தொழில்நுட்ப்ப கல்வி

கடந்த 30 வருடங்களில் தொழில்நுட்ப்ப வளர்ச்சியும், உலகமயமாக்குதலும் பல நாடுகளின் வர்த்தக-பொருளாதார வடிவத்தையே மாற்றிவிட்டன. இக்காரணத்தால் உலகளவில் தொழிலாளிகள் சந்தை எதிர்பாரா நன்மைகளையும், மாற்றத்தையும், சவால்களையும் சந்தித்தது. இதில் முக்கியமான நன்மை 900 பதின்லக்ஷம் (million) (10 பதின்லக்ஷங்கள் = ஒரு கோடி) மக்களுக்கு வேலை வாய்ப்பில் முன்னேற்றம் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது. இம்முன்னேற்றத்தால் முன்னோடி நாடுகள் புதிய தொழில்நுட்ப்பங்களில் முதலீடு செய்தும் வளர்ந்துவரும் நாடுகளின் தொழிலாளிகளை பயன்படுத்தியும் தங்களது உற்பத்தியை பெருக்கிக்கொண்டனர். அதே சமயம் வளர்ந்து வரும் நாடுகளில் உள்ள தொழிலாளிகள் தங்கள் வருமானங்களில் முன்னேற்றம்மும் வேலை வாய்ப்பும் பெற்றனர்.

1980 முதல் 2010 வரை உலக தொழிலாளிகளின் எண்ணிக்கை 120 கோடியிலிருந்து 290 கோடிகளாகியுள்ளது. இதற்க்கு முக்கிய காரணம் மக்கள் எண்ணிக்கை பெருக்கும், விவசாயத்திலிருந்து மாறி தொழிற்சாலைக்கு ஏற்பட்ட முக்கியத்துவமுமே ஆகும். இந்த மாற்றத்தினால் 62  கோடி மக்கள் ஏழ்மையிலிருந்து விடுபட்டு முன்னேறியுள்ளனர். அவ்வாறு பயன்பெற்றதில் சீனாவும் இந்தியாவும் பெருவிடத்தை பெற்றுள்ளது.

உலக தொழிலாளிகள் வர்த்தகத்தில் ஏற்பட்டு வரும் முன்னேற்றத்தை அறிய 96 விழுக்காடு பங்களிக்கும் 70 நாடுகள் ஆராயப்பட்டது. அவ்வாறு ஆராய அந்நாட்டின் தொழிலாளிகளின் வயது, சராசரி கல்வி, வருமானம் ஆகியவை கொண்டு அந்நாட்டின் தொழிலாளிகளின் உற்பத்தித்திறன் மற்றும் உற்பத்தி பரிசோதிக்கப்பட்டது. பின் 70 நாடுகளை 8 விதமாக பிரிக்கப்பட்டன. இதில் இந்தியாவும் சீனாவும் தனி தனி பிரிவாகவும், வளர்ந்த நாடுகள் 3 பிரிவாகவும், வளரும் நாடுகள் 3 பிரிவாகவும் பிரிக்கப்பட்டன. வளர்ந்த நாடுகளில் தொழிலாளிகளின் வருமானம் அதிகமாகவும் அதே சமயம் அவர்களுடிய நடுவண் வயதும் அதிகமாகவும் (சுமார் 45-ஆகவும்) உள்ளன. வளரும் நாடுகளில் தொழிலாளர் வர்கத்தின் நடுவண் வயது குறைவாகவும் (சுமார் 20-25) வருவாயும் குறைவாகவே உள்ளது. இந்தியாவும் சீனாவும் இவ்விரண்டு பிரிவுகளுக்கும் நடுவே உள்ளது. சீனாவை காட்டிலும் இந்தியா வருமானத்திலும், வயதிலும் குறைவாக உள்ளது. முக்கியமாக கவனிக்க வேண்டியது இந்த எட்டு பிரிவின் கல்வி திறனும் உற்பத்தி திறனும் தான். இவ்விரண்டிலும், இந்தியா  இதர 3 வளரும் நாடுகளின் பிரிவுகளை போலவே,  சீனாவை காட்டிலும் மிக பின்தங்கியும் உள்ளது.

இந்த கருத்தை உள்வாங்கி நாம் நமது பல சிந்தனைகளை மாற்றினால் முன்னேற வாய்ப்பு இருக்கிறது. இன்றைய வளர்ந்த நாடுகளில் தொழில்நுட்ப்ப விபுனர்களுக்கு கெடுபடியான கிராக்கி உள்ளது. ஏன், இந்தியாவிலும் வளர்ந்த நகரங்களில் தொழில்நுட்ப்ப விபுனர்களுக்கு கெடுபடியான கிராக்கி இருக்கத்தான் செய்கிறது. ஒரு புழம்பர் (Plumber / ப்ளம்பர்), தட்சர் வேலைக்கு நிபுணர்கள் கிடைப்பது சாமான்யமாக இல்லையே.

