Sunday, August 18, 2013

Goals: The Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True

In 1963, some behavioural scientists performed an experiment with the graduating class of Harward Business School. They asked the students if they had written down goals for themselves. Their goals for life. For the future. On paper.

A mere 3 per cent of the class had actually written down goals. Yes. Just 3 per cent.

Well, twenty-five years later, the scientists again got in touch with the class of '63. To find out how they had done in their careers. And in their lives.

And guess what?

They found that the net worth of the 3 per cent of the class that had written goals was MORE than the net worth of the rest of the batch. Not just that; the 3 per cent written-down-goalwallahs seemed to be happier, doing what they wanted and leading far more fulfilling lives. 

Incredible. But, I believe, it's true. And it could be true for all of us.

What are your goals? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to be, have, do? In life. At work. In relationships. Whatever it be, write it down. Now. Just write it down. Not later, not tomorrow- now!

And commit yourself to action. Commit yourself to doing what it takes to achieve your goals. Take action. Make sure that everything you do is taking you closer to your goals. 

And finally, take a step today. However small it may be, but take the first step today. If you want to lose weight, walk the 45-minute walk- today! If you want to be the best salesperson, make that extra sales call- today!

You'll see the difference. as the Nike guys would say, just do it.

It takes just three steps.

Step one: Write down your goals.

Step two: Make a commitment to action, to doing what it takes.

Step three: Take the first step. Today!

Come on, make a beginning. You owe it to yourself. And you have nothing to lose.


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Reproduced without permission, from the book 'The Habit of Winning' by Prakash Iyer, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. I purchased this book sometime back from a book-shop on a bus stand. I would seriously recommend you to buy a copy of this book, it's just awesome, and it can be purchased from the link here.

-Gaurav.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

What to do if ATM transaction fails?

In October 2009, Phadke withdrew Rs 1,000 from an ATM. After the transaction failed, he withdrew the money again. This time, it was successful. However, his account showed two debit transactions. Though he lodged two complaints with the bank by January 2010, he didn't receive any response.

Phadke chanced upon a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular that said that in case of a failed ATM transaction, the bank should refund the money by 12 days or pay a penalty of Rs 100 a day from the day of receiving the complaint. This penalty should be paid directly to the customer's account, without the customer asking for it, the circular said. When Phadke showed this circular to the branch manager, he immediately got Rs 1,000 against the failed transaction. Subsequently, he filed an RTI application with the details of the RBI circular, following which the bank paid him Rs 6,500, the penalty for the delayed payment for the failed transaction.

Using RTI, Phadke secured similar information from three banks that hadn't paid compensation to customers. He says the amount runs into crores of rupees.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pf/resolve-your-problems-with-the-right-rti-application-113080500050_1.html

Friday, August 2, 2013

This post I have taken from Facebook. It is very good to know the info given in it.

-Gaurav.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had been to several restaurants recently. I observed that "service
tax" was being misused in the way it was being charged to customers.

Let me give an example.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Food and Beverage = Rs. 1000.00

Service Charges @ 10% = Rs. 100.00

Service Tax @ 4.94% = Rs. 54.34 (on F&B + Service Charges)

VAT @14.5% = Rs. 145.00

Total = Rs. 1299.34


As per the definition - "Service Tax can be charged ONLY for the

services provided to the customer".


Now, see what is happening here in the above example.


Service Tax should be charged only on the Service Charge amount i.e
Rs.100 ONLY, and NOT on the entire amount (1000+100).

In this example, the customer should be charged only Rs 4.94, whereas
he has been charged Rs. 49.00 extra.

I now have 3 to 4 restaurant bills, but for which I have paid only the
service tax on the service charge and NOT on the total amount.

Solitude, and Inner Voice


Sunday, June 23, 2013

Kailash Kher, About Meerut

आप मेरठ से हैं। वहां के मशहूर नौचंदी मेले में गाने का मौक़ा मिला है?

दो बार बुलावा आया, लेकिन अस्पष्टता के कारण बात बन नहीं पाई।.....   नौचंदी मेले का बड़ा नाम है, और मेरा जन्म भी मेरठ का है, तो दिल से चाहता हूं कि मैं वहां जाकर गाऊं।


प्रेरणास्रोत कौन है?

