4-4-5-4-9-8 is Happy Birthday to You

Came across this tit-bit.

Dial “4-4-5-4-9-8” on your phone.

The tone will be similar to the Happy Birthday tune J

 

Finished reading "LEADERSHIP WISDOM from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari"

I just finished reading "LEADERSHIP WISDOM from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". This is the second book by Robin Sharma, which I have picked up to read after “THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI”.

The foremost thing I like about Robin Sharma’s books is that when one reads the chapters of the book, it is like being on a personal journey. The text is so engaging that you can relate yourself to every situation/problem explained and the solution to realize it. The wisdom exposed in the book is absorbable instantly.

In “LEADERSHIP WISDOM”, Robin Sharma takes you on yet another journey to elicit leadership wisdom via “THE 8 RITUALS OF VISIONARY LEADERS”

1. Link Paycheck to Purpose (The Ritual of a Compelling Future Focus)
2. Manage by Mind, Lead by Heart (The Ritual of Human Relations)
3. Reward Routinely, Recognize Relentlessly (The Ritual of Team Unity)
4. Surrender to Change (The Ritual of Adaptability and Change Management)
5. Focus on the Worthy (The Ritual of Personal Effectiveness)
6. Leader Lead Thyself (The Ritual of Self Leadership)
7. See What All See, Think What None Think (The Ritual of Creativity and Innovation)
8. Link Leadership to Legacy (The Ritual of Contribution and Significance)

I personally enjoyed the journey of reading this book and I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to be wise and wishes to evolve as a leader and leave behind a legacy. As Robin Sharma says, you don’t need a title to lead – “Lead without Title”.

Visit www.robinsharma.com for more on Robin Sharma’s offerings.

 

Creativity & Innovation at the Workplace

• Creativity is always stifled when people feel that they have something to lose.
• Visionary leaders never manage creativity; they simply unleash/uncover it and allow it to flood the organization.
• Life should be lived as play. So is work.
• The company that plays together stays together.
• See what others see, Think what none think. Find hope where others feel despair. See light where others see only darkness.

 

Quoted from “Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”

Self-renewal

• All action begins in rest. That is the ultimate truth – Lao Tzu (Chinese philosopher)
• If I have eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe – Abraham Lincoln
• Failing to devote time to the discipline of self-renewal is like saying you are so busy driving that you don’t have time to stop for gas
• Don’t be so busy striving to make a living that you forget how to live a life
• Stop wishing for fewer problems and start searching for greater wisdom
• Learning no longer ends the minute you pass your last exam. It must continue until you take your last breath
• As you care for your body, so you care for your mind
• The person who doesn’t make time for exercise must eventually make time for illness

Quotes from “Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”.

CERN - Big Bang Experiment (Particle collision)

The first ever time, I came to know about “Big Bang Theory” was when I was in 12^th grade school. I took a seminar in-front of my Physics teacher and co-students without even preparing for the same. I still remember, I repeatedly pronounced the theory as “Bing Bang Theory” and I still remember the embarrassment I felt after the seminar.

Hmm .. adhellam oru kaalam.

 

Now coming to the point : As a milestone in nuclear research, CERN has started off the experiment to study the state of particles which would resemble the state after the great “BIG-BANG”. For more info check http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

 

Workout by reading this...

Image received via forwarded mail J

Violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan passes away.

Violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan passed away on Monday 8-Sep-2008. He was 73.

Every tamizh music lover would have seen this maestro performing on stage or on TV(especially during festive seasons, where his violin serves joyous & elegant music to ignite the festive mood). He was a great South Indian Classical Musician who was versatile and was brilliant in performing hit movie songs to enthuse audience as well.

We will definitely miss the maestro. Though he departs this world, his music & memories will never. Long live his pride & his music contributions.

