders and facilitators from the government and society – who have extended unflinching support to our journey so far, and last but not the least to our mentors and wonderful young learners who have created a great enabling learning environment. Each one of you has made our journey of learning an exciting and interesting one.

Link to IWS Raipur page of www.indusworldschool.com

It is an auspicious and remarkable occasion in the short journey of IWS Raipur and I am missing being here, as I had to be in Bangalore for a session/conference that I had committed to, a few months ago. Satya and Sujit are here to be amongst you on this significant occasion, and along with Raj and all members of IWS Family will surely make this evening a memorable initiation at the new campus.

Our endeavour to create an inspiring learning environment is going to take a leap this evening – we will continue to bring ‘Ananda’ to the young, stoke ‘Jigyaasa’ as they progress into middle school and eventually help them get into the phase of ‘sadhana’ – that of realizing their aspirations – career and life, as they step into the world full of challenges and exciting opportunities. I look forward to active participation from each one of you in every aspect of this wonderful journey of your children as much as the journey of IWS Raipur and IWS family at large.

I will be here in Mid May and I will be glad to spend sometime with each one of you during my visit. I am as excited to reach out to you this evening,

Eagerly looking forward to meeting you soon,

Love and regards to one and all,

Lovingly,

Sreeni

R. Sreenivasan,
chairman, Indus World School, Raipur,
www.indusworldschool.com
www.clef.in

sreeni@clef.in
sreeni@iwsb.inindu

IWSB First convocation March 27, 2010 – Media coverages

It gives me immense pleasure to share with the world the media coverage of IWSB’s First Convocation. I had written a brief report on the event on my blog a week ago – Report

Dainik Jagran

Education Times Coverage

Nai Duniya Coverage

Hint

Rashtriya sahara

Haribhoomi

Navbharat times

Amar Ujala

sreeni@iwsb.in
sreeni@careerlauncher.com

Realizing potentials – of Individuals and Communities – questions for you and me

Last eight months have been a great learning experience. For the first time in life, I almost spent at least three weeks every month traveling across India, addressing young, aspiring leaders of tomorrow, learning from them as well as motivating them to push their boundaries. I have covered almost fifty cities, Srinagar to Chennai and Rajkot to Kolkata, a few of them twice over in these eight months. These endeavors have helped me not only realize but also initiated a few thoughts about enabling individuals and also communities /cities realize their potential.

Enabling Individuals

While interacting, sharing outstanding entrepreneurial stories, interviewing qualified aspirants to IWSB and listening to a few of their own nascent entrepreneurial adventures, my belief that the serious talent in the hinterland is no less than the ones we see in the metros of our country is repeatedly getting vindicated. In fact, it is more focused, directed and productive. They know what they want. Coming to the students who passed out this year from IWSB, almost all the seven entrepreneurial ventures have been initiated by these ‘country bumpkins!’

Youth in Srinagar enjoying the entrepreneurial stories

The question that I usually encounter, which I heard even this morning when I was interacting with a few B-School representatives at an MBA Admissions event -“Many who seek admissions cannot even communicate well in English”. Having seen a few thousand over the last three years through our selection process that involves – a group task, group discussion, writing introspective realizations for own growth post these group processes and followed by interview – my original thought about ‘speaking in English’ has further strengthened. Should communication in English be the basic requirement or should it be keenness to learn, passionate about a cause, eagerness to take risks, ability to question the conventional, being a good team member, enabling others to perform etc., be a few parameters that one need to explore among the admission seekers in a B-School process?

I notice that most of the city-bred are good in speaking in English, but communicating the thought process is different from speaking good English. Speaking for the sake of speaking is not articulation. It is about the ability to analyze, think, structure and communicate, which is usually a casualty in most cases. Many of those who can speak in English are usually found lacking on many of the critical parameters that I enumerated above. The faculties that can facilitate one to do so can only be enhanced by regular reading of variety of issues. At least one need to be abreast with the latest news and analysis, editorials and features in the newspapers and magazines are great sources for these. Most of the youngsters are spending disproportionate time on the web, and that too unfortunately on the social websites and chats that are becoming time-guzzlers without gaining anything worth mentioning. If one is not really concerned about ones own learning and growth, how one can really think of enabling a company grow. It is time the youth, especially from cities and towns, wakes up from their slumber, shed their callousness and are serious about what they want to achieve and contribute.

