The National Institute of Naturopathy - Pune

The government is the agency that everyone loves to hate.
Sometimes the government surprises us by undertaking some useful and even pleasant activities. The National Institute of Naturopathy in Pune is one such example of government oversight.

This pleasant discovery was made recently when my wife and I took my old aunt there for treatment. Poor lady was suffering from neck and shoulder pains and no medicines were helping.

Appropriately housed in a 1.6 acre lush, green, and quiet place, the institute is located at Tadiwala Road and quite close to the noisy Pune railway station.

The moment you enter the calming premises you leave behind the hustle and bustle behind almost immediately. However our first visit there will be always remembered as a frightening experience.

As we approached the treatment area, our hearts stopped for a moment.Two bluish grey aliens came towards us walking real funny and even strange. May the Lord be praised! They spoke Hindi. It seemed they were ordinary folks, merely caked completely in mud (this is part of the full-body mudpack treatment). The hardened mud all over the body, between the thighs and around the crotch explained their strange gait.

Once we got over that scary bit, we went in to meet the consulting doctors. Dr.Dinesh Kumar & Dr Sathyanath. Consultations are helpful to understand the ailments and likely causes and are genuinely free,(normally anything said to be free, comes with hidden strings attached and a pay later tag). The doctors are knowledgeable, pleasant and behave like healers. We sometimes confuse treating with healing and can say they are healers.

Then stealing a few more minutes of their time we got a quick tour of the facilities, the history and the activities of the institute.

The centre has been around for nearly a century. Even Mahatma Gandhi ji started visiting the institute regularly from 1936 onwards. He is reported to have conducted several experiments in naturopathy during his stay. The bungalow and the adjoining cottages along with the land was gifted by Dr. Dinshaw Mehta in 1986 to the Government of India and named 'Bapu Bhavan' in honour of Gandhiji.

The doctors explained how naturopathy worked. The human body has enormous resilience and capability to heal itself. The institute helped people by de-stressing them using, yoga, employing mudpacks, various massages and bath treatments.

Results speak louder than words. We studied the expressions of most of the people leaving the institute after receiving treatment and were happy to note that they appeared mostly relaxed and happy. Even my normally grumpy aunt deemed it worthy to permit herself the luxury of a smile.

Operating under the Ministry of Health in Delhi , it's the only such facility in India. It's an institute with good yoga centres, gymnasium, library, research facilities, training centre, health shop and health-food restaurant.

Providing free training and even a stipend to 50 Young men and women each year. These trained personnel are picked up for suitable jobs almost immediately after completion of training. These youngsters earn handsome salaries in addition to providing wellness to scores of people all over the world. They are in much demand for the skills and practice they acquire at the institute.

I am sure you must be thinking, many things are simply associated with the government; it is expensive, dirty and the staff must be quite disinterested, blah, blah.....

The institute shocks you because it's clean, airy and well managed. It surprises you further because the charges for everything are either free or quite low. The staff are efficient, cordial and helpful. They do not receive nor expect any tips or gifts or favours.

Maybe these folks are drinking too much of those very reasonably priced healthy juices and herbal teas, otherwise how else can you explain this unusual efficiency and pleasantness. God bless these wonderfully helpful people.


p.s.

1. My Aunt is feeling much better now.
2. You can get more information at the institutes website http://punenin.org. While informative the website does not bring out effectively the fact that they are spreading wellness and enriching lives.

The Irish Medical Dictionary

The Irish have a low stress rate because they do not take medical terminology seriously. You are going to die anyway, so live life.

Irish Medical Dictionary

Artery......................The study of paintings
Bacteria....................Back door to cafeteria
Barium..................... What doctors do when patients die
Benign......................What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section.......... A neighbourhood in Rome
Cat scan....................Searching for Kitty
Cauterize...................Made eye contact with her
Colic.......................A sheep dog
Coma........................A punctuation mark
Dilate......................To live long
Enema.......................Not a friend
Fester......................Quicker than someone else
Fibula......................A small lie
Impotent....................Distinguished, well known
Labour Pain.................Getting hurt at work
Medical Staff...............A Doctor's cane
Morbid......................A higher offer
Nitrates....................Cheaper than day rates
Node........................I knew it
Outpatient..................A person who has fainted
Pelvis......................Second cousin to Elvis
Post Operative..............A letter carrier
Recovery Room...............Place to do upholstery
Rectum......................Nearly killed him
Secretion...................Hiding something
Seizure.....................Roman emperor
Tablet......................A small table
Terminal Illness............Getting sick at the airport
Tumour.......................One plus one more
Urine.......................Opposite of you're out _


Laughter is the best medicine, particularly if it is at one's own expense.
Thanks to the Quinn family from Dublin for these thigh slappers.

If sincere, great men like Yogi Uncle will come to your assistance.

What is the difference between a Politician and statesman?
The politician has his eye on the next election. The statesman has his eye on the next generation.

