For what you are qualified???

You are qualified to:

○ Make everything done
○ Work on changing and saving lives
○ Make this world a better place to live

As others are not qualified, please don't ask them to do the same as you will neither appreciate nor pay for their contributions. I think this is called professionalism.

How to move India fast forward

Pay for performance and there should be growth

Mango tree, originally uploaded by ~Steph~.

This is the formula of life. If you are not following it, you are doing something wrong. Now, if you are asking a dog to jump like a horse simply because you are providing delicious chicken dishes and irrespective of any training, that might not happen. It may also not work because of ego factor, negative politics and/ or a faulty system. In fact, what the conventional systems did is created unlimited psychological problems in our minds and fucked up our thinking ability beyond the systems for which we are underperforming.

The irony of being a job consultant

Most of the job consultants in the market don’t have any work experience from any other field apart from HR. They simply enter into consultancy because they couldn’t get a job based on whatever they have learnt. This is the last option for any qualified candidate to earn a substantial amount by doing nothing. I feel like they will not even be able to properly place a good dog in a particular home that needs security.

Advantage of being academically well qualified

○ At the end of the day, you will have sufficient time to sleep.

○ There will be multiple girlfriends/ well wishers (if you are a lady) of yours provided you are a little compassionate.

○ Others in your organization who are lacking certificate(s) needs to prove that they can do things and you may not have to work at all while being their boss.

○ You will be able to prove that you are always right simply because you had purchased some documents from a third party.

○ You will be able to enjoy your life as per your wish.

Everyone cannot be equal

Every human mind is unique in its own way. What differentiates us is our life, our way of thinking, our personality, our family background and on top of everything else our genomes. Our thought processes flows at the respective levels of our minds and develops on a regular basis on what we learn, think of and work on. Everyone of us have our own strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes and career specific interests that directs us to gain expertise in our specific fields of study. The like minded people work on a common platform (that may be unique to every group but are interrelated to each other) to execute their future plans. It is therefore not justified to judge everyone on the same parameters that may sometimes misinterpret our true potential to perform.

The sincere workers are the most performing

During my past 5 years work experience (out of total experience of more than 6 years), what I have repeatedly observed is that the best in the industry is the one who is the most sincere and hardworking irrespective of any hardcopy qualifications provided the correct environment and the required support from the management is available. It actually doesn’t takes much time for the human brain to learn new skills provided you know how to teach with personalized attention and the person being taught is interested in the subject. On the job learning process is much more effective than classroom teaching methodology as you also get the chance to apply what you learn on a regular basis. Wrong conceptions may lead to wrong decisions and it is therefore important to test everything that you know before taking it seriously. It may happen that whatever you had read was correct at the time of writing the books but may not be prevalent in the current times due to changed circumstances. That is the reason why the ones who likes to sleep on their certificates are the ones who are the most underperforming and are a liability to their respective organizations.

And if there is second life

There are all types of people around the world and our characters and mindsets vary from person to person irrespective of the basic similarities. Evolution has transformed us to what we are today. But if we start analyzing the minds of all living beings on Earth, we may start finding lots of similarities in terms of behavior and nature. And if there is something called Second Life then who knows, we may have to return back to our native planet as any other animal or plant depending on our character!

Human Being, originally uploaded by  Rafael Medeiros .

What qualifies us as human beings

○ We need to be good from heart
○ We need to have a logical mind
○ We should be sincere enough to perform
○ We should accept responsibility for our actions
○ We should work towards making this world a better place to live

Time is running out

If we consider the volume of work that we can and should do for our respective countries and our native planet as a whole then we may start feeling like we need more time. But as life can be considered as a project that has a specific deadline for everything that we wish to do with limited resources, it does makes us realize of our ability and efficiency to perform our best. Life is all about growth and growth is all about change. Therefore any kind of positive change that fits our future plan to make this world a better place to live should be always welcome. There has to be some kind of logic behind everything that happens and when we don’t understand the logic, we call it luck. Every action has a same and opposite reaction and life is nothing but a chain reaction of events. In that sense, the future could be well predicted up to a certain degree if we can take everything into account at a particular point of time. Our every decision is based on a personalized platform of logic and whatever we do is actually a programmatic outcome of our mind. The day when we will be able to prove astrology to be completely wrong will be a day when we can extend our limit beyond the sky. Irrespective of the fact that we may really not be able to apply all our plans up to the desired extent within our lifespan, but the effort to materialize a good dream makes us feel good and creates a positive impact that can motivate the generations to come.

