The magic of appreciation

Of all the things, I see there is one incentive which I feel really works with everyone. Maybe because, that is the most rarest to find today or may be very few people are willing to share it with others. It does not cost them anything, but people are still so reluctant to give it away. This incentive works great magic with your spouse, your children, your family members, your colleagues, your subordinates and even your superiors. It has always been assumed that the most important factor that drives a person is the money or the fame. I am surprised how this thing, that I am talking about has never been thought about. Infact, I feel that this is the greatest motivator, of all . It is called APPRECIATION.

How many of us, really use this on a daily basis. How many of us know that this can be a effective tool to motivate, your team when all other resources are running dry. Appreciating people is a art, which we need to cultivate in our lives. It is also our moral duty to teach our children the “art of appreciating”. 

A country like ours, which has such abundance of resources, lacks in this great resource called appreciation. If you ask a parent, why they do not appreciate their children for the marks they get, they may say, that they expect their children to perform better and reserve the appreciation for the day, the child gets 100/100, which is never going to happen without the small, small appreciations the child earns for its small, small achievements.

Start to appreciate others and see the benefits, for yourself.  The results would be far more than you would have imagined.

 Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

The beauty of friendship

There is a far deeper meaning to friendship, than what we normally perceive. While many of us may feel the primary reason for having friends is for social interaction and entertainment, if we look more closely to what it means we will realize that the reasons go way beyond that.

Friendship is not only about spending time with like-minded people so that one doesn’t get bored on a Saturday evening; its purpose is far more meaningful.  It is about love and understanding.  It stretches beyond our family relationships and lends us a support that is different.  It is about a different kind of love.

With our families we are sometimes wary about discussing our fears or difficulties, but with friends often it is easier to discuss our feelings, as there remains a space that is personal yet with fewer expectations.  It is a space that is built on sharing – sharing of our joys and sorrows, of discussion and reasoning, and many other things that urge us to open our hearts to others.

It is in friendship that we also learn to be less judgemental and to be accepting of other people’s differences and eccentricities and to be open to loving our friends even if they don’t think like us or share our philosophies.  Friendship teaches us to be helpful.  To give support and a listening ear to our mates, to be there for them in times of need or celebration, and to be part of their lives as a person that gives them comfort and who is able to understand and accept them for who they are.

Cherish and celebrate the spirit of friendship, everyday

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Making New Year Resolutions Work

Making resolutions on New Year is one of the popular practices around the world and perhaps many of us do. But how long do we stick on to our resolutions, is a question we need to ask ourselves.

Resolution originates from the word, ‘resolve”, which means to decide. Therefore a New Year resolution is a important decision you are making, and the decision you make should be a good one. The quality of our life depends entirely upon the decisions we take, from the list of available choices we have, at every moment of our life. When you make right decisions, the outcomes are good and therefore your life is happy. When you make wrong decisions, the outcomes are bad and you have to face the consequences. Therefore, a good decision is something which is well thought of, considering all the factors and then made.

New Year resolutions vary to a great extent from person to person, but some of the popular one’s are:

·         To quit smoking/ drinking.

·         To get into a daily exercise regime.

·         To wake up early.

·         To spend more time with family.

·         To save money for the future.

·         To avoid procrastination.

·         To avoid gossiping.

·         To get organised and systematic.

·         To learn something new.

·         To reduce work load and stress.

Are a few of these in your list of 2012 resolutions? Perhaps, Yes. So, what made you take these resolutions? Let us examine. Something, within us told that, our life would be much better and happier, if a particular change happens in our lifestyle. Our mind processed these thoughts and showed us an ideal picture of how good our life would be if we made these needed change.  For example, when we said to ourselves, “I will get into a daily exercise regime”, our mind showed us a positive image of being, ‘fit and healthy’. Along with this positive mental image came a positive feeling and it was this positive feeling that triggered us to make the resolution.

Then, why is it that after having made a good New Year resolution, we have not been able to hold on to it? This is because as the days go by we tend to get tired andbored,of having to get disciplined. We as human beings do not like to be curtailed by any limitations, even if it simple imposed. Whatever that restricts our freedom, is seen as a burden. So when we forcefully discipline ourselves, it is not a comfortable feeling.Though we very well know that, what we are doing is for our own good, our mind finds it difficult to accept the change. For example, if we have been giving ourselves the freedom to sleep till 7 in the morning and then we make a resolution to wake up at 5.30am, when the morning alarm rings, we feel so disturbed and our mind searches for an excuse to sleep a little longer.

