Tuesday, 30 January 2018

Create a Green and organic Environment


You can create a sustainable environment around you. This happens when you treat the Earth like a friend. Replace whatever you take from her with love. We need to stop doing many things to achieve a sustainable, clean environment. No Plastic bags, no empty shampoo sachets. Carry a cloth bag. Each of us has a personal responsibility to fulfill. Each of us has a personal duty to do something to spread the message. Use all communications for life changing, life affirming activities, Stop complaining. Do…do Something. The Carbon footprint is measured by the CO2 or other greenhouse gases created by an object, person or action. Each of us needs to aim at a lower carbon footprint. MCAfee estimates that 78 percent of all incoming e-mails are spam. 62 trillion spam messages are sent every year! The turning point is here. If we do not read the warnings, revolution is at our door. Let us not be caught unawares. We can still save planet Earth ourselves by being proactive.

Create a Green and organic Environment


You can create a sustainable environment around you. This happens when you treat the Earth like a friend. Replace whatever you take from her with love. We need to stop doing many things to achieve a sustainable, clean environment. No Plastic bags, no empty shampoo sachets. Carry a cloth bag. Each of us has a personal responsibility to fulfill. Each of us has a personal duty to do something to spread the message. Use all communications for life changing, life affirming activities, Stop complaining. Do…do Something. The Carbon footprint is measured by the CO2 or other greenhouse gases created by an object, person or action. Each of us needs to aim at a lower carbon footprint. MCAfee estimates that 78 percent of all incoming e-mails are spam. 62 trillion spam messages are sent every year! The turning point is here. If we do not read the warnings, revolution is at our door. Let us not be caught unawares. We can still save planet Earth ourselves by being proactive.

Monday, 29 January 2018

Life –Ultimate Class Room


We have so much waiting for us. Each of us comes into the world with a need to learn many things. Life is the ultimate classroom. Each of us has different problems to solve, tests to pass. Events will swirl around us uncontrolled, regardless. Our response is something we can control. Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words. Banish harsh, angry and foul language from the inner spaces of your heart. Perhaps you could set a song for the day in my mind. Those who met us would see the sparkle of that song in our eyes and feel the rhythm of its harmony in my limbs.

Life –Ultimate Class Room


We have so much waiting for us. Each of us comes into the world with a need to learn many things. Life is the ultimate classroom. Each of us has different problems to solve, tests to pass. Events will swirl around us uncontrolled, regardless. Our response is something we can control. Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words. Banish harsh, angry and foul language from the inner spaces of your heart. Perhaps you could set a song for the day in my mind. Those who met us would see the sparkle of that song in our eyes and feel the rhythm of its harmony in my limbs.

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Social Bonding


No man is an island, but a part of the Main,’ said the pensive poet John Donne. Man is a social being, and interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand other people. It is to be able to see what motivates them, how they work and how to work cooperatively with them. Interpersonal intelligence is the inward sense of being able to understand oneself, to form an accurate model of oneself and to operate that model effectively to live life. Professor Howard Gardner of the Harvard School of Psychology told me that the two aspects of personal intelligence, interpersonal and intrapersonal, form the most important foundation for a happy, fulfilling life. To those who define success as happiness, these two elements can be the bedrock of a happy life. Sensitive people can empathize with others. They can understand the feelings of others as though they were feeling it themselves. This skill involves being able to pick up subtle verbal, tonal and non–verbal signals from others. Charismatic leaders are able to reach others by breaking the barrier that exists between people. A charismatic speaker can make thousands of people react like one mind. The Upanishads say that the divine spark or life force exists in all—the leader, the leper, the judge and the criminal. The concept of a life force is recognised in all cultures. It is called Chi by the Chinese; Light, or Holy Ghost, by Christians; Prana by the Hindus; Mana by the Kahunas and; Bioplasmic Energy by Russians researchers.

Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Protecting the Ocean


On the 28th January 2017 two oil cargo ships collided off the Ennore Coast near Chennai, India and poured tonnes of oil into the ocean. The waves and the southern current carried it 34 kms up to Vettuvankeni in the South. What was great, was that a large number of students and volunteers joined the official clean up operations. Sadly, the sludge was being removed in buckets. The volunteers often suffered burns with no proper safety equipment or clothing. But the spirit was commendable. Over 70 tonnes of heavy black sludge was removed from the ocean. Considering that when MT BW Maple and MT Dawn Kanchipuram, collided one of the ships carried 32813 tonnes of oil, we in Chennai, were lucky. Health camps were conducted to provide treatment to those involved in cleaning operations. Over 60 doctors stood by to treat breathlessness and skin ailments. Nineteen helicopter sorties to spray oil dispersant chemical were undertaken. Sale of fish dropped 50% due to fears about pollution. In Indian ports, only 50% of pollution response equipment is funded by the centre. The training and acquisition of equipment to handle such accidents appears inadequate. The sludge mixed with sand has affected our world famous beaches. The ecological challenge is obvious. Dead turtles are being washed up. Fish eggs and eggs of other marine creatures are sure to be damaged. Birds that eat the dead creatures will surely be affected as will the people. Of course this is insignificant when compared to the Gulf Oil spill from Discoverer Enterprise. It is still the largest accidental spill in world history. It resulted from a blow out in a BP oil rig. Oil flowed at the rate of 25 million gallons of oil a day for 87 days! 3.19 million barrels of oil leaked out. It damaged 57 miles of Gulf shore line and the birds and marine life destroyed cannot be estimated. Experts say this could have devastated the coast for years to come. Deep sea corals which live for centuries were damaged and eco system deep in the ocean were destroyed. The oil dispersant caused some more damage. Pelicans were covered with black oil. Fish floated belly up. Over 200 dolphins died that year and for at least 9 years afterwards. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles nests became far less. Small sea birds could not fly and dive for food with their wings encrusted with oil. Shrimp fisheries were closed for the year. Heart defects were noticed in the larvae of blue tuna fish. Deformed wildlife was found. The ocean belongs to mankind. It is our earth’s lung and needs to be protected. The smallest country can affect the largest in this arena. So let us save our oceans.

Learn to Deal with Others and their Feelings


A drug addict once explained the difference between sympathy and empathy. He said, ‘You can never feel anything but sympathy for me and what I need is empathy.’ The he said, ‘Empathy is the capacity to feel my pain in your heart.’ To be ‘socially tone deaf’ * can lead to a life littered with broken relationships. Develop the capacity to pick up subtle verbal, tonal and non-verbal signals from others. Learn also the ability to send out soothing, nurturing signals to others, thus creating a positive interpersonal field. Unlike in a magnetic field, where positive attracts negative and vice versa, a positive, emotional and spiritual field, attracts positive people and events and, in addition, transforms even a normally negative person into a positive one. ‘How can I develop this skill?’ I ask. ‘Practice working with people and listening to them with the same attitude as you would towards a beloved child, or respected parent. Your word, tone, your very glance should be completely focused on the person. Don’t dilute the interaction by playing with your Blackberry, talking on your cellphone or fiddling with your laptop. When you are with someone, pay complete attention. Anything less will only elicit a lukewarm response. Those who can create positive fields around themselves attract and build lifetime relationships.’