Hetal_Gandhi_BLP020_Happiness_September2012

From the onset of humanity we have been trying to find out the ingredients of happiness, but as rightly portrayed in the movie kung fu panda that there was neither any secret to become the dragon warrior nor for the soup, we must understand that the happiness is anything which we derive by giving or receiving from the world. There is no strict definition of happiness but on generic basis what can be said is that happiness is anything which brings smile on our faces.

The main source of happiness lies in ourself.Its only that we don't realize the same. We move here and there in pursuit of happiness but we don’t realize the fact that the moment when deep inside our heart is at peace we are in a state of happiness. Even Robin Sharma in his book the Monk Who Sold his Ferrari has very vividly portrayed how we can gain happiness. The moment we discover our self our purpose of life we have discovered the pathway for happiness.

From Ancient Greeks to Buddhists, thinkers have queried the nature of happiness. Not much research has been done to inquire the main determinants of happiness, but broadly can be classified into three

1. The positive trumping the negative: There is so much negative vibes around us which always makes us think negative and the critic within our self is always active. For e.g.: as students we at times tend to crib about why a particular faculty is acting tough with us or why we have a number of happiness. We do not think about the flip side that we are been put to test because it would eventually help us discover our skills which would add value to our lives and contribute in self learning. For years many scientists have conducted researches on positive thinking and the concept has evolved and now it has entered a generative phase called the appreciative inquiry where the main intention is through appreciating the good deeds of the speaker we tend to help him gain confidence which thus act as an reagent to fight the negativity in the speaker.

2. Family trumping materialism: In the present generation we have been lead by a lot of materialistic attitude. We tend to run behind worldly riches and arrive at a perception that higher salary or bigger house would bring happiness to us. The happiness that we derive from these is short lived and will be consumed sooner or later. But we do not realize that long lasting happiness would be derived when we are with our family. We would not be devoid of happiness if we respect our family.

3. Generosity triumphs selfishness: We have to learn to give than thinking about ourselves. People who give away more of their wealth, regardless of income, feel happier than those who give away less.  Similarly, those who did favors for others in the last year felt happier than those who received favors in the last year. The largest happiness effect is seen when people do things for someone together with other people.

We cannot be happy at all times because we do get bogged down due to circumstances and   situations. Doing a deep diving would help us unravel the root cause of unhappiness .These can broadly classified as

 1. Unstated emotional expectations of those whom i care about

 2. Regret about the past

3. Guilt that I carry with me

We must learn to lift ourselves above these causes of unhappiness which cause unrest in our hearts acting as root cause for disturbing our inner peace .We must try to de burden the sources of unhappiness so that we can strive in our quest for the higher purpose of our life. We must look beyond horizons and try to do things which excite us or activities we are passionate about. Life is too short and in this short span of time if we live and celebrate every moment as and when it comes. As Alfred hitch cock rightly said when asked what happiness was, According to him “A clear horizon, nothing to worry about on your plate. Only things that is creative and not destructive. That's within yourself, within me I can't bare quarrelling I can't bare feelings between people. I think hatred iswasted energy. It's all non-productive. I'm very sensitive. A sharp word said by say a person who has a temper if they're close to me hurts me for days. I know we're only human, we do go in for these various emotions, call them negative emotions, but when all these are removed and you can look forward and the road is clear ahead and now you're going to create something. I think that's as happy as I would ever want to be."  Life is a roller coaster with peaks and troughs and we should treat both of them equally by enjoying the peaks and be positive when encountering troughs.

Veda Prada.N_BLP028_Self Leadership_September 2012

For BLP (Business Leadership program), every semester usually starts with the leadership session from our beloved Anil sir. Our first leadership session was amazing and we expected the same kind of session in the second semester too. And, as hoped, we did get involved in an emotionally enriching session which was very much required for all of us in BLP as we had recently lost two of our beloved friends & bright students to an unexpected heart wrenching accident.

After the sad incident, this was the first time that all of us were in the class and it seemed quite weird & painful to see the unoccupied seats of Gaurav & Rahul. All the memories associated to them rushed to my mind every time I looked at their seats. The entire class seemed to share the same emotion as there was a mocking silence when Anil sir brought up the topic of their death and asked us to discuss our views. No one spoke for initial ten minutes; we just stared blankly everywhere to avoid eye contact and tried hard not to get emotional again.

