The King's Speech

After the death of his father King George V (Michael Gambon) and the scandalous abdication of King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), Bertie (Colin Firth) who has suffered from a debilitating speech impediment all his life, is suddenly crowned King George VI of England. With his country on the brink of war and in desperate need of a leader, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), the future Queen Mother, arranges for her husband to see an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). After a rough start, the two delve into an unorthodox course of treatment and eventually form an unbreakable bond. With the support of Logue, his family, his government and Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall), the King will overcome his stammer and deliver a radio-address that inspires his people and unites them in battle.Based on the true story of King George VI, THE KING'S SPEECH follows the Royal Monarch's quest to find his voice.

To know more click >>>> http://www.kingsspeech.com/

Multi-tasking ( Juggle with fun )

For busy professionals, multitasking is a must-have skill that allows you to shoehorn more productivity into an already packed schedule. It’s an often-maligned skill, too, because of the frequently quoted problem that multitasking results in poorer quality work. But I disagree. Like other skills, I believe that multitasking is something you can develop and improve and use strategically. Here are some tips to help you do that:

• Start small. Don’t multitask your rocket science work AND your brain surgery work right out of the gate. Instead, multitask a few different less-essential things until you get good at multitasking.

• Triage your work. Not everything should be multitasked. Driving, for example, should remain separate from reading, talking on the phone, putting on make-up, etc. But a lot of things – things that aren’t life-and-death situations – are able to be multitasked. Multitasking on billable work is debatable. I’m personally of the opinion that if you charge by the hour, you shouldn’t be multitasking billable hours. But people who bill by the project and can take as long as they want on something might be okay with multitasking. Especially if they…

• Know the bandwidth limit. Even awesome multitaskers have a limit. It’s like bandwidth. You only have so much mental capacity to use at once. Most tasks don’t take up all of your bandwidth. Some tasks (like driving your car) should probably take more bandwidth than you think they should. But talking on the phone to a coworker doesn’t need to take up as much bandwidth as it does.

• Group like projects together. The most effective kind of multitasking is when you group similar projects together. For example, if you manage half a dozen Twitter accounts, and you want to spend a focused amount of time on Twitter, you can multitask this easily.

• Prep for multitasking. Before you multitask, make sure you have everything ready to go. The purpose of multitasking is quickly lost if you have to get up from your desk or if you spend your time searching for a folder or opening programs. (That’s another reason why grouping like projects together is a good multitasking idea).

• Keep a list. A list of “multitaskable” tasks should be handy. This should be stuff that you can do whenever you have some extra bandwidth. Email sorting, quick email responses, filing, Twitter-follower-list-adding, reviewing your schedule for the day. These are low bandwidth activities that you always need to do. Keep that list nearby. When you discover some extra bandwidth, pull out the list.

• Set time limits on your work and focus on improving your multitasking skill. The purpose of multitasking is to get more work done in less time. So if you have two projects that each take an hour, and it takes you two hours to do them both, then it doesn’t matter if you do them at the same time or if you do them consecutively; there’s no time saved. Instead, focus on doing both of them well in 1 to 1.5 hours in total. This will take some time because multitasking is a skill.

• Have a goal. This is a good time management tip for anyone, whether or not you want to multitask. But if you do multitask, it will make your multitasking easier. That’s because consciously knowing the goal can help you unconsciously work toward it. And, you won’t be half-heartedly working around the project without a clear purpose; you’ll be actively working toward the goal.

• Get into the zone. Multitasking isn’t something you do to avoid real effort. It’s something you do when you are focused and operating at your peak. If you find that you’re trying to multitask but you’re only doing one thing at a time, put something aside until you can focus. I don’t juggle but it seems kind of like juggling: You see jugglers starting with 3 items and then once they have a rhythm, they seem to be able to effortlessly add more in later. Compare that to someone who tries to just START juggling 17 items at once. Seems harder to do. (Back me up here, jugglers!)

Multitasking is a muscle that needs to be worked. When you schedule your day, sit down and quickly identify two or three projects you can multitask at the same time. Work at it. Evaluate how you did. Try again another day. Build your multitasking muscle strategically.

Start juggling!

