Magician

Put about 100 bricks in some
Particular order in a closed
Room with an
Open window.

Then send 2 or 3 candidates in
The room and close the door.

Leave them alone and come back
After 6 hours and then analyze
The situation.

If they are counting the
Bricks.
Put them in the accounts
Department.

If they are recounting them..
Put them in auditing .

If they have messed up the
Whole place with the bricks.
Put them in engineering.

If they are arranging the
Bricks in some strange order.
Put them in planning.

If they are throwing the
Bricks at each other.
Put them in operations.

If they are sleeping.
Put them in security.

If they have broken the bricks
Into pieces.
Put them in information
Technology.

If they are sitting idle.
Put them in human resources.

If they say they have tried
Different combinations, yet
Not a brick has
Been moved. Put them in sales.

If they have already left for
The day.
Put them in marketing.

If they are staring out of the
Window.
Put them on strategic
Planning.

And then last but not least.
If they are talking to each
Other and not a single brick
Has been
Moved.

Congratulate them and put them
In top management.

OSLO, Norway - Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans — microcredit — to lift millions out of poverty.

Through Yunus’s efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cell phone they desperately needed to get ahead.

The 65-year-old economist said he would use part of his share of the $1.4 million award money to create a company to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor. The rest would go toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh, he said.

( this is derived from a guest blog I wrote for Shaunak)

Here is something that worries me, yesterday I spotted this store next to Ozone in Aundh…its called Bonsaii or something…apprently its a lifestyle/luxury store for… hold your breath…KIDS!!!….aged between 6 n 13!!!!

I doubt if I could spell luxury correctly till I was 12 . The point I am trying to make is that I have started feeling a generation gap with kids barely six years younger than me. I think for many many reasons their lives are getting totally devoid of any imagination what so ever. I remember us as kids, when seven stones, a rubber ball and some open ground could keep us entertained for hours. When we barely had to bother with books after school hours ( I barely bothered with school books even during school hours), lessons of life were learnt over numerous rounds of hopskotch,dodgeball, tree climbing, gola eating and jumping into puddles of rain. Basically anything that made you go home with a bleeding knee/elbow, a new pet , an interesting rock or even Diarrhoea was an evening well spent…ok I pushed it with the Diarrhoea but i guess you get my point.

From another point of view, I think this is the coolest marketing gimmick ever…I am sure most of the young 12 yr old guys shopping at Bonsaii right now will grow up to be…ahem ahem …metrosexual men!!! I am quite certain all of this comes out from the same factory and is a part of a larger conspiracy thats aimed at enlarging the consumer base for cosmetics ( eg. ‘Fair and Handsome’, the hoardings for which read ” Hey Man, do you wear bangles?” ,”Then why do use a girls Fairness Cream?”. I can now visualise Sunny paji in his next flick scream out ” Maine bhi koi choodiyan nahi peheni hai, mai toh fair and handsome lagaanewalon mein hu!!”)

But the word ‘metrosexual’ was the greatest tragedy of our times, initially I never understood why such hype was created around men who were having sex in(or maybe with) trains, the ‘mile high club’ I think might just deserve some of the hype…but trains!?!??!….Hell no. I am quite sure that this trend hardly spread beyond a square kilometer area in cuffe parade and square meter areas in Andheri and Bandra, but you see, these metrosexual men were changing their haircuts/haircolors, clothes n noses so fast, and being photographed so frequently, we thought there were a lot more of them than the actual number.

Though I do believe in grooming, I have studied in an engineering college, where the concept of a deodarant ( or even a bath) hadnt quite caught on, but there needs to be a line drawn between deo and lip balm! And we need to draw this line asap before life becomes more difficult for a lot of pretty young things who will now have to compete with men when it comes to (previously women dominated domains such as) fairness, glossy lips and cleavage display.

But the word metrosexual is a little outmoded now, we now even have ubersexual men, retrosexual men and I am hoping a few heterosexual men have survived as well. Although, one very interesting question does remain unanswered, why do advertisers need such fancy new terms for only men, why dont we have any terms like “metrosexual women” so to speak?

I guess its because they dont need to be very imaginitive to convince a woman to pay an amount equal to her rent to buy a new lipstick, she might just pay double for the new L’oreal Glam Shine Holographic Lipstick ( kindly do not ask what a holographic lipstick is).

Yantra means a “talisman”, or “instrument” or ” Amulet” or “Kavach” which, if prepared and created by a qualified person as well as utilised under his specific instructions for fruitful results, will help to gain the objector objects of desire or ambition. Although it would not be a difficult task for most of us to copy the form of a yantra, it would not have the desired effect. Furthermore, to be perfectly honest, it would be all but useless if not created by a qualified person and then “infused” with the specific energy via the medium of mantra. Otherwise, it becomes just an interesting form or picture to look at, but has no real effect on time or circumstances within life.

Yantras should always be used on the level. If drawn on paper the colours preferable are red, orange, yellow or a combination of these. A Yantra without bija mantras is dead. They can be drawn to whatever size is required. In worship they should be placed level on a pedestal or pitha. Before any Yantra is a suitable object for puja, it must be given life (pranapratishta).