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Same Chairs, Different Bottoms
An over 12 year old cartoon that featured in the national media to mark 50 years of India’s independence: the situation is as grim Once upon a time there was a beautiful land in which clear rivers flowed through lush forests. Birds flocked to the trees which were heavy with fruit until one was almost…
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Differentiating between ‘Saying’ and ‘Doing’
Speaking against the law is freedom; breaking it is a crime I had a very interesting conversation one morning. A very dear friend called and said in effect, “Renuka Chowdhury is after Pramod Mutalik because his people beat up girls in Mangalore pubs but did you know that someone has given a fatwa in UP…
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Reading, A lost habit?
Quick self-test: 1. What are the books you have read until now? Please list them with the authors. 2. What are the books you read in the last 3 months? 3. How much TV do you watch daily? Can you write down what you learnt from the TV program you watched last night? 4. …
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Where did it all go?
A very dear old friend, David Ramse, a ‘lay’ person with strong religious convictions enough to make him a missionary; a scientist, teacher – sent me this picture taken in 1980 when he used to live in St. Lust on the Berbice River. David and Miriam had a house literally on the river with its…
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Living your Message – Be the change you want to see ~ Mahatma Gandhi
If there is one thing that stands out with respect to Gandhiji, it was his willingness to live by his principles – irrespective of the consequences to himself. He was a classic example of what today we call, ‘Walk the talk’ and that was the secret of his enormous credibility. I recall a story that…
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Gandhi versus Kejriwal Challenges – similar and different
The developing political scenario in India is as interesting as it was unexpected and many are drawing parallels with India’s Freedom Struggle and the role that Mahatma Gandhi played in it. This article is simply to look at similarities and differences with the intention to draw some lessons. Similar 1. Both are/were mass based struggle…
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Idealism – Excellence
In the world of entrepreneurship and startups, which I inhabit and have some claim to, we say that you can’t succeed in your startup until you make a significant personal commitment. Most successful entrepreneurs deliberately had no Plan B (second option if the first didn’t work) because of two core beliefs: Their unshakable belief that…
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Customer Service – My Tweets
Don’t work to satisfy customers. Work knowing that it is your signature. It defines you and tells the world who you are. Your image is not built by your ad agency but by how your customer’s experience your service and tell others, not you. A complaining customer wants to deal with you. He’s not a…
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Half the date
When you look at a tomb stone you see a date under the name which reads for example 5. 1. 1980 – 6. 1. 2014 Our life is the dash between these two dates. On how we live that dash will depend what happens after the second half of the date is written. I was…
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About Life and Living
Methuselah lived 986 years and all they said about him was that he died. ~ Francis Behymer One of the classic stances of today is to talk about the ‘sanctity of human life’. I put that phrase in inverted commas because if we look about ourselves at all the millions dying due to deprivation or…