The Vulnerable Spot

This is a story from Greek mythology. The nymph Thetis fell in love with and married a human called Peleus. They had a son called Achilles. Thetis being a nymph was immortal. She wanted her son to be immortal too. So she took the newborn Achilles and dipped him in the waters of the River Styx. This river separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. It would make Achilles’ skin impervious to all weapons. Unfortunately, to dip Achilles in the water, Thetis had held him by his ankles. The part that she held was not touched by the magical water. That part, the ankle in general and the heel in particular, remained vulnerable to weapons. Eventually, Achilles’ enemies took advantage of this vulnerable spot to kill him. Paris, prince of Troy, shot an arrow that struck Achilles’ heel. Thus despite all efforts of Thetis, Achilles died as all humans do.
Continue Reading  >>>  " The Vulnerable Spot "

The Wooden Bowl

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and a four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass often milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about grandfather," said the son. I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the dinner table.
Continue Reading  " The Wooden Bowl "

Expand your consciousness

An individual is not a body. An individual has a body. An individual just IS. There have been many names to describe this phenomena- the human soul, the spirit, consciousness, and the variety of other names attributed throughout the ages. There are several pathways that help us enhance our awareness but one very effective way is through Mindfulness Meditation, which may seem paradoxical as it emphasizes sitting in stillness. But when you look at the effect that meditation has on the brain it too is subtlety in motion. Our brains have been referred to as a system of neuronal pathways exchanging information and energy flow. Mindfulness meditation creates new neuronal tracks in both the prefrontal cortex as well as the mid-insular regions of the brain. This means that as we learn to sit quietly and to meditate we engage billions of brain cells to fire, and when Neurons fire (learn new activities) they wire together. So you can if you meditate and desire change in effect teach an old dog new tricks. Thus the axiom Change Your Mind Change Your Brain gives new meaning to the activity called Mindfulness.

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Box Full of Kisses

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 4-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses... from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this

My Stupid Suicide Plan

Article by Chetan Bhagat .

Last week, an IITian committed suicide. People who commit suicide do it when they feel there's no future. But wait, isn't IIT the one place where a bright and shining future is a foregone conclusion? It just doesn't add up, does it? Why would a young, hardworking, bright student who has the world ahead of him do something like this? But the answer is this-in our constant reverence for the great institution (and I do believe IITs are great), we forget the dark side. And the dark side is that the IITs are afflicted by the quintessential Indian phenomenon of academic pressure, probably the highest in the world.I can rant about the educational system and how it requires serious fixing, or I can address the immediate-try my best to prevent such suicides. For this column I have chosen the latter, and I do so with a personal story.

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World Hunger

Feed an Hungry / Underpriviledged child wherever & whenever possible

Every year, authors, journalists, teachers, researchers, schoolchildren and students ask  for statistics about hunger and malnutrition. To help answer these questions, WFP ( World Food Programme powered by UN ( United Nations ) compiled a database of useful facts and figures on world hunger .

• 925 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union;
  (Source: FAO news release, 14 September 2010)
• 98 percent of the world's hungry live in developing countries;
  (Source: FAO news release, 2010)
• Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people;
  (Source: FAO news release, 2010)
• Women make up a little over half of the world's population, but they account for over 60 percent of the world’s hungry.
  (Source:  Strengthening efforts to eradicate hunger..., ECOSOC, 2007)
• 65 percent  of the world's hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
  (Source: FAO news release, 2010)

To read more click >>> World Hunger

My Friend

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this:

“You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love.”

This was how I saw it:

As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it find. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love…they try to posses it, they demand, they expect… and just like the water spilling out of your hand, love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

Give and don’t expect.
Advise, but don’t order.
Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring.” Passing thought… Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away…..

5 Tips for Effective Presentation

Oh no! Not another boring PowerPoint presentation! My eyes, my eyes…!!!” How much does it suck to be in the audience for yet another drawn-out, boring, lifeless slideshow?

5 Tips for Effective Power Point Presentations :

1) Write a script
2) One slide at a time
3) Use images sparingly
4) Have a hook
5) Think Out of Box .

To read this article in detail click >>> Effective Presentation