Build Your Personal Brand - wikiHow

An interesting article I read on wikiHow

Build Your Personal Brand - wikiHow

President John F. Kennedy - 50 years since the beginning of Camelot

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivers
his inaugural address on January 20, 1961 - 50 years ago today

      50 years ago today, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. His inaugural address is best remembered for him saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Kennedy was the president who inspired youth from America and all over the world to enter public service and do their bit for their country. But apart from that favorite quotation of JFK, there are some other great things he said in that historic speech. Some excerpts:

"We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago."

"Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."

"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world."

And one of my personal favorites -

“let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

So it is that 50 years have passed since these immortal words were spoken, but yet they are so relevant in our own times. We are still facing similar threats in the form of terrorism, global challenges in the form of global warming, economy and others. There is a new power structure emerging in the world with the growing significance of Asia. The world has changed a lot from 1961, but the opportunities remain the same.

One of the things that has often struck me about President Kennedy's inaugural address is that while it is amply clear that we have the power to abolish all forms of human life in the shape of nuclear and other bombs, I wonder about the "all forms of human poverty" part. What do we actually know about this. What do we have in our mortal hands to abolish "all forms of human poverty." I think this aspect needs a separate blog post later on.

But for now, we remember you today Mr. President and wish that you lived longer, but thank you for the inspiration that you have sowed in the hearts and minds of millions of people born during the last half of the 20th century, tempered by terrorism and wars, disciplined by a promising yet fragile peace.

How to write fiction - Fiction writing tutorial part 2 (rewriting and li...

In this video tutorial, I talk about the rewriting process and about how to look for a literary agent.

Road rage death in Khan market, New Delhi a clarion call to end intolerance

The recent case of the restaurant manager of Amici restaurant being killed by a Jet Airways pilot at Khan market, New Delhi in a fit of road rage is tragic but not shocking. Not shocking because it is a new piece of evidence that people in New Delhi are growing more aggressive and intolerant by the day. What is it that is causing this? Is it the overall aura of corruption and negativity in our city and our nation at large? Is it because of the weakening social bonds in our society that has become prone to selfishness and greed? One can endlessly debate the reasons behind this and similar cases of road rage, murders, fights, rapes, blueline bus deaths and so on that is plaguing our city. But it is time that we start thinking about solutions. What is the solution to this menace?

For one, we need a complete overhaul on our ideas of civic duty and sense. We need to get out of this mental attitude that it is "me first". We need to learn that corruption and selfishness and aggression is neither cool nor productive. We need to became more respectful of the law and public order. Each and every one of us needs to get more involved in public affairs in order to weed out rogue elements that have slithered their way into high offices. We need to put pressure on our city and state governments to improve infrastructure in our city state. If there was an ample place to park and negotiate a vehicle in Khan market, perhaps Rajiv Jolly Wilson would have been alive today. If the parties concerned (including the late Mr. Wilson) were more tolerant, things would not have spiraled out of control. There are many other 'what-if' scenarios that one can keep endlessly talking about.

The crux of the matter is this - you have power! The question is how do you intend to use it? Are you going to be a passive spectator and allow things to happen in any which way they can? Or are you going to rise up and do your bit to put pressure on our government to do something about this? Think about what kind of city state you want your child to grow up in and then extend that thought and ask what kind of nation and world you want your child to grow up in.

Use your power. Write and meet your local representatives and insist that they produce results. Use the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc. for things more important than just commenting on photos or aimlessly playing video games. Use your power. Use your life. Spread peace, love and tolerance.

Introducing SIOS - Story In One Sentence - to the world of fiction writing

I am introducing SIOS, a term I have created, which means "Story in One Sentence" the essential kernel of any story - either in the short story, novel, script or play format. The SIOS is the reduction of any story into one single sentence. A good example of SIOS would be "Dinosaurs from DNA" in the case of Jurassic Park. I hope you enjoy this video and begin to use SIOS as a part of your vocabulary.

