விலங்குப் பண்ணை

இந்த முறை விடுமுறைக்கு சென்ற போது வாங்கியது இந்தப் புத்தகம். எழுவது வருடங்களுக்கு முன்பு வெளியான நாவல் இது. அதனை சுவை மாறாமல் தமிழில் தந்து உள்ளார் திரு பி வி ராமசாமி அவர்கள். 

பொன்னுலகத்தை எதிர் நோக்கும் மனிதர்கள் மீண்டும் மீண்டும் ஏமாற்றத்தையே சந்திக்கும் அவல நிலையை அற்புதமாக எடுத்துக் காட்டும் நூல் இது. இன்றும் இந்த நிலைமை மாறவே இல்லை என்பது தான் இன்னும் நூலை வாசிக்கும் போது நெஞ்சை அறுக்கும் உண்மை. 

எல்லா அரசியல்வாதிகளும், அதிகாரிகளும் மக்களை எப்படி சுரண்டுகிறார்கள் என்பதனை அற்புதமாக எடுத்துக் காட்டுவது இந்த நூலின் சிறப்பு. 

இந்த நூலின் சுருக்கப் பட்ட ஒரு தமிழ் வடிவத்தை மஞ்சரி பத்திரிகை வழங்கியது என்று ஞாபகம். அதன் பின்னர் இதன் ஆங்கில வடிவத்தை நூலகத்தில் கல்லூரி நாட்களில் படித்தது. 

திடீர் என்று ஆரம்பிக்கும் புரட்சி, அதன் பின்னர் எல்லா மிருகங்களும் சேர்ந்து பணி செய்வது, அங்கே ஆரம்பிக்கும் அதிகார துஷ்பிரயோகம், பன்றிகள் பிற மிருகங்களை வேலை வாங்குவது, அதற்க்கு துணையாக வேட்டை நாய்கள், எல்லா மிருகங்களும் சமம், பன்றிகள் கொஞ்சம் மேலே என்று மாறுதல், மூல நூலின் ஆன்மா கெடாமல் மொழி பெயர்ப்பு செய்யப் பட்டு உள்ளது.

இதன் மொழி பெயர்ப்பாளர் திரு ராமசாமி அவர்கள் எனது தகப்பனாரின் நண்பர்.   எனக்கு முப்பது ஆண்டுகளாக எனக்குப் பழக்கமானவர். கோத்ரேஜ் நிறுவனத்தில் மிக உயர்ந்த பொறுப்பில் பணி செய்து ஒய்வு பெற்றவர். இது தான் இவரது முதல் மொழி பெயர்ப்பு. கடினமான, கரடு முரடான வார்த்தைகள் இல்லாமல் மிக எளிதாக படிக்கும் வகையில் மொழி பெயர்ப்பு செய்து உள்ளார். 

அவசியம் படிக்க வேண்டிய ஒரு புத்தகம். 

Find the Purpose

A real action packed year. Completing ten projects on the basic manual of communication within one year period.Completing eight projects in a span of just eight months. Hopefully by the end of today’s programme I will be provisionally certified as a confident and competent communicator. Real good job but where do I go from here with that certificate?

Toastmaster of the evening, Mr President, fellow members and guests please accept my warm wishes for a very happy and prosperous new year and good wishes for this evening. Good evening.

Life is a never ending learning process and toastmasters is a learning organization. Here we learn by doing, by getting evaluated by others and by getting hands on experience. But for what we undertake this pain and pressure?  Without doubt it is a real educational exercise, but what we are going to do with the education?  All along we have been listening from our toastmasters’ friends on external success and let me today try to do an inward journey.

We are one of the few fortunate people who try to learn continuously. But what is the purpose of education – is it to answer the questions asked or question the answers given?

Is education is just transfer of information to our brains from others?   If mere transfer of information is the purpose of education, then computer servers with good net connectivity should be more intelligent than all of us put together.  Because we do depend upon Google for almost all our queries.

So the purpose of education cannot be just accumulation of information, because in today’s world we have it in plenty. What we do with that available information, which one to use and which is not relevant, which is not workable and useless – all we need to know that. The knowledge of separating wheat from chaff should be the purpose of education. Having a lot of information and not knowing how to use this information is of no use.  So the purpose of education is knowledge – the knowledge to know what it right and what is not.

