Saturday, December 29, 2012

Employee Engagement- II

Indicators of Employee Engagement…


Employee Engagement is directly related to company's
financial performance..
Employee Engagement is crucial. But first we should understand what employee engagement means:
Engagement is more on how he enjoys his job and organization and how he contributes to the organization. Employee Engagement is nothing but employee’s psychological connection with his job, superior and organization. Most of the people misunderstood employee satisfaction with employee engagement; however these are two different terms. The normal response to employee engagement issues has been to focus on increased job satisfaction. The rationale was that a satisfied employee is a productive employee. Research indicates that in actuality, a productive employee is a satisfied employee.
Thirty years of industry research and my own personal experience indicate that employees, who apply their talents and abilities to enhance the organization, make a significant impact on key business results. The outcome is a more engaged employee, which results in a higher contributing and more satisfied employee. It also means that organization which invests in developing their employees has more engaged employees.   
Employee Engagement is the level that an employee believes in the mission, purpose and values of an organization and demonstrates that commitment through their actions as an employee and their attitude towards the employer and customers
In short employees are engaged when they bring all their talent, energy and discretionary effort to bear to their everyday decisions and actions. They have a clear line of sight so that they understand how their work contributes to the direction and goals of their organization.
Sometimes Commitment is also view as an Engagement. At the same time as commitment and engagement are used interchangeably, the general consensus seems to be that commitment is not enough – the real differences are seen when employees are fully engaged.
Committed employees are positive, want to do the right things, display high levels of energy and initiative, but commitment becomes engagement when it is fully harnessed and aligned with the overall goals and direction of the organization.
Research also shows that engagement is a leading indicator of financial performance. Companies that increase their engagement levels can expect to significantly improve their subsequent financial performance.
(Continued…)

Wish you all a Happy New Year! http://vinodtbidwaik.blogspot.in/2012/01/happy-new-year.html

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Employee Engagement- I

Employee Engagement and Elephant…


Employee Engagement is viewed always an isolated activity.

Different people have different perception about Employee Engagement. To elaborate this I would like to refer the six blind men and elephant story..
There were six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Every one of them touched the elephant.
"Oh, how big elephant is? The elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and every one of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. One wise man saw their argument.
He asked them, "What is the matter?"
They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."
"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.
Employee Engagement is viewed like the Elephant described in the story.
How they view Employee Engagement?
Employee Engagement is keeping employees engaged by fun activities and some companies have “Chief Fun Officer.” They do all fun activities in the organization and try to engage employees(?). They celebrate birthdays, fun activities, different days and so on. Still these companies have attrition.
Employee Engagement means organizing events for employees.
Somebody view Employee Engagement means introducing some rewards schemes and giving certificates and cards.
Some organizations go at home of employees on certain occasions. Some organizations try to get the involvement of families in certain activities.   
And still, employees are not engaged….
Companies celebrate birthdays, but ignore how the manager is treating to employees. They organize fun activities, but ignore the feedback on the performance of an employee. Managers view it as HR job and HR just see towards it as one of the KPI. The problem is all these activities are viewed as events and not the process. We forget that these are lag activities. HR professionals themselves view Employee Engagement as just organizing some activities and events for employees.  
Time has come to change our views and view Employee Engagement as whole package for employees. Let’s see it differently…
If you have something to share please write your views in comment box…
(Continued to next week….)

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Self Motivation

Nobody can motivate you, yes it comes internal
There is a long debate on motivation. Managers, leaders are expected to motivate their employees. Companies introduce Rewards and Recognization schemes to motivate their employees. People are definitely motivated and such schemes also shows good results for time being. But still most of the times people are not enough motivated, they further expect something different.
Motivation is an urge to do soemthing. Self-Motivation is an urge to drive oneself, which pushes him up towards his needs, wants and desires. Nobody can’t motivate you, you yourself has to motivate you. There are lot of theories on motivation. Lot of reaserch on motivation is avaliable on google, but still people are not motivated. People are still not 100% happy. Orgnizations will ensure the motivation of people, but why people expect extranal motivation. I do agree that people should be motivated, but where their self motivation goes?
The main problem is they are not aware what they want in their life. So eveybody should ask the question, why I need to be motivated..
Why Self Motivation?
Self- Motivation is needed for following purpose in life.
 We need to be self-Motivated because
a)    We have our goals in life and our goals have to be achieved by ourselves only.
b)   We have our dreams in life and our dreams have to be fulfilled by ourselves only.
c)     We have to make things happen and we ourselves has to do something to make it happened.
d)     To do all in life, we should know how our life going? Nobody will keep a track of our life; we ourselves have to keep the right track of our goals dreams and efforts.
If we are responsible for our actions and our life, the question is how external factors will keep us motivated?

