tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10872763140227225292024-02-20T10:00:03.907-08:00Reflective ResonancesAstihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-49534546773889322012-11-15T00:16:00.002-08:002020-07-31T10:50:36.142-07:00How less is more<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">11-Nov-2012</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">In one of those interesting conversations about life
and its great nuggets of wisdom, a friend of mine casually asked me one day - How much more is less when it comes to measuring happiness? While I try in my best capacity
to answer this interesting question, I find it more fulfilling to answer it the other
way around - how much less is more?</span></div>
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Honestly it is 'too little' that proves to be 'a lot' to keep ones life on top
of the world. I bet all of us would have come across or will come across that bit
at least once in our lives.</span><br />
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The discovery might ask you to take a walk down the memory lane or look
around wide enough in your present or in your vision of the future. Worth a walk though!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Keeping the greater number (which most of us fall into)
aside, there are people for whom a shared smile served with a cup of coffee is
just sufficient to call it a fulfilled life. For some others, their innate
anxieties fuming out of the kitchen chimney is just sufficient to make it an
easy life. For some chatting it away with a good friend, for some taking a stroll with a loved one. There are some who wake up to watch the sun rising in glory, setting in
serenity and traversing a much secretive trajectory of dews and droughts in
between....makes it an absorbed reading, called life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The last set of people are unspoken
observers who have given most to the world and the generation that follows, and ewho xpect
the least when it comes to see the their own trees </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">blossom</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">. They live in old age homes because the children raised by them are ‘grown
big’ with beliefs such as - it takes a lot to care for aged, and this very belief raises
the need for outsourcing. The outsourced responsibilities along with the less resourced elderly, then lands into a home-to-be place away from the home. A paid service on a moral exchange?</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Their journey of rising as adults to raising adults take a
halt to a deserted territory where there are no children no adults, no grooming
no advising, only the like fated and looking-alike group of senior citizens gazing
at horizon trying to give meaning to this blanket of blankness…..no attempt
could ever justify the irony. I think of a time when these parents would have held
little fingers and walked them up to school. Those little fingers have grown bigger now to walk them down to an old age home so thoughtfully crafted for the ‘elderly in
need’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Some make it an even stranger definition of needs - they
just need a piece of cotton in the fist and they hold it tight to say that's
all they ever need from the world to make it a happy life. On our side of
their world we have grossly perceived their needs as special needs and at their side they call it the bare needs. We call them special because they are a lot
in dissimilarity with most of us, they may look challenged to the common eyes but stand
unchallenged when it comes to humanism – they are true, real and righteous much
developed human than most of us. They are indeed special but their needs are
smaller than the smallest needs that anyone of us could think of.</span><br />
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It’s been a continuous debate within me if the last need is
more important than the first need. I feel the first set of needs that we define as fundamental needs develops a person and the last
need also known as the self actualization, defines him. As I love dwelling in my last need these days, I feel all of us must try to bridge the distance between the first and the last needs. Most of us though, walk a spiral path when it comes to the first
and the last needs, expanding the distance between the two by every passing day. The sun-set dwellers walk a small step everyday that
bridges the distance between their first and last needs and then they stop and
reflect, waiting for a new day with zero new wants. </span><br />
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The special folks on the other hand, make it a point to demonstrate everyday that the first and the last needs are same, they begin and end at the very point of
being free of wants.</span><br />
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So where is the question of how much more is less, or how
much less is more? Looks like it’s just sufficient, apt, ample and
adequate, wherever we are and whatever we have got. Can we take the next and final step of enjoying it please? That's the message of a special heart beating in every special child.</span>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-48529591945999183672012-10-09T14:59:00.000-07:002015-08-31T11:30:47.397-07:00A Beautiful Necklace <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p>We were on a ferry from Gateway of India to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Elephanta</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Caves</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the sea was sounding solemn like the lines "miles to go before I sleep.....". My elder sister Swati, her husband Harish. our mom and I, all four of us were busy weaving a massive net of thoughts interlocking with each other at some place or the other, consciously avoiding to exchange glances and failing in attempt multiple times, followed by an instantly baked smile that said “darn! I just missed a knot in my net”. There was more in our collective minds than the waves of the ocean we were now part of…..hoping not to see a droplet in anyone’s eyes was the abrupt wish we were constantly making in tandem. I witnessed for the first time that an ocean could reflect so deep on our lives, until this time I always thought ocean is either about the pleasure of sailing through or the fear of drowning down, there is so much in between the two that I was unaware of– a thrilling ride of hopes, negations, affirmations, wishes, introspection and retrospection, peacemaking and prayers to call the most identified emotions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The little-one who is the fifth count of us, exclaims oh! for how long?! and rest four of us look into each others eyes (intentionally this time) echoing her anxiety, for how long?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">While we temporarily had no answer to the child as to how long it would take to finish the journey (we were contemplative of) and not the excursion we were on, a co-passenger replied 45 minutes. At 45<sup>th</sup> minute the steamer anchored at the island and the little-one hopped off the boat first to hop on the toy train.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3U5mwVi0JuTPyPVZp4zQWGVoGMIaEseM6QShcx7rWuqddTM1gyPuOYfBuoOy1SDaVZIjzCBSh4XSlKkuAk1YX88-fqASbLjhqnVidZGZD58NdMxSwBnuHoOnZE8tIZuTUUCRkrgWCw_I/s1600/images4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="149" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3U5mwVi0JuTPyPVZp4zQWGVoGMIaEseM6QShcx7rWuqddTM1gyPuOYfBuoOy1SDaVZIjzCBSh4XSlKkuAk1YX88-fqASbLjhqnVidZGZD58NdMxSwBnuHoOnZE8tIZuTUUCRkrgWCw_I/s200/images4.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Wish the life was this easy, smooth and sailing in harmony forever. But life, the fairer half of it, is never so. There are choppy waters, rough rides, jerky drives, mystifying deserts and wearing walks. One of these or sum of these was already running in all four minds and of many more back home. She among us and very much a part of us is diagnosed with an ailment called Cancer and we are in Mumbai to fight this off or rather to be able to find peace in it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It’s in some stage that we don’t really care about as someone has brutally said its’ the emperor of all maladies. How I wish it could be unproven, denied and dismissed. We have an ambition of making a great holiday, a day before the treatment procedure is scheduled to start in </span><a href="http://www.tatamemorialcentre.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Tata Memorial Centre</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> which we don’t know when to expect ending. On our holiday walk together, she as usual preferred to keep the little-one in the center but we denied and kept her in the center instead, making a star formation with the 2.5-year-old angel as one arm, a very strong arm that promises to keep the star shining even when the rest three stop radiating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Like any other beautiful day it was a bright sunny day with small cloud paying a sober visit on and off. We were clicking pictures and feeding monkeys while making a not so obvious attempt to pull the drifting center to the center. Never realized joy-making could be this challenging. As an educated reader of human emotions, I could clearly read what was going in her mind and as the sun goes over the head, merging the shadow with the sole, I thought of standing as her shadow and having that candid conversation with her. My voice echoed as her voice – not sure if this day is the last day of certain things, not sure if my eyes would respond to the rising sun, to those doorbells and phone calls, in the same awaken way, not sure if this artist would again be able to paint the picture of a woman wrapped in the colors of dawn, a content village girl working in paddy fields, a potter shaping his best creation in absolute bliss. I told her in my own voice, Your sketches and brush strokes have always spelled it bright and beautifully and suddenly today you look lost in the shades of grey, I hear you saying you don’t know how to cut this messy thought off, while you have cut them a hundred times to give that classy curve to the fabulous dresses you designed.Your finest art has been your identity and you want to give it up to a shady illness the longevity of which I want to dispute badly, I heard myself screaming. