NARA'S NOTEPAD
VOLUME 13
JUNE 2017
NUMBER 6
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
MEMO FROM NARA
Presidents...every
country in the world has one of them. They are either elected or appointed
according to the country’s constitution. It is a prestigious post. Mostly
politicians are preferred to head the country as President because they only
know the trade of the trick. They have enormous power but those are subjected
to some kind of checks. Any one - male or female can become President of a
country depending on his/her social contributions and popularity among the
people. In a democracy, the post of President is only for a limited period
whereas in a non-democratic country it is for life-long. The President, a
supreme VVIP is considered to be the ceremonial person who gives away hundreds
of awards to the reputed citizens every year.
Presidents are consulted
for every rule/law/order the parliament passes. If the President approves it,
then it becomes the law of the land. Presidents are allowed to bring in
ordinances at any time if need arises, but they are only for a short period of
time, then they have to be approved by the elected members of the Parliament.
Thus the President’s power is subjected to a sort of control.
In every democracy,
there is a President who is supreme for the country and under his control there
are Governors for the States. Governors are generally appointed by the
President in consultation with the party in power in the concerned State.
Usually no young person is appointed in this post. Some Governors are docile
and some are troublesome to the ruling state governments. These Governors are
supposed to send reports to the President about the state governments
periodically. Invariably Governors do not interfere with the activities of the
state governments. The President and his Governors live lavishly in huge
Palaces in the capital cities with big offices, advisors and thousands of
subordinates. Also they will have security persons to take care of them. These
forces are special in many ways. Wherever the President or Governors go the
security forces accompany them. These forces will have special colourful
costumes. One can see them in action at the Republic Day celebrations every
year.
In fact, every
organization has leaders called President or they are called in some other
names. Generally they will have good experience in their specialized field.
However, they do not have the same status as the President or Governor of a
country. They are paid huge salary and provided all the facility a human being
required. Honorary Presidents are also found in certain organizations. I was in
fact the President of a National Scientific Society called Indian Society of
Plant Physiology for a period of two years. Then I was the Vice-President of
the same Society for another two years. Of course it was purely honorary! No
pay! I considered it as a honour rather than hard work that was being carried
out by the General Secretary of the Society.
So Presidents are of
different types, depending on the kind of organization they head. If you are
fortunate, you’ll reach this top-class post for a specified term. I think
Governors do not have a term. They can stay on as long as they live or removed
by another party in power. Fortunate people indeed! As Chancellors of
Universities Governors have important roles to select Vice-Chancellors – the
administrative heads of the varsities and also participate in the convocation ceremonies. What a job! Safe and secured! I envy
them as most of you do!
TRUTH
A mind that seeks truth is better than a mind that is
filled with delusion. No matter if the truth is pleasant or painful; the truth
– in the long run – is what sets us free from ignorance. Many people ignore
fact and evidence that go against their assumptions, prejudices, and desires.
They aren’t willing to admit when they are wrong. And they cling to a world
view that isn’t congruent with the reality around them because they aren’t
ready to accept it yet.
PROCRASTINATION SOLUTIONS
Overwhelmed - For that overwhelmed feeling, remember to line
your tasks and projects up one by one. Once your tasks and projects are lined
up in a sequential order that makes sense given your deadlines, break them down
into logical steps. Next, identify the first step: an instant start-up task. An
instant start up task is something that will only take you 3-5 minutes. Once
you dive into a small 3-5 minutes task, you will become so engaged that moving
through the next, longer two and sometime three steps is child's play.
Resistance
to Authority - Getting even
with a manager by turning in work later than requested or expected never works.
It sabotages you! Face it - no one likes being told what to do because as
freedom seeking beings we value our autonomy. A pretty normal human reaction to
authority is to rebel much like the child in school who resists what parents,
teachers and principals tell them to do.As an adult in the workplace we can see
this resistance to authority as it is: childish. Exercise your autonomy: Make a
conscious choice to do the work, finish on time and produce excellent quality.
This will earn respect.
