Plight…!

SimpliCITY…!

If you are an urbanite enjoying a luxurious life, THIS message is particularly for YOU! You must have heard an idiom, ‘The bottom is all very crowded but there’s always room at the top…’ In this case that room at the top – in the mountains – is made to face the music because of the crowd in the streets of a town or city.

On the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, let us reflect on one of the primary principles of wholesome life he tried to inculcate in the people… Simple Living! Please start Living Simply yourself in this moment of realization and like, share and join #ilivesimply-movement.

Visit http://hial.edu.in/ilivesimply-movement/ to find out the ways you can participate in it.

“If you want to go Fast,
Go Alone…
If you want to go Far,
Go Together.”
Similarly
If you want to live Short,
Live Luxurious…
If you want to live Long,
Live SIMPLE!

Inclusive Sustainable Development doesn’t get any simpler, by the way… Way to go!

हमारीही मुठ्ठीमें…

कधी वेळेअभावी, कधी साधनांच्या कमतरतेमुळे, कधी आवश्यक तेवढ्या चिकाटी अभावी कधी निव्वळ अनास्थेने तर कधी निखळ आणि ओतप्रोत भरून आलेल्या कंटाळ्यामुळे ज्या अनेक छोट्या छोट्या गोष्टी करायच्या राहून जातात त्या किती जाणीवा समृद्ध करणाऱ्या आणि आत्मिक अनुभूती बरोबरच उत्कट आनंद देणाऱ्या असू शकतात याची पक्व प्रचीती म्हणजे आयुष्य! त्याशिवायच का कुणीसं म्हणून ठेवलय, ‘लाईफ इज व्हॉट हॅपन्स टू यू व्हाईल यू आर बिझी मेकिंग अदर प्लॅन्स…’ आज हे तत्वचिंतन (फिलॉसोफी, यू नो!) आठवण्याचं कारण म्हणजे अनेक वर्षांपासून, म्हणजे नितेशच्या पहिल्या भेटीपासून, ‘सावली’ला भेट देण्याचं भिजत पडलेलं घोंगड परवाच्या मुहूर्तावर पाण्यातून बाहेर पडून उन्हं बघतं झालं, तो योग!

सावली…!

‘वाचाल तर वाचाल’ हा संस्कारक्षम वयातला मनावर खोलवर रुजलेला संस्कार, सभोवताली त्याला पोषक वातावरण आणि ‘दिसामाजी काहीतरी ते लिहावे। प्रसंगी अखंडित वाचीत जावे।।’ हा समर्थांचा सार्थ उपदेश यामुळे आम्हाला वाचनाचे व्यसन जडले. आयुष्यातील या पहिल्याच हितकर व्यसनाला कधीही मुक्तांगणची गरज लागली नाही, उलट त्याच्या नवनवीन पातळ्यांवर अधिकाधिक मोठ्या ग्रंथभांडाराचा परिचय होत गेला, जगणे समृद्ध होत गेले. रोजची वर्तमानपत्रे, मासिके, दिवाळी अंक, कथा-कवितासंग्रह, कादंबऱ्या, चरित्रे, व्यक्तिचित्रे, प्रवासवर्णने, ललित, स्फुटं आणि छापून आलेला जवजवळ प्रत्येक शब्द वाचण्याची अनावर ओढ आम्हाला वाचक करती झाली.

Coexistence…!

“All the Natural Resources, which cannot be produced in laboratories, are being scarce day-by-day and if Third World War happens it would be over Water which is the first and foremost Principal Natural Resource required to start and sustain a life…”

New Vertical…!

2019 being it’s fourth year, Nespresso Talents is a unique competition of creativity that empowers VVF – Vertical Video Film-making – shooting with your smartphone (i-phone, to be precise!) holding it upright. It is needless to say that with the limitations of this format (just 3 minutes, can you believe it…?) you are pressed to bring out the profound meaning from the original content that you choose for your story.

Smokeless…!

Yesterday we witnessed an Idea that can change the way underprivileged people can cook their meals with literally zero fuel. Apart from providing a smoke-free wholesome cooking experience, this Stove can make an Impact in conserving the Environment in a big way with its optimized Thermal Efficiency that uses only the dry-wood in form of Twigs that become the dust or go to the landfill, otherwise. No Tree Cutting, No Coal Extraction from Mines, No Petroleum Refinery… just a walk around under the sky beneath the trees and you find the ‘fuel’ for your family meal! It doesn’t get any Economical or Eco-friendly than this, we believe!

Crowdfunding

A friend active in a Fort Restoration Group once shared an experience of how he appealed to the people visiting the fort on that day to support the cause of Fort Restoration generously, how they started to contribute instantaneously and voluntarily and how this contributing small amounts gathered momentum to collect a sizable sum as the day progressed from morning to evening. ‘Crowd-funding’ doesn’t get any simpler. If you are new to the concept of ‘Crowd-funding’ and want to know more about it, this small incidence can provide you enough knowledge to get going and let us fragment it into smaller pieces, just like my good old wise friend did on that particular day, at that particular place.

क्षमता बांधणी

धर्मादाय सह आयुक्त तथा सार्वजनिक न्यास नोंदणी कार्यालय, पुणे यांच्या वतीने दि. २३ ऑक्टोबर २०१७ रोजी ‘न्यास नोंदणी रद्द करणेबाबतची चौकशीची जाहीर नोटीस’ प्रसारित करण्यात आली आणि या मोहिमेअंतर्गत सुमारे १००० संस्थांना चौकशीस सामोरे जाऊन कारवाईस तोंड द्यावे लागले हे आपण २ नोव्हेंबर २०१७ रोजी इथेच वाचले होते. आजच्या ताज्या बातमीनुसार याच मोहिमेच्या पुढच्या टप्प्यात तब्बल १ लाख २९ हजार ६५२ संस्थांना निष्क्रिय ठरविण्यात आले असून त्यांची नोंदणी रद्द करण्यात आली आहे. यातील पुणे विभागातील १३ हजार ८३० संस्था निष्क्रिय ठरल्या. या अतिशय गंभीर आणि महत्वाच्या विषयाबद्दल वेळोवेळी जाणीवजागृती करून आणि आपल्या संस्थेच्या व्यवस्थापनात व्यावसायिकतेचा अंतर्भाव करण्याबद्दल सतत आग्रह धरूनही असे का घडावे याचा थोडा मुळात जाऊन उहापोह केल्यास काय आढळते?

