Women have a bigger responsibility at work - They need to break a lot of stereotypes!

Women of today are making an entry into every possible field. Be it corporate, be it entrepreneurship, be it arts, be it the national forces and you name it, they are right there, representing not just themselves but the entire women sorority and the womanhood itself. Having said that, I cannot deny the fact that this is all the beginning. Although women are performing their best in their own fields, there is a long way to go before  we say that 'women are performing the best'.

Women perform their heart and soul, but not in a 'no matter what' way. There are a lot of reservations women have which are easy to be met by the organizations but are often not met, majorly because women, who are otherwise expressive, do not express what they 'expect'. They have patience. They wait. Not too far though. They perform their heart and soul until the 'reservations' start troubling them real badly. Apart from expressing what they expect and be a go-getter, there is something that women need to understand and accept. 

Women have a bigger responsibility at work. 

They need to break a lot of stereotypes. 

Woman is woman's worst enemy

More than behavioral, I think this is something to do with cultural thought process. Women have been seen in multiple roles at home for centuries. Certain women, while performing certain roles do not gel well; rather they stick to their beliefs and hence fail to accept the other perspective. Since they generally have this conflict with other women at home or in the neighborhood, because they have to deal with other women for household tasks, they have been often seen as each other's enemy. Men deal with each other too. Men have conflicts with other men too. Men have enmity with other men too. But never its explicitly said that man is a man's worst enemy! Again this is largely cultural. 

At work as well, women are perceived to be the enemy to other women. Women rivalry is often misunderstood as enmity. Rivalry is good. Healthy one of course. Women must understand that having rivalry with other women is not the reason why women are considered worst enemies to each other. Rather, the way rivalry is projected and perceived is the real reason. While a little can be done about perception, a lot can be done to not let the rivalry get projected as enmity. Whatever is said and done in the moment of heat, being in regular communication with each other, in private and in public, will help in a big way. Appreciating the strengths of each other is yet another way. When the way its projected changes, the way its perceived is bound to change.

Women do gossip a lot 

"If you want to spread something, say it to a woman". This is a very common perception and practice considering the way women do gossiping. There is no topic which can be exempted from women's gossip. Women gossip with women as well as men. Men gossip the same way as well but they know how not to get noticed about it. Women lag in this. They get noticed instantly when they gossip. Women need to work upon their curiosity levels. Curiosity is the basic thing behind being addicted to gossiping. We cannot entirely blame women about this. They love maintaining their relationships. In that process, they are curious to know about others. While knowing about others and maintaining relationships are important aspects, they must be approached in a bit different way. Women must not spread the news which they are not sure of. They must put forward their sincere opinion when they hear about anyone, instead of succumbing to the impression the gossips create about a person. They must consciously think before talking about anybody in front of another person. If there is any suspicion of the authenticity of the gossip, better it must be cut off there and then. Women need to come out of the gossip addiction and behave as par as their male counterparts. 

Women need to be a role-model for other women

Role model's role in anyone's life is important. It, at times, changes a person completely and can turn around the things in a great way. Role model can be anybody or any trait of any particular person. Its usual understanding that women need to be the role models for the fellow women. This is not true. Every person's life is different. Every women's life is different. There is no point a woman need to behave in such a way that the rest of the women can follow! Every situation needs to be handled the way it needs to be handled; not always necessarily in the way that someone can look up to.

Women put pressure upon themselves with an understanding that they need to behave in such a way that inspires other women. With that, they fail to do the simple things that can set the situations. They attempt some tough paths and may fail. Women need not be the role models for other women. Not necessarily. They just need to be themselves and handle the matters. Rest is taken care by the way life happens, to the fellow women as well as men. 

Women are emotional
Often, emotion is mistook for crying. Tears may be perceived as weakness. But, that's just a myth. There are strong people who cry for small things but may succeed greatly in dealing with huge matters. Women are no exception. They may cry, they may become sentimental, they may shout, but ultimately they are generally stronger from within. They expressed emotions make them even stronger. Controlling emotions is not any option and there is no point in doing so. Rather, women must work with emotional intelligence at every given opportunity. That needs a little bit of tweaking and balance. Both can be achieved if a woman wants to.