Victim
Syndrome - Victimhood will
never be a productive state to work in. Thinking you are a victim slows your
mental acuity and destroys your decision making ability. To eliminate
victimhood, use the technique that works for resistance to authority. Say to
yourself, "I choose to do this!" Watch the difference it makes in
your energy level, your attitude, and your resolve to finish.
Perfectionism - Those who have the mindset that every single
phrase, word, and formatting decision must be perfect are often frozen into
procrastination by their perfectionism. They resist starting because trying to
make every single detail perfect gives them burnout. Accept the fact that you
are human and will make errors and misjudgements. These can be fixed when they
are pointed out. Remember that those who aim for excellence produce exceptional
work while those who aim for absolute perfection become neurotic. - Karla
Brandau,
CHALLENGE THE FUTURE EVENTS
1. The future is not
fixed. Until you experience it, the future remains as an array of possibilities
with a "most likely" scenario based on what holds the greatest
energy.
2. Viewing the future
can change the outcome. Even a 100% accurate view of the most likely scenario
will trigger questions about whether you want that scenario to manifest, and
that change can influence the outcome. This can give the illusion of inaccuracy
in the original prediction.
3. Inner impressions
come into your awareness through your imagination. However, a fertile
imagination can create images on its own, almost for pure entertainment. True
impressions of a future event arrive while you are in a meditative state, or
sometimes while performing a monotonous task such as driving at a constant
speed. They don't fire up with the great energy of a dramatic imagination. They
slip in quietly and have to be examined and unravelled to see what each
impression contains.
4. When you first start
scanning the future, your predictions will be less accurate than they will
become later, after constant practice.
TO QUOTE
Only
two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity
and I’m not sure
about the former – Albert Einstein
Just
remember that sometimes, the way you think about a
person isn’t the way they
actually are. – John Green
Everything
is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to
keep you from growing, you
get to choose. – Wayne Dyer
JUST TO LAUGH
Raju: I haven’t slept all nite in
the train.
Friend : Why?
Raju : Got upper berth.
Friend : Why don’t you exchanged?
Raju : OYE, There was nobody to
exchange in the lower berth..
Mrs. Jasbir Singh was in the
habit of having long conversation on the telephone, sometimes going on over an
hour.
One day she hung up after 25
minutes….
“What is the matter today?” asked
her husband. “Today you had less than half an hour conversation on the phone.”
“I got a wrong number,” replied
Mrs. Jasbir Singh.
LINES I LIKED
Ø
Most of what we fear never comes true.
Ø
Most of us cannot tolerate slowness.
Ø
Most of us avoid self-punishment, even if it is for a good cause.
Ø
Most of us are reluctant to openly expose our weaknesses.
Ø
Most scams are spawned by obligations.
Do simple things in a manner never done before!
Meet you next month –July, 2017
Professor A. Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
E-mail: arumugakannu@gmail.com
Ph : 0422 4393017 Mobile : 098422 42301
(NARA’S DIGEST)
(NARA’S NOTEPAD)
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
MEMO FROM NARA
I am really proud to say that our country – India is home for infinite
variety of crops. You name a crop, it is there. Major crops like rice and
wheat, maize and sorghum, pulses like pigeon pea, chickpea, green and black
grams, oilseeds like groundnut, sesame, sunflower, safflower, fibre crops like
cotton, jute, silk cotton etc. and plantation crops like rubber, coffee, tea
too. In this respect our country is great unlike certain other countries in
receiving plenty of sunshine which is an important input for all crops for
growth and development. The biodiversity both in humans and flora and fauna is
extensive in our country. No one can deny that India is basically an
agricultural country with millions of farmers who toil with indigenous tools in
their or other’s fragmented fields.
Field work is always strenuous and hard. Hard work needs body stamina
and physical strength. Physically one has to be fit to do the field work.
However farming is harming many farmers because of the hazardous chemicals they
use to protect the crops from diseases and insect pests. Indiscriminate use of
pesticides has created havoc for the health of farmers and farm labours.