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Conflicting within and reflecting as calm as the sea around, she walked to a shop and I followed her. There were prolific displays of antique and countrified ornaments that I felt were just the right things for the moment as I knew they have been her favorite fantasies under the sun for ages, however I noticed the sun taking a directional shift, changing the color of the world its been shining upon. While the shopkeeper kept asking me if we liked their collection, I continued to count on her eyes and so wished if she picks up something and I proclaim yes! We like this. I took a necklace in hand and thought how jewelries for me have always meant her. When it comes to me making a selection, I create in my mind her first likely reaction - a charming yes, a critical no or a pesky well…lets see more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">While I was still on with my one on one with her shadow, she claims the control of the shadow back and declares “I don’t think I’d ever be seeing such pieces of beauty again because I am no more entitled for them.” It clinched all the patience out from me as I said in speechlessness “Beauty means you to me and all the jewelries I have ever been able to appreciate have deserved being so because it’s you who define their beauty” As she walked away I was left behind with the scattering beads of necklace in hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Series of surgeries and chemotherapy on their way were gradually dragging the beads of patience away, ruthlessly mixing the colors on her pallet splashing and making gloomy and grossing images, no matter how hard we tried to alter it for better. I had personally gone artless in correcting the sketches and undoing the cuts that time had registered in her brilliant art gallery. Sitting next to her I could see the world from her side, there were loud returning echoes of all the 'Whys' and there was a large wall replacing her favorite painting with blankness. She loves mirror but didn't allow it on the wall this time, for the fear of meeting a face she wasn’t familiar with. I saw her staring at the flashing constant question “what would I do now”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">While the therapists and counselors talked about <i>distress-turned-stress as one of the root causes and frequented their insistence on the need of believing in life and the person’s own attempt to restore it,</i> there was hardly much being talked convincingly about how to do that. It was the time when I discovered the need to DO it differently, instead of trying to undo or redo things. Living the ‘To whom so ever it may concern’ life in a different way by making it ‘To me it does concern’, by not trying to change the circumstances but changing the perspective, asking hard for what it takes to make it complete and completing it to make it happen, walking out from what claims to be capable of turning it around without giving you a choice. I told her never to give up and she taught me how not to, I told her what integrity is all about and we together learned how to stand for it. I was imagining what an alternatively beautiful life could be and she discovered it herself without asking for assistance. We agreed that life is too short to count on problems and long enough to clinch on a dream and wake up everyday to make it happen. A little about the ailment and more about the rare vivacity emerging from the experience and this article together - is a testimony to it. I from her eyes and she from mine started seeing the life together, closer and clearer. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZ9i6h7_L0XX5DE4CBdk_icg5e_bnh1eQt_x4f3UqIRCAV14LxTULIKdOuqjJ6z8PKV0unYcJaqUSbuOh61OaLr2TB7p1zszeKt2WwPW-ukdZeyIKVPsggQpbIqAdCAZws0pIy6Ps1iA/s1600/images3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZ9i6h7_L0XX5DE4CBdk_icg5e_bnh1eQt_x4f3UqIRCAV14LxTULIKdOuqjJ6z8PKV0unYcJaqUSbuOh61OaLr2TB7p1zszeKt2WwPW-ukdZeyIKVPsggQpbIqAdCAZws0pIy6Ps1iA/s200/images3.jpg" width="151" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After 18 months of all that takes to treat the malady, she stepped into the old world of normalcy, fully clad in her pristine self-belief with a brand new outlook that she otherwise was totally unaware of. The new birth of hers in a jet black curly hair makes her stand out and stand tall with a beautiful smile that celebrates the discovery of a new life and her two little children with the entire family celebrate the come back of a fighter <i>Swati</i>. Swati means </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the first drop from the sky that falls on the seashell and turns into a pearl. Always wondered why they said that Cancer can make someone what all the distress of the world cannot. I have come to realize now that it sure does because it gives birth to a new mind, body and soul that makes many more lives stronger, fearless, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">momentous</span> and memorable. After the years of finding the life’s answers together we still attempt to answer the challenge “what would I do now” everyday, with that unconquerable spirit born in the hospital room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I am so proud she is my sister....my beautiful necklace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I sign off with an appeal to do everything possible to keep the distress away from you and from those around you, at home, at work and on streets…..because most maladies caused by distress take more of it to get cured, leaving the scars nonetheless.</span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-70239111609970040392012-09-08T22:22:00.000-07:002012-10-19T11:01:38.610-07:00Egghead to Godhead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">As the iron wheels of my favorite </span><span class="st">transport modality</span><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"> <span lang="EN">gains momentum, vibrating both the material surroundings and the immaterial me, I get caught by a conversation about God and his existence. Some said he is a belief, some said there is no God, some said I am God and some said...no comments for God’s sake!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">I was listening to the masses and their views as I have always loved to. I have no Brahma Gyaana to help finding the truth either, but I have an aware mind that likes to attempt understanding what it may mean having it. A person wrapped in a thick safari suit scoring high on breaking betel nuts sounded sorry to give up on God stating “It’s an utter waste of life living in a country that only makes a man suffer on the name of human values. If god was existent he wouldn’t have let the men suffer, so all that matters is the survival of the fittest in a world of burglary, corruption, power, politics, dishonor and diseases. God has probably taken a shift to a much cooler place.” Another gentleman interrupted saying God is omnipresent constantly carving his creations. I imagined myself being part of this conversation (which the transient me were already) and heard a voice adding, for those who believe in God and wonder about his whereabouts, he has no nationality in case if some believe a country as the God’s only country, God is right here without a passport and visa and in all probability smiling at our discussion. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">It takes me on a tour of remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness to help outline this conversation. God for who and what he is, gives us a chance - if we want god he gives us a chance to have him, if we don’t want to believe in him, he gives us a chance to un acknowledge his existence, if we want to lead a life forgetting God he gives us a chance to forget him. So it’s all about what you want to call before getting a chance to hear ‘be it so’. (Reference from Matchless Gift by ISKCON Center)</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />Among the different mental and behavioral patterns, there’s a commonality that keeps all human entities in either of two groups. The line of differentiator is the effort of proving a point that says I don’t care and another that says I still care for those who don’t care. I call the first group as Egghead and the second as Godhead. IQ is the mantra for the first and actually for the second as well, except for what translates to Intelligence Quotient for first becomes Integrity Quotient for latter.</div>
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</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Understanding the quotients, what promises to help you through a mentally exhausting day is Intelligence quotient but what concludes the day is the integrity quotient that helps you taking a stand and surviving the storms of ever changing norms. So while the egghead is most commonly available, it’s the sparse godhead that is balancing the terms of our existence. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">In the world of egghead people not for the loss of hair but for the loss of sanity-integrity-simplicity and abundance of borrowed complexity, it becomes unavoidable to hear ‘what the hell’ every time the egg crashes in boil or breaks to have the chickens celebrate their liberation. While a part of human race keep denying the God and his world, the godhead people like following their good 'Vaishnav dharma', keep trying to deploy the seeds of sanity in eggheads. Be it intellect or super select, the law of nature advocates continuous evolution and no natural existence could defy that. So sooner they understand the need to evolve, the better is that for the world we live in, eggs must be allowed to evolve in chicken and Godhead are made to vouch for this evolution.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Egghead commands the rain in vain, damn! stop the cats & dogs falling off the roof, I want to reach home safe in time, while the godhead says....I am safe everywhere it rains a pound of bliss, so continue raining, I enjoy walking with you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">Standing at the horizon the egghead says, alas! it’s the end of the world while the godhead smiles welcoming the beginning of a new world, a beautiful extension of the one he belongs to. