nibraspk

[nibraspk]

COVID-19: Leveling the playing field?

Coronavirus has adversely impacted almost all of the businesses across the globe; most of them will remain idle, or may completely shut down soon. Some of them will go bankrupt or go out of business - this is true in any country regardless of the stage of the virus detection/cases. The truth is, at least for medium to large companies, they have several tools at their disposal to traverse along the tunnel; Artificial Intelligence like technologies can come handy during this time. 

I happen to be part of a team that conducted a webinar recently that introduced Techs that could assure Business Continuity. It was a collaborative webinar by #AdamGlobal and #StratagemPartners that saw the presence of moderator Dr. Nik Gowing, and very interesting speakers like Dr. Ray Nulty of Stratagem Partners, James Crask of Marsh, Barbara from BCMstrategy Inc., Peadar Duffy of SoluxR, Tim Evans of Truthsayers, and Nigel Hopkinson of GroupDoLists. Some of the speakers also showed Live Demo of the products that could benefit the companies. 

The blog named Building Resilient Business During COVID-19 Using Artificial Intelligence has an overview of the aforementioned companies who can help companies to overcome or at least help survive the onslaught of the COVID-19 by creating a Response and Recovery System. When Coronavirus seems to level the playing field, such technologies can help companies to have a seamless, economical way to manage transition and risk.

[nibraspk]

Reality Strikes!

Romantic:

The gentle touch of the breeze

Unfolds the fragrant petal.

To have the nectar, the bees

And butterfly on it settle.

All around is green,

The nature’s carpet laid.

The blue sky above, and

The clouds giving the shade.

The rainbow forming the arch,

Causing spectacular scene.

The Romantic world’s portrait,

As it always had been.

Reality:

The bloodshed and the kills,

Ruined youth and women.

Drugs and likes that thrills,

The skeleton shaped human.

Chains of discrimination,

Whites and black!

Evils of modernization,

Ethics and goodness that lack!

A chaotic world around,

Confusion everywhere seen.

The Reality of the world,

As it always had been.

[nibraspk]

HEAVENLY TOUCH

I see an angel in every home...

The care she took with her swollen belly,

The pain she endured when we came out.

 The nectar she gave and the warmth of her body!

The rhythm of her heartbeats gave us the dreams.

 She gave her hand when we were to slip,

And taught us things so that we never fall.

We reached the heights of success,

With her wings on our sides.

 She is more than an angel,

With heavenly touch.

A blend of love and care,

Under her feet lies heaven.

I see an angel in every home

I feel that way, it’s our mom.

Image Source: pexels.com, Wayne Evans

[nibraspk]

Victory of Love

Across the sleep

Before the dawn,

Calling of a man

Dream had a halt.

Eager was I

Frightened a little.

Gale outside

Heart was throbbing.

 “I’m alone” I said,

Jittery I showed.

Kick I heard!

Loud noise outside.

 “Mail” someone said,

Now I am alright.

Opened the door

Postman with a letter!?

 Quaffed some water

Returned to bed

Sleepy was I

Tore the letter.

Unbelievable was it!

Victory of Love

Winner I am

X-mas card she has sent,

Yelled with joy!

Zest I felt...

[nibraspk]

Short Poem: Everything Beautiful is You

[nibraspk]

Meeting Dr. Julian Edge

Julian Edge is an honorary lecturer at the university of Manchester, involved in TESOL and teacher education since 1969. I met Dr. Julian during an event conducted by British Library - a talk on Innovations in pre service education and training for English language teachers. It was also the launch of the British Council’s global publication Innovations in pre service education and training for English language teachers. Mr. Mohsin Mohammad, Commissioner of Public Instruction, Govt. of Karnataka, launched the book in Bengaluru - on 27th February 2014. 

Dr. Julian has a peculiar way of presenting. It was nothing like an Anthony Robbins speaking, but it made me to sit and listen to him and carefully comprehend everything he spoke. He followed the text book rules of great presentation, however, what attracted me most was the 'tasks' he gave in between the talk.