Realizing all these, the agricultural scientists advise the farmers not
to go for the poisonous pesticides which are sold in agri-shops all over the
country. There is no one to prescribe the pesticide as our medical doctors who
diagnose our disease and accordingly prescribe the medicine needed. The
pesticides are bought across the counter by the advice of the shop owners whose
main aim is to dispose of the outdated stuff. Thus farming in India is not well
organized as in advanced countries. Farmers go by seeing other farmers who make
money by growing new crops. Blindly they grow crops without a link to the
market. Huge production of a crop produce brings down the price considerably
and farmers incur huge loss.
Without water there is no plant life and so farming crops consume large
quantity of water to yield better. Lack of rain creates drought that limits
crop growth and yield. So farming that provides food for all depends on so many
factors. Farmers take risk as challenge! And try their best to cultivate crops
and save humanity. Animals too need water and food. They are part of farming.
How come we are not making sound farming policy to improve Indian farming in
the technologically developed country? Someone hear me? If ‘yes’ please take
action.
WIDENING YOUR PERSPECTIVE
We live in a globalized world. We eat foods
produced across the globe; we use electronics whose components come from dozens
of places around the world; we can communicate instantaneously with anyone
anywhere who has a computer with
wi fi or a cell phone.
With globalization has come awareness. We can
quickly know about the conditions under which people live and work in other
countries. We can find out about the plight of other species, or about
pollution or deforestation. If the nightly news doesn't report on these issues,
we can discover them through our computers in minutes. Knowing so much changes
us. Or at least has the potential to change us. It enables us to be less
tribal, provincial, and self-cantered; to think of others outside our family,
neighbourhood, and even nation; to dwell as often on those we affect as on what
affects us.
This is a good thing, but it's not an easy thing.
Being aware of global atrocities, suffering, and destruction is hard and
requires commitment, will, and effort. Being focused primarily on oneself and
one's family, friends, and associates comes more
naturally and easily. After all, we've evolved with this tribal mentality for
millennia.
The problem is that this sort of modern tribalism
backfires in a globalized world. We are not only complicit in the warming of
our planet, the toxins entering our waterways, the exploitation of others in
distant lands, which breeds conflict, resentment, and hostility; we are also
ultimately negatively affected by these things. – Zoe Weil
GIVE UP...
1. Give up your need to always be right
There are so many of us who can’t
stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk
of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for
us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need
to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this
question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer.
What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?
2. Give up your need for control
Be willing to give up your need to
always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations,
events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers
you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone
to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you
feel.
3. Give up on blame
Give up on your need to blame others
for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving
your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.
4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk
Oh my. How many people are hurting
themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating
mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if
it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
5. Give up your limiting beliefs
From now on, you are no longer going
to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread
your wings and fly!
JUST TO LAUGH
Filling out a
credit card application my friend came upon a question “what is your source of
income?” He wrote ATM.
A wealthy
75-year-old widower starts showing up around town with a beautiful and much
younger wife. ‘How did you get her to marry you?’ his friend asks.
‘I lied about my age.’
‘You told her you were 60?’
‘No, I told her I was 90.’
When my son was
visiting, I complained that my TV wasn’t as bright as sharp as usual. He worked
on it during the afternoon and that night we turned the set on.
‘What did you do?’ I said
happily, ‘Everything looks great.’
He replied, ‘I wiped the screen.’
TO QUOTE
Life
doesn’t make sense without interdependence we need each other and the sooner we
learn that the better for us all. – Erik Erikson
Time
is priceless but it is free. You can’t own it, you can use it. You can spend
it. Once you lost it you can never get it back. – Audrey Niffenegger
Autumn
is a second spring when every leaf is a flower – Albert Camus
THINGS TO QUIT
1.
Trying to
please everyone
2.
Fearing
change
3.
Living in
the past
4.
Over
thinking
5.
Putting
yourself down
LINES I LIKED
Ø
In order to
be liked or respected, you need to work hard.
Ø
In order to
build self-control you must deny yourself.
Ø
In order to
develop a new behaviour, we may have to weaken the old habit.
Ø
In politics
today’s winner is tomorrow’s loser.
Without cruelty there is no mercy!
Meet you next month – June, 2017
Professor A. Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
E-mail: arumugakannu@gmail.com
Ph : 0422 4393017 Mobile : 098422 42301
(NARA’S DIGEST)
(NARA’S NOTEPAD)
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