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%;">As to the question of transition from egg to god head, it is in dear subject to the liberation of chicken and the willingness of egg to allow this liberation.</span></span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-65610682115425125262012-08-30T00:40:00.000-07:002014-02-02T22:03:15.217-08:00Across the glass wall<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It was a usual corporate conference room I was asked to wait in. Looking much familiar it had a white board scrapped with a lot of curly lines and figures, supposedly some important notes....hopefully understandable to those they were written for, my favorite markers, a big rectangular table surrounded by a dozen movable chairs, a phone that has hardly experienced ringing as half its life has passed dialing other phones over the walls and overseas. I widened my glance to a full square view and fitting to my mental frame was a glass wall.....a wall that I could see through. Though the view was mundane the different thing about that was the spot it was being looked from, this spot is the place I am standing at now...by the glass wall that echos a lot about the place it surrounds and can barely hear the world outside.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I walk up to the wall and look through it, branches and leaves of the </span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">mango tree </span></span>were as closely reachable as the thickness of the glass wall, I attempted to touch them and no wonder the wall came on my way. Since my fingers were already on the wall, I tried to draw a figure and no wonder failed to justify my attempt. Then I thought of the school and children I were working last weeks with and imagined painting the transparent glass wall with all beautiful colors of the nature but my previous attempt disapproved my latter thought. By this time I started feeling anxious, I was thinking of the wall of my school and home where no attempt of writing, painting, scrapping was a fail ever. To my </span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">restlessly investigating mind the the wall resembled with a corporate job that lures someone with an spectacular heaven-like view of the horizon, overwhelming, stirring and motivating till core. The aspirant rushes to glass wall focusing at the take-off point, abandoning all his senses (but the vision of a glass wall) behind....only to bang with the wall, calling a crash and realizing <b>what</b> a glass wall could do to a naive aspiration?! </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It feels like a stolen brevity, a drafted calamity and a given upon serenity. The crashed soul feels heartless and attempts to make those sketches on the glass wall again, scratches the wall with a hope to see some movements in the falling flakes, bangs it hard to feel an impact....but all in vain, it’s a glass wall!. He looks at the branch of the mango tree and green carries hanging off it, recalls the childhood that had the pride of grabbing them down, no matter how and now all of a sudden it feels deeply sorry about standing so close to them yet unable to touch the fruits (did you say of your own hard work?) He feels suspended in the plasma that he aspired for, </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">not long ago</span>....Irony speaks for itself, as he can see things much clearer than ever but can’t move things across the walls.....what could we call it - hypnotism, or an alarming coma effect? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I opt to think further, my thoughts take a sprint from doors to desks through walls to carpets. Everyone is working hard, overtime, dedicated, committed and demanded...with a distinct flair to win, and wins who? They say it’s the smart who wins. Smart is the one who takes the last seat in a square table conference room while the smarter have already seated. The closest to white board the smartest you are and not the one who stands leaning against the wall-the perfect glass wall, pondering over the scope of building a window on it. I make a silent wish "May the individuals be acknowledged over intellect, may the integrity be regarded over superficiality...every time there is an intellectual discussion in this conference room."</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As my eyes moved and took a tour of the room, the moving chairs in a meeting room did not quite make a sense to me, I could not reason why should the chairs in a meeting room be rotating and moving in a world we are taught to take a stand when it comes to bipolar discussions. Or does it indicate to some sort of a higher realization that taking a stand is synonymous to taking a position and pretending to be team <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">until</b> the ‘ROI of that stand’ is met, triggering a smooth shift to the next standing investment? They call it standing-up to situation or transitioning-in to situation and give it a name to remember - Situational Intelligence, while I still wonder if stands are meant to change across tables, frames and walls....and where does ones integrity stand in the room, if you say yes.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Back to the glass wall separating the two worlds with great distinction, I am standing at the </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">illusional meeting point of those worlds. I continue to look out and look far with least awareness of the world behind me. I am at a transcendental spot from where I can clearly see both worlds and I quietly dismiss the one behind me for I am struck by the view I have been searching long for. I refuse stare in haze with an accepted disability to touch and feel the beauty of free thoughts, I deny to stay insulated and frozen behind glass walls, I am breaking the hypnotism of granted asks because I don't I never wanted be coffined. I want to make a way out while leaving a window for the rest, this walk out is probably what it takes to make the glass walls believe in the human resource working behind them....I am amazed </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">intrinsically </span>for the first time after stepping in the glass building which is named a corporate office. Standing by a glass wall meant so much to me all of a sudden as I got my vision and my sense of present clarified for the better.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I hear a knock on the door and without turning back I recognized the voice same as that of the person who left me in the room an hour back, I heard him welcoming me to follow him for a tour of the building, in other words for signing a contract of staying imprisoned in the glass walls, stationed and eying for the next available moving chair. </span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am reluctant to look back and accept his offer, as I am looking out....through the glass wall. For the first time in the day there is absolutely nothing interrupting my views and thoughts.....I have decided to take up a marathon to the horizon and explore what happens when there is no glass wall between the two worlds.</span><br />
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-62355383383826702272012-07-06T06:12:00.009-07:002016-03-14T11:16:04.946-07:00Find your TEE at your Workplace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">TEE as I call it, expands for
Transactional and Emotional Engagement of employees in an organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">I recently got a chance to read the
Employee Engagement 2.0 by Kevin Kruse, author of NY Times bestseller, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">WE: HOW TO INCREASE PERFORMANCE AND PROFITS THROUGH
FULL ENGAGEMENT</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">
I have to sincerely thank Kevin for being extremely kind and personally sending
me the PDF copy of this book to me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">While I highly recommend all the
managers, those who report to them and those in the lines of becoming managers, to
read this book as the first check item before stepping into your people
management career, for those who want to chew it quick I am glad to point you
to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/">What is Employee Engagement</a> and for those who are
curious to know what makes me so highly appreciate this read - It’s the
following five lines of thoughts I take the liberty to do a ctrlC+ctrlV from
the book,</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">A simpler way to think about Employee Engagement is this: Culture
always trumps strategy.</span></i></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">To win in the marketplace…you must first win in the workplace. </span></i></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">Strategic options or Happier People? Engaged People!</span></i></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">To lead, you have to care. You can’t fake it.</span></i></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">You are responsible for the engagement of your team. Don‘t look
Elsewhere</span></i></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">As Kevin puts it much beautifully, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">‘If you care, you can drive
engagement. But you do have to care’</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">When employees care—when they are
engaged—they use discretionary effort. They go the extra mile, they give 110%,
they go above and beyond which leads to more Satisfied Customers more Sales,
more Profit, Higher Stock Share price and so on and so forth....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">But what as a manager you do when you
say (and if you say) you care? You probably put discretionary effort to engage
them at work, do you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">Your employees are your assets, do
invest in them. The phrase buzzes long way in Business and Corporate parlance.