He warned the audience at the start of the talk that he would be giving a task and that task would be to tell which is that one lesson we like in the book that he was going to run us through - so as a part of audience, I was attentive and carefully noting down points so that I can tell that 'one' lesson just in case he asked me. 

As promised Dr. Julian stopped mid-way to the presentation and asked us about the task. He didn't actually ask us individually, instead he asked us to tell the one lesson we liked to the person sitting next to us. This task made sure that we audience spoke to each other and some interaction happened between us. 

A lot of interesting lessons where learned during the session and the most interesting was the new definition of innovation. According to Dr. Julian Edge, an innovation need not be always new. It just need to new in the context. To quote from the book he co-edited with Steve Mann; "in a situation where learning is seen as the memorization of facts to be tested by an end-of-year examination, for example, the introduction of formative assessment would be seen as an innovation. Conversely, in a setting where learning modules and criterion-referenced, continuous assessment are the norm, the introduction of assessment by end-of-year written examinations of formal knowledge would be an innovation."

One of the things leaders could learn from this definition of innovation is that, it is OK to use an existing idea, it would still be innovative if it is used in the new context. 

Sharing a light moment with Dr. Julian Edge

[nibraspk]

I have a Dream

I have a dream, that one day the world will rise up and live out the true meaning of the creed that ‘all men are created equal’. I have a dream that one day; every kid born in the world will have the opportunity for quality education. The education that will enable the kid to envision a better future for herself, for her family, for her community and for her global brothers and sisters.

It is with this dream that made me to emprise into ‘Leaders Of Tomorrow’ project. Leaders Of Tomorrow or LOT what we affectionately call it, is a year-long training intervention aimed at bringing world-class education to the youth across the world. It is a collaborative effort, where leaders from different walks of life come together to share the values and life lessons they learned so as to enable the youth to get the right perspective of life in an otherwise chaos world.

Advent and stride of media and access to new gadgets has made the youth to believe that the world has always been a chaotic place, which is far from being true. What you, young men and women, see now is just the aftermath of the wrong decisions of greedy men and women who didn’t get any guidance in their childhood or is the result of men and women doing nothing when even after seeing wrong decisions getting acted upon around them. You need not follow their path, the path of greedy men and women. You have examples of generous men and women who walked on the face of the world restoring faith in humanity time and again. You have role models in them in being compassionate to your fellow being. You have guidance in them for being critical in thinking and taking better decisions with heart.

What we aim to do with LOT is to help youth of today to discover their true potential, which otherwise would have remained latent forever. We combine offline and online training to give world-class education. A short term goal of LOT is to impact 10,000 youth by helping them find the genius in them, make them employable, help them to find an appropriate job so that they can be independent and help some of them to start up their own ventures.

The name ‘Leaders Of Tomorrow’ gives the youth something to aspire for. We all have genius sleeping within us. We just need to awaken the giant within us. Likewise, we all can lead – lead without a title. Who is a leader here? If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

[nibraspk]

Special Leadership Zones (SLZs)

The California Teachers Association and the California State PTA have joined forces to offer some tips for parents that will give their children the best opportunity to succeed in school. Public Service Announcement (PSA)’s titled ‘Your child’s education begins at home’ gave tips like ‘regular schedule’ by setting up a certain time of day that is dedicated to homework. Follow up with children to be sure their homework is complete and turned in on time, ‘learn everywhere’ so as to increase children’s interest in homework by connecting school to everyday life. For instance, children can learn fractions and measurements while you prepare favorite foods together.

Children’s education should not be limited to just about school education. Children should be taught leadership at young age so that they are well prepared for the complex future. Here leadership is not just about being a CEO of a company, but it is about being the best they can become, identifying the genius they are born with.

One of the best ways to achieve this leadership at home is to create an ecosystem for leadership development at home. Drawing from the concept of Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which is a geographical ‘region’ that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws. "Nationwide" laws may be suspended inside a special economic zone; I suggest we need to have Special Leadership Zones, preferably in our homes.