Women need to keep the cool from within and must believe that its absolutely fine to shout once in a while at the deserved. They must observe and accept the fact that men shout and they feel absolutely fine about it. No regrets as such. Women, when they shout, feel the regret after shouting at someone or scolding someone. This is an unnecessary regret which disturbs women in a lot of ways. Relationships become stronger when genuine feelings are expressed. Whatever people think or talk about do not decide who is good or who is bad. At the end of the day, good and bad are naturally subjective. So, becoming emotional is perfectly fine as long as women do not let the regret attack them. 

Women's career is uncertain 

Career itself is uncertain. Be it for men or for women. In case of women, uncertainty plays a higher role. Career decisions are not easy for women considering the child birth and child rearing responsibilities mainly. There comes a stage in every woman's career when she must decide between career and her personal responsibilities. While career can wait, personal life cannot. Things need to happen at a certain age in a certain way. Women must mentally prepare themselves by accepting this fact in complete grace. They must be happy that only they can do certain things that give meaning and a reason to a lot of lives involved.

While executing some responsibilities, women involve themselves so much that they fail to come out of that responsibility and take up the next one. A lot of women take their career's easy post child birth. Which is not an ideal thing to do. Women, once the responsibilities are fulfilled to an extent, must join back the workforce. They must believe that economic and emotional independence is a must in life which can be assured by joining back the workforce. It may take some time to settle back in the workforce, but one must try her best to be back as soon as possible. This is not to prove anything to anyone but to realize themselves that they can get back to work, that they can get back to contributing to the organization as par as any other colleague does.

There are many other stereotypes that women need to break. Which leads to having bigger responsibility at hands for women. Its time for an effortless attempt. This will improve the way women are perceived and will also help the generations to come. Women's contribution is important not just for organizations but for society's development as well. Every woman who breaks the stereotypes and creates a new story must believe that she is scripting the growth path for the women from next generation. Every woman must believe that the day is not far away when women's contribution is equally recognized as that of men. Women must enjoy this bigger responsibility and must break as many stereotypes as they can! For a better future. For a better place for our children. 

Small gestures make big impact

Small gestures to make big impact, people need not be in love or friendship. People just need to be willing to accept each other and stay with each other to serve for a common cause. This is highly applicable in professional life, considering the people work in and as a team.

A smile...

Smile is always beautiful. Beauty not in terms of the way the smile appears on anyone's face, rather beauty here is in terms of the depth of the smile one carries. Its simple to understand if the smile is from the face or if its from within. When one smiles from within, it gets connected with the other person instantaneously. Also, ignoring such smile is next to impossible. One gets helpless to respond to such smile and the response cannot be anything other than a smile again. Smiles bring people together.  Smiles keep people together. Carry a smile from within and experience the magic of relationships, be it with a loved one or with a stranger. When in team, it feels blissful to be surrounded by smiles. Have a great smile at each other at work. It truly helps.

A morning wish...

When a day starts with a wish by our neighbors it feels good. A wish needs to be face to face and not through either digital medium or social media. In these times of social media, wishing every day has been reduced to send a 'good morning' message to all contacts! People do not even try to choose individuals to send the wishes! When the morning wish is delivered personally, need not be by going to the person and saying it specifically, but by wishing the people come in your way in the morning, we gain a lot of positive strength to carry out the day's activities in all positivism.

A fresh start...

A lot of things happen in a day. Towards the end of the day quite a lot of matters gets settle as well as arise. The matters that close at the end of the day go smooth with everyone generally. The matters that arise towards the end of the day keeps lingering generally in mind. Sometimes they disturb the night's sleep too! Best way to deal with such matters is by facing them with a positive hope as soon as they arise. Its better not to carry them home and its the best if one can give a fresh start to the next day rather than starting it with a baggage from the previous day! Obviously we cannot ignore the matters but we can definitely try and do a fresh start so that we give ourselves enough room to approach the solution either alone or with the team.

"Small gestures make big impact. 

Let the impact impact you in a positive way everyday"

When everything seems political...!

