Reflections

Walk Away! Two simple words, but they hold the key to our mental peace of mind and happiness. Also, two simple words representing an action that is possibly among the hardest to execute among all actions in life : Walk Away. Something even the best of us fail to do, again and again. We tend to cling, hold onto situations, relationships etc far beyond their value and importance, creating stress both in our own lives as well as those of others. Rather than cling – my advice is to simply walk away! RESPECT : THE BEDROCK Any relationship – be it spouse, or children, or friends – is built on a bedrock of mutual respect, mutual interdependence and communication. Of these 3 – it is the first, mutual respect, that leads to the following two. You tend to talk to {regularly and openly, transparently} only those people for whom you have some degree of respect for at least some of their characteristics. Only when true communication happens does mutual interdependence get built into th...

PAIN… Pain is a touchstone for Spiritual Growth; this is a dialogue I heard in a TV Serial; this is a strange concept, but well founded in many other literary sources as well. In short, Pain has a capacity to unlock deep spiritual longings and growth in an individual, something no amount of material happiness can give or bring about. It has been said that the path to the development of a deep character, a strong constitution, a strong faith or belief, a sense of balance, and a deep understanding of the nature of humanity are all rooted in pain; these aspects emerge from the Ocean of Pain. …AND HAPPINESS Happiness, on the other hand, leaves little in your development from all of these. Such is the strong nature of the pull of material happiness that it overcomes and subdues all else. It gives a human a sense of superiority, of achievement, of knowledge, of pride, of lust, and much more; it fuels passions and blinds a person to the negatives of life. As the person has achi...

Risk is a part and parcel of business; the uncertainty of the future, and the vagaries that this uncertainty causes in the business situation is one of the key aspects of planning at any level in an organization. The current book under review is my first book on Risk Assessment that I have taken up, in my attempt to understand why plans fail, and what is the nature of risks confronting an organization. Before I commence, let me underscore something – we in Organisations as well as in Management Education should place a lot more emphasis on understanding and evaluating risks than we do now. THE BOOK Risk Management – A Practical Guide by Sorin Dumitrascu is a practical approach, a guidebook of sorts, towards identifying and implementing Risk Management Procedures. This looks at a very basic approach, yet eminently practical. It introduces in a very succinct summary form some of the types of risk that confront an organization, in a basic bare categorization, and then moves ...

The question Who Am I has a standard response, one of self identity. We identify ourselves by a specific name, religion, nationality. We have a specific identity. This identity, this sense of self, this uniqueness about I-Me-Myself, and the resultant deep entwined involvement with it is what makes us humans; most of us, indeed nearly all, cannot even dream of a situation where this does not exist, this identification. Even when we merge   in groups, families, organisations, activities we keep this sense of self, this identity, this uniqueness, this Ego. This is what makes humans tick. Image by John Hain, Pixabay THE SKIN DEEP IDENTIFIERS This identification is skin-deep, quite literally. It is entwined with our physical appearance, outward associations we have of family & society & status, our material possessions and so on. The question Who Am I gets a name, an appearance, a status, a family, a home and possessions, as a first level response. A thinker, an i...