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Phone @ Friend!

Phones have come a long way since its invention by Graham Bell. From most expensive instrument to very low cost, it has travelled a lot, especially in the last decade when mobility was added to this device of communication. Today, getting a phone and connection is as easy as buying grocery from supermarket. Pick it and have it. Being a cheap and highly featured device, it is most used these days. It won’t be overstated if I say it is being over used today. But do we remember the basic use of Telephone, probably not fully. Read on to remind that.

A phone was meant to communicate in a lively manner so that you can not only get to convey the messages instantly but also can hear the live voice of your near and dear ones. Today also we do this but, we call only those who are actively in touch with us, for example, our class mates, office colleagues, girl friend, or parents…the list has become short while the conversation between these contacts has stretched to unimaginable limits. I noticed a friends talking for hours to his girl friend but when one of his aunt called and complained about not calling them, he spelled the favorite excuse, “I am short of time aunt”.

I am not trying to point to any crime that we commit by talking to one person longer in one stretch but indeed not calling other well wishers even once a while is definitely not so good.

Most of the calls we make are related to some purpose of us that gets conveyed or resolved or simply moves further by a phone call but we seldom call to those who will not make any difference to our present life. for example we call an office mate to convey late arrival in office today to the boss, we call our lover to fix a date or more commonly, resolve the last conflict, but do we call a friend of us for no reason. Do we call them to know how life at that end is? I am sure we all know the correct answers to the latter questions.
The situation today has worsened to an unimaginable depth. So agreeing me if you make a call to your friend with whom you last time conversed long ago, the friend would be apprehensive and would firstly think, why is this guy calling me? What could be his motive? What can I do for him? it financial help or any favor or what?

By the tine these thought run through their minds, the active call turns into a missed call.
Having seen this, you again become reluctant to retry. On the other hand if the girl friend is not taking your phone, you start repeating calls until she tells that she was in Bathroom.
And when you don’t ring again to your old friend, he too wastes no minute in ignoring the call.

See how far we have come in our lives. We all know what is needed. We are well apprised of the needful but we simply use popular excuses and feel that we have dealt successfully with the situation. In fact we have lost something precious.
If you read the article with heart, I am sure at least one name has occurred in your mind. Don’t wait dear, just pick up the handset, open the contact and make a call. Remember to try enough times. I am sure when you End your call without any demand to the other side. A fresh feeling of love and affection will waft on the air. Go get going…I am going to make a call right now…

Happy Living
Prashant Shrivastava
prashant@friendstime.com

Decision Making

One of my friends sent me this story. I found it really nice to be shared with you. Let me know, how did you like it!

DECISION MAKING – TRY THIS

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make…………….
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Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

compiled by:
Prashant Shrivastava

Importance of Ignorance

Ignorance is the word closely associated with laziness and carelessness but if used properly, it can serve a well set life. Normally we are made to ignore things that are not in our control. For example if mindless boys flirt with girls in cheap way, girls have to ignore them anyways or if someone plays a bad prank with you, you have to ignore and so on…but do we use this power with our own will, perhaps not. Let me try to explain what I think on this.

We come across many small and big incidences in our daily life in which few we like and other we don’t. This is still fine but few incidences affect our mental status. They send us in a bad mood instantly more than often. For example if you love someone and in return, they simply don’t and on this, they repeatedly do those things in front of you that hurt you, you get hurt every time. Since you love the person, you don’t want to ignore and pay attention every single time, but you end up with a hurt heart.

In such a situation, ignorance works wonders. Paying attention to the situation or person that hurts can be replaced with ignorance. This needs not be rude one. Politely divert your way to make sure that you don’t get hurt. For example if you feel isolated when in company of a group or set of friends, humbly turn down their invitation and at the same time, get yourself into some activity that does not remind you of a social meeting you just ignored.

This is quite possible that your friends, who don’t value you, miss you out and pay more attention towards you next time. Remember, this does not mean that you don’t care for the situation or person but at the same time, it’s only your duty to keep yourself happy. A happy you is not a selfishness but a service to others as well who really care for you. At times, we pay extra attention to someone and as matter of human nature, they take us for granted and we feel bad.

People also use the ignorance to show off importance. This is not that bad but as they say, everything is good if in limit.

All this does not mean that paying attention is a symbol of weakness. You pay attention when it matters to you but again a constraint of limit needs to be imposed here.

Most of the times, we also pay attention to trivial things that make no or very little impact on our life. For example, if a prankster boy took a sharp over take and left you bewildered for few seconds, what you do is start cursing him, then to the entire generation of youngsters then to their atmosphere and finally parents. What happened was a simple display of ill manners of driving on road. And that incidence surpassed with the speed of that guy who disturbed you but you later improvised it to hurt yourself and paid at least few minutes. Do you think that guy deserved your important and priceless time?