The art of simple living

○ Be honest to yourself and think positive
○ Have a realistic but flexible career plan
○ Work sincerely to achieve your career objectives
○ Be professional in whatever you do
○ Allot a few hours every day to update your knowledge

Language does matters

Every Indian should learn to speak and understand Hindi as a National language simply because otherwise it is a matter of shame. If you think otherwise, you better try to opt for a separate nationality if you can. Apart from that, we should also learn English as it is the international language. Ultimately what you need is a single language which is the best to express yourself and that everyone can understand.

A mind of its own

My 6 years work experience

I started my career in May 1999 by providing computer training to end-users and school students in a small concern for a period of 10 months. The next 5 years of my professional career can be summarized as 1 year and 1 month in general management and 3 years and 11 months in Project Management, Technical Support and Software Development in Visual FoxPro 6.0 and Visual Basic 6.0. From January 2008 onwards, I am involved with a startup call center at Bangalore and working from 6 PM to 12:00 AM, 5 days a week, in a UK process and am also planning to work simultaneously with any other organization. Till date, I have completed 6 years work experience and have been involved with 6 organizations out of which two belonged to the same proprietor, two partnership concerns, a private limited company and a well known NGO.

Formality vs professionalism

○ Formality is a standard but professionalism is the need

○ Professionalism and formality goes side by side but can be mutually exclusive depending on the situation

○ Formality may become irrelevant from time to time but professionalism always stands the test of time

○ The priority goes to formality at school and professionalism at work

○ It is the democratic alliance between formality and professionalism that makes a happy life

An alternate employment system

Generally most of the companies pay an amount equivalent to or more than the candidate’s salary to the consultants for their referral. Instead what the companies can do is, after an initial screening, sign a one month contract with the candidate and make him/ her work while being with him/ her and evaluate his/ her performance on a daily basis. If, at the end of the month, that is more than the average performance, then the company may retain the candidate or otherwise let him/ her go while paying them the minimal salary. In this way, you get a month’s time to judge a candidate’s potential instead of waiting for 6 months or a year to prove his/ her inability to perform.

Difference between an organisation and a country

○ In an organisation you can recruit people as per your choice but in a country you have to accept every citizen.

○ In an organisation you can sack the underperformers, but in a country your government may change if you are unable to develop the living standards of everyone.

○ In an organisation your staff may resign if they don’t like you but in a country the people will make you resign instead.

○ You can shut off your organisation and start new ones but in case of countries, modification of geographical boundaries is only possible.

○ You can be the owner of an organisation but not a country.

Why life is not fair?

Because we are not the only one who are playing the game. There may be other powers as well. Life is complicated and we don’t know much about it till date. So, till now we have to follow Charles J. Sykes who advised us to get used to it.

Slow down to be focused

Life is not ‘now’; it is not ‘today’, neither is it ‘tomorrow’ or ‘yesterday’. It is the total time period from our birth till death that should be considered. Our lifespan will neither increase nor decrease irrespective of how fast we move forward. Voluntary exits from life is not accepted by time and it is really a very few who can determine when to quit. To make a difference in the long run, all our short-term objectives should be directly or indirectly contributing to the final outcome. The correct speed at which we are both comfortable and steady should be maintained to be on time at our preferred destination provided we choose the best route for us to reach there. On the other hand, unable to define any long-term objectives may divert us in the wrong direction irrespective of our performance.