"When everything seems political, respect the politics happening and do what needs to be done"

Politics are hard to be understood. At times, we don't even realize that the situation is getting political. What goes around comes around. So is the case with politics. If they start doing rounds, they impact us in some or the other way! Its matter of realizing the impact and handling it as necessary. While once in a while happening of this is quite normal, sometimes we find ourselves in the whirlpool of politics. Even though what's going around is not understood, we get a sense of being badly stuck amidst a political game. That's when everything goes around seems political. We fail to understand what's political and what's not. That's when we need to be extremely careful and be as much as peaceful to come up with a solution. 

When everything seems political, firstly its better to respect what's going around. There is no point showing back or shutting our senses. Rather, we must stand strong and keep all our senses in high spirit. Once we become calm and accept the political situation, we start understating the intentions of people playing the politics. There can be many reasons why people turn situations into political. We just need to understand the reasons behind. We must read between the lines, more carefully and consciously. Even though we do not understand all of the reasons, we will definitely get a sense of them as we pass through the thinking process that's conscious. All might not be understood alone. We need to take help from our mates, well-wishers and most importantly from the people whom we believe. Discussions help as long as they don't intervene into the personal aspects of the people involved in the situation. Discussing with people, with dependable of course,  widens our perspective and hence might give a clue of the possible solution. 

Politics are not bad. At least, not always. They are rather necessary at times. Things are not straight all the time. Politics make things a bit grey and that helps to come out of difficulties a lot of times. Whoever had experienced and understood this scenario, would agree. Well, there have been two types of politics envisaged. One, dirty politics and two, healthy politics. Dirty politics are different where a given person or group of people are targeted. Healthy politics target the issue. Healthy politics let the issue be in the center of the whole game. Hence, the people involved can positively contribute to let the issue get resolved. Its important to target the issues, no matter what. And in doing so, if healthy politics help, its better to choose them. That's when it becomes simpler to do what needs to be done.

Staying away from politics is the choice of few people most of the times. That's their choice, a noble one as far as they concerned. But if that does not help resolving the main issue, its better to rethink about the choice to be made. Because, issue never hides. It could be kept under carpet for a while but it elevates itself at some or the other point of time. Its wise to resolve the issues rather than inhibiting them for long time from surfacing out. If politics can help resolve the issues, better be with them. 

How does it matter if anyone likes us or not!

Likability is an important parameter when it comes to societal living. Other than that, likability parameter is virtual and not to be too concerned about. By human nature, we tend to like to be liked. Since childhood its usually told to behave to be liked by ALL. While all cannot like all, all cannot be liked by all too. We need to do what needs to be done. Understanding what needs to be done is the tricky game to play, rather than doing something that's liked by all. 

I have read recently in a book that we must all learn to be unpopular. We generally think and do otherwise. We all like to be popular and we tend to do things to be popular. That's when the likability parameter plays its part in our lives heavily, which rejects from inside to be unpopular with a fear that what we do could go wrong! Right and wrong are subjective but are often people are judged based on them. That judgement is the culprit which triggers many of us not to go beyond our perceived likability zone. As a result we end up doing things that are generally perceived to be liked by many people, at least by the people around us. When we learn to be unpopular, we won't be carried away by the 'judgement' of other people rather we go by the judgement of ourselves and do things in the way they need to be executed. Likability zone of us will have grey boundaries in this case and they hardly influence. 

I'm no exception when it comes to get influenced by the likability parameter. Will have to start working towards graying out the boundaries of my likability zone and start learning to be unpopular, once in a while at least! After all, how does it matter to be liked by anyone when what we do is not what we need to do! 

Patience and persistence... Take Home #670

Everyone gets to play their card on their day. Its matter of patience and persistence one must rely on to be alert and utilize the opportunity when it hits the door. 

Random clicks of the nature - PramsPhotography #149

#2017 @Swarna, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India

#2017 @Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra, India

#2017 @Dutta Mandir, on the way to Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

#2016 @Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra, India

The first picture is clicked in the rice crop fields near Swarna area in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Its always feels good to see the farming when its being done. Green fields waves at us with fresh air! 

The second picture above was clicked at the coconut tree next to home in Pimpri-Chinchwad. On a rainy day, I thought of clicking the same and did too. 

