SELF-DEVELOPMENT

Book Review: “APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY – India Specific and Cross Cultural Approaches”

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:27:00 +0000

AUTHOR: SMARAK SWAIN

My 150th Blog posting, I thought to make it special. The book review is my work at Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Executive Interns Training Programme, Chennai. I tried to include as much interpretations as I could in the book review!

Psychology defined is general terms is a study of human mind, his behaviours and his thoughts. Applied psychology is an applied science of psychology, where psychological knowledge is applied, to study and solve various human problems in society. Though the book, “Applied Psychology: India-specific and Cross-cultural Approaches,” written by Smarak Swain, organised and formatted in a form to suit aspirants preparing for Civil Service Examination with Psychology optional, the book contains whole sets of psychological interpretations which can help people to look into their day-to-day experience and current social problems from psychological perspective.

Can a healthy body without disease still be unhealthy? The author says ‘yes’ by substantiating it, with the definition of health as defined by World Health Organisation (WHO), “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely as the absence of disease and infirmity.” So, in order to maintain a sound health, it requires a holistic well-being of body, mind and our relationships. There are inferences from various philosophical and spiritual works that the mind well maintained and controlled can indeed be more powerful in treating other ailments of body and relationship. For instance, take the Placebo Effect, where Placebo is something that is prescribed for a patient that contains no medicine, but given for the positive psychological effect because the patient believes that he is receiving treatment and his ailment goes off, but in reality no effect the medicine leaves over the body.

Defining the concept of well being, the author touches the two facets of well being: Economic well being and Subjective well being. Economic well being is a general economic status of an individual, while Subjective well being defined in crude terms as general feeling of happiness. Reflecting on Psychologist Seligman works, the author subscribes three ways to improve our subjective well being or happiness. First, maintaining a ‘pleasure state of mind’ or positive emotions. Second, ‘engagement of activities’ that leads to intrinsic gratification. And third, finding ‘meaning in life’ through knowledge, altruism, family and community welfare, and spirituality.

In the part Educational Psychology, for explaining Value Education and its role in Personality Development, the author exposes the concept that our values are stronger and indelible than our attitude. For a person, values represent principles or standards ingrained in his life since his early stages of life. While attitude evolves or forms during our developmental stages and it gets altered many times during our lifetime. Unlike attitude, the values are permanent and once formed cannot be changed or altered. The author places special emphasis on Values because Values form a basic part of our personality structure, so, it has to be properly formulated at early stages, for healthy personality development. A child normally develops three types of values during its development stage, learned specially in family, school and social environment, which is classified as: First, Universal values, highest order of values like sensitivity to humanity, love, brotherhood, compassion and empathy; Second, Cultural values, learned from family and significant others; and Third, Personal Values, affect individual’s motivation and strive for success. All the three values render its significant role in the personality development of an individual.

In Human Resource Development and Entrepreneurship topic, the author questions: What drives hard-core entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg, Bill Gates, Ratan Tata, and Dhirubhai Ambani in their venture? The author aided with supporting research works exposes the truth by stating, “For ‘super-achieving’ entrepreneurs profit motive is not their ulterior motive in their entrepreneurship venture. But, they are characterised to possess higher need for achievement and interested in ‘excellence’ in their chosen area of expertise, than just being content with monetary rewards.”

The author while putting forth various leadership styles gives special emphasis on Transformation Leaders, who are in need of much demand in developing and changing societies like India. Transformation leaders are those who rise into prominence in times, especially when organisation faces change and transition. Such leaders exert considerable influence over their followers by imbibing on them a clear vision and they design and articulate to their followers the means of attaining the vision. Such leaders possess all enchanting charisma which gets expressed in their personality and interpersonal skills. Such leaders posses high consideration for their followers and they are highly proactive. Through their intellectual stimulation, the leader tries to initiates his followers to venture into new areas for solving their perplexing problems. Rhyming with the author’s claim that Transformation Leadership is in high demand in Indian Society, I will quote a saying by an anonymous writer, “Swami Vivekananda promised that he would bring change in the world, if ten highly motivated and determined youths are ready to follow his ideals. Look at current situation, we have more than ten determined and motivated youths to follow, but we lack single Swami Vivekananda to provide leadership!”

Giving some psychological touch in the economic sphere, the author describes the reason for failure of our development programmes, proposed soon after Independence. India initiated comprehensive development programmes for bringing wide scale social change and development. The programmes, designed by Economist and policy makers, focussed on ‘Village as prime factor for India’s development.’ They packed their ideologies and philosophies in the name of Five Year Plans and mechanistically enforced over nation with intention of bringing nation development. But, however, all attempts made by them fraught with failure and didn’t achieve the real expectations. The Psychologist, who critically analysed Economist Models found inherent contradictions with basic fundamentals of social change and development. They criticised it for lacking the basic concern for human factor in social change, participation of stake holders, centralised decision-making, and it was devoid of humanism in development.

The concept of social energy discussed by author, especially, validates itself in the background of current events like violence and riots raging in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and Anti-corruptions movement in India. Such, collective behaviours by citizens in the form of social movements or social actions are driven by social energy. The author compares phenomenon by stating that ‘just like fossil fuel drives an automobile, the social energy drives the collective social actions.’ The source of origin of such social energies roots from extreme social deficit, high inequality, social dependency, social fallacy, etc, which exposes itself as social movements. The author advises the current political leadership for constructive use of social energies by providing proactive leadership through proper redirection or channelization of social energies towards super-ordinate social goals. Otherwise, they tend evolve as destructive forces and detrimental to our current social cohesion.

Describing every concept in brief and lucid manner, the author has covered every ideas of applied psychology with parallel connection with current social, economic, political and individual problems and he guides the reader by providing constructive solutions. As a whole, the 384 page book will provide the reader an edifying and enjoyable experience in psychology, as such.

ASHOK KURIEN – DYSLEXIC ACHIEVER

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:12:00 +0000

The oft-repeated principle, “Failures are stepping stone of success,” gets validated number of times when we look into histories. To further fortify the Universal Principle, we look into a life of man, who endured failures with determination all his young age to taste the sweet of success at later age. His failures which knock down him are listed below,

1. His educated mother was a teacher and the Head of the English Department of Bombay University, but, he was inept to even step up just one step higher from the lowest grade in his class.

2. His neural muscles couldn't understand simple arithmetic and he often made mistakes in simple spellings. He was not able to comprehend complex scientific concepts, principles and remember long numbers.