How to write fiction - Fiction writing tutorial - part 1

In this video, I talk about writing fiction. I also introduce the term SIOS, a term I have created, which means "Story in One Sentence" the essential kernel of any story - either in the short story, novel, script or play format. The SIOS is the reduction of any story into one single sentence. A good example of SIOS would be "Dinosaurs from DNA" in the case of Jurassic Park. I hope you enjoy this video and begin to use SIOS as a part of your vocabulary.

Prayer power (the power of prayer)

(published in Inner Voice column, page 13, Hindustan Times, October 24, 2007)

(published in slightly edited form in the newspaper due to space constraints)

There is a lot of power in thoughts and prayers. Thoughts are a form of energy and therefore real. Prayer is a form of communication with the Infinite source of all energy, or God; through our thoughts. Thoughts are like seeds which require nourishment to grow into fruit-bearing trees. The nourishment of thoughts is in the form of affirmation, concentration and attention. Prayer need not necessarily involve the usage of pious phrases.

Normal Vincent Peale describes a three-fold approach in his best selling book, 'The power of positive thinking' – (1) prayerise, (2) picturise and (3) actualise. The first step involves simply thinking and talking to God informally, which is prayer. The next step is picturising or visualising it mentally. Create in your mind an image of the desired result: a healed love one, a more prosperous life, a happy marital life, a more healthy or confident self. Whatever you seek, pray to God and then visualise it to be so and then just say to God, "I have put it in Your hands, Lord." After this, the actualisation will come in time either by the desired result or guidance.

Peale gives a glorious example of how we can spread love and goodwill throughout our daily lives. Just say a little prayer for anyone that you see. These are called flash prayers "shot" out towards people. Just send out thoughts of love and goodwill. There have been cases where the recipients of such prayer "shots" could feel a physical manifestation of the energy.

The world can be a lot happier if we all just continuously "shoot" each other with prayers of love and goodwill. Let us "shoot" out positive thoughts towards one and other. We could try to replace our hatred and anger filled thoughts with thoughts of love and goodwill. Just mentally send out peaceful and love filled thoughts of goodwill towards everyone that you see and they will feel it as well. The energies around the whole world will change if everyone starts to do this. These energies are very powerful and the results will be seen and felt. But constant prayers are needed. Even prayers take time to be answered. Just be patient and have faith.

Prayer and positive thinking is also a very useful technique in creating a more confident and success filled life. Thoughts of success often attract success. Thoughts of failure often attract failure. Energy is like a magnet. It attracts. Positive energy attracts positive results.

Positive affirmations, especially at night time before bedtime is a very important tool to attract positive results. The age old tradition of prayer before sleeping is so that the positive thoughts and prayers can sink into the subconscious mind during sleep. Avoid all forms of negativity. Nip it in the mental bud. One can not stop negative thoughts from entering, but one can kick them out as soon as they enter. Positive thoughts can repel negative ones from establishing themselves in the mind.

Many of the world's problems can be solved if there is more prayer energy generated. This energy will increase when we add prayer into our consciousness and make it a part of our daily life. Talk to God either verbally, mentally or even in written form. Yes, write a note to God. Every day use flash prayers to increase the overall consciousness of peace and goodwill and soon if more people do it, we will transform into a much better, safer and peaceful world.

1.1.11 (Happy New Year 2011)

Well, though this post is a day late, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year 2011.

Scanny - a cool portable battery operated scanner.

Scanny by Portronics

I just bought a Scanny by Portronics. It is awesome! It's a portable scanner that runs on AA batteries and a MiniSD card. It is so light and easy to carry and gives pretty decent results. Excellent for scanning documents, articles, etc. Works good with photos as well. Price Rs. 6000. Downloading AABBYY FineReader Express for MAC. Excellent for OCR and converting scans into RTF, HTML or searchable PDF. (price $99) Recommended highly.


Another good thing is that you don't need any additional software. It has a USB cable so just scan and connect to your computer the way you would a camera.