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

– Eddie Cantor

Towards a better academic system

We learn to get a certificate which in turn helps us to get a job. It doesn’t makes much sense for those who are already employed (based on their level of knowledge and irrespective of what certificates they have) until and unless required for a promotion or a new job. A certificate can’t ensure our performance, which is the only criterion to be in the job, provided it is not a government organization. Similarly, not having a certificate can’t stop us from doing what we can, provided it is not something illegal. We actually don’t need a certificate to prove that we are human beings and can speak English. It is only required when people can’t judge us on their own and need a third party to verify on what we are up to. Therefore, not having a certificate doesn’t really mean that we are unable to do a specific task. It actually depends on whether every one of us would be able to wait for years spending time and money to get a certificate on what we may be already doing at work on a regular basis against which our salary (plus incentives, if any) is paid by the organization at the beginning of every month. Considering the fact that the training provided may neither be worthy nor required (as it depends on the teaching ability and willingness of the trainers), it seems to be like a product for which we pay now and have to wait for one, two or three years to get it delivered. Therefore, it would be much appreciated if the examination/ certification system, irrespective of its formal academic level (which could be bound to respective age criteria, if necessary), remains open throughout the year with optional training for those who can afford spending both time and money for the guidance that they really need. The system should be able to provide CBTs and online resources while evaluating our knowledge/ skills through a speedy process. This has already been successfully applied for various technical certifications and can be applied for formal education as well.

What is destiny?

Destiny is a matter of cumulative choice where the options are limited and predetermined based on our past actions but can change from time to time depending on natural, political and socio-economic circumstances. That is the reason why we are yet not being able to get rid of poverty, corruption, pollution, illiteracy and terrorism, the basic obstacles in the path of development. It is our destiny for which we were born on a specific date and time, and it is our destiny that will define our death as well. A life unlimited will be full of waste as we will always have enough time to do what we can to make this world a better place to live. Death is important for the overall development of mankind if we consider life as a project where we have to leverage our optimum potential within a specific time period leading to speedy development. It also helps nurture humanity as we can understand that there is no use of being selfish as sooner or later everyone has to leave everything behind and make our exits from this world. In fact, there will be no crime, no corruption and no sin on this earth when we will be able to understand the true meaning of mortality. Our successors are supposed to be more intelligent than us and it is our destiny to make way for them.

But can we change our destiny? We should try our level best to do whatever we wish to and everything else is a matter of time. If something doesn’t works out properly then there should be a reason behind it that needs our attention. The more we know about this universe, the better we can understand of what life is all about. It is always our incomplete knowledge/ information that lead us towards wrong decisions. We need to be very sure of what platform we are going to provide to our successors; otherwise there is no sense in increasing the population. The earth will still rotate around the sun irrespective of our existence.

Once upon a time… dated 01/01/2508

“Once upon a time there was a system called the formal education system where people had to wait for a minimum period of 15 years to get the eligibility to enter into a standard profession. It was a hierarchy based system where knowledge was being segregated into years of compulsory training and people had to wait for years to get a certificate irrespective of their level of knowledge. There was no performance measurement system for the teachers and it was always the students’ fault if they could not come out satisfactorily. Learning anything outside the syllabus was totally irrelevant and impractical. Students were more concentrated on getting more marks simply by memorizing the answers irrespective of whether they understood it or not or by means of a mechanism called suggestions. There was no satisfactory system to evaluate personal growth or mind power and whoever could not fall into the track for various reasons were deprived of contributing something better in their professions without spending years while going back in time to start from the beginning of the course.

“Now, while celebrating New Year 2508, we the global citizens of this world wonder of how unrealistic it was to accept it as a system as it consumed almost 25% of a human being’s lifespan without any satisfactory outcome. Ultimately, in most of the cases, what they learned and remembered was all at work and the rest of their knowledge could have been gained in a much lesser time and in a far better way as we are doing today. Mankind could have been 100 years ahead of where we are today if we could have avoided wasting our time in such a silly system that had been carefully nurtured by our esteemed ancestors.”

It is sometimes difficult to understand

It is true that we all don’t know about everything on earth and in this universe. It is also true that a very few do really understand all of what mankind came to know till date. It depends upon our perception on how quickly we can understand things irrespective of our age, experience or knowledge. Information is required to know something, but to use that information in a proper way we need to deeply understand all the perspectives. Therefore it is sometimes difficult to perceive the correct picture of life even though we may have all the information, knowledge and experience. It is important to identify that state to rectify ourselves and take effective decisions for our own benefit.