Then we have the second question, what is the purpose of knowledge?  Knowledge is just a form of potential energy that shows that one has the capacity to do things. But how?   Potential energy has to be converted into kinetic energy, as the proof of putting is in eating. Having just a capacity is no wayuseful; we need to have the willingness to act upon. So the purpose of knowledge is not the capacity to act, but the real action.

When comes to the question of actions, we have multiple choices. Which road that we can travel ahead? We have seen the American government pumping in a lot of tax payer’s money to bail out banks and insurance companies of US and the top management shared that money as their golden parachute and simply moved out.  On a monthly basis we are seeing the increase of white collar crimes which have been done by highly educated people. What is the use of such knowledge? The purpose of knowledge has to character building.

So the purpose of education is knowledge and purpose of knowledge is action and that too action for betterment.  Then we need to find out betterment of whom? So where the action based on character building does plays a role in our life as an individual?

Friends, let me take the privilege of introducing a person called Bunker Roy. He was born in the state of West Bengal and his father was a mechanical engineer and his mother retired as India’s trade commissioner to Russia. He had his education in the Doon school and had his masters in English literature from the prestigious St Stephen’s College Delhi. His parents want him to try and get into Indian Administrative Services, but he decided to go against their wishes. He started the barefoot movement and barefoot college and using the traditional knowledge and made more than three million people from the underprivileged sections of the society job worthy.

I don’t preach something which is very hard to practice, I know for certain it is very difficult to leave our most comfortable situations and stress ourselves in the remotest corners of the world serving others, if we do not have that inner voice of our conscious. I am not suggesting that all we need to do is to resign our jobs and start public service.

But, we need to understand the gap between haves and have-nots is getting enlarged day by day. We all know that change is the only constant thing in this world. But change that originates from the top to bottom is reform and that the same change if start from bottom that goes to the top has a different name. We could not have forgotten what has happened in this part of the world for the last one year – the Arab Spring. Friends, change that start at the bottom is called revolution. If we are not a part of the reforms, we will become a part of revolution. Choice is absolutely ours.

We all have been blessed by Gods, we were able to get a good and proper education, by which we have improved and increased our knowledge and with that we were able to get a good jobs. UAE had faced the worst recession and still undergoing it for the last three years. The simple fact that we are all able to retain our jobs, some of us still able to get better jobs shows that without doubt, we are all very competent leaders and competent communicators.

What we are going to do with this kind of talents, do we just want to earn a good living, increase our bank balances, invest on property and leave it to our children and disappear from this world. Don’t we have a duty towards the society to be fulfilled?

It is not that we do a charity by helping the underprivileged sections of the society. For me it is not a favor we do, but a duty which we all need to fulfill. We have a duty to hand over this beautiful planet earth in a slightly better position to our younger generation than how it was when we arrived here. We need to make a difference and it is a tryst with our destiny. We need to redeem our pledge.

It is only through education, that poverty can be eliminated. Mankind has not found a better weapon so far to fight poverty. Let me tell you what we, a group of our friends doing in this regard. We have been educated in a government aided school where many of us had our education from class 6 to + 2 – a whole seven long years. And this year our alma matter is celebrating its one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary. As many of you might know governments are moving out of providing quality education to the masses and leaving the private players to handle it. We decided to swim against the tide. During a casual chat with many of my friends and classmates we thought of helping the institution financially. But when we checked up the infrastructure is in place but the morale of the students is very low. They come from such a poor background that even their parents are not concerned about their education. Now on a regular basis, some of us whenever we find time or whenever we go to our native place make it a point to go to the school and interact with the students. We are informing them about the opportunities available, try to find out their problems and guide and help them to realize their potential. A major role has been played by our friends who are still in the same town or in my homeland.

What has started as a small movement of around 30 of us, now really grown big. In our group now we have more than 700 old students. We even have people who are in their seventies. At least someone visits the school every week which has really making a change, albeit in a small way. We know that the task is huge, but we are confident that we can do it and realize our dreams. This is our way of saying thanks to our beloved school which has thought us how to face the challenges of the world.

Toastmasters, we seldom have money problem, many times we have only an idea problem. Just think and check you will find your purpose, the thing that is closer to your heart and start doing it. As communicators and leaders we need to put our expertise for the benefit of the people around us.

Greatness is not when we talk big things, but when we understand small things. However small your noble deeds are, don’t mind, and start doing it. Shall we take this as our new year resolutions? Shall we act up on this?

Over to you toastmaster! 

