Final Shift

All my blogs including this journal is now being shifted permanently to Santosh Srivastava Blog. No more original post will be appearing here. However; I'll maintain monthly summary of all my posts for random visitors.

Time Gap

There was confusion in prioritizing certain individual activities. Thank got it was weekend and i had some time to think over. But you know you can not wait for a spare time to come. The activities around always fill the gap. This time it was cricket, my most fascinating hobby, did the damage. Nevertheless with India winning, you always have a good feeling (Ind vs Aus, Firojshah Kotla, 3 rd ODI).

New beginning

I can label today as the date of new beginning because of few reasons. One i shifted all my blogs related to managemet and philosophy to my wordpress site . Two, is the launch of my daily diary online from today onwards at this page. The objective is to see the journey of learnings and achievements in time. Three, is the beginning related with Shweta on joint wish for a baby in the form of determination.

Moved Back to Old Address

My blog is now moved back to the previous site;
http://santoshsrivastava.wordpress.com/

Jinnah, Partition and freedom of Expression

It seems there is a high correlation between Jinnah and Partitions. After more than 60 years, the 'demonized' name 'Jinnah' causing a partition in BJP. Jaswant Singh, one of the front faces of BJP being expelled from party on account of differences his views and party ideology. To add more drama in the name of 'confused' ideology, Narendra Modi announces ban on the book "Jinnah--India, Partition, Independence" written by Jaswant Singh.

This incident raises few fundamental questions. Is a political ban supersedes our fundamental right of freedom of expression? In a democratic environment, who will decide presentation of history? And from a political point of view, what is ideology?

We have seen similar incidences in the name of religion several number of times. Especially in India, it's become a fashion for political parties, to define religious sentiments and ideology for the mass. Still we claim that we are in a democracy. With such a decision, BJP shows confusion in their ideology. Advocating 'Jinnah' is not against India or against Hinduism. Demonizing 'Jinnah' will only prove ignoring participation of Muslim in independence. BJP will get into a confused territory as they have lost an opportunity to change their 'Hindutva' face into a 'Secular' one. The decision of Narendra Modi, who was once compared with L K Advani for prime ministerial candidature, shows that BJP has to do a lot more to become a real national party.

Jaswant Singh's views could be a fact or just a theory; in any case it should be either respected or argued with counter theories. Ban on expression should not be a solution, at least in the largest democracy of the world.

Beauty of Full Moon

Have you ever observed beauty of full moon?

In Indian literature you can find a lot of writers and poets who has endorsed the beauty of moon as the best in the world. There are two assumptions, one the beauty is feminine in nature and other, though it is not spotless, still nothing is comparable. On feminine beauty of moon, Bollywood has its own stand in their typical romantic songs. Here again the beauty of moon is at top.

There is another fact that moon is also known for is 'crazy behavior'. The word 'Lunatic' means the same. Is there any correlation between 'Lunatic' and 'Beauty'?

You must have heard story of Tulasidas, the great poet writer of 'Ramcharitmanas', a Hindu holy book in which the character of Lord Ram is portrayed as the best in human mankind. Tulasidas had a beautiful wife named Ratnavali. He was so deeply attached with the beauty of Ratnavali that he could not afford to be without her even for a moment. Once, Ratnavali went to her fathers place for some day. During those days of separation, Tulasidas could not control his emotions and went to see her in very difficult weather. In those days, in India, even for a married couple, meeting openly used to be treated against mannerism. So, Tulasidas, thinking of Ratnavali, tried to get in her room without knowledge of anyone, through a window which was above the ground level. It is told that he could not even recognize a cobra on the wall and used the same assuming a rope to get into the room. It was embarrassing for Ratnavali, seeing her husband so crazy about her beauty; she scolded Tulasidas reminding his craziness and referred her body just as lump of flesh and blood. That incident changed Tulasidas for ever and he become ascetic.

There is no doubt that beauty attracts. When it involves your emotions we term same as love. But let us not attach love with beauty in this discussion. In the above story Tulasidas was crazily in love with beauty of Ratnavali and a small logic explained by her changed his emotions for ever.

Full moon, representing best of feminine beauty, or otherwise, if attracts our attention is natural. And like Tulasidas, if not for a longer time, even for a second, we become crazy while encountering beauty, it's normal. By this logic love at first sight and being lunatic is no different. It can be assume that being in love needs a much more passion and emotion than what we can define with logic because with logic we can not understand love.

Coaching is an Art

All CMMi (Capability Maturity Model Integration) 5 level companies have institutionalized coaching and mentoring. There are scientific patterns defined just to follow and it will make you a successful coach or mentor. There is no doubt that such system gives an structured way to define profiles of employee which can be used for their future coarse of gains in the form of rewards or otherwise in the company. However; I am a strong believer that coaching is an art and it requires a lot more than system and procedures.

In old days people striving for knowledge, search for a 'Guru'. 'Guru' is a Hindi word, which is now common in English too, meaning of which is tough to define in a single word. To understand the word 'Guru' you need to combine meaning of teacher, coach and mentor. These Gurus were great as they used to take ownership of their pupils for their evolution into the greatness in the life. They had their own style and no structural or defined rules. They had a purpose and an art in the form of their style, for instance, we can term those styles as coaching, mentoring or teaching or combination of all. Their approaches were very effective as they used to plan and execute a list of activities to eliminate the weaknesses of their pupils with or without their knowledge. We have examples of great achievers in various fields who dedicated their success to their respective Gurus.

In an organizational perspective, I mentioned four parameters required for motivation in any in one of my post. These four parameters are product, strategy, the role model and career (What Motivates You?). A coach or mentor in your role model can make you great in your approach to profession and life.