Investing in this context doesn’t mean moving from Web2.0 to Employee
Engagement 2.0, it only means monetizing on team capital and the team capital
is built by thoughtful investments in employees and their emotional
involvement/commitment to their jobs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">Going by the House and Home analogy, house is
what you live in to support an existence or co-existence and home is what you
make it by laying the emotional bricks or painting the walls with your favorite
colors. While employees feel quite impressed with corporate houses building
corporate villages & cities, it’s possibly time for us to think of
Corporate Homes. What does it take to build a corporate home.....it simply
takes transactionally and emotionally engaged employees (read it as Teed
employees).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">If you are trustworthy, dependable
and sensitive to employees and their issues (at work/out of work) you are a
good manager regardless of whether or not you help them solve their work
problems. If you live in a state where your employees feel easy and
necessary to confide in you, congratulate yourself because you have already
placed the foundation bricks of a corporate home. I can’t be more sure about
industries having millions of employees who see or want to see their workplaces
as second homes and the culture of Corporate Homes is essentially what they need
to get more engaged than ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">One of my employers I have
been fortunate to work for, said ‘Your manager is your HR manager’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">Honestly, the immediate thought curled
in my mind was – ‘may be the HR manager is on vacation’. Subsequently I learned,
by saying and believing so they not only helped the employees trust, respect
and freely depend on their managers but also made the managers feel more
responsible for their employee’s engagement levels. The results were clear,
measurable and admirable that the employees shared a greater bond with their
managers and vice-a-versa, managers who couldn’t play an HR manager for their
employees moved on and I am sure they appreciated to do it somewhere else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">While the <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">blueprint </span>of a great TEE
(Transactional and Emotional Engagement) <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">must </span>be woven <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">in the <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">head</span></span> of the
organization, it needs to actually get knitted in layers - from the strategy makers to
strategy inspectors to execut<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">ion specialists</span>, i.e from tips to the roots of the
organizational tree. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">On the other hand there could be a
lot of engagement developing and dwelling in seashells - the bottom up
engagement - the much engaging energy that comes from self-motivated,
self-assured and self-engaged employees who do not need the time, lessons and
resources of employers to make them engaged, I would say they mark a bonus to
the organizations' Tee initiatives and must be regarded for it because they are
the folks who not only sport their self-woven tee but also take pride in
offering it in all sizes to the peer groups, making it a great cost-benefit impact
as the organizations don't have to sponsor for it to those teed herds. I feel
an organization really needs to be arming and audacious to this lot so that the
self-managed engagements don’t end up getting mismanaged or lead to
disengagements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">The crux (and fate) of the TEE lies
in the fact, whether the tips of the tree truly care for it, because they are
the ones who need to be much thoughtful, receptive and willingly owning the
employee engagement, because they are the ones who apart from dealing with a
growing bottom line essentially define good or bad, less or more, narrow or broader
TEEs and they are indeed the first ones to tee up to prevent the healthy buds
taking a fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;">While <a href="http://kevinkruse.com/employee-engagement-20-book" target="_blank">Kevin’s book</a> would be an apple for thought that
is sure to keep the doctor away, I am hop<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">ing</span> my trailing thoughts to <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">add </span>as a bowl
of cranberries in your breakfast,<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"> dear HR.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">Attribution : </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">Employee Engagement 2.0 by Kevin Kruse</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">We:
How To Increase Performance And Profits Through Full Engagement by Kevin Kruse</span></i></span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-10687539416657259182012-06-30T16:17:00.003-07:002015-10-05T12:54:21.452-07:00Technology in Special Education – The CrossRoads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">One of my favorite subjects for talk these days,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It is not this morning that the world woke up to the role of technology in education, yet it remains the matter of arguments, discussions and disagreements. Education paves the way for technology and then we wonder and worry about validating the payback role of technology in education. I came across a study published by the U.S. Department of Education on Technology’s Role in Education<b> </b>based on the <span style="color: blue;">‘</span><b style="color: blue;">Findings from a National Study of Innovating Schools’</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">While the study says that “Technology is not an easy route to transforming schools, but it definitely is an exciting one.” It also talks about how the use of technology in education is impacting the ecosystem that the educational institutions have built over the years,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>Adding to the students’ perception that their work is authentic and important.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>With a simple approach increasing the complexity with which students can deal successfully. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>Dramatically enhancing student’s motivation and self-esteem. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>Encouraging greater collaboration between teachers & students,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>An increase in their technology and pedagogical skills.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>Greater collaboration within their own school. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">· <i>Contact and collaboration with external school reform and research organizations.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">While the increasing awareness of the use of technology in education is widely impacting both the context and content of the education, I have been curiously involved in thinking what could technology bring to the field of special education. My thoughts as usual </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">have been </span>beyond the basic cost-benefit analysis and more towards exploring the untried possibilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In my current recent stint of working with <a href="http://www.ashaforautism.com/" target="_blank">Asha</a>, I figured a few things:</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">With the special children who are often identified to have some distinguished abilities, the use of technology might give them an array of possibilities with no compromise, depending on an institution’s specialization in different aspects of technology. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Technology unfolds a wide range of potential specialties that can be leveraged in special education, ranging from click controlled elementary learning - to drag n drop match making - to creatively painting an imagination on a computer screen - </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">to typing - to </span>navigating the world of internet - to photo/video editing - to computer graphics and the list goes on...</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Between the regular schools and technology we often see a transmitter– receiver relationship, the technology teaches/demonstrates and the students learn. However between the special school and technology I noticed a mentor-researcher relationship, where every child is a special researcher of technology, offering the latter a spectrum of new possibilities wider than the spectrum(ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder) they biologically belong to.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: small;">Given the evolving waves of technological capabilities, the trainers and educators not only get the challenge and opportunity of learning and investigating these methods of education but also contributing to the ongoing research in this area.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;">To name a few technologies that probably all of us have grown to take on its face value, but it takes an effort from us to reveal their values to the special education groups, are:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;">Microsoft Office:</span> You might say it is the most value-making and handiest piece of software on the MS earth, which is probably right and so is that for the teachers making special efforts to train these children on basic skills. While the tools like MS Word and Excel shortens their lesson preparation assessment and reporting time, PowerPoint can help them build easy-to-deliver interactive lessons on the most difficult portions of their academic curricula. While I was talking about the capabilities of this suite of handy software to the group of teachers in my training sessions, I was not surprised to see their applications explored within a small computer lab, let alone the real field they operate in! </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: blue;">Apple iPads</span>, the oomph of this magical device is not just in its impressive gadget-status, but also in its applicability and sheer relevance to what fwe could possibly do with it in special education. The touch that is defined as the first known sense to these children, is what makes the genesis of these devices and no wonder goes beyond fun, speech, phonetics, emotions, behaviors, teaching, learning to create design arts. The tiny icons on the home screen representing the apps housed in this magical device, indicate towards the seamless possibilities of invention to their border less developers around the globe. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;">Design tools</span> like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDRAW or even the more advanced AutoDesk 3D Max. As someone observed in a workshop, the so called normal people like us can’t use the magic wand or lasso tools with the same precision and accuracy as some of these kids.