Wanderings of Mind

How do you get your point of view across to people? And in such a way that they understand it and appreciate it? If we can do this effectively, we are sure to lead a successful and peaceful life. Though the question seems simple enough, finding an answer to this is a very tough task. (Read my earlier post on Learning the Hard Way as well). As usual, after quite some years of learning and unlearning, I have realized certain things about communication between people, which I am trying to put into practice. Whatever I have written here doesn't mean I am an expert in following them. It just means that I am trying and trying, to put it into practice! First and foremost, I have realized we can never change anyone; we can only change ourselves. Change has to come from within oneself. We can only aid or kick-start that, by pointing out what is what and trying to influence. Beyond that, its up to every individual. So, we should never set out to talk to anyone with the intention of changing ...

If I used to like certain periods in my school, the "moral science " is one among them - not that I hated the others, but this is of those you really look forward to. That's where you get to listen to many nice stories and learn nice morals as well. And of course, its one of those subjects you can hope to pass easily. At that age, I am not sure if I realized its importance. But since I was fond of stories anyway, the stories along with their morals got into me. When my parents, grand parents and well-wishers emphasized many of those values through many other anecdotes, I had a good moral foundation from childhood. When I see the various problems and scams in the society today, I think again and again, have we totally forgotten moral education? You can learn everything else from schools and colleges, but morals is something that you'll have to learn primarily from parents, with schools and other well wishers lending a helping hand. Many parents are so focused on their ...

If there's a time when you have to avoid talk or even a casual discussion, its when you are either hungry or sleepy. The reason is obvious - when your brain is focusing on helping the body manage until you get some food or sleep, it won't bother to help you tackle a discussion much. So, you normally end up saying something the wrong way and invite trouble. Sounds simple right? Well, simple things are sometimes the most difficult ones to follow. Forget about following, its tougher in the first place to realize it. If I think back, I have been a great patron of trouble, so to say. I have ended up inviting it unnecessarily many times, only to realize it later. Well, I am at least thankful that I realized it! Coming back to talking, this too comes under the list of things that I learned the hard way. They say, the best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once. Similarly, mistakes of this kind are better learnt by doing them once or in my case, few times. It...

There are things about communication that all of us hear all the time. But there are some funny things that can happen between people who are known to be good in communication. My colleague once sent me a mail asking for "contact details" for a review that we had to do, or so the mail read. I had a doubt though as to why would she require the contact details when the person to meet and the location was already agreed. Anyway, I just sent her the details. I got a call within the next minute from her and we both couldn't control our laughter . As it turns out, she wrote "contact details" when she actually wanted to say "contract details" and realized it only upon seeing my reply. We were just wondering how much of a difference even a letter makes to the meaning of a word. This is something that all of us do sometimes. And these bloopers just help lighten the atmosphere and brings cheer to all concerned. Of course, this is not to mean that you can commi...

Another new year! A time to renew our hopes and look forward to a year of peace and prosperity. The year that went by wasn't too good in general - inflation, economic gloom and of course, terrorism. And the outlook for 2009 isn't particularly bright either, if you listen to economists. But as they say, all crises are good opportunities. Think about it - certain problems get solved or move towards a solution only when some crisis strikes us. Looked at this way, things that have happened in 2008 have the potential of changing the course of the world. Let's just hope that the changes are positive and bring cheer to everyone. That said, positive changes are difficult to come when you have an overwhelming majority of ruling class favoring status-quo. India is one of those countries where change is a critical need of the hour. We have not changed much from the 1947 times, politically. If any, our political class has turned from bad to worse. The change that we need critically is ...