SLZs would allow children to fail, teach them to dream big, be humble, be the best in what they do, be ethical, learn, and lead. In an article written by guest author Kelly Combs in Michael Hyatt’s blog, named ‘leadership starts at home’, the author shares some leadership lessons at home. In her words, “I have found that my leadership at home has taught me lessons that any leader, whether in the board room or the laundry room, can use.” Couple of lessons she share include; ‘You need to share’ - a smart mom knows that arguments in the next room can often be stopped just by calling out, “Share!” and ‘The future is in our hands’ - my kids will grow up and leave home one day. My job is to prepare them for that. I won’t always be around to rescue them or give advice. I mentor them now, with the goal that they will know what they should do, even when I’m not around to tell them. A good leader trains his people well, because he knows the importance of raising up new leaders.

Kids learn most of their lives by imitation. If we see any bad habit cultivated in them, remember that we – either at home or school – are responsible for such behaviors. I see parents scolding and beating small kids for their bad habits without even understanding the fact that kids have learned most of it from them or the television they watch every day. This makes it very important that elders be ‘role models’ for their children – or in leadership terms, elders need to lead by example. This can be done, if deliberate action is taken. Like in a company, leadership would not happen by chance, it is always a choice.

The ultimate objective of Special Leadership Zone is to create the ecosystem for young leaders to grow before they face the complex world in its full vigor. A family’s, a society’s and a nation’s future lies in growing more ethical leaders and this can’t happen by chance. It’s a choice. A choice that we need to make, followed by deliberate actions. 

[nibraspk]

Unemployable Youth; BRIGHT Days Ahead!

India has the largest, youngest population in the world. However, it is also the most unemployable population. According to certain reports, about 57% of India's youth suffer from some degree of unemployability, while 53% of the employed youth lack specific skill sets.

According to industry experts, unemployability refers a state when individuals who have to be trained by the industry in basic skills which they should have acquired through college and university education.

It is a fact that the curriculum is outdated in most places and equipments used were obsolete. At this point of time, it is not ideal to just fight the system to change, which is going to take a long as there need to fill multiple holes and it has to be done simultaneously. In a country like India, this would mean a huge task. 

One of the solutions would be to induce students at young age to learn to be proactive. The story of Khadija Niazi is a great example of how students at very tender age can explore the world through the power of technology. Khadija Niazi; she was only 10 years old when she first took the ‘artificial intelligence’ online course. Later Khadija received an invitation from ‘Udacity’ to enroll in their new courses – physics was next, she completed it with highest distinction at the age of 11 years.

Another great example is that of Ekalavya. In the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, Eklavya is a young prince of the Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes in Ancient India, who aspires to study archery in the gurukul of Dronacharya (Drona). After being rejected by Drona on account of his low caste, Eklavya embarked upon a program of self-study in the presence of a clay image of Drona. With discipline, Eklavya achieves a level of skill superior to that of others who Drona trained.  We have to agree that a lot of students would not know that such thing can be done! The role edupreneurs come into picture here.

  Edupreneurs can spread the message to every nook and corner of the nation that any youth, school going or not, can learn skills with a little effort. When we let this message ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of the youth would be termed as employable or at least possess skills that can be molded into for job-needs.

Youth need to be made aware that there are leaders in them. Once they believe that they are eagles meant to fly, they would automatically embrace the spirit of Ekalavya or Khadija Niazi. Project Bright is such an initiative in rural Kerala. The project, instead of seeing children through the lens of a normal distribution curve—some kids are smart and some less smart— sees that every child is capable, every child is a leader. This paradigm changes everything.

The project is an attempt to transform the college going students of Bright Tally Academy into highly professional, employable candidates in the highly competitive job market. The project brings in home-grown as well as international training tools and methods to empower every student of the institute to take up leadership roles in their lives and in the society.