3. He repeatedly faced corporal punishments in his classes, at home, and even within his peer group leader, perfects. He was criticised dumb, stupid, useless, worthless, waste, etc, which killed his motivation to ashes.

4. Failing in his Seventh and Ninth grade, made him to study with comparatively younger students. Continuous abuses and punishments made him a rebel, aggressive and addict to alcohol and drugs. He was even placed behind bars for his negative social relationship.

5. In college, he was not able clear even single semester without bunch of arrears. So, he was able to graduate only at the age of 27.

6. In professional circles, he was not able to assimilate various marketing strategies discussed by his colleagues. So, they dumped down him as "useless and worthless," killing up his spirits.

With such negative profile, depressive experiences at his back of his definition, Mr. Ashok Kurien, now at the age of Sixties, is the founder of famous Advertising company, Ambience (famous for its Ad campaigns, like Thumps Up “Taste the Thunder”, Lakme, etc.). He was the co-founder India’s first private television entertainment channel, Zee TV. He was the motivating force behind the success of Playwin, India’s first online lottery and soul behind popular DishTV service.

How the phoenix, Mr. Ashok Kurien, was able to surge from the ‘ashes of criticisms’ to the ‘riches of achievements.’ The secret of success was due his attitude to configure his negatives into his strengths, which unfurl successes and riches. His stepping stones of success are listed below,

1. Though termed incompetent in terms of contemporary educational system, he was able to recognise and focus on his strength without caring his criticised weakness. His aggressive nature and acuity in sports made him the Gym captain, the boxing captain and the sports captain within his school sports circle. This sportive attitude helped him to look all failures and criticisms as challenges.

2. Before earning his degree, he performed several mundane jobs which helped him to understand the basic marketing tactics within various strata of consumer levels, from bottom poor households to rich industrial houses.

3. Understanding his impotence in learning complex concepts, he designed strategies to disintegrate complex terms into simple notions. For instance, he developed a strategy of clearing one or two papers in a semester in college examinations rather than facing all papers in a time through his “Break-it-down” strategy. He began to understand slowly his creative or lateral thinking abilities, which rarely endowed in other people. Rather than caught with his negativities, he was able to mull over his strengths.

4. With his knowledge of marketing behaviours, his “Out-of-Box” creative thinking, and “Break-it-down” strategies, he was able to provide solutions to various problematic phenomenons, with simple, creative and original solutions, which were rarely provided by others.

5. He recognised Partnership or Team Work. He never did anything alone, he performed task only with his partners. He believed that “If your partner’s strengths are your weaknesses and if your partner’s weaknesses are your strengths, then you have a team that is extremely powerful because there is no conflict or differences.”

Dare to face his negatives, critics, and failures, Mr. Ashok Kurien, after his unprecedented success, was identified as “Dyslexic” or “Learning Disability” by an expert in ‘Learning Disability.’ Thanked for delayed identification of his weakness, he replied enthusiastically, “All the drive to succeed in my life would have dried up, if I had known about the disability early in my life. Thank God! I owe all my success to my Dyslexia.”

SHORT STORY: GOD’S GUIDANCE PRINCIPLE

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:26:00 +0000

A lone man suddenly rose from deep slumber and was shocked to find his house blazing with fire everywhere. He peeped through window for help and found surprisingly, the God standing near his house. He was a stern believer in God and spent all his life in devotion to the Ultimate Saviour. He implored God to save his life from the flaring fire. But, the God was careless of his earnest demand and was engrossed on something. Got Anger on God and felt that it is of no use of depending on God, the man searched for some tools to escape. He found a fire extinguisher lying near him and he used it to escape through an opening. Infuriated with anger for not showing blessing on his ardent devotee, he disrespected the God, “I wasted my whole life on praying and propagating your greatness! How cruel your nature is!” But, the empathetic God replied in calm and benevolence, “Courageous child! Foreseeing the problem, it was I who placed the fire extinguisher in your room a day before.”

Many times, bad experiences perceived from high cognizance turn out to be a perfect protection of the Infinite Potential. Our constrained knowledge and intelligence fails to gain awareness of guidance mechanism of the Omnipotent’s influence on us. The God’s guidance on earthly beings is based on his fundamental intention of holistic growth of his children in their lifetime. The challenges experienced by living organisms on earth can be considered as a basic training or teaching exercise of God. Those, who endure the training or challenges, successfully emerge, exist and succeed in life. The rest, failing organisms, impotent to endure the challenges are wiped out without consideration. In scientific terms, it may be called, “survival of fittest.”

Perfection, Individuality, Autonomy, Confidence, Patience, truth, courage to face life and clarity in thinking are the characteristics the Omniscience tries to imbibe on us and he expects his children to develop into complete enriched beings on earth.

The core concept expressed in the words of Swami Vivekananda: “If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.” So, the God guidance intention can be summarised as ‘a phenomenon of gradual development of autonomy in living beings by increasing the faith on their resources and abilities, with Almighty’s protection working background.’

EXPLAINING THE UNEXPLAINED – '3 IDIOTS' PHILOSOPHY

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:23:00 +0000

Social Psychology supports that, people, a main component of society, are influenced and influence the social environment. The influence occurs through the forces of relationships, culture, customs, social ethics, etc, and leaves substantial impact over every ingredient of our life. Though, social influence is a life-supporting factor and has positive contribution in our life, astoundingly, they are problematic too, if we are just a passive recipient of such social influence. Negative impact becomes obvious overtly, during selection of our professional career, when it is just based on social imposition of parents, relatives, friends, social factors, attractiveness, etc. This fundamental mistake we make at young age, spew out ill-effects that resurface frequently to disturb us rest of the life. This ‘ignorance’ holds the sole responsibility for the talent-crunch that has engulfed the Employment Sector and various others field in India. This lead to human resource with misgivings like: Workforce with mediocre performance, talents and knowledge; people afflicted with stress and life-style diseases; lack of interdependence (relationship problems); drug dependency and abuse; crimes, etc.

