Career Guidance (elicited from the net)

The mythical pursuit of Greatness

The recent fiasco of the Indian Cricket team reflects the adverse affects of holding the intangible weight of expectations. In this case, expectations of a billion people.

Add caption

A similar downturn would imperatively be noticed in the life of Indian kids , who have been burdened with the weight of enormous expectations right from their childhood days.
"Aspiring for greatness" is one thing and injecting that aspiration on a blank mind is another.
"Greatness" always comes at a cost. It doesn't need to be aspired for. A truly great person would have never aspired to become great.
Ask Sachin- He never aspired to be great, as a kid he only aspired to play for his country.
Ask Newton- His passion for searching the truth and finding solution is what made him great.
Ask Vivekananda- would he have aspired for greatness? I seriously doubt.
"Greatness" comes as a gift and not as a destination to be aimed at. World around me is full of people who try to become "great" in different ways. They aim at milestones , that are looked up in high regard by the Human Society.  Examples would be:
1. Getting into a top College.
2. Working in a top MNC.
3. Going abroad.
Status seeking in short has become the anthem of today's society which has become synonymous to greatness. People toil in hard, aimlessly to achieve and maintain those revered forts instead of exploring things that would otherwise make them happy in life. The pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of greatness. Succeeding in life has a different meaning, which forms the root of most of the problems that the human beings are facing.
It was good to hear that Mahendra Singh Dhoni , who seems to have realised and accepted the toll of being great, and is thinking on if, he should retire from test cricket to continue in other formats of the game and enjoy his work, rather than be burdened by it.

Manual for Conserving Paths- by Paulo Coelho

1] The path begins with a crossroads. There you can stop and think what direction to follow. But don’t spend too much time thinking or you’ll never leave the spot. Once you have taken the first step, forget the crossroads forever or you will always torture yourself with the useless question: “did I take the right path?”

2] The path doesn’t last for ever. It is a blessing to travel the path for some time, but one day it will come to an end, so always be prepared to leave it at any moment. Don’t get too used to anything. Neither to the hours of euphoria, nor to the endless days when everything seems so difficult and progress is so slow. Don’t forget that sooner or later an angel will appear and your journey will reach an end.

3] Honor your path. It was your choice, your decision, and just as you respect the ground you step on, that ground will respect your feet. Always do what is best to conserve and keep your path and it will do the same for you.

4] Be well equipped. Carry a small rake, a spade, a penknife. Understand that penknives are no use for dry leaves, and rakes are useless for herbs that are deep-rooted. Know also what tool to use at each moment.

5] The path goes forward and backward. At times you have to go back because something was lost, or else a message to be delivered was forgotten in your pocket. A well tended path enables you to go back without any great problems.

6] Take care of the path before you take care of what is around you. Don’t be distracted by the dry leaves at the edges or by the way that others are looking after their paths. Use your energy to tend and conserve the ground that accepts your steps.

7] Be patient. Sometimes the same tasks have to be repeated, like tearing up weeds or closing holes that appear after unexpected rain. Don’t let that annoy you – that is part of the journey.

8] Paths cross. People can tell what the weather is like. Listen to advice, and make your own decisions. You alone are responsible for the path that was entrusted to you.

9] Nature follows its own rules. In this way, you have to be prepared for sudden changes in the fall, slippery ice in winter, the temptations of flowers in spring, thirst and showers in the summer. Make the most of each of these seasons, and don’t complain about their characteristics.

10] Make your path a mirror of yourself. By no means let yourself be influenced by the way that others care for their paths. You have your soul to listen to, and the birds to tell what your soul is saying. Let your stories be beautiful and pleasant to everything around you. Above all, let the stories that your soul tells during the journey be echoed at each and every second of the path.

11] Love your path. And may the Lord guide you and help you every single day in 2012

THE YEAR 2011: MEMOIRS

“  Let this be the hour, which comes once a while.

Whereby one looks back and sighs…

A year is about to pass. ..

The child within still laughs….

it never grows old……it shines like 24 karate gold.”

….but something has changed, or rather grown. Ego it is. I feel that, ego in people follows an inverse bell curve, during the course of life.

Lot many things happened this year.

Cricket World Cup 2011 triumph(Feb 2011):  Hard to believe at times that our boys did it. They played like real champions beating Australia and Sri Lanka. Hats Off!! For me Suresh Raina’s knock against the Aussies, Gambhir,Yuvi and MSD’s ironic  patience ,were some of the innings I’ll never forget. It taught me a great deal. If we want something badly, this is how we achieve it, this is how we walk the path, with patience and grit. No matter how hard the water splashes on ,we need to be as steady as a rock….and keep moving forward, inch by inch, step by step. MSD and co. showed it to everyone.

Campus Visit - IIM Calcutta (April 2011)  :  Yes we were there for a week. IIM-Cal Campus it was. A week that changed my life and gave direction to it, that changed the way I thought about myself.  A week that helped me understand a part of myself. The experience is too voluble to be expressed in words. All I can say, from the bottom of my heart “thank you IIM Calcutta for everything ”.

Bought my first bike(July 2011): I’ll always be proud of this deed of mine. I bought my first bike “Hero Honda Glamour 125cc” with my own savings and learnt to ride a bike on the same. Initial days were quite scary, I overcame my fear of driving on the busy Bangalore roads, taking the critical U-turns and driving through the gallis. It was one way I explored the hidden fire within. If you really want to do something, you will find the way and the courage to walk the path.

