Easter

Today is Easter Sunday. But this Sunday which began on the wrong note when I was bitten by my neighbor's dog is indeed ending on a somber note as a very close friend of my father's suddenly died today. While in a deep reverie, I was just wondering about the resurrection of Jesus, the reason Easter is celebrated the world over, I could not but find symbolic similarities between Jesus's crucification and his resurrection.

What this incident as well as teachings of all other major religious scriptures from round the world teach us is that we should always follow the path of righteousness. Even if we face troubles while following this path,  we should consider them to be just temporary stumbling blocks that will lead us to be better persons.

We should always strive for attaining what we really believe in because only when we are totally convinced about something then only can we really look forward to it and go all out trying to attain it, like there is no tomorrow left. 

March through Mother Nature's lenses

Some of the gems that Mother Nature bestowed on us in the month of March.

A moment of divinity under a tree at the ancient Shrinath Temple, Ghasiyar

The beautiful World Peace Park, Mount Abu

The Setting Sun, Mount Abu

A painting of a Cowherd playing with a cow.

Practice what you preach!

From time immemorial, the easiest freely available thing in the world, would probably be Advise. Everybody seems to relish giving advise to everybody. The flow of advise is all pervasive. It is not partial to any caste, creed, sex, religion or any other demographic characteristics. It is free and abundant. 

I sincerely don't have any major aversion to people giving advises but then the advises should be such which the preachers of them too should be following. Examples of not practicing what one is preaching is galore in our day to day life. In the international arena, countries that are at the forefront of wars in certain part of world double up as messengers of peace in another. A country which expects other countries not to interfere in its internal matters, in turn shamelessly tries to intervene in the internal matters of another sovereign country citing its national political compulsions. At the national level, politicians that clamor the most for tough anti-corruption laws, anti-rape laws and the like, are usually the ones who try to dilute tough legislation at the time of enacting of the law. Regional Satraps who show themselves as the messiahs of the poor are usually the ones who exploit them the most. While a politician might be apt at giving great speeches about the development of the nation, the matter of fact is, he seldom sees beyond his own vote bank and his local level politics.

Even in our immediate surroundings, we routinely encounter people in our homes, social gatherings and offices, who preach great things but are just the opposite in their own lives. If religious saints preach about the benefits of austerity then they have no business in flaunting the riches that they have acquired in the name of religion. If an elder preaches about the benefits of leading a disciplined life, then he has no business in indulging in excesses be it related to food, drink or liefestyle. Similarly, if a person in a top position in a company expects others to subordinate their own self interests to the greater interest of the company, then he has no business to have expectations that his own self interests would be served by others in the company.

Chanakya's Gems of Life!

More than half of the month of March is gone and I am posting my first post of the month. The reasons are more health related than anything else. My allergy to pollen grains is back with a vengeance and I have been reeling "under the weather". Shinod and Himanshu are back from their shoots in Jodhpur where Santosh has been, at most, steady. The Oriental Palace Resort virtual shoot and video has been quite a hit. Kudos to Shinod for the same. We have made some progress in propagating Udaipur Dopahar's popularity in Udaipur. A tie-up with a leading bank for event based activities neared a climax but the actual inking of the agreement is still pending.

During the course of the aforesaid activities, I came in  touch with a doctor in Udaipur from whom I got hold of a very interesting book by the name of Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi. This book recollects incidents from the times of Maurya Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya and that of his able adviser the wily Brahmin, Vishnu Gupta aka Kautilya popularly known as Chanakya.

In the following lines, I am quoting 10 gems that I encountered while reading the book credited to Chanakya but inspired from other sources.

1) Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead - Benjamin Franklin
2)I am a great believer of luck and find the harder I work the more I have of it- Thomas Jefferson
3) A hungry man is more interested in 4 sandwiches than 4 freedoms- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr
4) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable- Louise D Brandeis
5) I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians- Charles de Gaulle.
6) Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed- Mao Tse Tung
7) The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese-Jon Hammond
8) Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but get you nowhere-Dorothy Galyean
9)  Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side-Claude McDonald
10) When choosing between 2 evils, always choose the one you haven't tried yet- Mae West.

Champion Captains of Indian cricket- Ganguly and Dhoni

The first cricket test between India and Australia of the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2013 concluded in Chennai and  the Indians thumped the Aussies by 8 wickets. The highlights of this test included a wonderful century by the Aussie skipper Michael Clarke, an impressive debut by Moises Henriques, a 12 wicket haul by Ravichandran Ashwin, a century by Virat Kohli and a superlative counter attacking double century by the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni .

For Mahendra Singh Dhoni, this first win of the series must have a thing to cherish. Having lost a series against the English and with an indifferent batting form, there had been persistent talks for drastic measures including sacking Dhoni as the captain and even dropping him from the test cricket team, But Dhoni has let his bat do the talking for him and has ,at least for the present, silenced his detractors. A true champion's response this.