இந்த சூழ்நிலை அறிந்து, சீனா தொழில் நுட்ப்ப கல்வியில் கவனம் செலுத்தி உற்பத்தியை பெருக்கி உலகின் உற்பத்திக்கு உறைவிடமாக மாற்றிவிட்டது. இன்று நாம் உபயோகபடுத்தும் முக்காலுக்கும் மேலான இயந்திரங்கள்- சிறு ஊசி முதல் கணினி வரை, மருத்துவ கருவிகளாகட்டும், ஏவுகனைகளாகட்டும், மோட்டார் வாகனங்களாகட்டும் அனைத்திலும் உள்ள உபரி பாகங்கள் சீனாவிலிருந்தே ஏற்றுமதி ஆகின்றன. ஆகையால், 30 வருடங்களுக்கு முன்னால் 60 விழுக்கடுக்கும் கீழ் ஏழ்மையில் இருந்த சீன நாடு 2030-க்குள் 60 விழுக்காடு மக்கள் தொகையை பொருளாதாரத்தில் நடுத்தரத்திற்கு முன்னேற்றி விடும் என ஆய்வுகள் கூறுகின்றன. அதே 30 ஆண்டுகளில் இந்தியா என்னவாகும், என்னவாக ஆகவேண்டும் என நாம் சிந்தித்து இப்பொழுதே தகுந்த நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும்.  அவை தொழில் நுட்ப்ப கல்வியை பரப்புவதும், தரமான உற்பத்தியை செய்வதுமே ஆகும்.

1.      இன்றைய பள்ளி செல்லும் மாணவர்களில் பலருக்கு தொழில்நுட்ப்ப உயர் கல்வியில் (டிப்ளோமா) விழிப்புணர்வு இல்லை.

2.      அனைவரும் பட்டப்படிப்பு படித்து ஒரு அலுவலகத்தில் வேலை செய்யவே விருப்பப்டுகிரார்கள். இதை விருப்பம் என்று கூற முடியாது. மற்ற துறையில் உள்ள அருமை பெருமை அறியாமையால் விளைந்தவையே. இக்காரணத்தால் பட்டம் பெற்றும் சிலர் அலுவலர்களாக இல்லாமல் இதர வேலைகளை செய்கிறார்கள். திண்டாடுகிறார்கள்.

3.      என்ன படித்தால் என்னவாகலாம் என்ற அறிவை நம் பாட திட்டங்கள் தெளிவுபடுத்தாதது வருத்தப்படவேண்டிய விஷயமாகும். இதை ஒரு பாட திட்டமாக ஏழாம்-எட்டாம் வகுப்பில் சேர்த்தால் நலம்.

4.      மதிப்பெண் குறைவாய் எடுப்பவர்களே டிப்ளோமா படிப்பார்கள் நல்ல மதிப்பெண் எடுப்பவர்கள் அதை படிக்க மாட்டார்கள் என்ற அறிவீணத்தை மாற்ற வேண்டும். இவ்வாறான தவறான கருத்தால் தொழில்நுட்ப்பத்தில் நாட்டம் உள்ளவர்கள் நாட்டமின்றி பட்டம் படிக்கச்சென்று மேலோங்க முடியாமல் தடுமாறுகிறார்கள்.

5.      பெற்றோர்களும், பள்ளியும், அரசும் இதை மனதில் வைத்து மானக்கர்களுக்கு நன்முறையில் ஆலோசனை வழங்க ஏற்பாடு நடத்தவேண்டும்.

6.      வெளிநாடுகளில் வேலை செய்யும் நம் நாட்டு தொழில்நுட்ப்ப நிபுணர்களை கொண்டு பல விழிப்புணர்வு சொற்பொழிவு செய்ய வேண்டும்.

7.      வெளிநாடுகளில் ஊடகங்கள் தொழில்நுட்ப்பத்தின் முக்கியத்துவம் செய்யும் வகையில் பல நிகழ்ச்சிகள் செய்து விழிப்புணர்வையும், ஆர்வத்தையும், கௌரவத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்துகின்றனர். அவ்வாறு நமது ஊடகங்களும் செய்ய முன்வரவேண்டும்.

நம் வாழ்வு நம் கையில். மாணாக்கர்களும், பெற்றோரும், பள்ளியும், அரசும், சமுதாயமும், சிந்தித்து செயல்பட்டால் நாளை நமதே, இந்த நாளும் நமதே.