Get, Set and Go

How many of us were able to study the course of our choice in the institute of our preference? How many of us were able to get the job of our liking and were able to marry the sweet heart of ourdream?

Toastmaster of the day, President, fellow members and welcome guests a warm good evening to you all.

How many times in our life do we face such situations, not able to get what we aspirefor and still have to digest what we end up getting. Have we not faced this situation in our life often?Not getting the promotions we think we are worth for, not getting the increment and incentives we feel we are fit for and on a personal note not getting a vacation which is due for? How do we handle this kind of situations, what lessons we can learn from them?

The first and the foremost lesson we need to understand is these are all only temporary setbacks and not final failures. Life goes on and on and on, we also have totravel with the tides of times not getting struck by the smaller turbulences of life. Whatever seems to be biggest problem today looks totally insignificant in the course of time.  In life everything happens for a reason, probably for a much better reason which we are not in a position to understand in such critical times.

The second lesson we need to know is setbacks are a natural part of life; everyone has their own share of setbacks.I do not believe in giving examples from mythology and history but I would like to take the example of a person who lives among us. AmithabBatchan – the uncrowned monarch of Indian cinema. From such a height he fell down because of his commercial ventures – AmithabBactchan Corporation Ltd. He conducted the Miss World contest in India, invested heavily in film and other entertainment industries, which he supposed to have known as the back of his hand. He sustained huge loss and even his house in Malabar Hills, the costliest place in Mumbai was attached by the bankers for not paying the dues in time. Papers started writing the obituary of the emperor. But he did not accept his setbacks as final, be bounced back with the great game show KBC, started endorsing products and he is the living example of a person with unlimited positive attitude. Look around all great people irrespective of age and races, we end up seeing such strong people who swim against the tide and come out victorious.

Please note, I am not using the word failure, but consciously using the word setback because failure is never final till the time we decide to give one more try. It is not the question how many times we have fell down, but the matter is whether we were able to get up just one more time than the number of times we have fell down.

We all know that for all actions there is an equal and opposite reaction. But all actions can give only two reactions – either results as we aspire for or experience. It is never a negative result we get, but only a result for which we are not prepared for or not ready to accept as it is.

Good X Bad, Tall X Short, Beauty X Ugly, Intelligent X Dull, Honest X corrupt – life is full of duality, is it so? We all think that if we throw a stone on a mango tree, either we get a mango or the stone fell down – isn’t it? But trick of nature is it is never binary, but has a lot of surprise options in between. We think either it is black or white – that is our understanding. Because we have been trained to think in that way only, but lives comes always with a shade of grey.

Take example of throwing the stone in the mango tree. What may be the possible results –

We may get a mango as we aspire for, or we may get a bunch of mangoes which is a jackpot, or the stone will fall down without giving any results, or still can hit our own head, creating a problem or still hit the neighbor’s window glass or an another person’s head which is a disaster. Technically all this can happen – do you agree with me or not?

Every problem has a limited life span – look back at your own lives, have we not come across the problem. We are not stuck, live moves on and on and on. Keep moving. Staying static is a sin, like the world we need to be dynamic and keep moving ahead.

Every problem holds a positive possibility, only we need to have that kind of vision to see the hidden message. When everything seems to be lost, remember future that too a bright future remains.

Every problem will change us in numerous ways, only we need to be ready to come out of our comfort zone and ready to pay the price for change.   Keep on renewing yourself.

R        Review your past

E         Examine all the possibilities

N        Name the price you are willing to pay

E         Elect the best possibility no matter what the price

W        Work and wait

Friends, never surrender, never give up open up and see the world as it is and not as we like to see. I truly believe that all roads are paved with gold, only we need to find it and take our share of it.

Over to you toastmaster of the day.

GOLD - THE DYNAMICS

Toastmaster of the day, Mr President, fellow toastmasters and guests – a warm good evening to you all. 

Being in a foreign country comes with a different set of problems. Recently I have faced one such situation.  Some of my wife’s friends polluted her mind and she has suddenly asked me to buy gold. As a dutiful husband I have checked up the price of gold here and found that it is almost the same as in India.  

Unlike other metals, many of the gold ever mined is still exist in the market. Roughly around 165,000 tons of gold have been mined in the history of mankind. If you want to visualize, it will be a solid cube of size 20 meters that is about 8000 cubic meter.  

We all know that gold is one important vehicle of investment as an asset class and people believe that it is much safer in times of economic turbulence and political uncertainty.  