The solution to the problem dwells in proper understanding of human nature. Human Psychology edifies our intellect with ‘wisdom’ which subscribes that our career selection shouldn’t be just a social imposition through parents, relatives, friends, social factors, attractiveness, etc, but one that provides us joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and fulfilment. The appreciation of above concept requires understanding the innate nature of human mind. Basically, humans are satisfaction seekers. They have deep inner ‘urges’ or ‘drives’ or ‘desires’ and they interact with environment to satisfy it. Satisfaction of urges gives him a sense of pleasure or happiness or joy. The people strive to gratify their urges by performing various activities in their lifetime. The important feature is that ‘People differ in wide ways in satisfying their urges, and it is based on the difference existing in their Genes.’ For instance, some people enjoy reading and writing books or blogs, some satiate their urge by playing games or hard exercises, some derive pleasure by working on music or singing, some get mesmerised in their research works or engineering, etc. The action which brings us joy is called ‘Source of Satisfaction.’ Thus, every individual has unique characteristics of satisfying their urges and it differs from individual to individual.

Problem occurs when we select our career which is highly incompatible with our ‘Source of Satisfaction.’ The career, which is incompatible with our Source of Satisfaction, will never act as a source of pleasure or joy and thus, we start to allocate limited time in performing it and get ranked as ‘mediocre performers.’ Following this, majority of young people fail to identify their core ‘Source of Satisfaction’ and develop coping mechanism to derive pleasure through mundane habits or physical sensations. This will lead to talent-crunch in the field they could specialise, that is, their Source of Satisfaction activity. Others, small portion of population, fortunate enough to identify their Core Competence (Source of Satisfaction), divert their career into their Pleasure Source and get ranked as ‘super performers.’

The above philosophy forms the core idea of the 3 Idiots film, one of the best films in Indian film industry, released sometime back. Raju Hirani, the director of 3 Idiots, centres the film with the above “Career Philosophy,” which is engraved spectacularly in every component of the movie. The Career Philosophy is: “Never select your career on basis of social or family imposition. Rather, select the one which ‘you’ find the most suitable, matching and enjoyable. This is the secret behind every super-achiever.”

The above truth is validated, when we interact with star performers in various fields. It will be the source of their success. To quote one instance, a friend of Thomas Alva Edison, once asked Edison, “You must have worked hard day and night for making such a historical invention of Electric Lamp!” Edison replied, “You have mistaken my work. Really, I enjoyed day and night before inventing the Electric Lamp. Because, I love researching and working with materials.” Research was the ‘Source of Satisfaction’ for Edison and selecting properly his career begot success in form of 1,093 US Patents, which remains unchallenged by any other inventor.

PERCEPTION - CONTROLLER OF OUR DESTINY

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:27:00 +0000

“We are creator or destroyer of our own destiny,” the common phrase found in most books on Self-Development. It views humans as an active agent of his life and capable of constructing his own experiences out of external real-life experiences. Earthly experiences can be considered as an unprocessed sender of data but humans are active, process-abled recipients of the data. It means that world experiences before reaching us may be either positive or negative, but, once it reaches us, we have ultimate ‘decision making power’ to allow the influence to impinge us positively or negatively. Thus, the phrase “we are the creator or destroyer of our own destiny” validates itself.

This is not a human formulated principle. It is innate, natural, universal phenomenon of human science. Ancient Indian Rishis and Gurus have recognized this super-competence of humans and reflected it in their writings. Recently, Psychologists acknowledging the above concept have described the complex phenomenon in terms of “Perception.” They portray Perception process into various stages as step-wise process.

Human Perceptual Experience can be divided into three stages: 1. Sensation Stage, 2. Attention Stage, and 3. Perception Stage. Each stage performs specific functions and the external experience (data) reaches our consciousness after traversing through the three stages in an orderly manner. The data flowing through ‘mental medium’ is considered as a complex mixture of the basic forms like visual images, sounds, taste, feelings, smell, etc. These basic constituents form a complex aggregation called Gestalt in our consciousness, thus creating complete, real world experience. (E.g. Reading – visual images of letters, Success – sound of appreciation and images as our status in ranking list)

External world experiences (i.e. Data) reaches our sense organs in an uncontrolled manner forming the Sensation Stage Process. The basic sensory receivers represent our sense of vision, smell, taste, sound, etc.

The Attention Stage, second stage of processing, can be compared with “Control Valve” in mechanical terms. Even though, we have the ability to control the valve, the control is partial and many times captivating data easily passes through the control valve to reach third stage. In reality, hundreds of data reach our senses every second, but, attention process limit the number of data to flow to next stage.

The third stage of human perception, the Perception Stage is a complex process, and it is a prerogative of individual. It is the most important stage that distinguishes Humans from other animals. The Perception process invoke our intelligence, our memory, our learning, our motivation, our attitude, values, beliefs, etc, stored in our Brain and act on the incoming data to form “well processed information.” This processed information in our conscious mind represents our understanding of our world.

Since, intelligence, memory, learning and motivation differ in quantity and quality across individuals, the interpretation of incoming data varies across individuals in quantity and quality wise. Because of highly subjective perception process, two individual encountering similar life experiences view it differently. For example, a person with pure knowledge, positive attitude, and purified memory, views even a negative experience in a positive manner.

Thus, our memory, our intelligence, our learning, our motivation, our attitudes, our values, etc, has to be enriched with positive principles based on pure knowledge. For this, initially, we have to control the basic elements of sensual inputs i.e. images, sounds, smell, feelings, etc. Later, our brain can be enriched by reading books with positive outlook on life, avoiding captivating images and sounds, meditation (which helps easier control of senses), relationship with noble people and minds, etc.

With this knowledge, we could assert intelligently that “We are the creator or destroyer of our own destiny. Since the prerogative of selection exist in my mind.”

INDIAN CIVIL SERVICES (ICS) – CAREER FOR FUTURE LEADERS OF INDIA

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:37:00 +0000

I recently met my friend, who had selected his career in Civil Services like me and the experiences he shared with me was thought-provoking and motivating for young aspirants of Indian Civil Services.

After my friend chose career in Indian Civil Services (ICS), many of his well-wishers criticised the career with several accusations. The allegations they place before him are: “The ICS, specially, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is highly competitive and disturbing career. Where political interferences disturb your career prospects in the Civil Services,” “You won’t have peaceful time after you join IAS. You have to keep stake your family’s safety for your career,” “You have to synchronise your decisions will meaningless political decisions of uneducated leaders, where money-power, muscle-power and corruption are highly rooted. You should be a ‘Yes Man’ to their short-sighted decisions,” etc.

