.... and let there be Hope

The media seldom portrays the positive side of our society, while in reality good things happen constantly leading to integrity, hope and trust. Through the following narratives, I have shared two of my recent encounters in Kolkata that give rise to hope.

Adhaar Card

We took the first opportunity to walk up to the bureau office to get our applications through unscheduled registration. We were elated by the professionalism demonstrated by the government officer on duty that day. After waiting for some months and a bit of follow-up the day arrived to get photographed and fingerprints taken. Fortunately for us, it coincided with our vacation time.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover everything well organized and there was absolute discipline … an order not too synonymous with our land with billions. Everyone came strictly by appointment. 
My daughter and I breezed through the procedure and all waz well till it was my wife’s turn. Her residence proof document had parental home address and despite all cross references in our documents they did not accept our home as her residence. While the supervisor was slightly inclined to make a concession, the person on duty insisted on adequate paperwork. But he did leave us with one solution, that too quite politely.
We were to approach the councilor of our municipal ward and request for a permanent residence certificate. Hearing that I said to myself 
… “now are into a never-ending loop”.

We hesitantly went to the councilor’s office, unsure what to expect as they did not know us personally. She was a very cordial person and though about to leave, she stepped back inside. The required certificate was issued then and there. To my apologetic “thank you”, she smilingly reassured saying it was her duty.

Completing the remaining procedure back at the bureau was easy breezy. Before leaving I thanked the person in-charge saying

“you are doing a great job and insisting on proper documents will go a long way to weed out the infiltrators.”

Mobile Recharge
One of this days we went to the Spencer supermarket in Kolkata for shopping. While making a decision on a humble mop, we got stuck between an unbranded products priced INR 149 and one of a known brand that cost 400.

A sales lady was present there from the brand explaining the advantages of the product. She highlighted this one was entirely covered with plastic not letting any direct contact of water with the metal preventing rust. She also told us that there was a 50 INR discount in the form of a mobile recharge coupon that would work with all service providers.

I said, “fair enough, decision made. But do we have to come back all the way to collect the recharge coupon or it will be available at the checkout station?”

She said, “I will give it to you now.”

Surprised I asked, “Now! What if somebody takes it and goes away without buying the product?”

She said “How much would one gain by doing that?”

I smiled and thought common people of Kolkata have so much trust and integrity...... Let there be HOPE .......

Tripura & India's Olympic dream

Gymnast Dipa Karmakar qualifies for the finals in the Olympics 2016. She has made us proud and the whole country is looking at her with hope for a medal. She is without doubt the most famous person of the small hilly Indian northeastern state called Tripura.
Here I share a few fabulous landmarks from this state which I happened to have visited during July 2016.

The ujjayanta palace, the erstwhile home of the royals and currently a museum

The South-side gate of the palace

On the way to the Neer Mahal or the water palace

The Rudra Sagar, which houses the water Neer Mahal

Ma Tripureswari one of the Hindu Mythological Pith (holy places)

Bhueswari Temple, the original home of Ma. The story of this temple is immortalized in one of Tagore's stories. The story narrates how human sacrifice was abolished by the compassion of little children. you can find more about it in one of my earlier posts here Maa-tripureswari

A Cityscape .... a thought

Sometimes we stare at a distant skyline and wonder about life. The thought of extraterrestrial life confuses us as we are unaware of any living beings in other planets of this large Universe. As a matter of fact, no one else knows about their existence either.

First I think we are alone and then chuckle to conclude .... maybe not!

Integrity: you & me - now & then

Integrity is the essence of everything successful......

"Integrity for me means adherence to strong moral and ethical principles while conducting our life whether or not other people are watching." Bucky Fuller’s (R. Buckminster) statement therefore implies that one has to carry out all life activities within ethical and moral limits to be rewarded with success.

Simply put, do good and it'll turn out good!

There is no denying of the fact that integrity of character is the minimum one requires for a success story although this not always the most visible trait of successful individuals. There are unfortunately many corrupts who gatecrashed into that league but we can always argue that exception proves the rule.

People have changed over the past century and today they are not so keen to retain the moral high grounds. Historian Warren Susman has opined in his book “Culture as History: the Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century” that the use of the word “character” peaked in the 19th century when it remained a key word in the vocabulary of Americans and Englishmen.” It was then very important to society and was promoted as an essential component of one’s identity. Integrity no doubt tops any list for good character traits.

What other desirable traits could you think of? Maybe some of these:

• Self-discipline
• Conscientiousness
• Honesty
• Reliability
• Optimism
• Compassion
• Kindness
• Perseverance
• Generosity
• Courageousness
• Authenticity
• Forgiveness
• Fairness
• Humility
• Responsibility
• Respectfulness
• Loyalty

The motives behind Motivation

The motives behind Motivation was published by me on the Linked In.