India is the single largest consumer of gold and Indians are buying 800 tons of gold annually, which is around 25% of world’s annual gold production. This includes around 400 tons of gold that is being imported into India and the balance is the reused gold.  

But the biggest question is how the price is fixed? How could the price be the same in South Africa which has the major mines and in India and China, the two largest consumers of Gold? May be an interesting subject for us to know and understand.

Because most of the gold ever mined still exists and is potentially able to come on to the market for the right price, unlike most other commodities, the hoarding and disposal plays a much bigger role in affecting the price.

The Gold Fix, or the London Gold Fixing, is the procedure by which the price of gold is set on the London market by the five members of the London Gold Pool. It is designed to fix a price for settling contracts between members of the London bullion market, but, informally, the Gold Fixing provides a recognized rate that is used as a benchmark for pricing the majority of gold products throughout the world’s markets. 

London's deserved its reputation as the world's leading international bullion trading centre has its basis in history.

The origins of the emergence of London as a gold trading centre can be traced back to around 1671 when the young Moses Mocatta crossed the North Sea from Amsterdam (where he had been trading in sugar and diamonds) to set up business in London.

Initially his main business was in diamonds, but records from the East India Company in February 1676 show 'By cash of Moses Mocatta for freight on 75 ounces of gold on their ships - £6'. This gold was used to pay for pepper from India, and shipments of gold and silver in and out of London soon became regular events. 

In 1919, Bank of England signed an agreement with the seven major gold mining houses of South Africa, to ship their raw gold to England for refining and the refined gold will be sold through M/s N.M.Rothschild & Sons by obtaining the best possible price. The first fixing took place on September 12, 1919 amongst the five principal gold bullion traders and refiners of the day. Now it is a 92 year old institution.

The price of gold then was 4 pounds 18 shillings and 9 pence per troy ounce.  The gold price fix takes place initially at 10.30am and from 1968 at 3pm also in London time. The afternoon fix was added for the benefit of New York markets.

Due to government controls and war emergencies, the London Gold Fixing was suspended between 1939 and 1954. Historically, the Fixing took place daily at the City offices of N M Rothschild & Sons, but since May 5 2004 it takes place by telephone. 

In April 2004, N M Rothschild & Sons announced that it planned to withdraw from gold trading and from the London Gold Fixing. Barclays Bank took its place from 7 June 2004, and the chairmanship of the meeting, formerly held permanently by Rothschilds, now rotates annually.

While gold is traded in markets throughout the world, the market is essentially homogeneous since the gold price is always in dollars and the gold traded is "loco London" (gold deliverable in London and meeting London trading standards). 

The London PM fix is normally considered the main reference price for the day and is the price most often used in contracts. The chairman begins with a ’trying’ price. The market members then declare how much gold they are prepared to buy or sell at that price. Once the equilibrium is reached, the gold price is fixed. 

On very rare occasions the price will be fixed when there is disequilibrium, at the discretion of the chairman of the fix. A tradition of the London Gold Fixing was that participants could raise a small Union Flag on their desk to pause proceedings. Under the telephone fixing system, participants can register a pause by saying the word "flag", and the chair ends the meeting with the phrase "There are no flags, and we are fixed”  

Over the course of more than 90 years of the gold fixing, the highest fix was US$850 per ounce on the 21st of January 1980, amid the political crisis in the Middle East, high oil prices and inflation.  However, with inflation, the 1980 high would be equal to a price of $2800 in today’s dollars. So, the 1980 record still holds in real terms.

The longest fixing lasted for 2 hours and fifteen minutes when the stock markets crashed on Black Monday in late October 1987. The highest turnover occurred in March 1968 just before the gold pool collapsed - 14,180 400oz London Good Delivery bars were traded.  

I have collected enough interesting information on the dynamic of the gold market and now have to collect enough money to buy that yellow metal. Any of the toastmasters ready to help me?

Over to you toastmaster of the day!  

ஆசிரியர்கள் என்ற சிற்பிகள்

என் ஆசிரியர்கள் எல்லோராலும் நான் நேசிக்கப் பட்டு இருக்கிறேன், அரவணைக்கப் பட்டு இருக்கிறேன், செதுக்கப் பட்டு இருக்கிறேன், மன்னிக்கப் பட்டும் இருக்கிறேன். ஏறத்தாழ பதினேழு ஆண்டு காலம் என்னைப் பண்படுத்திய ஆசிரியர்களில் சிலரைப் பற்றிய நினைவுகள் இது. 

