Republic Day – Surprise!
Any patriotic individual of any nationality across the globe feels proud about their national days - Independence day, Republic Day, ….. These are days were you feel that pride that you BELONG….
Especially, when I think of all those homeless refugees due to various reasons across the globe, it really makes me realize on how much of a blessing it is to have the feeling of BELONGING to a place……..
And today being India’s 63rd Republic Day, I was very sweetly surprised by the Google Doodle……. Looks like this is visible only to the India Google users and hence reproducing it here again….The represents the parade on Rajpath, New Delhi where the elephants carry the children who won the National Bravery Award - Look at the tricolor on the umbrellas and the nice chakras on the background!!
Nice surprise!! Thank you - Google! Jai Hind! 
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Ra One
I am not reviewing this movie or giving it any ratings …………Honestly, it is not fair for me to give any rating because I stopped watching the movie just after the first 35 minutes….
The only input I have to King Khan is – Please REFRAIN from calling this movie as a CHILDREN’S ENTERTAINER……….
In general, average parents do not expect such explicit scenes and song sequences worth of a adult’s movie in a so-called children’s entertainer……..When my colleague talked about his ten-year old daughter asking questions which he was feeling uncomfortable to explain, I was retorting - ‘come on, it is a Bollywood movie and you can watch it with kids as it is supposed to be superman movie for Indian kids’…………….but then, I was wrong………I had to eat my words after I saw the movie!!
May be I am overreacting…..but, this is how I feel.
When Shahrukh can do a movie like “Chak de” which I want the kids to watch again and again, I can expect him to definitely refrain calling “Ra One” as children’s movie.
New Age Americas!!
Many a times it happens in the history - a simple photograph unfolds a greater story about the changing world. This is one such picture (thanks to my classmate who shared it with me) - amazing one!!
It says more about Obama as a leader - one who appreciates the dignity of labour and respects his fellow human being. The worker looks like a Mexican origin!! It definitely takes some compassion towards fellow human being to recognize our support staff - starting from the maid in our homes till the office support staff. I think this says much about the new age Americas….Well done, Mr.President! You are leading by example!
ps - Ok, for those skeptical minds who think this is part of Obama’s political image building exercise considering the impending US elections…..so what? atleast he is projecting this as a good leadership gesture….. You should still remember the other white house picture when the US hunted Bin Laden…….
ps 2 (only for Bollywood and Kollywood followers ) - Remember the scene in Munna Bhai MBBS / Vasool Raja MBBS where the hero hugs a cleaner and makes his day!!! ………our Indian movie makers probably are much ahead in times!!!
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Happy Sankranti, Pongal and Lohri – Fire Images!!
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- Lohri fire…starting to blaze!
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- Slowly, I see an image??
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- Do you see a human figure forming?
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- Perfect Fire Image – Call it the God of Fire – AGNI!!!
I just chanced to join the Lohri celebrations - and I was tantalized by the images which the roaring fire showed me. I only had my blackberry to capture these, but looks pretty amazing…
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What did you learn in 2011?
It was a long day! The day was packed with meetings and all the eight of us were tired when we sat around the dinner table …Most of us were just waiting to finish dinner and hit the bed…I always feel when you are expended mentally (brain storming sessions for such long durations do tire you!), you also feel exhausted physically! The group was quiet and was awaiting the food …..then, suddenly one of the folks said “till the food arrives….let us share what is one big learning for each of us in 2011″
I was amazed by what I heard from each one in that group - am sure that the tough IT scenario does teach life to us…. though every learning shared sounded very philosophical, each one of us had an experience (which we shared) in 2011 which made us learn …….
Here are the learnings…….
- Health is the most critical factor
- Nothing matters in the big picture - what is so critical today may not be even remembered later
- there is nothing like right or wrong
- Whatever happens, keep the focus and do what your are suppose to do – things will fall in place (karma yoga!)
- Give freedom to your family and team members - you will be amazed at the creativity which comes out because of freedom of thought
- It is good to do this 100% perfect, but it is better to get them done!
- You should take both good and bad with the same state of mind
- Life is not a zero sum game - it is a non-zero sum game (win-win)
What was your learning in 2011?
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How to Dress Smart!
Let me declare that am still a novice on fashion and I continue to work on the mission to better my wardrobe …..!!So, what I am jotting down here are the three basic principles of smart dressing which work in IT industry in India (ideally, it should work globally for other industries also?)
Here goes the three basic principles of smart dressing
• What is the IMAGE you want to project about yourself in your official environment? Mostly, it goes with your value systems is my observation. For me, it is DIGNITY • Dress for your next desk! – Just means that you got to dress for the highest role you are aspiring to reach in your career! If you plan to be the CEO, think how a CEO will dress! • Think what dress you are comfortable with – when you go shopping remember the advice from Sandra Bullock in ‘The blind side’ - “before you choose something, ask yourself IS THIS ME?”