Friday, December 07, 2012

The promise of an Ox

Motivation can do wonders..

There lived a very poor Brahmin. He got one calf in gift. After few years it grew up to in a strong ox. The Brahmin had no family. He was also very old now and he use to think that he will die in this poor state only. One day this ox said to his owner, “Master! You have brought me up like your own son. I have not done anything for you. Now, I would like to do something for you that bring you some money.
The Brahmin wondered, still he asked, “ How it is possible?” The ox said, “ Master! You tell all the villagers that I can drag a Bullock Cart loaded with 100 bags of 40 Kgs each.  You bet with them. Put a bet of Rs 10 against Rs1. Tell them that they if get 10 rupees against each one rupees if I could not drag the bullock cart. Nobody will believe you. But I promise that you will win the bet and become rich”. Brahmin became very happy and he announced at all places. The villagers could not believe that an ox can pull such a weight. So, the villagers agreed to bet immediately.
The day of bet arrived. 100 bags of loaded rice were stocked in the Bullock Cart. The poor ox kept trying and trying but the bullock cart did not move an inch. The Brahmin started to curse and abuse the ox. The ox became sad. Brahmin lost the bet and he has to give away all possessions he had. Looking at the condition of his master ox had tears in his eyes. The Brahmin shouted at ox, “Why are you crying now. Its me who should cry.”
The ox said, “Master! You did not behave well with me. You shouted at me. I was about to pull the bullock cart but you started to abuse me. That’s why I am crying. After listening to your harsh words I lost my courage and we lost the bet.” Brahmin immediately realized his mistake. Then the ox said, “Believe me sir. This time I will pull the Bullock Cart loaded with 200 bags of 40 Kgs each.  You bet with the villagers. Put a bet of Rs 20 against Rs1. After lots of thought, the Brahmin agreed to take the biggest risk in his life to bet. Villagers thought that this Brahmin has gone mad and yet they agreed to bet again.
Next Sunday the crowd gathered. 200 bags of loaded rice were stocked in the Bullock Cart. The ox tried hard to pull the bullock cart. Even after 5 minutes of try he could not move the bullock cart. Villagers thought that again this Brahmin would loose the bet. Now the Brahmin went near to his ox and said, “ Son! This is a tuff job, but I have full faith on you that you can do it. Try once more.”
After listening to such words of praise and faith the ox tried once more with all his energy and the much-awaited amazement happened, the bullock cart started to move. Everybody was surprised. Brahmin won the bet and became very rich in few moments.
Morale:
If you trust people, people will keep your trust. Motivation can do wonders.

Sunday, December 02, 2012

Self Instructions

Instruct your mind positively...

“Keshava, what are you doing? Please check first and then enter into the system…” one of the accounts officer in my organization was speaking with himself (or computer?) while making some entries in the system. I was behind him. I asked, “What is this Keshav? To whom you are speaking with.” He laughed. His colleague seating next to him told me that it is his regular practices. Sometimes they get confused by his self –talking.
Our mind is powerful and believes on what we do, what we say. Self-instruction is a very powerful but simple tool to make your life happy.
Normally self-instruction is used in education systems considering the students’ ability of one to cognitively plan, organize, direct, reinforce, and evaluate one’s own independent learning without a teacher's prompting. In our day to day job, we need to work without the support of seniors or peers and not necessary they have the time to teach you everything what’s happening in the organization.
However Self instructions here I mean to say is to instruct positively to the mind. Our mind is powerful in bring the positivity in our life.
If you are driving towards the office and you see the traffic on the road is moving fast. You have two options, either to curse the situation or keep the mind cool and wait. You have meeting and you need to go at office on time. How to keep the mind cool? Here just instruct your mind by speaking with yourself. “Oh, the road is jam, but what I can do now? Send the message to boss first and keep your mind cool dear. It is not your fault XXX (you name). The road is with full of idiots.” and laugh. Make the situation funny. You will see the difference. It is the choice of yours’ and you need to choose positive option.    
How to do that?
1.      Identify the situation: Situation can be anything. From you day to day issues to professional ideas. E.g. traffic is jam; you need to prepare the report for the boss; or you have to give the presentation to the critical customer.   
2.      See the positive side: Check the positive side of the situation. Traffic is jam but traffic police is already there. Or can I come out and do something? Or Oh I am ready for the presentation and boss is with me in case of any problem.
3.      Instruct your mind: This is a self-instruction phase. Make the positive statement and alternate plan in case of failure. Instruct yourself what actually you need to do and tell yourself everything good about the situation. Just start the conversation with yourself with positive affirmations. Have a good talk. You are instructing your inner, (subconscious) mind.
4.      Enjoy the event: Life has its own destiny. It will not work always as per your expectation. One think in your hand is to enjoy every moment in life. See around and enjoy the faces of people. Relate them to some analogy, animal or birds. Comment on such situation and people involved there. Make a next plan. Tell your mind what is your next plan and how are you going to implement that.
Life and time are the two best teachers. Life teaches us to make good use of time and time teaches us the value of life.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Do you know these types of people?

