AGNEEPATH AGNEEPATH AGNEEPATH-My learning from it

Once in my school(probably class 3-4, if i`m not wrong), read the poem AGNEEPATH AGNEEPATH AGNEEPATH and as an anxious kind was told by hindi teacher that the poet Shri Harivansh Rai Bachchan ji was the father of, the then and still the Badshah Of Bollywood Mr Amitabh Bachchan. At that point, i saw this piece of writing as just an ordinary poem. But i tell you what, a few days back realised the real meaning behind the poem and i tell you, its been an eye opener.

A day when the things were not going in the desired  way, the gloom descended upon and thus came the bout of negativity and negative thoughts. Though, i should accept that some way or the other my judgement was wrong and the decision was proved wrong. But next morning, as i was bathing, suddenly a scene from the movie AGNEEPATH ran again and again in my mind. The scene where the main character Vijay Deena Nath Chohan runs through the sea of fire was running in mind without a pause. Through out the breakfast and journey to the office, the scene was running in my mind and the dialogues were just unstoppable. As soon as i reached my office, quickly searched out for this poem through Google, read it almost twice and thus was able to give some sort of peace to my mind. For the entire day, the poem was there on my desktop and red it after regular intervals.

That day i realized the true meaning of this poem. The poem simply states that every moment, every second, every minute,every day is a struggle, an AGNEEPATH(a path of fire) for the human being. I have learnt a lot from this poem and shall always remember the true meaning behind these lines. The poem has truly inspired me. When ever i am dejected and gloomy, i read this beautiful poem and gain back my confidence and myself.

link for the poem : http://www.geeta-kavita.com/hindi_sahitya.asp?id=93

INVESTMENT IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

“EVERY ATTEMPT MADE TO ELIMINATE THE GAP FAILED. AS THE PROMOTERS HELD A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF EQUITY, THE CONCERN WAS THAT POOR PERFORMANCE WOULD RESULT IN A TAKE–OVER, THEREBY EXPOSING THE GAP. IT WAS LIKE RIDING A TIGER, NOT KNOWING HOW TO GET OFF WITHOUT BEING EATEN.”

Whenever we talk about corporate governance, the above written words are surely to sound in your mind. Yes, these are golden words of confession of the CHAIRMAN, SATYAM COMPUTERS SERVICES LTD, B RAMALINGA RAJU.

If in near future, we want to prevent any other Chairman or CEO from saying these lines again, start investing in corporate governance now.

Corporate governance is currently the most talked about topic since the serious revelation by Ramalinga Raju. The same Ramalinga Raju was once hailed the leader of IT industry, but now has found his solace behind the bars.

The corporates need to understand that in order to work efficiently and in a transparent manner, it has to invest in corporate governance not only in monetary terms but also in moral and ethical terms. By corporate governance, i mean an unbiased administration, policy framing and execution of operations free from any sort of mal-practices.

An investment, in most cases, brings out profit to the investor, similarly a timely investment by the corporates towards administration certainly bear the sweetest fruits in terms of corporate image and business. If the corporates need to march ahead in their respective fields and earn a brand name, then transparent corporate governance is the key to that lock.

Corporates always have a responsibility towards the society, its employees, customers and investors. The above mentioned individuals (society, its employees, customers and investors), will always have questions for the corporate:

SOCIETY - whether the corporate has done anything towards the welfare of the society as a whole or for the most down trodden members of the society?

EMPLOYEES - why they are not being rewarded their dues inspite of achieving their targets or how the decision making can be made more transparent from the employee’s point of view so as to avoid any sort of in-fights?

CUSTOMERS - a customer shall always question about price, quality, advertising and other promotional activities.

INVESTORS - What has the corporate done with the money invested by them?

The answer to all the above questions or other related questions can be given only if the company has a transparent style of governance.

