Apperances can be deceiving - Never underestimate anyone

Dear Readers,

It is great to see you again!!! Once again thank you all so much for your overwhelming support in making this blog a huge success.

Today I want to discuss about not underestimating any person. Let us  discuss some common scenarios where this might happen.

We might see house keeping people and think that she might be an uneducated or under qualified person. We might do the same when we see waiters in restaurants or cab drivers. My dear friends, what we are actually seeing is only the out worldly appearance mostly deermined by a person's clothing. The house keeping staff person may have been from a very good family. However, we do not know the circumstances in which she might have taken up this job. Maybe she might be funding her education or feeding a family or might be taking care of her sick mother.

In India, everyone knows that superstar Akshay Kumar was a waiter in his struggling days. And, who can forget that superstar Rajnikant was a bus conductor?

Once the great Shayar (Poet) Mirza Ghalib was invited to a party by a Nawab (noble man). He wore a very fine robe to the party. When dinner started everyone noticed that the great Shayar was spilling food on his dress. The amused Nawab asked him what was the matter and why he was behaving so strangely. The Shayar replied in his poetic fashion that he had turned up at the Nawab's place a little while ago. However, he was wearing very ordinary clothes at that time. Seeing his ordinary appearance, the servants had chased him away. So, he decided to turn back in fancy clothes. So, this time the same servants treated him with proper hospitality and extended him great courtesy. So, he said to the Nawab that this was the reason why he was feeding his dres. As his apperance was the reason why he was receiving such a warm hospitality. The Nawab regretted the incident and seeked his forgiveness. The great Shayar forgave him.

So, the message my dear friends is that we should not be too hasty to judge a person by his apperance alone. We should treat everyone with compassion, love and show them respect. It is just like Eminem has quoted that he does not care whether a person is short, tall, fat, beautiful or ugly. If you show me respect then I will give you respect.

Hope you liked this article. If so, kindly drop in your feedback.

Have a great weekend,

With lots of Love,
Gunjan.

A Philosophy from Shrimad Bhagvat Geeta

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome back!!! Today I want to discuss a philosphical ideology.

This philosophy is from Shrimad Bhagvat Geeta, the holy book from Hinduism. It is a preaching by Lord Krishna imparted to Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshethra to prepare him to fight in the battle against his cousins.

This divine philosophy has several self illuminating preachings. A very well known preaching is "Karam Karo par phal ki iccha nahi" which literally translated means "Do your duty but don't expect fruits of your labor".

How can we relate this philosophy to our daily lives ? I can think of a few scenarios.

In our modern society we pressurize our kids to study hard so that they can be class toppers. Does anyone read for the joy of it anymore? You might think what is this idiot saying where is there any joy in reading ?

When we take a liking to a subject we experience joy. If a kid is good at crafts then she can continue to learn crafts. If someone is good at music then she can continue to study music. Similarly, we can find kids who are intersted in pure sciences. When we do what we like rather than imposed we experience joy and there is no greater feeling than inner peace and satisfaction.

Another, common scenario is at work place. If I work hard then I will get promotion. Althought, there is nothing wrong with having ambition. The real problem is when an expectation fails despite all our efforts. The feeling of being miserable can destroy a person. It makes him angry, jealous, frustrated and cheated. In short, he becomes depressed.

I would say that do not worry about human made designations like Director, CEO and VP which only ruin you by increasing your Ego. Try to become illuminated individuals. Become someone like Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa (I personally prefer Mother over Saint), Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Amelia Earhart, Leonardo Da Vinci or Martin Luther King. You would once again have self doubt. How can I be like these great people ?

But, my dear friends remember that God has made all of us all equal and we are all his children. Remember, Paulo Coelho's philosophy that when a person wants to achieve something the whole universe conspires to help him achieve it.

So, stop running after materialistic things and take one step towards God. Rest is assured that God will take you in his arms.

Jai Shree Krishna,

Your loving brother,
Gunjan.

Team bonding over long walks

Dear Readers,

Great to see you again!! Thanks for your overwhelming support and encouragement.

Today, I will be discussing on how I made some great friends at my work place. I work in the IT sector. As such we work under tight deadlines and constant stress. There is very little time to get to know the people we are working with.

I am an avid walker. I like to walk for about half an hour everyday after lunch. Since, my company did not have a very big campus I used to walk for about two kilometers around the office area every day after lunch.

One of my colleague joined me in my daily routine. We would talk about lots of stuff during our walks. We used to discuss politics, sports, religion, tv shows, movies, music and any other topic barring work. This was our time to relax and get to know each other. One by one my other team mates also started joining in our walks. Slowly, we had a group of about eight people.

We all came to know lots of things about each other. We came to know that one of us was a very good guitarist. One of the guys was a bike lover. One of the guys was an avid book reader. One of us was a great chess player and so on. We used to share each other's life stories, joys and sorrows.

