A Dad's Proud Moment

It doesn't take much to make me happy. I was thrilled to watch Keshav, my son, perform his first piece in front of a small audience at our local Jackson Symphony Orchestra:



I am sure it will put a smile on your face!

Top Ten Ways to be Happy at Work

An Article from About.Com that is worth reading. The one that I related to the most was #6, which states that you should only "make commitments that you can keep." I completely agree with this. It requires both good organization and being assertive, which is hard to do. Hope you like the article:

Click here to read about Top Ten Ways to be Happy at Work.

Myth and Management

There can be a sense of joy in serendipitously finding something new and interesting. But there is a greater sense of joy when you make new discoveries on a subject that is all too familiar to you. To me, this came about through finding Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik and his talk on TED.



He calls himself a mythologist, and is very well-versed on all the mythological stories from India, Greece, Rome and other ancient civilizations. His command on the subject is spell-binding and his explanations are astoundingly simple, yet very profound. Growing up in India, I have spent several evenings listening to stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata, and listened to various experts discuss the finer points in these stories, but no one has impressed me like Dr. Pattanaik. His goal is analyze the stories and cull out the important management lessons that are applicable to the modern world. And he makes a strong case for the fact that Indian culture is intrinsically different compared to the Western world, and therefore, the so-called "best practices" cannot be simply adopted from the West, but instead, need to be adapted to the Indian context.

I have spent several hours listening to his talks in You Tube and reading his articles on his website: Devdutt.com . I would strongly recommend this to anyone who is familiar with Indian mythology. It is amazing how much more we can learn from a subject with which we are familiar, if only we pause to reflect and ask the right questions. Hope you like his works as much as I do.

Work and Happiness

I have started to observe a trend lately. It could be because I am always looking for something to write about in this blog, but I do believe that the trend is much more than just some weird coincidence. It is to do with the subject of happiness and work.

In more prosperous times, when work (and income) was more secure, people just patiently put up with the drudgery of work. However, nowadays work tends to be very demanding and stressful. People are forced to do more with less, and due to the global nature of our work, the email Inbox almost always has more than what we can possibly handle. Employees are struggling to keep up and almost never happy about the quantity of work that they have to handle.

For a while large corporations used overload and pressure as a necessary price to be paid for being gainfully employed. But lately, as the economy is starting to turn around, a lot of the employees have little patience for such relentless drudgery. They are seeking ways to rebel against these corporations and leaving the workplace in droves. And now, suddenly there are a lot of books about work and happiness in the marketplace. Increasing happiness amongst employees, something that was unthinkable just a few years back, has become a strategy for management to retail talent. There are two books on this topic that I would strongly recommend. The first one is about the technique and strategy for an individual to develop to attain happiness and the second one is for the large company to retain its employees in the workforce.

Happiness at Work by Srikumar S. Rao



In this book the author talks about some very basic shift in ones thinking to gain happiness at work.

• Do not "label" anything as inherently "good" or "bad" but accept it as is.
• Focus on the process and not the outcome.
• Attach yourself to a larger purpose and do not be obsessed with power, money or other "me-centered" metrics of success.
• Take a detached view on your own life, and do not get emotionally entwined with what is happening to you.

Much of the thinking comes from the Indian philosophy (Bhagavad Gita) and it is worth incorporating some of it for our 21st century living. You can also learn more about his TED talk and other interviews in his website : Are you Ready to Succeed?

The other interesting book is titled "Delivering Happinnes"



This book talks about a company that tries to increase happiness amongst its employees as a way to retain and develop talent. Tony Hseigh also (like Srikumar Rao) mentions that it is important to think and attach oneself to something that is bigger than self or the company to derive happiness.

The three core areas of focus for his company named Zappos are: Brand (or customer happiness), Culture (workplace as a place of fun for employees) and Pipeline (career and personal happiness).

I would strongly recommend that you read these two books if you get the chance.

Let Me Watch That Movie Again!

Raghavan, my uncle who lives in Sydney, Australia, has what I would call a strange pastime: watching Tamil and Hindi movies from the past! And these are not movies that were recent blockbuster hits, but movies in black and white that have just one hilarious scene, or a song that he particularly likes.

On Sunday afternoons after lunch, he will go through his library of over 200+ movies and pull out the one that catches his fancy and watch it, all by himself! He does not fast forward to the part that he likes, nor does he rewind a favorite scene to watch it again, but will let the movie run its course as though he were seeing it for the first time.

In this fast-paced world where we are used to flashing images and are bombarded with a smorgasbord of senseless things, there must be some pleasure in slowing it down to go back in time and enjoy things at our own pace.

I have a Netflix membership and love to watch movies at home, but seldom do I entertain the idea of picking out something from the "watch it again" category, which has a list of my five-star movies. If I were to indulge in such an exercise, these are perhaps the top five movies that I will pick out for a "retro movie festival" at home:

1. The English Patient
2. Monsoon Wedding (Hindi)
3. The Bridge on the River Kwai
4. Il Postino (Italian)
5. Pulp Fiction

Now do you think you will like a retro movie week at home? If so, which movies would it be?