மேற்கோள்: மேக்கின்சே குளோபல் இன்ச்டிடுட் (McKinsey Global Institute) (மேக்கின்சே உலகளாவிய காரணாலயம்- மே.உ.கா) ஜூன் 2012-ல் வெளியிட்ட (The world at works) என்ற அராய்ச்சி கட்டுரை. மே.உ.கா 1990-ஆம் ஆண்டு, உலக வளர்ச்சியை தெளிவுற அறிந்துகொள்வதற்க்காங்க நிறுவப்பட்ட ஆராய்ச்சி காரணாலயம (institute) ஆகும். ஆராய்ச்சியின் முடிவில் தெரியப்படும் கருத்துக்களை கொண்டு தொழில், சமுதாயம் வளர்ச்சி, அரசாங்கம், ஆகிய துறைகளில் இருப்பவர்கள் தாங்கள் எடுக்கும் முடிவுகளை செரிவர தெளிவாக எடுக்க பயன்படடுத்துவார்கள்.

Do you really know me?

It all started like it always does. It’s a ritual. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” —the ice-breaker question in the interview.

The interviewee took three minutes to cover an over-all “about-me” thing, and finally when it came to hobbies, he mentioned about reading books etc., but suddenly the interviewer interrupted and asked. “How was your trip to India last month?” The interviewee was surprised, eyes widened, smiled and was all enthused to tell about it.

When he finished that, the interviewer asked another question— “The guy you were teaching at the charity- did he pass the exam?”

And then another …“Why do you think the client appreciated your team member Mr. X and not you?”

And it went on like…

“Why did you choose to install TOR in your mobile phone?”

“Did you agree with Gary Vaynerchuck’s response to the question you asked?”

“Tell me more about the disagreement pyramid you responded to Jeff’s blog.”

“How far have you finished reading ‘how to win friends….’? Did you happen to get a pre-1964 edition? BTW, why did you prefer the old edition?”

“What did you learn from on-startup community? Why were you interested in it in the first place?”

“Why do you follow both Deepak Chopra and Richard Dawkins?”

“Have you seen the other responses for the question that you answered about Pivoting the database?” “Do you think your response was better or did you learn something new?”

…and the questions went on... They ranged from sports, to tourist places, to photography, to politics, to music for a good 20-30-minutes duration.

Some side questions that were picked during the conversation were like, “How would you have done it differently?”;

“How you pick the team?”;

“Your dream?”;

“Why do you think you are investing your time with us to catch your dream?”

Finally, the interviewer asked, “So, what do you think about this interview?”

And the interviewee responded saying “It didn’t seem to be like an interview. It’s like catching up with old friend. I am not sure even if my girlfriend knew about me this much. I had a good time.”

The interviewee curiously asked “Do you already know me?”

“You are all over the internet” said the interviewer.

Reluctantly the interviewee added - “But if I may ask, you did not deep dive into my current job details, my experience etc., so has the vacancy been already filled and you just had a chat with me(?) or I don’t know how to say… I did not expect… this is different… Normally I have seen the interviewer seeing the resume only during the interview… they just ask the question from the resume… and then they ask some technical questions.”

The interviewer smiled and said “whatever I need to know about you, I got it from the internet already… and I have got it cross-verified during our chat… and that is more than enough to form an opinion”

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Later, the interviewee joined the organization and in the feedback for about the interview and selection process, the candidate mentioned that:

“I got two other offers but picked this one not because of the money, rather this one wasn’t competitive package, but got a feeling that people already know me and can relate to me better.”

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Thanks to Shikha Ashok for reading the draft

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow

A fictional tale from the Great Mahabharata

To those who do not know: Balarama is elder brother of Lord Krishna, a great warrior and wrestler by profession. There was none in the world who could win Balarama in Wrestling. Lord Krishna needs no introduction.

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On a full moon day, Balarama and Krishna was crossing the forest. Both have been walking for all day and was tired. As the sun set and started to get dark, they were searching for a place to rest.

“I know you are tired, so am I. But both of us cannot sleep at the same time. Let me sleep first and you keep guard of me. When you cannot control sleep anymore, wake me up and I shall guard you” said Krishna and went to sleep.

Balarama was guarding Krishna. Time passed by and it was almost midnight. The clouds were growing darker

All of a sudden, at distance, there was a huge roar of sound. Its neither sounds like human nor an animal. The sound was magnanimous and huge like thunder. Balarama saw a huge demon approaching.

The demon made a huge roar as if it was the biggest thunder one could ever hear. Balarama got scared. From the sound Balarama could feel that monster is approaching near. On its way the monster was uprooting the trees that was in its way. Another roar, Balarama was even more scared. Now he could see the demon clearly. The fear engulfed Balarama, the great warrior himself was surprised to see himself shivering.

