New Year Wishes!

Dear friends and colleagues,

Here’s an original New Year wish from the top of my mind and the bottom of my heart –

I wish you ~

Righteousness above Religion
Wishfulness above Woefulness
Compassion before Creed
Passion before Polarity
Joy before Pleasure
Thoughtfulness before Thanklessness
Duties before Rights
Globalisation emboldened by Localisation
Selflessness before Selfishness
Giving nature before Greed
Happiness before Hatred
Health before Haplessness
Wisdom before Vices
Assimilation before Differentiation
Love of nature before Love for lucre
Hard work before Hardship
Helpfulness before Harping
Caring before Carping
Action before hollow, meaningless Acts
Power before Pompousness
Experience before Aging
Mind before Might
Intelligence before Insinuations
Ingenuity before Insipidity
Zeal before Jealousy
Revelry before Rivalry
People before Politics
Reasoning before Rebellion
Spiritual before Material
Goodness before Greatness
Solemnity above Sadness
Godliness before ritual based Religiosity

I wish and pray that 2009 brings hope & happiness, peace & prosperity, wisdom & positive action for you and yours.

Sincerely,

Aruna Dhir

BLACK OR WHITE!!!

Pictures courtesy - www.deviantart.com

Black and White. Right and Wrong. Day and Night. Yes or No. True or False. Good and Bad.

There are always two sides. Two distinct sides. No shades of gray. No ambiguity.

Either there is or there isn't. It is or it is not.
Either you can or you cannot. You do or you don't. You will or you won't.
Either you could or you could not. You did or you did not.

There is this road you can take or that. There is no middle path.
Either you get onto this boat or the other. You cannot sail in two boats.

Either you swim with the current, or against it.
Move up stream or move down. Race ahead or cease your pace. Soar above or nose dive.

It is either heads or tail. Up or down. Top or bottom. Right or Left. If there is a beginning then there is an end. Either you come up trumps or you are down in the dumps.

Either your heart beats and you are alive. Or the heart does not beat and you are dead.

Either the mind thinks and you exist, being in a state of action. Or the mind goes numb and you are lifeless, dead as wood.

Either your eyes open to the world, and resting in between, stay open till you live.
Or your eyes close for eternity, waiting for your body to be consumed and cremated.

There are only two choices. The choices are in black or white. Either you take it or you don't!!!

FLOGGING THE FLOGOS?

Summer of 2001 is finely etched in my memory as one of the finest. I was selected for a cultural-ambassadorial fellowship to the US of A by the Rotary Foundation under the aegis of Rotary International. This meant that I, along with four others were sent to Washington DC and the State of Maryland on a red carpet for a really VIP trip. The agenda was to familiarise the decision makers and opinion leaders of these two geographical locations with the culture, the heritage as well as the charm of contemporary India. As a quid pro quo, we were allowed to be keen and close observers of the quintessential American culture and lifestyle. This was a five week programme, but I decided to extend it to a four month stay travelling from the east to the west coast and spending sizeable time in places like Florida, LA, San Francisco and New York in addition to the two mentioned above. With invaluable help from my boss at the time and the one more recently so, I managed to turn it into a busman's holiday as I not only experienced the American way of life at close hand but also got to meet important hoteliers and stay at some of the nicest hotels......... Ritz Carlton, Pasadena; The Campton Place and Fairmont, San Francisco and The Pierre, New York.

But back to the American culture. It was in Frisco that I was hugely entertained and amused. For something to click, it is always about being in the right place at the right time. And I happened to be in this lively city at the time of the Gay Pride Parade. Having heard enough about it and not wanting to miss it for the world, I coaxed my husband's cousin on the said morning and off we trotted to the area where all the action was to happen. Once there, my Asian sensibilities were teased by the occidental forthrightness. I saw handsome men baring their well rounded bottoms, revealed cannily in strategically snipped leather pants. The toned bottoms were then used to talk about the gay-issue-of-the-day. A few steps on to the Union Square, and I was greeted by the frontal view of a lesbian beauty in the nude (covered tantalisingly with the bare minimum of faux fur), who had used her bountifulness for yet another bold, in-the-face, in-the-eye message on the strong take on her personal preferences.I was quite taken in by America's ingenuity in this exercise of branding & marketing.