With this 21st test win Dhoni become the joint most successful Indian test captain ever equaling former skipper Sourav Chandidas Ganguly's tally of 21 wins. There have been quite a long debate over the years about who the most successful Indian test captain has ever been. Ganguly or Dhoni? If you go by the trophies in the cupboard then Dhoni wins hands down. With a T-20 world cup, a ODI world cup and the title of best ICC Test Team in its pockets, the Indian cricket team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni has achieved things that  it had never achieved before. The previous best being the 1983 World Cup under Kapil Dev.

Then why the comparison between Ganguly and Dhoni?? Ganguly took over the reigns of the cricket team at its darkest hours. The match fixing scandal had claimed former captain Mohammad Azaharuddin and premier cricketers like Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar had been disgraced. Cricket no longer remained a "Gentleman's Sport". Ganguly stepped in when an unwilling  Sachin(the God)Tendulkar relinquished his post as Indian cricket captain. The Indian team was in complete disarray. Individual geniuses were there but the team was not unified and going nowhere.

Under Ganguly, legends of Indian cricket like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan besides Tendulkar all bloomed into their full potential. New finds like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Irfan Pathan and even Mahendra Dhoni were hand picked by Ganguly. A rag tag team of talented 11 gradually embarked upon their journey to become world beaters. In 2003, against all odds Team India reached the finals of the World Cup in South Africa. India started beating the cricketing powers like Australia and England in their own dens. The Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly was now being feared by the opposition, the world over.

After the end of the Ganguly era, Dhoni inherited a team whose core was formed during the time of Ganguly. Dhoni under his able stewardship was able to guide the team towards further fulfillment of its evident promise. The bad days for Dhoni's captaincy started when the stalwarts of Indian cricket like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman retired from cricket and the forms of Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj and even Tendulkar dipped.

The progress of the Indian cricket team from now on would be the actual test of Mahandra Singh Dhoni's mettle as a captain and leader of men.because in my opinion to channelize the energies of talented people is probably easier than to spot the talents, channelize their energies, make them believe in themselves and urge them to attain greater glory, a task in which Ganguly proved to be a past master. 

February-The Month of my Biggest Baddest Bucketlist and Udaipur Dopahar

So, the month of romance is coming to an end and what a month this has been. The good, the bad and the ugly have all been part of this month, though broadly speaking the goods clearly out-count the bads and uglies.

February has seen some frenzied activities in the Blue Caramel world. The excitement generated by the My Biggest Baddest Bucketlist has been immense world wide and has set the ball rolling for MyDestination.com to become a travel brand to reckon with, the world over.

Blue Caramel has also got into a tie up with one of the biggest local online news sites in Udaipur, Udaipur Times for mutual promotional activities. The concept of My Destination Rajasthan of being "The Local Experts" actually merges seamlessly with the endeavors of Udaipur Times of "Taking Local Global".

Another development has been the strategic alliance of Blue Caramel with a new tabloid of Udaipur, Udaipur Dopahar. It is envisaged that the tabloid will gain from the strategic know how and reach of Blue Caramel and Blue Caramel will utilize the tabloid's entry into each household of various cities starting with Udaipur.

Revenue from core businesses still remain a concern that all Blue Caramel locations Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur as well as Mumbai need to pay attention to, in the coming month.

Bhagavad Gita and Us

The month of romance is coming to an end and several new developments have been the high points of this month for the Blue Caramel family, the details of which I would be posting in a subsequent post. Today's post is based on a famous verse from the holy book of the Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita which has a timeless relevance for all striving for success in one's life.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita or simply the Gita is the holiest of Hindu scriptures and is basically a transcription of the conversation between the valiant Pandava prince Arjuna and his charioteer, the Hindu deity Lord Krishna. This 700 verse scripture believed to be more than 5000 years old, discusses various philosophies of life and theories that guide them. Amongst the most prominent of all the verses of the Gita is

Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshu Kada Chana
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostava Akarmani

This translates to a very amazing philosophy of life which advises people who want to be successful to follow a simple mantra that of keeping on performing one's duties without anticipating or thinking about the rewards associated with them.

To explain the verse stanza by stanza, Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshu Kada Chana means The right to perform your duties and action is yours but not the entitlement to enjoy the fruits or results of such actions.
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostava Akarmani means Never be attached to the end result, the fruit of your action otherwise your fulfillment of duties might be compromised.

Putting things into the corporate perspective, all members of the Blue Caramel family, be it in Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur or Mumbai, should keep on performing their tasks at the best of their abilities with an urge to widen their professional horizons without worrying about their career progression. Their career progression is the duty of the management which would be surely done, gradually. Many miss golden opportunities today by worrying too much about impending rewards of tomorrow.

The intelligent would surely get the cue and the fools would really have to be real fools not to get it.