The devil of corporate malpractices can find its roots in its own way of functioning. In today’s corporate world, the working styles have changed drastically. Now they follow ‘PERFORMANCE BASED INCENTIVE’ work culture. Annual targets have been defined at the start of the financial year and should be clinched, as instructed by the senior management. The work force has no option but to take every possible route to clinch those pre-determined targets, be it working with unethical means. Moreover if at any point the workforce tries of quitting these mal-practices, the lure of the incentives offered always fuel the desires of the workforce to take that unethical path. So, the corporate administration should always keep a check on such bogus works, detect it before it happens and severely reprimand the guilty & for this proper, clear guidelines should be laid out. The buck does not stop here, even the works of senior-most administrators should be scrutinized at times. The corporates should have an autonomous body which will look not only into the style of functioning of the company but also the operating pattern of the entire industry also.

The topic reminds me of my school days. In junior school, i studied through the NCERT books. When you flip through some initial pages, i remember, one can find an Index, Foreword and a message. The message is titled as “GANDHI’S TALISMAN”, which summarizes as “WHEN YOU ARE CONFUSED AND UNABLE TO DECIDE, THINK WHETHER THIS DECISION OF YOURS IS IN ANY WAY GOING TO HELP THE DOWN TRODDEN.” This message when applied will help in better governance in corporate decisions and everyday life decisions.

Some of the form of investments in corporate governance can be listed as:

· Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)

By this type investment, the corporates can be made more reliable and responsible towards the entire society. The best example of an amalgamation of CSR and ethical administration can be the TATA Group. The Tata`s are known for their social work. Most of their earnings are always donated to the NGOs or directly to the needy section of the population. The corporates can invest in the CSR sector and help the society in a better way. They believe that they owe their success to the society and hence should always return something to the society.

· Include Spirituality in corporate decisions

It is a general belief that an individual is most afraid of the religion. Come what may, he/she shall never go against own religion. So when we try taking a corporate decision, the religion may always show a difference between the ethical and unethical. The best example here would be the common rule amongst the Hindu population in India ie a Hindu will never eat non-vegetarian food on all days, except Tuesdays. Can he/she go against it?

The answer is certain, no.

· Investments in Moral Education

Educational institutions should take the lead in this matter. The educational institutions can play a vital role in churning out morally, ethically fit future managers and administrators. These institutions be it at the school level or graduate level or post-graduate level should teach a compulsory subject on ethics and morals. Such type of investment once made would always bear the fruit throughout the lifetime. As a result, the tendency to achieve results through the unethical routs would be reduced.

· Re-Audits

Recently the Govt of India’s Department of Telecommunications had ordered re-audit of the accounts of all the telecom operators in India, for the fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008. The case started with so called under-reportings from Reliance Communications and was later the audit was applied to all telecom operators. Such surprise audit can be done by an independent body or a body appointed by the Company Law Board or by the Central Government, as the case may be. Such surprise audits would instill a fear of getting caught among the corporate administrators, thereby discouraging all sort of mal-practices. After all no corporate would like to be blacklisted by the Govt or revoking the licence.

· Social responsibility

The social responsibility is very much different from corporate social responsibility. Social responsibility always talks about an individual, about his/her own responsibilities towards the society, on the other hand CSR always takes into consideration the industry/company as a one entity. The theory of social responsibility can be drawn from a small tale in Hindi which can be interpreted as ‘small small droplets come together and finally result in the formation of a large ocean/sea’. Try bribing a Army soldier to betray his own motherland, the answer one gets is social responsibility. When each individual is socially responsible to his job, company and industry, there are very rare chances of mal-practices.

·Amendments to the Corporate laws

The Government of India should further make stricter amendments to the existing company laws. Its time now that Govt should act strict, such strictness would discourage corporate frauds.

As a conclusion to this article I’d like to end by a small saying “INVEST TODAY, REAP TOMORROW”. If the corporates start investing today, they’ll certainly reap a sweet fruit in future. Hard work, be it in any form, never goes waste, it is bound to give results. Therefore efforts put in this field will atleast bring out minimum result, if not the desired one.

NOTE : this article was submitted for my college magazine HARMONY and is the original work of the writer. The writer does not, in any way, wants to hurt the feeling of people and even if they r hurt, i`d like to apologise from the bottom of my heart. Thank you

THE DIARY WRITING HABIT

While I was searching out on a topic for my blog, I stumbled upon one topic which i`m to explain now. Today I shall talk about my Diary Writing Habit.