On another trip, this time a pure vacation, my husband and I found ourselves slaking our thirst at the famous and naughty Hooter's Bar in Interlaaken. The sprightly, gym-toned waitresses are known, not only to satiate the thirst and hunger of the guests, but also titillate their other senses as they go about flitting in body hugging cropped tees and hot pants. Their well-endowed bosoms are used to full effect to advertise the famous Hooter's Bar logo, thereby leaving an indelible impression on the consumer. Playboy bunnies have been better known to use their twin assets to advertise the company they represent.

Come World Soccer time and we see the choicely shaved heads becoming billboards for advertising the various teams as passionate fans campaign for their faves. The act is so sacred that die-hard fans cut, colour and create mind-boggling hair styles as they sacrifice their hair at the altar of idol worship.

Even in the subcontinent, just as in every other part of the world, the female fans too trade their much-coveted make-up routine for face art as they go about getting their country flags painted on this very visible medium.

So that's back, front, face, head of the human anatomy ingenuously used by the advertising and marketing world.

Very recently I read reports of the latest bastion conquered by advertising. It is called Pitvertising and it uses the arm pit as the possible backdrop for advertising for deodorants. Simply brilliant and mind blowing, I think.

Man's reach in advertising has known no bounds - under water, giant air balloons set soaring in the sky, food packaging, kiosks, bill boards, airwaves, the tele medium, camouflaged as news, insides of public toilets, poly wraps that magazines get couriered in, air ticket jackets, birthday coupons, landscaping done creatively to convey a message, steps to or the wall by a holy shrine, tea stall shed, back of a car, front of a cart, train sides, plane sides, cycle carriers, scooter stepneys (spare tyre at the back), pouches of new products stuck messily inside popular magazines, book jackets publicising other books, patches of pitch on sporting grounds sacrificed to the might and the moolah of advertising............

The accent and onslaught of advertising is everywhere. Everywhere where the eye can see, the ear can hear, the nose can smell, the hand can touch, the mind can feel, the tongue can taste..............

The deluge is devastating. Eating into the mind scape, relentlessly. You laud some efforts and then you loathe some, but you cannot remain impervious to any.

Most you have come to terms with and accepted as a way of life, as it were.

But you need to raise an alarm when some things sacrosanct enough begin to get threatened. Like the sky above that has come to mean so many different things to us at different times of our life - sun-kissed sky, a cloudy sky, a rain-soaked sky, a clear blue sky etc. etc. A muse for poets and writers, a source of inspiration for others, a sign of faith for the believer and just a matter of fact for the agnostic.

But now, we have flogos coming up. Short for floating clouds, flogos are meant to be logos of companies shot out like clouds in the sky for everybody to see and hence to maximise the eyeball capture. "Flogos are a revolutionary new way to market your event or business," proudly state companies who deal in this line of business.

"Its not a bird. Its not a plane. Its Flogos," state some others. Brainchild of designers behind companies characteristically named as Snow Masters and Foam Masters, FLOGOS, according to me are a bright idea gone bad. A spot of brilliance turned devious in this big bad world of commercial success.

Companies are bound to lap it up, given their incredible reach. But it touches a raw nerve. It hits on to a space that has been held sacred by all, almost universally. With children getting robbed of their innocence in today's texted, short messaging world, here's another pitfall that takes away from traditional lore and the romanticism of the bygone era.

When we were young, we went to play in the outdoors, picnics were a fun activity, we had real time friends, we wrote letters, we went to the parks and museums, we had excursions as part of our botany classes, chasing butterflies in the daffodils or mustard fields was playful activity with cousins during vacations, zoos were places for a Sunday visit with parents, we squealed at the sight of the rainbow across the sky and shot up a silent wish.