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;">SMART Technologies</span> bring a series of smart learning options, some of which have potentials to become fundamental to the area of special education. Some appealing products from SMART that I particularly like are interactive whiteboards, Smart slates, Smart IRS, Smart tables and so on. I couldn’t help imagining their massive role in the line of special education. </span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5JMJ4wANLvNf9mhvNV45VKpmHvWhggYEOwC8uXbOSxQUf43JLC00vVRyejSHXJb8vxuOE9E2qU5kf0AR7_ElFkrlEbpVzSuo3N3KeVK2MHE140TOKBRQbF4JsXE5_Yl2JZweXHxsRsI/s1600/AshaTech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5JMJ4wANLvNf9mhvNV45VKpmHvWhggYEOwC8uXbOSxQUf43JLC00vVRyejSHXJb8vxuOE9E2qU5kf0AR7_ElFkrlEbpVzSuo3N3KeVK2MHE140TOKBRQbF4JsXE5_Yl2JZweXHxsRsI/s320/AshaTech.jpg" width="320" /></a>Schools and organizations have witnessed the spirits of innovation as a tool to bring students and people together, the same applies on the educators, the teachers & trainers. The real win of technology would be if the elementary educators could reap a good portion of what technology has to offer to the world today. If the technology which is originally brewed by their own science, maths and social lessons, could come back to schools serving the educators, the spirit of innovation would go a much longer and glorious way in transforming our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand the technical demands posed by technology use are just the tip of the iceberg. Teachers must be able to select, adapt, or design technology-enhanced materials that meet the needs of their special students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">With that I would say, every reform takes time for full manifestation. In the mean time it requires patience, collaboration, individual contributions and answers to all the basic questions that come as "things to do" for that reform to take place. That's where we need technology barons, enthusiasts and volunteers like you and me to intervene and play our part. How can we do that one step at a time, please read my post on Asha - A hope to fly.</span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com0Bangalore, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.7518902 77.342821199999989 13.191307199999999 77.846304199999977tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-30343543131894517222012-06-21T02:03:00.015-07:002015-10-04T23:19:40.570-07:00Asha – A Hope to Fly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">21-June-2012</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">I was taking strides to my mission of this year, I am a technology volunteer for ASHA - Academy for Severe Handicaps & Autistic. I am working with Bhavna, Shashank, Sunny, Vamsi, Jansi, Tanu, Raju, Emil, Satwik, Manav and Vedas and 80+ other students who make this school a home of their imaginations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">These children are as normal human beings as you and me are. They have got their share of excitement, love, pleasure, inquisitiveness, agreements and disagreements like you and me. So what if they don’t communicate like us, they have their own unique ways of expressing themselves which is often termed and perceived as ‘difficult’. I beg to differ though. These children exhibit a </span><span style="font-size: small;">group of developmental brain disorders, collectively called as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). <i>The term "spectrum" refers to the wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment, or disability, that children with ASD can exhibit. Some children are mildly impaired by their symptoms, but others are severely affected. ASHA is helping and training children diagnosed and placed across the spectrum.**</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">First and foremost fact to learn about Autism is - Each individual with Autism is unique and what makes them furthermore special is their extra ordinary abilities which could range from exceptional visual, academic or creative skills to great sense of humor – amazing skills that have gifted the world with some of the most renowned scientists, artists, advocates, writers, linguists, painters, sculptors, poets, educators and we would never miss to mention the creator of Pokémon - Satoshi Tajiri!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Research says that about 40 percent of autistic children have average to above average intellectual abilities. No wonder, many people on the spectrum take deserved pride in their characteristic abilities. That is probably the most important realization and reflection that we - as a society owe them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYECzmiRW0qU-wIUapIN20MstYBeXZYVV77kfurYZhqt08y8wyLKNwa1NB5W4AWzoxefGoTkxI9F0TslwELt3bo7EnSuKbyUhxfuLHKbzmc_8Byu2BB7vlrPbzWV4qOc8EJc-I-O_0Bhk/s1600/Asha.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYECzmiRW0qU-wIUapIN20MstYBeXZYVV77kfurYZhqt08y8wyLKNwa1NB5W4AWzoxefGoTkxI9F0TslwELt3bo7EnSuKbyUhxfuLHKbzmc_8Byu2BB7vlrPbzWV4qOc8EJc-I-O_0Bhk/s400/Asha.png" width="400" /></a><span lang="EN">I have no hesitation whatsoever in acknowledging that a lot (if not all) of the mundane usability or functional testing work that I have come across in the software world could be brilliantly done by some of these students, with much higher precision, because these kids grow sharpening the edges of perfection and precision like none of us. A special child in my computer class makes it a point to remind me every time he passes by, that the right place for the spectacles </span>clenched over<span lang="EN"> my head is actually on my nose and the piece of <i>dupatta (a shawl) </i>is better suited around my head than wrapped around my neck! I have been surprised and touched by such non verbal and non-eye-contacting interventions registered by them to the minutest (often ignorable) details, while we are still wondering about the early intervention therapies to diagnose their social and communication disabilities! I couldn’t help but to ask myself - do we really need to intervene the natural developmental path they are up to? As I explored further, I learned that all of us have actually gone through a natural yet humanly intervened model of </span>evolution <span lang="EN">that was devised to keep track of our </span>developmental milestones. For these children since the developmental milestones are usually forced and hard-to-meet, the early intervention techniques help speeding calculated steps towards these mileposts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While Asha and many such organizations do their best to embrace Autism, it’s the time for us to put our best foot forward by staying aware, then acknowledge and accept Autism: </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">As Parents:</span></b></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">Most crucial part is to understand and acknowledge that your child has no limits of learning and excelling, so arresting him/her in the boundaries of your perception of their skills would be unfair on your part. Introduce them to colors while allowing them to hold the pair of paint n brush and you will find them filling never-seen-</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">before</span> colors to everything which otherwise looked drab and </span><span style="font-size: small;">achromatic <span lang="EN">to the other </span>spectator<span lang="EN">s like you and me. Please notice the color of the butterfly and elephant in these pictures.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><b style="background-color: blue;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">As a Society:</span></b></span><span lang="EN" style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-size: small;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">I honestly feel we have a clear and better space for these children in the mainstream of social existence. It’s only the matter of finding & including them in. If we as a society could remove the obstacles of unawareness, lack of education, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">myths and</span> negligence, new opportunities will emerge reflexively.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5JMJ4wANLvNf9mhvNV45VKpmHvWhggYEOwC8uXbOSxQUf43JLC00vVRyejSHXJb8vxuOE9E2qU5kf0AR7_ElFkrlEbpVzSuo3N3KeVK2MHE140TOKBRQbF4JsXE5_Yl2JZweXHxsRsI/s1600/AshaTech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5JMJ4wANLvNf9mhvNV45VKpmHvWhggYEOwC8uXbOSxQUf43JLC00vVRyejSHXJb8vxuOE9E2qU5kf0AR7_ElFkrlEbpVzSuo3N3KeVK2MHE140TOKBRQbF4JsXE5_Yl2JZweXHxsRsI/s400/AshaTech.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN">As a School:</span></b></span><span lang="EN"> Regular schools must collaborate with special education centers and participate in improving the behavioral learning patterns and abilities of the special children. This could help find the possibilities of mainstreaming the special children to regular schools, fostering a broader sense of acceptance and action. Seclusion could never be a solution, it’s often a choice imposed on these children and their families which we need to strike off. Like any other children in your vicinity, they like a creative company, a </span><span lang="EN"><span lang="EN">learning fair</span>, a reader rabbit and a master Sam. What does it indicate - a need of collaborative & </span><span lang="EN">synergistic education. Children are better explained to and best understood by their peers in the group and nothing should deprive them of this synergy. A common child has a lot to learn by a special one and a special one is always at a giving end. Schools are the best places to nurture & celebrate this synergy. So bring them together, make them feel equal and complemented.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN" style="background-color: white;"><b>As You & Me:</b></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"> Most of us </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">have taken pride in being socialites, friends, employees, engineers, bosses, businessmen and women, bureaucrats (and the list goes on…). Can we not now consider it a time to be volunteers, or possibly we already are without a realization! So let’s join the two </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">ends of</span> You and </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">Me </span>and make a Tech-Volunteer club that offers help in understanding and implementing technology for special education. Anyone who knows what Information technology means to the global development, should be a potential evangelist in special education. If you know what Apple iPad is to you or your kid and browsing restlessly to know how Windows 8 surfaces for us by the end of this year, take a moment to imagine what the fundamental technology of a touch pad could bring to these children of special skills & tremendous potentials. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">If we can shift our focus from in-born disabilities to the nurtured capabilities, we will introduce to this generation a new world of possibilities that we are not yet aware of. As someone says, if they don’t learn the way we teach them, let’s teach them the way they learn. (more... my next blog)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">By the way, the second picture in the first collage is a portrait of mine drawn by a very special child and the smiley is drawn on an iPad by another special child who was asked to express how did he like coming to the school. I wish to become this special to the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>** Attributions:</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/">http://www.autismspeaks.org</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/a-parents-guide-to-autism-spectrum-disorder/">http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/a-parents-guide-to-autism-spectrum-disorder/</a></span></span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com2Bangalore, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.7518902 77.342821199999989 13.191307199999999 77.846304199999977tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-5874821592129309142012-06-04T00:11:00.007-07:002015-09-15T14:53:19.583-07:00To the people, for a dream nation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A poem written by me during my high school days. It has made me to believe in it in much stronger ways ever since...</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">फिर कोई इंसां न