As a result of our walks, we became very close to each other and there was a tremendous bonding in our group. This bonding also started helping us in our work. As we could approach anyone in our group for help without hesitation. Also, it helped to create a light and lively workplace atmosphere. We started smiling and feeling happy. Our stress was relieved and everyday we would look forward to our walks.

In my opinion, it is very important to have a social and friendly workplace where everyone can be approached freely. Hierarchical workplaces generally do not thrive very well. We are social beings and as such establishing good relations with our colleagues is very important to our as well as the company's success.

Hope you all liked this article. If so, kindly leave out your comments or suggestions.

See all soon again,

With Love,
Gunjan.

A simple lesson from my childhood

Dear Readers,

Hope you all are having a great day. It is great to see you again.

Today, I want to share with you all a simple lesson that I learnt in my childhood.

Lesson 1 - Work hard for success

I was in kindergarten and my class teacher Miss Shantha gave us a very tough assignment. That day we had to write the numbers from one to ten. Only the kids who would complete this herculean feat could get access to the play area.

I threw a long glance at the play area. My favorite red truck and Gi Joe figure was lying there. I was very bad at Maths. And, I could not even understand numbers till my first class. So, this task was like Mission Impossible for me.

But, I had a great level of determination and decided that somehow I would get to that play area. So, I took a look around and saw that one of my friends was writing the numbers very quickly and confidently. I decided to copy the assignment from him. I drew the numbers and soon we were done with the ardous task. We kept our assignment on the teacher's desk and ran to the play area.

I was feeling so ecstatic. We started playing a military game. We had barely started punching our Gi Joes against the Cobras when my techer called out my friend's name. My name was called next.

She pulled us by the ears and told that all the numbers were wrong :-) I was shocked and miserable. She made us write the assignment ten times and we did not get to play anything for the rest of the day.

That day I learnt an important lesson in life. We can achieve success only through hard work and there are no shortcuts in life. We should always develop our own potential rather than blindly follow other people.

Hope you all liked this small lesson. I would feel obliged if you drop in your comments.

With Love,
Gunjan.

How a news paper delivery boy became a top class Yahoo executive

Dear Readers,

Welcome back !! Hope you had a great day.

I am dedicating this article to my High school friend Harsha. He has been a source of constant inspiration to me. We studied together in Vidya Vardhaka high school in Bangalore from eighth to tenth class.

Our school is a semi government aided school. This is one of the most prestigious and well known school in North Bangalore. This is one of the schools where you can get admission purely on the basis of merit. There are no management seats.

Students in Bangalore have board exams in seventh class. Students above ninety percent marks push their luck to get into this school. So, the competition is very tough. In short, our class was full of the meritorious students all across Bangalore. And, you will be surprised to know that my fees for entire three years of high school was less than ten thousand rupees (roughly two hundred dollars).

Harsha was a brilliant guy with a very neat hand writing. He was the epitome of hard work. He used to work as a news paper delivery boy in the morning. And, in the evening after finishing school he used to work in his dad's small shop. He used to study at night.

I remember once we had internal exams and I was telling him how I had studied till one thirty last night. He casually replied that he normally studies till two thirty every night. After that I never dared to boast anything about studies in front of him :-)

After completing high school, Harsha went on to study Science in a very well known college and went to get a free computer science seat in R V College which is the No 1 ranked college in Karnataka.

He went on to become one of the toppers of VTU university. He was one among the only three candidates to be selected by Yahoo for Internship in 2008. You will remember that 2008 was the worst hit recession year. And, he was the only candidate offered job finally from his college.

He worked successfully with Yahoo before moving on to work with ecommerce giant Flipkart. He has also worked with LinkedIn. And, is currently based in a top company in California.

His exemplary success story proves that nothing is impossible. We can achieve all our dreams provided we are ready to make some great sacrifices and put in a great deal of hard work. As they say, there is no substitute for hard work.

I wish you all the good luck in your pursuits for success and happiness.

With Love,
Gunjan.

Three simple ways I use to relax

Dear Readers,

Welcome back !!!! Hope you are having a great weekend.

Let me share some of my hobbies which help me to relax. Since, I am in IT sector I work under constant pressure and hectic schedule. There are lot of tight deadlines. So, I try to find ways to help me relax and release stress.

Let me share some of my hobbies and simple things that I do to relax myself. Since, I am in IT sector I work under constant pressure and hectic schedule. There are lot of tight deadlines. So, I try to find ways to help me relax and release stress.

1. Playing Guitar: It was always my childhood dream to learn how to play guitar. As a kid, we never had the financial means to buy a Guitar or pay the fees needed to learn it. So, I could not realize my dream until I started working. 
One of my colleague used to play Guitar very well. He encouraged me and helped me to buy my first Guitar. Now, I have started learning Guitar and I am able to few of my favorite songs. Whenever I am very stressed I play Guitar to release my tension.