Now we send SMSes, we have play stations, Second Lives, virtual friends, Facebook / MySpace / Orkut relationships, virtual pet Societies. We give Endangered Hugs virtually, develop our own and friends' green patches on our personal computers without having to pick up a shovel and get our hands dirty.

Given the disassociation and dispassion of the new world, it is a miracle that we still can talk of a sunny day, a rain-soaked morning spent indoors, a clear sky with wisps of white cotton wool clouds or a cloudy one garbed by the dark nimbus.

But not for long. With flogos looming large over the heretofore pristine sky, we can all look forward to telling our kids what the real clouds looked like when their sight was unmitigated by the ugliness of these fake ones that assume the shape of companies that pay for their genesis.

Let the debate begin. Clear sky vs the one fed with flogos? Let the good man win, in this tussle between the ethics and everything-goes.

Lets flog the flogos before they fester or else be flooded by this fascinatingly fiendish new medium.

Which is that item that has very high `COLLECTIBLE VALUE'

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com

MEMORIES!!!

A plethora of them get tucked away in every corner of your brain.

Depending on how you use them they end up becoming either stumbling stones or building blocks!

MY FATHER AND MOTHER!

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com
By – L. Aruna Dhir
Penned on 7th September 2008

My Father lived and died a man,
while I whimper and whine in vain;

My father stood up to challenges
and squared up his shoulders in courage,
While I beat up the dark and the negative
and flare up in rage;

My Father lived a life of responsibility
with arms spread like a giant umbrella,
While I cringe and corners cut
a shame ’am not a patch on the good gone fella;

My Mother spent her life alone
but never was she lonely,
I set out to live amongst a crowd
but remain isolated amidst many;

My Mother took on burdens with glee
and thrived on a sense of duty, merrily,
I trudge along and crush under the weight of goodness
wearing righteousness like a bloody harness;

My Mother abstained from little indulges
and lived a life of divinity,
I crave heights of love and attention
and hark untiringly about faith and conviction;

My Mother preached ’bout the virtues of frugality
while giving thought and lucre to the needy,
I subdue myself to the everyday pleasures
and rein in my mind as with temptations it staggers;

My Mother shunned religion
while giving into spirituality,
I chant mantras a couple of hundred times
and become subservient to idolatry;

My Father and Mother were two of a kind
they lived a life exemplary,
I enslave myself to the emotions of this world
while aspiring to live in the pages of history;

My Father and Mother, now angels in heaven
send blessings and watch over me,
While I live in conflict with the worldly beings
and count the trees as the forest I forget to see.

***********

What would you prefer in an employee, if you had to choose only one? Why?

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com
Here's my pick -
It is definitely, Passion, Zeal, Enthusiasm, fire in the belly........and any other name that you may call it by.

Passion for ones work ensures that the tiller paves smoothly all the paths that lead to his work or Goal. Be it, then, the path of wisdom or desire or honesty or punctuality or efficiency or being not just able to lead but always blend well with the team.

And because one has the passion, it certainly means that one has made sure that the essential requisites that arm him well for the road ahead - such as education or experience - are well honed.

Likewise, while passion can make people feel flighty, it still is going to ensure that for the success to be achieved again and again, shades of wisdom are roundly and squarely employed.

Finally, if it weren't for passion, then serendipity, creative genius, excellence, going beyond the brief and the marvel in the mundane would well be lost.

Hotel industry seems to be shy selling its product except some seasonal offers in fine print? Do we agree?

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com
A lady working for a marketing firm asked me recently. And this is what I had to say -
"Not at all. As with any other product, hotels too are extremely discerning about their target audience, the messages they want to put out and the vehicles they choose to put those messages out in.

Internet is a very popular vehicle as a new media. Weblogs, banners, company's own website, tie-ups with booking engines and other travel companies are common options.

Depending on the geographical location of the end user, hotels have also used the traditional media rampantly, including the extremely expensive option of advertising in mainline media - think International Herald Tribune, Conde Nast, Travel & Leisure, L'Art de Voyager, Vanity Fair AND closer to home The Times Of India, Hindustan Times, India Today and the like.