Yellow flowers are from the garden behind the Dutta Mandir. This temple was located in Maharashtra. It can be reached while travelling from Pune to Aurangabad. Its a neatly maintained mandir and a peaceful place too! 

The last picture was clicked on a rainy day when we went on a ride in car. The windshield is half cleaned by the wipers and it gave me a reason to click instantly. Going on a drive on a rainy day just because its raining is an amazing thing to do. It must be experienced at least once.

The Tajmahal Palace hotel - PramsPhotography #148

#2015 @Tajmahal palace hotel, Mumbai, India

I've recently read the book written about J.N.Tata, whose dream was to build this hotel. Out of all the envisions he had made, this was one of the biggest things to get completed when he was alive. This picture was taken when we had been on a trip to "Elephanta caves" and this was clicked from the top of the boat while nearing the sea bank from the caves. This is so beautifully made hotel. I'm sure its every Indian's wish to visit the hotel at least once in their life time. Its my wish too and now after reading the book, the wish has become further stronger. Hoping to be there soon! 

Reader's View: To The Principal

Author: Shankar Musafir

This is one of the simplest and the best books I've read so far related to the education domain. The book is more like an ideation box, which comes handy to all teachers time to time. Even though the title of the book directs to the principal, for understandable reasons, every teacher at their level can definitely implement some of the ideas given in this book. Hence collectively along with the principal the school can achieve a lot more and can educate the students in an overall manner apart from throwing just subject to their ears. Subjects are undoubtedly important but the all-round development of students will only help the students in playing various roles in their life in the times to come. 

The book clearly explains various ideas that can be implemented as part of the curriculum as well as beyond it. I'm not repeating any of those here as reading the book will be the best thing to do to know those and hence start planning how to execute them. This book is more like a handbook for teachers to build the personalities and characters of their students. What's imbibed at early ages survives  the longest times in people. Implementing some creative methods in schools will definitely help the generations to come. Letting the students generate ideas for themselves as well as for the school will also help in a big way.  They can come up with the most useful ones as their perspective can be one of the best perspectives to consider and nurture. Old students writing back to their school teachers or principal about the creative methods that are implemented in the educational institutes they later studied in will also help a lot. That will help in widening the perspectives of the staff and hence it will help them in coming up with improved methods to suit the contemporary times, rather than sticking to the old books! 

I would say this book is a good reference for all teachers. Best is to keep it handy and keep referring time to time. It also helps to note down the new ideas as soon as they come to mind, so that one does not forget the ideas. Sharing of the ideas among schools and teachers fraternity will also help wider student community. 

Side effects of 'working more than required'!

Everything has its own positives and negatives. So is the case with working; 'working more than required'!

'Working more than required' itself is a confusing phrase. That can be clearly understood when 'what's required' is understood, which is kept grey occasionally, to keep the enthusiasm of the work-force take charge and define the work for themselves. As long as the required work is achieved, there is no point defining 'what's required' and this the understanding many managers have. It cannot be judged right or wrong as its quite a lot subjective. However, employees will clearly know when they are stepping out of their zone and when not, provided they keep a conscious watch of their contribution towards the bigger goal that's assigned to the team in entirety. When the goal is understood, everyone would typically know what needs to be their part in achieving the goal. Accordingly one sets their own limit. Occasionally the limit needs to be crossed. When the limit is crossed often, that's when one starts working more than required. Reasons to choose to do so could be many but ultimately there are a few side affects associated with it. 

First and foremost - setting the benchmark

Setting benchmark is an important responsibility one must take up and complete in all positive sense. Setting benchmark does not necessarily mean setting it at high level all the time. Rather, setting it at the required level is the most admirable of all. When we set benchmark, we set it not just for others but also for ourselves. Higher benchmark would mean higher expectations not just for others but for ourselves too. Meeting those expectations may not be possible all the time by everyone including ourselves. That's when this becomes a side effect. Rest of the times, it works really well for the team as well as for the organization. 

