Leaders to "Follow" and Followers to "Lead"

A couple of years back, i was reading "My Experiments with Truth" by Mahatma Gandhi and i was awed by the qualities of Gandhiji particularly the "Truth". On 2-Oct-2010, i was searching for a picture of Mahatma Gandhi for the background of my blog (i m trying to bring in event/news based image like Google). Googled and got the following picture (which also set as background picture).

This picture sounds really interesting and conveys a lot to us. Mahatma Gandhi, though he was keeping good health and a brisk walker, he seems to be guided by a small kid. For me, it appears that Gandhiji has given full control to this kid and he seems to follow the steps of the kid with great confidence, great joy and following the kid with great respect. No fear whatsoever and absolute faith and calm in following the kid.

By seeing this, my heart longs for something like the above in all our workplaces. Won't it be great if all the leaders follow and all the followers lead?

Presentation on "Basics Things on Objects"

Last week i shared with you one of my old presentations on Security. From this week and for few weeks, i ll be writing/sharing few presentations on "Objects", "Design", "Design Principles" and "Design Patterns". I m not sure whether i ll be regularly posting every week. At this point of time, i m trying to find my consistency to post the presentations every week. Please bear with me until i find my consistency.

Each deck will have

• slides focusing on only one thing
• short recap of things that are discussed
• drill for the week (you can try to reflect on the problem until i post the next presentation)
• the topic of next week

Here goes the first presentation. This is just a curtain raiser to help us to set in same frequency. [ I would love to hear from you - what do think and how can we make this much better.]

Basic Things on "Objects" - Part 1

Rain, Rain, Rain

Can you expect a better day particularly on Gandhi Jayanthi when you

• be with your parents both listening to classical music and feel so peaceful
• have your mom to recollect that my grandpa (mom's father) used to listen such a great music and still remembers that she used to play classical music in her audio cassette player.
• see, feel and smell the rain that pours to its heart content and makes our heart so peaceful.

With all the setup, it is so blissful to listen violin concert by duo Ganesh and Kumaresh. After they started to play Kapali, the rain too started and it was at its peak when they completed. I didn't feel that rain and their music is co-incidental. It is because of their music, rain mother started to touch the soil. It is cause-effect relationship.

It is so Peaceful.


Three rains happening now - peace, music and rain.

Thanks to Podigai TV for brining wonderful music.

@Sandy,

We should go to concert by Ganesh & Kumaresh.

Fair Share & Equilibrium With God

Everything (that you can measure) in this world has some quota. They food you eat, the number of hours you spend in sleep, the number of days you work, the number of days you think, the number of kilometers you walk, the number of good companies you have, the amount of garbage you can thrash on to the soil, the amount of air you can breathe in your lifetime and everything has a fixed quota. It is your choice on how to use it. A balanced life or an equilibrium is the outcome of mindful thinking, the awareness on things we do and how it affects us. When you take something from somewhere, we got to remember that there is going to be imbalance in another side from where we take. If you slog at late nights in office, you have to sacrifice in your personal life. On a contrary, if you don't work enough, you got to take home much less salary. It all depends on mindful choice we make.

We cannot get away from the system, the system is so fair. Fairness is the language. Even if the part of the system is unfair, the overall system tries to bring in the balance. Everything from recession to green house effect to necessity of a climate change pact is manifestation of systems (The time by which the system threatens the humankind, the mankind reacts with climate change pact. The system knows how to survive and if needed it will wipe off mankind. The question is whether we will survive?) When someone abuses the system, the system reacts but it takes a while for effects to erupt and this doesn't mean that the system is tolerant to abuses. It means that we are not used to sense little change in the behavior of the system. We are so insensitive to early symptoms. We realize only when we choke. The guys who believe in God say that as cosmic energy or Karma and the atheists say that as system or a gravitational force. Very few agree with both (because everything has a limit :-)).

But at the end - everything has some quota.

The system is equal opportunity environment.

Be On The Right Side And Be Responsible For That

Be on the right side and most importantly be responsible for it. Let us get back to the story.

One of the friends who loaned 1000 rupees (just after his graduation) just reflects on his life. It is just a year since he graduated. He sees that the money he borrowed has become1080 with interest. He puts himself in a time machine and he is at the 11th year. His loan has become 2158 bucks, he throttles 10 more years in time machine and his loaned amount has become 4660 bucks and a final push to 40 years in time machine, his loan has become 21.7K. He feels not so bad because it is a time machine. After stepping from the time machine, he just zooms to his bank and pays 1080 bucks for the loan he borrowed and he invests another 1000 bucks. So, that is what we call "responsibility". Responsibility is not power but action, responsible for attaining ones own vision. Everyday we put 24*60*60 seconds somewhere. Are we putting in right side and do we feel that it is "we" who is responsible for putting 24*60*60 in right side?

In everyday's life, it is not really possible to be always in the right side. At times (or most of the times) will be in wrong side. Being in the wrong side is not a big issue as long as you have a mechanism to detect that you are in a wrong side and be able to come to right side. If you miss couple of years or couple of lacs, it is not a problem. Nothing is free in this world and you got to pay for everything, the air you breathe included. Being in wrong side always teaches you how to be in right side. Wrong side becomes your experience/wisdom when you are responsible (reflect upon your action and act on making the course corrections).