Though, the comments he received are from people who neither had a career in Civil Services nor could be considered as people with highly intellectual ability, their concern seem to driven, basically, from manipulated information gained through biased media, films, etc. Leaving aside their short sighted concern, he gave importance to his intellect and wisdom, and he gave answer to his critics which can be considered to have deep social concern and feeds moral strength to the aspiring civil service aspirant. My friend’s answer was impregnated in a small story as follows,

There was a forest-fire engulfing the complete area of a dense forest. All the animals in the forest were running away from the area to escape the fire. But, a small bird living in the forest alone was trying to douse the fire by collecting water from nearby stream through its small cone-like beak. And, it was doing it persistently and diligently. An elephant which was one of the animals running away from fire, looking at the silly action of the bird and criticised its action in humiliation. The bird replied magnanimously to the elephant with courage and maturity, "I knew my actions are silly and it will not succeed. Yet, it will show a way for my future generation to this burning problem."

The idea my friend tries to imply: The forest fire in the story implies problems the Indian Bureaucracy faces at present and we, the young citizens of India, as the small bird in the story, should be torch bearers and beacons to show a way to current flaring problem in our Indian society. This requires young leaders ready to sacrifice ourselves for the welfare of society. For this, we have to utilise our knowledge, character, creativity, initiative, etc, to develop into leaders to lead future generations towards bright future for our nation.

The implication of his answer is that we currently face a “Leadership Crisis” in Indian Governance. At present, there are millions of followers ready to follow a leader but we lack a single leader to lead them (leaving aside some great souls in other fields). In current India, there is an existence of “scarcity of leadership” like scarcity of water, proper air, food, etc. This scarcity can be resolved only through young people getting prepared at present to be future leaders of tomorrow. So, career in Civil Services is the one way towards enriching India with “Stalwart Leadership.”

GLOBAL FINANCIAL DOWNTURN – OPPORTUNITY IN DIFFICULTY

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Global Financial crisis has crippled literally every sectors of the world ranging from Manufacturing to Media. It is considered as one of the severest economic crisis in the world in past 70 years after the Great Depression in 1929. The financial horror has its roots in the deregulation of United States financial system in 1970s with focus on achieving wild growth rate. Because of Globalization, the US financial downturn has spread over most of the major economies of the world. But, our prudent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with its remarkable, regulated, centralised financial system has well insulated our Indian economy from the vicissitudes of the world economy. We took pride in stating about the less influence of the crisis on our growth. But, multilateral sectors like trade and export, automobile manufacturing, tourism have faced the slump. For instance, World Bank predicts that world trade is expected to decelerate to 2.9 percent in 2009. Also, Our Indian economy gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 6.7 percent compared to previous year’s achievement of 9 percent. These tremors further leave influence in other sectors too. Though, US Government had announced bailout package of $700 billion to replenish US economy from recession, the responsibility of India to recover from its downturn is vested on us. Yet, we don’t hold the responsibility of causing it.
The great theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein says, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” With optimistic and growth-centred attitude, we can see economic crisis as an opportune time for India to recreate a perfect platform to bring its “Super-Power” dream into reality. With a dream of empowered India, we discuss various pivotal sectors which require special focus by striking it economically, technically, strategically and inclusively:

AGRICULTURE:
Agriculture and Agri-allied activities are life-line for most of the citizens of India. Nearly 65 - 70 percent of Indians depended on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood, but, it just contribute only 22 percent of GDP. India stands high in the parameters of irrigated land, but, its yield per hectare is at sub-standard level. To solve, the achievements of our Green Revolution during 1960s and 1970s have to be revived and we require another Green Revolution during current century to compete globally and to achieve the objectives of National Food Security Mission – to provide 25 kilograms of Rice or Wheat at Rs. 3 per kilogram for Below Poverty Line (BPL) citizens. We should make our Agriculturists and Researchers to learn the incredible achievements of Israel and Japan in farming industry. We have to show intense effort to introduce following measures in farming like SRI (System of Rice Intensification) technology, promotion of precision farming, micro-irrigation, restoration of soil health, supply of quality seeds to farmers, distribution of farm machineries, etc. for the betterment of farmers.

INDUSTRY:
Under current economical downturn situation, the industry has been affected the most, because of droop in trade and exports. Stimulus packages introduced by government should promote long-term investments along with the focus on short term goals. Long term activities include those like infrastructure development, training skilled workers, research and development, etc. Our investments in industry should strive to produce products which cause less strain on environment, biological friendly, recyclable etc. This has dual benefits: One, it helps in achievement of objectives placed by India before Copenhagen. Second, Eco-friendly products will enjoy less customs taxes in importing nations. Thus, it is helping in the blooming of trade and export of Indian state. Further, our government should follow special policies while importing bulk products from Industrial superpowers. Our import policy should insist the exporting foreign companies to procure at least 30 percent of their product’s components from native Indian companies. Such policies provide multinational partnership for lagging Indian industry sector and guides towards the birth of indigenous Indian technology.

SOCIAL SECTOR:
These are public goods to improve quality of life. The key social sector programmes needs to be concentrated are education, employment, urban poverty alleviation programme, rural health etc. Nearly 77% of Indian population are still vulnerable and deprived and our Human Development Indices are one of the lowest in the world. To eliminate poverty and satisfy vast social requirements, we require a sustained growth of at least 9 percent for next 25 years. If not dealt with urgency, the financial crisis turned economic crisis might lead to food crisis and cumulatively into security crisis. So, to recover and accomplish, we require shrewd planning of new policies in this humane sector which require vast investments, centralised control, accountability, and inclusiveness. Government over-conscious rural poverty elimination programme has failed to concentrate on urban poverty. The rise in urban poverty is fuelled by economic crisis compared to declining rural poverty. To rectify efficiently, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) requires new amendments to make it inclusive for urban region also, while retaining its success in rural areas.
Our policy towards education should be revamped with Dr. Abdul Kalam’s educational attitude which strives for transforming less-competent students into super technocrats, imbibe character to uplift Below Poverty Line (BPL) people, and realign their religious thoughts into a spiritual one to achieve social harmony.
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) which provides health insurance to all families Below Poverty Line (BPL) can be implemented in a fast manner. Thus, Primary Health Centres (PHC) can get advanced medical facilities without financial disparities through public-private partnership (PPP). We should provide better sanitary conditions and an improved microenvironment in the habitat and workplace.
In an environment of slowdown, we should initiate our action through public spending on development of basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power, ports and airports for urban and rural development which also revive the construction and allied industries. This will help to achieve 12 Million new work opportunities per annum and to manage growing unemployment in India side by side.

