Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Was That Really Bad?

Preface

What is a weed? Waldo said “It's the plant whose virtues are not been identified yet”. With a belief that same holds true for we, human beings we present this book. All of us are created unique and have some or other qualities often hidden and unknown to self. When we read through history books we find some individuals who have left an indelible mark on the pages of time. Were they different?, Yes they were, infact as all of us are, only thing they did was they identified this difference, this uniqueness and excelled in it. Most importantly they used their so-seeming failures as stepping stones for success. We analyzed lives of such people and found that most often than not they all hold some common life philosophies which strengthened them when they appeared in the midst of losing everything. Assuming ourselves like weeds whose qualities are yet to be deciphered, we thought of creating a “life-lesson book” which can serve as both as a fertilizer and pesticide for revealing the wonders this weed can do for the world. Someone said “The opposite of talking isn't listening; the opposite of talking is waiting”. Therefore we decided to create a script which interacts with you while you read, which gives you chance to analyze your own life incidents with the illustrative stories and keeps you as close to reality as possible. Hence we present before you not just a “Self-Help Book” but a “Self-Help Workbook”.

If you have seen the movie “Forest-Gump” you would easily recall “My Momma always said life was like a box of chocolates… you never know what you are gonna get.” We at times label certain events as “bad” as they didn't happen, the way we wanted them. We cry, shout back and mourn over such “bad” incidents. The failure in an exam, defeat in a game, losing an election, spoiling of business, death of a dear-one, missing of an important appointment or could be anything “bad” we can think of.

Life moves ahead and we find that so seeming bad incident shapes some important incident in later part of our life. The learning, the experience, the frustration of the “bad” moment somewhere down the line becomes a source of moving ahead. This book is all about connecting these so-seeming bad incidents and facilitating you understand that these all were actually blessing in disguise.

Before we begin our journey, let us set the platform for you. The two anchors “Chirag” & “Rachana” bring about life stories of six old friends who meet each other in an alumni reunion and share their life experiences. These friends in a subtle sense had been following what they call as “WHHR” “Whatever Happens, happens for reason”. The two anchors Chirag and Rachana will gradually compare, analyze and help you evolve the principles of life in the chapter-series called “Manthan” interwoven across the life stories of these friends. The flow of chapters is very scientifically designed. First two chapters share life stories where we will see how belief in WHHR led two of these friends come out of tragic situations and transform their lives. Third chapter analyzes life stories of these two friends from psychological point of view. It shows how our thought constructs restrict us from acting upto full potential and lead to frustration and despair. We will see how WHHR physiologically helps us recognize these hindering thought constructs and pushes us ahead with a rejuvenated energy. Fourth chapter shares life story of another key member of the group. The role of WHHR in his life is analyzed through basic concepts of life energy philosophy and this lets us understand how WHHR is scientifically true. Fifth & Sixth chapter present the life stories of the remaining two members and reflect how WHHR connects for progress of our lives in spiritual sense.

Just try to reflect some (so-seeming) bad incident in your life and for a moment assume it didn't happen, do you find some of your great achievement or happiness obtained at later phase of life being obliterated. Life and all incidents, people whom we meet, problems we face & opportunities we receive all have some forbearing on our future course of action. At times the forbearing turns the entire course of life. Let's jot down those incidents in this workbook and “Try to join dots of life working backwards”.

May be next time when you feel like mourning over some incident you may like to recall “Was that really bad?” and you will shout at Murphy who said “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something”.

Happy Reading Ahead !!!!

Arun Pandey & Sharda Gautam
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We are looking publishers for this book whose preface u read just now, would be grateful if you can give co-ordinates of anyone whom you know or aware of

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Dr. Kurien and Mr. Jyoti Basu

Mr. Jyoti Basu (Long term Chief Minister of West Bengal) and Dr. Kurien (Father of Indian White Revolution) both have been suffering from illness since long time. I was just swapping over the news channels. “When Mr. Jyoti Basu was taken to hospital, when he was sent back to home, which all doctors are taking care of him at home…….and what not was shown in detail. On the other hand Dr. Kurien (88) little younger than Mr. Basu (96) was admitted in critical condition in Bombay and now at his daughter’s home in Chennai didn’t find a few seconds spot on any of the news channels.

I don’t know what contribution Mr. Basu has made to the country or to West Bengal as the longest serving chief minister of West Bengal (people from this state might be able to tell) for making it developed (either in industrial or in social terms) that his illness deserved so much attention of media but I do know and I am sure people who have even a bit of awareness about “Bharat” (different from India) know that Dr, Kurien had been instrumental in making the country which earlier imported milk as self reliant and one of his dream organization Amul is rated among top 21 milk producer’s organization in the world. He has spent his whole life creating farmer’s organizations so that MNC’s are not able to rob rural populace of their due share.

I don’t intend to compare the two people (nor I deem myself capable of) nor I intend to criticize the media (afterall it’s a reflection of viewers choice !! ) but I do sincerely feel that if someone from media group (tv or newspaper) reads blog this do try to give a little space to the living Crusader of India’s post freedom development.

Friday, July 17, 2009

today

Yesterday I completed my first 3 months in the development sector and tomorrow will be completing the quarter century of life.

Was just looking back in an attempt to join the dots.

Life till now had been very comforting with if's and buts of health problems. With whatever dreams i took the voyage in the ocean of social work i feel if not good but atleast it has got a decent start. Recently had a talk with one of my colleague at NIT-Surat Subodh Tyagi, he remarked that -sharda i don;t know much about the things but atleast u have been able to pursue wat u dreamt while many had to leave on the way. I think Almighty has been gracious enough to support me with people whom i call as "Architects of my life" to enable me in this "experiment with reforms".

Future is uncertain- i still don;t know what good i will be rendering to the society at large and specially the sub-saharan africans, but as of now trying to evolve mechanisms for making rural community based organizations sustainable. Gradually more things will unfold specially with the rural electrification assignment in jharkhand and while doing socio-economic life cycle assesment of different alternate interventions across 6 states.

Lets keep the fingers crossed.......

Moving on with mission and as we say in IRMA.... if we won't ............. who will..

मन एक जुलाहा

मन एक जुलाहा फंसी डोर सुलझाना, चाहे सिरा मिले न मिले कोशिश से नहीं कतराना, जाने मन ही मन कि जब तक जीवन तब तक उलझनों का तराना फिर भी डोर सुलझ...