What is the difference between a businessman and an Industrialist?
The businessman has his eye on the current year's balance sheet. The industrialist has his eye on building a great institution.

If this be the case then Uncle Yogiraj Makar deservedly is a great Industrialist and a remarkable statesman.

Yogi uncle and his brother Uncle Surindernath Makar, with their sheer hard work, can-do spirit and charisma created one of India's legendary forging companies Hakimrai Jaichand Forgings Company Private Limited (HJ). Initially starting in Bhandup Mumbai, they eventually had several plants in Pune, Chakan, and Faridabad (later the name was changed to Amforge).

In 1981 my brothers and I took the helm as second generation entreprenuers of our family business manufacturing steel forgings. Compared to HJ we were a little company and quite inexperienced in many matters.

When a company is small and budding it needs answers to address many concerns. As is the case with many small to medium organisations we appreciated the need for mentors, to honestly guide us, be it marketing, legal, procurement, management or technology.

We were fortunate to have Yogi Uncle. His knowledge and stature was appreciated by one and all. He was also President of our Industry association at that time. Yogi uncle's noble nature made him our natural choice for guidance and moral support.

When Bajaj Auto the manufacturer of scooters , three wheeled auto-rickshaws and motorcycles started it's meteoric rise, Hakimrai Jaichand (HJ) was supplying all their materials from their Bombay plant at Bhandup. As was the case demand for forgings far exceeded supply. This represented an opportunity for little companies like us to grow rapidly. In a sense we were taking business away from HJ.

An incident will serve to illustrate the statesmanship of Mr. Yogiraj Makar.

Die making in our business was crucial for making good and consistent products. This was an area in which we were weak. We wanted to learn about a certain die making technology being used by HJ and having learnt that that they had invested in a 'state of art' Japanese die making machine.
My brother Parvinder and I thought about several ways to learn about this technology. We deliberated hard and long and even considered various espionage options. Finally we decided that let's try the honourable way and approach Yogi Uncle directly for his guidance.

We took an appointment, and went to meet him at Bombay. Inspite of his busy schedule and senior stature he met us at the appointed time with courtesy and warmth.

We greeted him and touched his feet respectfully as is the customary manner for greeting our elders whom we hold in high respect. He hugged us and made us comfortable, asked about our father and uncle.

He asked, "What is it that you wanted to see me about?"
Then we told him bluntly that we would like to study the new machine that he had imported from Japan to evaluate it and learn what to do.

He broke out into uncontrollable laughter. He calmed down after a while and summoned his secretary and asked him to fetch the General Manager of the plant.
He introduced us to the GM and then instructed him to show us not only the Japanese die making machine but to show us around the facility. He further added that "These are my nephews, be honest with them and answer all the doubts they they may have on on what we do here at HJ."

Overwhelmed and grateful for his magnanimity we looked around. We learnt a lot from that visit and that helped us to shape our thinking and formulate our strategies..

While leaving he placed his hand on our shoulders and said " I like your approach. One day you guys are going to be a headache for us. However courage and hard work must be respected. Good Luck and may God bless you."

This was not the only time that Mr. Yogiraj Makar helped us.
Learning on the job can be frighteningly expensive, on both the pocket and mind.Time and again he would go out of the way to guide and help us and many others like us. Thus bringing solace and knowledge to us all who were struggling in a very tough business. It is the few stalwarts like him that have helped to shape many good things in Indian industry and the Steel Forging industry in particular.

The Panjabi people have a zest for life and magnanimity beyond belief. Uncle Yogiraj Makar is a supreme example of all that is good and wonderful in a Panjabi, in a great Industrialist and a giant of a man. Yogi Uncle we salute you.

Asking the right questions?

Framing or in other words asking the correct question, is probably more important than the answer itself. A correct question will probably achieve more than an answer, for an answer needs mainly memory where as the question will often require intelligence and analysis.

Why should anyone question in the first place? This is because we most often become what we question.
Rene Descartes said "I think therefore I am."

The questions referred to here are not the general type of conversational ones. The reference here is rather to those questions that have a bearing on our personal lives and work; in fact to our very being and existence.

For our discussion's sake, there are mainly two types of people in this world.
First the reasonable people and secondly the unreasonable people.
The reasonable people don't ask questions and accept the way things are, they adjust themselves to fit into existing structures, systems and environments.
Unreasonable people don't accept the status quo and hence ask questions, they try to change things and the environment to to meet their expectations.
Thus it would be reasonable to state that all development, change or progress can only be brought about by 'unreasonable people', the ones who question.

Not all questioning need be public or loud. Mikhail Gorbachev, had many questions but kept them to himself and a few trusted lieutenants. He became the General Secretary of the Soviet communist party and leader of Soviet Union in March 11th 1985.
Soon after he became leader, he moved with rapidity to introduce real reform, which led to dismantling of the Soviet Union and weakened communism and eventually helped usher in a new world order. The merits of the question are not being discussed, just the implications are.