முதல் முதலில் என் நினைவிற்கு வருபவர் பாளை லயோலா கான்வென்ட் தலைமை ஆசிரியை சகோதரி சிறிய புஷ்பம் அவர்கள். பள்ளி பொது நூலகம் அவரது பொறுப்பில் தான் இருக்கும். ஒரு வெள்ளிகிழமை அன்று அவரிடம் சென்று, அவரது அனுமதியோடு நான்கு புத்தகங்கள் எடுத்து வந்தேன். மீண்டும் திங்கள் கிழமை அன்று அவரிடம் எல்லா புத்தகங்களையும் படித்து விட்டேன் என்று திருப்பிக் கொடுத்தேன். அதற்குள் எப்படி எல்லா புத்தகங்களையும் படிக்க முடியும் என்ற சந்தேகத்தில் அவர் என்னிடம் கேள்வி கேட்க, எனது பதிலில் திருப்தியாகி அதன் பின்பு எப்போது எவ்வளவு புத்தகமும் எடுத்துக் கொள்ள அனுமதி தந்தார். 

பொதுவாக கத்தோலிக சகோதரிகள் யார் வீடுகளுக்கும் போவது இல்லை என்ற நிலையில், அதனை மீறி அவர் எங்கள் வீடிற்கே வருவதும் உண்டு. 

நான்காம் வகுப்பு படிக்கும் போது என்னை தத்து எடுத்தவர் திரு தமிழ் கனல் அவர்கள். திறமையான தமிழ் ஆசிரியர். என்னை ஒரு பேச்சாளனாக மாற்றிய பெருமகன். எனது கையை பிடித்து நடை பழக்கி, என்னை ஓடவிட்டுப் பார்த்தவர்.

எனது ஆறாம் வகுப்பு தமிழ் ஆசிரியர் திரு குமாரசாமி அவர்கள், பல போட்டிகளுக்கு என்னை தேர்வு செய்து பல மேடைகளை என்னைப் பார்க்க வைத்து ரசித்தவர்.
   

                 

கணித ஆசிரியர் திரு தையல் பாகம் அவர்கள். எப்போதும் வெள்ளை வேட்டியும், வெள்ளை சட்டையும், வெளுத்த தலையும், முகம் நிறைந்த சிரிப்பும் என இருப்பவர். இவரது பேனா மை மட்டும் நல்ல கருப்பு. எழுத்து எல்லாம் அச்சு அடித்தது போல இருக்கும்.

                                     ( 150 ஆவது ஆண்டு விழா கொண்டாட்டம் )

எட்டாம் வகுப்பின் பள்ளி இறுதி ஆண்டு தேர்வு. கேள்வித்தாளில் பதில் எழுதி மற்ற மாணவர்களுக்கு மாற்றும் போது மாட்டிக்கொண்டேன். ஆனால் தேர்வு பணியில் இருந்த ஆசிரியர், அதனை தலைமை ஆசிரியரிடம் சொல்லாமல் எனது வகுப்பு ஆசிரியரிடம் மட்டும் தெரிவித்தார். " பல போட்டிகளில் நீ பரிசு வாங்கி வரும்போது மிகவும் மகிச்சியாக இருந்தது, நீ இப்படி செய்வாய் என நான் நினைக்கவே இல்லை " என்று மட்டும் சொல்லி சென்று விட்டார் எங்கள் வகுப்பு ஆசிரியர். செருப்பால் அடித்திருந்தால் கூட ஒன்றும் தோன்றி இருக்காது, அவரது கண்களில் தெரிந்த வருத்தம் அதோடு பொதுவாக தவறு செய்வதை விட்டுவிட்டேன். நன்றி திரு வேணுகோபால் அவர்களே
   
                                   

                                    ( ம தி தா பள்ளி பழைய மாணவர்கள் )

எனது கல்லுரி பேராசிரியர்கள் திரு எஸ் சுப்ரமணியம், திரு கே சுப்ரமணியம், திரு வளன் அரசு ஆகியோரை இங்கே நான் நன்றியோடு நினைவு கூறுகிறேன். 

தனது சொந்த மகன் போல என்னை சீராட்டிய எனது ஹிந்தி ஆசிரியைதிருமதி   லக்ஷ்மி அவர்கள், வீணை ஆசிரியை திருமதி நெல்லை வீணை சரஸ்வதி அவர்கள் இருக்கும் திசை நோக்கி தொழுகிறேன்.