2. Watching Movies: I am a big movie buff. I mostly watch Bollywood (Hindi) and Hollywood (English) movies. I like to watch comedies, romances, thrillers, action, sci-fi and drama movies. I do not watch Ghost movies or movies with extreme violence. I try to watch movies which teach me something new or at the least hep me to relax.

3. Listening to Music: I like to listen to any good music. I travel at least for two to three hours every day. As my office is quite far from my home. So, I use my journey time listening to good songs. I like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Jagjit Singh, Sukhvinder Singh, Kailash Kher, Arijit SIngh among many other Hindi Singers. I like English singers like Katy Perry, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Micheal Jackson, Akon, Rihanna. I also listen to world music and like singers like Rahet Fatek Ali Khan. My favorite composer is A.R. Rahman.

Hope you all have some nice ways to relax too. In today's busy and hectic life it is very important to cultivate some hobbies to release your stress. Try to use your free time to nurture some good and useful habits. It could be anything simple. But, the important thing is that you should love it and enjoy doing it.

Take Care and See you soon,

With Love,
Gunjan.

How I overcame 3 of my biggest fears in Life

Dear Reader,

It's good to see you again !!! Hope you had a great day.

Let's discuss about our fears and how to face them. I'll tell you what I was afraid of and how I overcame these fears.

Fear 1 - Dogs

As a kid, I was once playing with my friend who had a couple of big dogs. The dogs were usually tied to a chain. But, somehow that day they broke loose and came to the place in the house where we were playing. Suddenly, and without warning the dogs jumped on me and started tearing my clothes and scratching me with their paws. I was very afraid and somehow my friend's elder sister managed to pull the dogs away. Form that day onward, I was very afraid of dogs. My fear continued till I was a teenager.

There are lot of stray dogs near my place. One day while I was returning home late at night, I was surrounded by 6-7 dogs and they started snarling at me. I became quite nervous. But, I decided that day that I would not given into to my fear. So, I stood my ground and started talking and pacifying the dogs. After a while, the dogs left quietly.

One more day when I was driving my bike I was chased by few dogs. So, I just stopped my bike and stood there for a while. Again, the dogs just left.

With time, my fear of dogs has reduced considerably.

Fear 2 - Heights
I once fractured my hand as a kid after falling from a height. I have also got few stitches on my head after falling from a height while dusting a window. After these incidents, I developed Vertigo or the fear of heights. My head starts swirling when I am at a height.
During my college days, we went out to a Amusement Park called Wonderla in Bangalore. There were lot of scary and thrilling rides. But, there was one particular ride where people are rotated 360 degrees and tossed down from great rides. I decided that this ride would be a good opportunity to see if I was capable of overcoming my fear. I took the ride first time. As the ride went up, my throat became dry and I shut my eyes tightly. As the ride swung me at full speed my heartbeat stopped completely and I thought I had committed a very big mistake. After a while, the ride twisted my seat and hung me in air for a good 5 seconds while I was upside down from a height of about 50 feet. I thought I would die of heart failure. But, after about two minutes the ride was over and I was miraculously still alive :-) I decide to take the ride again. Believe it or not, I took the ride a total of four times back to back. Next, I went to giant wheel which was operating on the 13th floor of the building.
After some years I did para sailing in Goa. And, today I participated in a high rope adventure. Now, I am no longer afraid of heights.

Fear 3 - Maths
I never understood numbers clearly. I did not even know how to write numbers till I was five or six years old. I always used to take my mom's help to solve Maths in Primary school. Sometimes, I used to mug up the solutions. I got a big reality check when I was in my 10th class of my High School. I was a good student with the exception of Maths. During my mid terms, I got only forty eight marks out of one hundred. I was very upset. I discussed the matter with my mom and she said if I wanted admission in any good college I should focus on my subject and technique is solving problems. So, that day I decided I would learn maths and not mug it up. I started solving old question papers. I used to solve one or two papers every day. I used to actually put a timer clock for three hours duration and pretend that I was actually writing a real exam. Gradually, my speed improved and I solved almost all the previous years papers. I used to work extra hard by staying up all night if needed so I could also get time to study my other subjects as well. In the final exam, I started solving the problems quite easily. When the results were announced, I had scored ninety seven out of one hundred marks in Maths.

Conclusion
Never be afraid to face your fears. The first step is to recognize them. And, the second step is to develop a strategy to resolve them. You may feel at first that it is very difficult or even impossible to do this. How could this guy know what I feel ? But trust me dear friend that the fear is always in your mind. Once you train the brain to feel otherwise, you feel the difference.
As the Batman, who faces the fear of Bats and overcomes it. It is now your turn. Go ahead and prove to yourselves that you can do anything without fear.

With Love,
Gunjan.