Being in right side or wrong side, it needs responsibility to maintain the track if you are right and detect/change the track when you are in wrong side.

Be On The Right Side

There are two friends. Quickly after they graduated, the first one got a loan of 1000 rupees for 8% interest and the second deposited 1000 rupees in a bank for the same 8%. After this incident, they just moved on with their life. The years passed by and they were about retire at the age of 60. Forty years just passed like anything. The first one had a debt of 21.7K and on the other hand the second one got 21.7K accrued in his account. Do the math and understand the power of compounding. What happens if first one gets 1000 rupees loan everyday and the second one deposits 1000 rupees everyday? Do the math :-) (Compound interest calculator)

After completing the college, all of us take up some profession. But only very few feel satisfied. We just put our efforts everyday like money being deposited in bank without knowing the compounding effect of time. If we follow our heart, we deposit in bank and if we don't follow our heart, we just buy loans. At the end of show either you got pay for it or take your money happily. And that is why, being on the right side makes sense.

By right side, i mean the side of your heart. Always, your heart is right and so if you follow your heart, you will always be on the right side.

Presentation on "Security - An Introduction"

Here is one of my presentations on security titled - "Security for Thinkers". You may want to view the presentation in full screen (and if you see full presentation, treat me with a comment/feedback :-))

Don't miss to visit revived "Unstuck". I have made some changes to linkbars, removed some stuffs and added few stuffs. I m planning to make one presentation per week and host it here. I welcome your comments on this initiative - "Unstuck Blackboard" and Unstuck in general.

You may want to subscribe to "Unstuck" via Email subscription so that the email notifications is delivered to you whenever new posts/presentation is posted. Here is the link for Email Subscription.

Security - An Introduction

Thanks to Scribd, for making us to converse through presentation.

Ask for Help, Honor Help Request

After the invention of money, the human race started to lose its shine and i would say, "more is dangerous". I still remember my childhood days where we share food with our neighbors. If i was ill, they used to come along with my father and me to hospital, they rub my butt once the needle of the syringe is taken off from my butt. If someone is hospitalized either because of giving birth to new child (i m so proud that my mom, she took care of dozen women during their pregnancy) or some disease, there would be small folks (everyone was studying 10th standard or less) shuttling back and forth to hospital. Few of the elder people would accompany the person in hand rickshaw. The entire community would make sure that the person who was not well felt so good about the people being with him/her. What a fantastic feeling? Caring for others and getting cared is not boring thing. It is so interesting thing.

They ask help without any hesitation. They share their grief without any inhibition. The others back him emotionally and sometimes financially too. The beauty is that each of family's monthly income won't be sufficient to run the family for a month. But yet, i don't remember any instances where the help was turned down. It was one big family. Festivals were much bigger and we never missed to celebrate one. We lived big in small world.

Those are the days in which we felt both giving and asking as gift.

Today, it is quite opposite. We live small in a big world.

Asking for Help and Honoring Help are satisfying things. It gives a lot of peace and meaning to life.

Added Later:
I would suggest you to read the comments too as there are many thoughts/insights shared by people.

Good 17+ Minutes

If you have 17+ minutes, listen this talk by Mr. Shashi Tharoor on "India - Soft Power".

Tell Stories - Powerful Method for Fresh Thinking

It is quite unconventional to ask an adult to tell stories to another adult. But it is very powerful method to learn something. For example, if you are learning new programming language, try to squeeze sometime to share your knowledge in the form of stories to your close friends. Initially, they may be little hesitant to hear you. But as days pass by, they ll surely listen to you. The stories kindles imagination. When you are telling stories, the person(s) hearing it tend to ask questions. Those questions will make you to understand the concepts well and for sure you will do the home work. As you practice it, it gets build as an habit and there is a greater possibility of you becoming fresh/free thinker.

Imagination is key to fresh thinking. When it comes to thinking, freshness matters. So, telling stories makes sense.

Can you Really Teach Abstraction?

I was talking to one of my friends about OOPS. While talking to him, a question suddenly flashed in my mind about OOPS and more specifically about abstraction - how can you teach abstraction and the methods to be used to abstract ideas. In order to answer this question, we need to understand the real meaning of abstraction - "a concept or idea that is not associated with any specific instance". In other words, it is our ability to take our learning to higher level so that it becomes independent of specific instances. 

Let us try to understand whether it is possible to teach abstraction with a help of simple mathematical addition. 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 3 = 4,  6 + 5 = 11. Each of these additions are specific instances of addition. When we are learning "addition", we focus more on "+" (and put it in long term memory, yep that is abstraction) and we just remember the numbers until we solve the problem. Once the problem is solved, we just forget the numbers (short term memory). When we are early stages of learning, we tend to believe that specific instance is ultimate truth. When we practice, we face many types of similar problems and start to change our perspectives. The change of perspectives is critical that leads abstraction. With practice, we are programmed to abstract concepts (eg: addition).

So, i tend to believe that abstraction is directly proportional to practice and more specifically the number of "wow" moments that you create on specific subject and i agree if someone says "abstraction cannot be taught but can only be felt or facilitated".