Are Changes Making Our Life, Better or Bitter

We are living in an exciting period of time, where we come across so many changes in our day to day life. We are experiencing things that people have never experienced before. For instance three great inventions has drastically changed the way of life. Computers, Internet and Mobile Phone. Well, with every invention coming in there is always a debate whether it is a boon or curse. But not withholding our opinions, inventions continue to happen. Medical research has advanced to such great high levels, that scientist are finding ways to modify your genetic patterns.

For thousands of years, humans have walked around in an environment that was different from the one we move around in today. I read a nice quote which said, “ In those day, people did not have watches, but they had time. But today, everyone has watches but no one has the time. It is a irony. Our ancestors spent their time in a world that was outdoor-oriented, where family was the focus, where survival was tied to hands-on work, and where not much changed. Advances in technology and changes in their way of life occurred, but when they did, the change was slow and gradual. People had time to adapt.

Today, advances in technology are occurring at a rate that we have never experienced before. Within the time span of just one decade or less, an entire way of life can be shaped and altered. Just about when you seem to get familiar with a gadget, a new gadget comes. Look at the way the mobile phones has evolved. From the size of a brick to something that is invisible outside your palms.

In the beginning of the 1990s, the average household had only one telephone and no experience with computers. When something broke, it was possible to fix most items with your own hands. Now, just one decade later, people find it strange if you can't be reached at most hours and locations on your cell phone, if you don't have e-mail and Internet access, and if your business doesn't have a web page. Since computers are now being incorporated into many items, when something breaks we can only get out the phone book to call the technical guy; we are no longer capable of fixing things with our own hands. These changes represent not only changes in our technology, but also changes in the amount of control we feel over our own lives. It is exciting that our style of life changes so quickly, but at the same time it also makes us feel somewhat lost and disoriented. Though there has been an increase in comfort and convenience, people are feeling less happy and less satisfied than they were a decade before.

To win the battle against unhappiness, we need to be alert to the patterns in how we approach our interactions, people, our environment, and our everyday activities. This alertness and awakeness in life is the most reliable tool we can use in the pursuit of happiness.

 Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated Oct'08

How we Understand Life

Life is such a complex phenomenon, that it cannot be easily understood.  The uncertainties of the events happening on our day to day lives, leaves us many a times, puzzled.  As we gasp for answers, to our mysterious questions seeking the wisdom of the sages, the knowledge of the spiritual masters, the insights of astrologers and so on, we take to one of the following paths. Looking at the way one approaches life, I could see that there are predominantly four ways or a blend of these four ways, that constitutes one’s belief system.

1. The belief in Karma
2. The belief in Destiny
3. The belief in Human Effort
4. The belief in  Divine presence

Karma , in Indian philosophy, is the sum total of one's actions, good or bad, that are attached to the soul as it transmigrates, each new body , and each event experienced by that body being determined by previous karma. Some aspire to amass good karma and a good rebirth, but others, regarding all karma as bad, strive for release from the process of rebirth altogether. Those who believe in karma determine, all that happens to one, is a result of past karma.

Destiny is about belief in fate, fortune, luck or whatsoever.  This sect of believers, patronize the astrologers and the fortune tellers. These people seek the advice of astrologers, when they feel some troubles shooting up in life. The forecasts are generally based on the identifying the planetary positions at the time of one’s birth and relating the same to the current planetary positions. The astrologers takes a looks at the natal chart and assess the situations and gives some recommendations. Believers heed to advice, such as performing some rituals or choosing the right days, right numbers and right colours, whatsoever to coping up during the difficult period. Some value additions, to this is the numerology, palmistry, gemology, vasthu, and so on.

Then there are the most logical set of thinkers, who believe that work is the only way to progress. If something went wrong, they try to analyse and find a answer rather than contributing the cause to a external factor. They read and learn to update the skills, and have a positive attitude towards life. Inspite, of the best of their efforts, they sometime fail and this is when they start looking for answers beyond the realm of logic.

There is another sect of people who believe in the omnipresence of the creator. What we are talking about is not religion, but the faith in a power beyond our imagination, which we call as God. By prayer, we strengthen our faith and take life as it comes. We attribute all good and bad happening in our life and around us, as divine deeds. It is the faith that the one who sows the seed, will see it grow through rain and sun.