On the other hand, vociferous questioners are often perceived as trouble-makers, rebels and 'unreasonable people.'
Not all questioners have good or noble intentions and 'churn the pot' merely for purposes of entertainment or to seek attention.

Are they necessarily bad, evil or useless?
On the contrary, by their actions, these loud protestors, demonstrate clearly that they possess energy and some presence of mind. This is not always bad, as an effective person or leader can actually engage such questioners and channelise this energy to useful purposes.

Unfortunately our education system and society frowns upon anyone who raises any questions. The system comprising, homes, educational institutions, job environment is currently spawning generations of people who are more adept at answering questions rather than asking them.

Why then should we decry the rise of bigotry, prejudices, violence and continuing decline of our society?

WAQT NAHI

Har khushi Hai Logon Ke Daman Mein,
Par Ek Hansi Ke Liye Waqt Nahi.
Din Raat Daudti Duniya Mein,
Zindagi Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Maa Ki Loree Ka Ehsaas To Hai,
Par Maa Ko Maa Kehne Ka Waqt Nahi.
Saare Rishton Ko To Hum Maar Chuke,
Ab Unhe Dafnane Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.

Saare Naam Mobile Mein Hain,
Par Dosti Ke Lye Waqt Nahi.
Gairon Ki Kya Baat Karen,
Jab Apno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Aankhon Me Hai Neend Badee,
Par Sone Ka Waqt Nahi.
Dil Hai Ghamon Se Bhara Hua,
Par Rone Ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.

Paison ki Daud Me Aise Daude,
Ki Thakne ka Bhi Waqt Nahi.
Paraye Ehsason Ki Kya Kadr Karein,
Jab Apane Sapno Ke Liye Hi Waqt Nahi.

Tu Hi Bata E Zindagi,
Iss Zindagi Ka Kya Hoga,
Ki Har Pal Marne Walon Ko,
Jeene Ke Liye Bhi Waqt Nahi.......


Thanks to Dr. Surjit Patheja for this contribution

Why I became a vegetarian?

Why I became a vegetarian?

Like many people, I too loved a good party. Eat, drink and be merry was my motto. One day I turned vegetarian and gave up eating meat and poultry. My friends thought that I was suffering from a temporary bout of insanity and would become my old self again in a little while.

I had converted and I had to control myself to avoid the halo effect. Converts are more fanatical than the originals. When realisation dawns on them they start imposing themselves on everyone around them. Everyone detests a pesky convert. So I tried without success to keep my convictions to myself.

Many friends and relatives often ask me the reason why I became a vegetarian. So I thought that this is a good way to share some experiences and beliefs without imposing.

Often an action looks like it has suddenly occurred. In reality its causes build up slowly and softly before it erupts up forth. This is often the case when people make life changing decisions.

It began a few years ago when an friend in the United Arab Emirates invited to the inauguration of his new car rental business. As is their customs, he offered a lamb in sacrifice in front of his showroom and all of the guests. The poor animal was tied down and its throat slit. As the blood gushed out the animal struggled, violently at first and then it lay still as the blood made a large pool in front of the showroom. The sacrificer gathered some blood and splashed it on the glass front of the showroom.

Most of the local guests applauded and thanked God. I wanted to be polite and applaud but I stood still frozen, saddened and angered by what we human beings do.


Everyone looked around the showroom and congratulated Muhsein our friend. Then we were invited to have lunch. The normally tasty biryani didn't tempt us anymore and we bade a hasty farewell.

We may not be conducting acts of violence ourselves when we eat meat or poultry, but our craving gives rise to unnecessary slaughter. When I saw the life ebbing away from another creature to fulfil my lust for meat, it raised certain doubts. I asked was it necessary to kill? How would I have felt to be in the place of that helpless creature?

In today's world, we are surrounded by meat eaters. Love for meat is something not easy to give up. Within a week I was relishing tasty non vegetarian food once again, but now with each passing day and meal I felt increasingly guilty.

A few months later I came upon an article in the National Geographic magazine. The article was about the coming food shortage. The world is facing a looming crisis of gigantic proportions. The crisis is of acute food and water shortage.

The article discussed how mass breeding of cattle, pigs, lamb and chicken were consuming huge amounts of grain and water. The pollution created by the waste produced as a by product is so huge that it is having a devastating effect on our environment. Eating meat is incredibly inefficient way to get the same calories than from grain ranging from 3 times to 10 times more inefficient.


Scientific study shows that populations if unchecked double every 25 years while agricultural output is growing more slowly at approx 1 to 2% per year. Thomas Robert Malthus was the first person to highlight this theory soon after the French revolution and he was laughed at. People soon stopped laughing after 100 years as humanity is heading towards a biological trap from which it can never escape.

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research is the group of world-renowned agricultural research centres that helped more than double the world's average yields of cereals between the mid-1950s & the mid-1990s, an achievement so staggering it was dubbed the green revolution. They are trying to repeat the green revolution, unfortunately they are not having much success nor do they have much confidence.

