Sakura...

It is a time of Sakura - Cherry Blossom in Japan. I had the privilege of enjoying this awesome visual treat in 2009 and 2010! Sakura season is back in Japan and hopefully it brings lot of joy in the lives of people there! All these photos were clicked during the Sakura season of 2009

Sometimes our experiences limit us...

A few months ago I read a wonderful story shared by a colleague which was a fable conveying how we often limit ourselves based on our past experiences and our mindset. It was about elephants tied by a thin string which they can easily break but they won't, because they were tied by similar string since their childhood to hold them from running away. On a similar theme, I found an interesting blog - It's all how you look at it

Amazing thought, isn't it?

I used to have a poster in my home that had an image of Swami Vivekanand with this message

All power is within you.
You can do anything and everything.
Believe in that.

It is easy to accept our limitations and stay confined within them, creating a comfort zone which will eventually define our pseudo-potential, but if challenge these limits we may achieve the unachievable.

Interesting quotes from "The Kite Runner"

Read a novel after a long time - "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
Sharing a few interesting quotes from the book -

"For you, a thousand times over"

"One time, when I was very little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples."

"Zendagi Migzara. Life goes on."

"Better to be hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie"

"It always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place"

"And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too"

"A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer"

"Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it."

કોઈના હૃદયને આઘાત ન આપવો...

કોઈના અંત:કારણને દુઃખ પહોચાડવું કે કોઈના હૃદયને આઘાત આપવો એટલે એમાં રહેલા ઈશ્વરને દુઃખ આપવા બરાબર છે.

Source: Book અમૃતવાણી

Leap Year!

I never really studied the logic of Leap Year calculation. Never even encountered it during my programming assignments. Ever since I was born, any year that was divisible by 4 was a leap year. And so became my logic. Until I came across this very informative article on Wikipedia -

In the Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are evenly divisible by 4 are leap years. In each leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28. Adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a period of 365 days is shorter than a solar year by almost 6 hours.

Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a solar year is slightly less than 365.25 days. Years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. Similarly, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900 and 3000 will not be leap years, but 2400 and 2800 will be. Therefore, in a duration of two millennia, there will be 485 leap years. By this rule, the average number of days per year will be 365 + 1/4 − 1/100 + 1/400 = 365.2425, which is 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds. The Gregorian calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon—i.e. a full moon—that falls on or after March 21) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox year is about 365.242374 days long (and increasing).

Nice song, Wonderful lyrics...

हो मुझपे करम सर्कार तेरा... अरज तुजे, करदे मुझे... मुझसे ही रिहा...
अब मुझको भी हो दीदार मेरा... करदे मुझे मुझसे ही रिहा... मुझसे ही रिहा!

Song: Kun Faaya Kun

For all the sleeping beauties...

Came across an interesting article "The myth of the Eight Hour Sleep" that indicates how the sleeping pattern might have evolved over the last few hundred years and that "a consolidated eight-hour sleep may be unnatural".

Stages of sleep

Every 60-100 minutes we go through a cycle of four stages of sleep

Stage 1 is a drowsy, relaxed state between being awake and sleeping - breathing slows, muscles relax, heart rate drops
Stage 2 is slightly deeper sleep - you may feel awake and this means that, on many nights, you may be asleep and not know it
Stage 3 and Stage 4, or Deep Sleep - it is very hard to wake up from Deep Sleep because this is when there is the lowest amount of activity in your body
After Deep Sleep, we go back to Stage 2 for a few minutes, and then enter Dream Sleep - also called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep - which, as its name suggests, is when you dream
In a full sleep cycle, a person goes through all the stages of sleep from one to four, then back down through stages three and two, before entering dream sleep
Source: Gregg Jacobs

To read the complete article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

Three Men In a Boat

Came across a few quotes by Jerome K. Jerome. Made me add the book Three men in a boat in my Next-To-Read list. Sharing a few hilarious quotes here... :-)

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one.

I can't sit still and see another man slaving and working. I want to get up and superintend, and walk round with my hands in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my energetic nature. I can't help it

It takes 3 girls to tow always; two to hold the rope, and the other one runs round and round, and giggles

ROFL!!!

P.S. No offence meant to anyone :-p

Let Time Calm Your Mind...

Once when Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha said to one of his disciples: "I am thirsty. Go and get me some water from that lake there". The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water, and right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink! So he came back and said to Buddha, "The water in the lake is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink". After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha. Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, "See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be, and the mud settled down on its own and then you got clear water."

Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.

Courtesy: An article contributed by a co-worker in my department’s weekly newsletter

On Forgiving...

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong

- Mahatma Gandhi

ફળની અપેક્ષા...

"હું કરતા નથી, પણ કરતા પરમાત્મા છે" એ ભાવના થાય નહીં ત્યાં સુધી મન ભગવાનને અર્પણ થઇ શકે જ નહીં, અને તે અર્પણ થાય નહીં ત્યાં સુધી ફળની અપેક્ષા જાય નહીં; અને ફળની અપેક્ષા જાય નહીં ત્યાં સુધી શાંતિ મળનાર નથી.