 

Excerpts from online articles:

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan is a top performer, arresting violinist, innovator and an artist of varied interests. He was born in 1935 to Sri Ramaswamy Sastri and Smt. Meenakshi at Kunnakudi, an important Lord Muruga Kshetram of Tamil Nadu. His father was an erudite scholar in Sanskrit, Tamil and Carnatic Music and a great Composer and Exponent of Carnatic Music and Kathakalaksheparn. So, for Kunnakudi, Vedha Sastram and Sageetharn have become the main discipline besides schooling.

Even at the early age of 12 his sound knowledge made him to accompany great stalwarts like Shri Ariyakudi, Shri Semmangudi and Shri Maharajapuram.

He is known for his dexterity and subtlety in handling the instruments. He is catering his art not only to the Erudite scholar in music but also to the layman. His play reflects his own different moods and the demands of his audience with whom he establishes and enjoys rapport. He dwells with ease and competence at the highest and the lowest octaves.

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan has deep faith in the therapeutical merits of music.

Besides continuing his profession, he joined the film orchestra with modern Theatres, Salem. In 1963, his Carnatic base and light music knowledge helped him to join in HMV as a freelance Music Director mainly for producing Bakti Songs. To prove his new region of Music, he chose celluloid media and produced Tamil Musical films of his own. The feature film ‘Todi’, his full length presentation of rich music with T.N. Seshagopalan is a success.

 

More Links on Kunnakudi:

http://chennaionline.com/musicseason99/profile/kunnakudi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunnakudi_Vaidyanathan

Some Laws Newton forgot....................good one!

Got these funny laws as a forward mail …

Law of queue: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the next morning you will have a flat tyre.

Bath Theorem: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

LAW OF ENCOUNTERS: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

LAW of the RESULT: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will!

LAW OF BIOMECHANICS: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

THEATRE RULE: People with the seats at the furthest from the aisle arrive last.

LAW OF COFFEE: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Hare & Tortoise (The team way)

We all like stories. That too the ones we heard when we were kids. Here is one such story which is retold with circumstances relating to modern day workplace.

Got this PPT as a forwarded mail attachment from my manager :)

Success begins within.

Golden words on Self Leadership, quoted from “The Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”

 

• “There is nothing noble in being superior to others. True nobility lives in being superior to your former self” – Ancient Indian Proverb.
• “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves” – Sir Edmund Hillary.
• “Before you can do something, you must be something” – Goethe.
• “Success on the outside begins within”.
• “Good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly” – Confucius.
• “We see the world not as it is, but as we are”.
• “You can’t do good, if you don’t feel good”.

Environment pleads Lord Ganesha on his Official Birthday

“Oh Lord, save me and keep me thriving” pleads the environment to Lord Ganesha this season, yet again.

It is yet another Ganesh Chaturthi, the day on which it is believed that Lord Ganesha bestowed his presence on earth to all his devotees. So it is his OFFICIAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY :). On this day, it is believed that this Supreme god of wisdom brings prosperity and good fortune to his devotees on earth.

But some devotees bring upon adverse environmental effects as well. Yes. When you think of Ganesh Chaturthi, you not only think about doldrums, decorated streets and temples, exuberant devotees and tons of music but also colorfully polluted ponds, lakes and sea. For years, the Indian Government and Environmentalists have emphasized on the ill effects of dissolving Ganesha idols in such water medium but to the deaf ears of these devotees.

I wonder why people dissolve Ganesha idols and found this piece of info in Wikipedia – “Traditionally, the Ganesh idol was sculpted out of earth taken from nearby one’s home. After worshipping the divinity in this earth idol, it was returned back to the Earth by immersing it in a nearby water body. This cycle represented the cycle of creation and dissolution in Nature.” But these days rather than realizing the essence of this ritual, people create disruption of the environmental balance by such dissolution of idols (made of artificial elements like Plaster of paris, Asphalt etc).

I wish this Ganesh Chaturthi, people realize the actual purpose of the ritual and the god bestows the required knowledge to his devotees for the same.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2007/09/environmental-pollution-caused-by.html