Challenging to divide the responsibility in team

Working in a team is a lot challenging as well as interesting. Challenging because diving responsibility is always tricky as not all the members are of same genre. Interesting because, it keeps us on our tows all most all of the times. When a person starts working more than required in a team, it somewhere or the other aids as well as disturbs the flow of matters. Some remedies can be worked though. One must make sure that the more work that's being done must be beyond any team member's responsibility so that it would not cross the objectives as well as it aids the team with additional information and standard.

While everything can be handled ideally, practically avoiding certain happenings is better than working around the remedies later on. Working more than required is not a problem as long as its done in a manner that would not impact the objective of the work as well as the people involved. Doing things in right spirit always helps. Its just the matter of taking things in right spirit and work out in an admirable way!

Be on the job... Take Home #669

The longing to know about others' lives does not let you live in peace. Its your own life that needs to be understood which has deep depth in itself. Knowing it enough is a life-time job! Better be on the job.

Step out of comfort zone ... Take Home #668

Experience must make us uncomfortable to be in a comfort-zone. Stepping out of comfort zone is the first step toward the next credible achievement, be it in personal or professional life.

Reader's view: Relationships and Emotion

Author: Sadhguru

'Bond or Bondage' is the subtitle of the book. Relationship is a bond as well as a bondage, depending upon the situations we co-create with our relative or Friends. We have been binded in the saga of relationships. Considering the fact that human is a social animal, relationships make every sense to exist. They let the human race exist. How we do maintain the relationships  drives the way human race exist. 

In this book, Sadhguru explains the importance of relationships as well as the way they need to be maintained. Human is mortal. Every life is mortal and every life form is mortal too, may be! Human generations have been continuing for a good number of years now but there is no guarantee for the immortality of human race. From the day we born and until the day we die, how we perceive and maintain our relationships define the way one lives or leads his life. Sensibility must be brought into the way we maintain our relationships and at the same time, the relationships must be seen in the best integral way possible. Maintaining personal integrity will automatically let the relationships get maintained well. One must learn about the integrity that must be brought in every aspect of life which will take care of it being there in the matter of treating the relationships as well. More about relationships and some words of wisdom can be read from the book. 

Author: Sadhguru

'The juice of life' as the subtitle says. Indeed it is. Often, emotion is greatly confused with either being truly sensible towards the given aspect or tears that are generated out of someone's cry. One getting emotional usually means either of this! Part of the story is this, but there are numerous emotions in humans. Controlling emotions is yet another greatly misused phrase of the contemporary world. Emotions are generated and they need not be 'controlled' rather they must be nurtured in such a way that they help in every aspect of living this life and loving people. 

In this book, Sadhguru talks about the nature and value of various emotions humans go through during their journey of life. Understanding a given emotion itself is the best way to nurture that emotions. This not just helps oneself but also aids in letting the other people get understood, which is a great boon in itself when comes to commencing this life in the most useful way possible. When we understand any given emotion, I believe we can genuinely give our best towards that emotion, which will lead to a peaceful life not just for ourselves but also for everyone around us. Respecting every emotion is inevitable once we understand the very purpose of the existence of any given emotion. Once we start respecting a given emotion, we tend to respect people going through it, be it ourselves or someone else. Mutual respect is the key to the success of human race. Read more about the emotions and understand how to respect each emotion from the book. 

Trust ... Take Home #667

The greatest thing to earn in life is 'trust'. At the same time, the best thing to invest on so that it can be retained is 'trust' too! 

Reader's view: How Women Rise

Author: Sally Helgesen, Marshall Goldsmith

Women and work is always an interesting combination. By handling it in a proper manner, a few women have made it an inspiring combination too. 

'How women rise' explains the 12 habits that hold back women in the middle management level and not let them climb to senior management levels. Each habit explained in this book can be related to, especially if you are with a decade of experience and in the middle management level in your current role. In my case, it's at very right time that I have read this book. 

One must read about the habits and the practical examples from the book directly. As each person's case is different from that of the other, its better to read the book and take out the related points in an orderly manner from which the actions can be derived. I'm sure the actions items for each person is different from that of the other. Well, this book is not just for women, I believe, as this book can be a good reference for the male managers who have women in their team. After reading the book, male managers can understand their women colleagues in a better way and can support them to grow in the careers. 