Never stop learning

It is learning that makes us a better person. Freely willing to learn to whatever we wish to, helps us in our personal development and individual growth. Conventional thinking and learning procedures leads us towards a predefined objective. But it is unconventional thinking and the urge from within to know the unknown that led towards major discoveries and inventions. Therefore it is important to think positively but differently from how the conventional system teaches us to think and learn in our own way. After all, our human brain doesn’t depend on the system to start thinking and therefore can’t wait for the system to teach us of what we should know.

"It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning."

– Jiddu Krishnamurti

2008 @ Bangalore

Happy New Year 2008, originally uploaded by M.Jacob.

I will be starting for Bangalore on tomorrow evening regarding a new job. A friend of mine is helping me very much in this regard.

The system is not enough

The developer(s) of the system as well as the people who are responsible for its day-to-day running should be legally accountable for anything directly or indirectly related with the system and its possible outcomes. Any system that can’t predict or define its outcomes doesn’t qualify as a system and needs urgent attention.

To run a system, we need operators. But to maintain a system, we may need people who are superior to a system and capable of updating it as and when required. There is nothing called an ultimate system and it is time that makes a system relevant or obsolete.

When we don’t need a degree?

1. When we have five years equivalent work experience
2. When we have global certification(s)
3. When we are running our own organization
4. When we are willing to work in any organization
5. When we can understand that formal education has a time factor involved and after a certain period of time it may start losing its relevance. Instead there are alternate ways to upgrade our skills that needs to be explored.

What I have learned from life

• Even if we don’t like the system, it is important to be within the system and try to change it as far as possible until we are able to switch to an alternate system.

• The outcomes of our every decision should be very clear to us before taking any action. Otherwise we may simply end up in wasting our time and resources.

• The fastest and steady wins the race when there is a practical destination to reach for and we know how to reach there considering the rules that may be updated or changed from time to time.

I only expect a happy journey from life

Life is a journey. So let’s complete it. Why expect anything other than a happy journey when we can’t take away anything with us?

Why do we need a degree?

Mainly for the following reasons:

1. To prove that we are knowledgeable/ intelligent
2. To fulfill the default criteria to get a standard job
3. To learn something in a formal way
4. To become a certified consumer of the education industry
5. Because there is no other way to measure our mind power and intelligence?

The loops of life

Sometimes it happens that we fall within the loops of life and find it difficult to come out of the repeated routines. Every time the condition that runs the loop comes out to be true and we become bored with our daily life. We fail to proceed forward and nothing new happens. Under those circumstances it is very important to understand the condition for which the loop is running so that we can change the values of the variable(s) of the condition. And to do that, we may have to adopt several new measures…

1. It may be time to consider for a major career move.
2. Changing place is a very good option to be in a new environment which may in turn be an opening to new opportunities.
3. It may be time to get rid of some old nasty habits.
4. No risk no gain and too much of security may sometimes be an obstacle to personal development.
5. May be it’s time to be practical. We may be living in our own world which may be far away from reality.

The vital thing is to change the system to get better outcomes. And as soon as we get better outcomes out of our daily routine, the variables of our life gets new values. On the other hand, if the quality of our life drops substantially, we may come out of the loop only to find ourselves in some worst situation. Thinking constructively, being positive and doing the right thing at the right time are highly desirable to avoid such situations.

Life

We don't have any choices to make until we are born; and when we are born, we find ourselves surrounded by different circumstances. From that point of time, we have to understand very well about what we are going to do with our human life. Certainly, our first priority should be to concentrate on our formal education as it is the default criteria to start working for a standard livelihood. But to get a practical view of the world around us is also of equal importance as it may eventually help us to broaden our career choices or help us to achieve our career objectives.

It is a very amazing fact that we didn’t exist before our birth and will not exist after our death. So, whatever we may do during our lifespan, we will not be able to live with it forever. But where will mankind be after thousands of generations to come? Nobody has seen the future and there is a lot that are yet to be discovered and invented. Unless we reach the end of the universe and are being able to answer all questions relating to our existence, we will never find out of what we are really into.

1½ months at Bhubaneswar

It’s another project for which I am working right now at Bhubaneswar. I am here from 7th of July 2007 and supposed to return back to Kolkata within 20th of this month.

Why is my life so different?

Simply because I am different… and being different makes all the difference. It means that until and unless I am being able to change myself, nothing is going to happen better.

