My Role Model Hero

 

My Role Model Hero

I feel a compulsion within myself to express my admiration for this great versatile actor, of whom I have been a great fan since my childhood – Padma Bhushan Kamal Hasssan.

This handsome, dynamic and ever youthful actor, has always deserved a Oscar, but has not even one to his credit, till date. Yet he is not demotivated. He keeps trying. He is innovative. He works on new ideas. He wants to bring the latest in world cinema to the Tamil audience. His movie “Vikram”, was the nearest to James Bond movie in Tamil film industry, those days.  He is a man of bold attempts, who does not get bogged down by criticism and does not fly too high on praise. He knows the balance. He is a man, who is so passionate about his chosen career – Cinema. It would not be high sounding if I say, he eats cinema, sleeps cinema, breathes cinema.

Cinema has been a very powerful medium, for ages, much before television crept in. His movies have influenced people greatly, not only by the different hair styles he keeps or the fashionable dresses he wears, but by the variety of roles he plays.

Kamal has not been just a role model to many, but many roles he has played in his films are worth being modeled. I personally, have been greatly influenced by his films. I would not hesitate to say that my life, has been greatly moulded by this silver screen hero. To start with, I aspired to do a MBA abroad, after seeing his movie “Thoongaathe Thambi Thoongaathae”, wherein he plays the role of a foreign return. His movie “Unnal Mudiyum Thambi” triggered the natural instinct in me to do something good for my society. “Thevar Magan” was yet another film, which reinforced my beliefs in doing some good for my home town. “Anbae Sivam” was a classic portrayal of good human relationship. There are many such films, but these movies in particular have created a real life impact, on me.  Some of the values that are deeply rooted in me, has got to do something with the morals, I imbibed from his films.

In real life too, there are so many qualities I have admired in him. He was the first person in the cinema industry, who had all his fan clubs converted into service clubs. No matter how good these clubs serve, I am sure his intentions were good. He propagates the cause of blood donation and organ donation, by being a living example. He is a full body donor. He practices what he preaches.

He is a perfectionist. You can see perfection, in the role he plays. I have heard that he spends a lot of time, observing people, whose role he is about to play. Like, if he has to play the role of a mentally handicapped person, he spends several days watching mentally ill people, their actions, re-actions, physical movement etc. Many a times, he criticizes himself, for his own flaws, which I think is a great quality, that has taken him so close to be a perfectionist.

In spite of all his greatness, he is so humble. I had the opportunity of meeting him in a cinema shooting, when I was in my college days. He was shooting for the movie, “Sathya”.  I shook hands with him, but I had no words to say. I was just spell bound when I saw the shadow image in reality. It is the awe feeling, anyone of us feel when we meet someone, who we have admired from a far distance.

I  don't know whether it is befitting to call him a "Universal Hero", as he is fondly called by his fans. But undoubtedly, he is a hero Tamil Cinema can be proud of in his century, not just for his acting skills, but also for the technological innovations, by which he has taken Tamil Cinema to global standards.

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Challenge Yourself

One of the things that created a sensation through social media, a few years back, is the Ice Bucket Challenge, which involves dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).  Just when people across the globe were pouring tonnes of ice on their heads through the ice bucket challenge, a bunch of youngsters in Hyderabad city came out with an idea of Rice bucket challenge towards feeding the needy. 

Quiet Interesting! The trends of the modern world, in creating a hype even around a social awareness campaign makes it interesting and catches the public attention. This is the way, we can get the younger generation interested in something. Traditional methods don't seem to work.

The idea of challenge excites people. It triggers the adrenaline rush and people perform to their maximum potential. There are so many popular TV shows, based on the concept of challenging to do something extraordinary or daring to do something weird. There is a thrill and sense of accomplishment, attached to these types of events.

While these type of externally stimulated challenges are interesting, these could just be a fad and may not be long lasting. Whereas, if we need to bring about a sustainable positive change, we need to look into the possibility of stimulating internal challenges. This is something all of us can do. Let us say we need to discipline ourselves on certain areas, rather than holding on to it as just as a wishful thinking we can convert it as a challenge we give to ourselves. These types of internal challenges, when accomplished may not win the recognition or appreciation of the world around us, but it will sure be a morale booster to our own self esteem.

Challenges are not the big resolutions that we make on a New Year eve. They are just small targets we keep setting for ourselves day in and day out, and feel a sense of pride when we accomplish it. It is these small accomplishments that make us feel worthy of being able to achieve something bigger in life. Just for an example, here is a typical list of some of the challenges, I have given to myself.

• To wake up at 5:00am,  every morning no matter at what time I go to bed.

• To go for a 45 minute walk          as a part of my fitness regime.

• To send a “Thought for the  day” to my circle of friends every morning

• To write an article for my in-house magazine “PALMS PLUS” every month.