But straight advertising in mainline media or travel trade publications may not get the desired eyeballs and volume driven traffic due to the publications' mass and non-specific reach.

Hence hotels end up using other avenues prolifically, such as Direct Marketing, tie-up with related business group such as credit card companies (depending on the profile of the hotel and its target audience the continuum would run from AMEX Platinum or VISA Platinum to SBI Card), appearance in travel companies' directories and brochures etc.

On account of the allocation of marketing budgets and the need, hotels draw up a matrix plan that includes both the old and new advertising and promotional techniques."

By posting my thoughts on the blog, I welcome all views - agreeing with mine or in dissent. :-)

What do you do with your ideas?

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com
Isn't that a lovely question. One that already sets off a stream of new ideas.

My ideas are like my companion, soulmate, friends, family.........however one may want to put it.

Some ideas I go to walk with. Others go to bed with me. Some others pop up when I am on the treadmill or eating or reading or watching TV.

Some ideas I wrap up neatly and put in the safe corner of my mind, to be able to take out at the most opportune moment.

Some others fade away into oblivion. And some pop back like a long lost friend.

The most important stay right on top, waiting to germinate and take root.

Wishing you an 'idea-full' life.

Do you usually dress-up for the special occasion? What's the most expensive outfit you ever wear ?

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com


As for me, I don't know about the most expensive outfit. What I usually carry is the most appropriate attitude. And that is priceless. I have to assume the roles of the ring leader or the main cheerleader or the ideator or even a she-Santa around Christmas so this really comes in handy.

As for the ordinary occasions, I always carry my big Cabas Alto Louis Vuitton bag that cost me a bomb ;)

Would you rather work in a progressive organization and achieve more or stay put in a mediocre one striving to improve it?

We all have worked in both kind of organisations. There, really, is no ideal organisation and every place has its mixed dynamics as much as there are a matrix of people who work there and bring in their set of values, drives and energies adding to or depleting the corporate culture.

I used to lament about the deep-rooted politics, credit-stealing, clique driven and yes-man culture in my last organisation. And now when my niece (adopted daughter) talks of her experience with a Swiss MNC or a progressively Indian Legal Services sector, I notice that things are not very different.

I am sure, most of us want to work with wonderfully progressive organisations with utopian work environments without realising that each of us are essential cogs in the corporate wheel.

My experience says that we need to do a lot of internalisation and introspection in order to make our organisations optimum places to be in.

Yet, having said all this, when the going gets really tough (and absolutely against your grain) then the tough get going (to find another place under the sun).

POV

That's the latest buzz word. It means your "Point-of-View."

Someone asked me recently, "Your views . Do viewers value your valued views when viewed, in the same vein, as you would view them?"

This is what I had to say -

Two important pointers here.
The viewer's point of VIEW - and this to my mind encompasses the external frames of reference. Their surrounding environment, personal experience, societal influences and so on.

The other is the viewer's set of VALUES - and this provides the internal impetus and inclination (favourable or otherwise) towards the presented view.

The heart of the matter should be that while all or most would welcome the views that are in sync with one's own, we need to also value those that vary and use them in accordance with our driving forces.

That in a nutshell is my bird's eye view ;)

"What's the very first thing, you think about, when getting up in the morning? "

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com

Two years back it used to be, "Get up.....rise and shine....go to work.....' while the body gave entirely opposite signals."

Seven months back it used to be, "I am alive, I don't have to rush out of bed, I can keep sleeping while I get the Goodbye kiss."

And then I read something really meaningful and meditative so, since the last year it is a quick, short prayer and a chant to 21 times of 'I AM GOOD.' Makes me feel like a better person already!

What is the answer to the question: what is the the ultimate question!!!

Are you leading the kind of life HE wants you to?

Did you lead the life that HE wanted you to?

Have you decided how would you live your life in... 2008 or any other year?

