UAE Dazzles

We can do anything with water except live without it. Imagine, the cities of the UAE, meet all their drinking water needs from desalinated water! Waste water is treated and reused for greenery. There are several sea water desalination plants in the UAE. In the model green city, Masdar, four smaller pilot desalination plants will use solar power! Using an old technology, ocean desalination, a plant in UAE, at Jebel Ali can produce 564 million gallons of water a day from the sea!

Everyone pays for water by public meter, so they are more careful with its use. Water saving toilets and showerheads are mandatory. Over use of water is indicated on the bills in red. It is time we thought about the use of water more carefully, when it is still available. Treating water becomes more and more expensive as we deplete our supplies.

In spite of their water issues, UAE is generously involved in efforts to provide foreign water aid, which include basic water supplies projects, digging wells, developing rivers basins, general hygiene, large scale water supply systems, large scale general hygiene systems and conservation of water resources in more than 61 countries, at a cost exceeding AED 1 billion. Top recipient countries of water projects includes: Afghanistan, Pakistan the only two Polio affected countries where impure water is key source of infection, Lebanon, Somalia and Sudan. In addition, UAE supports water projects in West African countries, such as Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Burundi.

Water projects have contributed in improving the enrolment rates of the school students, and for girls and women joining rates to adult literacy classes. In rural areas around the world, children, especially girls and women, are engaging in a daily journey searching for water, and spending long hours that force them to miss opportunities of education and improving their livelihoods. Funded water projects helped in improving the personal hygiene, which reduced infections of hygiene related diseases. In addition, the availability of water resources saved some time for women to take care of their children and families, which led to improved maternal and child health. It also provides more time for the family to engage in income- generating activities. Also water availability helped in reducing the struggle over water. This helped in reducing conflicts, providing security and peace. For example, Merowe Dam in Sudan, which UAE has helped fund in providing energy of 1250 MW and irrigating 300,000 hectares of cultivated land.

Unless we are careful, we will soon join the 1.2 billion people who live in places where it is tough to get water. It is estimated that climate change is moving more parts of the world into desertification. The world population is expected to cross 9 billion by 2050! Unless we start working on saving water, even on an individual level, most of them will be thirsty. Start rain harvesting today! Start conserving water!

Steps to increase everyday happiness

·         Do the crossword as you age

·         Take up a course of study that will improve your work skills: may be computer literacy

·         Eat a piece of dark chocolate 4 times a week.

·         Have at least four interesting, intimate conversations with family and friends every day.

·         Spend at least two hours outdoors.

·         Participate in at least one group activity.

·         Have a good belly laugh.

·         Forgive and forget and what you cannot forgive, forget.

·         Find a meaningful job to do, even if unpaid.

·         Live in the present and enjoy it.

Know Yourself

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or demons, heaven or hell,” said Buddha. This is the season to clean up our lives, burn out all desires and conquer our evil habits. Control your tongue, for “The tongue like a sharp knife. It kills without drawing blood…. Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Overcome the snakes of jealousy and the grasping fingers of greed. Wipe out lust. Start on a clean white canvas of purity. Paint the positive navarasas of love, compassion, wonder, laughter, courage and peace into your life.

As Buddha said the way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. Do not look back or lose yourself in the daydreams of the future. Concentrate your mind and be a full participant in the present moment. Enjoy each moment!

Love yourself

Now turn inward and start a personal affirmation account for yourself.  Give yourself a big hug for being the most hard working, kind and special person in your life. Invest in a note book which will document your love affair with yourself.

v  Write a love letter to yourself. Recognize your unique beauty, your capacity to do your best and all the gifts that make you such a fabulous person. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into place,” said Lucille Ball.

v  Start a gratefulness dairy where you record all the things you are grateful for. Thank God for His blessings.

v  ‘I can,’ is a hundred times more important that IQ. Celebrate your smallest successes. Stop that nagging, critical voice in your head that keeps picking on you. Speak to yourself kindly and lovingly.

v  Stop worrying. The way to be happy is to stop worrying about things which cannot be changed.

v  Plug into the Source of all power, through prayer and meditation and acknowledge that you are a child of God, made in his own image.

v  Explore, dream, discover: at the end of your life do not regret all the dreams you have failed to pursue. 