Once you have firmed up the above three, then you are already smartly dressed. While there are many opinions on “how deep the neckline can be ? “to what is the right perfume to wear at work, I strongly feel if you are clear on the above three, you can carry yourself well!
Some of the women who have mastered these are - Priyanka Gandhi (Politics), Indira Nooyi (Business), Bipasha Basu (Entertainment), Mother Theresa (Social), Arundathi Roy (Arts), Sania Mirza (Sports) and Kamala Selvaraj (Medicine)……..
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GONNA BE A BEAR!!
I just did an informative post for women before this …Women leaders and self-confidence. So, am justified to post this satire actually (God, am i feeling guilty to make fun!? and trying to be defensive and justify this post?). This mailer definitely made me laugh!
Disclaimer (oh, yes…..I can put a disclaimer!!): This is not my writing - it is a forwarded mailer with a bold note “send this on to a lady friend. She will get a big chuckle out of it!” If you are someone who cannot stand the jokes which border sarcasm and if you are a guy ..…..i strongly recommend to “you skip this post…”
GONNA BE A BEAR
In this life I am a woman. In my next life, I would like to come back as a bear.
When you are a bear, you get to HIBERNATE. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with it. Before you hibernate, you’re supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with it too.
When you are a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of the walnuts) while you’re sleeping and wake to a partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.
If you are a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.
If you are a bear, your are expected to wake up growling and have excess body fat.
Yup, gonna be a bear!!
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Women Leaders and Self-confidence
While self-confidence is the basis for any self-improvement, a recent article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) was very specific about the need for women leaders to be self-confident. Leslie Pratch is the author of this article – she is a clinical psychologist who helps companies identify whether potential executives possess the psychological resources and personality strengths needed to succeed. If you read the 16 page research paper referred in this article, it can become a long read….so i consolidated the key messages which I found helpful …….
You can read the HBR article here…..
- Before a woman answers a question in the corporate scene, it may help to stop and ask yourself a question “do you think a man would have ever answered that question that way?”
- You got be very confident, even though we are so self-critical inside about what it is you may or may not know. And this will lead to taking risks
- Gender based expectations for behavior influence the styles and evaluations of leaders
- Men are freer to carry out leadership in different styles without encountering negative reactions because their leadership is ordinarily perceived as legitimate
- The findings indicated that women have to have high self-esteem and high self-confidence so that they can cope with the constraints placed on their leadership styles.
Related articles
- Why Women Leaders Need Self-Confidence (blogs.hbr.org)
Knight and Day
Category - Action romance ; Rating - 3 ; Comment - Easy watch entertainer!
Ok, the movie had the right mix for an entertainer….just watch easy!
- Simple story (unlike movies which may require a lot of focus)
- Great locations - Train on the alps, the tiny island, Spain and its famous bull fights…….ofcourse, Boston and NY!
- Action - Cruise runs all over…..Diaz does all shooting anywhere and everywhere
- Romance - Light and easy (if you excuse one dialogue of Diaz after she gets drugged in Spain, this definitely is a watchable movie for kids with no embarrassment for parents to answer questions like ‘ what does this #%$ mean?)
- Good prevails over evil - easy moral to explain to kids (off late, i keep a watch on before i declare who is the bad guy when we watch movies with my kids !!)
- Tom Cruise ( he looks his age in many frames)
- Cameron Diaz (she also looks her age in many frames)
But honestly, I felt the highlight and crux is the dialogue by Miller ……… “Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never’“……….There are lot of things we keep postponing thinking that some day we will do it…….this dialogue in the movie just hit that on the head!
Easy watch! Entertainer!
LLS – Self – Health – Rice Bran Oil
Rice Bran Oil was a chance discovery for me. One of my neighbours was mentioning about rice bran oil. She was using this as her fathe
r-in-law’s doctor prescribed this oil for him. I wanted to try this and I liked the oil (okay, actually……..I did not find any difference between this oil and the previous oil I was using! ). It is almost two years now and I have been using only rice bran oil as the cooking oil for the entire family. While I could not find any difference in the taste of the food cooked using rice bran oil, it gives me great satisfaction that I am using a healthy oil.
Rice bran oil is rich in vitamin E and has antioxidants and helps in cholesterol control. In south of India, we get multiple brands of rice bran oil in most of the retail shops. I use Akshath rice bran oil which is available in retails like Nilgris, Spencers, Reliance and Food world.
Also, the cost of rice bran oil is comparatively very less than the regular sunflower oil. TRY IT!!!
This is part of the Self of LLS series - http://ireach.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/life-and-learning-series-lls/.