Everyone and everything changes with time and therefore our situations also changes accordingly. It however depends on how much we can do to develop ourselves to put our steps forward in the path of growth.

Ambition to determine the future

In my childhood, I didn’t have any aim or ambition. Till date, I am living like there is no tomorrow and accepting life as it comes to me. This can be very risky and I may face trouble if I continue living without having a proper game plan. But when I am alone and ready to face any kind of challenge / situation, it doesn’t bother me at all. Where there is a will, there is a way and I am always ready to experiment with my life up to the maximum extent.

Learn to earn

Education is the basis of our professional life. Education is required to make us knowledgeable and capable to make things happen. And education is required to develop our mind for new challenges.

Education is a proof of our intellectuality.

But it is not necessary that all the richest persons on earth are the most educated. There are other ways of making money and the art of earning is little bit different from the art of learning.

About social service

That’s life?, originally uploaded by carf.

Every one of us is part of the society in which we live and is responsible for its development. We start with taking care of our family; then we think of our society and finally our nation as a whole. Some of us move forward to help the underprivileged, to make their life better than what it is. Most of us do it due to an urge from our heart and some of us have to do it professionally. But no matter how and why we do it, our every action has the scope to create a positive impact on our surroundings.

All our life long earnings and assets that we carefully save for the future will be still there even after our death. So, irrespective of how much selfish we are, at the time of our exit from this world, we shall not be able to take away anything with us. Our existence will one day vanish into vacuum but our work and belongings will remain on earth for the future generation.

There is a distinct difference between what we can give and what we can do for our society. Human resource is the most important resource which can make a positive difference on earth. It is therefore a great loss to miss someone who has been of great value and inspiration to this world. They create benchmarks for the generations to come of what height we can achieve as human beings.

How much and when we can do something for our society depends from time to time. But when we think of overall development of mankind, the underprivileged segment of our society cannot be ignored.

Broken home

It takes time to make a home. It also takes time to break a home. And finally when it is broken, you may not find ways to rebuild it with the same inhabitants. Some of them may be lost forever, and some of them may never come back.

A broken home always reminds you of pain and despair. It will be a mistake to be nostalgic when there is no one left behind waiting for you.

The game is not over

We will not be able to live our life all over again starting from our birth. Whatever we have lost is lost for ever and most of the mistakes that we did may be beyond recovery. But the future is waiting for us… full of challenges and hope. There is enough life left for everyone of us. May be 24 hours or 50 years, but let us struggle hard to make the rest of our life better than our past.

1 month at Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar

We have been here at Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar district since 18th February for updating and printing of supplement electoral roll which will be published on 16th of this month. Majority of the work (except printing of EPICs) has been completed and we will be returning back to Kolkata within a few days. The entire project has been divided into multiple phases…

1. Updating roll data (additions, deletions and modifications of electoral information)
2. Taking photographs of fresh electors
3. Scanning of photographs
4. Merging photographs with data
5. Printing of supplement photo roll
6. Printing Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs)

Since the beginning of my career, I have been into such projects that needed extensive traveling. Till now, I have visited almost all the Sub-Divisional headquarters of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar to supervise and provide support to our staff. All of us are very tired as we have worked day and night to complete the project successfully.

National Games 2007

We have been at 33rd National Games, Guwahati as support staff of CMC Ltd. on behalf of AMTRON for processing of ID-Cards for all sport persons and other officials. We have delivered more than 17000 cards and had a good time at Games Village.

We shall be moving out for Jalpaiguri on today regarding a project of WEBEL while a few members of our team are still present at Games Village, Guwahati. I am expected to return back to Kolkata by the middle of next month.

Back to work

This year has started with a positive note as I have joined one of my previous organizations, now a Pvt. Ltd. company, and completed a 15 days project at Bhubaneswar. I will be moving out for Assam on today regarding another project and hope to come back to Kolkata within February 20.

The main thing that I miss during outstation projects is a digital camera. At least, I could have managed a few photographs for this blog. The type of work in which I am right now gives me the opportunity to visit new places as well as deal with various types of projects which are mainly related to bulk data processing. But from technical point of view, development and technical support is the core area which needs maximum attention to complete the projects successfully.