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them," says Henry David Thoreau. Though, India’s past accomplishments may be without perfect foundations, but, we can utilise this opportunity to perfectly lay foundations below constructions as Thoreau says. Our current growth rate of 6.7 percent during 2008 – 09 has placed our economy at top notch in world ranking. While world super powers are crippling under crisis, India is rising against crisis. Our successes are being recognized, our accomplishments are being appreciated, our growth rate is viewed remarkable and world has created a gap to fill ourselves as super power India. To end, we imbibe in our thoughts and actions following words, “Strength of nation is in strength of people and strength of people breeds in his strength of mind. Bring the minds in unison to conquer the world with empowered India.”

EYE FLOATERS - PSYCHOLOGICAL REMEDY

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Eye floaters are specific physico-psychological problem, caused by the occurrence of slender, cell-like images in our vision. They are usually dead tissues floating in vitreous humor of eye ball. The vision being our important ingredient for our world interaction, the repeated occurrence of floaters hampers the eye’s efficiency. The frequent appearance of floaters and lack of proper medical treatments for eye floaters, make people psychologically and physiologically sick and lead a life which will be filled with tragedy and isolation. To find a solution to such problem, below is a story which inspires with following knowledge: “How mind can be propelled for the psychological treatment of eye-floaters.”

Born from an opulent family, he hasn’t lagged from anything in his life. But, after recurrent stomach ache, he was diagnosed for intestinal cancer at the age of middle forties. But, he had a deep desire for life, so, he tried every sphere to get back his health. But, he wasn’t able to find any improvement. Vexed about his failure, he moved to Buddhist monasteries in high mountains of Himalayas for final experimentation. Shivering with pain and expecting guidance, he spoke thus to a Buddhist monk, who was performing penance, “My life should not end short. I reached you to find solution to my problem. I want long life. Help me! I am eager to live long.” The monk emphatic about his condition, replied, “Son, your problem is simple and I have provided treatment to such sickness many times to my disciples.” Thus saying, he plucked leaves from specific vegetation and purified it by his prayers. The monk replied, “Eat them and I promise you, your health will reach its normalcy. Have a complete faith on it.” The man followed the recommendations strictly.

After some days, his doctors were astonished to find improvements in his health patterns. The doctors decided to understand the science behind the treatment. Reaching the abode of monk, the doctors expressed their appreciation for the treatment and enquired about the process of treatment. The monks laughed and replied, “His desire was deep and I actuated his desire by faith. And, that is the secret for his health.”

The Buddhist scriptures insist “mind to body” action rather than present medical world insist “body to mind” action. Thus, when desire is deep and intense it promote mind to control our body in right direction.

Disclosure: The content is sponsored by "EYE FLOATERS" website

INSPIRING WORDS

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:06:00 +0000

If we do what others are doing, we are just sighted,

If we do what others rarely do, we are praised, and

If we do what others couldn’t do, we are acclaimed.

Thinking of our past negativities is sometimes analogous to consuming liquor. Attraction towards liquor is due to uncontrolled senses, similarly, thinking about past negativities are due to uncontrolled thoughts.

Troubles are trainers; they train our mind to face future troubles, just like physical exercises train our physical muscles.

Karma Yoga of Bhagavat Gita: “Don’t focus on results of an action, focus with dedication only on action.”

Pain, Pain, Pain – words are painful to read,

Joy, Joy, Joy – words are joyful to read.

ASHOKA – THE IDEAL LEADER

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:01:00 +0000

History identifies human who have turned the stone, which have been left unturned. So, let us take time to look at a personality, who changed the life of his people, although his society or environment or literature insist different behaviour.

Our imagniation has to shift to 273 BC to 232 BC, during the reign of Ashoka, the Great. Unlike contemporary rulers of his land, he is not acclaimed for his achievement in land acquisition, but, for his acquisition of hearts of his fellowmen. His philosophy or attitude or character had left a mark in the heart of his men during his time, to resonate his ideals along the time dimension. Samrat Ashoka, the emporer of Mauryan dynastry, started ruling like his contemporary rulers and had a bloodthirst objective of conquering lands. But, after famous Kalinga war, which led to vast destruction of human life, he shifted towards adoption of buddhism, where blood shed or desire for earthly pleasure is regarded as sin.

As a follower of Bhuddism, his objective changed completely and he utilised his authority for the welfare of his country. Ashoka’s totally new and inspiring ideal of kingship was found in one of his edict, which dictates his nature or attitude towards his fellowmen: “All men are my children”, “whatever exertion I make, I strive only to discharge the debt that I owe to all living creatures.”
Under his leadership, the Mauryan administration grown from country-centered nature to people-centered nature. He initiated numerous welfare measures for humans and beast. He promoted laws which uplift social and economic security. He propogated Bhuddism religion, not as a medium of self-expression, but for universal welfare. He discouraged social ceremonies, since, it entertained social rivalry. He destoryed Varna divison system of caste and implemented laws for abolishing superstitious beliefs.

Rightly, mighty Ashoka can be called as an Ideal Leader, whose ideals are to be inculcated in our life. “Many humans born and die, but, he who lives for others, never dies,” so explains the life of Ashoka.

PSYCHOLOGY – MEDIA CONDITIONING

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:56:00 +0000

When I was studying Psychology for my civil services examination (CSE) preparation, I came across some self-developmental wisdom which stroked my intellect to reflect a superior understanding.

Classical conditioning:
Ivan Pavlov, a Nobel-Prize laureate, conducted a famous experiment to manifest to the scientific world the conditioning behaviour in animals. He used his pet dog for his experiment. Every day, the specimen dog was kept hungry and after some time, it was fed with its favourite dish followed by a bell sound. For first few days, the dog didn’t show any observable response during bell sound, but, it showed its usual instinct of salivating on exposure to food stimulus. But, when the above process was repeated, the dog got conditioned to believe about “the bell followed by food” phenomenon and hence started to salivate at the very instance of hearing the bell sound. Thus, the dog got falsified and responded differently due to its conditioning.

Modern or Media conditioning:
In human cultures, similar conditioning behaviours are observable. Media like television, newspapers, cinema, magazines, periodicals, etc., promote such conditioning behaviours in human society. They hypnotize people with “false” teachings by taking advantage of human emotions and weaknesses. Most media portray attainment of pleasure or material wealth should be the ultimate goal in life, mesmerise people by stimulating false motivation, create hallucinating instances, etc. Such, exposure make people to get conditioned to “wrong way of life” mirrored as “true way of life.”