मेरे मां-पिताजी जिन्होंने साधारण होते हुए भी असाधारण जीवन जिया है। मेरे पिता ऐसे गांव में जन्मे, जहां हर दूसरा इंसान गुस्से में होता है, किसी-न-किसी कुंठा में रहता है, और हर तीसरा आदमी अपराधी है। लेकिन पिताजी की ऊर्जा अलग थी। उन्हें बहुत सम्मान मिलता था।



Link

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Two magical stories from Rural India

Two magical stories from Rural India. Both are from Maharashtra, the karmabhumi of Anna Hazare.


-Gaurav.

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1. A village with 60 millionaires! 

Once impoverished and drought-prone, Hiware Bazar in Maharashtra is a shining example of how a visionary leader can use good governance to make degraded areas resource-rich and transform the future of its people through empowerment and inspiration.

Such success stories abound in this village that has 235 families and a population of about 1,250. In 1995, the monthly per capita income was around Rs. 830. Now, it has crossed Rs. 30,000.

In the mid-1990’s, milk production was just about 150 litres a day. It has touched over 4,000 litres a day today.



2. How a single man can create a revolution

Lokhande reckoned early on that village youth placed a premium on computer literacy and the acquisition of general knowledge. Accordingly, he asked individuals and companies to donate their old computers which he then installed in village schools. Close to 70,000 schools have benefited from this project so far.

He also started rural libraries with contributions from well-wishers — whom he calls 'non-resident villagers'. The books cover a range of subjects — from folk tales to science, from history to how-to-do-it manuals, from biographies to the wonders of the world. Within less than two years he has opened well over a thousand rural libraries.


http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/talking-terms/entry/beyond-the-breaking-news

Exemplar initiative in RTI by AMU



An excellent initiative by A.M.U. M.B.A. program. Hats off to Dr. Javed Akhtar and the team.

In March 2013 also there was a very big seminar on the use of RTI in AMU. I was there at Aligarh that time but could not attend it that day, unfortunately.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Rumi, one of the greatest poets

This is how it always is when I finish a poem. 
A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought 
to use language !

@[64655903184:274:Rumi]

This is how it always is when I finish a poem. 
A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought 
to use language !

Rumi
------------------


I once had a thousand desires,

But in my one desire to know you
all else melted away.

Rumi


Photo: I once had a thousand desires,
But in my one desire to know you
all else melted away.

Rumi


----------------





Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think “My life will be upside down” don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?

~ Shams Tabrizi



Photo: Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think “My life will be upside down” don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?

~ Shams Tabrizi




http://www.facebook.com/mevlana?ref=stream

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Bicycles, and Rural Poverty

I am happy that some of my work done around 2008 on potential of bicycles in India to alleviate rural poverty now fetches about 1500 results on google, and has been quoted by many wikipedia pages concerning poverty alleviation and bicycles.

Visit www.bicyclepotential.org for that, and here's a link to my previous blog for that.

The next step should be to convince the micro-finance institutions in India and Bangladesh to adopt bicycles also as their main tool in alleviating poverty.

God, when would you give me time to do so? Are you so insensitive...  :-)  ?

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Rahul Gandhi after being made Vice-President of Congress


"Last night everyone congratulated me.  Many of you came and hugged me and congratulated me.  Everybody congratulated me.  But last night my mother came to my room and she sat with me and she cried.  Why did she cry?  She cried because she understands that the power so many seek is actually a poison.  She can see it because of what it does to the people around her and the people they love.  But most importantly she can see it because she is not attached to it.  The only antidote to this 
poison is for all of us to see it for what it really is and not become attached to it.  We should not chase power for the attributes of power.  We should only use it to empower the voiceless"


"Direct cash transfer is going to allow us to respond to these dreams with an empowering delivering system.  My father used to speak about 15 paisa to the rupee reaching the people and we today are preparing the system that is going to  answer that question.  We are going to answer that question. And 99% of our people’s money can go to them. It is a revolution  that no other country has done.  And we are preparing that revolution."


-Having been a deadly fan of Rahul Gandhi for a long time and then being completely disillusioned with him after the U.P. debacle, 2G and the lokpal, it was good to read his speech recently.