My Simple-hearted Friend

Some people are very innocent and pure at heart. They are taken for a ride and sometimes get cheated by others. Here is one such experience, one of my friend had gone through.

My friends name is Sonykutty. By profession is a government employee. In addition to his regular work he is engaged in several other agricultural and social activities. Basically, this gentleman is a hard worker. Once after a tiring day's work he was travelling back home in his car. Few kilometers before his residence his car collided with an auto-rickshaw. He knew it was mistake because for a moment he was not careful behind the wheels. As usual, the autorickshaw driver jumped out and started yelling at Sonykutty. He also opened the door and alighted. Instead of shouting back at the opponent, he swiftly offered his apologies and disclosed that it is his mistake as he was feeling a bit sleepy while driving. By then few other auto-rickshaw drivers also surrounded the two only to side the fellow auto driver. They demand an amount of seventy-five thousands rupees for covering the damages and repairing the auto-rickshaw. Without any argument Sonykutty readily agreed to hand over the money as he was fully sure that it was his mistake. As he was about to transfer the cash his cousin, Viju, came by. Seeing his relatives car he stopped to learn what is happening. After hearing both sides and about the settlement they had arrived by then, he took a close inspection of the damaged vehicle. Viju, though younger, unlike his cousin has immense experience in handling crooks and cheaters. He could estimate that what they are demanding so as to cover the damages is bit too high. So he placed an alternate proposal to repair the auto-rickshaw by themselves and then to handover. The drivers reluctantly agreed to this under one condition that the repairing should be made at garage of their choice. Finally, both parties agreed to this. 

At the end, the story is that the damaged auto-rickshaw was fully conditioned by completing all works pointed out by its owner for an amount of twenty-five thousand rupees. With just one-third money of what was initially demand all works could be completed. This real story tells how good men are cheated by others.

This raises the question  'Is World a Good Place for Men with Integrity and Values'?

How prepare for Seminar Presentations

Public presentations are a nightmare to many. Most people shy  away from making public speeches. Here are some tips for students on 'how a seminar presentation can be improved? '. The students are required to present a seminar on a subject related to their study, mostly at the end of the semester. Usually students feel nervous about this and commits several mistakes due to their inexperience.

Few guidelines for improving the seminar presentation are given below:

1. When presentations are delivered, always face the audience.

Face the crowd. Presentation should be delivered addressing the audience. This also shows your confidence level and mastery in the subject. 

2. Powerpoint slides should be easier for understanding by reading.

The slides prepared should carry only important points. It must run into several sentences and paragraphs. A reader who is new to the subject will be lost if you are not brief enough.

3. Number the slides.

Number your slides. Numbering helps to refer precisely to those slides of interest at the end of the presentation by the curious listeners.  Numbering also helps in planning the presentation for managing the allotted time frame.

4. When comparisons are stated, make use of table to list the parameters

Use pictures and tables wherever possible. For comparison on two entities, the facts could better be explained with the use of tables.

5. Give references used at the end

The audience may be inspired and wants to discover further after your presentation. Hence it is important to state the references used for preparing the work. It also important to include more recent works to make the work appear more update and authentic.

6. Be prepared for Q&A (Question & Answering) session

Never be ill prepared for this part of the presentation. Shortlist few doubts and questions that will naturally arise from the subject and find the accurate answers for them. A casual consultation with your friend prior to the presentation can help you by predicting few probable questions.

7. Project the right attitude and body language

When you stand on the dais, the attitude portrayed must be positive. The audience should feel that you are pretty confident and knows the subject thoroughly. Otherwise, the perceived image will be negative compelling the listeners to believe you are in the wrong place and may not pay you proper attention.

Lessons in Life

Some lessons are learned the hard way. Some may be the turning points and leads further ahead the road.

Two things I learned the hard way are:

1. One should discharge his duty rather than being an ignorant or escapist. If you vacate your seat without discharging duties, some else is always waiting to take over your seat and may probably insult you in the days to come.

2. Once you are in a leadership position you should misuse the position to insult, humiliate or sideline the co-runner. A real leader is one who cares equally for the entire team.