If I don’t accomplish any of these, nobody is going to question me, as to why I have not done it, but I take it as a sense of personal integrity. When I fail in any one of these, I fall before my own eyes. And it hurts.

I believe that by integrating such type of internal challenges in our life, we can make our life not only interesting, but also rewarding. The rewards are in the form of developing a healthy life style and inculcating some good habits that would last a life time.

Here is one challenge, I gave to myself quiet recently.  I asked myself, why not I share a quick review of the android apps I use on my mobile phone with my WhatsApp circle of friends.  I felt that it would be of use to many of my friends, who use an android phone. So, I decided to write a brief note of some of the apps, that I found useful and started sending it out as a WhatsApp message with a prefix “App of the day”, for the next 31 days at a stretch. It was not a pre-planned idea. It started just like that. No one asked me to do it. There was no compulsion. There was no obligation. There were no rewards for doing it, neither any punishments for not doing it. It was just a thought in my mind and I decided to put this little pressure on myself. The result of this challenge, I was able to create a new article titled “31 Useful Android Apps”.

When we challenge ourselves on something or other, it not only makes us more competent, but also helps us to become more confident. Challenge yourself and enjoy the rewards of your own challenges!

  D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

The Minimalist Approach

“Remember this: Very little is needed to make a happy life”.
 -Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161 - 180AD.

A few years back, I bought a DVD Tutorial on how to make great PowerPoint presentations. The tutorial introduced me to a concept called “Minimalistic approach”. The key message conveyed through this concept was that when making a presentation, we should keep the key idea of the presentation intact and eliminate all the unwanted frills, attached to it. I found that concept appealing.

 

Recently, I went to a resort near Kanyakumari and there too, I found a statement saying that, “This resort is designed based on the ideals of minimalism”. Notably, I observed that most of the building work in the resort, did not look fully finished, like walls had no cement plastering, floors remained just cemented without any glazed tiles and so on. This I understood was the ideology of minimalism that they were talking about.

 

This word “minimalism” caught my interest, and I wanted to explore more about it. Obviously, I typed the word “minimalistic approach” in Google and was amazed to discover that minimalism is not just a concept of design but a way of life.

 

So, what is minimalism all about? Minimalism is an approach to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom.

 

We all want to be happy. We tend to find happiness by creating material abundance, which rarely serves the purpose. The more we have, even more is our need. It is a never ending vicious cycle. Time and again, we hear stories of billionaires, who lead a miserable life. Many people are busy trying to prove to the world, what they are capable of and in the process end up straining their health and relationships. This is clear indication that money and fame, alone cannot buy them happiness. You need good health and good relationships to enjoy life.

 

Minimalism is a “U-turn” approach. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself. The starting point to this change is to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in our life. Once we find this clarity we can stay more focussed on what really matters in our life and avoid the clutter of being messed up with too many things and activities. By doing so we will be less time pressed and money pressed.

 

Minimalist focuses on quality and not quantity. They are choosy about the thing they buy, but cherish it. They are choosy about the things they do, but they do it with passion and perfection. They are prudent in the use of resources, such as time, money and things. They believe that there is a need to pause and enjoy the things we have, rather than continuing to accumulating more and more things.

 

I also found a website, www.theminimalists.com, which is created by two friends who have taken up the ideology of minimalism and through this portal, they share how better their life has become, after they have adopted this approach. They say that, being a minimalist can help us:

 

• Eliminate our discontent

• Reclaim our time

• Live in the moment 

• Discover our life purpose

• Pursue our passion

• Experience real freedom

• Create more, consume less

• Focus on our health

• Grow as individuals

• Rid ourselves of excess stuff

• Contribute beyond ourselves    

·               

Their life revolves around the philosophy, “Have little and cherish it. Do little and enjoy it”. While this may sound anti-ambitious. It is not so. It is about living the life you desire and being focussed on what is important to you, and working towards achieving it.

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

An Average Child Is No One’s Child

 

Of the many factors, that decide the academic success of a student, what we can identify as two predominant traits are his INTELLIGENCE level and ENERGY level. Energy could also mean, one’s level of self motivation. So, this gives way to a matrix which can be something like this:

 

Type 1:  High Intelligence + High Energy = Brilliant Student

Type 2:  Low Intelligence + Low Energy   = Dull Student

Type 3:  High Intelligence + Low Energy  = Average Student

Type 4:  Low Intelligence + High Energy  = Aggressive/ Adamant Student

 

Though we tend to believe that God created all equally, it is not true. We see difference in colour, character, and also the intelligence level. Psychologists classify children as Gifted children, Special Child and Normal Child.

