When loved ones part with

Hey folks,

Yes, this is one thing that all of us wish doesn’t happen to us. The loss of a loved one. But given the abundance of randomness in life and the fact that it’s beyond human comprehension and control, one needs to cope with everything and life must just go on.

It is interesting to see a workshop being done on this. Most of us take this ‘coping with’ thing on an ad-hoc basis and don’t really realise the need to be prepared to bounce back into life after such a calamity. I am sure that attending such a workshop would be of immense use, not only when the calamity happens in your own life but when it happens in the life of someone you value a lot. This is more of a chain reaction but it is worth the process. Most of the initiatives I support are slow organic chain-reaction-based initiatives. I wish to see this one in such a way too.

Anyway, I’ve attached a DOC file about the workshop, here. Kindly look into it and see if you can attend the workshop. It’s about a month away, on July 17th and 18th. So, don’t say you weren’t informed well in advance!

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. The mini-workshops organised by Career Cats have been postponed. Will post again when they’re scheduled.

Mini Workshops

Hey folks,

I’ve gotten this sudden obsession with attending off-beat workshops that give you new ways of looking at things in life. I’m even putting aside a sum of money as reserve for my workshop spending.

I’ve been exposed to a few such initiatives after meeting Milind, namely LIFE Academy and The Landmark Forum. I have not tried both of them but will do so in the near future, once I can afford them!

Milind started a group (early this year) called Career Cats Chennai which focuses on exposing young corporate professionals to business skills like workplace dynamics, when and why to switch jobs, negotiation skills, how best to sell themselves & land offers and more. As part of the group’s activities, there would be 2 interesting mini-workshops, one each, on June 13th and 14th 2009.

The first workshop (on June 13th 2009) would be on Creating Off-beat Resumes. It is said that the average time that a recruiter spends on a resume is less than 10 minutes. Given the economic slowdown and related business pressures, this could come down to even 3-4 minutes. I have always believed that a good, consistent and clear personal brand is the best way to land a coveted job. In that sense, a resume would be the first-point formal expression of one’s personal brand. You can make it look like any other resume, namely a collection of facts and numbers about yourself. Or, you can make it look like an outright advertisement selling yourself. The difference is a bit subtle and, probably, I’m not getting it through very accurately. I’m sure you’d have all seen ‘Data Sheets’ and ‘Brochures’ of Cell-phones. This is kinda like that. The idea it to make both available but subtly promote the brochure more.

The second workshop (on June 14th) would be on Cracking Job Interviews. To most of us, this will sound like a highly cliche’d idea. But, trust me. It need not always be. If you’ve had my experiences, you’d probably know that an interview is not just about landing the job alone. There is a lot more to it. I don’t want to talk more on this because I might well be intruding into the content of the workshop.

Both the workshops will be delivered by Milind and would be highly focussed, result-oriented, lateral stuff.

I’d be glad to send you more information about the workshops, the venue, the costs et al if you’re interested. Just put a comment on this post and indicate your email ID.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I am planning to organise a lecture series, soon. Just looking for a few things to crystallize. More info on that in a separate post.

Reaching out

Hey folks,

A recent unpleasant happening in my dad’s extended family has totally shaken my belief system and has pushed me to look at the rest of the World with a lot more compassion and care.

I was thrown awake to the rude fact that the best metric to judge the quality of one’s personality is the number of people who genuinely cry when he is no more. This fact just made me see my own ‘close’ circle in a different way.

So, here it goes. If I have ever hurt your sentiments or have ever imposed my views upon you or have ever been a complete asshole, I unconditionally apologise for the same and assure you that I would put my best effort to see that I change for the better. I would also like to let each one of you know that I am there for you and that I shall help you out in whatever way that is best possible. I assure that I will give you a shoulder to cry on and a hand to pull you up when you’re down.

However, although I don’t expect any tangible return, I would feel better if I could get a little care from your side too. A pat-on-the-back occasionally and a good joke every now and then.

In the upcoming week, I shall personally contact every single soul I value and shall do my bit to make his/her life happier and easier. For others, I’m always there. All you have to do is just ask!