Our beliefs are shaped by our own choices and the resultant outcome and there is no right or wrong belief. I am reminded of the beautiful words of OSHO. “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived”. So , let us learn to accept life as it comes and enjoy the mystery unveiling before us, day after day.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated Sep'08

Owning our mistakes, can change us for the better

Blaming the world for what is not going right and praising ourselves for what is going right, is something we Indians have learned from our childhood days.

When you were a very small kid, somewhere between the toddling and running stage, if at anytime you fell down and cried, your mother would have picked you up, comforted you and in order to pacify you and stop you from crying, she would have acted as if she was beating the floor on which you tripped, twice or thrice, saying that “I have beaten the floor, now you don’t cry”. Somewhere deep in our mind a message was engrained that tripping down was not our fault, but the fault of the floor. Because the floor was punished, when actually we did the mistake of running carelessly, our mind learned whatever happens to us, is a plot of a external force and not our own mistake. This act of   dis-owning our mistakes keep continuing in our growth stage as well.

For example, while we are walking and we accidentally stamped over a thorn, we would say, “the thorn pricked me” whereas a English man would say, “I ran over a thorn”. Just think of it. Is it not true?.

A few more similar examples:

When we miss a train, we brood “the train left before I arrived” rather than saying “I was late to catch the train”.

When our shirt does not fit, we say “the shirt has become short”, instead of saying “I have outgrown the shirt”.

When a pen slips from your hand, we say “the pen fell down” instead of “I dropped the pen”

These are just few of the many wrong statements we use in our day to day life. These communication patterns which we form unconsciously, affects the way we perceive life and our life situations.

This has invisibly affected our growth and success rate in our life. As we tend, to justify our failures, by blaming the external situations, we don’t genuinely try to understand what really went wrong, when we face a failure. Unless we develop a unbiased view and try to figure out, what went wrong, we cannot find a positive solution to the problem. The problem will keep repeating again and again.

Robin Sharma, in his book “The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO” gives a very thought provoking statement which goes like this. “Life is a growth school. Everything that happens in your life, happens for a reason and there is some lesson that life is trying to teach you. We need to quickly learn the lesson, failing which life will continue to bring the same problem again and again until you have learned the lesson.”

It is time we learn to own responsibility, for our mistakes. It is only by owning our mistakes, we can change for the better. It will give us a opportunity to assess where and how we went wrong, and give us a o positive way ahead plan. Because in the end of the day, what the world will count is not the number you’re your excuses but the amount of your achievement.

 Happy Reading

D.Senthil Kannan

Article dated Aug'08

NO JOB IS A MEAN JOB, IF YOU CAN ADD MEANING TO IT

                            

I attended a SKILL SUMMIT, organized by CII at Bangalore, a few years back. There were renowned speakers from different industries, government agencies and training field as well, who threw light on the subject “shortage of skilled labour.“ Some interesting points emerged out of the summit.

According to a Survey, it says that, in the year 2020, the world will face a shortage of 57million skilled workers and only India and China, because of its huge population would have the capacity to cater to this demand.  However, the irony is as of now, only 10% of the India’s workforce comes under the category of skilled workers. This is comparatively very low, to most countries were 60 to 80% are skilled work force. Korea tops the list with 96%.

The greatest strength of India today is that, we have about 55% of the population who are below the age of 30, but the big question is what type of aspirations these students have? A good number of graduates pass out of Indian colleges every year, but still there seems to be a shortage of skilled work force in the country or rather there is a mismatch of the needed talent versus the available human resource, and hence the gap. Now, how do we bridge the gap?

Let us say you go to a high school and ask the students there, what they want to be. You would find that 7 out of 10, would either say engineer or doctor, and the other 3 would say something different such as a lawyer, policeman, teacher, pilot and so on. This is a clear indication that a majority of our students are glued to the idea that no other profession is worth pursuing.

It is either the influence of the parent, teacher or society that plays a strong role in his decision process. It is not a matter of willful choice, but a matter of acceptable choice. Now we talk about shortage of technical workforce like the mechanic, electrician, plumber, welder, gardener, carpenter etc. 

In advanced countries like USA, Europe, Japan and Australia, 80 to 90% of the youth opt for Vocational Educational Training, whereas in India the number of students who opt for vocational training is very low. In India, there is not much emphasis laid on this, in our current system of education. In India today, an ITI Student is looked down upon and does not get due respect. This attitude has to change. If this attitude continues, the country would witness a steady increase of unemployable graduates, in the days to come. With the migration of hand skilled workers to knowledge workers, we are in a crisis.