But sir was very persistent that we get into that emotional state and release all our depression by openly discussing our feelings with our classmates. Well, that did work remarkably. We were able to come out of our misery and sadness. After we took control of our emotions, sir showed us a real life short video of a girl on “Things to do before I die”. This video had created a rage and inspired many lives. Anil sir wanted to implement the same in our SOIL too and now we too have a “Things to do before I die” bulletin at our cafeteria J

Later in the session, sir shared his personal experiences which encouraged us to face the challenges, learn from our mistakes and move forward in life. We were shown how different empathy & sympathy were through a live demonstration in the class. One of our class mates was asked to keep his shoes on & get into the shoes of another student and then later, remove his shoes & then get into the shoes of another student. It was practically evident that we cannot perceive and empathise others wearing our own bias or perceptions.

Anil sir made us recognise our own strengths through appreciative inquiry. Each of us were appreciated by our fellow partner for our unique strengths and sir very beautifully interpreted them to the entire class. As a memento of our lovely experience and to recognise the unique strengths of our classmates, sir suggested that we have a knowledge tree depicting every student with his or her unique traits in the cafeteria J

Sir also explained to us the importance of emotional quotient in our personal & professional lives. He also mentioned that emotional quotient is mainly developed through mutual trust, respect and the complete acceptance of an individual along with one’s differences. We were asked to recognise & pen down all the emotional barriers which stopped us from being happy. At the end of the session we formed a circle and shared all our emotional experiences so far in our lives. Sir suggested that we honour Gaurav & Rahul by designating places for them & commemorate their goodness by remembering them every day in our lives.

On the whole, it was an amazing experience as we felt very light hearted, calm and at peace after the session.

Venkata Kalluri_BLP010_Self Leadership_Happiness_September 2012

As per the definition of Merriam Webster’s dictionary, Happiness is defined as a state of well being and contentment (or) a pleasurable or satisfying experience. It is a long term sense of emotional well-being and contentment and it is a moment of Satisfaction. Happiness includes activities that are absorbing and amazing. It gives freedom from tough times, illness and gives good life, well being, joy, pleasure and prosperity.

            Happiness cannot be bought by money and it is achieved by engaging one-self in doing the activities/tasks which one interested is in doing. It may be achieved from tasks as silly as tasting sweets, dishes to achieving the biggest of the dreams. In deed Happiness cannot be chased and it can be achieved only when one is engaged in doing the things with utmost interest and passion. It can also result from association with friends, family and the quality of time will result in Happiness. Accomplishment of the dreams also makes one to live that highly satisfying experience. It can be found in things as small as watching a child Smiling.

            Scientifically, Happiness is caused by brain chemistry, in particular the chemicals called Serotonin and Dopamine. These chemicals are secreted when any of the above mentioned activities happen. There are three levels of what causes Happiness:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1)    <!--[endif]-->Level of Happenings or experience’s on one’s Life

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2)    <!--[endif]-->Level of Physiological bio chemicals in the body

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3)    <!--[endif]-->Non-physical level at Source of Life.

Happiness cannot be measured in terms of money, GDP of an economy or any metrics you can state.

            In order to be happy, one should learn to de burden oneself from doing things which do not give satisfaction in any way. Perform the things which you have passion in, live and celebrate each of the moment. One should free one’s mind from worries, tensions, hatred and learn to respect every individual. Look at the beauty of each small thing, learn to give and do not expect any from friends and family. These will enable one to take the journey of Happiness and witness it all through the journey.

Robin Goel_BLP033_Self Leadership_September 2012

September 10th the day 3 teams from our college had planned to participate at an AIMA event called Chanakya (A prestigious business strategy simulation game) being held in Greater NOIDA. The same day that was scheduled for a 2nd session on Self Leadership with Anil Sir, our 2nd class of the subject and associated with it was the huge confusion that happened due to the miscommunications all around us. Result we missed the Self Leadership Session from Anil Sir, which resulted not only in loss of knowledge, but also we were reprimanded by our Program chair (early morning over phone) for being irresponsible about the whole thing. Amends were made at the last moment but like all last moment works they were also shoddy.


After coming back I met lots of my friends at hostel inquiring about what happened in the class today, how the session was and what all topics were covered.

Somehow I felt people were a lot more calm and relaxed while answering questions than I had expected. The horrendous accident that had happened last week had shaken most of us up, the anxiety levels were high and somehow the days were dragging away with great difficulty. People were generally quiet, and eyes spoke more than words. But somehow when I came back I found people to be more relaxed and calm which seemed to have an inductive effect on me too.