Eating meat leads to consumption of 5 to 10 times more grain which is fed to animals, than if it was consumed directly by humans.

As more and more land is being taken up for agriculture, rain forests and jungles are being chopped down at alarming rates and the continuous degradation of our environment spells doom for our planet.

That is why in 2008 & 2009 there were record food shortages and alarming price rise leading to riots despite of bumper crop outputs.

Interested readers can get more information on this topic at
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html


Then an extraordinary meeting took place. About a couple of years ago I met Sant Baba Ishwar Singh ji in Mumbai where he was visiting. Babaji has a small ashram outside of Dheradun Uttarakhand, where he provides and cares for the material and spiritual needs of the local people as best as is possible for a Sadhu. I subsequently travelled to the ashram and spent a couple of days there.

The ashram is located at the very edge of a forest. Nestled in the Doon valley of the Shivalik mountain range and near the Rajaji National park. It is a beautiful and quiet place, perfect for meditation and prayer.

At the evening Satsang or gathering he spoke of the need for possessing Karuna (compassion). Compassion Babaji said was not only necessary towards our fellow humans but also for all things created by God. If you wish to worship God, then love and respect all living things, respect your environment for it too deserves the right to exist as pristine as it was created. Use, but do not abuse.

Compassion is different from charity or mercy. Charity creates a gap. In charity or mercy there is the rich versus the poor, the giver and the receiver, creating a rift between them and actually propagating further divisions.

Compassion also means, accepting the fact that I am not the provider or giver, I am merely a medium through which good things pass. It is our good fortune that we have the opportunity to be that medium.

Something stirred in me and I never wanted to leave Babaji and the ashram, but I had to return because of my responsibilities and the materialistic world. I asked him to accept me as a follower. Babaji refused to make me his follower. He said "you must not be a follower; you must be a student, a disciple".
Babaji continued "Mine is the responsibility to awaken you so that you may seek the truth on your own, which you will never attain if you blindly follow me".

I returned to the ashram several times. A few months later I was granted 'Diksha' by Babaji and became his disciple.

I who seek love and compassion, must myself first be compassionate and true.
I realised that I cannot change the world, but I can change myself.
I gave up eating meat and became a vegetarian.

If you cross the border, illegally.

If You Cross The North Korean Border Illegally,
You Get 12 Years Hard Labor.

If You Cross The Iranian Border Illegally,
You Are Detained Indefinitely.

If You Cross The Afghan Border Illegally,
You Get Shot.

If You Cross The Saudi Arabian Border Illegally,
You Will Be Jailed.

If You Cross The Chinese Border Illegally,
You May Never Be Heard From Again.

If You Cross The Venezuelan Border Illegally,
You Will Be Branded A Spy And Your Fate will be Sealed.

If You Cross The Cuban Border Illegally,
You Will Be Thrown Into Political Prison To Rot.

If You Enter Britain Illegally,
You Will Arrested, Prosecuted, Sent To Prison And Deported

If You Cross The Indian Border
You Get
-A Ration Card,
-Voter Identification,
-Passport ( 1 or more)
-Job,
-A Drivers License,
-Voter Identity Card,
-Job Reservation,
-Special Privileges,
-Credit Cards,
-Subsidized Rent Or A Loan To Buy A House,
-Free Education,
-Free Health Care,
-A Lobbyist In New Delhi
- And Voting Rights!!


Thanks to Mr. Jimmy Kapadia for sharing this with us.

Upward delegation

Upward delegation

I belong to a family of workaholics. Not necessarily something to be proud of.
We worked very hard but not always smartly. I could rarely get home before midnight. My brothers and I slogged it out. We enjoyed this feeling of stretching ourselves to the maximum of our potential.
Come to think of it, It's not a bad thing to work hard, but it's got to have meaning. It is also quite irrelevant if the quality of life is missing.

The way I was working and managing felt like I was on a nonstop treadmill. With each passing day, I experienced ever increasing workloads. It felt akin to living in a kind of happy prison where I actually enjoyed the hard labour. I have since discovered that my situation was not unique.

I knew I should find a better way. What could that be?
Could there not be abetter way to grow the company and ourselves without being so frustrated.
When you are young you have boundless energy. I was far from tired but kept asking, should there not be more to life? How long will this be my lifestyle?

I think it was the year of 1983 or so. I once came upon a book which had a funny title. Maybe it was one of those ‘One Minute Manager’ books. Out of curiosity I purchased it. I wish I could remember the name, so that I could read the book again and share it with you. I do however recall that there was an interesting anecdote in it, from which I learnt an important lesson. I would like to share that lesson with you.

It was an example and it went something like this;
The anecdote involves two people let's call them Mangesh and his boss Gagandeep.