It is recommended that students should be exposed to vocational training right from their 6^th Std. They have to learn to work with tools. Tools, like toys may fascinate their interest. This may create an interest for them to pursue a vocational training of their chosen field of interest, rather than having to restrict to conventional academic choices. The parents have to play a supportive role by accepting the choice of their children, rather than trying to brand them to a desired profession.

It may be a surprise for you to know that only 7% of the Indian working population is educated up to Xth Std. The balance 93%, are either less educated or uneducated. But it is this 93% who work in the farmlands cultivating the food we eat, the weavers who make the dress to wear, and construction labourers who build the houses, we live in.

Let us treat everyone’s job with respect and consider no job a mean job. Let us be grateful to them and treat them with dignity. Just imagine, if not for them, what would we do?

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Jul 2008

THE DARKER SIDE OF BEING JUDGMENTAL

Judgment is an activity that we unconsciously do, at every moment of our life. It is said, that the moment we meet a new person, our mind just takes 10 seconds to form an impression about the person. He might not have even spoken a word or shook hands with us. His face, his dressing, the colour and texture of his skin, his body language, communicates something about the person to us, based on which we make our  judgment.

This process of continuous judging has greatly contributed to what we have achieved or where we have reached today. All the choices we have taken in our life are a result of our judgment. We judge a person, before making him our friend. We judge an education programme, before making a career decision. We judge a company, before making a job decision. So every moment of our life, we are judging.

This process of judgment is good for us, but what happens when we pass our judgment to others. Is it right or wrong? For example, many a time, we go for a movie and come out saying that the movie was horrible. We go to a hotel and come out saying the food tasted awkward. We go to a garment store and say the collection was not good. We make bold judgments, not realizing the negative effects it can have on people and business. We need to give room for perception. The way we look at things is not the only right way. People may have different tastes and different preferences. Of course, we have all the right to say, that I did not like the movie; I did not enjoy the meal; the showroom did not have the garments with colour of my choice, etc. But quite often we do not do that. We just give our verdict, without a second thought.

It is not right on our part to ruin somebody’s business, by our negative comments. Our words catch up like wild fire. Negative comments reach out faster than the positive ones. You would have observed this.

Now, imagine someone telling something negative about your business to others and think about the impact it could have on your business.

I have found in a few restaurants this caption written on a board or a wall “Tell the good things about us to others and the bad things about us, to ourselves” (in tamil). This might be a fitting job to do when we encounter an unpleasant experience or a unsatisfactory experience. Leave your thoughts and feelings, there and move on. If he changes, it is good for him and if he does not, let him decide his own dooms day. Why should you? Most of the time, it would be resolved. Because any sensible business owner, who wants to improve his business, would look forward to these type of negative feedback from his customers, which will give him a opportunity to improve and make his products or services likeable to his customers. In a highly competitive business environment, only those who adapt to the customers can survive.

So next time, before you pass a judgment think. It only takes a few seconds to make a comment, but its effect may be drastic. Let us imbibe the virtue of “Live and Let live!

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Jun 2008

Towards a Better Education System

The Education system in India, has been widely acclaimed as one of the best in the world. Yet, on taking a closer look, I would say that it is the intelligence of the Indian’s that has given the merit and not the learning system itself.

One of my important observation, when I visited Finland as a Rotary GSE Team member  in 2006, was the system of education, which has been rated the No.1 in the world by PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment.

I had the opportunity of meeting and interacting with the principal of a teacher training school in Rovaniemi. She shared a lot of useful information of which one point caught my attention.  She said that, “the failure of the student is the failure of the teacher”. The child comes with a raw mind to learn and it is the duty of the teacher to teach the child the way, he/ she understands. There is no justice in classifying a child as bright or dull, without the teacher taking enough efforts to bring out the best in the child. The inefficiency of the teacher, surfaces on the results of the student. But the teacher comfortably shifts the cause to the inefficiency of the child.

When it comes to education the Parents - Teacher – Student form the 3 vertices of the magic trio. Everyone has to play their fair part. While it is true that the child has to put in its share of effort to study and present well, it is the duty of  the teacher to create a interest of the subject in the child by some innovative means and it is the duty of the parents to create a good learning atmosphere.