Trip to KanyaKumari and the Kovlam Beach : An experience of a lifetime. The Sea and the beach, it made a poet out of me.The best moment of the trip was standing on the shores of kanyakumari and being hit by waves from three different directions. Who says there are no miracles? It was the first time , since time in memory that I saw the ocean.A trip I'll always remember for the days to come.

Ricky’s Engagement (Nov 2011) : Happy for you J

Sad demise of Steve Jobs/Dennis Ritchie/Jagjeet Singh/Bhupeen Hazarika and Dev Anand (Oct to Dec 2011)

A sad ending to an eventful year. It was tragic really tragic and the pain was felt deep down in the roots of all emotions across the human society(s).

Q

"do not leave me...stay so close.
hold my hand and do not let go
wait for me, give me a chance....
stay with me,forever in wonderland"

Thy Will be done...

The days of joys and sorrows, Quite ironical the day is, one of those rare blue moon days, whereby you feel like writing like a young bird taking it’s second flight.(But there is no laptop).
Life , in August third week has been like a river surrendering itself to the abyss of the mountains . I nearly lost my 2 year old laptop to a modern proverb-“Electronic gadgets have no guarantee”. The electro schizophrenic attack struck my laptop on Monday morning as it struggled to reboot, reminding me of SRK’s overacting in “my name is Khan”. Day 2 was followed an encounter with the Mamu’s on the high way. Damn!! I forgot to keep my insurance papers, had been quite complacent off late. Surprisingly, I was very excited when I was stopped by the cops, although I knew that I’m gonna be screwed, but enjoyed the process of encountering the cops for the first time and bribing them. But a bribe of 500 bucks was too much for the illusion of happiness and adventure to sustain. The feeling of being pissed off was getting under my skin now.
Dead cockroaches and the stinking ambience of my room added to this feeling until the moment of truth which Shakespeare would have defined as “When thou land on thy arse, the only way thee would looketh is upwards”
And that is pge-2 of the story as well, ended up doing the following
1. Watched the 51st date
2. Completed my second Knowledge paper in finance.(which was brutally rejected :D)
3. Leg pulled the chicks in the office
4. Laughed like a kookaburra
5. Jackshitted on Facebook
And there you go, I could feel myself up and running once again. May this feeling continues-Amen

Back to the Future..

Time, indeed seems to fly by!! That's what my feeling has been for the last week.
I’m in lucknow for a week vacation. Difficult to imagine, that it’s been seven long , yet short years living outside house...... Phew!! a deep breath could best explain the emotion, the highs and lows. I feel like a gladiator, surviving the tests of time, taking a moment’s break before the next challenge. The feeling inside , as always ,is un-explainable, the seeker inside keeps looking for signs and omens, trying to interpret, small events happening in a random way, yet governed the laws of the universe. The seeker inside tries to decipher , what the universe is trying to convey to me.
I carry a mixed bag of thoughts…. insecurity, dreams, happiness,nightmares,ambitiousness,hatred,love,hope and above all the fear of the unknown…. are all part of this pool.
My heart sinks and skips a beat, I’m ready to face whatever the future has in store for me, as the following words of Morpheous echo through the corridors of my mind:

“ I’m here not because of the path that lies before me…..I’m here because of the path that lies behind me”- Morpheous-Matrix-2

Traveling to bangalore tomorrow…”BACK TO THE FUTURE”…..

Calculation of Exchange Rate

There are various factors that determine an exchange rate. Trade value, inflation, and interest rates, to name a few. These are basic principles to help understand the concept.
Let's work in a closed vacuum and assume there is no inflation between two countries or any other factors and examine fluctuations based on wealth and trade.
We begin with country A, which lets call the USA and country B which we call Britain. Lets imagine that 1 UD Dollar = 1 British Pound.

Now let's say that the Americans own $100 and the British own 100 Pounds. If America buys $5 worth of product from Britain, America would have $95 and Britain would have 105 Pounds. Suddenly Britain becomes wealthier. In theory Britain is approximately 10% wealthier now. (100/95x105=10.52%) So suddenly $1 would be worth around 1 Pound and 10 Pence.

This is the principle of trade surpluses and trade deficits and wealth within a currency.
Now let's imagine that America and Britain each have $100 again. Let's say that over 1 year, prices in America stayed the same but in Britain, prices went up 5%. We would now have an effect where Britain is 5% poorer then America and $1 would be now worth 1 Pound and 5 Pence. This is where interest rates are determined. Britain could have helped keep $1 worth 1 Pound by having an Interest rate of 5%.
Interest rates are determined normally by a Reserve Bank governor that determines economic policy for a currency. Interest rates can also be manipulated to stimulate an economy by strengthening or weakening a currency.
Now we can also consider what would happen if Britain deicide to print twice as much money as it had before. If America and Britain each has $100 and 100 Pounds each respectively, and Britain decided to print 200 Pounds in an attempt to get wealthier, suddenly $1 would equal 50 pence. However if Britain had found 100 Pounds of gold and was worth 200 Pounds, then $1 would still equal 1 Pound.
Very basically, this is how the system works, however is much more complex in reality.
I hope this gives a basic understanding of the principles.
Cecil Pickard-Brown
cecp@advidata.com


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_the_currency_exchange_rate_is_calculated#ixzz1OSBEJHXv

Mantra for life

Love-family
Trust-friends
Hope-self
Mercy-God
Kindness-All

"Sweat,Blood,heart and soul"-Rocky