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com

This is what I have decided......
BE!!!!!!!!!

*Be more alive in every moment.
*Be a better daughter, wife, mother and whatever role life gives me.
*Be a better writer and reader.
*Be a better being.
*Be back in action on the corporate ladder.
*Be more fun, kind, passionate and compassionate.
*Be more grateful for all that I have.
*Be and let others BE.

How Does One Feel About The Efforts of One's Co-Workers?

A Mixed bag of thoughts and feelings depending on the personal and professional characteristics of the person in question.

There are great and efficient workers with questionable personal attributes.
There are excellent people with poor set of work related skills.
There are pathetic workers with deplorable personas, AND
There are wonderful, top notch colleagues with exemplary attitudes.

No organisation is immune to this awesome foursome of categories.

Our response to them, our dymamics of equations at work and the matrix of relationships therein is a result of the chain of reactions set off by each of these conductors.

Isn't it???

If I could change one thing in the last century what would it be?

Picture Courtesy - I Remember You All by YamiChi

In the last century or the one before that or even earlier......actually from time immemorial - to wipe out the gene that makes us jingoistic, belligerent, battle-minded, war crazy, strife happy!!!!!

Significance and Importance of My Marriage to Me :-)

Picture courtesy - www.deviantart.com

Companionship, the undying enthusiasm to enjoy each other's company not just after 14 years of being together but for life and the challenging idea to create our joint footprints on our chosen patch of sand.

My husband remains my soulmate and best friend even after our marriage. The rose tinted glasses we wore during our courtship period are still intact with us. The only difference is that they have been appropriately enhanced with the tints of realism.

The significance for both of us is togetherness stemming out of trust, understanding, love, mutual respect, common interest, desires and ambitions. Also a deep understanding about what makes each other happy, content, satisfied, animated and rejuvenated.

It really comes from the thrust that we are two distinct individuals who respect each other's individuality and difference in personas but have worked out a highly compatible synergy.

WHY?

WHY? BECAUSE!!!

Because I want to know
Because I want to grow,

Because I want to explore
Because I want to implore,

Because I want to do
Because I want the thought to brew,

Because I care
Because I want to further share,

Because I want to question
Because I want to leave an impression,

Because I have a mind
Because I wouldn't mind,

Because I am intelligent
Because I want the knowledge to be permanent,

Because I am a thinking person
Because I may present an interesting subversion,

Because I want to act
Because I want to reach the fact,

Because I am curious
Because not knowing would make me furious,

Because of serendipity
Because I want to show productivity,

Because, at every moment, I am alive
And till my very end, I want to strive!!!!!

SO WHY NOT!

What qualities make you the leader of the pack in your chosen profession?

Here's my analogy worth its two cents -

Sight -

Far-sight
Foresight
Hind sight

Vision -
for self
for team
for society
for world

Sound -
Ear to the ground
Great listening skills

Mind -
Active
Fertile
Growing
Sharing
Caring
Thought

Touch & Feel -
Humane
Concerned
Motivating
Mentoring

Smell -
scent of opportunities
stench of trouble

Taste -
the sweet taste of success
the bitter taste of failure
the spicy taste of efforts put ceaselessly
the sour taste of rivalry
the salty taste of sweat over the big (and not small) stuff

And that to my mind is the recipe for a great leadership template.

UNCHAINED MELODY!

The song by the legendary singer is rather nice. And I use it here only because it is catchy and has a sense of instant recall about it. I also use it to draw a pun on the word chain as I talk about the food chain here. But the issue that I want to bring out here is far from nice and palatable for many.

Man is easily on top of the food chain, today and was always I guess. But does that give the right to man to disturb the other links in the food chain in order to pander to his undying gluttony and utterly lascivious lifestyle that reeks of selfish desires and self-centered needs.

Sample this -

Was man, as an integral link in the food chain, meant to devour the prized sturgeon's priceless eggs in the name of luxurious living. To please his palate and to beautify himself, man goes about it in the most barbaric fashion. Did you know that "the fish are stunned and transferred to a fish barge in fisheries, where they are kept alive until processing. Then the sturgeon is cut open while still alive, and the roe is scooped out and placed in buckets" (Stewart 1992).