इंसानियत को तरसे</span></b><span style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">कि चैन-ओ-अमन का सावन जी भरके बरसे।</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">फिर</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">किसी</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">नाज़ुक</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">के</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">अश्क</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">फिज़ा</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">में</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">न</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">बिखरें</span></b><b><span>,</span></b><b><span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">कि</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">शबनम</span></b><b><span lang="HI">-</span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">ए</span></b><b><span lang="HI">-</span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">गुलशन</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">की</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">रंगत</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">कुछ</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">इस</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">तरह</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">निखरे।</span></b><b><span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">वो ऐसा हल तफ्ह्तीश कर मेरे दोस्त</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">,</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">कि आज हर हिन्दुस्तानी वो रास्ता अख्तियार करे</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">,</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">जो फिर इस ज़मीं को जन्नत की शक्ल में साकार करे।</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">ग़र</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">जो</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">समंदर</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">हैं</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">तो</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">तूफां</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">आयेंगे</span></b><b><span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">सिकंदर</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">वो</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">जो</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">तूफां</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">से</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">प्यार</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">करे।</span></b><b><span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">ऐ</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">शीरीं</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">हम</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">मिलकर</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">मुल्क़</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">का</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">वो</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">नक़्श</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">तैयार</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">करें</span></b><b><span>,</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">कि</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">हर</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">मशरिकी</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">नज़र</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">मेरे</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">क़ौम</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">का</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">दीदार</span></b><b><span lang="HI"> </span></b><b><span lang="HI" style="font-family: "Mangal","serif";">करे</span></b><b><span>|</span></b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span>Closest translation in English</span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span> </span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">May no human beings be deprived of humanity,</span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">May there be bountiful rains of peace all around</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">May there be no tears of the delicate children in our
environ</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I wish so is the beauty of the dews in my nation's garden</span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lets' find a way my friend for every landsman to choose a
path today</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">that manifests the heaven in this land tomorrow</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If there are oceans, there will be storms.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Champion</i>
though is the one who loves the storms.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Friends, lets craft a future of our country in unity and
dignity </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So the stranger’s eyes treasure the mesmerizing beauty of
our nation forever.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-6621218416474578082012-05-07T12:47:00.014-07:002020-07-31T11:06:20.274-07:00I owe my vision to you<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">April-25-2012</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><font face="arial" size="2">A beautiful Monday morning yet again. Mornings have never been any lesser beautiful to me because every morning I feel grateful for the phenomenon called life, and believe it’s going to be a wonderful day of unimaginable possibilities!</font></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">Today is much special as I am doubly assured of the beauty of this day. With an old lady from the neighborhood I have taken a tri-wheeler ride to the examination center in Nungambakkam. She has made sure to keep buffer time in hand, so the student and exam coordinator don’t worry about our arrival. We were sharing a plethora of random thoughts on life, college days, ambition, circumstances, what changes what, also of course my favorite breakfast Idlys….and a lot more along our way to the exam center. It took us 1 hr 40 minutes to reach the college premises and she introduced me to a student named Dharma. Dharma didn’t know who I was and if I even existed, but today he has been waiting for me. I greeted him to say, hello Dharma I am your pilot pen for the day and I have a name - Asti. He smiles charmingly and greets me in diffidence.</font></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoWgvMwRvGSnT4Mns5URfUwq_QFEnzPWzlRACbkWwfIf2lnu7Uyw5XRsz62xLNlrHxQE6TNTS_ByVL4rVrhJQKapX8lHmxJV9q5tm4a58teAuvMH86W2-GWKoX_9p5jvQiIyC693qMGU/s1600/vision1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><font face="arial" size="2"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoWgvMwRvGSnT4Mns5URfUwq_QFEnzPWzlRACbkWwfIf2lnu7Uyw5XRsz62xLNlrHxQE6TNTS_ByVL4rVrhJQKapX8lHmxJV9q5tm4a58teAuvMH86W2-GWKoX_9p5jvQiIyC693qMGU/s320/vision1.jpg" width="320" /></font></a><span><font face="arial" size="2">Dharma is a visually challenged youth and I have offered to be his scribe for the day. I don’t know what is scribing all about, I have only taken care of small children in my second homes all these years, this is different – Dharma is an undergrad student in his mid 20s with a dream to be visible on the pages of success stories and I have this grave responsibility of helping him attain what he aspires for. As I open my bottle of Nimboos to kill the heated thoughts in my mind, he asks me if I have ever felt blind. I gaze at him, he is gazing at a blurred hallow on the floor, I hear myself saying yes – and the rest of the answer just goes in my mind - ‘I am blind at this moment, I can’t see anything else than a vision of making this day a lifetime experience for you, my success factor for this day is this exam I am going to write for you and I wish the wheel of time stops after that and I remain this way for the rest of my life – blind, if that's what it's called as.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">I was given the question paper and answer sheet, I loved the nostalgic crispness and the smell of my own sunny exam days, where my own aspirations and ambitions sprung. I felt it was no different for Dharma, it's the same exam day, the same excitement, flurrying thoughts and the same dream….with the only difference, that he is allowed to share a vision, with me in his case.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">I read the question paper for him, page number 1 till 4, in a single go. He chooses to start with last section first, because he believes those are the highest scorers, wow I thought I was an odd one when I did it years back! I re-read the questions and he formulates answers and instructs me as a master of his art – Section C oblique Question number 3 – Next line - Black Pen – Side Heading – Introduction – Underline.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">I was enchanted, I were writing an exam of MA English Literature – Drama II!</font></span></div>
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<font face="arial" size="2"><span>Reading the headline, for the first time in this day I felt nervous. I reconfirmed myself, I can do it and I will…..for him. I was obeying him as an upper KG student and he was enjoying his authority to instruct. I was relishing and loving everything about the art Dharma was narrating. It was one of the Shakespeare's classics. He was explaining me the conflict of love and honor in that play, and I was engrossed tip till toes. He was explaining me characters, demography, incidences, dialogues and progressions as scattered beads and I was at my best comprehending them as closer to precision and narrating them back in coherent sentences. My small skill was being acknowledged and appraised by him time to time, and I liked his approving syllables – yes! yes!that's what I meant!</span><br />