It could also happen, when we enter a state of frustration that the desired positive outcome did not happen, within the anticipated time. So we lose heart, get stressed and go back to our old habits. We are all hooked up to our old habits, and remember habits die hard.To get out of our old habit and to live a new habitis not as easy as we think. It takes many days of practice and perseverance.

Behavioural Scientists and Spiritual Gurus advocate the “21 days to form a new habit”. This also means that it would take at least 21 days to break an old habit. They say whatever you do for 21 days in a stretch, (including Sundays) will get embedded in your neuro system and become a part and parcel of you. For behaviour transformation to happen, Sunday cannot be a holiday.No matter what, if you can stick on to a new habit for 21 days the chances of you to succeed is far higher. So, give it a try!

A resolution backed up by a good action plan, a deep commitment, an effective monitoring system and the willingness to undergo the pain during this course of change, will surely succeed.  If any one of these elements is missing, then what you have just made is not a resolution, but just a wishful thinking.I wish you and your resolutions to succeed, this year. Happy and prosperous 2012.

Happy Reading,

D.SenthilKannan

Article dated Jan'12

Energy Security For The Future

The news that has been invariably catching the headlines of the dailies last month is, should the Kudankulam Nuclear power plant be given the green signal or the red signal.

While some may say, that this issue is just owing to the vested interest of political parties and industry leaders, I think it is still a cause of concern for the general public, who have woken up to the recent natural disaster impacting the Daiichi plant in Fukushima, Japan. Former President Dr.A.P.J.Abdulkalam, has given a full length article in the Hindu newspaper, in which he clearly explains the safety of nuclear based power generation and the advantages of using nuclear as compared to burning other fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. While this has thrown some light to the educated class, this has to be told to the layman in a way that he best understands and his apprehensions are counseled. This can be done, by initiating some progressive, social and infrastructure development measures, in and around the area, as a proactive concern of the safety and security of the people living there. This I think will help to gain their confidence and look at it as a win win situation, rather than a situation where the country is developing at the stake of their life.

Hardly 3 years back, we all in this state, believed that  power shortage is a thing of the past. But we started to face the challenge of peridodical power cuts which has now increased to alarming proportions. The increasing pace of industrialization, FDI investments in the manufacturing sector and with increasing domestic needs, the power requirement seems to be large. There is a clear indication that there cannot be economic progress, without ample power. “it is predicted that the total electricity demand will grow from the current 150,000 MW to at least over 950,000 MW by the year 2030”. *That is about 6 times our current requirement.

So how are we going to meet out this large requirement? What is our way forward plan? Let us consider the alternatives:

The most popular power solution that is now available in our country, is coal powered thermal plants. Thermal plants as we all know are highly polluting. Also, a survey states that the entire coal reserves of the world will deplete in 40 to 50 years, at the current rate of consumption. So what do we do after that?

Can solar and wind energy be an answer? “The greenest sources of power are definitely solar and wind. With abundant sunshine and places of high wind velocity, the nation definitely has potential for these forms of energy. But solar and wind power, despite all their advantages, are not stable and are dependent excessively on weather and sunshine conditions.”* So this too has its limitations in terms of very high capital cost and all around the year availability.

Nuclear power seems to be the answer. Nuclear energy is cheap and clean. Moreover the indication that Thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel, seems to give more reason to believe that India should go for nuclear energy, because it is believed that India might have the largest reserves of Thorium in the world, i.e over 6.50 lakh tonnes. “India has the potential to be the first nation to realize the dream of a fossil fuel-free nation, which will also relieve the nation of about $100 billion annually which we spend in importing petroleum and cool, a large fraction of which was for the thermal plants. Nuclear power, provides a relatively clean, highdensity source of reliable energy. Today, there are 29 countries operating 441 nuclear power plants, with a total capacity of about 375 GW”.*

It is wise, not to depend on a single source of energy, but harness energy from multiple sources, to service our huge requirement. Let us be open to the idea of nuclear energy, to aid our country’s growth.

 Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Dec 2011

Angry Birds

Quiet recently, when I was on my return trip from Mumbai, waiting to board the flight, I saw a number of people busily engaged with their smart phones and iPads. Just out of curiosity, I peeped into to see, what they were actually doing. To my surprise, I noticed that most of them, right from small kids to the corporate guys were invariably playing the new popular game, “ANGRY BIRDS”. I am sure most of you have tried your hands on this game. For those who have not, let me give a glimpse of it. It is a game, where a set of angry birds attack the pigs that have stolen their eggs.  In this game, the birds hurl themselves from a pre-fixed sling, target the pigs and go bombard them. The game goes on with different levels of difficulty and is quiet interesting.