When I was 7-9 years old, I used to scribble a lot on paper using a pen or a pencil and then proudly show off that piece to my father. He in return asked me the meaning of the scribblings and as usual, I had no answers. Then came the adolescence age, I was in love with my pens and would go on to any extent to buy a new pen, eventhough I had a millions in my study-table drawers. From that time till today, I still have this habit and I love it. I enjoy working with my writing instruments ie my ball pens, fountain pens, gel pens, HB pencils, mechanical pencils, etc. You can imagine my love by one simple example: one my maiden foreign trip to China I bought myself a diary and 5-6 pens, I went for shopping and that’s what I could fine for myself. Even today, writing instruments and its accessories still tempt.

Well coming onto the main topic now. Once before the start of summer holidays, English subject homework was to write a diary each day and record the happenings of the day and your thoughts about it. I, as a obedient student which I still believe I am till date, started this homework from day one eventhough reluctantly. It soon became a habit and I started enjoying it. Summer vacations ended and school opened again, I still pursued that habit. As soon as I entered my senior secondary school, due to the studies and its related pressures the habit could not be continued but still I wrote my diary twice or thrice in a week. Then I entered engineering college and since there was not much of studies pressure, I again went towards it, but this time the frequency was low & sort of not-interested. But one fine day I was inspired by one of my friends to take this habit again and I was writing my diary again, and this time too it lasted not too long.

Now I write a different diary. Well the feelings, content, thoughts are same, the only thing that has changed is the Diary Page. Now I simply answer four questions, instead of mentioning my entire day`s activities. The answer to these four questions, summarizes my day`s productivity and my feelings. The four questions are:

§        Today I feel………..

§        Today I have learnt…………

§        Today i`m proud of…………

§        Today I commit to improve…………..

Well folks these are those prized four questions. These four questions, are the result of a workshop I attended. It was good workshop and i`m still following the mantras taught in that workshop. So, every night I just sit down on my study table, open this diary and write it with a different pen, as I told you I enjoy my writing instruments therefore this new pen tempts me to use it and that thing motivates me to write that diary. This diary is very special to me and I started answering these questions on 9^th May 2010 and till date I answer these questions.

In the end, i`d like to say that one must write diary, it helps in self-analysis. One can see his/her productivity through out the day, how was the day, what major happened in that day in his/her life, etc. It is like a physical record of the days happenings.

THE SO-CALLED INDUSTRIAL TRIP

In first trimester, our entire class went on a so-called industrial trip to a pharma company in Baddi (about 300 kms from Delhi). The bus started from the college premises early at 0530 hrs and reached Delhi by-pass at 0615 hrs where i and another classmate were scheduled to board the bus. So we reached on time, boarded on time and then started the LONG journey.

It was an A/C bus with a seating capacity of around 50 people but our strength was 54, so some were standing and many were seating but that was not a problem, we all adjusted well to the conditions. The route we were plying on refreshed my old memories of my trips to Ambala during my engineering study days.  For the onward journey we all played dumbshral arts (pardon me for spelling mistake, couldn`t figure out the correct spellings in Dictionary), and it was great fun to play it. I`m good at enacting the name of the movie but when it comes to guessing the name, i quite misjudge the acting and as a result guess the wrong name, but still i tried at it and guessed some correct names. We started that game when we were around Sonepat and continued uptill we reached Haveli, a motel in Karnal. Time for breakfast. My concentration was at clicking good phototgraphs for my orkut and facebook profile rather than the breakfast. Ours group was the late-latif when it came to boarding the bus, courtesy late breakfast service by the motel restaurants. So the journey began again, this time there was a surprise in waiting for us, i must mention it was not expected on our parts. A silly B-Grade movie staring Mithun titled "QATL-E-AAM" was being played. Taking note of the amount of vulgarity demonstrated in that movie in front of the entire students and teachers present, i think that movie shud be re-christened as  "SAR-E-AAM", immediate action was taken and that movie was shut down. We by-passed Ambala district and headed for the chandigarh-panchkula area, by passed those two citites too and reached Pinjore, the town famous for its Garden. From this point, the journey ahead must be around 60-70 kms and the condition of roads was so poor that it took almost 2 hrs for us to cross that section.