In Praise of Addictive Games

I have always secretly envied people who can spend hours on end solving crossword puzzles, playing chess, solitaire, Free Cell or Sudoku. There has got to be a tremendous sense of joy when people get absorbed in a game like that, and forget about the outside world. It is even better if the passion transforms into a mild addiction for then there is always an escape from our worldly woes.

Last year, on an international Delta flight, I got introduced to the game of Mahjong for the first time. To a lay person, this will look like a boring game of matching tiles or cards. But the game is much more interesting than that. The tiles are stacked in various different shapes and the idea is to remove all the tiles in the fastest possible time. It combines a common sense approach with some analysis, strategy and an iota of probability theory. Since it was a touch screen on that Delta flight, I borrowed a pen from by wife and started to play the game by matching all the similar tiles. I must have played fifty games straight on that flight. I lost many of them and won a few.

As I was playing the game, the lady in the front seat got up and looked around all over trying to locate that "annoying tapping sound." I realized quickly that it must have been my pen tapping against the screen. She asked me to cease immediately as it bothered her quite a bit.

I stayed quiet for a while but couldn't resist the itch. This time, I borrowed a pencil from my wife and started to play the game by gently taping on the screen with the eraser side so it would muffle the sound. I played it all the way till touch down. The fifteen-hour flight suddenly seemed like a domestic flight of not more than two hours!

It is nearly a year since I played the first game, but I still average atleast 10 games a week. I believe there was a lady in China who got a blood clot in her leg because she sat in the chair and played for over twenty hours non-stop.

A simple version of this game in the shape of a "turtle" is available in Yahoo! games. But the one I like the best is in the shape of a fortress. See if you locate one and play it for a while. I am sure you will like it.

Happy Planet Index

I read recently that Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth! I was quite surprised by the fact and explored further to find out why. It turns out that there is an index to measure happiness on earth. The way it works is that it measures the happiness of a country in terms of both longevity and vitality of its population along with a measure of how little that nation adversely impacts the environment to achieve that happiness. It is an interesting concept and the idea is worth incorporating in our own lives.

Nic Marks, the founder of Happy Planet Index, also talks about his findings in a TED Talk.

According to his research, the five important things to do to be happy are as follows:

1. Connect (with other people)
2. Be Active
3. Take Notice (be aware of things happening around you)
4. Keep Learning, and
5. Give

(click on the picture to hear the complete talk).













And as for Costa Rica, it turns out they have completed eliminated the military and have used the money to invest in health and education instead. Tourism is one of their most thriving industries and their population is quite well educated and is occupied in waging peace instead of war!

How well do you manage your energy?

This last Tuesday, I came back from work and played with my kids, mowed the lawn and then went out shopping with my family. I stayed awake till 11:00 p.m. and watched a movie on Netflix. This is quite unusual for me. Typically, I am beat after my 50-mile commute each way and have very little energy left at the end of the day.

I started to think about Tuesday a little bit more and discovered that I had managed to conserve my energy well that day. I had a good night's sleep, had an interesting problem to engage my mind at work and went out to eat with my colleagues and had a good time discussing about the fun things that we did this summer.

The next day, I got a twitter message from CNN Money about the need to take a break at lunch hour and make a concerted effort to manage our energy at work. I then visited the website titled the Energy Project and learned that managing energy is even more important than managing time in this day and age. I took the quiz and found out that I had an imminent energy crisis as I scored 13/20. (less than 5 is required to be fully energized). I plan to implement some of their suggestions and benefit from them. See if you can find out how to improve your energy efficiency.

Joys of Tent Camping!

After a very long time this summer we had the opportunity to go tent camping. I experienced the joys of camping when I first came to this country as a student. From State College I went up to Buffalo, NY, and linked up with my older brother. We drove together to Niagara Falls, Toronto and Montreal. It was great for just the two of us to enjoy nature, talk about life in general and camp in various different state parks all along the way.

This summer when my brother and his wife came to visit us, I suggested that we go camping so my kids could also learn from the experience. We chose a state park near our house to camp. My brother brought a 4-persons tent for my family and we had a great time together. We bought a bundle of firewood and had a campfire that night. The kids learned to roast marshmallows and make smores. It was a clear sky and we sat around the fire and talked about all sorts of things. To me, the best part of camping is the campfire and the stories that people tell at night.

The next day we went swimming in the lake, had lunch and packed up and returned home. It was a short trip, but we enjoyed it immensely.

We liked the experience so much that we bought a large Red Canyon Tent (see above) from Amazon and went to another campsite two weeks later. It cost us less than $100 to camp out, but the experience has been very memorable. We do hope to camp out many more times in future!

NY Times Article on Happiness

One of the most emailed articles from the NY Times...