இருபது ஆண்டு என்னை விட பெரியவர்களாக இருந்த போதும், எனக்கு நண்பனாக, ஆசிரியனாக இருக்கும் திரு சுந்தரராஜன், மற்றும் திரு பத்மநாபன் மற்றும் என்னைவிட வயதில் சிறியவனாக இருந்தாலும் அன்பால், பண்பால், நிதானத்தால் என்றும் என்னை வழிகாட்டும் திரு லக்ஷ்மணன் ஆகியோர்.

எல்லா இலக்கிய சிற்பிகளின் உளிகளும் என்னை செதுக்கிப் பார்த்து விட்டன, தெய்வங்கள் ஆக வில்லை என்றாலும் சிலைகளாக கூட மாறாமல், இன்னும் கற்களாகவே இருக்கிறேனே என்ற வருத்தம் எனக்கு உண்டு.

என்னை சமன்செய்த எல்லா ஆசிரியர்களுக்கும் எனது நன்றியும் வணக்கங்களும்

Toastmaster Project Speech - 6

Having heard my project speech no 5, hope by this time all toastmasters should be aware of my basic traits, isn’t it?  I am delivering this speech with all due respect to all madam toastmasters present here.

Toastmaster of the day, Mr President, fellow toastmasters and guests, a warm good evening to you all.

I was one of those unfortunate souls, who were not able to love a girl and get married, the same girl or someone else.  Mine was an arranged marriage. My father who was also a sales person like me, but he was more successful than me, used all his skills and tricks finally got a girl for me.

 I had 3 months between the engagement and the marriage and during those romancing days I told my would-be wife that I will take her out to a nice, calm place for an outing. I took her to the graveyard; you see generally it is always calm and quite. My would-be wife was highly disappointed and shouted at me for what and why I have taken her there? I told her “hey, what’s your problem, people are dying to come here “

Literally irritated she called my father and asked him to cancel the wedding. Then my father called both of us, myself and my would-be wife for a counseling session and advised me “Son, remember life is all about give and take”, and then I found out that it is always that we give and they take.

Remember friends, life is all about priorities and everyone has the right to choose their ways. To have a successful and happy married life, remember she goes her way and you go her way. It is simple.

Now let me give you some simple tips to keep your wife happy so that you can retain the music in your personal life.

Never try to outshine the mistress. This is the most important lesson you have to learn. Given all said and done, people will be delighted to note that they are intelligent, so give your partner that sense of accomplishment. Anyhow the male is kind is always dump and there is nothing wrong in accepting it too.

On a daily basis, tell your wife that she is beautiful, charming, intelligent, caring and never forget to tell her that you love her.  Generally, ladies tend to have this doubt, so we need to clarify it often. Anyhow we have been doing this kind of ego massage to our superiors and it is nothing wrong to practice it in the house also.

The next trick is sharing of decision making, who has the final say in things.  Together me and my wife clearly share the responsibilities. I decide what US should do to come out of the current financial crisis, what India has to do to curtail  corruption – big things like that. My wife decides on which school my daughters has to go, which dress they need to buy for this Diwali, what household appliance we need to by, small things like that.

Never be angry at the same time. Because when you are angry, you lose your mental balance. You have two choices, fight with your wife and get defeated or accept your defeat and never go for a fight. Choice is your gentlemen.

Remember, your wife is like a computer, can do multi tasking at a time, highly useful without whom you will find it very difficult to do your routine things, highly dependable but even your smallest mistakes are immediately committed to their memory for any future reference. So better be careful.

Simple all it seems maybe, but please remember only practice makes perfection. When I talk of perfection, I remained of an incident. Hope all you should know about the music academy in Chennai, where all south Indian top maestros use to present their concerts, dance etc. One day I asked an auto driver in Chennai “how could I make it to the music academy?” The driver immediately replied “practice, practice, practice”

But let me advice you with all this practice, never have over confidence in handling your wife. Confidence is fine, but over confidence is not. One of my friend who was doing his final year graduation mastering on agriculture, visited a farm for a field trip. After carefully studying the practice in the farm he told the old farmer “I will be highly astonished if you can able to get a yield of at least ten apples from this tree with the kind of your practice”. The farmer replied “yes sir, even I will be, because it is a mango tree”.  So be more careful with your activities.

Look out, life is all about priorities. Look at the great country UAE; you have a media city, festival city, internet city and a knowledge village. I suggest you to set your priorities right.