The global economy follows a pattern of peaks and troughs and the mantra to survive those inclement phases of recession is to stay prepared in advance. Readiness calls for periodic retrospection or self-appraisal followed by an honest endeavor to upskill ourselves. There is an old saying "if you aren't growing, you're dying" and this drive for growth often is what separates the outstanding from the adequate.

The thought of “further development” invariably annoys us at the beginning and a common question that haunts us is “why bother about further development within our busy daily schedule?” A gentleman once confided that he would rather be investing that resources for the future of his children.

But the harsh reality of present day life is that no jobs are permanent. Over the past decades, we have witnessed numerous profit making business models employing thousands around the globe going bankrupt or venturing into a totally new arena.  Another fact is that majority of today’s top ranking companies are less than 20 years old, thanks to evolving technologies. Continuous training of employees including the managers in certain industries are no longer an option but a necessity.

Professional membership to institutions such as PMI and CIOB insists on tangible continuous development. These are quantified through “Professional Development Units” and “Continuous Development Units” respectively. Survival therefore comes only with meticulous self-planning and happenstance could only take us so far.

Self-development is complicated to categorize considering the potential to improve one of our many aspects, be it persona, character, Knowledge or skill. But in the context of professional improvement, it has to be measurable and it is more of a process rather than being a one-time endeavor.

The dilemma is that once personal time along with top dollar is spent, it’s not unusual for Individuals to equate self-developmental to promotion or pay rise. Senior professionals see improvement from a broader perspective while the junior leaders find their motivation in short term gains. After in-depth discussions with the peers, it was obvious that the factors which inspire professionals are very diverse as listed below:

• Increase the chance of promotion or a pay rise
• Attain mastery of a skill set as mastery provides increased autonomy
• Gain more control over work within one’s own organization or team
• Develop skills that may indirectly be of value in difficult times such as recessions and layoffs
• Seek avenues outside the narrower focus of their given career field
• Self-direct learning to broaden knowledge within one’s area of interest
• The drive to evolve as a better human being and increase individual resilience
• Create the potential to discover new areas of interest

Gulf talent (2016) provides an interesting insights into the postgraduate study trend in the Middle East and the percentage of willing individuals is surprisingly very high. Even though this trend is triggered by the instability within the job market, the reasons for further development aligns well with my personal findings. Following are few graphical excerpts:

Love is a mental disorder

It was a typical setup for such traditional restaurant,high back seats neatly packed against each other with a square table in between. He was sitting next to a young couple having an argumentative conversation and he inadvertently became part of a important chapter of their life story.

“Loving is not always an easy task. Love comes with it's share of pain and guilt. Men fall in love more than women but you simply do not care.” she said.  

“ Yea! when women do fall in love, they become addicted to the feeling more easily. But unfortunately I am not a woman” came the reply.

“People invariably find the person who they fall in love with attractive and they write poetry or sing love songs. You are so different and difficult,” she quipped.

“This is not funny!” he said. “ Love is a mental disorder and I cannot transform into an insane to impress you. I am what I am. Period.”

“What's that you said? Now I know, I must be mad to love you so much” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Different people may exhibit different symptoms of love but when you list them down and compare with the diagnostic criteria of madness, you will realize.I will give you some example..” but before he could continue, she snapped.

“ I do not want any of your stories and explanation. I would rather be mad than sane for the sake of my love.”

“Preoccupation with lover is no different from obsessional illness. Feeling the urge to cry or ecstasy are bipolar disorder often referred to as depression. All points to one reality ….. Love is a mental illness.” He wanted to clear out the smog collecting around their relationship. But she got up and walked of saying ...

“ I was in love but you are SICK! Tomorrow morning I will be better but you will remain a loner till you change yourself ”

She never saw him again........
#thatstory

Deception, thy name is Trompe-l'œil

There is an interesting story about deceptive painting involving two renowned Greek painters from around 464 BC. Zeuxis, once produced a still life so real that it convinced the birds to peck at the grapes in there. Parrahasius, a rival artist later invited Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings after pulling back a tattered curtains in his study. But when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains too were part of that Parrhasius's painting. 

This form of painting would probably be categorized as l trompe-l'œil.

Trompe-l'œil as defined by Wiki is French for "deceive the eye". This is a technique of art which uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. A typical trompe-l'œil mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.

This is also written as trompe l’oeil in English and is thought to have originated much earlier than our documented history. Examples are found in murals from Greek and Roman times.

This also reminds me of our own mythological story of Mahabharata. When the Pandevas invited their cousins Kauravas to their new palace, Duryodhan had trouble differentiating real from illusions making a clown of himself in the process.

About a decade ago, I was involved in a project for one of the royals and that was my introduction to the world of trompe l’oeil. We had crew of artist sent out from our Rome office to do carry out the task. It was the female bedroom of the suite in his so to say winter getaway. The idea was to have the drapes painted on the walls to match those installed on the windows. I was the architect overseeing the commissioning of the fit-out and was quite pleased to be part of the overall experience. While leave some imagery from that job here, I will save the description of its application process for another time and place.