Some how we reached our destination, our first attack was on the snacks served in their canteen. Later visited the boiler section, water purification system, then the main area of production. Also went around the packaging area and before that we had to wear special clothes to prevent the entry of germ and bacteria. We were given a pair of trousers, a shirt, a pair of polythene bags to cover our shoes with and a plastic cap to wear before we entered the packaging area. One of my frnds was given only one polythene for his shoes and he mistook and wore that on his head. The so called visit must have taken around 1 hour and around 1600 hrs, we started for Delhi again. First stop was Pinjore Garden. All had some snacks and started again. This time also we played `the dare` game. We were to enact or sing or dance as a dare this game. Full of enjoyment. Imagine the dance steps when the driver of the bus applied breaks.......lol. So time for dinner and this time it was Mirchi restaurant about 5 kms from Ambala. We immeditely placed the order and to my surprise with 2-3 minutes our dinner was served. Now i know why the bus driver was adament for a dinner at this particular restaurant, well his strategy to have some extra earnings helped as we could finish our dinner early and go onto the bus to get our seats and prepare for a good nap. For the remaining trip, I slept and don`t know when we reached Delhi. A small nap was disturbed when the driver stopped over for tea and can u imagine, one of my close frnds was enjoying tea at time of the night. When we were entering Delhi, i had to make a decision, either call Dad at by-pass to pick me up or go to my friend`s house, which was on the way to college. I decided for the later part and camped at my frnd`s house. The bus dropped at a particular place, it was 0330 hrs. Must have taken around half an hour to reach his home. Upon reaching, we were figuring out wat to do now, as none of us feeling sleepy anymore. So we zeroed in on ‘Kismat Konnection’ movie. I was up till 0530 hrs, when i couldn`t take it anymore and decided to sleep for half an hour. Finally woke up at 0800 hrs, again started for my home and once i reached home again went to sleep and slept from 0930 hrs to 1400 hrs.

Morale of the Trip : For an industry visit of 1 hour, we traveled almost 24 hours (both onward and backward journey time) but fun, masti and enjoyment were unlimited. 

MAJOR CHANGES & THEIR IMPACTS ON ME

Ever since i gained conciousness, he has been undergoing a continous change in his personality and his inner-self. Here are some changes he experienced in personality from that day:

• EVOLUTION AS A READER : One of my close friends in graduation college had a habit of reading books and novels. I always made a habit to imbibe positive traits of other individual`s personality into my own. This led to the evolution of "THE READER Sitaksh Chhabra". Before that day, i would never be associated with reading but made it a point to take up reading as serious habit. Since then have read many titles such as If God was a Banker(by Ravi Subramanian), Five Points Someone, One Night At Call Centre, The 3 Mistakes of my Life(all three written by Chetan Bhagat), The Monk who sold his Ferrari(by Robin Sharma), Robinson Crusoe(by Daniel Defoe), The complete short stories of Sherlock Holmes(by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) to name a few. Also plan to read more titles like the winning way:learnings from sport for managers(by Harsha Bhogle and Anita Bhogle) and zero percentile(by Neeraj Chibba).
• THE LANGUAGE LAB : In engineering college, i had a special two hour class named as “THE LANGUAGE LAB” in which we had personality development activities such as debates, group discussions, self assessment activities, etc. Before this, i was a very shy person and would always hesitate in talking to other person. These classes somewhat helped me get out off the shell. The current personality traits in me can be attributed to these activities held in the engineering college. When on the first day, i entered into the classroom, i felt that if i had to dawn a new personality this was his catch and promised myself that i would contribute minimum 200% towards these activities. At the end of the classes, personality had turned 180 degree U-turn, earlier  used to shy away during a conversation but now hesitation had shooed away. I gained a new confidence in personality which would be reflected in my moves, talks, etc.