The demon roared once again with its mouth too wide and the thick chain of saliva between the jaws were oscillating. The jaws were large, teeth were sharp and Balarama could see that they were in dark yellow. The eyes were red hot and its body was darker than the night. The nasty smell of the monster was overwhelming and it left Balarama suffocating.

Balarama and the monster was nearly face to face but at distance. The monster roared. At the sound of roar, Balarama, the undefeated wrestler, sweating and shivering saw himself diminishing in half of his size while the monster grew double its size. The monster roared once again. This time the sound was four times more than what he heard before. Balarama dreaded and shrink further half his size and the monster once more grew doubling its size.

Seeing the mammoth approaching near, Balarama ran near Krishna and cried Krishna’s name aloud before he fainted.

Krishna hearing Balarama woke up from sleep and saw Balarama lying down. Krishna was in deep sleep so he did not know what happen to Balarama and though that his brother was too tired that he was sleeping.

The monster followed Balarama’s trail and made the thunderous sound. This time it was not Balarama it was Krishna. Krishna saw a mammoth approaching him. Krishna shouted back “What do you want?”.The monster roared once again and Krishna once again asked “What do you want?”. Everytime Krishna asked “What do you want?”, he saw himself growing double his size while the monster shrinking to half its size.

The Monster shrank to Krishna’s thumb size and he picked it up and put the little monster in his waist pocket. Krishna kept guard of Balarama for the remaining night.

The morning sun glowed, Balarama slowly got his consciousness back. Suddenly the memories of previous night dawned upon him and so did the fear. Puffing and panting he ran to Krishna.

Seeing Balarama’s face gone white, Krishna asked “What happened?”

“Krishna, yesterday night, there was a huge demon, and it was roaring like thunder. It came to eat us both and last thing I remember is I came running to you. Did you hear the sound.. did you see the Monster?” asked Balarama.

Krishna smiled and said “Is this the little demon you are talking about” saying so, Krishna took the demon out from his waist pocket.

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This is a fictional incident in the life of Krishna and Balarama story that the great Sage Vedavyas narrates using monster to be a metaphor for the problem we face. He beautifully explains…

If we worry too much, the problem seems bigger. Instead, if we stand up and face the problem, the problem becomes smaller.

Marriage is not for recreation, it results in procreation!

Originally published in http://www.medium.com/@karthigeyans

A recent judgement by Justice Karnan in Madras High Court was made controversial, that it was covered in international newspapers, including NYT (see the epilogue on what controversy was made). This is a story about it in my words.

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Few years back, two lovers —a Muslim man and a Hindu woman (to be specific) were in espousal relationship between them, but the relationship wasn’t solemnized or documented. With all true intention, there is nothing wrong in that, after all the rituals are for societal recognition.

Eventually they had their first child. Couple of years later, the lady delivered another child—rather a difficult one—through cesarean.

Few years passed by. The relationship wasn’t going any easy between them. The man didn’t want it anymore. For whatever reason, he decided to drift apart. But a cunning person he is, claimed that he was never married to the lady and the children were not his.

The only recourse for the woman and the children is to take it to court of law and judgement come in her favour.

Proving whether he fathered the child or not can be as simple as a DNA test. But How do you prove whether he was married to the woman or not? Especially when it was not solemnized either by ritual or by law or by any paper evidence! And none could be taken as witness in the court of law when they took their vow.

As the case turned out and argued, the facts presented proved without doubt: that it is fact that they have lived-in together; and it was not an extramarital affair; and before their live-in relationship the lady was a spinster and the man was a bachelor; and the children born were his own, through her.

He has signed the birth certificate of her daughter where he was mentioned as the child’s Father. He has signed the no objection letter in the capacity of husband when the woman delivered her second child by cesarean (he should have been a stupid to contest!).

By law, for a muslim, the marriage should be registered in a Mosque. For a Hindu, she has to circumference the Holy Fire and take seven steps of oath. Neither was done. So, the only question that needs to be answered is whether the man and woman can be called as husband and wife or a live-in relationship.

Live-in relationship is noble not rouge.

The learned Justice, saw the merits of the case and pronounced that that there is nothing in law that would object if both were to be called as husband and wife. After all, marriage is nothing but a relationship in which two people have pledged themselves to each other to share their life together and make a family. And that, the marriage rituals such as wedding or registering are only for the societal recognition.

When they have lived in together and have raised a family, the relationship should indeed to be construed as marriage. And the woman shall therefore derive the benefits a wife would otherwise derive in case of a marriage that was performed as per the rituals/ custom/law.

Marriage is not for recreation, it results in procreation!

Nevertheless, not having such ritual or not registering the marriage wouldn't be an excuse to absolve the man’s espousal responsibility as both intended and have had sexual relationship and procreated children.

This happened in Madras High Court- India, pronounced by Justice Karnan.