 

The “Gifted child” is a quick learner as he has the ability to grasp and understand concepts effortlessly. The “Special child” needs special care, from the teachers and students, because they find it difficult to understand what is being taught to them. It is only by repetitive teaching or by a different style of teaching, can these children understand the subject. In between these two classifications comes the “Normal child” or the “Average Child”, which is of concern to us today.  They are like the seed with potential to grow to a big tree, but because they do not get the special care that a special child gets or the appreciation that a gifted child gets, they get stranded on being an average child.

 

There is a quote, “An average child is no one’s child”.  The responsibility of bringing out the best in an average child largely depends upon his/ her teachers and parents. But the attitude of the parent and the teacher, towards an average child is detrimental in his/her progress.

 

The general mentality of the parent, who has an average child, is that they are comfortable with the performance of their children and they are indifferent towards their performance. For example, if the child has shown some small improvement in his marks, he is not appreciated. He is always compared with the brilliant students and made to feel that his small achievements are not praise worthy. Similarly, when his performance goes down, they do not take it seriously. They just tell him to do well next time. There is no special care given to make him improve on his weak subjects.

 

Similarly with the teachers, the reason is because of the lack of involving them. Let as assume a class of 30. In this class the top ten performers are called the brilliant children and the last ten are called the dull students. The brilliant children are asked to take part in all the programmes and activities representing the school. The school is interested that it should win more prizes and awards to gain public honour, and therefore have the team consisting of the brilliant children. As far as the dull children, they are generally not interested in participating. But it is the average child who aspires to participate, but is not given a chance. This attitude of the teacher demotivates the child. He starts feeling inferior to others and he himself puts up a mental block, that he has not talents.

 

In a world of today, success is not defined by the academic performance of the student. What the corporate world is looking for today, is street smart executives who have a flair in communication and an indomitable spirit.

We have a role to play in shaping up the generation of tomorrow. Let us look with new eyes, to the average child and create a better world for him. This we can achieve only by involvement, motivation and appreciation.

 

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Automation is the Future

 

“One machine can perform the work of a hundred human hands, but no machine can perform the work of one human brain”.

 

In a country like India, where the population is very high there is a huge amount of uneducated man power. While the educated manpower gets to reach the top positions, the uneducated manpower continues to remain as human machines. In fact, many of the MNC are interested in capitalizing the potential of the uneducated manpower, available in these third world countries.

 

When I visited Finland, on the Rotary Group Study Exchange programme, I had the opportunity of visiting a number of industries. What was very striking to me then was the level of automation these companies have employed in the workplace. When I looked at the production capacity of these units in relation to the manpower involved, I was thrilled. Big industries have just 20 to 30 employees. The simple reason is labourers are not available. For instance, in a paper making factory, I saw robots at work. These manlike machines were carrying reels of paper from one point to another point and stacking it in allotted spaces -as simple as the worker in the Indian factory who carries loads of material, from one point to another point.

 

For a moment I thought, what would be the fate of a country like India, if robots became so common that there will not be a need for uneducated man power.

 

What I then realized was that, as of today the economies of cost are not in favour of these industries, but in the near future this may be the in thing. Let me explain. Assume, that the cost of a robot is 1 crore rupees. Now to make a investment of 1 crore in a robot, means that on a conservative basis the interest cost would be approx 12%, which means the cost of employing a robot will be Rs.12 lakhs per year. The uneducated manpower in India is roughly earning about Rs. 300/- per day which means it is just approx Rs.1,00,000/- per year. Where is Rs.1,00,000/- as compared to 12 lakhs. So, Robots are not a workable proposition.

 

Now assume that these robots are made available to industries by mass production at Rs. 5 lakhs per robot. Now the interest cost is Rs. 60,000/- per year. This would mean that the robot would become a more dependable work force for industries. They won’t get tired, they won’t form trade unions, they won’t fight for a increase in pay, they won’t talk and waste time, they will give you the maximum production you desire, there would be precision and therefore no quality problems, and endless benefits.

 

Today, we talk about labour shortage everywhere. All of a sudden we do not get labourers to perform the menial work like we got before. We see every industrialist brooding about this issue. In spite of the temptations, such as free food, free medical expenses, free education for children, free van pick up and drop, production linked incentive, in addition to the daily wages, there are no people to come and work.

 

The employers who once felt like kings are now feeling so helpless without this much sought after work force. What we need to understand is we have to invest in automation in a big way. Even a country like China, which has a higher population than India, seems to have realized the fact, much earlier. Their factories today have enormous production capacity, not owing to its labour force, but owing to the high level of automation.

 

Let us wake up to the fact that , in India the transition of the physical workers to knowledge workers is on the rise and the availability of uneducated manpower is in a steady decline and unless we bring in more automation at our workplace, it is going to be difficult.

 

Start looking at the bigger picture. Automation is the future.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

The Likers Club

Facebook has changed the way we communicate and interact with friends. It has opened up vast opportunities to connect with old friends and also make new friends online. In this fashion, Facebook has enlarged our world to a great extent.