For eliminating such conditioning behaviours, our discerning wisdom should be invoked for our guidance. Spiritual and intellectual works can be used to destroy the habits formed by media conditioning. Moving towards media as an education guide rather than as an entertainment guide can be a better solution to such energy eaters. At last, we can boastfully say, “We are superior and intelligent creatures in earth; we aren’t endowed to get conditioned like animals. We are to conquer the world, not to be conquered.”

FORMATION OF CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:06:00 +0000

In Indian society, people are divided on the basis of caste. A caste of person is decided based on the family in which he is born. With ignorance rooting in the minds of the men, caste division is sprouting in every spheres of life. People belonging to lower caste, aren’t provided with privilege of basic amenities, similar, to those enjoyed by the people of higher caste. Though, such disparities are not visible in cities and towns, in villages such differences are still observed. More severe are the cases involving inter-caste dispute, usually, inflicting pain on minority lower caste by the majority higher caste.

To observe the formation of caste system, we need to have a glimpse on the Aryan Civilization or Early Vedic Civilization, which started around 1500 – 500 BC.

Early Vedic life was organized in the form of a clan or vis. A clan includes group of members including men, women and children. Members of the clan will be associated through closer or broader relationships. Assembly or sabha is the committee which includes all the members of the clan. The assembly elects a chief or raja who is responsible for the well beings of the clan. The chief’s activities are monitored by the Assembly members. The main occupation of the early Vedic civilization was cattle rearing, which, includes rearing of sheep, goat, cow, etc. Cattle were considered as important resource and exchange of goods were done by exchange of cattle. Agriculture was in its infancy stage and shifting agriculture was practiced. Every clan had an army, headed by the chief. Usually, the army includes members of the clan. The armies, along with chief, frequently attack neighbour clans to acquire more cattle and other resources. The resources gained by such fight or attack will be equally shared by all the members of the clan.

Another group of members of the clan form the priest community or purohits. The perform sacrifices or prayers for the well being of the clan. Special sacrifices were performed to invoke divine blessing for the success in war. The form of living or politics was egalitarian, that is, every member was considered equal in status.

As the years followed, Iron was introduced into the Aryan society and this helped in sedentary agriculture method. Now, fertile lands were considered as important resource for living. More attacks were performed by chief and this improved his prestige or position. The priest performing sacrifices became pivotal for success in warfare. This practice added value to the priest category. The other clan members who were performed agriculture, pottery, carpentry, cattle rearing, etc., attained status based on their success in living. Those, who were successful became higher category, while, those who failed, became lower category. Thus, Varna system of categorizing people came into existence. The purohits or priest form Brahmana category, the chief or army members formed the Kshatriya category, the successful members in agriculture (they are also traders) became Vaisya category, and the failed members in society living as carpenters, farmers, etc., became Shudra category.

This analysis shows that division of caste is time imposed or situation based. Intellectually analyzing will show that we are fruit from same tree. People, who enjoy taste of sweet fruit remark, “The nature of the single fruit from a tree is sufficient to judge the quality of all the fruit from the tree.”

We should imbibe in life with motto of “No Caste, and no division in people.”

MOTIVATIONAL WORDS

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Humans are powered with fuel, with which,

He is capable of flowering smiles on others face, when he expresses love selflessly,

He is capable to lift others, when he uses his wisdom selflessly,

He is capable of becoming immortal, when he dies for universal cause selflessly, and

He is capable of becoming rich, when he shares his resources selflessly.

In the definitions of our life, we tend to consider only our “active” days, discarding our dormant, “idle” days.

A modern “Information Age” philosopher might say:

“Give me an individual’s personal computer; I will forecast how his future will be!”

TALK PERFUME - RELATIONSHIP BUILDER

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:28:00 +0000

In science, we have diffusion principle, which can be described as:

“The process by which molecules spread from areas of high concentration, to areas of low concentration.”

In spiritual or philosophical concepts, diffusion principle can be observed in distribution of mental waves from our mind to our surrounding environment by principle of “Telemetry.” By making our thoughts more powerful or high concentrated by thinking, mental waves can be diffused for long radius from centered mind.
Such, mental diffusion can aid for enhanced relationship with neighbours intellectually.

Along with mental diffusion, physical diffusion, that is, by adding soothing flavours to our surrounding through "perfumes" can bring about phenomenal changes in our relationship. Vast list of perfumes products are available in markets, each flavor portraying various circumstances or bonding. Along with mental diffusion, physical diffusion can bring about tremendous difference.

I was using Black Market perfume to flavour my ambience and create better relationships with my friends, after I found such influence with my friends, who were using appealing perfume flavour.

We can share or learn such perfume experiences, by visiting a website "Talk Perfume," where discussion regarding various flavours, products in perfumes are available.

Add a flavor in life through thoughts, and bring about changes in relationships through perfumes.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by "Talk Perfume"

BITS OF INSPIRING THOUGHTS

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:42:00 +0000

While our position fetch us respect from others, it is our character that fetch respect from us.

Ultimate satisfaction is not gained by working with what we have, but, working towards what we don’t have.

“If you have an objective in life, you will make 1000 mistakes in life. If you don’t have an objective, you will make 50000 mistakes.” – Swami Vivekananda.

It doesn’t require “anything” to go against the law, but, it requires “something” to live along with law. The “something” is character.

Billion of men are born in earth, but, some are born for making histories, while, others are just born to fill histories.

NATURE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Last week, I had an opportunity to discuss with my friend about the importance of education in our human life. After a short time, my friend enquired about the reason for the recent clash between lawyers and policemen in my local town. After a brief discussion, he queried, “It seems lawyers and policemen are one of the highly acclaimed personalities in society, yet, they behave like laymen, by disturbing the life of common people. Education doesn’t influence their character and personality.”

After small discussion, we put forth various aspects, by which education in India could change to influence life of humans.

1. Moral education should be made imperative at every levels of learning. “Basic values of integrity” during childhood and “Pragmatic way of living with integrity” during adolescence and adulthood should be inculcated to citizens.

2. “Philosophy of success,” should be imparted to every individual after maturity in thinking.