People shared that the session started with Anil Sir asking us to remember our friends and share our thoughts about the same, and suddenly an avalanche of feelings poured out from the class. I heard about the class and felt connected and could see the emotions being reflected by Pravin /Jitin / Rohit /Waheed in their words and expressions.

The next session was on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) session in which Anil sir talked about the basics of AI and how to apply and use it. Everyone I enquired from said that it helped them know the person in-front of them better and not only personally but it was also associated with the joy of sharing with the whole class.

I wish I could have attended the session and learned more about myself and my friends. But with every missed opportunity comes another chance to succeed, and I sincerely believe in this.

Hopefully doing AI with my AI partner Hetal Gandhi would help me understand AI better.

Sonam Singhvi_HRLP052_Appreciative Enquiry_SeptemberThe session on Appreciative Enquiry gave the in-depth knowledge about what an appreciative enquiry is all about.I learnt that it is a process of undertaking a change in own self and others and overall system by a generative process of understanding what best is in the system.The session on Appreciative Enquiry gave the in-depth knowledge about what an appreciative enquiry is all about.I learnt that it is a process of undertaking a change in own self and others and overall system by a generative process of understanding what best is in the system.2012

The session on Appreciative Enquiry gave the in-depth knowledge about what an appreciative enquiry is all about.I learnt that it is a process of undertaking a change in own self and others and overall system by a generative process of understanding what best  is in the system.

 

We can’t grow plants in Thar Desert.But a land which is fertile also  won’t grow plants automatically. We have to dig out sand ,sow the seeds and put water to let the plant grow.

 

Appreciative enquiry is just like that .It is finding out the best with in yourself and others.It is focusing on the positive but it doesn’t mean that we are neglecting our negatives.

Infact it is a process of  converting our negative into positive by focusing on our positive points.

 

When we start with the negative aspect of the thing all the negative impulses go to the prefontal right cortex .It destroys our action. It commands our brain to shut down on the contrary when we focus on positives it gives momentum to fly.

 

In a silo organization where         people are not talking to each other and are not appreciating others ,where the boss is very dominating the employees couldn’t give their best. A cohesive environment is required in an organization to bring out the best in employees. Therefore appreciative enquiry is most important to change the mindset of the people.

 

We also learnt about different types of life:

 

Pleasant life: People who are in this zone hankers more for luxurious life.They want comforts and pleasure in their life. They lead an aimless life.

Good Life :People in this zone have passion for something they love to engage themselves. Here a person is completely engrossed in himself.

Meaningful Life: People in this arena have purpose in their life. They have aspirational dreams. They constantly work on increasing their circle of influence.They are inclined to do social services.

 

Sarvesh Pingulkar_BLP017_Self Leadership_September 2012

Excitement mounts just before the second session on leadership, after the first exhilarating session on self leadership describing the 5 senses and power of listening ability…and Anil sir enters the classroom, starts a discussion on “emotions”.

Anil sir speaks about his view on emotion and its importance in life. He teaches that emotions associated with mood, temperament, personality and it is the motivation behind positive and negative motivation.

Now each student thinks about his own view on emotions and the incidence of Rahul and Gaurav’s sad demise. While doing so, all students discuss their views among their table groups. This activity turns to bring out some beautiful thoughts. All students agree that the recent incidences prove that the life is unpredictable. When human being feels such sudden impact, the brain’s logical thinking stops. Then sudden burst of emotions come out and this process makes us realize the only truth of life, the Death. No one can predict the time and place of death; hence instead of worrying about small things in life, one needs to be happy and live in present. This activity shows convergence in thoughts of all students. 

The next hour starts with a video of a woman, who loses her beloved in sudden event, but still learns to live her life. She writes her wish on the wall as “one thing I wish to do, before I die”, where many people share their wishes and this activity helps them express their inner feelings. This shows that expressing the wish or most important work removes a burden from the mind and keeps us free to live at our ease.

The session progresses ahead with concept of empathy and sympathy. The sympathy (Sym=with) means understanding the position of other person or being along with other person. While empathy (Em=into) means accepting the uniqueness of the other person by wearing his shoes.

The last session starts with the concept of appreciative enquiry and sir explains it as an organizational development method which focuses on what an organization does well and also a tool to bring out the best quality of the other person. Sir then asks all students to pair up and do appreciative enquiry of each other, with 4 questions such as-

-          When were you at your best and when was SOIL at its best?

-          What happened and who were involved?

-          What was special about the experience?