One day Mangesh enters Gagandeep's office, and says "I would like to speak with you, I have a problem."
Gagan listens to his problem and responds" Ok, I heard you. Now what do you want?"
Mangesh says “I don't know what to do"
Gagan responds "Even I don't know what to do. I think the organisation cannot afford the overhead of having two people not knowing what to do about a problem.”

Mangesh gets a jolt, apologises and makes a quick exit. He is angry and confused as he leaves her office. It was an important wake up call to Mangesh.
He returns to his office, thinks about what transpired, the problem he has on hand, and then works out possible solutions.

Mangesh returned to Gagan's office later that day, and the whole thing repeated itself, except that Mangesh now has three alternative solutions and now wants Gagan's opinion on them.

She asks "which solution do you prefer?"
Mangesh responds that “I prefer the second alternative."
Gagan says "I would probably go with that solution too."
The meeting between Mangesh and Gagan ended, quickly and efficiently.

I took two lessons from this little parable.

1. First, people must do their own jobs and not be encouraged to resort to upward delegation. They must address the problem as best as possible on their own rather than dumping it on someone else.
2. Secondly, people must take responsibility for their own actions rather than making someone else, particularly the boss responsible unnecessarily.
   
   The author of the book went on to give a long explanation and all that other chutney that they dish out in many of these management books.
   
   Many people actually make good bosses. They are really smart and hardworking.
   Unfortunately as the boss, you come to believe that, you are the smartest guy in the world, especially if you also own the company.
   This situation is worse when you are young, because you are looking for problems to smash and mountains to conquer and all that other nonsense. After all one of the signs of youth is to do things the difficult way.
   
   When I read the little portion in that book, I got to thinking. As a young energetic, sincere owner- manager I was the perfect sucker, particularly with my open door policy.
   
   Am I suggesting that people should not work hard?
   Maybe I am suggesting that I work smarter, rather than as a beast of burden carrying increasingly more load and nonsense which should be carried by other team members.
   
   Most of these people draw a pretty decent salary to discharge those responsibilities.
   
   I started observing my own behaviour, and I was shocked at my analysis.
   I had an open door policy, so anyone could walk in to my office at any time. This was great for dynamic action and communication.
   
   The problem was getting into all sorts of communications which need not have involved me in the first place.
   People would tell me that they had a problem but could not solve it, and I would say "I will look into it", suddenly it was my assignment and responsibility.
   My staff would often leave for their homes before me and here I was burning the midnight oil.
   
   Let me give you an example.
   We had imported a large piece of Soviet equipment and the equipment was giving us serious problems. The engineers had come down and had dismantled the giant of a machine to investigate.
   The engineers needed a large measuring instrument to measure the diameter on a shaft. Unfortunately, we did not have such a large measuring instrument.
   
   My maintenance engineer came to me with the problem and I said “I don’t know anyone and I am stuck.”
   I responded, "I will look into it, and locate the large instrument from someone or the other"
   
   I jumped to this new task and was making enquiries, when I looked out from my office window and I saw Mr. Ramanathan, our maintenance chief leaving for the day. I recalled the part I read in the book and decided to try a different approach. I called him back to my office.
   
   "Ramanathan, why can't you locate a large micrometer for the Russian engineers?"
   "Sorry Sir, I don't know anybody."
   "Why don't you simply ring up the quality in charge of several of these big companies in Pune and speak to them. Just look who has such an instrument and I will then speak with the General Manager of that company and request them that if we could possibly borrow their instrument"
   “OK, Sir”.
   
   Feeling pleased with myself I allowed myself the luxury to leave on time for home that day, surprising both the family and myself by arriving home in time for dinner.
   Poor Mr. Ramanathan was late for his dinner.
   
   Next day by noon, Mr. Ramanathan had located three companies that had what we needed, along with the names and contact details of the concerned General Manager. I called the concerned person at one of the companies. Yes and he was willing to let us borrow the instrument provided we sent someone to pick it up and return it along with their engineer.
   
   This solved the problem and it also gave Mr. Ramanathan more confidence in handling agencies outside of our organisation. We were a happier and this little lesson went a long way in making us more efficient and effective.
   
   
   Some other lessons I can share.
   My junior comes to me and explains a problem that he has. I listen to him as I should (at least most of the time.). Before I realise what is happening. I suddenly became party to their performance failure because I was made aware of the problem.
   I solved the problem by adopting the question " I heard you, now what do you need from me?"
   Inevitably they would say “Nothing, I just wanted you to know".
   I preferred to conclude "Then I assume you will fix the problem and will still be able to meet your commitment?"
   If they needed any additional resources I would evaluate the situation and assist them if needed.
   
   I am at no time suggesting that a boss should abdicate from his or her responsibility.
   As the boss I was ultimately responsibility but I tried to ensure that problems that ought to be resolved by my juniors were tackled at their levels. My support came chiefly in the form of advice, and providing resources.