I was just thinking why this game has become so popular. I realised that most people find it as a great tool for releasing their stress. So, how does playing “angry birds” help to release stress? Let us introspect.

Stress is basically our inability to cope up with personal and social expectations. When what happens in our life is not in accordance to what we expect to happen, we feel disappointed, angry and frustrated.  For example, “You see someone misbehaving in the public. You feel like going and giving two blows on his face, but due to the fear of legitimate consequences, you just hold the anger, curse the guy within yourself and move away from the place. This anger which came in to you has not gone out, because it could not find a suitable expression. The anger remains subdued and builds up within you as passive anger. This passive anger leads to mounting of stress. The sub conscious mind keeps looking for a way to release this anger, so that the stress is offloaded from our mind. Have you observed that many times when we have had a bad day at office or a social place, we come and take out our anger, on our spouse or children, by shouting or yelling at them for a no significant mistake of theirs. It is mostly our loved ones, who take up the entire dump and still try to understand and console us. The moment you shout out, you feel a lot relieved and you are able to focus your mind on work. If you do not do so or do not have an opportunity to let out your anger, your mind continues to feel disturbed. This is where a game like “angry bird” helps. Though in the game, it is the birds that are destroying the pigs; your mind feels a comfort of having destroyed something or someone that has been annoying you.

The same principle applies, why people enjoy watching movies. If you look at typical Indian cinema, you will see that a hero is endowed with super powers that a normal person like you and me, can never even dream of. Now, everyone watching the movie tends to personify himself as the hero, in their mind.  When the hero thrashes a gang of rowdies, the one who is watching the movie, feels a sense of gratification, as if he himself has performed the act.

I have heard that in Japan, some companies have a separate room where a punching bag is left hanging. Whenever any employee feels stressed up, due to the rude behaviour of his boss or co-worker, he just goes inside this room gives a few punches and kicks on the punching bag and returns back to his work table with a sense of instant relief.

Our elders have taught us, whenever you get angry count from 1 to 10 and you will see your anger subside. The idea behind this is, when we practice this method, we can bring our anger to our own awareness. We can analyse the reason for our anger and find a better way of expressing it, so that we achieve the desired result. The famous Tamil poet Bharathiyar has said, “Rowthram pazhagu”. He did not say, suppress your anger but he said, “Learn to express your anger wisely.” People do crazy things in a fit of anger and later repent for what they did. I have heard that, even many murderers confess, that they committed the crime out of impulse and it was not intentional. Anger is temporary madness. By learning to handle it, we can be better human beings. Whenever, you get angry remembers this, “Anger is not a show of strength, but a sign of weakness.” Be watchful. 

Short vents of little anger are better than one big vent of accumulated anger. Do not keep anger mounting within you. It is bad for your health. If not for anyone else, be happy that you at least have the “angry birds”, to free you from stress.

      

Happy Reading,

   

D. Senthil Kannan

 Article dated Nov'11

A Progressive Syllabus

The post electoral debate on the implementation of the “statewide uniform syllabus” for schools has come to a positive end. From now on, all the students in the state, excepting the ones studying in IB, ICSE and CBSE schools, will study a common syllabus. This is a good and progressive sign.  I personally vouch for the idea of uniform syllabus and wish that in the near future, we should be able to have a “nationwide uniform syllabus”.  Ever since my visit to Finland in 2006, where I was oriented to the benefits of pursuing a common syllabus, I was fascinated by the idea and was wishfully hoping that it comes to our country soon. To me, it is a dream come true.

There has been mixed responses from parents on this new syllabus. Some say the new sylabbus is excellent and some say it is sub standard. Is it really sub standard or is it just a borrowed perception, is a big question mark.  There is also an apprehension among parents, whether their children will be able to cope up with the new syllabus. I think it is not the problem of the student rather it is the responsibilty of the teacher. It does not matter how easy or tough the new syllabus is. What matters more is, how good is the teacher in delivering the content to the student. I again wish to draw the example of Finland.  Finland ranks No: 1, in the world in the quality of education. It is not just because, education has been their nation’s priority, but even more because of the quality of its teachers. In Finland, the job of a teacher is considered as one of the most respectable one, because the teacher takes an active part in the child’s progress. They are so involved, committed and take personal responsibilty for the student to learn, understand and enjoy his studies.

So, what does a common syllabus mean to our children’s future? What are its advantages? 