Pre-qualification work experience

I have personally experienced the following about pre-qualification work experience, which may vary from organization to organization:

○ Some organizations doesn’t have any problem of hiring candidates without sufficient qualification if they are assured of his/ her performance which, at the end of the day, is the only thing that matters most

○ Organizations may pay less because of the candidate’s lack of qualification though his/ her performance may be up to the mark

○ The candidate doesn’t have enough scope for choosing better jobs, and thus less chances are there of his/ her leaving the organization

○ Candidates without qualification are bound to work harder than the general candidates as there is always a fear of loosing the job

○ His/ her ability to perform is being tested on a daily basis and there always exists an ego factor where some qualified candidates repeatedly try to prove that they are superior even if their performance is not competitive enough

And after all this, most of the companies consider only post qualification work experience as valid to register for their vacancies. If the qualification asked for is directly related to the job (which the candidate may obtain after completing his/ her pre-qualification work experience) but the candidate’s pre-qualification work experience is not relevant, then post qualification work experience doesn’t have any alternative. But otherwise work experience of any kind should be considered based on the type and quality of work.

The most difficult phase of my life

My mother died in the year 1994 and it was a turning point of my life. After her death, my life gradually started moving out of track and period from 1996 to 2006 can be considered as the most difficult phase of my life. As my younger brother was very close to my mother, he became a little bit abnormal after her death. A very negative family environment was also responsible for it. I also lost him in the year 2001 in an accident. Now only my father is alive who is staying at Agartala with my grandmother. One of my uncles is also there.

Though, within the last 10 years, I have completed my 5 years work experience and spent almost 3 years for professional/ technical qualifications, but still I was not being able to concentrate on my formal education. I also hadn’t given enough importance towards looking after my father’s finances. Today I could have been in a much better position if I had taken the above matters seriously on time. But, from a different point of view, I also think that the last 10 years has made me strong enough to stand on my own feet and capable enough to face any kind of situation. In my childhood, I was a very weak boy who used to cry a lot if someone said or did anything wrong to me. I am now a totally different person but have not lost my conscience.

May be, my life was meant to be the way it is and I do not have any regret in this regard. I will find out my way in due course of time but right now it is highly important to execute my planning for the coming years.

Life is a game, play it!

I have never taken life as seriously as I should but enjoyed, admired, experienced, honored, struggled and lived it to the fullest. The entire world is definitely a stage and we are playing our respective roles. The only difference here is that we don’t have to know the script well in advance to play it perfectly. Life has its own formula and nobody can alter it in any way. We simply fall in our personalized track of life and proceed forward in the tunnel of time. But still as we are unaware of the future, it seems like everything is possible. And in such a case, we play it as a game on a daily basis.

Mankind has its ambition of determining the future as well as courage to know the unknown. So far, we have been able to find out the laws of nature and utilize it to our own benefit. We know it very well that there is logic behind everything that happens and our willpower uses that logic to make things happen. Some of us have enough faith that there is a supreme power called God who can interfere in the day-to-day running of the universe. There may also be life outside the solar system. The universe as a whole is a much bigger place than what we can imagine of and it seems quite impossible to say when we will be able to gain 100% information about it. It will ever remain a playground for us and we have a very short time to fulfill all our wishes. Every second of our life is precious in that sense and should be used in a positive way.

Tell me something about yourself

Once I found it difficult to answer the above question.

When I first came to Kolkata, I started my life afresh while disconnecting myself with my family as well as my past. I developed my own identity in my own way while working with the organizations for a period of five years. But somehow I had to make a u-turn and restart my life as psychologically I was feeling like my existence was in a vacuum and started suffering from an identity crisis. Linking up my past and present was also required to execute my future plans. I found that, during the time-period that I was here at Kolkata, my father had lost a huge amount of money in the hands of his closest relative(s) due to his own foolishness. I don’t know whether someday I will be able to get back the money, but certainly it has taught me a good lesson of ignoring who I am.