Some of you may ask why I am writing this management piece in my general blog.
The situation is not different in our homes and personal lives.
Sometimes, the spouse, siblings, children and friends also keep asking us to handle things that they are fully capable of handling but find it expedient to get someone else to do it for them.

I try to always ask myself, is this really necessary for me to be doing? What exactly does this request entail?

This lesson was useful for me, but of course it is unwise to underestimate the stupidity of human beings to keep on locating or creating problems for ourselves.

Are we adulterated?

Adulterated

As I grow older something’s seem to get easier and some more difficult.
One of the things that got more difficult was making friends.

From the time I was in Kindergarten till I left school, friendships were spontaneous, effortless and uninhibited. Friendship was joyful and genuine.
It mattered not whether they were rich or poor, or what religious beliefs their parents held.

My play partners, companions and friends mostly enjoyed my company and I theirs. Disagreements took place all the time, but were quickly forgiven and more readily forgotten. Fights may have left scars on the body but not in the heart. I wanted for nothing, and we shared what we had willingly.

I remember that in the ninth grade I left boarding school to become a day scholar in the same Bishop School.
A great pleasure for me was, at each weekend cycling from home to school carrying a large quantity of tasty Parathas prepared by my Aunt for my famished boarding school friends.
I had even forgotten about this until my friend Abbas reminded me recently.


In college it was still easy making friends. Friendships were still born out of the voice of the heart but I also started using a bit of my brain.
Exposure to new and wicked pleasures normally numbed the mind.
Once the novelty wore off, I made a new set of friends. These were people I had developed a healthy respect for. These were folks who challenged me to make me a better person. Many still remain good friends

Being a Punjabi and a Sikh, we are used to being jovial, big hearted, and a little crazy. I like to believe I have a good sense of humour, a large encyclopaedia of jokes. These are all the ingredients to be popular and to make friends.
I realised soon enough that humour is a great thing, particularly if you can laugh at yourself.


Once I was working professionally befriending people was easy, after all I had become practised at it. However the friendships were often less than genuine. Hidden agendas with manipulation and exploitation often overshadowed genuine likings. At this stage befriending people with a view to exploiting them is understood and accepted. Maybe it’s a social thing.
During the most dynamic period of my career genuine friendships mostly eluded me. Many ‘friends’ were customers and professional associates.
The period when I work hard I liked to party hard. Party animals, and partners in vice were the preferred ‘friends’.

Here is a question;
What is the difference between men and boys?
‘The cost of their toys”.

When you party too hard or are having too much fun it begins to bother your parents. My parents wanted to get me married at the earliest.
Dad kept saying that youth in the heart and body, time on hand and money in the pocket was a recepie for trouble
I kept refusing to get married until I met Mohini, then I was hooked.

They say ‘A man is incomplete until he gets married, then he is finished.’

After marriage, making friends got extremely complex, marital couples have to be normally friendly in pairs. Rules of friendship at this stage are formal and are confusing.
I soon learnt that the visas for my bachelor friends to my home were cancelled. This was inevitable because they had distractive and inappropriate tendencies like getting inebriated, and running wild and speaking the truth.

Hey! Boys will be boys, doesn’t cut it here at this stage.

As our children grew up all the pair friends were the parents of our children’s classmates. This is a passing phase and has no real impact in most cases. However, some become so dear that they are still considered as part of our family.

Once I had achieved some degree of professional success, I began to think no end of myself. I could not enjoy genuine friendships.

Isn’t that a shame that material success often makes people so pompous and often insecure?


I thought a lot about these things and decided to put down my thoughts to paper (computer really).

• Why do we change?
• Why do we stop trusting, loving or befriending?

I like many others bandy about terms without really pausing to think what they really mean. What did I understand by the term friendship?

Putting on an act of being someone else is pretty exhausting. Deception is often short lived and corrodes the soul gradually and certainly.

In my dictionary, ‘A friend’ is someone with whom you can be yourself.

I found an interesting correlation between age that is becoming an adult and getting adulterated. I believed I was getting less pure with age.
I looked up the dictionary and found the meaning of the words ‘adult’ and ‘adulterated’.
Adult comes from the Latin word ‘adultus’ meaning grown up.
Adulterated from the Latin word ‘adulterare’ meaning to corrupt.

The more I aged the more adulterated I became.

What caused this corruption (or adulteration)?
I wonder if any of you have thoughts on this.

ENIGMA SOLUTION - a new blog

Thank you all for your feedback and words of inspiration. However I am surprised at the low level of dissent.

When I started writing this blog I thought of writing more on professional work and experience using innovative technical and management solutions to build a world class organisation.