The project is a long term intervention which would get entwined along the regular curriculum thereby bettering every student’s performance in their respective courses as well as in extra-curricular activities.  The project aims to bring in fresh thinking process in students’ mind by exposing them to international learning experience, making them leaders and doers than just passive listeners.

Project Bright aims to spread its scope across the nation through small steps and sometimes through big leaps with the help of technology. 

[nibraspk]

Once Upon a Time in Davos

  Against all the odds!  

“We are pleased to inform you that applications are now open for Global Shapers to attend the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting to take place between 23rd January 2013 and 27 January 2013 in Davos, Switzerland. In total only 50 Shapers will be chosen from amongst our almost 170 Hubs to represent the community”. My journey to Davos started with the above note! Then came the confirmation after a month or so… the first response of one of my mentors when she heard this news is “Awesome!!! Mabrook!!! What are (you) doing talking to me???? I should get coaching from you!  It has been my dream to be invited to Davos!” I didn’t really understand what she really meant until I reached Davos. Reaching Davos – it was a bumpy ride all the way as if somebody was testing how badly I wanted to be there; there was a time on the way a thought came to my mind should I continue the journey?! But as people say, rest is history. I made it – against all the odds!!

Frauenkirch, 49 Awesome Others

I should confess, I never really pronounced the word correctly “Frauenkirch” and it did cause problems with the taxi drivers - Hotel Ferienhaus Post Frauenkirch, the hotel I stayed. First two days in Davos with 49 awesome other Global Shapers were some of those days you never forget in your life; it was interesting to see how different shades of youth from 30+ countries came together to discuss how to create a platform to impact the world positively even better. End of the day, message was clear and loud, “make your hub better” and that it should be, living the message “think globally, act locally”. It was amazing to see what youth can do to change the course of this world; the 49 awesome others are well on course to do that. I believe.

"I published my brain"

I have never heard somebody say that until I met Jerry during the second day at Davos. He opened his laptop to show how he published his brain at www.jerrysbrain.com .As a person interested in exploring the immense power of human brain; I could just sit and watch the magic unfolding in front of me. I wondered what if everybody published their brains so that we know what exactly others knew! “It is going to be a huge task” somebody commented when I raised the same question in one of the sessions (during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting). Speaking about brain, I met a person, head of a reputed organization, middle aged, suffering from rare brain cell cancer. If I was curious about Jerry’s brain, I was shocked this time. He had a story to tell; how a village boy became head of one of the reputed organizations. Ah! Davos never seize to surprise you with its different shades.

Photo with Khadija, Dinner with Kofi Annan

Probably the only event I pre-registered was the “Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s 6th Davos Philanthropic Roundtable”. I was interested in knowing what global leaders thought about online education. To my surprise, probably of most of the participants’, we came across Khadija Niazi; she was only 10 years old when she first took the ‘artificial intelligence’ online course. Later Khadija received an invitation from ‘Udacity’ to enroll in their new courses – physics was next, she completed it with highest distinction at the age of 11 years. My heart was like a kid jumping around winning a prize, I thought this is amazing, what if education like this can reach those rural youth who would never experience something like this in their whole life. I shared my visiting card with Khadija upon which she asked “could you please introduce yourself”! I managed to tell my elevator pitch in an even shorter form to the lady who has already taken the session by storm. 

Soon after the “Pinchuk Foundation’s 6th Davos Philanthropic Roundtable”, I managed to speak to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, I have always admired him for his work in the microfinance space. How wonderful is to impact so many lives in a life time! His words, affirming what we are doing in the villages of India – in the education space – had same shade of what Kofi Annan told during our dinner during the “Artist in Me” session. I went for the session to support a fellow Global Shaper, Linda Briceno, I was standing in front of a sea of artists and wondering “do I fit in here?” suddenly Kofi Annan entered – for a split second I thought it was Nelson Mandela – I am not sure why I thought like that, but I was glad to see him. I was lucky to sit beside Kofi Annan and his wife Mrs. Nane Annan and share the work we did. They were so humble.

