Archive for February, 2007
(This article was a forward to me, It makes for interesting reading.)
It’s been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It’s a rule.
Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.
Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Ericsson, Electrolux are some of its renowned companies.
The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn’t say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, “Do you have a fixed parking space? I’ve noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot.” To which he replied, “Since we’re here early we’ll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don’t you think? Imagine my face.
Nowadays, there’s a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing.
Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.
Basically, the movement questions the sense of “hurry” and “craziness” generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of “having in quantity” (life status) versus “having with quality”, “life quality” or the “quality of being”. French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US’s attention, pupils of the fast and the “do it now!”.
This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the “now”, present and concrete, versus the “global”, undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans’ essential values, the simplicity of living.
It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It’s time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.
In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there’s a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, “I can’t, my boyfriend will be here any minute now”. To which Al responds, “A life is lived in an instant”. Then they dance to a tango.
Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
“Carpe Diem!” - which means - “Seize the day.”
February 27th, 2007
Harakh and Neena have completed 100 yatras today and Hope to complete few more.
We wish them all the best and Congratulations for this Achievement.
We also Did first Jain Discourse at our Tristate temple.
February 25th, 2007
Dearest Mom and Dad,
Happy Anniversary to you,
Thank you for being who you have been to us. You have shared all of life’s joys and sorrows. Taken everything that came at you in life with a smile and a brave sprit. We love, cherish and adimire you every day of our life.
Love
Ashish, Nilam & Neev
February 25th, 2007
We are back with a bang.
Check it out!
February 23rd, 2007
Happy birthday, Mummy
Even though you might prefer
Life without these markers,
Each too public to defer.
Now that you are fifty one,
Sing to us your own sweet song,
That we might celebrate your life,
Rejoicing all night long.
Each of us has love to bring,
Each a special song to sing,
To lose your heart among.
Love you lots,
Medavo Family
February 20th, 2007
Hey, We had an Interfaith council conference at USC and we hosted one of the attendees Steven who came from Kansas city. He was a pretty cool guy and we had a good time together. We cooked Pav Bhaji for him and his friends on Sunday evening and they simply loved eating Indian food. Here are some pictures from our yesterday’s cooking and celebration adventure.
Click here to check pictures
February 19th, 2007
Extraordinary Children
Check this Child from UK with IQ of 230 or more
He was on Oprah Show last week
Mahendra
Six stone Baby
Extraordinary People Extraordinary Children Big Ideas Stranger than Fiction
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4 Year Old Runner Akrit Jaswal Archie Thompson Born without a Face Butterfly Girl Cystic Fibrosis Fattest Teenager Harlequin Babies Ipex Syndrome Joined at the Head Juliana Wetmore Progeria Search Site
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Akrit Jaswal
The Seven Year Old Surgeon
Akrit Pran Jaswal, India’s Child Surgeon - Child Genius
Akrit JaswalA young girl in India badly burned as a toddler, her fingers had fused together and curled into a knotted ball. Her shepherd family could not afford surgery, but they had heard of a remarkable young boy being called the child surgeon. Akrit Jaswal was only seven years old when he operated, successfully, on the eight year old girl to release her fingers.
Akrit Jaswal had a reputation, in the region, for being a medical genius. He has been shown to have the highest I.Q. of any boy his age in India, a country of over one billion people.
He has focussed this phenomenal intelligence on medicine and now, at the age of twelve, claims to be on the verge of discovering a cure for cancer.
An early developer, Akrit was walking and talking by the time he was 10 months old. He was reading and writing by two, and reading Shakespeare, in English, by the time he was five, and is now talking about his theories for oral gene therapy in the fight against cancer.
He is studying for a science degree at Chandigarh College and, at twelve years of age, is the youngest student ever accepted by an Indian University.
Akrit’s father left the family a year ago, depressed and exhausted by six years battling with Indian bureaucracy to get his son’s intellect acknowledged and resources made available for his cancer research.
Is it possible that this young boy knows something the medical profession does not? Throughout history, scientific breakthroughs have come not only from the established, the learned, and the scholarly, but also from single flashes of insight and inspiration.
Akrit is not phased by his fame and is used to meeting government ministers and press representatives. For ordinary people meeting Akrit, it is very different. When he is in town, they gather for an audience. They come with prescriptions and medicines, seeking advice. They come with ailments and injuries for a diagnosis. They come to see a doctor, a healer. They come to see a guru, and because this is India, there is always spiritual dimension.
Akrit may be famous but, will he be the one to unlock the secrets to a cure for cancer. He was invited to Imperial College, London to find out. He will spend two weeks based at Imperial College having his intelligence tested and talking super-mechanisms, genes and therapies with scientists at the cutting-edge of cancer research.
Patel and Djamgoz
Mr Anup Patel and Professor Mustafa Djamgoz
Akrit must convince Professor Mustafa Djamgoz, a world-renowned research biologist, and his colleague Mr Anup Patel, a consultant urological surgeon, that his ideas are realistic and worth pursuing.
The inquisitors become his friends, Mr Patel and Professor Djamgoz are keen to foster Akrit’s enthusiasm, keen to protect him from disappointment, and willing to guide him on his way.
Professor Djamgoz says of Akrit: ” He is generating ideas based upon what he knows, in an idealistic sort of way, without being in full grip of reality, withou knowing how difficult it is to turn the ideas into practical realities”.
Just how intelligent is Akrit? Team Focus, the UK’s leading I.Q. analysts agree to test him. For Akrit this was to prove a disappointment. His exceptional results in verbal and numeracy tests were countered by poor practical tests, particularly in the area of pattern matching. Because of this wide range of results Team Focus chose not to give him a final rating.
Rosemary Facer, a childhood psychologist, put forward the theory that Akrit had been an early developer accounting for the good results and because of this early genius he had missed out on later schooling accounting for the poor practical results. These results do not affect what Akrit may achieve, but he needs help, a wise friend to talk to.
The Professor’s analysis is that Akrit needs to obsess less and enjoy more. He thinks Akrit shows great potential but it needs to be properly guided.
Akrit returns home to India, slightly maturer, a little more realistic, but this precocious young man is still convinced that he will find a cure for cancer.
“http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/akritjaswal.html”
February 15th, 2007
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