It is not something surprising today, for us to be more familiar with people whom we periodically interact on facebook, rather than our close set of friends and relatives, who are not on facebook. It is because a lot of sharing is happening in this virtual world, as compared to the real world. Those who are not in the list of our facebook contacts don’t get to know as much as our friends who are in facebook.

For instance, during the days when we were clicking photos in film roll camera, we anxiously waited for the photo to be processed and printed. We then put them on an album and when our friends or relatives, came home, we showed it to them and took pleasure in explaining each photo in detail. The people who viewed the photos also took a keen interest in knowing more about the event or place. But now, things have changed. You click the photo on your mobile phone camera, press the share button and in seconds it is on our facebook page. Within 10 seconds, you get a ‘like’ for the photo or a comment such as  ‘nice’ , ‘wow’ , ‘super’ from your facebook friend. This instant gratification makes people happy and encourages them to share more and more of what is happening in their lives.

How often have you posted a message or photo, in your facebook page and eagerly waited to see how many ‘likes’ you get?  How happy were you when you see that you have got a number of ‘likes’, for your post? It is a common happening in everyone’s life. The more contacts in your facebook list, the more chances for you of getting more likes. So, people keep expanding the list of contacts by adding friends, friends of friends and so on.

The good part of facebook, is that the majority of facebook users, could be categorized as, “The Likers Club”. Likers are those who are not very active in posting, but whenever they see a post on their wall they make sure to click the “Like” button. Pressing the ‘Like’ button does not necessarily mean that they like the post. It could just be a way of acknowledging that they have seen the post. So when this happens, the person who made the post feels happy. The Likers are the cheer bringers to the facebook world.

I was wondering how this concept of LIKE, motivates people to share more about themselves with others. This led me to a realization that people crave for recognition and they do not seem to be getting enough of it from the real world. Facebook is in a way, passively satisfying this need and this has to a great extent influenced the number of people getting into this social world.

“Is it safe to make friends with online strangers? Why should we make friends with people whom we hardly know? Why do we need to create a virtual world of friends, when there are so many friends in our real world? These sought of initial apprehensions are swiftly fading away, as more and more people have started to enjoy being ‘liked’ and earn recognition on facebook.  The more they get recognized, the more they want to share and this keeps growing. When you ‘like’ someone’s post, then the probability of you getting ‘like’ on your post to goes up.

Now imagine extending this likers club from the virtual world to a real world. Would the world not be a much happier place to live in? While we are happily sharing our ‘likes’ on the virtual world, what is stopping us from expressing our ‘likes’ in the real world?

How often have we told our mother or spouse that we liked the delicious food that they have made for us? How often have we told our children, that we like their polite behaviour, in a social gathering? How often have we told someone; I like your smile; I like your dress; I like your style; I like the way you walk; I like the way you express your thoughts, or something of that sort.

It is not that we don’t like, but we rarely express our like.  Thanks to Facebook, that it has brought in the culture of expressing our LIKE. Let us not limit this LIKE culture, only to our facebook circle but extend it to our near and dear ones. It would not only make them glad, but also motivate them to do things better.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

This Way, That Way or Your Way

I came across this interesting poem, titled, “The Paradoxical Commandments” written by Dr. Kent M. Keith. An article worth re-reading, chewing and digesting this timeless wisdom.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered; Love them anyway.

 

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable; Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest mind; Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs; Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them; Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth; Give the world the best you have anyway.

 

There are two types of people in this world, the externally referenced and the internally referenced people.

 

The externally referenced people are those who constantly seek the approval of their family, their friends, their peers, their surrounding. For example, when they wear a new dress, they ask others does it go well on them; if they made a public speech, they ask some friends, did they speak well; when they make a decision, they look for a reassurance from someone. They are constantly looking for a feedback, for their actions.

 

The internally referenced people are those who make their own choice, irrespective of what others think or say. Whatever they feel that is good, they do it. Though they take feedbacks, they do not alter their behaviour, if they are not convinced within themselves.

 

Quiet interestingly, it has been observed that mostly, it is the internally referenced people who become leaders. It is those who possess a lot of internal conviction than external approval, who dare to become leaders. The people, who seek approval, lose their enthusiasm and vigour when someone gives a negative feedback. They are so much worried about external criticism, that they very often do not take a initiative. We all know that greatest of scientific findings were initially criticized, condemned or mocked upon, but it is only those who braved against these odds, have become successful.

 

We are all a blend of both the qualities, but the trait that dominates our persona, is what dictates our life.

 

This poem is a classical illustration, that no matter what others say about you, you got to believe in your own self and realize your authentic potential.

 

Let the goodness in us, forever continue, no matter whether the world appreciates it or not. Be good, not to please the world, but to please your own conscience.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com