Presidential election process progresses. Vice-Presidential election process starts.
Maharashtra – Eknath Shinde is the new Chief Minister. Deputy CM is Devendra Fadnavis.
Farmers. Doctors. Chartered Accountants. Let us be grateful to them.
SV Ramu (Ramu Sunkara), my classmate at Sagar, is the co-founder of Alan ‘Al’ which takes spoken language understanding for enterprises to build, deploy and manage voice experiences on their apps and IoT devices. His ‘Qik’ (for mobile video apps) was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for USD 150 Milion. His advice to entrepreneurs: pick the right team, and have the stamina to run the long run.
Mukesh Ambani started leadership transitions in the family. Akash Ambani becomes Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm. And Isha Ambani is slated to chair Jio Retail. Ananth Ambani – Reliance Petrochemicals. Mukesh Ambani will continue to chair Jio Platforms, the flagship company.
LinkedIn announced top voices in Social Impact in India – bringing positive change in society and benefiting millions of people. These include – Aanya Wig (Co-founder, Girl Up Rise); Anand Malligavad (Lake Conservationist); Ankita Mehra (Lead, Diversity and Inclusion, Careernet); Archana Soreng (Member, Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, and Vasundhara); Atul Satija (Founder, The Nudge, Give India); Divyanshu Ganatra (Founder, Adventure Beyond Barriers Foundation); Jyotsna Siddharth (Director, Gender At Work India); Kalki Subramaniam (Transgender Rights Advocate, Artist and Author, co-founder, Sahodari Foundation); Osama Manzar (Founder, Digital Empowerment Foundation); Parmesg Shahani (LGBTQIA+ inclusion consultant); Raju Kendre (Founder, Eklavya India – for building grassroots leadership); Rewaj Chhetri (Founder, NE Origins); Shivya Nath (Sustainable Tourism Consultant); Tanmoy Goswami (Founding Editor, Sanity by Tanmoy – culture of mental health); Virali Modi (Speaker, Model, Influencer). They have cut the mark. Maybe more are there, but not identified.
Heard: The Abilene Paradox. The inability to manage agreement. It is not the inability to manage conflict. We as a group decide collectively on a course of action that is in contradiction to the preferences of many of the individuals in the group. This is so common in organizations. When the boss throws an idea, the group immediately agrees. No one wants to stand out as a lone voice. As a result, the group decides on ‘yes’ when ‘no’ would have been the correct and personal response of the majority. This defeats the very purpose of the organization, many a time. Can we see Abilene Paradox and protect ourselves from falling prey to this? If we have an endless number of individual minds who are weak, meek, submissive and impotent, we do not get a collective super-brain. It is not super whole. We only get the weak, meek, submissive and impotent collective mind. Can we assert or transform and assert our strong, independent, creative minds? We can and we should.
We come into this world alone. And we exit alone. In between, we cannot live alone. Scientists conclude that we humans are socially capable of effectively handling on average only about 500 people at any one time in our lives. Socially, personally and professionally. Is that the reason, why the habitations typically have 100-500 families? Philosophy (love of wisdom, with disciples) and ideology (system of ideas and ideals, with believers and followers) are two mechanisms that help us to relate with more than 500, even millions of strangers. Philosophies take us to civilizations that embrace everyone and everything without discrimination, constantly seeking answers, but slow development and realization. Ideologies take us to authority that gives no or limited rights to individuals, but probably unsustainable material progress. Can we choose philosophy over ideology? Can we offer philosophy over ideology? We can, but tortuous.
Death is certain. Therefore, can we just live a meaningful, healthy life of food, thoughts, words, and deeds? Can we live by feeling alive? Can we have work that gives dignity and meaning? Can we be in a community that supports one another materially, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually? Let us always be ready to embrace death at any time. Let us not wait to live a whole and meaningful life. Let us do it right now. We do not have to wait. We are not indispensable. The world will not wait for us to make up our minds. Now is the time.
Note is important. But, let us also realize that pause is important. Silence is important. Let us pause. Contemplate. Be self-aware. Make a conscious choice. Let us respond, not react. Can we pause? Can we keep pausing, as often as we could, once in 15 minutes? Once in an hour? With power removed from the head, reasoning back in the mind, and justice and truth firmly entrenched. Can we?
Yes, we can. For being a team, loving coexistence. Being in-nature usefulness. In the flow of N. For 7L.
Join us in the yoga of relentless loving useful coexistence co-living co-action – jnanayoga for 7L.
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