-          What does it teach you about yourself and SOIL?

This exercise works wonderfully and it leaves students engrossed in their relationship with SOIL during past 3-4 months and each student remembers the time when they performed at their best. This activity taught each student about the other student’s best quality, which was not openly known till now.

The session ends with a beautiful video on Mathieu Ricard, the happiest man in the world sharing his views on happiness.

DilipKumar_BLP014_SelfLeadership_Sept'2012

The second session of Self-Leadership started with the learning/Impact everyone had with the demise of our dear friends Gaurav & Rahul. I really felt sad for their parents since I saw “how much they were missing their Child”. Also with the incident I could understand that

aA) “Nothing in life is permanent for one’s temporary stay here on the earth”.

bB)   “Do Good and Be Good” till the time you are here.

We were introduced to the concept of “Emotional Intelligence” which means ‘ability to listen to people as if the life depends on it’. Always respect the Uniqueness of the person and build the trust, since trust is the cornerstone of Emotional Quotient. ‘Love for others’ and ‘Love for passion’ are also called as Emotional Intelligence and if we can practice these two, we can increase our Emotional Intelligence.

We were told the difference between Empathy and Sympathy with a beautiful example, which says that in order to feel the same feeling of others, you should be ready to get into his shoes and then analyse the situation whereas Sympathy means just suggesting/helping with you being in your own position.

We were given a chance to appreciate our fellow classmate and during this process I found about myself. At the end of the session when we were asked to write down about the questions

1) Unstated expectations of those whom I care about 
2) Regrets about the past  
3) Guilt’s that I carried with me.

I could find that my parents and friends are the people from whom I have unstated expectations. And I still regret that I should have prepared myself well for my future and also should have tried playing other games/sports which I don’t.

Sir shared the saying that his teacher always mentioned “Disappointment comes with the people who keep appointment with the future”. We had a closing circle at the end of the day, where we got time to reflect what has been the entire day and we ended the day.

Venkata Kalluri_BLP010_Self Leadership_September 2012

In fact every trimester beginning, I have this wonderful opportunity to attend the class on Self Leadership. Anil sir has begun the class by showing us a video of “Things to do before I die” and the video showed clippings of people around the world writing down their dreams, tasks they want to do before they die. This video raked in me my finest of aspirations/dreams of writing a book and hope I will take up that task at some point of time.

            Class shared their feelings on losing our dear class mates and we felt that it’s just their physical presence we are going to miss and the moments were emotional. Few of them shared their feelings and it’s a fact that we are going to pass away some day. I felt that one should be content with what one is having and should seek happiness in that.

            We understood the difference between the words empathy and sympathy and the activity of getting into another shoes by putting/without putting the shoes clearly demonstrated it. Then we underwent the Appreciative Inquiry process where in each student was paired with another student and we did put the questionnaire such as when was one at his/her best, what happened during the process, who were involved in the process, what was the ambience around and how was the experience.

At the end of the day we could feel the positive vibes around us as our strengths were unleashed by this process. We learnt that we should express warmth not only by our words but also through our eyes and body language. We felt the Synergy with us and class ended up with our feelings shared. The class has filled in us the inspiration and energies to take up the new beginning.

Ritika_Malik_HRLP 037_Appreciative_Inquiry_Sep2012

On 19th September, all the cohorts had a session with Snehal ma'am on Appreciative Inquiry. This session taught me many new things and I have started implementing few of those learnings in my day to day life. Appreciative Inquiry is a process of undertaking change in your own self, in others and in the overall system by a generative process of undertaking or leveraging what best is in the system. By generative process I mean not only focusing on asking the right questions but also changing the thought process. I feel that this is the best way to appreciate a person. This should be done on a regualr basis. Such process gives us an opportunity to appreciate people whom we may not do otherwise. But I feel that one must practice this on a regular basis and not wait for any such process. I also learnt that one must focus on positive aspects of an individual and not on the negative aspects. By focusing on only the positive aspects, a positive energy is spread around us. Therefore, the take away from this session would be that one must look at the positive side everything and every being. This creates a sense of immense positivity and it further creates a sense of goodness among all.
The day ended with Lord Gansha Aarti. I could feel good wibes while the Aarti was going on.
To conclude I would like to say that one must be satisfied with what one has and not crib about things they dont have. One should live every moment of life and come what may, deal with situations with a positive attitude and this will only be done by looking at the positive sides of any situation. 