Doctor’s Day

Perfect Health is not Just an absence of illness. It is a state of total physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. That is why it is important to celebrate our partners in the quest for positive health – doctors.

India celebrates Doctor’s day on 1st July every year on the birthday of the freedom fighter, educationalist and physician Dr. B.C. Roy. Choose and make friends with a doctor younger than you for the sole purpose of helping you maintain and improve your state of positive well being. Most patients go to doctors when they are really ill, when it is too late to do anything. The Chinese were wise. They paid their doctors as long as they were well. They stopped paying when they became ill, since the doctor had failed in maintaining their health.

Action Plan to Enhance Positives

• Write a love letter to your parents
• Buy tickets to a music concert and give away some of it.
• Treat yourself to a full moon dinner with loved ones.
• Take your dog to the beach.
• Plant a tree and take care of it (a tree is an oxygen factory).
• Give away seeds. The monsoons are awaiting to make them grow
• Feed the birds. Do God’s work

Celebrate the Positives

Celebrate the positive in all interactions. Rest assured that God did not create you for the sole purpose of correcting others or making them unhappy. When we say namaste, we say ‘I bow to the Divine in you’. ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’ say, our holy book – the whole world is your family. Imagine the rich network of love you could create, where your children can be nurtured if you believed and practiced this.

The most inexpensive ticket to happiness is helping others and making others happy. So spread happiness like Amul butter on bread. It will stick to your fingers. Create a happiness committee in your street, which meets every month to create a happy street. Every month as you decide to install comfort touch, celebrate Diwali or have a painting competition for kids, neighbours become friends.

Happy Street

I am happy to inform you that my eleventh book, “Happy Street” published by Penguin Books will be released in June 2016.

My new book is about how to create happy communities, street by street. I believe that this book can revolutionize the scientific implementation of the Swacch Bharat program as well as create a happy India street by street. This book emphasizes the economic impact of kindness. The business world today is more about taking, grabbing, competing and forcing. This book presents a refreshing, new way, which focuses on giving, sharing and caring.

 How cool it would be to spend your time thinking of lovely new ways to inspire more joy and happiness in the people around you.

Here are some interesting facts about my book.

You can create a Happy Street!

The Happy Street by the bestselling author and innovation guru Dr. Rekha Shetty, is about how each one of us has a chance to adopt a street and make it a happy street.

The principles of building a happy community are woven around. It is a simple love story of how Rohan a conservative young man from Chennai, meets fiery Bengali girl, Ammu  and how they both work together to create a happy street. Through a series of letters from Rags a wise hi-tech coach, with a spiritual bent, points the way. Happy Street shows you how to create a community full of well-being and joy.  The four pillars of the Happy Street are (1) Environmental  Sustainability, (2) Cultural Vitality (3) Economic Development and (4)Good Governance.

Use this book to create your own happy street!

Action Plan to protect your legacy

·         Commit your dream to paper. Be clear about your legacy – give details.

·         Build ownership in those empowered to take it forward. Listen to divergent opinions and let go.

·         Start detaching yourself and don’t give too much advice and cramp the style and enthusiasm of those on the job.

·         Remember life is short.

Let not your legacy become ashes and dust when you die. You have responsibility to leave the world a better place. Start the task now!

Take them everyday!

1. Take short relaxation breaks, at least thrice a day.

2. Eat fresh, energy-giving foods.

3. Take a walk outdoors during lunch break.

4. Stay away from politics and back-biting.

5. Involve your spouse and children in your work. Bring them to the office during lunch break or on a Saturday.

 6. Spend time reading and improving your mind.

7. Get involved in activities that will benefit others.

8. Develop an absorbing hobby or skill—driving, dancing, gardening, carpentry, painting, amateur radio, etc.

9. Keep in touch with your close friends and extended family; use the power of the internet.

10. Plan to cut off from work on weekends.

Steps to increase everyday happiness

·         Do the crossword as you age

·         Take up a course of study that will improve your work skills: may be computer literacy

·         Eat a piece of dark chocolate 4 times a week.

·         Have at least four interesting, intimate conversations with family and friends every day.

·         Spend at least two hours outdoors.

·         Participate in at least one group activity.

·         Have a good belly laugh.

·         Forgive and forget and what you cannot forgive, forget.

·         Find a meaningful job to do, even if unpaid.

·         Live in the present and enjoy it.