Inspiration from Guatemala

“Are leaders born or made?” – It was during this session I met two passionate people from an organization named FUNSEPA doing wonders in Guatemala. They have already done huge impact in Guatemala through FUNSEPA I came across the question whether leaders are born or made 7 years ago, during my MBA. I couldn’t wait to hear what exactly leaders thought about this question. I firmly believed that they are ones born with qualities of a leader, later to discover and shape those skills by conscious decision. Interestingly, most of the leaders present there had similar thoughts.

End of Davos days, and I cried

I cried, not because the days in Davos were ending, but watching a documentary about what was happening in Syria – an inside story, during one of the sessions. At the end of Davos days, I wished we, the youth, could make an impact to this chaos world by our ethical leadership. I wish that more children like Khadija be proactive and learn without waiting for anybody. I know, it is in our hands to make an impact, and there I go with a lot of learning from Davos, meeting Global Shapers and Global Leaders, to make an impact in a million youth’s lives through education. Thanks to Coca Cola, Reliance Industries like partners, who made the Global Shapers Community possible. I shall verily remember the time Mr. Mukesh Ambani shook my hands and affirmed all the help for the Community.

Davos did have a great experience in stock for me for the final day. Meeting with an artist, Mr Daniel Ybarra. He was like Santa Claus, he took me around to show his work on the walls of Congres Hall in Davos and spoke about it like a child. If I have to tell one of the most important lesson from the whole Davos experience is "be humble". Let it be Mr Daniel, or Muhammad Yunus, or Kofi Annan - they were all humble even after achieving so much in life. 

Once upon a time in Davos; I shall etch the experience in my life’s story book to be told to several others who might get inspired by Khadija Niazi or the leaders from Guatemala. Be Humble! 

Read other Davos experiences by: Sarah Noble, Meghann Gunderman, Nadya Saib, Anne Louise Hübert,...  

[nibraspk]

The McD Act of Kindness

Contrast in photography undoubtedly produces stunning results. It is an attention-grabbing method which can turn an okay photo into a dazzling masterpiece. Sometimes, in a city like Bangalore, you tend to see contrasts, which may not be dazzling but definitely attention-grabbing. I witnessed such a contrast on the day of Raksha Bandhan, a Vedic festival primarily observed in India and Nepal, which celebrates the relationship between brothers, cousins and sisters.

May be it was Raksha Bandhan, that Mc Donald’s (let’s call it McD) in Bangalore Central Mall in Jayanagar 9th Block had more of young girls and fewer guys. McD was filled with Raksha Bandhan customers that only a couple of seats were vacant. Like any other customers in the store, sat three of them in one corner, just the glass facade separating them from the outer world – one lady and two guys. One of the guys pulling the lady’s hair band, and teasing her – I assumed they also might be Raksha Bandhan customers. In between their chit-chat, one of the guys who were teasing the lady went outside and came back in a jiffy. Initially, I didn’t understand what he did, and then my vision stuck to a scene outside the glass facade, just opposite to the place where the three Raksha Bandhan customers were sitting. A scene of contrast!

On one side was an air conditioned McD store where food supply was plenty and customers paid heavily to get their favourite snacks and drinks, the store with vibrant colours, customers with plenty of money in their wallets. And on the other side, like a scene of contrast, like a desert sprinkled with snow, sat two kids – the kind of kids you will see begging in the streets of India, begging by force; force from their parents for extra earning, force from their stomach to survive. They wore filthy clothes that had shades of black, grey and red. I wondered if those trousers even had pockets to keep a wallet at all. The scene was peculiar because one kid was playing with a red tomato and the other holding a pack of French fries! Only then I realized that the guy among the three Raksha Bandhan customers went outside to give his French fries to those kids.