The rationale behind the judgement is terrific and is laudable.

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Epilogue:

The wordings of Judgement was bit ambiguous at least for a layman like me, and the verdict arise lot of question like how to prove the intention behind etc., but instead of seeing the merit and spirit of the judgment, people started tweeting ridiculing the judgement. NYT also covered the story.

Supposedly a sensible Newspaper like The Hindu had their catchy heading “Couples who have premarital sex to be considered ‘married,’ says HC.”

And the twitter mafia punned it (#MadrasHC- around 20th of June) without even realizing the real facts! In the light of facts, they are nothing but a laughing stock.

Intend pun, but never become a laughing stock.

Purpose

In many a times, for each and every action we do, someone asks why was it done and what is the purpose. Sometimes we do something for sake of doing and not for purpose. Sometimes, if we try to rationalize and  invent a purpose of the action we do, it just belittles the whole thing. 

A mother cares her kid- what is the purpose? Does she love her child because the child would grow and later would take care of her? Wouldn't it belittle the whole thing?

Rain showers-What is the purpose? Does the rain intelligently think of cooling the overheated place? Or does it discover the water scarcity in a place and showers? 

Flower blossoms- what is the purpose? Does it bloom to give beauty? Does it bloom to give fragrance?

A dog wags its tail upon its master- what is the purpose? Does it knows that the master is a 'master'? Does it wags so the ‘master’ would feed?

A child makes a paper flower and gifts to mother-what is the purpose? So that the mother would feed he next time? Or the mother would use it?

A lover gets bunch of flowers to his love? What is the purpose? To show that he has money? Or that the lover would show it to other that her love got her the flowers? Or just so that  others would envy it?

NO.  Not everything in this world has a purpose. Perhaps, may be, but inventing a reason would just belittle the whole thing. Few things  done are just done no reasons attached, no strings attached. It gets done for it is designed to be done. 

Inventing a reason and attempting to justify the purpose just belittle the whole thing as then the reason is debatable. There are something that one could not ask what is the purpose and one cannot invent a reason why it is done.

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Kurt Vonnegut in his Cat's Cradle narrates:

 “In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness.

And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat, looked around, and spoke. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.

And He went away.”

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It doesn't matter what I am good at, but what I am interested in matters

Photo Credit :Andre Pan

One of the questions in traditional interview would be "what are you good at". Most of the response that we give / get is something in line with the job posting for which the interview is conducted for. Mostly it is not true state of affairs as there is a desperation to get a job. 

In my view, it is not "what I am good at" that is important but "what brings me pleasure" is important. When something brings pleasure, then I may try to do it very often and by practising it over and over again, I may become good at it. After all practice makes perfection. But it need not be true that if I am good at something, then it brings pleasure. For example,  I am good at Bank reconciliation, Trial balance tallying, financial projection, costing. I was interested in that and become good at that. Even now I am good at that. But I have NO more interested in that. Interest keeps changing. I then moved on. Now I am interested in setting up new business unit, a Start Up or something that I can make from scratch and make it functional before taking up another project. 

For any activity the interest level grows until it hits the resistance levels. Once the interest hits that levels, it may start to decline. The quality of output will decline. Once we know that the interest levels are falling, you may have to watch out your support level and try to rise it  to find a new resistance level by slightly altering the course / nature of task or to exit and start something new. If you cannot find the support level then there is no point in continuing it.

It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to. -Annie Gottlier

If you start feeling that 'I have to do" instead of "I want to do", then it is the sign that you are hitting a resistance level on that task.

Check the activities that you are doing routinely-- if no one is using it, you have 2 options try to either make the output more meaningful so somebody who was suppose to use it or politely highlight that task has become redundant and instead do something else that bring pleasure.

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." -Aristotle

Identify those tasks that brings you pleasure. If you don't know what it is-- then think of something where you have lost sense of time while doing some activity--most probably that is the task that you might like.

Else, we would become like most people who work just hard enough not to get fired. By the way, if one become that kind of resource, mind it they would be paid just enough money not to quit.

For being a good leader,

• While recruiting / selecting a team member, identify whether the person's interest  is in line with the project in hand
• A person may have many interests at the same time, check whether the 'interest' that you may want to use is having a higher priority- else the person may switch to an interest that is more enticing.
• Oil his lamp and keep it burning- Motivate the interest, encourage, constantly poke the learning thing in the interests to keep it alive and going
• Frequently evaluate whether the 'interest' quotient has increased or decreased and identify the reasons behind it
• May be you want to make something differently for the person; or
• he would be a better fit elsewhere
• If the interest of some one has evidently changed, it is better to responsibly guide the person and help him to achieve greater heights rather to just curse with a bad ratings. It is not firing but just being responsible and highlighting. Rather it would end up being useful to both.