A common syllabus means each student of the state willl pursue a equal standard of education and qualify on a equal platform. Before, we had a State Board, Anglo Indian Board and Matriculation Board. The quality of education, were of different levels in each board and it was difficult to compare the grade of Std X student of a State board school, with another student from a Matriculation board school.

The newly introduced common syllabus serves as an education leveller, which means a student studying Xth Std in one school will have the same knowledge as any other student in the state, who is studying Xth Std. So when you say, someone is an Xth Std Student, you are able to guage his knowledge level, instanty. You don’t have to ask a second question, from which board, to ascertain the credibility.

The second advantage is migration from one school to another school becomes easy. You don’t have to be bothered about the availabilty of a same type of schooling board, when you get transferred from one place to another place, within the state.

The third and most important advantage is the confidence level of the student. He does not need to feel inferior to anyone in terms of education.

In the days to come, we are not just looking at making our children competitive at the statelevel, or national level, we are trying to make them competitive in the global level. Therefore holding on to baseless dogmatic principles, does not help. It is time to move on.

In the school my children study, students from Std III to Std XII, are given an opportunity to take a, “International Assesment for Indian Schools” administered by University of New South Wales, Australia. The student can take this objective type assesment test on four subjects namely Science, Maths, English and Computer Skills.  By taking this test, the students is graded and ranked on the National level.  I encourage my children to take this test, so that they can be aware of where they stand at a National  level.  A similar test is administed by www.assetonline.in

The challenge that lies before is not, how to make life easy for our children, but it is about how to make them competitive enough to thrive in the global playing field. 

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article dated Oct'11

Increasing Consumerism Leads to Increasing Junk

A definition of consumerism states, “the belief that the buying and selling of large quantities of consumer goods is beneficial to an economy or a sign of economic strength”. Well, the very definition starts with a hypothesis that it is a belief. So what is the real thing?  Is increased consumerism, really doing good for the economy. Let us consider this in the light of the following facts.

In olden days, a product that was bought usually lasted for a very long time. Anything for that matter, be it clothes, cutlery, furniture, electronic appliances or whatsover, the durabilty of the product was a very important criteria in the buying decision. However, today things have changed. We are looking at fashion, trend, the latest in lifestyle, and other external parameters rather than the inside stuff. So, the concept of longevity of a product is not of vital importance, anymore.

This inturn has encouraged the manufacturer to make products of inferior quality, because he knows that the consumer is not going to use it for long. By doing so, the manufacturer gets a twin benefit.  The first benefit is; he is able to reduce the cost of production and is in a position to offer the product to the customer at a very cheap price. For example, in case of a mobile phone, the manufacturer is aware that the person is not going to use the same phone for more than 3 years. So he decides the components to be used for this product based on this criterion and thereby is able to produce the product at a much cheaper price. From the point of the consumer, the consumer is happy that he has got a product with maximum features, for a minimum price. The second benefit is;  as the manufacturer uses inferior quality components, the product becomes non functional in a few days. Nowadays you cannot find anyone to get it repaired, so you are forced to go for a new purchase. This means added business volume for the manufacturer.

The concept of repair and mending is slowly moving out of our culture. Just the same way it happened to advanced countries some years back. So there is no much option except to “use and throw”.

Look at the ways our lives have evolved. Not very long back, we had coblers who could mend our shoes, tailors who could alter our dress that did not fit, mechanics who would repair our Radio or TV. But today, when you take a product for repair, one of the common responses you could hear is, “You could get a new one for the cost of the repair”. If you ask, “So what do I do with this?” you will get an instant reply, “Just throw it as junk.”

The market for second hand products is drastically reducing. If you wish to sell your Old Computer monitor or Old TV, you will find absolutely nobody to buy. With technolgical updation taking place in every sphere, there is no preference for old technology products, and ultimately you have no option except to dump it as junk. Thanks to the discount offers, intelligently disguised as “exchange mela”, by retailers who want to woo customers to buy their latest products. The junk in your house now becomes the junk in the retailer’s godown, which goes on to become metal and plastic scrap.

What is the bottom line? It is a huge waste on natural resources and manpower of the country, which are our core assets.  We deplete the natural resources and waste human labour, unprudently. The consumer ends up spending more for less value, leading to depletion of his savings. The junk disposed becomes a major environmental hazard. Now tell me, is this beneficial to the economy?

The answer is a definite NO. Just because we have an increased affordabilty does not mean we should have a careless attitude, towards buying. Next time before you buy, ask yourself do I really need it. Don’t buy something, just because it is available cheap. Don’t be carried away with free offers. Nothing is offered free. The cost of the free has been built in the product price. Think twice before you buy.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Articale dated Sep'2011