What is commonly found lacking these days is the professionalism in attitude and discourse of duties:

1. What is decided in a meeting should be confirmed with whilst implementation. 

2. And most importantly, what is discussed during the process of a decision making in an apex body meeting should be made public. All such internal discussions that are part of decision making process should not be made public, and what is binding should be  the final decisions or conclusions arrived in the meeting.

Confession after 25 Years

A small, in fact a trivial incident happened while I was doing high school 25 years back. While doing the tenth standard, our class teacher was one Sr. Georgila. She was an excellent teacher who took care all the twenty four of us in the class with a real motherly affection.

One day while she was taking the class, I had a paper with me used for some rough work. I just rolled it up and instead getting up and putting it in the dust-bin placed in the corner of the class room, I just threw the piece of paper towards the front corner directing the dust bin. Somehow the paper lost direction and fell right in front portion of the class room. The free fall of the piece of paper drew the immediate attention of all the students in the class, including our class teacher. This indeed made her very angry.

Sr. demanded the person responsible for this to stand. None did. I could not gather enough courage to stand up. Sr again asked who is behind the mischievous act, this time more harshly. The class came to pin drop silence. I became more afraid or rather shy to stand before the class so that every one could see the culprit. The day ended on a bad note.

After this I always felt sorry that I could not tell her the truth, especially to one who cared for our class so much. And later every time, when the time comes for confessions during prayer, I silently remember this for some reason or other and felt always sorry in not been able to tell the truth.

Twenty five years passed by. All batch mates got settled in several parts of the world. Slowly every one forgot everything until recently social networks became popular and many of us started getting reconnected. Then came the WhatsApp. One of my old friend somehow located Sr.Georgila. She is now very aged, around seventy five and engaged in social service activities in a distant  northern part of the country. He also shared her contact number and photo.

By then, it was going to be the new year. I thought this is the right time; I shall call her up and confess before proceeding to the new year. I called her up and spoke to her for a long time. She was happy to hear about us. Then slowly I reminded her about the old incident that happened in her class on a day in 1989. Obviously she could not memorize a thing. Then I said I was behind it and said I am really sorry that I could not tell you the truth then while I was student in school. She comforted me and said its all o.k as such thing do happen with students.

Still, I was very happy and relieved as I could confess this, which I was unable to 25 years earlier.

Role of Religion and the need for Standardization

The number of religions across the world is uncountable. All these religions enjoys a great role in determining the way of live of each associated human being. Infact it is the single thing that greatly unites and controls multitudes of men. Its a bonding that is much thicker than any other force.

Karl Marx had once rightly pointed out ' Religion is the opium of the people". This is very true in the past, present and will remain so in the future. 

The way in which people think and act are determined by the religion. Some religions however fortunately has adopted a wider thinking thinking and opened hands to all. Whereas some are shallow and never allows to think outside the box.

Two great thoughts are the ones set forth by the Hindu religion and Christianity. In Sanskrit there is an ancient writing 'loka samastha sukino bhavanthu'. This means about the global well being. Hinduism believes in that, the entire living things in the universe should live well and peacefully. 

And in Christianity, Jesus Christ teaches his followers ' love your neighbor as yourself'. Its is the prime duty of each man to maintain a sense of care and love for each other. Without these essential traits there can be no mutual trust and peace.

In modern world we have standards for all. There are standards on automobile emissions, on subjects topics to be taught in schools, quality standards for edible foods, standards for communication so on and so forth. The only thing that do not have to fall in line with any regulations is the religions. Religions for some reasons or the other are never touched upon and often left undiscussed even by intellectuals. Religions are man made. And there are newer man made religions sprouting in several parts of the world today. Thus it is a matter of significance that there must be standards for religions also. Religions must guarantee progress and peaceful co-existence. Its time to end destruction and fights based on minor difference. As a global citizen we must unite and live together.

The fact of the matter is that there should be clear cut guidelines that governs the attributes of a religion. Injustice in the name of the religion should be banned. Even the modern world see many fraud holy men surfacing from different part of the world. Each go by own imagination and utters rules of their choices. So such actions can be curbed if there are universal rules on Do's and Don't's.