If you are a team member, just turn the table and apply the same principles.

Cost cutting, Firing and related impacts

It is not new, to hear there has been pink slips in the name of cost cutting, neither it is new to hear that the employee is quitting for a better remuneration.

Employees quit a job because elsewhere they either get paid well, or given higher responsibility or they can grow knowledge or the job is more secure or many reasons or they just don’t like the current job or management.

The flip side of the story is the company sacks a person because they can get someone of the same quality with lesser cost, they bring in new knowledge, the bring more loyal people  or simply the management does not like the outputs from the employee.

But why is employee quitting mostly ends up with “all the best”, and the company sacking ends up “to hell with the management” or many rumours?

If you have been in either of this situation, please share your thoughts in comments.

8 Essentials- Seeds for growth in Career

YM Chong Fu Li

My boss, has retired recently. During lunch time, I visited him to pay my respect and courtesy. He recollected few instances from his life, few things that he practised. Following are summary of what I could learn from the discussion today. (I have added some example or sentences so that what I understood is made more clear).

1. Make your boss life easy. Go the extra mile 

Assume yourself in your bosses’ position and receive your output as he would receive. Check if that is what you would want to see as output. Ask questions as if your boss would ask. Try rejecting your output with reasons. Then you would discover what needs to be done and that is doing extra and going extra mile. If you are asked to make a doll, make a doll and perfect it. Going extra mile is not making a spare leg or hand for the doll. But taking more care in bringing the output more than what it is. You are more capable of what you think or what others think. People who prove to themselves don’t need appreciation from others because it is not worth more than yours. Only those who cannot prove to themselves will expect it from others. So, time and again prove that to yourself by doing more and make your boss life easy.

2. Never hesitate but dare to take unpopular decision 

For the sake of avoiding conflicts and bitterness, people generally tend to take a decision based on the popular choice of the options. But it is not necessary that the popular choice needs to be always correct. Dare to take unpopular decision which honestly you think that is good for the organization. Choosing a popular decision may postpone or reduce the severity of the problem for a shorter period but may not be helping in the longer run. If a popular decision fails, those who were favouring those popular choices were not going to stand behind you or take responsibility. Those who stick on to the popular choices remain, at best, as managers. Those who dare to take unpopular decision move ahead and make themselves as a leader.

3. Maintain your health and happiness 

You may forget until it becomes too late to realize to chase your dreams, both the physical body and mind should be intact. Proper health makes a better body and happiness makes a sound mind. Never sacrifice health and happiness for the sake of anything else. But discover what is real health and real happiness. For some, doing work itself is happiness.

4. Never sacrifice your principles fearing accusation 

People who bad mouth will bad mouth- do not try to satisfy them- you would never succeed. Never sacrifice your principles for anyone-- they are the one that defines who you are. By the way, principles are something that you honestly believe and adopted by practice over a period of time. Let people talk whatever they want, but they would someday realize the truth and intention behind. Anyway, it is irrelevant whether they realize or not so far you are true and honest and keep your head high and be proud of whatever you have done.

5. Do not be in your bosses’ black book 

You don’t need to be in good books of the boss, never matter but never be in the bad books of the boss. Once you are in bad book, it is just enough that the sight of you or hearing your name would trigger the bad memory in their mind. Every time your bad avatar pops up in their mind, the more stronger it is stamped. It is going to be very tough to erase it and overcome it.

6. Be polite 

Even if you want to give a bitter pill, you want to give a honest critical feedback do so but with politeness. No one deserves an impolite treatment. It doesn't mean that you should bend, you can be tough. But for being tough you don’t need to be harsh or impolite.

7. If you fall, get up first 

If you fall in a ditch, first thing you would be doing is to get out of the ditch and then analyze why you fell in it. You don’t want to first analyze why you fell and then to get out of the ditch. Learning from mistakes is good but it should not hinder your advancement. First move ahead and make room for yourself and then think of the mistake to learn from it.

8. Apply Common sense 

Common sense is something that is commonly uncommon. The first and foremost thing that you want to do is to apply common sense. Solution sans common sense is null and void.

My hypothesis on why vegetarian food is preferred over non-vegetarian food.

Since my parents are vegetarian, I am also vegetarian. Though it was not by choice that I adopted, but it is a conscious decision to continue it. Initially my decision was aligning with the opinion that many people have: that is not to induce any pain for any living beings.  Over a time, my rationale to the decision changed but the decision still holds good.

Long ago, I saw a movie Alive it is based on a real story about people who survive a plane crash.  They eventually resort to eat remains of dead people as that's the only thing left. This made me to interrogate my belief and was thinking would I resort to eating dead people if I were in their position. I can’t really say unless I would be in that position but logically yes, after all one has to live. I don’t know how would a herbivorous animal would do in that situation. 