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">I noticed him fanning with his handkerchief and realized it was a power cut in a poorly ventilated humid room which I failed to sense anyways, I didn’t need an energy drink anymore, I was centuries back in Cleopatra’s world where there were no air-conditioners.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">I thought of sharing the stock of time with Dharma when he scanned his wrist watch with his fingers and affirmed it was 12 noon. All the high scorer questions were attempted by this time but we still had 50% of the question paper yet to be covered and a mere hour left to do so. I was tempted to panic but he was as calm as a baby in mother’s lap. I took a relaxed breathe and continued scribing ….</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">He asked me to read all 10 questions one more time, out of which we needed to attempt 7.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">By this time he was a scheming brain to me, for the questions in section-B, he asked me to write the same introduction and conclusion part as Section-C/Ques2, woah! I were to do copy pasting without ctrlC+ctrlV ! So what if nature has tricked him an unfeeling way, he knew to answer the trick. I chided myself ‘how can I be this bad in copying, scheming, tricking and a lot of other things…no answer, no time to research either, so I continued to be a pen with less brainer and copied the introduction and conclusion portions as suggested by the master of the day. Dharma taught me a lesson to be smart in a blind world.</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">Section-3 of the question paper, we were supposed to attempt 10 out of 14, one mark each. I started reading the question for him and jumped like a kid before even finishing – I know the answer! I can’t believe it, without reading Shakespeare I now know the characters and their narratives!</font></span></div>
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<span><font face="arial" size="2">We were given 40 minutes extra to finish our exam, I was grateful that evaluators were sensible to this narrator – transcriber pair. Come to the last 5 questions, I saw him sitting back and saying ‘you know the answer right?’. Lovely, though I wasn’t supposed to ‘know’ them in this exam, I took pride in knowing them for him and I went ahead scribing them, following his approval of my knowledge. When the invigilator came to collect our answer sheet, I quickly glanced through the pages filled with grace and glory – Headings Black and Bold – Characters Underlined – Stages Highlighted – Subheadings color coded and everything else shipshape. </font></span></div>
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<font face="arial" size="2"><span>While I was feeling ecstatic, I noticed the first anxiety on his face when he asked me how many total pages mam? I said 47 – he looked closer to satisfied and further inquired, how many questions are we left with? I said 5 of one mark each. He made that one-off reaction that said sheyy! Not enough time!! I didn’t take a minute to reciprocate – hello! we did have time, you didn’t know the answers! We shared a loud laugh together and he gave me a high five – perfectly oriented and I was amazed he was eye to eye with me, perhaps striving for the vision that I have just shared with him. We were friends now.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="2">It's around 2:00 pm, I take my ride to work, wondering in the age of clouds and zombies, where would this little pursuit of vision be placed.</font></span><font face="arial" size="2"> </font></span><span style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="2">I come to work late today but glad it's not too late to be part of an individual's vision and dream, who people thought didn't have a vision and/or a dream.</font></span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-48258532477115047992012-05-04T02:50:00.013-07:002017-07-13T10:17:03.213-07:00Android to Human - Step back to step forward<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">3-May-2012</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Is being high </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">paid </span></span>so important and ever enough? For a lot us it would be <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a </span>sort of appalling question to hear. Fo<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">r many though</span> it<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> i</span>s a genuine gentle question they might have asked innumerable times to themselves.<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>Earning could possibly never be an abhorrence<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. H</span>owever the difference lies in what one wants to earn. Masses<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> of people </span>yearn to earn, everyone in your <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">circles </span>and those in their <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">circles <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">might be seen to be </span></span>racing for riches. The rule is to rule the ‘game of life’ with the wand of might, and the might is mone<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">y, period.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have hear<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">d it <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">for as old as I am and </span></span>everyone else <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">too</span>, but the modus operandi of ‘Earn more money to feel more Powerful’ unfortunately <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ceases to apply </span>after ascending a <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">few levels</span> on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">re</span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">is </span>tiny <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">yet </span>swelling <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">size </span>of p<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">opulation</span> who believes that to live is to learn<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. T</span>hough learning incurs some cost, <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the </span>cost is <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">balanced </span>by the values we <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">disc<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">o</span>ver<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, </span></span>values <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">that </span>make us constant <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">practitioners</span> </span>of persistence. It <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">might </span>sound like an old school thought to <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">many </span>of us, but the fact of the matter is<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> that</span> it<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> i</span>s already the time to go back to school and check our lessons of moral science business ethics or whatever way you have learned it<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span> I am <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">confident</span> it wasn’t an optional subject then, some of us just chose to skip the sessions and others took pride in filtering them out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Good news is, the few who have got it right are setting it right. But as you just reflected - they are few and far. How many times you have seen people voicing it up and voicing it unadulterated, calling a day off to retrospectively introspect. Not many and it’s not an obligation either, today’s ultra-specialized society and the super specialist society men can’t afford to step back, they are in a mission to innovate, and the millennium’s theory of disruptive innovation endorses androids and not individuals. So what do we do with the individuals, as we realize we can’t ignore them - deport them to another planet that is evolving on humanoid….or preserve them in chests until they turn into frozen androids.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituZiFkm0e0SXMF_MKb0BaYAtW8I1VLRees4CON3gFn5-wU9apYPuVRLifbqKOQlwF9jj9J2JFzXaNCE2oQaYR96Yi2rHcK8g1y7FrTuhwyK14GhRwvKQdG7fjwpPimLPXNnho7W3rJW8/s1600/Marvin-the-Paranoid-Android.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEituZiFkm0e0SXMF_MKb0BaYAtW8I1VLRees4CON3gFn5-wU9apYPuVRLifbqKOQlwF9jj9J2JFzXaNCE2oQaYR96Yi2rHcK8g1y7FrTuhwyK14GhRwvKQdG7fjwpPimLPXNnho7W3rJW8/s200/Marvin-the-Paranoid-Android.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="166" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">Zoom in and look within, what draws the line between a Human and an Android. It’s probably the innate capability to stand for our own, having a non-negotiable sense of righteousness and holding tight onto it. Only when we do that, is when we gain the strength to stand for other human – we think or not, the nature thinks it is important! As an approver of humanism, I am ever more concerned about the growing thrust of fitting in an Android frame. There is evidently a lot of Artificial Intelligence around because it has been the vision of 21<sup>st</sup> century world, however what is the royalty for the very humanness, in the entire commerce of intelligence? How do we deal with people who can’t stand for their values (viz. they don’t choose to) who debase the integrity their own demand that of others because they feel it’s much important to Challenge – Compete - Win. They are the frightened lots at their core, they fear the possibility of dialysis and disapproval, they fear to lose and lose what – the greed that allows them to claim the world having no bigger truth than Androids!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some sell their truth for means, some for medicines, some for mechanics, some for power and some for a little more politics. Out of all those and more, I would only admire the medicines group, so long as they are used for their humane motives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">What makes it so difficult for people to accept a simple truth....correct a mistake when they commit it. Among Androids, it would be 0 or 1, true or false, right or wrong. Among human beings, it's a chain of learning - learning from faults, criticisms, rectifications and internal wisdom that blooms when we open up to it, a vision that transforms us humanly if we allow it to. People often dismiss or ignore the opportunity for inward transformation because in their strong opinion it’s much more important to rally with the wisdom of masses and they think contributing their bit to the messed up modern wisdom is essential for their existence. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A little extra effort to widen our vision, looking beyond the easy vicinity, taking time to quiet and listening the inner voices, instills a whole rainbow of differences in our perspective. Ultimately at the end of every light-day it’s a call if one wants to exist- lively or lay-lethally.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So the next time you think of rewards, recognize the individual, the human who lives in it and the way he would like to be rewarded – it’s not means and money that matter all the times.