• WRITING DAILY MONETARY ACCOUNTS : Every night before going to bed, saw Dad writing daily expenses in a register. On enquiry about this, was told that this would show him his needs regarding money, amount of his spendings, where the money was being spent and for what purpose. This concept appealed and me also started writing daily expenses before sleeping at night. Its been about 2 years since  started this habit and has been constantly following it. This helps in a way to calculate his monthly spendings and where majority of spending have been done. The biggest responsibility for him came in 2008(starting from April) when for three months he handled the entire accounts of his family business. Till date since i joined my family business again, i`ve been keeping a tab in this regard.
• PERFECTION : Earlier i would always to do works only for the heck of it ie works were done because was asked to do them. But once heard about the concept of perfection,  decided to experiment with the idea of Perfectionism. The experiment started about a year ago and has been going on till today. The concept of perfection has changed me to a great extent. Earlier would compromise regarding the style of works, quality, etc but eventually this experiment implored me to work for the best. This concept deals with obtaining the best results until it matches with the imaginary picture in my own mind. Unless obtain the finest, would be repeating my efforts again and again. This concept changed me, this further led me to innovate the new ideas.
  After completing engineering from a college outside Delhi, when returned back to Delhi,  was asked to select a mobile number for himself. I must have gone through hundreds of thousands of new numbers in order to select a number but couldn`t find the perfect number ie a number that immediately appeals and was ready to go to any length to buy that connection and that too at any cost. Somehow, parents convinced  to get a temporary number and meanwhile kept looking for the perfect number. Must have changed about 6-10 numbers before zeroed in on the current number.
• BLOGGING : a cousin had her own blog wherein she would write her mind straight out. This inspired to create own blog. This created a new vent for my emotions and actions. The blog created a new path to tell the entire world about his thinking, how i  felt of the happenings around me and in the world. Through this medium, was able to express myself to others. His expression gained a new medium. Recently, during a chat with a college friend, got the idea to re-activate my blog and here i am. I`ve taken up micro-blogging quite seriously, very active on twitter(twitter@sitakshchhabra) through my blackberry and via web. Interact with people and friends. 
• MUSIC & SINGING : In childhood i never paid heed to music. One day parents encouraged to take up singing as a hobby, he accepted their encouragement quite lethargically. Interest in singing and music grew by a small percentage since then. The change came, when in 6th class was awarded the Best Singer during annual day celebrations. This inclined me more towards singing and music. In free time,i could be found next to a radio set in house. Even today when i`m traveling, can be found with earplugs in ears. Be it Bollywood, Rock, pop, hip-hop, rap, English classics, etc, if the song is interesting, could go to any length to hear that song. Once on an off day went for morning walk and took along mobilephone plus earplugs, during walk was listening to music on FM radio, was so mesmerized by the songs that started singing them loudly in public. Everyone around was looking at me with surprise. Later, realized what  music was doing to me at that moment. Music takes me to a new world and provides internal peace and calmness.
• THE SHIV KHERA WORKSHOP : This dates back to 6th May 2010. I was to attend a workshop of Mr. Shiv Khera titled,"Blue print for Success", i learnt alot from this workshop and till date i practice what was preached by him. Before i go off to sleep i simply answer 4 questions. These questions give a summary regarding my day`s entire activities, major learnings of the day, etc. I also get to know self-productivity. I also practice a few auto-suggestions which help self in achieving the mental goals and desires. The auto-suggestions need to be revised atleast twice in a day.
• MY `GUIDING STAR`: I am a great fan of actor Aamir Khan and follow his actions very seriously, study them properly and imbibe his philosophies in life. According to him, all these IIFA awards, stardust awards, etc can be bought out or there may be an act of favourism in them and the greatest award for an actor is 'the audience', for the movies are made. Similarly i have also formulated my philosophy and till date follow it without fail. My Philosophy: "I`LL NEVER WORK FOR MONEY, AWARD, REWARD, SUCCESS, HONOUR, APPRECIATION, TO SHOW TO OTHERS INSTEAD I`D PREFER TO SIMPLY WORK AND PRODUCE QUALITY OUTPUT."