So friends practice this tit bits and enjoy a happy married life and you can proudly proclaim “I am the head of the family and I have my wife’s permission to say so”

Over to you Toastmaster!

Problem - No Problem

I have two daughters who always confirm Darwin’s theory of Evolution of Species by confirming our forefathers.  It was a Sunday and I was lying in the bed reading a book and my wife was doing some household activity. Both my daughters were missing in action. Suddenly we hear a loud noise, a big noise of a wooden stool falling down and a couple of vessels rolling. Both myself and my wife rush to the kitchen from where the sound originated with my wife shouting loudly “which monkey is that? “

My God, what I saw there? I saw my mother standing there with flour on all her body and a couple of vessels around. Suddenly my younger daughter appears there and yelled “Grandmother is that monkey”. Hopefully you all should know the very cordial relationship Indian daughter in law shares with her mother in law. All the trainings I have attended on situation handling, conflict management, and human relationship flashed on my mind. Nothing seems to work out. I did the one which I am capable of doing, just went out of the house, started my bike, ran and simply disappear into thin air.

Dear toastmasters, we all are facing many such problems in our daily life. Isn’t it?  Now I am going to tell you how to handle all this problems. But please keep it very secret, because not many common people are capable of handling these kinds of such complex issues.

Ok, now we have find out that there is a problem, what can we do? Just look around, if no one other than you have noticed it then just leave the problem. Why to get into a problem by spotting one.  Let someone else has the pleasure of handling it.

The second scenario is when one another person also noticed the problem, what can we do now? Many times he should also be confused without understanding what has happened actually.  Check whether we can push the blame on his head let him handle it. Or with his help try to push it to a third person and leave the place.

Many times in our official job, we need to handle a lot of problems, and then what can we do? Look at the problem deeply. Empower you subordinates that mean we are molding them for higher responsibility. They also need to learn how to handle complex situations. We are actually training them.

We can also make people in our same cadre to handle the problem. That means that we are delegating the jobs and help them achieving the goals. We need to be team workers, you see.

In the most unfortunate condition of we ended up having to deal with the problem, keep our boss in the loop and ask for his advice and suggestion. But we need to ensure that we keep the next level of superiors also in the loop. This is to ensure that we need to take the credit and if things go wrong our boss should be in the firing line and not us.

We need to understand that problems do not solve by themselves, only people get accustomed to it. After sometime this problem becomes a reality and there is no need for us to do anything on that. Just leave the problem, it will diffuse by itself.

But ensure that you are very active in the office. When you walk inside the office, walk very fast as if the entire office had been in fire. Or just keep looking the floor or the ceiling, with a grim face, let people think that you are very serious. 

When someone ask for your ask for some opinion or suggestion or information, it may be a very simple information like what is two added to two, do not answer immediately. Keep thinking for a long time, write something in your notebook or open up your computer and search, you may even hang on the face book, and then answer him after one hour. Let people think you are very serious when handling situations.

Always keep lot of papers and files in your desk.  The more papers in your table show that you go deep into many things. If your office is a new age hi-tech paperless office, then keep a lot of books, preferably big big books on different subjects like The Republic by Pluto, complete works of Tennyson, some book on management and something on your companies activities. Let people think that you always refer a lot of information. Then they will not trouble you with the problems.  You know, we need to like our work, it should fascinate us, we should love to sit and look at it for hours.

Look at all religious books, all say that God is most benevolent and most merciful. He is full of love and affection; He does not want us to get into troubles. Then why should face and handle problems, we are not created for that.  We have to be God fearing and should not go against His wishes.

Even all government declares as welfare state and wants to ensure that all their citizens should have a peace and comfort life. We need to be loyal to our countries and should not act against the rule of the land.

Thirdly, if we continue to handle lot of problems our health will get spoiled. What for we are working here – in the middle of a desert? Just to make money, what is the purpose in killing ourselves with high blood pressure and heart attack? No use. Remember don’t take life too seriously, you won’t get out alive.

Even doing a project in toastmasters is a big problem, a lot of preparation, coordinating with the mentor, repeated rehearsal and a tense performance. How to handle it? Then we need to do a mind tuning exercise. For seven minutes, we need to understand it is only the listener’s problem and not ours.

So friends, you have a problem, no problem – now I hope you all will follow this time tested principles, tested more than 35 years by me and believe it works.

Problem ……………………never ……………………………….. No problem