So the question now is what makes one to choose Vegetarian over Non-Vegetarian? While thinking deeply on this and I did some research, I had formed my OWN hypothesis why one should resort to Vegetarianism instead of Non-Vegetarian.  

Couple of weeks back I happen to bump into Madhav's posting in his blog-site and interestingly he also had the same question (sure many have) and discusses on why he supported being vegetarian  over being non-vegetarian. In his childhood his reason was on the grounds of  morality towards other living beings and he explains further how his opinion changed over period of time.  He finally concludes that “ no living organism capable of feeling suffering, should be hurt for our own pleasure or for our nutrition”. 

Though his arguments are interesting his conclusion did not convince me. I responded to his post with my comment which I summarize below:  

The following are my understanding on why Vegetarian foods is preferred over Non-vegetarian. I would be happy if someone would either prove or disprove my hypothesis.

DISCLAIMER : I cannot quote anything/ anyone and I re-iterate this is my OWN hypothesis for having preferences on Vegetarian foods over Non-vegetarian foods

The whole thing about the pain / morality is absurd. Whether you eat plants or other animals its a life that is killed. If one cannot kill an animal so is a plant. My argument of preference to Vegetarian over non-vegetarian is based on the source of energy and its storage.

Vegetarian:

The definition is simple: Vegetarian is anything that originates from plants. Following are some of the characteristics of plant (please recollect what you learnt in Biology in school) 

• Plants receives and stores energy directly from five primary sources of energy viz., light, heat, air, water and soil. Plant does; neither animals nor eggs nor fish.
• It has a peculiar quality to keep life in muted mode  for example a seed has life in it even though they are not active i.e. it’s not dead yet. Plants, vegetables and leaves have live cells.
• The chloroplast cells in plant continuously get energy from light and oxygen and stores it even though they are uprooted and generally don’t die for sometime.

Non-Vegetarian:

Once again the definition is simple: anything that does not qualify as Vegetarian is Non-Vegetarian. Following are some of the characteristics of Non-Vegetarian.

• They acquire energy from secondary source or third source i.e. plants (secondary source) / animals (third source)
• The Animal is killed before it is cooked/ except egg where it has life until it is cooked. The cells die because there is no chloroplast in animal cell.

Note before: Plant Cell is different from animal cell

Vegetarian is  preferred because:

• The energy is sourced from from primary source
• And the plant cells have traces of active or muted life until cooked

The whole thing about pain does not fit into the logic as the plants can feel pain in spite of not having a nervous system. (For those who don’t recollect, search for works of Sir J C Bose and Sir C V Raman)

Therefore in my own way, the order of preference should be:

• Plants- Fruits, Veg, Greens leaves (less than a day old), other plant parts, Flowers, Honey, Dairy products
• Cereals, Seeds, Pulses, nuts
• Dried plant origin foods
• Treated plant origin foods
• Egg
• Products of Herbivores 
• Products of Omnivores 
• Products of Carnivores

Comments are most welcome :)

Investing in Share Markets

My colleague and I were discussing some investment options. He is just venturing into stock market and was asking some advice on ‘which’ stocks to invest. Incidentally, my brother and I were discussing on the technical analysis, and how they predict the support levels and resistance levels etc. In this blog, I am just mixing up both the conversation so that it might be helpful for the readers.

At the outset, I am not an expert in investment / share markets. However, I do frequently invest in the equity. And the first advice is not to get advice on ‘which’ one to invest, but to do a research and make an informed decision.

I started trading a decade ago and realized that whatever theory I learnt about fundamental and technical analysis could not be truly depended upon as the markets are not participated only by investment experts but by many who are normally carried away by sentiments.

So the support levels and resistance levels based on the F/T analysis do not hold good as many of the assumptions are either not correct or there some aspects which would never be thought about would have a serious impact. Also, there are some specific software and Big Data analytic tools to perform those Predictive Analytic. It’s pretty hard to do it manually as well.

Funny part is my research paper for my master degree was about predicting the reactive support and resistance levels using swing lows / highs, candlepatterns, volume analysis, and thereby analysing the volatility. At the hindsight, I can only smile at my findings in the research paper.

While I started trading initially I bet on the market sentiments. But it never took me long to realize that to get the intuitive skill to predict the sentiments it would rather need lot of trial and error with real money over a long period of time—neither of which I have. My speculation based on other people predictions resulted in losing most of my portfolio and it took more than a year of stress full trading to make up the loss.  I quit trading.

