Technology with a heart

I read this very interest article on CNN.com titled 'Technology with a heart'. The beauty of internet and social-networking as a media is their amazing capability to touch and influence people's life to mostly create a positive change. This article talks about extending social networking to philanthrophy and to micro-lending. I think the concept is unbelievable and just brilliant. This article motivated me to the extent that I created accounts with Kiva.org, Change.org, Ammado.com and Nabuur.com. I'll keep posting whatever interesting stuff I come across or I do on these websites.

All it takes is imagination

"The biggest thing is nothing is impossible ... With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination." Michael Phelps

Mission Accomplished

I came to India almost five months back, fuzzy-headed, confused, looking for direction and a welcome break from the six-and-half years of mechanical existence in the US. I did not know what to expect from India. India had changed in many ways from the time I left for US in 2001.

The India I left was struggling in many areas even though software and IT sectors were doing good. Life was starting to get better for the people employed in the IT industry but others went about their lives the usual way with the familiar attitude.

The India I returned to is full of energy and enthusiasm and is bubbling with hope. I witnessed the launch of the Tata Nano, world's cheapest car. The self-confidence and the can-do-never-give-up attitude of the people is contagious and amazing. People it seems are itching to change the system and the way of doing things, and they are now courageous enough to be the starting point for the change they want to bring about. New ideas are welcome in India and a lot of young people are taking the entrepreneurship route to success and change.

What has touched me most is the blend of old-world charm and the new-found desire for change. The ancient Indian tradition laid emphasis on honoring the guest 'Athithi Devo Bhava' - your guest is like God. Most people are very warm, helpful and friendly and maintain the ancient tradition of honoring the guest . Ofcourse, we all come across and read about nasty incidents, but overall the majority of people are nice and are willing to extend a helping hand sometimes without you asking. I have had wonderful experience while travelling in trains and buses.

I don't know how many people feel this way but I feel there lies a sense of peace beneath the chaos of external material life in India. People are in general happy and content with life here. In the US, I always felt a sense of chaos and fear beneath the perfection of the external material life. There everyone seems to be in a rush to head somewhere.

Now once again, I find myself at the crossroads :). I have found what I was looking for in India. I feel a sense of completion to my trip to India. I now want to move forward from here, but don't know where. As always, I believe with time I will have all the answers and life will lead me to my next destination.

15 laws of life by Swami Vivekananda

Here are a few gems from teachings of Swami Vivekananda..

1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

2. It’s Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

3. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!

4.It’s The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.

5. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

6. Don’t Play The Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

7. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

8. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

9. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

10. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

11. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

12. You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

13. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge… now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

14. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

15. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.

My mantra for success

Here is the sum total of my experience that I would love to share.
To me success comes :
- When I do my best and let the Universe or God take care of the rest
- Do what I love to do
- Manage thoughts , emotions, time and energy well - i.e. have happy thoughts, feel positive, be punctual, systematic, methodical and never procrastinate.

My Mantra for success in life (not from self-help books, but based on my experiences) :

• Work hard - Know all that is there to know.

• Keep commitments

• Focus and concentrate
  

• Be creative

• Be passionate - it shows

• Network well - i.e. build relationships, you never know from where it comes

• Relax and let go - This is most important so mark it well

• Laugh and play often- it keeps spirits high and makes you light and attracts more good to you

• Set timelines or deadlines - but let go of the time frame in your mind, i.e. don't freak out when the expected thing doesn't happen in the intended time-frame

• Be very specific with what you want - i.e. the only way you can ever reach your heart-cherished destiny - write all the details in paper very very clearly but don't be attached to any specifics. Let go and always have your mind, heart and soul open.

• Be open to adventure

• Let go of fear and worry

• Communicate well. Ask good questions till you exactly know what was the intended meaning. It saves a lot of pain.
  

• Never take anything personally. Remember when people are mean to you, it's not about you but about them

• Always do your best and let God take care of the rest

• Help everyone from the bottom of your heart and soul. Be good and do good

• Watch your words. Say what you mean and mean what you say

• Thank God always! Say a gratitude prayer often

• Be patient...always!

• Always visualize the end goal that you seek with a lot of feeling and emotion

• Be very excited about what you want
  

That's it, you've conquered the world! Now chill :).