Festival of Lights

Deepavali is just around the corner. Ads of the latest designs of sarees sported by models have started coming on TV. I paid a visit to T Nagar last Sunday and the whole locality was gasping for breath. It would become even more claustrophobic over the next few days before the city completely embraces the festival of lights. Deepavali is a festival that is expected with the same sheen by all the Hindu communities in India. Its a day of joy for the rich and the poor alike. When i talk about Deepavali, My pre adolescent years come to my mind during which i used to expect the day months in advance. We used to make many lists of what crackers to buy and how to fire them with friends. On the day of lights, we got up at 4 AM to take the oil bath (Ganga Snan) and get ready for the events to come. We even used to have a contest among friends as to who would be the first to come out early in the morning to light the first cracker. Neighbours would come to our house with sweets and we shared that was made at ours. It was a ritual for many years in our family to meet our relatives to share our joy and to get blessings of elders. Evenings would be especially spectacular with colourful pyrotechnics painting the whole sky. Doordarshan, the one and only television channel those days, would treat its viewers with interviews of the hottest cine star and end the day with a latest movie. For me, the day would end with a gloom for having to wait for Deepavali for one more year.

In the last few decades, the mood of festivals seems to have changed for the newer generations. People have acquired a liking for other materialistic things in life and the glitter of Deepavali seems to be fading away year after year. But, there is always a ray of hope, that the world would be as naive as what it was, once upon a time, to take pleasure in the simple sweet things of life, like the festival of lights.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Recently, I had the privileged opportunity of attending the two day Signature program of the 7 Habits of highly effective people. I should say that it was quite an
eye-opener of sorts. It helped me to introspect myself as what i am in different roles that i play on a daily basis, personally and professionally. The faculty
did a fantastic job of extracting and explaining the crux of the framework that stephen covey has formulated. It would have been quite an effort for me to read
the voluminous book which is heavy too. The program consisted of a series of lecture sessions followed by screening of many videos in which Mr. Covey explains each of the 7 habits and the advantage of learning and practising them. In a nut shell, the following are the habits which Mr. Covey claims will change your life.

1. You need the right mindset to succeed in anything (Be Proactive)
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first ( Classify things in to 4 quadrants - Urgent (X) & Important (Y))
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand(Others) and then to be Understood (by Others)
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen your Saw

The program is followed up with a series of emails from the institute to deep root the 2 day learning. This is a worthy investment for corporates to train their leaders in. This would definitely help individuals to understand better the dynamics of success & relationships and would help them to handle people & tasks better, bothpersonally & professionally.