On the contrary there are many who have been brought up in the hinterlands that are determined, capable and steadfast in achieving what they are set out to. We have a few in the short journey of two years at IWSB who are on the way to create a great impact in the society and community with their entrepreneurial work. During this year’s recruitment process I have come across a great number of youngsters who may not be very good in communication but are certainly outstanding prospects for entrepreneurial leadership. There is many a leader out there across the world that has made towering contributions despite being poor in English language communication!! Haven’t they?

What is the role of an educational institution in such a scenario? Is it not wise for a B-School to recruit an aspirant with potential leadership capabilities, and help such potentials to master English language and communication skills? Should it not be high on any B-School agenda if an aspirant is outstanding in most of the aforesaid parameters? It will be shortsighted for an institution to negate individuals solely on language and communication. I hope everyone is listening.

Enabling communities and cities

In between interacting and facilitating students while traveling, I usually sneak out with my camera to explore every city. I did it in almost every city, including Benaras, Kanpur, Ranchi, Patna, Srinagar, Durgapur, Hissar, Jammu, Bangaluru, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Indore, Jaipur, kolkatta, Amritsar… not to talk of smaller towns and villages that come on the way during my drives.

Every city has inherent strengths, but attitudes that disable any city from really realizing its potential is its utter callousness towards civility and civic amenities, ill-planned development, even of the new extensions of the city, let alone the old towns / walled cities within. The gentry are least bothered about what we are doing on the roads to the traffic, what we are doing to utilization of resources, what we are doing waste disposal, in the process what we are doing to the fellow human beings, living beings and the environment. Each one of us seems to be concerned only of “I, me and myself”! What comes of this Indian behaviour and psyche?

These attitudes carry on to our roles too – policy makers, urban planners, municipal authorities hardly seem to do anything to better the situation. Each one seems to be thinking of biding time when they are donning the roles, only to focus on self-aggrandizement.

I keep wondering how planned is this road widening, elimination of the roundabouts etc when a kilometer ahead the road is going to be only two-lane due to a bridge or a worship place. You suddenly realize a four lane road carrying six files of vehicles is trying to squeeze into two lanes! I have never seen such callous planning anywhere in the world. In the name of Common Wealth Games, so called beautification around the city seems to have no meaning. You need to just go around connaught circus to just understand. Ask the well-informed families living there for the last eighty years. I have been seeing CP for the last thirty years, yesterday I was wondering about the madness that is being created. There are scores of roads where the granite binding the dividers have fallen/removed in the name of betterment and the lie on the roads for days. Does anyone in the municipality really cares about what happens to a motorist who rams into one of those boulders!

I went around the by lanes of Old Delhi on the Occasion of EID a couple of months ago. I spent the Friday at Jama Masjid …during the prayer time and Saturday night in the busy markets inside the wall city to soak in the biggest festivities among the followers of Islam, went with school children on a ‘walk’ in the wall city and also through the ‘galis’ of Benaras, virgin roads of Ranchi etc. The stories are same – filth on the roads, poor waste management, least concern for hygiene, erratic traffic management, indifference towards public property etc. One thing gets reiterated time and again – we as a nation are long way away from good Urban Development endeavours…

The usual refrain from municipality is lack of the budgetary allocation (is it really so, or it is about inefficiencies in the system?) compared to what the salary bill is (should the numbers be pruned?). Whether it is the gentry or the municipalities, each one of us contribute directly or indirectly to this utter chaos. We can chose to be indifferent or take a step towards correcting and enabling our communities and cities realize their potential. Come, let us make some positive difference.