On a more serious note, I request all of you to make it a habit to get a master health checkup done every year on a recurring basis. In the most unlikely of cases, this should cost you around 5k. It is usually lesser than that, I think.

I also request you all to put in some effort and try to avoid procrastinating things. I am doing that from this very moment onwards. I will try hard not to procrastinate in life. For all you know, I might not be there to execute things tomorrow.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I hope this post finds you all in good health and a pleasant state of mind.

Protocol, My Foot!

Hey folks,

I had the opportunity to talk to a self-made entrepreneur who tried his hand at politics during the recent elections, from Chennai. Contrary to public perception, this guy is accessible just on paper. His contact details have been put up in the public domain, yes. But little do people realise that there is a whale of difference between approachability and accessibility!

He is often portrayed as the man who rose to fame from a very humble background. I have no heart to deny that. That is a success story that needs to be documented for future entrepreneurs to read, no doubt. But many people have two sides no?

Behind that ‘next door guy’ image, this man has a far darker side. He is someone who expects to be given paramount importance wherever he goes. He expects limelight, fame, popularity, attention and the ‘wow’ factor wherever he goes!

The man can’t even talk proper English but goes around flaunting his educational background! I am tempted to think that every educational institution, however great it might be, has some amount of error in choosing candidates, about 5 misfit people out of every 100 or so. I guess this guy got into those places because of such an error factor.

A standing example of the fact that appearances are deceptive, this man actually contested in elections and won nearly 16000 votes. I can understand if illiterate folks have no etiquette and a lot of ego, because they ain’t educated, dammit! Srinath (Boss) used to keep telling me years ago that a good proportion of the fellows passing out of the country’s topmost educational institutions add no value to the country but have a very high ego. I realise that now, thoroughly!

I am even prompted to believe that illiterate (or lesser literate) folks would do a better job managing the country’s government than well educated fellows like this entrepreneur!

Of course, I wasn’t supporting him at all during the elections. I even argued with one of my juniors, who was supporting this guy during elections, saying this guy can’t make one hell of a difference. The man has no track record doing any proper societal service, either physical or intellectual! Yet, he shamefully claims that he is going to save the country from greedy politicians! Dude, have you ever done some self-introspection at all in life? Have you atleast heard of the word ‘Self Introspection’ ?

Learning: Never ever ever buy the face value that people depict! Such a value is almost never the real one! Watch out for the real sides of people!

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. It’s such a coincidence that I’ve known a couple more people who passed out from the same institutions as this guy, very well for a long time. They’re such nice people that I’m guessing the error-rate theory I’ve come up with has to be true, indeed!

Of Joe and Hari!

Hey folks,

I just happened to get introduced to the idea of a Johari Window by Milind and decided to get mine through a service. What you see below are the results of my window after some 6 people filled it up. To fill it up go to this page.

Arena (known to self and others) adaptable, cheerful, logical, observant	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, clever, complex, confident, dignified, energetic, friendly, helpful, intelligent, introverted, knowledgeable, modest, nervous, organised, reflective, spontaneous, witty
Façade (known only to self) powerful, trustworthy	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, bold, brave, calm, caring, dependable, extroverted, giving, happy, idealistic, independent, ingenious, kind, loving, mature, patient, proud, quiet, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, sympathetic, tense, warm, wise

Dominant Traits

66% of people agree that Prashanth Krishnaswami is cheerful

All Percentages

able (16%) accepting (0%) adaptable (50%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (0%) cheerful (66%) clever (16%) complex (16%) confident (16%) dependable (0%) dignified (16%) energetic (33%) extroverted (0%) friendly (33%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (16%) idealistic (0%) independent (0%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (33%) introverted (16%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (50%) logical (16%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (16%) nervous (16%) observant (33%) organised (33%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (16%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (16%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (0%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (16%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 1.6.2009, using data from 6 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Prashanth Krishnaswami’s full data.

I suggest you all try it out too.

Yours Skeptically,

P.S. I am not responsible for the views of the people who filled up this window!

P.P.S. I will be posting on Sit’s unconference and the learning I gained while organized it, in the upcoming weeks as a series of posts.