Organisations that are great are not so because of the equipment or structures etc. that they possess. They are great because of the people in the organisation.
So I started writing about the underlying philosophy and values that helped us as a family. Many of my friends may not want to get exhausted reading about management and technology related stuff so I have shifted all such topics to a new blog ENIGMA SOLUTION and this can be followed at http://enigmasolution.blogspot.com
Just for your information Enigma comes from the Greek word ainigma meaning 'riddle'


The old blog QUALITY OF LIFE will continue at http://rainysingh.blogspot.com
Hopefully I can cover the human aspects of our roles in life as child, parent, friend, lover, spouse, boss, subordinate, colleague, socialite, professional /vocational etc. at this blog

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do in writing it. ( Doesn’t that sound a bit too commercial?)

Best Regards

Gurvinder

Mind or Heart ?

Mind or Heart

I got some interesting feedback to my earlier article "I am richer because I follow my heart."

Some people think me impractical.
Could it be that matters of the heart always appear impractical?

Reproduced are some of the comments.

1. "I think one should be rich if he/she follows his brain not heart."
2. "Wake up man! You live in a real world not in wonderland"
3. "Thanks I can relate to this”
4. "Touching and inspiring. I am a changed person"
5. "Thanks for sharing this with us."
6. "I fully agree with the contents and have personally experienced the fulfilment when you give without any expectation in return."

Good or bad, pleasant or otherwise, all feedback is appreciated. After all the idea is to share experiences and hopefully enrich the quality of our lives. Passion makes things happen. It would be disappointing if this blog were a monologue. Osho once asked "What can be the sound of one hand clapping?"

The comments are interesting and stimulating, but I wish those who respond would post their comments on the blog rather than mailing them to me.

Here is an important question to ask ourselves.
What is the difference between success and happiness?
Success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you have got.
It is easy to confuse the two.

Let me share some additional thoughts;
My childhood teacher, friend, and role model was my Uncle, Sardar Manohar Singh ji. Growing up, he taught me to be totally independent. He warned me "never ever put yourself in the position that you need someone else so badly that you have to allow them to mess with you. The moment people realise they have power over you they begin to toy with you." "To be enslaved, dominated or toyed with, is a terrible feeling, and you will feel stifled and resent yourself" he added.

So in the material and professional world I sought to be totally self sufficient.
I achieved a lot materialistically but spiritually I was hollow. Emotionally I was all bottled up. I would not love, or even trust. My friends found me happy and jovial but little did they realise how superficial I really was.

The first five years of our career were filled with exceptional progress. Progress achieved by sheer hard work, amazing luck and fair share of exploiting others.

Every morning we would rise and shine, and then charge out to do business battle.
We had everything we needed to live a good life, but yet I felt an emptiness. Getting married made me realise how emotionally bankrupt I was. Yet obstinately I remain unchanged.

There was the constant questioning on the meaning on the quality of my life. Then our children came into our lives. I could be a child and uninhibited once again. I began to feel release from my hard boiled shell. In giving, sharing and playing there was a joy that cannot be described, only experienced.
Once the butterfly takes flight it can never be the ugly caterpillar again.

Aware I was but directionless I remained.
However the mind and heart had been rendered fertile for receiving good things and that is what happened.
As my friend Anil Pillai says, "good things come to you only when you need them or when you are ready."

Many people came in my life. Some gave me a leg up, some showed me the way, and some cautioned me from pitfalls. Some like Nana simply adored me, but all of them like the old man to whom I gave a ride awakened me. Each encounter peels away a myth, prejudice, and negativity. A layer at a time you reach ever deeper into yourself. Question is what do I and others like me do with these lessons and experiences?

I am compelled to quote Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister during Second World War); "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

Once awakened everything looks and feels different. Greater depth and finer hues can more readily be discerned. Sure I was more aware but a lot of what I saw in myself did not appeal to me. We had to lead a life that made a difference.

Unfortunately we have learnt to measure life with a single dimension, that of money. What will you do with more power and money beyond a point? Seek more money and power in a never ending cycle? Rather than working to live, we were living to work.

Slowly, not only I, but my brothers changed.
Why fell people and clamber over them, when you can stand on their shoulders, lift them and rise with them to dizzying heights. It was pretty scary, and very dangerous belief because we brothers risked everything for it. The results came slowly but in greater steps with each passing day.

The dream of building a world class Indian organisation where a sense of pride, excitement and inclusive development was addicting and became our goal.

The mosaic of life with all the joy and sadness, good and bad has to be experienced and this posting on the blog is but a feeble attempt at conveying this experience.

"The unexplored life is not worth living and the unlived life is not worth exploring... so said Plato or Socrates (doesn't matter who said it, the message is more important)

I am rich because I follow my heart.

We were a family consisting of my parents and us six brothers and sisters.
Then we grew up and the family bloomed to 27 members.

As we joined the business, our father who advised us, that a family working together should not stay together or vice versa. No one wanted to leave but gradually we all outgrew the little house we stayed in. One by one, as the birds leave the nest we too left our parental home as we got married to establish our own nuclear families.

