Yin-Yang : The ONLY Truth of Life

Yin-Yang is an ancient Chinese symbol, which tells how seemingly opposite forces are interconnected and interdependent. The two opposite colors stand for diametric things in life, such as day-night, light-dark, good-bad, happiness-sadness, success-failure, pleasure-suffering so on and so forth. Basically, one can relate everything in this world to the yin-yang. Everything has a 50-50 chance of occurring. Nothing is permanent in life. So if you are sad today, be sure that sooner than later happiness is bound to come your way. On the contrary, if you are at the top of the world today, at the zenith, don't be devastated when you are nearing nadir. So, one very strong message that the yin-yang sends across is that be nice to people on your way up, as you will meet them on your way down.

One more thing which you might notice is that there is a tiny black circle in the white portion and vice-versa. This means that the

two states are not completely independent of each other. Thus, there is no state which is 100% true in life. In your "happy" state you might have bouts of sadness, and obviously you can't be cent percent "sad", as your near and dear ones are there to cheer you up! Just like there is a bit of darkness in the day (signs of pollution) and a bit of day in the dark, when the starts shine bright.; or a bit of sun in the winter and bouts of rainfall in summer.....

I feel that I can relate almost everything in life to the all-encompassing yin-yang. Try it you can!

Values to a large extent determine one's Strategy

This thought came to my mind while being taught game theory by one of our professor's at SIBM Bangalore - Prof. VN Bhattacharya, a management strategy consultant.

Almost each one of us have some kind of strategy, or claim to have one, or want to have one, either towards specific events or towards life in general. Now values are ingrained in our subconscious. Also, strategy is something which is unique for every individual, and each individual carves out his/her own strategy, which to large extent depends on his morals, ideals and character.

So, what I am hinting at is that the strategy a person chooses, is more often than not, governed by his/her conscience, and which in turn is defined by the values a person upholds.

Well, so does this mean that a person who essentially has a majority of "good" values, will to a large extent follow a strategy which is harmless to others?? I think in most cases he will, unless of course he finds himself being duped each time, and fells the need to play a "Tit-for-Tat" strategy.

Okay, I know this thought does leave scope for a large number of interpretations and arguments. But do think about it. And if you have any thought on this, do leave a comment!

Can you control your Destiny???

Can you control your destiny? Well this is one question that haunts almost every soul on this planet, and I guess everyone must have given it a thought, some time or the other.

And I of course, am no exception.

I happened to be thinking about this for a while now. And I wished to share my thoughts. So what better forum that "Some Respite"!

What I think is, your destiny is made up of many events that comprise your life. Every small event that takes place in your everyday life contributes to making your destiny.

Now, life always provides us with options to choose from. (If you don't want to look at an option it does not mean that life does not give you a choice). If this is the case, then we have a control over every small event that takes place in our life, and consequently, our DESTINY.

Friends, the essence of this write-up is that one should look at the bigger picture called life, and not crib about the tiny little things. Like wise men say - "Don't sweat the small stuff"

So before you start running, make sure that you know where you are running.!

My Summer Internship experience @ ITC, Treasury

Its been long that I posted on my blog. Wasn't coming accross an idea worth writing about. So thought of sharing one of my most recent experiences with you all.....that of my summer internship..

I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to intern at the Corporate Treasury of ITC Ltd. I being a fresher, this was my first experience in the "Corporate World". And.... well, it ALMOST everything I ever thought it would be.

ITC as we know is one of the most professionally managed companies of India. A strict hierarchy was followed wihtin the department which we all needed to respect. But at the same time the employees were given their space to work in. The work culture was extremely professional. But people did seem to have a life beyond work :-)

The tihing which almost everyone in the department looked forward to was the lunch hour. Not because its gives a break from work, but because the employees have the priviledge of ordering their lunch and which is on the company!! And the best part is the same menu is followed for EVERYONE in the office, be it an intern of the department head. And another thing was the snacks hour, where a "3-course meal" (the term framed by us interns) was served, which was also, obviously Free!

One thing which was evitable was that ITC treats all its employees really really well. It is said to be one of those companies which does not pay well. But hey, if you consider the other benefits it offers (in the from of FREE on call car service, lunches, evening snacks, stationery, bingo, sunfeast, etc. etc.) again, alike for everyone, it is far far ahead of many other companies.

Another thing worth mentioning is that ITC as a company is very pro-active insofar as training/learning new things is concerned. The company gave me the chance to goto Mumbai for a couple of days and meet several broking houses, bank treasury and fund managers (which do not have their base in Calcutta). Apart from helping me in my project, these meetings were a great learning opportunity and helped me do a bit of networking. Also, since I was from ITC, these professionals made sure that they were at their best while dealing with me!

One thing I learned during this short stint was, no matter how much one dislikes or is uncomfortble working with a certain someone, he has no options, but to work with everyone, AND with a smile on his face. So we always dont have a choice in life.

Also, one should learn the art of getting things done through people, without stooping low. Relationship management is of supreme importance, coz' u never know when you might need someone.

All in all, it was a very enriching experience and I got a good feel of the big bad corporate world!

Life is like a ........... Train journey?

Was wondering, if life is akin to a train journey...umm, lets see......

We start off from a particular station, called home, equipped to the best of our ability, with the aim of reaching our destination. During this journey,  we meet many people while on the train. Some of them start with us, and accompany us till the end..they are our family... some others we meet on the journey, but who accompany us till the end.. they are our true friends, our friends for life.. and some others are there with us only or a short while, but do leave their impact on us..they are the innumerable people we meet each day, everyday.. 

The train stops at several stations.. life also has many stops after which a new phases begins...these stops help us relax and refresh ourself.. the short stops at the station also indicates that everything in life is momentary... nothing lasts forever, and change is inevitable.. any sorrow/pain/loss is only temporary, and will enentually pass.... 

we may find a very special person on one of the stations, but he/she may not be able to accompany us, however much we wish to, coz' we are on different trains, and have different destinations to goto...so, one has to move on in life.. .... however, you do have control over its pace.. you have  the power to increase or decrease its speed as per your wishes..

It may so happen that other trains may overtake you.. but u must remember that you will also reach your destination, though a bit late :)

Jeevan to gadi hai, isko to chalna hai

Raahon mein station to aate hain jaate hain

Gum tera station hai, isko to jaana hai

Chalta chal khushiyon ka bi station aana hai..............

The Perfect Analogy

Have you ever noticed little drops of water along a sloping ground.? If you have, you must have seen that initially, all of them are almost of the same size. Individually, none of them can reach the drain (their destination). But, eventually, these little drops of water get together, (as we are on a sloping ground) and form a bigger droplet. And then these bigger droplets join their counterparts to grow even bigger,...and eventually they reach where they want to, i.e., the drain. BUT, in the process, as the droplets increase in size, they leave behind some of their part.  

While observing this, it struck me, that their strategy of reaching their destination so comparabe to the methodology adopted by humans. We also meet so many people in life, get together, take each others help, use, abuse and exploit each other (!) ,  in reaching our goals. We cant reach our destination all by ourself. AND, in the process, we leave behind some of those people who helped us reach where we are today; probably because we feel that they are no longer useful to us, or they have grown old, or have stopped performing, or have become outdated. And eventually we feel that its better to leave them,and move ahead.................... as we dont want our growth to be stunted because of them. 

  

But, we should never forget what their contribution was, in getting us here today. 

Each and every person you meet, leaves an impact in your life, and has a role in getting you where you are. Even if one of them were missing, you wouldnt have been where you are today. Do acknowledge the presence of people if your life. Don't take anyone for granted. The loss of losing them, maybe more than what you expect.