3. Education should impart intelligence to differentiate “Spirituality” over “Religion.”

4. Education should help individual to identify their priorities in life.

5. Education should promote holistic understanding of living and universal brotherhood.

6. In every curriculum, complete life history of world fame personalities should be made compulsory.

After identifying these pivotal points, another friend listening to our conversation queried: “It seems your education demands intellectual or personality development as an important factor, but, today’s information revolution requires vast time schedule for technical learning. How your education is going to balance your intellectual and technical knowledge?”

My friend replied with radiance in his words, “If foundations are laid with perfection, massive top constructions can be easily designed with dedication.”

ACOBAY - SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Social networking sites are the medium for enhancing our relationships with the world. “Our intelligence is limited, our accessibility is limited, and our resources are limited,” will not be the usual utterances for the people with internet in their hand.

Social networking sites are boon to the people who like to be in cyber world, share knowledge and intelligence, gossip about their famous personalities, express gratitude, share experiences, pictures, creativity and many more.

When people struggle for money, life, blood, knowledge, relations, joy etc, social networking sites comes as an aid, by satiating and quenching their needs. Acobay made entry in 2009 to create bonds of relationship beyond physical barricades. Acobay is a social networking platform for bringing heads or intelligence or experiences to the world sharing. Blogging contents can be posted in the site which enhances traffic towards our blog.

What more! New thoughts, new people, new products, new design, new exposure, new experience, new learning, and many more in this newly engineered medium: Acobay

networking site

LAWS OF SUCCESS - POSTIVE MENTAL PICTURES

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:11:00 +0000

Our life activities are basically influenced by our day-to-day circumstances or situations. For instance, we get angry or joy based on how other people or situations are. If circumstances or people going to rule our life, we wouldn’t have revolutionized our life from caves to infrastructures. Also, most successful people aren’t situation moved or circumstances based. They handle life happenings effectively. How do they do that? Then, what factor has controlled our life or controlling our life or will be controlling our life?

It is the “mental pictures” which proactively designed by ourselves even when “physical pictures” differ.

Our physical pictures – our external environment, beyond our control like temperature, calamities, situations, people’s emotions, etc.

Our mental pictures – our internal environment, under our complete control like character, attitude, emotions, beliefs, health, thoughts etc.

Our internal environment is decided only on our mental pictures and is independent of physical pictures. Everlasting happiness roots from positive mental pictures by keeping it independent of degrading physical pictures.

Consider we are fired out of your job (due to fuelling economic crisis), our “peace of mind” depends on how we handle such contingencies. In this condition, the physical picture is negative. If this is allowed to rule our mental pictures, our peace of life will wither off. But, instead, if we take steps to design our mental pictures without influence of physical pictures, peace of mind flourishes. For a negative, adding a negative will make more negative. For a negative, adding a more positive will make positive. “Adding” is our responsibility.

Positive mental pictures are basis of our success. Even when world is filled with negativities, adding positivity at every instance changes our life.

OUR INITIATIVE STEP TOWARDS IAS VISION

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:29:00 +0000

How we are going to accomplish our Indian Administrative Service (IAS) vision? Where we should act to crack the most coveted services of India? The answer to this question will raise us above the simple, ignorant men. Below are answers to above questions:

Planning is an important aspect of initiation of training process. An intelligent “plan” is similar to creating a short-cut path towards a destination. Designing a plan requires complete understanding of resource availability – study materials, time, personal competence, examination schedule, etc., past achievements, and ability to forecast problems. An intelligent plan will be a guide map to our destination.

After conceiving a plan, we have “action” coming into picture. It is an act of travelling through our devised roadmap. When we travel (action), constantly we have to check the map (plan) to direct our movement towards proper direction. As we move along the route, “problems” intrude our efficiency of movement. Here, for tackling problems, we require enchanting character, high endurance, sheer hard work, commitment, unquenchable interest etc.

To perform perfect travel towards IAS destination, we need to concentrate selectively on three factors. The three factors are “Personal factor”, “Family factor”, and “Professional factor.” A perfect balance of the three factors helps us to attain the prefixed goal efficiently. From my perspective:

Personal factor: my character, my thoughts, my attitude, my competence, my knowledge etc.

Family factor: my family responsibilities, my family attitude, my family background etc.

Professional factor: my professional environment, my professional objectives, my professional capabilities etc.

But, personal factor requires special focus. Through, “Personal factor” we can bring about any change in family factor and professional factor. With reference to professional and family factors, we have less control. But, personal factor is completely under our control. As we know that, it is simple to propel us than to propel others to bring about change. Hence, to bring about favourable changes outside us, we should change favourably.

We end our motivation through a powerful quote: “Between every stimulus and response, we have every freedom to decide” – Victor Frankl

ETERNAL UNDERSTANING – DIFFERENCE IN RELIGION

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:14:00 +0000

A magnetic body or material placed on our earth gets influenced by the earth’s magnetic field. Living organisms are also getting influenced by it. But, humans don’t possess any sensual mechanism to sense the influence of earth’s magnetic field. But, birds possess capability to sense such magnetic field. They use it for tracking purpose and use it for directional expeditions across continents or countries.

Similar to magnetic field’s influence on earth, every living organism and objects in cosmos are influenced by an infinite cosmic potential, which originates from unknown point in universe. This cosmic force has effect on every attributes of our life. It possesses infinite intelligence and its characteristics are complex to understand by human’s finite intelligence. And, humans have capability to sense its influence while an animal doesn’t. Some people personify this pervasive cosmic influence into bodily form as Jesus Christ, some as Allah, some call it as Shiva or Vishnu, or some identify it as Buddha based on their finite intelligence. Cosmic potential’s area of influence expands all over universe, even beyond the distance at which human’s high power telescope can reach.

So, one question rise in our mind: Does living creatures outside our earth have similar concept of God in their civilisation? Yes, they will be having and their understanding will vary based on their intelligence.

So, this realisation edifies our mind with perfect knowledge: “Disparities created on earth based on religion are just human imposed difference.” Many religious scriptures have confirmed cosmic potential’s presence. Hence, we should never discriminate human on religion scale even at universal dimension.

IAS PREPARATION – MY FIRST STEP

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:13:00 +0000

IAS preparation path will be a wide, enduring, enjoyable, and focussed learning with acquisition of myriad concepts varying between general sciences to Indian economy. IAS examinations are basically to test our Emotional Quotient (EQ) rather than our Intelligent Quotient (IQ). So, our character should have upper hand over our intelligence.