We can get into a debate asking whether those French fries are healthy for kids or not. May be we should ask those kids about it! One kid had processed McD product in hand and the other a raw tomato. It was as if, the guy wanted to do a balancing act that he went out again and gave a medium size coke to the other kid. Now, both the kids had processed McD products. They ate the French fries as if it was their favourite food for a long time. Whenever the kid with coke took French fries from the pack, the other frowned and as if in a barter he leaned forward and had a sip of coke. It continued till both the processed items were over and they were left with plenty of ice in the coke-cup and the French fries pack. The owner of French fries retrieved the final bits of fries from the pack, stood up and deposited it in the nearest dustbin. The other kid by this time had found a way to entertain himself with the ice cubes left in the coke-cup. He pushed the ice cubes like a vehicle on the road, on the floor he was sitting; the other kid soon joined him after disposing the fries-pack.

The McD act of kindness continued when two of the young ladies passing by, gave slices of guava fruit to the kids which they accepted without any hesitation. It was a complete meal for them with French fries, coke and then a fruit salad that had only guava in it. Another McD customer, seeing all these gave his share of French fries to those kids. May be they are regular McD indirect-customers. Growing up, they may not go to school, or ever eat food inside McD, but I hoped they would surely remember that strangers help, that there are a lot of people doing a McD act of kindness and that they would do the same when they grow up; a McD act of kindness.

[nibraspk]

Colors of Life

Years ago, after writing 20 odd poems, the poet in me went for hibernation, like the animal that falls into sleep in the months of winter, into such a deep sleep that it appears to be dead. Little I knew that the winter was getting over, that the students of Jawahar Navodaya School in Bangalore (Rural) were organizing a Poetry Club to awaken the animal. When Ashokan sir, my language teacher during my college days, with whose guidance the students were organizing the event; a seminar on Poetry and World of Poets, invited me as the chief guest, it was hard for me to get out of the hangover of years of slumber, hangover caused by the deep sleep in the corporate jungle.

The invitation bulldozed me back to a flashback kind of trance where I, like a pearl diver retrieving pearls from pearl oysters, fetched some slices of memories from the sea of past. I was expected to make a presentation on the topic and didn’t have any idea where to start and where to end!

Irony – that was the word that came to me first. Irony – the word was introduced to me during my +2 years in Khushwant Singh’s short-story “The Mark of Vishnu”; a story about a Brahmin priest, assured in the belief that a cobra has a godly nature and will never harm others if treated courteously, is nevertheless killed by the snake when trying to heal and feed it. In Khalid Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’, after reading Amir’s story Rahim Khan writes to him; “you have written your story with sound grammar and interesting style. But the most impressive thing about your story is that it has irony. You may not even know what that word means. But you will someday. It is something that some writers reach for their entire careers and never attain.” “Isn’t this ‘irony’ happening to me?”, I thought! What else can be told about this situation where the person who literally hated ‘poems’ during his school days had written poems and then is asked to be the chief guest for a Poetry Club! Irony. Like Rahim Khan told Amir, I didn’t really know what the word meant then, but now, yes.

To give it a short, I accepted the invitation. What followed was interesting. I had to delve deep into my past to see if there were any instances where ‘poetry’ had influenced me in some way. Sharing a personal story was the only option for me to convince the students that poetry mattered, thereby inducing them to be interested in poetry, the ultimate objective of the seminar. To my amazement, two such instances surfaced.

First one was a poem by Imam Shafi’e; it read “I’ve seen that water stagnates if still. Becomes pure if it runs, but not if it doesn’t flow. If the lion doesn’t leave his den he cannot hunt, and the arrow will not strike without leaving its bow. If one travels, he becomes sought out If one travels, he is honoured like gold.” I vividly remember reading the lines, because that is when I decided I need to do something different. I need to travel; that is how I ended up in Bangalore. The lion thing moved me.

