What I learnt from Rubik's Cube...

I was always fascinated to see one of my friend being able to solve Rubik's cube in just 5-7 minutes. When I tried it for the first time, I felt its impossible for me to solve it, even if I spend my entire life solving it. It's damn difficult to ensure that each cube is in the correct position. If you try to fit one cube at the correct place the others would get spoiled and this used to happen each time. It was damn frustrating and I gave up on it.

Thereafter, I developed this perception in my mind that it requires genius to solve this piece of cube. I started respecting my friend for his brilliant mind, that he was able to solve it every time in just 5-7 minutes. In fact, one day my girl also appreciated my friend for his brilliance of mind to be able to solve this cube. This kicked me to again take the cube and start solving.

I bought one cube from Crossword's and tried solving it all over again. I approached my friend to teach me, and he tried to and was successful in teaching me the basic approach to solve it. Thereafter, I took help from internet and finally I was able to solve my first cube in a week's time. And I solved it again in next 2 days. And now after so much of practice I am able to solve it ever time in less than 5 minutes. It's so easy. Now, if I hold the cube, it seems my hands start moving automatically and the cube gets solved in just 5 minutes.

A dramatic change in my perception from something being impossible at the first stage to the most easiest thing in the world.

WHAT HELPED ME SOLVE IT?
Well, the cube seems to be very complex like our lives problems. If we try to fix one, the other arises and we continue doing this each time. We never attain a stage at which we say there are no problems in life. This happens simply because we try to address our problems in a haphazard manner. The secret to solving a Rubik's cube and various problems in life is a very simple one. We all know it but very few practice it: "Move in a very organized manner". Address one cube/problem at a time. Keep focus on what you are trying to solve rather than solving all the cubes/problems in one shot. Impossible is nothing- tell this to your mind and make yourself believe that you can do it. 50% of the battle is won when you convince yourself that YOU CAN DO IT. And then win the battle in any field.

These days I take this cube to my office and solve it and place it on my CPU for every one to see. Believe me, people come to me and ask whether have I solved it or its just been purchased afresh and kept. They all have the same perception which I had initially. Now all my colleagues see me as a person with an exceptional piece of brain. And I feel so proud of myself but still feel pity for people because they think its difficult, when I see it as simplest thing on earth.

LIFE SEEMS VERY COMPLEX, BUT IF YOU APPROACH IT WITH AN ORGANIZED PLAN THINGS ARE VERY SIMPLE. VERY, VERY SIMPLE.

Butter and Stones... From the book; "Buddha, His Life Retold", by Robert Allen Mitchell.

The story below is a 100 % copy from the book "Buddha, His Life Retold". Very interesting and highly inspirational.

Butter and Stones

At the time, priests of a religion were charging money for a ritual prayer that promised to release a dead relative's soul from hell so he could go to heaven. At one point in the prayer they struck an urn full of stones with a ritual hammer. If the urn broke, and the stones were released, it was a sign that the soul was also released, according to their teaching. Of course, the brittle clay could not withstand the blow of the heavy metal hammer.
A young man, distraught over his uncle's death, went to the Buddha, believing that the Buddha's teaching was a newer, greater form of religion, and asked him for a ritual which would release his uncle's soul. The Buddha told him to obtain two of the ritual urns from the priests, and fill one with butter and and one with stones.
The young man, believing he was about to get a more powerful ritual, was very happy and did as the Buddha said. When he returned, the Buddha told him to place the urns carefully in the river, so that the rim of the urn was just below the surface. Then he instructed him to recite the usual prayer of the priests, and strike both urns under the water with the hammer, at the usual point in the prayer, then come back and describe what happened.
The young man, very excited to be the first person to be given this wonderful new ritual, more effective than the old, did exactly as he was told. On his return, the Buddha asked him to describe what he saw. The young man replied "I saw nothing unusual. When I smashed the urns, the stones sank to the bottom of the river and the butter was washed away on the surface of the river."
The Buddha said "Then you must ask your priests to pray that the butter will sink and the stones will float to the surface!" The young man, shocked by the obvious ridiculousness of this request said "But no matter how much the priests pray, the stones will never float and the butter will not sink."
The Buddha replied, "Exactly so. And, it is the same with your uncle. Whatever good, loving actions he has done during his life will make him rise towards heaven, and whatever bad, selfish actions he has done will make him sink towards hell. And there is not a thing that all the prayers and rituals of the priests can do to alter even a tiny part of the results of his actions!"