I have chosen Psychology and Public Administration as my two optional. I have selected Psychology based on my interest and Public Administration based on the availability of study materials. But, it teaches one thing with reference to IAS post – Public Administration teaches “what to do” aspect, while Psychology “how to get it done from others” aspect.

To initiate my action, I started my preparation with "Fundamentals of Psychology" from NCERT (National Council for Education, Research and Training) books. The books regarding Public Administration will be available within month of time and I will start my preparation of it side by side. The complete grasp of Psychology and Public Administration will be ending on May 2009. I intend to achieve it with efficient preparation period of 6-8 hours daily.

With guidance of my friends and relatives, even the highest peak of Indian Competitive examinations Mt. IAS seems to easily conquerable feat. These words linger in my mind as said by Tenzing Norgay, when he failed in his first attempt to conquer Mt. Everest: “As a mountain, you can’t develop. But, I am human capable of infinite development. I will develop and conquer you next time.” So, the examinations may be complex or tough, but, we human can develop any talents to deal with any complexities.

SHORT STORY: POWER OF KINDNESS

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:09:00 +0000

That was sixteenth century, when medical and technological advancements were in their formative days. During that age, a 12 year old boy, when playing with his friends got injured severely in his hand by getting stabbed by a sharp metal point. The boy was hurried towards the physician for treatment. The mother soothed her son saying, “Dear! Don’t worry about this wound, you will convalesce soon.”

But, the wound got festered and the boy started to face severe pain on his limb. Without pain subsiding, the mother ran towards the doctor for seeking urgent treatment. The doctor diagnosed that the wound had become septic and his son’s limb has to be severed. The doctor murmured helplessly, “I tried many medicines I know but everything went futile. God only have to save your son’s life!” These words of doctor struck a thunder in the heart of the compassionate mother.

After someday, when doctor came to make normal check-up, he was astonished to see what had happened. The wound which might have destroyed the boy’s limb was recovering and he felt boy’s condition was safe. The doctor being the best in the country queried enthusiastically towards the mother, “What treatment did you give? It is surprising to observe the development!” The mother with ecstasy replied, “Doctor, you don’t know, I was crying for past five days near my son on observing his pity driven situation.” The doctor understood the reason behind his recovery: “In the darkness, the immense emotional expression of love of his son as expressed as tender tears got sprinkled on the wound and it made all the difference.”

I HAVE A VISION! IAS

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:06:00 +0000

When I was interacting with my uncle in Dubai through email, he insisted that I possess every talent to satisfy the qualities for a successful Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. Indian Administration Service (IAS) is considered as a highly respected, powerful central government job in the Indian constitution. The process of selection for IAS involves selection through the Civil Service Examination (CSE). The CSE is considered as one of the toughest examinations in the world. The candidates who compete for this exam have superior skills and it requires strenuous effort to succeed. When my uncle requested to make a try, I hesitated, even to make a try. Because, I felt I didn’t possess any talents as it compels (I believed myself as a mediocre with medium grade in academic performance).

But, deep inside me responded, “You may be filled with mediocre success in your past history, which may find yourself incapable. But, you are definitely not lagging in character, which might help you to develop the required talents for Civil Service Examination. It is better to endure great failures than to enjoy small success.”

So, dear readers my future post will be focussed on my preparation strategies for Civil Service Examination. I will also describe about the new ideas and new information from preparation process towards IAS, which will be definitely useful to you. I seek your blessing for my success in IAS examination. I am going to invest only one parameter to highest dimension for my success: MY HARD WORK.

EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL MAINTENANCE

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:57:00 +0000

When I was 10 years old, I used to play with my friends cycling game in the streets of Madurai. We roam across the streets, making visits to every street near my house. At the end of the day, we conduct cycle races in the nearby ground, where we move to express our cycling skills.

Moved by my eager request, my father bought a new, famous sports cycle for Rs. 2000. With the new capability, I intensely desired to win every forthcoming race. With the costly asset, I was winning consequently in every race, we had.

One of my friends, living opposite to my house, from a poor family bought a second-hand cycle for just Rs. 200. He too joined our races with his new asset. I felt, “Rs. 2000 and Rs. 200 worth difference will be visible in the races.” As I expected, he couldn’t win matches as I was making. But, after some days, to my astonishment, he was winning the races even with his under-value cycle. Surprisingly, he was winning continuously as I done before. I couldn’t understand the possibilities behind his success.

Filled with confusion, one day after completing race, I went to his house to know the secret behind his success. As I went inside, I was surprised to see, he was performing every small maintenance works for his cycle like removing dirt, oiling the spare parts etc. after he returned from ground.

Maintenance with hardware is openly visible from the above story and even from our experiences. This applies even to our emotional-ware. Achieving success “once” is simple, but, “maintaining” achievement is not simple. For this, we require physical, emotional, and mental renovations. Recreation is as important as working. Through recreation, we perform maintenance to our mind. We end with a simple belief, “Small men enjoy in single success, but, super men enjoy in maintaining success.”

QUOTE: "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought." - Basho

TEACHING – AN ACTION OF EXPRESSION OF CARE

noreply@blogger.com (SARAVANA PRAKASH) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:06:00 +0000

A teacher with 20 years of teaching experience was asked by a student, “Don’t you get bored by teaching the same subjects for children for several years. Even we get bored of learning, when concepts are studied twice or thrice.” The sympathetic teacher replied, “Dear child! Never my objective was focussed on deliverance of subjects but focussed towards expression of my love towards my students. So, I don’t get bored.”

Class rooms are the foundry where students are moulded by the mixture of love from a teacher. Teachers are figured equivalent to parents in the sacred Indian epic, Mahabharata. Rabindranath Tagore portrays with reference to ancient Vedas, the objective of a teacher, “A teacher has an ultimate responsibility of selfless deliverance of his accumulated knowledge resource to his students, without expectation of any material gifts.” Our thoughts are organized, purified, manipulated by our teachers. Teacher’s directions can create new direction in our life. Teaching is a noble action, which create noble men.

Identifying perfect teacher is the greatest hurdle, we encounter in our search of enlightenment. Once Swami Vivekananda said, “Give me a dedicated youth, I will revolutionize the world!” But, at present, we have number of dedicated youths, but, we couldn’t find a dedicated teacher like Swami Vivekananda to direct.

QUOTE: "A day will never be anymore than what you make of it." - Josh S. Hinds