Second one was a poem by Robert Frost; it was during the initial years of ATOM (Association of Team Oriented Management), we were trying to gain industry exposure, that we met Ms. Shaheeda Abdul Kader, then the head of  Mannat Jewellery Manufacturing Pvt Ltd in Bangalore and now VP of a reputed organization in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area. After our discussion with her, before we left, she took a print out and handed over to us a poem, the last few lines of the poem read, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” 

The process of getting ready for the seminar not only brought some good memories back – it was like the smell of the soil after the first rain – but also made me to think, “why didn’t I publish those 20 odd poems?”, then I thought, does people really publish “20 odd poems”? Not sure about it, I thought “let me self-publish”. Like any other author, getting the book published was a bit of a hassle. But then, without the pain, you can’t deliver a baby. Unlike other authors, it took just a day’s work to self-publish – just one copy, the only copy in the whole macrocosm. I copied the copyright warning from another book (irony!), so that the book would look like a book. I named the book, Colours of Life. 

[nibraspk]

Between Reading and Writing

You can read a hundred novels, yet writing one is a different experience. He started writing his first novel with a vague story in mind; he was not sure how to write a novel in the first place. The best way to make a start was to create character sketches; characters he would see around him in his daily life. It was only in the second draft, he attempted to connect the characters and then the story unfolded.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a Pakistani-Canadian writer, translator and journalist. Unlike his first novel, his latest work ‘Between Clay and Dust’ was written with a different approach which started with a plot and then the characters unfolded. The author considers ‘Between Clay and Dust’ to be his most important work so far - it took him ten years to complete the novel.

Even though my shelves are filled with books, I have considered reading novels to be a waste of time – until last weekend. It was then, my good friend Anil Emage asked me to focus on fiction along with other books I normally read related to leadership, management, etc. The idea was to give flair of storytelling to my writing. Anil gave me S. Aini’s Bukhara: Reminiscences and I purchased Sidney Sheldon’s The Sands of Time and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening from the bookstore. Like S. Aini tells in his book about his ‘first spiritual revolution’ after reading Akhmad Donesh’s Remarkable Events, reading the novels gave similar feeling to me.

It was at this time an opportunity opened up to attend a Book Reading session in SAP Labs Bangalore campus as part of their author-interaction club. The book-reading club coordinated by Mr Sumeet Shetty, Program Manager at SAP Labs, in the words of Lipika Bhushan of Harper Collins is “sort of unique” and highly organised. The club has so far invited writers with varied taste and outlook – the names include Mark Tully, Vikas Swarup, Anita Nair, Shashi Deshpande, Shobhaa De, Alice Albinia, Abhijit Bhaduri, Advaita Kala, Mukul Kesavan, Rana Dasgupta, Sarnath Banerjee and CP Surendran.

Thanks to Global Shapers Karnataka; even though the book reading session is a closed event, students of several colleges got a chance to be a part of it, where they interacted with the author, and got the complementary books signed by the author.

It is at this event which happened on 13th of April 2012, that I met Musharraf Ali Farooqi. His face was unearthly peaceful; he was witty and shared important chapters of his life and work with the group. The author spoke about the hardships of translating the Urdu classics, The Adventures of Amir Hamza (2007, Modern Library) without a grant or any publisher in the vicinity. Musharraf Ali Farooqi appreciates authors who experiment with their writing; let it be in terms of their style and the subjects; it is something which he has done from his first novel to the latest work.

I felt like a student again waiting to get his book ‘The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhander, the Iron Man and Other Stories’ signed. My first book reading session was an amazing experience. Like the journey between the clay (birth) and dust (end), one need to travel a bit from reading to writing; there are experiences that you need to gather, characters you need to observe and be open to accept the hardships and move on. 

* A chat with the author on Twitter

[nibraspk]

Meeting SPAIRO’s CEO

The visiting card had the three magical letters CEO – Chief Executive Officer. He sat calmly in the chair in front of me with his credentials ready to be presented. In a moment, I went back to those MBA days where I along with my close friend Sudhanwa Mannur was busy with ATOM – Association of Team Oriented Management, a student association to explore opportunities without relying on college alone. SPAIRO was something similar – I thought in that split second – before the CEO presented the science project sketches.

