-| confidence |-



My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite.
- Shakespeare 


The confidence in yourself  is valuable, if not an indispensable quality.

-| genius |- 

Genius differs from talent not by the amount of original thoughts, but by making the latter fertile and by positioning them properly, in other words, by integrating everything into a whole, whereas talent produces only fragments, no matter how beautiful.

 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian author 

Honestly speaking, till date there have been so many times when I have confused the two... I knew its literal meaning but often times didn’t use the word appropriately and after reading this I don’t think I’ll ever make that mistake again..... 

I have been recently reading about the semantics of words and related stuff...it’s very interesting and absorbing ... all these things are so intertwined with so many aspects of day to day life - that i would have never thought about it twice ... I also think that at times words are so slippery ... so unreliable...  one wrong word and things can go for a toss.. but then it is also important that the opposite person knows the word and its true meaning ... for example, when I was in school it never made a difference if one called me 'talented' or 'genius' ... It meant one and the same to me... I know better now... 

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

-|   X   |-

I came upon my old Mathematics notebook and two things struck me –  one, I used to write in ink-pen and two, the book was filled with variables like x, y and z. Although the most recurring alphabet was X – the elusive X

All of us remember x — that curious creature with such an amazingly bad sense of direction and memory that it either kept getting lost or kept forgetting who it was. In geometry it would crop up frequently, either moodily throwing stones while perched atop the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle or trapped inside a circle trying to get the right angle on things despite being uncomfortably wedged between two sharp lines. 

In algebra it was practically everywhere, philosophically wondering about its purpose in life while being jostled by an army of numbers and mathematical symbols who seemed impatient to straighten it out. Occasionally it would fall in with a questionable bunch of characters — namely, w, y and z — which were equally directionless and were suspected of blowing their pocket money on junk food and fizzy drinks. 

Looking back at my school years I realize that, back then, I never had any sympathy for x. I lost count of the number of times I was asked to extricate it from difficult situations. No sooner would I help it surmount one crisis than it would dash off to embrace another one. I would often lose my temper and threaten to abandon it. I think I was cruel in my scorn for unresolved issues. At that age every question has an answer which can be found at the back of the textbook (or in the class topper`s completed homework). I had an unspoken, complacent confidence that things will work out for the best.

Life, itself, appeared to be a rather unwieldy equation, littered with variables, but one with a solution nevertheless. Where, in this naively structured view of an astonishingly chaotic universe, was there a place for the temperamental, unsure x? 

It is only now, with the benefit of hindsight, that I realize what it was going through. Growing up and facing the real world is messy business. Things don`t always work out in your favour, not everyone you meet is likely to agree with everything you say, you can`t choose your colleagues or your bosses, and you don`t always get 100% in whatever you do. The truth is that we just try to muddle through life as best as we can with the help of our family, friends and partners. But here`s the thing — life eventually does work out sooner or later, even if not in the way we expected. 

But there are inescapable periods in each of our lives when we struggle to make sense of the world around us and wonder about our purpose. We question ourselves on the kind of people we are slowly becoming and ask ourselves whether this is what we wanted. My guess is that x was going through the same phase. 

So x, buddy, wherever you are I want to tell you I have finally understood why you felt so lost and confused. But take heart because the schoolgirl faith isn`t misplaced either — life is a beautiful, complex equation which solves itself in mysterious ways. But yes, I confess that I wish we both could travel back to the time when I had the answer to your every problem at the back of a book.

PS: In algebra, the letter 'x' is often used to represent an unknown quantity or variable. Similarly, in English, x represents the unknown, as in X-rays, which baffled their discoverer, and Malcolm X, who chose the symbol to represent the forgotten name of his African ancestors.

-| change management |-

Relocating from an existing office that has been occupied for five, ten sometimes twenty years present exciting new opportunities. A structured approach to managing this change can lead to a more successful transition of individuals, teams and organization into a new work setting.

Changes to a work environment directly impact employee behavior and work styles. This can challenge many people’s notion of individual success, entitlement and stature.

Through effective strategies, employees can accept and embrace changes in their business environment, but it requires a lot of thoughtful management. To gauge an organization’s ability to change and to establish the management method to effect the change, it is best to listen, observe and understand the company’s business goals. By examining an organization’s current and future business strategies and appetite for innovation, the company has to define the direction and degree of achievable change. Engaging the end users through collaborative exploration and visualization allows developing a personal interest in their future work environment. Finding the right balance of individual and collaborative spaces, and recommending appropriate tools for each kind of space based on user needs and work styles, results in a new work environment that enables the right degree of change. A fully articulated workplace strategy helps build change competency into the organization.

Change is typically the biggest challenge a company faces but if the management is proactive in managing this change, a business can grow, productivity can increase and employee satisfaction can be strengthened.

Change management does not stop once the transition to the new workplace is completed – it goes on with old people leaving and new people adding to the present team. 

-| form -ed, - ing,  |-

| mumbai, july 2012 |

fabricators on site

(pictorial file on laborers for all sites) 

 -| still points |- 

We had puja at our home last week and to maximize seating for our guests, we changed our furniture layout. (And we were really proud of this flexibility!!!) But as soon the puja was complete and the guests on their way back – I changed the furniture to its original positions. I wanted to just put up my feet and relax -  and for that I had to sit in my most favored location on the sofa.

Now that poses a question - Is there a place in your home where you move towards when you just need to be?,

For most people, chances are that the answer to this question is 'yes'. 

You always sit at the same place at your dining table.  Your living room has a sofa or chair that you particularly like. A sofa placed just right where you like it.  You fidget uncomfortably when a guest unknowingly flops down on it, forcing you to occupy another chair.  A window that you like to gaze out of often.  A sideboard or shelf where everything lands up sooner or later.  A kurti that somehow arranges to land up in your hands when you open your wardrobe…

The line that comes to mind is "still point in a turning world". I think it was T.S. Eliot who wrote this – not sure . But these very things makes your house a home, changing the act of dwelling into living... In every house, regardless of whether you follow 'vasthu' or 'feng shui' or any other art of placement, there are certain things, parts of certain spaces, that essentially constitute your home; the rest of the space is subsidiary, not of great consequence, but yet necessary. Organized around these spaces you will generally find stuff that you have somehow collected over the years. If you look more closely, you may find more stuff that is just there.

In case you do not have these "still points" in your house, then you have a problem. You are not really 'living' until you create at least some of these still points in your house. Perhaps by having enough of these places, you can get a momentary glimpse of the still point that Eliot was talking about. Maybe even realize that the still point of the turning world is within you.......

-| harmony |-


'Strength like beauty comes from harmony' 


- Diane Setterfield from 'the thirteenth tale'