SMART…?

The Management stream loves jargon and even among jargon’s Acronyms (short forms) tops the list. One of such acronym that was the buzzword a decade ago (and still pops out at certain occasions, particularly in the expression of an enthusiast trying to fit his/her head under the hat of a Management Consultant!) is SMART! You might find as many full forms of SMART as the thought leaders could make up, however the most popular till date is Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or Achievable), Relevant (or Realistic) and Time-bound (or Timely). And it is about Goal-setting, mind you! Because this Artificially Intelligent adjective is prefixed to ‘Objectives’ and it is preached to be the first step of successful management, ‘one should set clear and precise Objectives – the outcomes to be achieved through a process’ and these Objectives should be SMART; it has nothing to do with the SmartPhone or the Smart people, by the way, in fact it’s other way round!

ACT…?

We are in the Fifth Year of CSR in India and with the philosophy of ‘Whole is greater than sum of its parts’, we should now commence our journey towards qualifying exam from Fifth Standard at Secondary School with the knowledge, skills and understandings that our Primary Education bestowed upon us. Why this review of our ‘Primary Education’ and an account of insights gained in due course is important has two reasons – First, till this very moment many wrong notions and misunderstandings prevail about the fundamental idea behind CSR and secondly the ‘Act’ needs to be understood, imbibed, implemented and undertook in letter and spirit, beyond the statistics and reports.

Initiative…!

From the recent rollback on the Plastic Ban, it is evident that ‘Enacting’ or ‘Banning’ anything has a little success, if not a complete failure! Do we really need to ban anything or do we need a fundamental change in our mindset as a society…?

This story of a small town in South India shows how People with right intentions and honest initiative can bring the transformation along-with finding a place in Guinness Book of Records… an achievement that deserves applauds and faithful following!

Way to go…!

SoP

As I am on a continuous quest to explore my SOP [Statement of Purpose], I keep working on my profile and, in the process, always find something that needs a tweak. As a result, I have generated many versions of myself and at times this question come haunting me in the nightmare – Who am I? A Marathi Poem ‘Koham‘ I have penned with the similar feeling describes it well philosophically and my well-received LinkedIn Profile has versions to describe my endeavor professionally. Following is one of the version of my LinkedIn Summary that was appreciated greatly by my network and it is needless to say that it is dear to me otherwise as well! See how it resembles to the ‘I’ that you know…?

26th Day of November

“If the Indian constitution is our heritage bequeathed to us by our founding fathers, no less are we, the people of India, the trustees and custodians of the values which pulsate within its provisions! A constitution is not a parchment of paper; it is a way of life and has to be lived up to. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and in the final analysis; its only keepers are the people. Imbecility of men, history teaches us, always invites the impudence of power…!”

With these words in the conclusion of his book ‘Making of India’s Constitution’, Justice Khanna – a righteous visionary – warns us and wants to make us alert about our responsibility. If we – the Indians – read, learn and reflect on this, which rather is a Statutory Warning than a message, we certainly would take a step towards living up to the Constitution that we have adopted, enacted and given to ourselves on 26^th Day of November 1949. And while respecting the fact that the Architects of our Constitution had been liberal to allow the revision of it realizing the need for its responsiveness to the sociopolitical conditions from time to time, any such amendment was not meant to damage the essence of it in any way or by anyone!

चला, पालकत्व साजरे करू या…!

पालकत्व ही जगातील एकमेव अशी गोष्ट आहे जी आधी स्वीकारावी लागते आणि मगच ‘शिकता’ येते.  शिकून सवरून पालकत्व करण्याची सोय अत्याधुनिक जगात देखील नाही याचे कारण असा कुठलाही कोर्स अथवा अभ्यासक्रम जगाच्या पाठीवर मुळी उपलब्धच नाही. तरीदेखील सजग, सटीक आणि सुजाण पालकत्व हे समाजधारणेचे सगळ्यात महत्वाचे आणि अतिशय संवेदनशील असे साधन आहे. याचे कारण म्हणजे व्यक्तींच्या समूहाने समाज बनतो, समाजाच्या एकोप्याने राष्ट्र घडते आणि राष्ट्रांच्या सहयोगातून मानवतेचे विराट दर्शन होऊ शकते. तथापि व्यक्तीच्या भाव-भावना, भान-जाणीवा, विचार-कल्पना, चिंतन-मनन, स्वभाव-वर्तन यांची जोपासना गर्भधारणेपासून सुरु होते आणि देहावसनापर्यंत निरंतर चालू असते आणि या जोपासनेमधील प्रमुख घटक असतो व्यक्तीचे कुटुंब. संस्कारक्षम वयात मुला-मुलींना ज्या वातावरणात वाढवले जाते, ज्या सभोवतालात ती श्वास घेतात आणि ज्या परस्पर वर्तणूक आणि सहसंबंधांच्या प्रेरणांचा ते अनुभव घेतात त्याची स्पंदने त्यांच्या अंतर्मनावर खोल उमटून आयुष्यभर त्यांची सोबत करतात; एवढेच नव्हे तर त्यांच्या आचार-विचारांना दिशा देतात.