The sketches of a robot, an automatic railway gate – I critically questioned the idea – for which Akhin, the CEO of SPAIRO gave very convincing answers. I had thought that young students would find it difficult to distinguish the chaff from the grain, take such initiatives, etc – however, Akhin changed my view about what a Plus Two student (12th year of schooling) could do!

Akhin has completed his 12th year of schooling. He is greatly interested in scientific projects; however found no support in the school. He got together some of his friends – almost 25 of them – and started SPAIRO, where they would come together and do activities that interested them; something that would be of mutual benefit.

The story of SPAIRO so far is not like another story of a kid getting his friends to play the game of cricket during summer vacation time and then minding their own business when the school reopens. Akhin showed me how he kept a log-book where the names of members of SPAIRO are registered. Each of the members is given a colour code depending upon their participation in activities. Akhin proudly tells that at any given point of time, at least 15 to 20 of the members would be available to take up any kind of projects. Everything is done in a structured way.

Akhin is from Wayanad, a small district in Kerala. The team SPAIRO has successfully helped one of the leading English language training centres in Wayanad – AFRC, in promoting its summer vacation classes by distributing close to 10,000 notices to students, parents, and working professionals. The team has done it professionally – results were immediate and they charged a small fee for their service - SPAIRO work closely with AFRC and Leadership Village in Wayanad.

I came back to Bangalore with two questions in mind – How can we identify students like Akhin? And How can we help students like Akhin to reach a new level – where they would find more opportunities?

Akhin, SPAIRO and its members definitely deserves more than what they are doing. I am sure there would be more students like Akhin. I searched in the Internet for scholarships – which would help Akhin like students to explore a new world and I did find a lot of them. There are a lot of opportunities for students like Akhin who has come up with sheer hard work and timely initiatives. I am still wondering, how we can find students like the CEO of SPAIRO?

[nibraspk]

Mentors Circle (mC)

According to Wikipedia, “Mentoring” is a process that always involves communication and is relationship based, but its precise definition is elusive. One definition of the many that have been proposed is…

Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the mentee)”

Another related concept is Mentoring Circles. It is one where a group meets on a regular basis for an agreed upon length of time, where a collection of mentoring relationships happen. The ultimate goal of the Mentoring Circles is to (a) set important and relevant development goals, and (b) build confidence and teach skills to reach the goals (Abbot: A Guide to Mentoring Circles. October 2008).

A new concept which I call ‘’Mentors Circle’ is even more powerful. A Mentors Circle or ‘mC’ is one where one mentee work with multiple mentors. Tapping into the collective expertise of mentors, the mentee can stay ahead of the learning curve with unprecedented pace. An mC has elements of ‘Mentoring Circle’ and that of ‘Living Library’. What makes an mC interesting is that it works as a ‘Book Shelf’ – call it ‘Mentor Shelf’. Mentors are at the mentee’s disposal helping the mentee to learn and develop. Since mentee is interacting with several mentors on a regular basis, it gives different perspective to same issue and this widens the mentee’s thinking process.

An mC is definitely the priority of the mentee. A mentee who is keen to learn more at faster pace is only eligible to carry out an mC; otherwise, it merely becomes a ‘networking’ exercise.

An mC is making reality the metaphor “standing on the shoulders of the giants”, which means ‘one who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past’. In the case of an mC, it is not about past, but is about ‘present’ – interactions with the giants on a regular basis.

Let’s take this to another level. On a basic level, the mC should be the initiative of the mentee. What happens is that, the mentee would find out experts he or she want to interact with, then communicate the intention to be mentored – if the expert is willing, both would come in terms for an mC relationship. What if there are individuals, who have the appetite to continuous learning and development, however are not aware of such opportunities to connect and learn. In this case, the community leaders should take initiative to assign mentors for these individuals – this can be achieved through several grassroots leadership initiatives.