I've obviously noted some action items for myself which I must be following in the near future. I'd like to keep them to myself as of now and not express here. I'm sure, if I follow even few of them, there will be certain useful turns in my career. 

I recommend this book strongly. One must read the book by deriving the action items in each section. And yes, reading it once is not going to help but revise the highlighted points once in a while so that the actions can be derived in a more authentic way! 

What's saved is more important than what's earned

Money:

One may earn millions of dollars and another may earn trillions of dollars. One may earn lakhs and another may earn crores or even more rupees. What can come can go. What can be earned can be spent. Typically, expenditure is directly proportional to the earning. Given that, is it important to save more or to earn more? Both. But that's easier said than done. It hardly matters what you earn. What you spend and how much you save at the end of the day matters much more than what you earn! We often compare ourselves with someone who earns more than us. Be it at work place, be it in the business, we tend to compare ourselves with someone who earns more than us. Does it carry any value? Absolutely not. If at all we have to compare, we must compare with what's saved by other than what's earned. Because, that's in some way the right measure to compare, if at all comparison is that necessary! What's saved is indeed more important than what's earned.

Fame:

Some become famous over night. Some earn it over a period of time, years put together. Some get the fame faster than their contemporaries, and some may have to wait longer than ever to be known to the world. Irrespective of what they do, some are chosen by fame so early in their lives. Is getting to fame the ultimate thing? No. Getting to fame is one phase of it and the important is to save the fame and not getting carried away with it. Later phase is relatively more difficult than the first phase. One must earn fame, which is right reward in a sense for all the efforts that may have been put in. Once the fame is earned, it must be saved too. It must be saved in such a way that by doing that one must inspire the generations to come. How much fame we earn is one measure but how much we save during our life time is the measure that let us stand tall in success. Again, rather than comparing with someone who has earned fame, one must compare, if at all comparison is necessary, with someone who has saved the fame that's hard earned. What's saved is indeed more important than what's earned. 

I guess this kind of analogy could typically go on for many other aspects of life. Money and fame have been exemplified here. Its rather simple to adapt the same analogy to the rest of the aspects, as felt important by an individual. Indeed, what's saved is more important than what's earned. 

The temple view - PramsPhotography #147

#2009 @Narayanpur Balaji Mandir, Pune, India

Nine years back we had been to the Balaji mandir, the replica of the Tirupati balaji temple, located in Narayanpur near Pune. The temple is located amidst the fields and some awesome landscapes with mountains. While returning from the temple, I found a small temple in a near by field and the same was clicked by me. The one shown above is the view I just stated. The main attraction here for me is the green crop on the back side of the temple. A village near by can also be seen in the picture with the mountains backdrop. All these put together made it a great view to watch and capture!

#2016 @Narayanpur Balaji Mandir, Pune, India

The above picture is from the entrance of the Balaji Mandir. The trees are planted in a row and they all have grown up to give a beautiful view on the way to the temple and while coming out. 

The Sunrise, from the last rock - PramsPhotography #146

#2014 @Kanyakumari, India

Sunrise is always fantastic. As we witness it certain times from certain places, it lasts long in our memory. One such is the sunrise watching from the Kanyakumari beach. First phase of it is to watch the when the sun is just rising, early in the morning. The next phase of it is to walk across a stone bridge that's laid into the ocean for about half a kilometer, sit on the last rock of it and to watch the morning sun. This photo was clicked from the stone bridge and from the last rock of it, almost! Will always remember the time spent there. 

Stress is subjective!

Be it a corporate job that's at hand, being a housewife, having retired from a government job, attending school or college, or doing farming in a village, irrespective of the nature and outcome of the work that we do, we are all subjected to 'stress' in the current times. Being stressful has become as normal as having bath or taking breath! In a way, not coming under stress or being less stressful in any situation is being seen as one of the greatest traits a person can have! Courtesy M.S.Dhoni, the captain cool as he is called!

Is stress that normal?

No. Absolutely not. It's as simple as that to answer. But beating the stress in reality is an art everyone must practice, yet often fail to succeed fully.  

