THE READING DELIGHT

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Golden Quotes: Namranti phalino vrikshah, Most people make mistakes, Perfection is making, Failing to plan

Quote 01:

English
Namranti phalino vrikshah Namranti gunino janah

Sanskrit:
नम्रन्ति फलिनो वृक्षाः नम्रन्ति गुणिनो जना:

Meaning:
Just as trees whose limbs filled with fruit, hang down to the ground, learned people act very humbly.

Quote 02:

Most people make mistakes and suffer the consequences, a few try to identify those mistakes, fewer still learn to identify the causes, and a very small fraction try to avoid the causes. The key to success lies in avoiding the causes.

Quote 03:

Perfection is making the best efforts within the constraints of time, space and resources.

Quote 04:

Let us perfect the means, the end will take care of itself.

Quote 05:

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Lyrics Of Choice: Ae dil-e-naadaan (ऐ दिल-ए-नादान)

Song: Ae dil-e-naadaan
Language: Hindi
Movie: Razia Sultan

Music: Khaiyyam

Singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Lyricist: Nida Fazli

==English==

Ae dil-e-naadaan, ae dil-e-naadaan

Aarju kya hain, justaju kya hain

Ae dil-e-naadaan, ae dil-e-naadaan

Aarju kya hain, justaju kya hain

Hun... Hun...

Ae dil-e-naadaan

Ham bhatakate hain, kyon bhatakate hain, dashto-seharaa men

Aisaa lagataa hai, mauj pyaasi hai, apane dariyaa men

Kaisi ulajhan hai, kyon ye ulajhan hai

Ek saayaa saa, ru-baru kyaa hai

Ae dil-e-naadaan, ae dil-e-naadaan,

Aarazu kyaa hai, justaju kyaa hai

Kyaa qayaamat hai, kyaa musibat hai,

Kah nahin sakate, kisakaa aramaan hai

Zindagi jaise, khoyi-khoyi hai, hairaan hairaan hai

Ye zamin chup hai, aasamaan chup hai

Phir ye dhadakan si, chaar soo kyaa hai

Ae dil-e-naadaan, ae dil-e-naadaan,

Aisi raahon men, kitane kaante hain,

Aarazuon ne, aarazuon ne,

Har kisi dil ko, dard baante hain,

Kitane ghaayal hain, kitane bismil hain,

Is khudaae men, ek tu kyaa hai

Ek tu kyaa hai, ek tu kyaa hai

Ae dil-e-naadaan, ae dil-e-naadaan

==हिन्दी==

ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान
ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान

आरज़ू क्या है, जुस्तजू क्या है

ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान

ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान
आरज़ू क्या है, जुस्तजू क्या है

हुं... हुं...

ऐ दिल-ए-नादान ...

हम भटकते हैं, क्यों भटकते हैं, दश्तो-सेहरा में
ऐसा लगता है, मौज प्यासी है, अपने दरिया में
कैसी उलझन है, क्यों ये उलझन है
एक साया सा, रू-बरू क्या है
ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान,
आरज़ू क्या है, जुस्तजू क्या है

क्या क़यामत है, क्या मुसीबत है,
कह नहीं सकते, किसका अरमाँ है
ज़िंदगी जैसे, खोयी-खोयी है, हैरां हैरां है
ये ज़मीं चुप है, आसमां चुप है
फिर ये धड़कन सी, चार सू क्या है
ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान,

ऐसी राहों में, कितने काँटे हैं,
आरज़ूओं ने, आरज़ूओं ने,
हर किसी दिल को, दर्द बाँटे हैं,
कितने घायल हैं, कितने बिस्मिल हैं,
इस खुदाई में, एक तू क्या है
एक तू क्या है, एक तू क्या है
ऐ दिल-ए-नादान, ऐ दिल-ए-नादान,

Ae dil-e-naadaan - YouTube

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Personal Diary: Message from Prof. Bala Balachandran

Have you heard about Prof. Bala Balachandran - a luminary of modern India? His name is associated with India's great institutions like ISB, Hyderabad, IIM, Bangalore, MDI, Gurgaon and Great Lakes, Chennai. In May 2012 he was selected as one of India Inc's Top 10 Global Indian thought leaders by The Economic Times.

I came to know about Prof. Bala Balachandran (we also call him Uncle Bala with affection) when I applied for 1 year PGPM program of Great Lakes Institute of Management, a brainchild of Dr. Bala. I became a big fan of him when I read about him on various sources on internet.

Fig: Prof. Bala at Hotel Ramada, Bangalore, on Jan-04-2012

It was my privilege to interact with this Padma Shri awardee at Great Lakes Connect program held at Hotel Ramada, Bangalore, on Jan-04-2012. After the program was over we had informal interaction with Prof. Bala, Prof. Easwar Krishna Iyer and other distinguished speakers around 9:30 pm. Afterwards we had dinner together.

I earnestly requested, "Sir, I am not sure whether I will be able to make it to Great Lakes. But I want a message from you." He was kind to write an inspirational message for me which I have been keeping zealously. The message reads as:

"My dear Satyaranjan, Keep your goals high and make it higher. Set the goals, exceed that and raise the bar. Let God be with you always. Affectionately, Uncle Bala"

Fig: Message from Prof. Bala Balachandran

I could not make it to Great Lake's Chennai campus. But I was fortunate to be selected for Great Lakes's second campus in Gurgaon. It was a pleasure to know that Prof Bala would be teaching 'Managerial Accounting' at Gurgaon campus.