Our family believed in investing every rupee we had in the family business.
In spite of all the protests of the womenfolk, all our lives we stayed in rented premises.
This may sound silly to people who withdraw their money from their businesses and invest in other businesses and properties. To us it meant that they saw better security and returns in these new investments rather than their core business. We believed in our work and bet everything in our company all our lives.
Faint of heart we were not, and we could not conceive of investing money in any other area than our own business. So that explains why we always stayed in rented premises.

A few years after I and Mohini wed, we moved to a small flat at Salunke Vihar on the outskirts of Pune city.
Salunke Vihar was a large construction project by the standards of those days, built for providing accommodation for members of the Indian Armed Forces at competitive rates and soft payment terms.
The society stood alone in the barren wilderness with only a dirt road access. Rents were cheap and flats available in abundance so it attracted lots of young people and new migrants to our city. The nearest main road was about three kilometres away where one could catch an auto rickshaw or bus to where ever people wanted to travel.


With a mixture of people serving in the Defence services with their disciplined manner and many civilian youngsters, there existed an atmosphere of camaraderie and fun. Most of the tenants were people, at a stage of transition in their lives starting new careers and families. Such was the atmosphere, where we had to cope with a lot of inconveniences that we became an interesting community where you could see a lot of good in people, even amongst relative strangers. Many of our neighbours have become lifelong friends.

Being a son of an industrialist albeit a small one I was amongst the people who owned a car in the society. Keeping with the spirit of the situation, every time we travelled the dirt road, we would offer a ride to fellow residents and even visitors. After giving them a ride sometimes people would thank us, sometimes they would not even acknowledge your assistance. This lack of appreciation and courtesy perturbed me.

I met many people and had some interesting experiences but one encounter changed my life. This experience changed me and my outlook on life completely.
Twenty five years later I can still remember the events very vividly. It was a hot day in May and about noon time. May is the season in Pune where the summer peaks. It is never as hot as in other places like the Punjab or Delhi but it got pretty uncomfortable.

It was a Thursday and our factory was closed for the day. I was on an errand and running a bit late. As I rushed out of the main gate of the housing complex I hit the dirt road. Rounding the corner, there I saw standing next to the road an old man. His back slightly stooped with age and a small bag by his side.

He had a round chubby and pleasant look about him. This old man wore a colourful bush shirt and had a big straw hat on his head. Looking like a character right out of a movie. The gentleman was mopping his forehead and face as he was sweating profusely. I debated stopping to give him a lift or continue rushing to my appointment.


Being a Boy Scout all my life, doing good deeds came naturally to me, and I enjoyed helping people. Feeling sympathetic towards this interesting looking person, I decided to be the Good Samaritan. I felt both compelled and obliged to offer him a ride.

Slowly the old man shuffled up to and into my car. For a second I regretted my decision to give him a lift as he was taking so long delaying me further. I wished he would move quicker but he dissolved my impatience by apologising and thanking me at the same time saying in Hindi “May God bless you and keep you happy”
On and on he went, blessing me and thanking me. When he thanked me for about the tenth time I grew embarrassed or was I irritated, or maybe both?

I told him, it wasn't a big deal and not an inconvenience for me to give him a ride. After all I was passing that way anyways. I added that at least he was appreciative of my kind gesture unlike many people who were ungrateful.

He smiled and nodded his head and said" I know what you mean and how it feels. May I ask you a question?"
Of course I like nothing more than an interesting conversation and that is why I probably gave people rides in the first place. I replied "No problem. Please ask."

"Why did you give me a ride?" He asked. " Did you see a man on the road and think that let me give him a ride and then he will feel obligated to me, or did your heart spoke with your conscience and asked you to do a good deed to this old man and give him a much needed ride?" he added.

I told him that I felt sorry for him and thought it would be nice to assist him.

He responded, “That means, you only followed your heart’s desire and did the good deed. So it should not make a difference to you whether I thank you or am grateful to you or not."

He continued “Your heart desired something and that you were able to accomplish it, that itself is your reward. It should matter not whether I thank you or not."

Finally he added, "The poor of the world are not only those who do not have shelter or enough food, but also those who cannot implement what their heart desires.You are blessed and truly rich for you re able to follow your heart’s desire."

We reached the main road in the few minutes we had this conversation, I was so captivated I wanted to hang on to this awesome man. He insisted that I dropped him there at the bus stop.

He stepped onto the bus and eventually out of sight, but he and his words have been with me forever.

I contemplated what had just happened. I felt foolish about my puny ego. In a matter of five minutes this seemingly insignificant yet great man had awoken me and transformed my life.

I learnt that unhappiness stems from unfilled expectations. If I had no expectations for the good that I did to others, I would give more, and yet be happier. It is my good fortune that I had the God given opportunity to be compassionate.

I never forgot the lesson. It guided me in building a world class organisation and the lesson was invaluable in helping me cope and recover, when I lost nearly everything, including my brothers, our organisation and the trust of thousands of people.

I also learnt that the the joy is in the doing and not in the reward.". “I should follow my heart and do good things and I would always be wealthy.