Our mind....

An important aspect is the preconditioning of our mind. Interestingly, we learned fellows, always have a strong feeling that we know it all. We know the character of the other person, we know the behavioural and reactive patterns of the other person, yet most important of all, we do not understand or seem to understand. In fact in most of the cases, we refuse to understand that the other person is a human being and has developed his or her own reactive pattern depending upon the kind of experiences he or she has gathered in the past. Isn't this the most important element - we refuse to acknowledge the other person as a human being - the most intelligent species on earth, the prime condition for all other relationships to exist.

People, who do that, rise head and shoulders above others in their own environment. When we learn to do that, we give that freedom of growth and expression to the other being, also accept whole-heartedly that there is a lot to learn from the other one, however tiny or big s/he is.

Doesn't this open up a whole new vista for us? Doesn't this make us realise that every relationship helps us learn and grow, and every relationship is none less or more than sharing. It is this spirit of sharing that helps us grow. But the problem is that we expect people to share the best that they have. It may not happen. I'll share that, which I have in abundance. If I have negativity in abundance, then that is all that I'll be able to share with the world. Now if somebody is doing just that, I have the choice to accept or reject it. If the negativity doesn't enter me, it means I have rejected it.

We must be intelligent and responsive. We mustn't repeatedly burn our hands, but let us not destroy the open mindedness, and joyful nature that we were born with. If we can retain that, despite all that we undergo, we have really managed to make a huge contribution to this world. Look at it this way, the world is not interested in knowing who misbehaved with me. And even if somebody did, why should I traumatise the world with my long face, just because someone did that to me? There is enough of pain all around. Can we become instruments for spreading some healthy laughter instead? I think, there is no better spirituality than that. Every smile that I encounter, is God's Smile. Every laughter is God's laughter. Then, every long face is God's long face!

Which one do you want to see? Decide and transform yourself accordingly.

Excerpt from an article of the Economictimes.com.

Welcome aboard

Came across a really humorous post about airplane travel on Economist.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7884654

Japanese Companies

The most important fact that has excited me is the extent these Japanese companies have spread. There are so many Japanese companies that have ruled and are continuing to rule the World. Literally the entire WORLD. Toyota is soon to overtake General Motors as the largest car company in the world, by number of vehicles.

The following is a list of Japanese comapnies that have influenced everyone's life in some way or the other. This list is far from complete. And it focuses on the brands that we Indians are familiar with. Of course NRI's will defenitely have some more to add.

Alpine car audio

Asahi Glass

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

Bridgestone

Canon

Casio

Citizen

Daihatsu

Daikin Industries

Denon

Epson

Fuji Electric

Subaru

Fuji Photo Film

Fujitsu

Hitachi

Honda

Isetan

Isuzu Motors

Japan Airlines

JVC Victor

Kawasaki Heavy Industries

Kenwood

Kyocera

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

Mazda

Mitsubishi

Nikon

Nintendo

Nissan Motors

NTT

Olympus

Omron

Onkyo

Panasonic

PENTAX

Pioneer

Ricoh

Sanyo

SEGA

Seiko

Seiyu Group

Sharp Corporation

Sony

Sumitomo

Suzuki

Takashimaya

TDK Corporation

TEAC Corporation

Toshiba

Toyota

UFJ Holdings

Yamaha Motors

Yokogawa Electric

Nippon Steel is the second largest steel maker after the takeover of Arcelor by Mittal Steel. Nippon Shipbuilding is supposed to be the largest ship building entity in the world with fierce competition from S.Korea's Hyundai.

Anyway, the performance of these companies and thier quality products is an excellent tale of how quality and essence is important and not style or 'cool'. Japanese way of thinking is not to make themselves famous or known. Rather, they concentrate on the essence and need of the product. Everything and anything in Japan has arrived today out of need and necessity and not for a 'show-off'. This also is the main contributing factor for thier Economy, the second largest in the world and also developed drom scratch after the end of the devastating World War II. The entire population of Japan is 120 million with some 21% above 60 years of age as of 2006.

And the most relevant to these would be the fact that IBM's ThinkPad range of Laptops were developed in IBM's Yamato Laboratory here in Japan. Even today this Lab is the core behind the ThinkPad's leadership. Yamato Lab is referred to as the birthplace of the ThinkPad.