My religion

My mother was a Hindu and my father was a Christian. After my birth, my father changed his religion to Hinduism. I have experienced both Christian and Hindu cultures in my childhood. Many of my friends were Muslims. As far as documents are concerned, I am a Hindu. But I don’t have any special feelings for any religion. All the religions are same to me and I respect other peoples’ religious sentiments. I believe that the one and only religion of mankind should be humanity. I don’t support any misdeed done in the name of religion and feel that all religions should teach us to contribute positively to this world. Politically speaking, M. K. Gandhi was right when he said, “To befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion.” Enmity is something which should be dealt in such a way that it can be transformed into friendship for a peaceful world. Nobody is here on earth to stay forever and we will not be able to take away anything with us. What matters here is our lifetime contributions and what we leave behind after our death. Selfishness of any kind which may harm others interests is the most unreligious thing to me. It is highly negative and should not be encouraged. We should expect what we are supposed to and anything more or less than that should be adjusted accordingly in due course of time.

My life prediction

My life prediction from a renowned portal says the following:

○ I will enjoy prosperous financial status from 30^th year onwards.
○ I will settle in life by 33 years of age.
○ There are prominent chances that I will earn much from overseas.
○ There are prominent chances that I will receive much in inheritance.
○ I will have a spacious modern home. There are fair indications that I will settle abroad.

As a matter of fact, astrology is not science. But still I do have some interest in it as it deals with the future. There is no other way but to match the prediction with the actual happenings of my life to check whether it is correct.

Nothing can happen just because it has to without any logic. So if the above prediction is correct, then it should have some logical foundation. The astrologer thus rightly said, “There were no sheer lucks for you. Your career might have started from grass root level and you will gradually achieve success in your life.”

Honesty is the best policy

The above statement is true for people who are practical as well as intelligent enough to fight for the positives of life. My grandfather was a very honest person. My father too is honest and intelligent (retired Executive Engineer, Government of Tripura). But both of them were not practical enough. This is the reason behind a property related family dispute and other misfortunes.

When we are practical, intelligent, positive and honest to ourselves and others – we can be very sure of one thing that we are in the right track of life which leads us towards progress. If we make any mistake in calculating our position of where we stand and misinterpret the corresponding ground realities, our projections also becomes baseless. It is sometimes ours as well as others ego factor that becomes an obstacle in accepting all the facts of life. But ultimately what stands the test of time is simply the truth.

It is difficult to quit smoking

10 years ago, I casually started smoking to shrug off my good-boy image and gradually it became a regular habit as well as addiction. Cigarettes worth more than Rs. 60,000 had gone up in smoke and it was then that I decided to stop smoking. I tried several times but it was all in vain. Thomas Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”. Sometimes it is our lack of willpower which makes us vulnerable to any kind of addiction. It is a very strange psychology that compels us to simply ignore any kind of statutory warning at the cost of our life. Perhaps we try to tame and dominate anything that is harmful to us but it is always better to overcome such tendency especially when we are not sure of victory.

8 years @ Kolkata

I first came to Kolkata in the year 1998. Till date, I have stayed in and around Charu Market, Behala, Thakurpukur, Dum Dum, Garia and Gariahat. I have worked with 5 organizations out of which I was in a proprietary concern for 2 years and 8 months and was involved with an NGO for a total period of 1 year and 1 month. While working at the proprietary concern, I had coordinated many bulk data processing projects (mainly of Election Commission of India) conducted by CMC and Webel, both of which are Limited Companies. And while working with the NGO, I was responsible for the departmental activities regarding personnel and communications. I have also worked with an ISO 9001 Pvt. Ltd. Company and two other partnership concerns.

I have always contributed my level best to the growth and goodwill of the organizations wherever I have worked. It has been a long journey for me and I have developed myself during the process. My hard work and dedication towards my job kept the doors of the organizations open for me even after I left. But as time passed by, I was in search of a better job profile which was not possible with my current educational qualification and technical expertise.

During the last 8 years, I have met with many people with whom I had a very good relationship. But currently I am not directly in touch with any one of them. My friend circle has also changed with time. But whenever I think of my past, a few faces do come to my mind whom I shall never be able to forget.

So far, Kolkata has been a very lucky place for me. In future also, I would love to stay here depending on my career prospect. Frankly speaking, I never think of going back to my permanent residence at Agartala where only my father is alive. He was here with me for a period of 1½ year but finds himself more comfortable in his home town.