Lesson learnt on the predictions is: it’s like Astrology. While astrology can be true, astrologer can be a fake or subject to their limitation.  For any stock predictions there are always 3 types of predictions positive, negative and neutral. For example take gold’s prediction few months back (around Sep 2012) there were predictions that a gram of gold would cost Rs.5000 by this year-end while some predicted it to go as low as Rs.2000 and some said it would stay put in the same Rs.3000 levels. The fact is it is now tanking. So, one can't really believe the predictors except for some movers and shakers in the market  such as George Soros. 

After a brief sabbatical, I returned to share market but this time as investor and not as a trader. I do the fundamental and technical analysis to a limited extent of common sense. For any company you want to invest, the summarized results of these technical analyses are given by ICICI Direct in their Do your research page.  It’s simple and easy to comprehend.

I have read many tips/ rules/ principles but never really practised during my previous stint. But every time I lost, I ended learning the real meaning of some those principles which I currently follow. At least now, if I make loss or profit, I can be either proud of my own decision or learn a costly lesson.

1. I Target a company and start with small and over a period of time build a portfolio.
2. Age old adage- do not put all your eggs in one basket- so I do not invest all my money in single stock
3. In the same way I do not keep more than 6 Industry. I normally keep only in 3 Industry occasionally grow to 6 -Bank, IT, Oil & Energy, Telecom, Retail and Metals. I start with one industry and slowly grow into others. These are some industries which I can comprehend the business.
4. In each Industry I invest only in the top 1 or 2 companies. This will help me to keep track of market movements closely
5. I spread my investments so that I don't invest more than 20% in any one industry
6. I do not get sentimentally attached to the stock. I fix an expected return and stop loss trigger and exit when it hits either of it. I normally keep 20% and 8% stop loss. If I intend to hold for long, then these percentages may vary.
7. Out of my total investments, I keep the equities max of 60%. So remaining 40% I may invest in other investments like FDs, Savings, land.
8. I watch out the news for these companies regularly and watch out for the alternative better investments.
9. I don't panic or excited on the seasonal fluctuations. If I trust the company, I may keep some liquid cash ready to use the opportunity to buy more or sell.

These are some things I follow religiously--I neither loose much nor earn much-- I end up net of 10-15% return-- slightly higher than the FD rates.

Sharing this hoping it would benefit someone. Please share your experience as well as an opportunity for me and the readers to learn. Thanks.

Knowledge, Compassion and Wisdom

What a start today, suddenly few dots got connected; I start to appreciate the link between knowledge, compassion and wisdom:

Dot 1.   My friend posted a quote from Calvin Coolidge 30th president of US (1872 - 1933), in his face book status "I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say ".

Immediately I said to myself: No, to me, this is not true for all circumstances.  Silence has many meaning according to different circumstances - it may mean I concur to a situation, I subscribe, or I am coward to raise voice, or I am indifferent to the situation, or I am being helpless. Many a times when I ought to say something and have not said, I have been hurt because my silence has either been detrimental to me or to others whom I care.

Dot 2.   I was watching a review commentary by Prashanth about a debate in Neeya-Naana, a Tamil debate show in Vijay TV, about a topic of youth not having adequate knowledge. In which he was criticizing the way the show was conducted and asked one pertinent question. What is difference in outcome between a person who has NO knowledge about an issue and a person who has knowledge about the issue but DO NOTHING about it?

The outcome from both is same: former being ignorant or no wisdom so inaction and the latter being indifferent attitude or no compassion hence inaction. Unless one were to be indifferent, for which one ought to say but keeps silence, it will hurt.

Dot 3.   His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, "According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It's not passive -- it's not empathy alone -- but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and loving-kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving-kindness)."

Dot 4.   Thiruvalluvar in verse 430 says “those who possess wisdom possess everything and whatever others possess, without wisdom they have nothing”; and in verse 571, he further adds that "it is compassion, the most gracious of virtues, which moves the world"; and in verse 39 he sums up that "virtue alone is happiness; all else—is else, and without praise."

Dot 5.   Jeff Weiner, CEO at LinkedIn, in one of his posts wrote that his friend / guide Fred Kofman told him that “Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness; compassion without wisdom is folly” which made him to change the vision of his company. I commented to his post where I congratulated and thanked Jeff for his great post but I also asked a question, but did not get answer. So, I was searching on wisdom and compassion. That’s when I bumped into Dot 3 and Dot 4 but could not appreciate more by then.

However today it dawned to me that the Dot 1 and 2 coupled with Dot 3 and 4, Dot 5 makes more sense:

Being compassionate is to alleviate one from suffering.  There are two knowledge areas: Knowledge of the suffering and knowledge of ‘means’ that alleviates from suffering. But having these both the knowledge is useless unless one has the compassion which bridges these two knowledge areas. Someone who is compassion but has no knowledge can do nothing. Someone who has knowledge but no compassion can do nothing. Someone who has both compassion and knowledge can do something and such knowledge is wisdom.