Learning points:

1. Downsize, live a simple life, and cut down your debt.
2. Consumption of material goods does not bring happiness.
3. Do not compete with Joneses: Neither of you will find happiness that way.
4. Money is good, but what is your strategy to get maximum bang (aka happiness) for your buck?
5. Seek a memorable experience instead of material goods.
Take several mini-vacations instead of one expensive trip.
Seek "that connection, the moment, the family, the experience.”
6. Being married improves your happiness.
7. Slow down your hedonistic adaptation: buy things that will give you happiness for a long time.
8. Dream about a possession (iPad?) for a long time before you actually buy it.

Read more...

"But Will it Make You Happy?"

In Pursuit of Ones Passion

I read this article in the Hindu and was truly impressed by Mr. Balakrishnan's ambition to pursue his passion and bring it back home. There is great satisfaction in going back in time and recreating ones fond memories. Please read this article and see what you think:

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article562713.ece?homepage=true

Of Dart Boards and Zoo Maps

Getting gifts from our friends and family makes us happy, but there is greater pleasure in trying to find the right present to give others. When we were just little kids growing up in India, my relatives often visited countries in Europe and brought back small gifts for us. We received our share of remote controlled cars, watches, video games, T-shirts, roller skates, calculators, etc., but the one gift that fascinated all us three brothers and captured our imagination was a dart board that my Uncle Parthasarathy brought from England. We had never seen or heard of this game. We hung the dart board on the backside of a solid, wooden door at the main entrance and tried to shoot darts from an imaginary line behind the sofa. We spent endless hours in summer just devising new games and throwing darts. Soon the door had thousands of small holes made from the darts that had missed the board completely.

One night, when Uncle Parthasarathy visited us at Ashok Nagar, he asked us if we had figured out how to play the game of darts. We showed him the back side of the main door with all those holes and he was quite taken aback to see a really nice, solid wooden door disfigured so badly by our practice sessions. He confessed that he had never imagined that we would like this game so much.

Recently on a business trip to Venice, I was fascinated by a puppet of Pinocchio and spent a few minutes manipulating his arms and legs. The shopkeeper quoted 20 Euros for it, and I bargained it down to 15 and got it gift wrapped and brought it for my son Keshav who had just turned 5 then. But Keshav was disappointed with my selection and never touched the gift ever again!

A few days later, when he was trying to read the animals on a map of Taronga zoo (from Sydney), I scolded him for trying to read very small print in poor light. He promptly switched on the light and went back to reading his map! I was impressed by his complete concentration with the animals on the map. The next day at work, I printed large colorful maps of the Taronga and San Diego zoos on 11x17" paper and brought it for him. He was ecstatic when he received his gift, which had cost me absolutely nothing. He promptly handed me scotch tape and scissors and had me paste all those maps on his bedroom walls. When I saw his interest, I was reminded of the movie Animals are Beautiful People, which I had watched at the Udayam theatre in Chennai as a small kid . I played a small clipping of the movie in You Tube, and he got hooked to it. So I rented the movie from Netflix, and both of us loved watching it. Several trips to local zoos followed to satisfy his desire to see as many animals as he possibly could.










Then an idea struck him. He dug out his old train and tracks and some animal toys from his closet and took it to the basement. There he arranged the tracks to form a large circle and put all the wild animals inside it. For $2, he offered to take us on a train ride to show us the African section of his zoo! And in the evenings, when the visitors to his zoo go back home, he shoots his documentary (like in Beautiful People), with detailed running commentary about the cheetah chasing a warthog!

It is amazing how really simple things make us happy, and this is evident very early in our lives. And yet, as we grow older we tend to forget this tenet and seem to focus on things that are big and more expensive. People spend a lot of money buying a Lexus; live in that million dollar home only to pay a huge mortgage; wear a Rolex watch just so they can show others; and take that expensive vacation to the exotic island in the Pacific, but never realize that all they need to find is perhaps a game of dart or a trip to the zoo to make them really happy!

Cherishing What We Have

Recently, while I was waiting to order for lunch at a fast food joint, Dan, my long time friend and colleague informed me that he is getting divorced. He told me how his work that took him to different countries and allowed him to slowly climb the corporate ladder and impress the management had left his wife disillusioned as he was not spending enough time with her. He said that after nearly 20 years of marriage she was tired of the whole thing! So his beautiful house with a swimming pool and his 401k and the future of all their three kids were suddenly at stake. He did not know how it was going to turn out.

He was not emotional about it, but he told me how suddenly everything looked trivial at work and petty politics looked pointless. He said he did not regret losing the house or the 401k, but really felt bad about breaking up the family. He advised me to cherish and guard the family over everything else. I paused and took his advice to heart. I couldn't imagine carrying on with work if I did not have a family to come home to.

"You know what, life has dealt me a lousy hand and I am to play with it. But I have an ace in my hand that nobody knows about," Dan went on. "I am a single man now and I do not have any responsibilities any more. One of these days I might just say 'to heck with it all' and take my motorcycle and drive West. I will grow a beard and just enjoy the freedom for a while till I figure out what to do."

I did not know if he meant it seriously. But his eyes gleamed as he pondered on that possibility and it did seem like he was cherishing that thought.