- શ્રી બ્રહ્મચૈતન્ય મહારાજ ગોંદવલેકર

Joy of Giving

Once a cab driver arrived in the middle of the night for a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.

Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, and then drive away. But the cab driver had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. So he walked to the door and knocked.

"Just a minute," answered a frail, elderly voice.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood before the driver. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.
"Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she said. The driver took the suitcase to the cab, and then returned to assist the woman. She took his arm and walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking the driver for his kindness.

"It's nothing," the driver told her. "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated."

"Oh, you're such a good boy," she said. When she got in the cab, she gave an address, and then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?"

"It's not the shortest way," the driver answered quickly.

"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice." Her eyes were glistening.

"I don't have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long."
For the next two hours, the driver drove through the city. She showed the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. She showed the house where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had the driver pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, "I'm tired. Let's go now."

The driver drove in silence to the address she had given.

"How much do I owe?" she asked, reaching into her purse.

"Nothing," the driver said.

"You have to make a living," she answered.

"There are other passengers."

"You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said. "Thank you."

The driver was very happy that day. "What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if he had refused to take the run, or drive through the downtown?” He thought and retired to bed with joy of giving a little moment of joy for an elderly woman.

We don’t have to do big things to give joy to others. Sometimes we're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware—beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Courtesy: An article contributed by a co-worker in my department’s weekly newsletter

AMC planning to set a good example

AMC adopts green methods to bring down energy consumption

In an attempt to cut down on "soaring" electricity bills, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has decided to use green and energy-efficient techniques to reduce power consumption by almost 35 per cent.

The AMC has decided to construct all its new projects as green buildings, convert its main energy consuming establishment to solar powered one and change all the city street lights from high pressure sodium vapour lamps to energy efficient LED lights.

To read the complete article click here

One must not engage in duties other than his own

Have you heard the story of "The Washerman and the Foolish Donkey"?

To refresh your memory, and for the benefit of those who have not grown up listening to this moral story, it goes like this…

There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Moral of the story “One must not engage in duties other than his own"

Now take a new look at the same story…

The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet. The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed a "meets requirement". The donkey was rated as "star performer". Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a job rotation.....


Moral of the story - Remains the same: “One must not engage in duties other than his own"


Courtesy: Shared by a friend

When you want something, go get it. Period!

This is good!

The story of an African king and his dear friend.

The king's friend was a cheerful person, very optimistic. Whenever something happened -- good or bad -- the friend would remark, "This is good!" They would often go on hunting expeditions, and the friend would help prepare the rifles for the king. One day, the friend made a mistake with one of the guns. When the king took that gun and pulled the trigger, his thumb got blown off.
Seeing what happened, the friend remarked, "This is good!" That infuriated the king and landed his friend in jail.

A few years hence, another hunting expedition took the king to a place, inhabited by cannibals. The cannibals caught him and began celebrating their upcoming feast. The king's hands were tied and he was being washed to be put into a large earthen pot that was being readied for cooking. Just then, someone noticed that the king had no thumb. As it happened, these cannibals were a superstitious lot. They never ate anyone who was less than whole. So the king was set free.

As he headed back to his palace, the king recalled the incident when he had lost his thumb. He realized his dear friend was right in saying, "This is good!" Losing a thumb that day had actually saved his life. He quickly ordered his friend to be set free.
He narrated to his friend what had happened and apologized. "I shouldn't have put you in prison," said the king. "That was bad!"
"No, no. This is good!" said the friend. "What do you mean," asked the King. "How could sending you to jail have been good?"
"Don't you see?" said the friend, "If I had not been in jail, I would have been out with you. And the cannibals would then have killed and eaten me!"

So, next time you find things are not going your way, think of the king's thumb. And whatever happens, just say, "This is good!" Your world will be a better place. None of us can control external events. What happens can be good or bad. What you can control is your response, your feelings. You can choose to feel good or you can choose to feel bad.
The choice is yours.

When you moan and say this is bad, the mind gets conditioned to look for difficulty in opportunity. And when you say this is good, the mind looks for opportunity in difficulty. And therein lies the difference between winners and losers.
Just say 'this is good'. It's a good mantra to live by.

Courtesy: Shared by a friend

Bravo Delhi Metro Team!

Delhi Metro’s steps on climate change bring earnings

The Delhi Metro is the first rail network in the world to have two projects registered with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Not only has it succeeded in preventing release of almost one lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but is also earning carbon emission reductions (CERS) under the carbon credit scheme.

In 2007 alone Delhi Metro had succeeded in helping reduce 17,000 vehicles from plying on the streets and ensuring an analogous reduction of about 26,691 litres of fuel.

