Aditya Kumar_BLP036_Happiness_September 2012

                                                        What is Happiness?

Human, being a social animal is always in pursuit of happiness. For most of us a question arises that what is happiness? For some it is having a glass of water after a hard day’s work and for some it could be a fat pay cheque. It could be the happiest moment while looking at your new born baby or winning a million dollar lottery. Even meeting your loved one after a long time, gives an adrenalin rush and ends up becoming a happiest moment in our lives. Happiness stands for different meanings to all of us. The way people express their feelings when they are happy are also different across the world. It could vary from shedding tears till giving a tight warm hug. The celebration of happiness can end up into the biggest parties ever thrown.

 Sometimes I wonder that which organ of the body leads to happiness. Is it our beautiful emotional heart which is full of sentiments or our vicious and intelligent brain which can often lead us to mirage of happiness? I would like to stick with heart being responsible for happiness as I believe that all human emotions lies in the heart and emotional person tends to get happy or sad very soon(I am staunch believer of this because I am a cancerian!!) . In the quest for happiness, people follow different paths to attain their ultimate ecstatic moment of wonderful journey of life. For me, doing an appreciative inquiry for people makes them happy. I would like to share 2 ‘happiest’ moments of my life.

             

Just after getting passed out from 12^th standard (not with flying colors of course!), I end up being nowhere. I was standing right in the middle of the desert of disparity and despair where a seat in an engineering college was like a mirage. So, I took the biggest decision of my life and went ahead to drop a year for engineering entrance examination preparation. I chose Kota (This city is best known for its institutes like Bansals and Career Points which imparts quality preparatory coaching) over my local coaching centers and showed great faith in their teaching methodologies. I worked hard for the one whole year but the irony of the time was that I fell seriously ill for the last few months and hence could not do well in the examination. One more time in my life, I was again in the dilemma of making a choice between dropping another year as didn’t fared well or settle down with the less. It is been famously said that destiny favors the brave. So for the obvious reason I again dropped another year and this time I made sure that no stones would be left unturned. On the day my first result came, in that very moment, I cried bitterly with all my emotions flowing out through my eyes. I still have those beautiful memories of that wonderful juncture. Never ever before in my life I experienced such kind of moment.

The other true moment of happiness for me was when I got my first job. After struggling throughout my engineering (at least till 6^th semester!!) in aspiration of good grades I did not even managed to get a respectable job. But I never lost the hope and continued on the path of sheer hard work and glory. Finally, after all the hard luck I finally ended up in a good job with a respectable company. That moment of happiness is preserved in my golden memories.

So what stops people being happy all the time. What is that ultimate burden which leads to unhappiness? In my opinion it is the pressure of staying ahead in the rat race is the main cause of sorrow. If we compare the today’s modern times full of tech savvy, gadget freak generation with that of older ones, we will find that people were happier in the previous generations. Today’s people are indulged in rat race for achieving the luxury status. The hunger of getting ahead by any means is the main root cause of their grief. Modern human being has become so blind that it shows no mercy to nature and even other species for full filling their own greed. Now according to me, in order to open their eyes, there is strict need of divine spiritualism. By referring to our own Gitas and Ved Purans, we can make them learn that what is the real happiness of life? Happiness is not just about leading a pleasant life but a meaningful life. By the power of giving we can actually spread happiness in this universe. By appreciating others for their good deeds, would give those people, the real joy.

We should serve the almighty and our nation selflessly. This can help our society and its people in a big way thus ultimately leading to increased happiness index too. We should realize that before it is too late. Instead of cribbing, people should learn new ways to remain happy. I would like to end this article by a famous quote on happiness by Mother Teresa

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” 

Aditya Kumar_BLP036_Self Leadership_September 2012

Today we had a second memorable and awesome stint with Mr. Anil Sachdev under the ‘Self leadership’ Program. The whole session was mind boggling as till today what I use to think was right for me and everybody has actually came into reality. And the term is ‘Appreciative Inquiry’. I am actually well known in my friend circle for doing appreciative inquiry for each other in out and out of the way fashion. This whole session has strengthened my beliefs that appreciating an individual’s qualities would certainly make that person really happy. It would also help in showcasing the true and genuine feelings about that person as well as would boost his or hers confidence in a big way. Thanks to Anil Sir for giving us this opportunity of doing a self retrospection and a chance to think that in this cruel and harsh world, a person merely seek a bit of appreciation. My fellow batch mates who do not believe in appreciative inquiry till today would certainly now give a second though over it. I have experienced this wonder, now it is their turn.