This rise and excellence may be attributed to the extensive workaholic Japanese people. But there is a different story also. Japanese, just like thier products, are very efficient and sincere. They work when they are supposed to and dont chat, browse, etc. Thier working style takes into account the neccestities of the job on hand and the earliest possible deadline that can be tagged to it. Everything is carried out as a process and the procedure strictly adhered too. The processes are proven in today's competitive environment and are constantly reinvented.

Guess.... this is a lot for a single post. Will be back soon.

Mt. Fuji

Climbed Mt. Fuji this August with some friends. It was an excellent experience that gives me an awesome feeling everytime I think of it.

The Fuji mountain. This mountain is always covered by snow all round the year, except in August. And so August is the official climbing season.

The mountain has 10 stages. We can reach upto the 5th stage by bus which is at an altitude of 2400m. The climb is from 5th stage to the 10th stage which is the peak. And the highest point is 3776m. The mountain is covered by thick growth until half of it. That's precisely till the 5th stage.

Mt.Fuji was an active volcano hundreds of years back. The entire mountain was formed by eruption. That makes one wonder the extent of eruption. Infact the lava has spilled as far as north of Tokyo. The richness of the soil in this area is attributed to the lava from Mt.Fuji.

We will need to reach a place called Mishima, about 2hrs from Minami-Rinkan, from where a bus will take us to the 5th stage. On the route to the 5thstage, the bus halts for a break at an amusement park. The park itself is at around 1500m.

Each one of us has a walking stick in with a bell. The sound it makes keeps the bears away. But there's none after the 5th stage cos of no dense growth. It may be between the ground and 5th stage.

The starting point is at 2400 m above sea level. Started at 630PM. Reached 9th stage at 3460m at about 2AM. Still another 350m. The height may look less. What's tiring is the path and the route it takes. Though it's just 1.4KM of altitude, we would've walked at least 7-9 Kms in 2-3 degrees of temperature.

It's around 4am in the morning. Dawn... The light on the left is from the 9.5th station showing down upon us. Lucky that there was no rain.

Even the wind was very mild. So it was easily bearable at the top.

Sun's starting to come out. Just back from serving a hectic day at America. Truly, Japan is the Land of Rising Sun.

So on August 6th 2006, we are the first ppl in the entire world to get a glimpse of the Sun.

The highest point on the peak has a weather station. the altitude is 3776m.

There is also a path for a bull dozer which is the only vehicle to the top. Some who cant make it on the normal path and to the peak, use this. It's less tiring but obviously longer.

That was an experience. I would be insane to try again... but happy having done it once. I was cursing for having accepted the trip till I reached back to the 5th stage. But now feel great. We were told an old saying about Mt Fuji. "In Japan, if you never climb Mt Fuji you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once you are a fool".

weBLOGs...

So finally... I've started to log it on the web.

But why???

I always thought blogs are because you don't have anyone around you to share your daily musings. I still think that way. As a matter of fact, I'm alone for the past 9 months, but still catch up with my friends all over the world.

Then why did I resort to blogging? Good question.

The reason is; I've started admiring the writing skills of many bloggers. It isnt sufficient that you speak good English. You should also have a good vocabulary. And one can improve his/her vocabulary not just by learning new words as in GRE preparation, but also use them extensively in your daily usage of English. But I'm in Japan. English is the last thing anyone here will have in their mind. So the only option left for me is to write... and where do I write? here on the web as logs of my daily life... err.. monthly life. Let me set the frequency later.

Anywayz, I hope this ThinkPad of mine does not die as many other habits have. Oh yeah.. why did I name it ThinkPad???

ThinkPad has been the soul of my work at office. Yes, I'm a Technical Lead at the IBM ThinkPad's Quality Assurance department. And the word as such is so good that I'm obsessed with it. Thinking is very very important in one's life. And mine is mostly superficial thinking and does'nt go deep. Again, indepth thinking would mean more time to it. But my plan is all about Effective Thinking. And hopefully, it'll get better with me writting more.

So... Effective Thinking and Improving English are the targets at present.

Theriyudhu.. u guys r saying, "Mudalla ezhudhu thambi.. apparam paarpom indha bandha vaarthai ellaam.."

Ok guys... let me end my first post now. And wish me all the best to come back with the second one asap.