What we should not do with Determination

Determination is a powerful tool. We all know it is, we all know what we can and what we should do with it. But majority of us don't know what we should not do with it.

Here is an extract of a story which I read in one of the books.

Story:

There was a boy who expressed his determination in 9th grade. He was very close to his father, even though his father didn't like most of the things he did. But being the youngest in the family he was always pampered by everyone in the family.

His mom and dad were disciplines of some Swami. Every day they used to leave at 5 A.M and return at 10 A.M. The boy used to feel extremely irritated, and felt neglected. One day the boy went to his father and asked 'Do you love me or Swamijee more'? On hearing this his dad got really annoyed and slapped him hard. The boy felt very insulted and felt he did nothing wrong. So he decided to rebel in his own way.
He determined himself that he'll refuse to speak with his dad until he apologized. Everyday his dad would ask his mother "Won't he speak to me today as well"? But the boy was very determined, he wanted to pay him back and this was the only way he could.

1 week later his dad was going out for a business trip for 14 days. His dad was standing at the gate while leaving and asked the boy's mother "Won't he come and talk to me even now? I am leaving and I would like to speak to him. Ask him to come and talk to me". The boy was hiding behind the steps and watching and hearing everything. But his determination was so strong that he didn't come out.

His dad returned after 16 days, in fact 2 days later than what he had planned for. The boy had won the battle with his determination. He went to meet his dad, but cried so much that day because he became the biggest loser in life. He begged his dad to talk to him, but he could not, and would never - because on that day, his father died.

Moral: We all know what to do with determination, but we don't know where not to use our determination. Its important not to end relationships in determination of something else. Relations are things which build emotions and without relations emotions are dead, and life without emotions is like a robot.

The Obstacle in Our Path !!

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand.

Moral of the story: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

Life thows questions at you which have no answers...

"FIRST LOOK AT YOUR RIGHT, THEN LEFT AND THEN AGAIN RIGHT; IF NO TRAFFIC IS COMING THEN CROSS THE ROAD" - That's exactly what we were taught about 'Crossing roads' in India. But at that time I always had 2 questions in my mind:

1. Why did we look at 'RIGHT' first and not towards 'LEFT'?
2. Why do we have to look at 'RIGHT' twice? Why now look at 'LEFT' side twice?

I didn't ask these questions to the teacher at that point in time. And the questions left unanswered in my mind. But gradually when the time passed by, I started to think logically, the answer got discovered automatically. And the answer was simple: Since in India we have left hand side drive, we would get hit by a vehicle coming from our right hand side first while crossing the road.

Moral:
Life throws questions at you which don't have any answers right now, but let the time pass and then the nature itself would take you to the path of knowledge where you'll find the answer.

How life has changed...

"Statue", wish we could just say it and things would have never changed. This one is for all you beautiful people out there...........


Here i am sitting in my office @ night......
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick college life to strict professional life.

How Anil's bhaiya's Vada-pav and Chai changed to a Club Sandwich and Juice
But then why there is less hunger ??

How tiny pocket money changed to monthly paychecks
but then why it gives less happiness ??

How a few denim jeans changed to a new branded wardrobe full of trousers
but then why it feels there are less people to wear ??

Here i am sitting in my office @ night......
Thinking hard about life
How it changed....

How a travel by auto/car/bus has changed into a comfortable journey by car
but then why there are less places to go ??

How a coffee at coffee stop changed to a Barista
but then why it feels like shop is far away ??

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package
but then why there are less calls & more messages ??

Here i am sitting in my office @ night......
Thinking hard about life
How it changed.....

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey
But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment ??

How a pic in which everyone wanted to fit in has changed into a camera clicking nature's beauty but then why don't we admire it ??

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mates
But then why we always feel lonely and miss college frnz ??

Here i am sitting in my office @ night......
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick college life to strict professional life.

Management Redefined

There was this interesting observation which I made while reading a book on management during my MBA. The book started with defining management as an art of getting work done through others. If such is the case then everyone would keep on passing the work to the next employee in the hierarchy and even at the lowest level, people would look for someone to get the work done. And the buck stops nowhere. In this process, I don't see the work getting done at any level whatsoever. Hence, a rubbish definition.

A revised definition by me: Management is the art of fooling others

This is how i developed this definition....
In further chapters i came across a theory given by Douglas McGregor (Theory X) who say management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can. Therefore it is pretty obvious that no one would like to work for others unless and until you fool him around by offering impressive compensation, career plans, perks, etc. Therefore what comes out is this “Management is the art of making fool of others”.