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On balance, individuality is to cook your own food, knit your own yarn, do your own dishes, brush your own metal and take your own call when it comes to decision making. In short, it’s the integrity of an individual that matters and not the integral account balance. Individuality is fundamental to human, as the mechanics is to Android. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With that I remind myself, every android is made for a human touch and not vice versa.</span></span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-50622167324388175462012-04-30T14:20:00.000-07:002014-02-02T20:26:25.657-08:00Steam Up to rise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">April 30th 2012</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For the friends who complained why did <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://reflectiveresonances.blogspot.in/2012/04/my-first-idly.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">My first Idly </a>take this long to come, I need to confess that I have been spending most of my hours with real-time modernizers in a closed circuit air-conditioned environment where Idlys were hard to cook. Contemplating on the batter of Idlys would be the last thing welcome on the floor, even though a lot of cooking, frying and serving predisposed matters, does happen already quite commonly without anyone’s control. I informed myself several times and then learned it as a good student of Invention School that in order to survive I must continually Innovate-technologically(there's a catch in it) and not trade the time writing about...Idlys. I am an engineer whose job is to ‘build, certify, release and do it enormously innovatively. I must worry about quality of delivery and customer experience and please….never about Idlys, as a <i>bureaucrat </i><i><span style="font-style: normal;">revealingly advised </span></i>me one day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">However in my teensy own time I managed to think about what it takes to make fluffy sound Idlys– it's a good proportion of ingredients, just the right grinding and fermentation and a good amount of steaming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I sneaked into the imagination of my brilliant futuristic world – Consumer, Product, Market and Technology paradigm, how would that look from the tip of the Idly! If I were a sales soul I would have sliced tartlets off it, but I weren’t so I took my own-mannered, layered approach. I imagined a pantry where a punctilious mix was made of four Ps, Market was the grinder, Technology the batter, Innovation was the steam and you already know what was being dished up to the end user. My appetite for process delineation, product examination and user gratification was growing high and up….until I wondered why the Idlys still coming out flat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I investigated myself, am I doing it right way – right postulation, right math and right reading? Then I took a quick trip of my milieu. Do I have the exact ingredients in place – no, I have a bizzare mix of maze and grams because that's all I had available in the kitchenette I was put up to keep my teamwork on. Did the other appointee grind them well – no, grinding was noisy and disruptive, fermentation....was underdone and time-to-steam was overdone, to the extent of scorching ….Pheww!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No wonder its flat and lifeless this time, just a wrong experiment and the cottony bubbly Idlys have gone for toss. I am not sad and I don’t worry, after all Idlys have come a long way and there is an innate beauty in flatness, everyone knows but few remember what we see as flat under the foot is actually a piece of the bigger picture called globe. So let the Idly go global...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For my global friends, <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Idli </a>that I spell as 'Idly' is a salty pan cake, made of rice and black lentils, milled, fermented and steamed in a custom-made idly mold, served typically with <i>sambar </i>and coconut chutney.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i> 'Steaming is vital, but whats more critical is the water to steam up</i>'</span></div>
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Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087276314022722529.post-59627867849602215772012-04-29T03:58:00.003-07:002012-06-04T00:10:07.348-07:00My First Idly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">April-19-2012</span><br />
I am in the land of Idlys, the all-time favorite of my family and myself. I have a natural disharmony with its dictionary meaning, so I prefer to avoid the adverbial injustice and go with the idyllic Idlys. I am animated at my new workplace, interacting effortlessly convincingly with my new colleagues (completely unaware of the cost-benefit analysis of my efforts and coiling convictions). I am happy, charged and excited that I am at a place where people resemble amazingly with my own internal identity – they like dressing in lengthy edged linens, tuck a fresh flower string in their neat pleats every day, eat healthy, work hard and walk with confidence, once put that devout sign on their forehead that possibly says they are the most intelligent people on this part of the earth, I now share with them and increasingly getting fonder of. I wouldn’t be doing the intelligence math here, leaving it to the readers.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #741b47;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">I was taking paces with my ill laptop to the IT room on my second day of acquiring a business laptop which was found virus infected and I had just about lost the three paged article I wrote on the previous day about what makes my company (where this is my 7<sup>rd</sup> day) ‘(One of) the best place to work for’.</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">The IT administrator declared it would take 4 hours to backup and reformat, while I silently prayed for my essay to make it to the last boat. I took a deep breath and walked back to my desk where a colleague of mine was remarkably waiting for me to go for lunch, it was surprising because people don’t usually and easily invite you for lunch here, that too when it’s just the 7<sup>th</sup> day for a newbie in Chennai, who hasn’t been smart enough to pick up the language ‘that’ fast. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">We took the elevator to the cafeteria in 6<sup>th</sup> floor and she asked me on our way if I have already moved to a house and have appointed a cook to help me. I wasn’t surprised with the question but I kind of rushed to say No, I prefer cooking. Surprise popped to the other end this time and without delay reflected on my eyes when she quizzed with the skewed eyebrows why? She elaborated…..why do you want to cook when you stay alone? Whoop! I heard myself saying because ‘I do eat….!’ Her suggestion was not hard to understand yet, she wanted to say I should rather appoint a kitchen help or pick/order my food back to home. While I tried to tell her how easy and hands-on it could be to cook your own food, we landed in a big cafe where a great spread of North and South Indian, some western-fusion-sorts and a range of other quick takes were lined up. Although we had headed together to this point I suddenly realized we crisscrossed our paths when I took my way to South Indian counter and she chose to go for North Indian combo. In a knits of oddity I fetched my grand plate (thaali) with 10 partitions, both heart and healthfully filled with about 15 courses of meals. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">Athletically balancing my body with thaali, I walked to join her back on the table she had already secured for us. I glanced around, it was a great hall which now looked like a marriage hall to me, with colorful decors and skillful arrangements filled with aroma of great south Indian spices. As both of us looked at each other’s plates, there was an audible difference between what was reeling in our minds, while I was scanning to know how does the north Indian thaali look like in a hard core south urban, she was wondering what made me choose rice and sambar when I had a ready option of chapatis. As I could read her mind, I quickly replied her unvoiced question - I like the combination sambar, rice and papad.</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">She looked satisfied with my answer and suggested I should rather try the morning breakfast in the same cafe where they serve range of south Indian dishes, dosa, Idly vada, utthapam, pongal and so on….with sambar and chutney in unlimited supply! My eyes were shinning in exhilaration as I visualized the list, nearly all of them are magnificent take-away Sunday breakfasts in the part of India I come from. I told her I have always fancied making round and fluffy Idlys and crispy dosas. She laughed out loud to attract the attention of fellow guzzlers and I for some reason liked it, she said it’s easy like cakewalk, and although I had never done a cakewalk I was much excited to know how to mix, grind, ferment and shape them!</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">She told me the oval-shaped idly rice and white lentil in 4:1is the key, that should be soaked in water for about 4 hours, not necessarily overnight and much excitingly I can grind it using my own domestic grinder, leave it for fermentation overnight and use it for >2 days! I felt like having found a viable formula to success and couldn’t wait longer to buy the boiled rice and conduct a new experiment in my own busy lab. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">Few weeks later I shifted to my small rented house in Chennai and then came the most awaited weekend. Suiting to the place and people I was a thrusting worshipper of perfection by then, I did everything possible to make it soft, fluffy, round and high.</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">My first Idly was boiling high…..</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">When I took off the lid my excitement was beyond cloud 9, euphoric me rushed to the closest mirror to see how does the image of self-made round Idlys look.…with the white coconut chutney? No, with my shinning white grin! </div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"> I had thoroughly enjoyed the success of my first Idly but just couldn’t take time to write about it. An year later, when I decided to come out of that guilt today, it took me another session – yes of idly making, so I may re-live the experience to be able to write with precision. As I put my best effort to do that, an unavoidably imminent difference emerged from the mold, the idly was flat this time…</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">To know why the otherwise round world, turned-out flat this time, wait for my next post….</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47; text-align: justify;">BTW, my computer got virus-free that evening and I had to rewrite my essay, conversely at the time of writing this post I have this urgent thought of taking a permanent backup of all my data/write-ups, before surrendering my laptop to the IT department of ‘(One of) the best place to work for’.</div></div>Astihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14041991854831160563noreply@blogger.com3