In Finland, teachers have strong methodical autonomy , which means they do not have to fall into a glue of a fixed teaching pattern. They therefore think of new ways of teaching and make the learning process as fun and experiential as possible.

Throughout the education students with learning difficulties are paid special attention to. There is a strong favour for individual learning guidance. This is possible because the number of schools as compared to the number of student is high. A classroom has a maximum of 20 students, therefore personal attention is possible.

The parents seems to be very co-operative with the teacher and the child in terms of the child’s interest development.  There is no imposing of the parents on the child as to what he or she should become at the end of his education.

In Finland, there is a uniform curriculum throughout the country, in alternate to our system of multiple curriculum such as ICSE, CBSE, Matric, State Board etc. This uniform curriculum establishes a national standard and eases student migration, from one part of the country to the  other.

One noticeable and appreciatable part of their education is there is no ranking system in school.  The school is considered as a place of learning and not as place of competing. No child fails in class. Therefore no emotional damage is caused to the students during the learning period. No complexes are developed.  There is no public ranking lists. Entrance to Colleges based only on Entrance Test.  The Entrance test is again, not a place where you get rejected. The entrance test is more or less like a general aptitude test, wherein the students subject preference is evaluated. At the end of the entrance test a counselor sits with the student and discusses, the suitable options for the student based on his interest and skill level. The student then chooses the field of study based on this evaluation.

In Finland, all education institution are run by the Government . There are no private schools. While in India, the students studying in Government schools are considered unfortunate, in Finland the Government is able to provide the best of education for its students and also be ranked as No.1, in the world.

While it is nice to shout out loud, “ East or West, India is the best” it also makes sense to learn the success strategies from the experts, and move the way forward.

 Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article dated May 2008

Widening the perception

I remembered an incident, which happened in my life many years ago, during my college days in London.

It was a lazy Sunday morning and I had taken my dirty linen for wash to the coin operated washing booths, located nearby. Having stowed my laundry, I walked out and sat on the bench of a nearby garden.

As I was sitting there, enjoying the gentle rays of sunlight, a drunken British beggar came near me, and started talking to me in abusive language. In London, as you walk down the streets you could see some beggars, who come and ask you, “hello, can you spare a few pence, please”. This person was one such kind, but because he was drunk he was behaving a bit differently. He seemed to be disturbed, which in turn disturbed me. It was a very uncomfortable situation for me, sitting there and listening to all his blubbering. I showed I was not interested in hearing what he says, by turning away my face ( just like what the British do).  He said, “You, …….. (abusive words) guys, have come and robbed away all the jobs and we British or on the streets”.  I understood he was jobless and he was finding a vent to his feelings, by abusing me.. I was just seeing, how fast I could get away from this situation, just when a British lady who passed by, saw this happening and came to my rescue. She came and told the drunken guy to move out of the place or she will call the cops, in a commanding tone. She also told the drunken guy something, which I still fondly remember. She said, “He is our guest and it is not good manners to treat him like this”.

Both were British, but both had a different attitude towards a Indian. One person treated me like a “robber”, while the other person treated me like a “guest”.

Often in life the fact remains the same, but the way we perceive the fact makes all the difference. There are people who choose to live with a positive attitude, while there is a majority choosing the negative attitude.

While I lived in London, some of my Asian friends, used to say, these whites have a scorn towards the Asians & Blacks.  I used to revert back saying that, why should we think that way.  I believe that, no can make us feel inferior without our permission. It is only by we letting go our self esteem, we get into such a complex.

If alone we can keep our self esteem high, nothing in this world can affect us. If some one looks down at you, there is no reason to shun away from them. You can look straight into their eye and re-affirm that you are an equal. This is what Gandhiji, too preached. We do not have to allow external influence to have an effect on the way we look at life. In fact, by looking straight into their eye, you make a bold statement that you are honest and open about the relationship. This will help the other person to come in terms with you.

It is the same British people who treated the Indians, like dirt during our pre-independence time, who have conferred, the Man of the Millennium title to Mahathma Gandhiji.

We human beings, are evolving not only in our life style, but also in our consciousness. The more our consciousness grows, the more peaceful our lives would be. It is time, we widen our perspective and be willing to change our perception. The world is changing. Are you changing with the world?

 Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan
Article dated April 2008