On the other hand, if you had ignored that at the same instance, situation would have remained the same but you could have saved our mood from turning bad.

So next time when you confront with any such situation, analyze and ask yourself, whether it deserve my attention or ignorance.

Happy Living

Prashant Shrivastava

prashant@friendstime.com

Makar Sankranti in Jaipur

So, a lazy morning and nothing on the pending list for the day! Here comes the most awaited holiday for me when I am completely free. Though by profession, I am a software engineer and enjoy five days a week but yet I do not get that benefit of the weekend. I go to Udaipur from Jaipur not just to see my family but to finish my weekly assignment of articles as a freelancer. Something I term as living a dream.

So back to the 14^th January; a day when same day is celebrated in different forms across the country and for Jaipur its Makar Sankranti and a day of Kite flying. And not just flying to do a formality as is done on most of the festivals now, but with full zest, people reach on top of their buildings loaded with a thick stack of kites and few roles of thread. They have good amount of plane thread which is tied to the sharp thread called maanjha. The maanjha is tied with kite and when the kite reaches high enough, the flyer ties the plane thread which is of course easy on hands.

In the outer area, you will not be amazed at the number of kites in the sky at any point during the day but in the walled and old city of Jaipur, my goodness- you will only be thrilled to see the blue sky painted with vibrant tiny square points. Few big and others small, few fly for fun while others get involved in a war. Every now and then, you get to hear a loud cheer from the team that manages to crash other’s kite and the day goes on and on.

Unlike always, the day begun with a fog and very dense fog all around. Enthusiasts were disappointed initially but soon the sun prevailed and the sky, though cloudy became apt for kite business.

And where youngsters are involved, plane noise and cheers do not help so loud speakers were put to service. Good thing is you can hear different music from all the directions but their fusion would make you feel irritated at times.

Busy with flying kids didn’t bother for their lunch or any food. At times, they would pick few snacks and forget to come back to the snack pack. Moms keep shouting for lunch but no time to be given to a daily routine task.

Today when Indian culture is fast getting wrapped into western colours and people remember Valentines Day more than any other festivals, such festivals ensure that Indian colours are good enough to last longer than we think.

Prashant Shrivastava

prashant@friendstime.com

www.friendstime.com

Woman- better manager?

When it comes to the management, we naturally look towards big management schools and end up with a man well dressed as a manager who wears a smile on face all the time and who knows all the situations and their respective handling. But this is a truth half known. Men must be taught rigorously to become a manager who after years of hard work learns new skills that they use as panacea for every problem. And the same men struggle to find their car keys and wallet at the office time back home. So got some clue, who can be a natural manager, yes you are there! A woman, who has all the abilities in built and she just starts managing stuff, life right from the word go!

It is not just that woman manage a much perplexed house than office matters that men deals with, she also has the ability to maintain the arrangement that is must for management. For example as soon as a particular file is done, she would first place it on right rack then will proceed to new task, while men will let them pile on one side at least till the evening or congestion at desk, whichever comes first. This is similar to the example in which a husband will waste five minutes in looking up a car key that he kept few hours ago and her wife would take just a minute to get the gas cylinder book which she used a month ago.

Management is a very broad term and hence a manager cannot be confined to a specific kind of management. They must manage even those issues which were neither taught to them nor were expected. For example, an employee walks up to a manager and complains about down computer. Now manager is not supposed to fix a computer but here they will have to either arrange a new pc immediately or see if some other employee is not using their pc which can be given to troubled employee temporarily. Here too woman wins the race as back home they help kids in their homework. Here she deals with even those subjects which are either alien to her or are beyond her understandings. In such case she will work hard to grasp the subject and help kids. Similarly she will take care of husband’s mood and kids’ demands. Considering the down pc case again, man soon will be frustrated if the solution does not appear and will eventually ask the employee to take another task.

Multitasking is another characteristic that makes a manager superior and more efficient and studies have proved that women can multi task much better than men. They can cook on two burners while attending a phone call and a postman at door while if same task is given to men, some of the tasks will suffer for sure. We have seen numerous cases when men meet accidents more than often if they use their cell phone on the way.

Given same amount every month, a woman smartly meets the ends of the month while man will run for a credit card use if even a single extra expenditure pops up.

Scientifically speaking, woman mind is adept at management as she can multitask while keeping equal concentration on all tasks in hand. She has good arrangement habits by default and her attitude of keeping things easy makes her a better choice for the post of manager.

Prashant

prashant@friendstime.com

friendstime.com

Phone @ Friend!

Decision Making

Importance of Ignorance

Makar Sankranti in Jaipur

Woman- better manager?

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