The Occasion Story One time I was privileged to be judging a competition in one of my city’s well-known schools, along with others. The chief guest of the day, a young writer and educationist, rephrased the an old Aesop tale in four different versions. The old and proverbial hare and the tortoise story was revamped with an input from each version. The first version was the usual one we have all heard of, the tortoise winning the race. It gave... Read more
The Leadership Roles Some time ago I wrote on parent leadership as new paradigm in leadership styles. I explored the differences between various leadership models, such as traditional, bureaucratic, charismatic, etc., and goals of each. Recently, I have come to understand the two types of roles that make up parent leadership. Each of these roles is defined by its own responsibilities and its own spheres of action or influence. Neither can do without the other. Each must accept as well... Read more
Randomness and Uncertainty Uncertainty, one of the most famous but misunderstood ideas in physics, points to a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what can be known about the behavior of quantum particles. In Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe which covers macro particles, all things follow clear-cut laws on how to be and to move. Quantum theory, on the other hand, governs the deportment of the smallest scales of nature. It embodies an aspect of uncertainty, and a level of... Read more
Women Help Needed As the world focused on felicitating women this month, I was occupied with deciding whether women helped other women. Are we, who were being praised and applauded, really supporters and promoters or adversaries and opponents of one another? I recalled a speech of Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of Pepsico, where she opines that women do not really help one another in the work place because they do not know how to give or receive negative feedback.... Read more
Tolstoy’s Triumph War and Peace authored by Leo Tolstoy is a chronicle of life as lived alternately between times of war and times of peace. According to critics, War and Peace isn’t just a great novel, but a guide to living. What Tolstoy offers is not so much a set of answers to life’s every situation as an attitude toward living. Tolstoy packs in more human experience than any other work of fiction had ever attempted as he moves seamlessly... Read more
Strongholds and Strangleholds In his second letter to the Corinthians in chap 10:4 NIV, Apostle Paul tells the church: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Contemporary English version translates this as: We live in this world, but we don’t act like its people or fight our battles with the weapons of this world. Instead, we use God’s power that can destroy fortresses. Strongholds are... Read more
Being A Brother In the book of Romans in the Bible, there is a simple but telling portion in its sixteenth chapter from verses 21 to 23: Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you. I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, salutes you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city salutes you, and Quartus a brother. It is significant that the Apostle Paul adds... Read more
Who or What is an Underdog The word underdog was originally used in dogfighting around 1887, to refer to a dog defeated in a fight. Anyone who is at a disadvantage, whether in general or in a particular situation, is said to an underdog. In sports or any in a competition, the person or team considered to be the weakest and the least likely to win it’s common to call the team that’s expected to lose in a game the... Read more
Vision and Dream An important idea that is touted today is that one must have dreams or visions, and work to fulfill them. Basic difference between visions and dreams is that the former occur when awake, while the latter happens when asleep. According to sources, dreams go unplanned and remain unreal, and visions are real ideas with concrete applications. Again, visions and dreams are different things, since vision is usually a very specific idea of what you want to accomplish... Read more
The Priceless Commodity of Loyalty Loyalty is the quality of being loyal and the strong feeling of support and allegiance. It is staying steadfast, not vacillating with opportunity, opinion or opposition. It is standing by and sticking your team whatever the circumstance and irrespective the cost. Loyalty bestows integrity and causes you not to be like the foam or froth that doesn’t stick to anything but is quickly blown away. Loyalty is the one attribute most prized and appreciated by... Read more
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