Further Reading on Prof. Bala:
India's most powerful thought leaders
Bala's profile at Kellog School of Management
From Wikipedia

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Citizen Journalist: Delhi NCR is deprived of Ballpoint pen Refills

May-23-2012, Wednesday:

It may seem weird to read this news. But it is true. Our national capital region is devoid of ballpoint pen refills unlike other parts of India. Due to change in lifestyle, there is significant change in consumer behavior.

The Citizen journalist had to travel long ways as he was unaware of the fact that Ballpoint pen refills are not sold in any of the stationary shops. "Aap kabhi bhi aa sakte hein. Mujhe kuch problem nehin." ("You can come anytime. I have no issues."), sarcastically replied one shop keeper when the citizen jounalist asked to revisit the shop for 5 refills. The shop keeper added further, "Mein nehin launga refill. Koi leta hi nehin. Ek refill char rupaiya aur pen ka daam paanch rupaiya... kuch farak hi nehin" ("I won't get refills. One refill costs four rupees and a pen costs five rupees. There is (virtually) no difference in price.."). True, people in Delhi NCR are preferring to purchase pen nowadays. It has become a trend. A student can purchase 10 Reynolds pen, but not one Reynolds pen and nine Reynolds refills.

Why this article? Is it really a concern to spend one or two rupees extra to get a pen in stead of a refill? No, absolutely not. It is NOT money but environment pollution that is the real concern. Think about the volume of plastic wastages Delhi NCR can produce over a period of time.

Let us look at the stats below. We would like to know how much additional waste can be created from Delhi NCR given the current usage pattern. We will consider only schools. We assume that:

A student needs 2 refills per month
A school has an average number of 200 students
Life of a pen is 1 year i.e. a student can use the same pen for one year
There are around 2000 schools in Delhi NCR

Monthly usage

	Purchase pens only	Purchase a pen and next purchase is refill	Additional bodies used (monthly)
One student	2 refills + 2 bodies	2 refills + 1 body	1
Per School	400 refills + 400 bodies	400 refills + 200 bodies	200
Per Delhi NCR (considering schools only)	800000 refills + 800000 bodies	800000 refills + 400000 bodies	400000

Yearly usage

	Purchase pens only	Purchase a pen and next purchase is refill	Additional bodies used (yearly)
One student	24 refills + 24 bodies	24 refills + 1 body	23
Per School	4800 refills + 4800 bodies	4800 refills + 200 bodies	4600
Per Delhi NCR (considering schools only)	9600000 refills + 9600000 bodies	9600000 refills + 400000 bodies	9200000

From above tables it is clear that school going students alone can produce extra volumes (waste) of 4 lakh units per month and 92 lakh units per year. Is it not staggeringly high in number? It costs to environment. Note that we have not considered offices, colleges and universities in our calculation.

Being national capital of India, it is imperative that majority of people here are educated and have a higher disposable income. Does higher spending capacity gives us the liberty to seek our luxury at the cost of environment? No, probably not. We watch NDTV's Greenathon and often debate for environment protection. But we do not practice here.

There are probably two reasons for this: 1) We insisted for new pens rather than a new refill which eventually became a trend. 2) A ball point pen may be giving a higher profit margin than its refill, so merchants started creating scarcity of refills and convinced the customers that it is better to go for pens than refills as there is not much difference in price of a pen and its refill. Slowly it has become a practice by customers over a period of time to ask for a pen only.

Whatever it is, we cannot seek luxury at the expenses of environment. Next time you go for a new pen ask for a refill for your pen, insist the shop owner that you require refills. Let us be sensible and create awareness on this. You can even talk to your friends and colleagues, acquaintances, and share this post with them. Only we as customers can bring a change to this ill trend and protect our environment.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Spiritual: Watch Mahabharata online with English Subtitles

NOTE: It seems Rajashree Productions has made all the videos private in its YouTube account. The links provided earlier may not work. No need to worry. Check these links where most of the Mahabharat videos are available.

Episode 1-6, Episodes 7-12, Episodes 13-18, Episodes 19-24, Episodes 25-30, 

Episodes 31-36, Episodes 37-42, Episodes 43-48, Episodes 49-54, Episodes 50-60, 

Episodes 61-66, Episodes 67-72, Episodes 73-78, Episodes 79-84, Episodes 91-94  

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If you want to watch all episodes of Mahabharata (1988, from Rajashri Productions) online, then this is the right place. The original episodes of Mahabharat with English subtitles have been uploaded to YouTube by Rajashri Productions. The links are consolidated and provided here.

There was a need for creating this page when the author was searching for such a page having reference to all episodes of Mahabharata and providing the convenience of not leaving page when a link is clicked and could not find one.

When you click a link, it will open in a new window!! So, enjoy without leaving this page.

Always click the icon that helps you watch video in full screen as highlighted below.

Fig: View Videos in Full Screen on YouTube Google Video and Dailymotion

Mahabharat - All Episodes