Now, I would like to give an insight of today’s session. The class started with the paying of homage to our beloved friends Rahul and Gaurav whose souls rest in peace with the almighty. I would appreciative this initiative taken by Anil Sir as it gave us the chance to shun the pains of losing our class mates. I clearly saw the tears rolling on faces of several fellow Blpians. Somehow I felt relieved by remembering my friends for the one more time as it gave me more inner strength to relieve from the burden of that painful and horrific incident happened with those young students. Rahul and Gaurav would always be there in our hearts. God bless these heavenly souls.

Our session was then carried forward with the discussion of the topic ‘Appreciative Inquiry’. We were asked to form a pair and ask question to each other. The questions were:

·         When I was at my best in SOIL?

·         When was SOIL at its best?         

The pairs were given a time limitation to make a discussion. Once the discussion was completed, each student was asked to paraphrase their counterparts’ answers. This activity really impressed me a lot as I interpreted a feeling of joy and happiness in each and every person’s facial expression while other person was doing appreciative inquiry about them. The learning I took from this session is that it is very easy to criticize others and hurt their sentiments but it is too difficult to appreciate some body and make them realize that they are special too. Being a responsible management graduate and more than that being a true human it is our responsibility to understand others. By the end of the class we concluded that Appreciative Inquiry is a better way to share our thoughts and feelings with each other. Appreciative Inquiry is for a better cause and everybody should try to bring it in their respective behaviors. I request Anil Sir to enlighten us with more such sessions of wonderful topics of discussions.

Aditya Kumar_BLP036_Self Leadership_May 2012

After enjoying the awesome party last night, today was suppose to be my first official class room session with a faculty member. The day started with usual morning circle which always interests me as it involves taking an initiative to speak up. By hearing various ideas of my fellow peers which always motivates my inner voice and my soul that I cannot get the chance to speak up always but this is one small opportunity which always keep reminding me for the motive I am here for, a ‘self- inspiring’ leader, a good listener and last but not the least a good human being.

My mind was getting heavy with each forwarding step towards the class room. On the other side I felt joyous also that for the first time I am going to attend a lecture of my dream program.

The man himself Mr. Anil Sachdev was waiting for us there in the class room. The informative session started and took its pace with each minute and became more and more interesting. Then there came a question which has inhabited my mind from last few days “If I have to lead myself, what is the most important question I need to ask myself in order to lead? “. Wow! I felt so content that finally I might get answer to this query from my smart colleagues and the guru itself.

 But the answer was already there in my heart which I could not figure it out till today. It only required the ignition. I am happy that I finally got this opportunity to join this session where I can see myself doing a serious retrospection and getting all the answers to similar other questions.

Today only I got to know that what is the relation between one’s body mind and soul. Our soul is the object and rest all the senses are subject. If we can connect our mind, body and soul we can find all the answers of life. We do not necessarily have to react always but to respond. Our performance gaps can be converted to goals if we believe in ourselves and therefore great listeners have a connection to their souls. We have to gain the power to overcome our fears.

A 6 layer model based on Self awareness, presented by Anil sir, explains a lot more about the five basic pillars of SOIL .This model simplified the teachings of the holy bibles, the Qurans and the Gitas in a better way.

I got to hear so many examples of inspiring leaders but there is one particular mention of a small town driver of a CSI laboratories, touched my heart. It imparted me with a valuable piece of knowledge that how a simple, honest and self inspired person can teach you something which you cannot even learn end up paying millions.

I experienced the power of touch, eyes, listening and expression today in a different manner all together which reminded of my child hood days when people use to express their joys with negligible ego hassles.

This session has proved to be a heavy shower of knowledge which has drenched my soul with the fragrance of spiritual and inspiring thoughts.

I would like to sum this session with a famous saying as told by Mr. Anil Sachdev :

“An ALTAR in your life will ALTER your life”.