Editorial - A good year all in all
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It was a good year all in all. I let myself lose a little. I lost a little. I lived a little. Achieved most of my goals this year. Read the 40 books I had promised myself. Left off some for the next year. Grew a little older, was a little wiser at times during the year and a little sillier at others. Was a little stronger than last year at times and a little weaker at others, just like any other year.
Learnt about intermittent fasting and cut all the fat during summers and monsoons. Then regained it during winter when I stopped.
Planned a solo motorcycle trip to Bhutan and Sikkim, had a lot of fun planning it, got emotionally attached to it and then built character when I couldn’t go.
Made some breakthroughs at work, sustained some damages and acquired some learnings.
It was a good year all in all.
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Kintsugi - The art of Golden Repair
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Kintsugi is a Japanese art of repairing ceramic pottery. When a bowl, a teapot or a vase breaks, they repair it and the repairs are done using molten precious metals such as gold. The cracks and repairs are not hidden, in fact they highlight the cracks proudly displaying the scars that the pot has sustained telling the story of its survival. Literally Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi means golden (kin) repair (tsugi).
We live in the world of disposables. We have disposable napkins or tissue paper, disposable coffee cups and disposable plates that we use in our children's birthday parties. We have disposable plastic bags when we shop, disposable plastic bottles to drink water from and disposable relationships.
The divorce rates have gone up in the last few decades. Old age homes are no longer considered to be a last resort. Battles between siblings for property is commonplace. Using disposable is not just hurting the environment and the ecology, it is hurting human culture. We have become more reckless, hasty and insensitive in our relationships. There is an attitude of disposability that is crept into our relationships.
In the apartment building that I stay in, there is a common problem. The tiles swell up and start cracking and popping up. My father just repaired his cracked tiles using white cement by himself instead of calling and paying for help and he taught me how to do it in the process. And he expects me to repair the broken tiles in my utility balcony by myself. Taking care of things, fixing them, repairing them is a virtue. It builds the attitude to take care of your life, relationships and your materialistic things. And it makes you more useful with your hands. I am 42 and my father is still taking me to school.
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Leadership Musings - The fun of being multi-cellular
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For billions of years there were single cellular organisms on this planet. For billions of years they survived alone. Then one cell decided to meet with another and share knowledge. Knowledge about how it has survived in the environment he was in and acquire the knowledge of another cell. Knowledge about how she has survived in the environment she was in (I am not insinuating sex, the difference in gender is just for clearer understanding and gender fairness).
Then this couple decided to add to their knowledge by adding another cell into the family (No no, I am not insinuating a threesome). This added to their knowledge. And then a fourth one (please stop thinking about orgies :-).
Soon with their shared knowledge they came up with a new idea. How about a few million cells specialize in a specific function. That way they will share information only related to that specific function and it will make the overall being a little more efficient for survival. And to keep things simple, let's call this first set of cells "an eye". This set of cells would help the overall organism "to see". Help them keep away from hazardous environments and "find" a more accommodating environment to survive. And another set of cells formed "an ear" that would help them perform another function… you
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get the gist of it… don't you?
Each cell has to work with its adjoining cell and share information through its membrane for it to be able to function properly. If it doesn't, the eye won't see, the ear won't hear and the organism will not be capable enough to survive in a hazardous environment.
Now think of your organization as the organism that is made up of many such organs, each one consisting of cells / people that have to share information and specialize in functions. Collaboration is not a buzzword. It is absolutely essential for the very survival of the larger being. When the organism survives and thrives, the cells get healthier, stronger, derive more nutrition.
But if the cells stop sharing information, stop specializing in their individual functions, stop working with their adjoining cells due to individual jealousies, egos and personal ambitions, the organism becomes sick, more prone to threats, less efficient in survival tactics. This means lesser nutrition for all individual cells and a threat to survival.
A cell alone is nothing. Together with other cells it is an organism. An organism is nothing without its cells.
Food for thought?
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Fitness - An ode to mainstream medicine
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Medical science believes that the world is made of matter. If a medicine, physically doesn't alter your body, it cannot be trusted with efficacy. It frowns at other medical systems such as Ayurveda, Homoeopathy and Acupuncture because they deal with energy and not biologically significant matter. In the movie Dr. Strange, they show quite apt  ly Dr. Strange frowning upon such medical practices when the ancient one, the sorcerer supreme shows him a picture of Kundalini Chakras.
But if you think about it, all matter are formed with molecules. But molecules are not the smallest unit. The building blocks for molecules is atoms. And if you take an electron microscope and study these atoms you will find that these are not made of matter. In fact, the picture that we saw during our school days,  where there is a large blue marble that represents the nucleus containing one or more proton(s) and neutron(s) and a few red balls rotating around it, that represent the electron(s), is wrong. That picture is conceptual. Atoms are not made of matter, they are made of energy. Atoms do not fall within the domain of particle physics. Matter is anything that's made of atoms. But atoms are not made of matter. And the laws of physics do not apply on atoms as they are governed by their quantum nature. Atoms are literally a combination of positive and negative charges and their interaction. Pure energy.
So let's think about it for a bit. Molecules are made of atoms and atoms are pure energy. Applying the transitive principle, ultimately the building blocks of all matter in this universe (that's made of molecules) is energy. We are all made of energy. And we don't believe in any medical practices that deal with management of energy within our body. We want physical matter that affects our body physically for it to be a physical
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medicine. Isn't that an irony?
We have all heard of the "placebo effect", where the body of a patient heals by taking sugar pills because they believe that these are not sugar pills but real medicine (if you haven't heard about it, look it up). There is also a "Nocebo effect". If you believe that you are sick, your body will physically get sick. So when the doctor tells you that you have 6 months to live, it is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you hadn't "known", you would probably have lived a lot longer.
And the biomedical business, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, is literally "out to get you" these days. I don't even think what I am writing is outrageous. Think about it. The no. of vaccines that you have to give your children from the time they are born has gone up drastically. There is a government published list of mandatory vaccines and then there are other lists published by private pediatric care hospitals. The doctor asked me to vaccinate my son for "brain fever" and scared the crap out of me saying he had just had a case where a child died of it. What am I (a scared parent) to do but to spend money on the brain fever vaccine...!
The no. of diseases have gone up and the seriousness of the illnesses have gone up. What used to be a cough and a cold has now become a throat or a lung infection. The only reason energy based medical practices are not successful is that you can't convert it into a pill and sell it.
Your brain is a physical body part, but your mind is pure energy that resides within it. And your mind is connected to your body. If you are happy, relaxed and have nothing to fear, you will enjoy a healthier body. Of course, good food, exercise and a healthy lifestyle has its role to play, but I am of the opinion that we can, if we wish, completely eliminate the presence of mainstream medicine from our life.
We can, if we believe. Let the placebo effect work for you...!
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That's all folks...!
I hope you liked this issue. I always want this to be a two way conversation and I absolutely love it when readers write back. In fact, I would love to publish you on this if you would like to share your experiences, thoughts, ideas.
This is my personalized conversation with you. A creative way to stay in touch. And I don't want this to become spam for people who cannot relate to it. But do feel free to forward this if you think someone may benefit from it.
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