Was man meant to grind the tiger's teeth or claws or penis or whatever into a potent potion, thereby turning the mighty beast into an endangered species, just to increase his own libido. Which the man sadly has, libido I mean. The figures, just for India, are shocking. "India holds over half the world's tiger population. According to the latest tiger census report released on February 12, 2008 by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the current tiger population stands at 1,411." - states Wildlife Protection Society of India.

And then there are the lions, elephants, rhinos, wild boars, black bucks.......... the list is fast becoming endless.

For leather, for fur, for shahtoosh, for ivory, for jewellery ........the mighty man goes for the big kill to make himself beautiful and ultra comfortable.

Caviar, Paté, shark's fin, tiger paws, ground deer antler, deer blood wine, and three variations of deer penis......... man partakes of this and more to satiate his most basal of physiological need as defined by Maslow.

There are two sides to this coin, two sets of arguments in favour of and against man's role and impact on his environment. Both are strongly, vociferously and vehemently put in varied fora.

My last blog on man's lack of responsibility towards his environment seemed to have kick-started a debate. An anonymous reader quoted Michael Crichton, of Jurassic Park series fame, extensively and commented thus -

"You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity! Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There's been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away -- all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time.

It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again." - Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park.

Another reader, thelonelytrader, had the following to say against what Crichton upholds has his belief. I quote thelonelytrader here -

Quote begins -
(1) Destruction is always, always, always an easier and quicker process than creation and evolution.

(2) Destroying the planet and destroying life are two completely different events. One is a lot harder than the other. I'll let you guess which.

(3) It is not a proven fact that life would survive a total nuclear war. (The converse also holds, but who wants to test that theory?) It is a huge assumption (and a bit absurd) to go from total nuclear war to, "Sooner or later, when the planet is no longer inhospitable...."

(4) "Ultraviolet radiation is good for life." Yes, in measured quantities and in combination with an as yet unknown array of other physical events. We are still discovering what makes life work. To make any presumptions while apologizing for human progress is, simply put, stupid.

(5) If we are gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us. Life on earth, however, just might go with us. It is how we go that matters. We have only been around for a blink of an eye on a cosmic scale, but most catastrophic events happen on such timelines. And we, as a collectivized organism, are fast becoming capable of triggering such events.

But that is beside the point. We really must err on the side of wisdom and responsibility. If not, then we should at least err on the side of caution. - Quote ends.

And to the dismay of many who fall under the other category and continue to distort science, life principles and Darwin to prove their point, I must state that I am all for making thelonelytrader less lonely. For I espouse what he puts down so passionately.

Here's another fact - "When we spray pesticides, we put the food chain in danger. By breaking one link on the chain means all of the organisms above that link are in threat of extinction (like the domino effect). By hunting animals nearly to extinction, everything above the animal in the food chain is put in danger. A 'chain reaction' in the food chain can be perilous! Since the food chain provides energy that all living things must have in order to survive, it is imperative that we protect it." - library.thinkquest.org

"Humans kill wild animals for many reasons. These reasons can include primal needs for critical nutrients such as protein and energy (as discussed above), fear of death or injury, the desire to eliminate competition for economic resources, the desire for wealth and related power, or spiritual incentives. Some of these motives
are rooted, in the most fundamental sense, in our own imperatives to survive and reproduce. The first three reasons fall in this category Manifestations of the other motives are substantially influenced by culture, and thus potentially subject to long-term change or considerable variation among societies and nations," writes David Mattson in the International Journal of Wilderness, Volume 3, Number 4.

All I would like to say, as a humble and polite reminder to my fellow travellers on this universe is that, it is not survival of the fittest but the hunger of the avaricious. It is not need but greed; not survival but a sense of self destruction.

Are we prepared to live with this Karma in the face of an utter lack of good dharma!!!