Dipti Sethi_BLP048_Self Leadership_September2012

This was the second time we got the chance to have a session on Self Leadership with our honorable and charismatic leader Mr. Anil Sachdev.

Since we have lost 2 of our leaders, our classmates: Gaurav and Rahul and Anil Sir knew the emotions flowing inside our brains and hearts after that unexpected and horrible incident.

Also, the SOIL family was very supportive in that entire week and stood as a family as the name goes (SOIL family).

He identified, understood and through this session released our emotions in terms of its impact on us.

So he started the session by analyzing the impact of that situation on us – individually and then in groups which was shared finally with Anil Sir.

As per our group, we came up with below key points:

·         The first thing by which you can help others is to help yourself, take care.

·         Life is unpredictable so make use of each and every moment of it.

·         Live life as one day and love everyone who comes your way.

·         What we spend as moments becomes memory for others.

·     Show your warmth and enthusiasm to this whole world so that they’ll remember    your smiling faces whenever you come to their mind.

·     Love your parents – take care of them because they won’t be able to forget anything about you.

After this, Anil Sir discussed about EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE :

·         Is acquired

·         Ability to listen to people (as if your life depends on it) –  Should be able to absorb   directly  without exaggeration and dilution.

·         Understand - Paraphrase

Affective components of intelligence may be essential to success in life.Sympathy and Empathy – both are the key terms used for emotions. He showed very beautifully the difference in SYMPATHY and EMPATHY. He called 2 people and told one of them to wear other person’s shoes over his own shoes  – that’s SYMPATHY. Then he was told to take out his own shoes and then try to wear other one’s shoes – that’s EMPATHY.

The person using empathy tunes into the entire inner world of the other person whereas the person using sympathy typically tunes into only those aspects with which he agrees.

The listener using empathy usually responds more comprehensively to the talker as compared with the listener using sympathy.

EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence Quotient. It’s a measure of person’s emotional intelligence. It makes people trust on you. Qualities of an EQ person are empathy, listening skills, patience, and respect for others. She/he accepts the uniqueness of the other person. Genuineness, Authenticity, Warmth – reflects by your eyes and body language if you are Emotionally Intelligent. It comes by self understanding.

After that, we did Appreciative Inquiry about each other like a kid in which we discussed about our best moment in SOIL, and when SOIL was at its best (Strengths of SOIL), what was special about the experience, what does this teach us about ourselves?

Everyone shared their views about each other and SOIL.

It was a great spiritual session at the end of which we were asked to think deeply about unstated expectations, regrets about past, guilts that we carry so that we should be able to move forward and be successful irrespective of all the hindrances or heavy stones which are on our back and stopping us to move forward. But we have to fight like a kid and remove those stones to keep moving.

Hetal_Gandhi_BLP020_Self_Leadership_September2012

September 10th 2012

Life had come to a standstill a week before and all of us were in a state a trauma, not knowing where we were heading to.It was as life had cheated on us and left us in a lurch. The morning circle went on as usual and we were to have a leadership session with Anil sir. At first i was wondering how would i be able to sit for the session and pay full attention to him,but as time passed he got the attention of the class and thus our leadership session with Anil Sir started

The first session was spent discussing on emotional intelligence and we learnt that emtional intelligence can be acquired and mastered .But mastering it requires a lot of experience and this comes from listening to people.Before even we start listening to a person we must be fully present and we have to listen as if out life depends on it,Which literally meant that we have place ourself in the shoes of the speaker not just by wearing his shoes but removing ours before we step into the speakers shoes. This was well demonstrated by the experiement with two of our classmates.If we dwell more into this we should understand that for us to appreciate the view of the speaker we not only must understand what the speaker is saying but also paraphrase the feelings and thoughts of the speaker. He made us understand that emotional quotient in turn leads to trust which leads to respect and finally the proces enable us to appreciate the uniqueness of a person.

The second session was more based on Appreciative Inquiry where we are told what appreciative inquiry is and what wonders it can do.Apprecative inquiry is a generative process where we with a child like ears listen to the speaker and ask questions in a positive way.It is mainly deals with mining the positiveness in a person ann this positiveness would act as a path for the improvement of negative.The session taken a step further where now anil sir shoed us a demo of the aprreciative inquiry process by interviewing the whole class on a certain set of question.After questioning each person he assigned special names for each and everyone based on their answers and personified the importance of every student.This way he made us understand why and how we can appreciate uniqueness in every person.Through his teachings we were able to connect to what would be the skill sets required when we would engage in an appreciative inquiry session with our alumni.