The present ridership in Metro is 18 lakhs per day but will go up to a combined ridership of 40 lakhs per day once the Phase 3 of the Metro is completed

Under regenerative braking process, whenever metro trains apply brakes, three phase-traction motors installed on them act as generators to produce electrical energy which goes back into the Over Head Electricity (OHE) lines.
The energy that is supplied back to the OHE is used by other accelerating trains on the same line, thus saving overall energy in the system as about 30 per cent of electricity requirement is reduced.
The certification report was given by German-based validation organisation TUV NORD, which conducted an audit on behalf of the UNFCC.

The DMRC saves 1,12,500 megawatt hours of power generation by restricting and reusing power through regenerative braking thus preventing over 90,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.
This figure will only increase once Phase 2 and 3 get completed.

- At a workshop on Climate Change Financing organised by the UNDP and the department of economic affairs, DMRC managing director pointed out.

To read complete article click here

Interesting Quotes from Ignited Minds

Enjoyed reading the book Ignited Minds by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam
Sharing a few very interesting quotes from the book -

There is no greater power than the commitment to a dream. Dreams hold something of that energy which lies at the heart of all things and are the binding force that brings the spiritual and the material together.

Dream, dream, dream. Dream transforms into thoughts. Thoughts result in actions

I always assessed my worth by the value of my contribution. The fundamental thing is that you must know that you deserve the good things of life, the benefits that God bestows.

A man is said to pass through different stages in his lifetime. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, in his book Manifest Your Destiny, makes an interesting categorization of them as athlete stage, warrior stage, statesperson stage and spirit stage. It occurred to me that nations too make a similar transition and in extending this analogy to them I have termed the last two stages big brother and self-realization stages respectively...

Ancient India was a knowledge society and a leader in many intellectual pursuits, particularly in the fields of mathematics, medicine and astronomy. A renaissance is imperative for us to once again become a knowledge superpower rather than simply providing cheap labour in areas of high technology.

Lessons from Ramayana

Shri Ram, Sita and Lakshman were spending their days in exile in the forests. Sita was abducted by Ravan. While Ravan was on his way to Lanka, Sita threw some of her jwellery as a lead on Mt. Rishyamuk. Sugriv found some of them and kept them with him. In their search for Sita, both Ram and Lakshman came to the mountain. Sugriv, on their enquiry, brought Sita's jwellery and narrated what he had seen. Shri Ram gave the jewels to Lakshman to see if he could recognize them. Lakshman failed to identify Sita's earrings and a necklace, but when he saw her anklet he burst out joyfully, "This is mother Sita's anklet." Ram asked him why he hadn't recognized Sita's earrings (kundal) and bracelet (keyur). In reply Lakshman answered,

Naham janami keyuram, naham janami kundalam,
Nupuram eva janami, nityam padabhivandanat

"I have never seen mother Sita's earrings and her bracelet but while touching the dust of her holy feet everyday I had noticed these anklets."

For 14 long, testing years when only three individuals lived and moved together in the forests, we find Lakshman serving both Ram and Sita with unswerving discipline. The epic Ramayana eloquently drives home a lesson of respect bordered with discipline. Lakshman attributes his nobility by saying,

Pita yasya shuchimurto mata yasya pativrata,
Ubhabhyameva sambhrutaha tasya no chalate manah.

"One's mind is never soiled by evil thoughts when one is born of pure noble parents."

Courtesy: An excerpt from "Turning Point - Enlightening Essays on Life Part 1" - Swaminarayan Aksharpith

Ego & Spirit

Conversation between two babies – Ego and Spirit – while in the womb.

Spirit says to Ego, ‘I know you are going to find this hard to accept, but I believe there is life after birth.’

Ego responds, ‘Don’t be foolish. Look around you. This is all there is. Why must you always be thinking about something beyond this reality? Accept your lot in life.’

Spirit quietens down for a while, but not for long. ‘Ego, now don’t get angry, but I also believe that there is a Mother.

A Mother! Ego laughs. How can you say that? You’ve never seen a Mother, you don’t know what Mother is.Wht can’t you accept that this is all there is? You are here alone with me. This is your reality.

‘Ego’, Spirit begs, please listen. What about those constant pressures we both feel, those movements that make us so uncomfortable sometimes, the feeling that we are being squeezed in as we grow? I think we shall soon have a new life, that we shall see light.’

Spirit tries not to bother Ego again but cannot resist one last try. ‘Ego,’ she says, ‘I will not bother you again. But I do believe that after all this discomfort not only shall we see light but also experience the bliss of meeting Mother.’

Ego’s reply is of course, that Spirit is truly mad.

Courtesy: Ignited Minds – A P J Abdul Kalam

There's only one boss...

There’s only one boss—the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

-Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart

Build wisely...

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the pay check each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour. The carpenter said yes, but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, "This is your house... my gift to you."

The carpenter was shocked!

What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

Moral: Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today. Therefore, Build wisely!


Courtesy: An article contributed by a co-worker in my department’s weekly newsletter

Productivity and efficiency...

Productivity and efficiency can be achieved only step by step with sustained hard work, relentless attention to details and insistence on the highest standards of quality and performance

- J. R. D. Tata