I believe stress is subjective. Situations do not cause stress; its our inner sense which causes it. This is clear as the same situation can trigger different reactions in different people.  How a reactions can occur due to stress, triggered by a situation, is a lot subjective and person dependent. We can neither blame the situations nor we can blame anyone for the actions stress trigger in us. Its totally personal and largely varies from person to person.

How do we beat the stress?

The best way to beat the stress is by not allowing to win over us in the first place. Rather than fighting it out after becoming stressful, its better to avoid it as much as we can. Avoiding stress is not simple but its not impossible too. We just need to take care of the way we look at happenings. Its basically about the way we derive the conclusions about various situations, which cause our actions. Situations at times do create scenario for us to feel the stress, yet situations cannot beat our actions/reactions in causing the stress. More than situations, its often our own reactions cause a lot of stress. When we learn to put things in perspective, simple ones of course, its easier for us to beat the stress. We must look at the situations one at a time and analyse rather than looking at the situations by putting a few of them together. This reduces confusion and also aids us in analyzing the situations in a better way.

Stress in indeed subjective. It varies from person to person and situation to situation. Its we who can control the whole thing under any circumstance. Better to be aware of this and learn to handle stress in a winnable way! 

Actions and intentions ... Take Home #666

Actions can be explained, but not intentions. And ironically, intentions are judged based on actions. Its important to make sure our actions reflect our intentions, especially when we do not want and cannot afford to be misunderstood.

 

Reader's view: My Story by Kamala Das

Author: Kamala Das

The first thing I thought while and after reading this book is that one must read the books like these in the original language in which they are written. In this case, its first written in Malayalam, which is the author's mother tongue. Ideally I should have read this in Malayalam or at least in my mother tongue, Telugu. Certain things are best explained and understood in mother tongue. I neither could learn Malayalam not could I buy this book in Telugu. So I carried on with the English version of it. I must confess that I skipped few paragraphs as the narration felt prolonged at multiple occasions. However, I believe I have successfully captured the soul of the story, with whatever the content I've read from the book. 

Its about a woman, a writer,  a wife and a mother. Its about her perceptions about the incidents happened around and with her. In the beginning, it feels as if its a simple story but one can understand the depth of the story while reading the middle pages of the book. As the story reaches the last chapters, the rigor with which the author had written her story can be felt to the core. More than enjoyment, one can feel the intention of the author clearly provided an effort is made towards that. Otherwise, it will be really boring to complete this book. Women, I guess, can connect to this story and the narration better than men do. 

If you have read a lot of fiction already, this book must help you in getting you back to the hard facts of reality very quickly. Try this book not when you want to kill time but when you wish to make time with a non-fictional story.  

Reader's view: How I braved Anu aunty and co-founded a million dollar company

Author: Varun Agarwal

True stories are generally very interesting as we easily get connected to a few of the incidents narrated in the story. The character of 'Anu aunty' narrated in the story is such a practical one considering the contemporary neighborhoods. To get to the root of the character one must read the book. In a snippet, that character is about typical aunties, whose type at least once we come across in our lives, who take quite a lot of things about the neighbors to their heart and keep suggesting, rather pressing, their ways of living on the neighbors. When it comes to the studies and jobs of their friends' children, they take specific interest in suggesting what needs to be done and they do this irrespective of having any idea about the thoughts of their friends' children about their own lives. When such characters are not so considered in decision making in a given family, most of the decisions happen independently and to the needs and deeds of the family members, rather than for the mere 'society' as we call.

Its an inspiring as well as insightful story narrated in this book about how the author, Varun Agarwal, co-founded the million dollar company of his dreams. A lot of challenges faced have been explained in the most simple as well as in funny manner. That mainly makes this book a quick page turner and also a quick-read. It may not be everyone's dream to start a company themselves, but every job holder at some point of their careers think about it, at least once. Its not possible for everyone to follow the thoughts, due to various valid reasons though. Some people break the hurdles and start their own firms which is increasing in India in the recent times. Each one of them have their own stories. Expressing such stories will help a few others to start thinking of breaking the hurdles. Kuddos to the writer for coming up with such a book. Even if you do not have any idea of starting a firm right now, this book is still a great read.