The third session was a bit intense where he told us that each of our lives had a purpose and we must strive for that higher purpose.But in our quest for the higher purpose of life we come across unhappiness and thus we carry the weight of it all way long to the end of our journey of life.We were enlightened about the root cause of unhapiness which are 1. Unstated emotional expectations of those whom i care about, 2. Regret about the past 3.Guilt that i carry with me. Our mother earth is so receptive that we need to remove these causes of un-happiness from our backs and strive towards that higher purpose of life.We were asked to spend time in silence and reflect about our causes of unhappiness and finally the whole class assembled in a circle and thus we shared some of our causes of unhappiness and also openend our heart out on the recent events which have occurred.

That day Anil Sir played the role of a true Inspired leader and led us all the way to the top of the mountain with so much humbleness and warmth that all of us were touched and showed us a new horizon which was awaiting for us to be explored. Like all good things come to an end at the end of the day the whole class of BLP was elicited by his presence and the session came at the right moment at a crictical juncture of our life

Sourabh Chhajed_BLP006_Self Leadership_September 2012

Today was the first day of classes after we were done with the first term exams. As always the term begins with the inspiring self leadership sessions by Anil sir. The day started with knowing about emotion quotient. We were asked to remember two of our beloved friends Gourav and Rahul and then share our feelings on the incident. On one hand it really made all us very emotional but on the other hand this made us feel relaxed & helped us to learn from the impact of that incident.

The second session started with various concepts of Appreciative Inquiry. After getting a basic understanding of AI and how one should carry out AI, we were divided into a team of two to get a feel of AI. It started with asking very simple question such as

When were you at your best in SOIL?

When was SOIL at its best?

Once AI was done, we were asked to paraphrase what the other partner said. The bigger picture was clear once it was over. In a short time we got to know about different gifts of many of our friends. At the end class was concluded by putting our thoughts together and sharing the with each other in our auspicious circle, which we believe to be a unique way of sharing our thoughts and feelings.

Abhishek Sharma_BLP012_Self Leadership_September 2012

Each class by Anil Sir is invaluable as we learn diverse things which we can apply in life , organizations , relationships. The class started with group activity to share our feelings from incident where we lost our friends Rahul and Gaurav. And Anil Sir reinforced that we have lost their physical presence only and they shall remain with us and we have to be means to fulfill their dreams.

In the second Activity , Sir beautifully explained the difference between empathy and sympathy by demonstrating with two students , that only if take off our shoes and then put ourselves in other person shoes that one can experience empathy . After this demonstration the difference between empathy and sympathy will forever remain etched in our mind. Sir also shared that he had conducted this activity of demonstrating the difference to industry leader like Nandan Nilekani. 

Appreciative Inquiry :

In this we were paired up with one of our classmate and with child like enthusiasm we asked questions to  bring out the hidden positive aspects of the person . The interviewer then paraphrased the positive qualities of his partner.

Introspection Activity: it involved penning down

1.    Unstated emotional expectation of those who I care about  or unsaid expectation towards friend/parents

2.    Regret about the past I did not honour what I should have done before at that point of time.

3.    Guilt that I carry with me

At the end  ,Sir culminated the class by asking us to form a circle and in feeling of trust  share our thoughts at that moment .

NipunChawla_BLP009_SelfLeadership_September2012

Our first term got over and second term started with a Self Leadership session by Mr. Anil Sachdev. It is always inspiring to attend Anil Sir's session. The session started by remembering our 2 beloved friends Gaurav & Rahul. Everyone got emotional and we were asked to share how we felt & the impact that this incident had left on us. We were asked to share the feelings with each other and then one person from each table was asked to share it with the whole class. He made us feel relaxed & helped us to learn from the impact of that incident.

The second session was based on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in which we were paired with other people from the table & were asked to share things about each other by asking questions. The listener was supposed to paraphrase his/her partner's answers & share it with the class. The answers were divided into two sections: positive attributes about the individual & SOIL as an entity. This resulted in getting out the most positive attribute of SOIL which will definitely help it grow. Every individual was given a name according to the positive attributes of that person. I was called "The People Connector" :)

AI focuses on what a person does well rather than what he/she does badly. It generates a positive energy in the individual which in turn gives confidence to do work and take initiative. In organisations AI can make the employees work in synergy and increase work potential.

At last we were asked to always leave 2 chairs for our beloved friends Gaurav & Rahul with their placards, which was a really nice gesture & was appreciated by all the students.