Enjoy the funny side of a person….
If you observe people carefully, you will find the consistency in their behaviour. Most of people are predictable. If they are predictable, it is easy to understand and manage them. There are different types but still unique personalities around us. If you see the lighter side of their behaviour, you will enjoy them. This is one of the ways to make the life more enjoyable. I have identified few of themJ. While reading, please refer “he” as “she” also.
Me too guy
You have different stories to tell to people. These people may be your friends, relatives or neighbours. They are in families, communities, societies and offices. The conversation with them goes like this.
You are planning to purchase a new car and you speak with the guy of “me too” type.
“I am planning to buy a car.” You share with your friend
“I am also planning to buy a car.” Your “Mee too” type friend replies
“I think Honda City is better.”
“Yaa, I am also planning to take Honda CRV or Skoda Rapid.”
Whatsoever you plan, they also have the same plan but at better or higher level.
“My son has been sent to USA by his company.” One proud father tells to his neighbor when they meet for society meeting.
“My son is also planning to go to UK for a year.” He replies back.
If you tell them anything what you do, they will have something similar to tell you. In such conversations, another person doesn’t recognize the success, achievement of first person.
They will have similar experiences like you. They will cut you in between and tell you their story which is similar to you.
“Knows everything in this world” guy
Oh, very knowledgeable guy. He knows everything in the world. He has always something to say on. Content of their knowledge is questionable, but he will comment on everything.
He knows why Manmohan Singh is still the Prime Minister; He knows what Uddhav Thackaray will do after Balasaheb Thackaray; He knows what politics happened while selecting Indian team; He knows why Vijay Mallya doesn’t care his airlines and he also knows why FDI should not be allowed in India.
He will throw references, numbers on your face. Anyways you don’t know what actual numbers and references are.
“Challenger”
This person will challenge you in everything.  You say that FDI is necessary for the growth of India. He will challenge and argue with you why FDI is fetal to Indian economy and poor people in the country. If another person says that FDI is not necessary, he will still challenge and argue why FDI is required.
This guy is really a monster. He can play the role of effective opponent in meetings.       
“Question Mark” guy
Have you seen the person asking questions in every meeting, every occasion? He has lot of questions in his brain. If he doesn’t have questions, he will still create question. You can’t guarantee the quality of the question. During whole conversation, he may miss what you said. Back of his mind, the question processor is always on during conversations, meetings and he never miss the opportunity to ask questions.
“Opinion in everything” guy  
He will have opinion in everything. When he doesn’t have any opinion, he will still have the opinion! He is like the judge of TV Reality Shows. He will comment irrespective of any knowledge in subject matter. He is an expert on his own in any subject matter.
“Friend of influential people”
He always says that he knows most of the influential people in his area. Local corporator of Municipal Corporation is his good friend. He has good network with the top boss in his organization. He will mention top references during the conversation.
He knows local MLA. He knows judges, police officers and who not? But you can’t be sure how his relationship with them is.
“Oh, I know Police Commissioner very well.”
“I know the local corporator of our area. If I decide I can get the desired parking in colony within 8 hours.”
Fact is when it comes to police verification for passport, he has to take somebody with him as a witness and his parking issue never resolves.  
This is just because he says and you have to believe him just for the sake. Actually nobody knows him. I wonder why his child doesn’t get the admission in desired school if he has good relationship with the President of School Committee.
Identification of these types of people is easy. Just start the conversation with them and you will enjoy.
If you know anybody different typo person please share with me.  

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Balasaheb Thackeray

End of the Charismatic Leader...

That was the different epoch. I was doing my management. At evening, Balasaheb Thackeray was supposed to address the election rally at Golf Ground at Nashik. I have seen how people were mad to listen him. People from whole district travelled voluntarily to listen him.

I along with my friends was also curious to see him and listen his speech. That experience was mind blowing. I realized that day, how one person can influence the mob. It was surprising to see people from all the social strata seating together. In the mob, there were students, doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers irrespective of their political affiliations and interest.

When I joined Semperit Group and started to handle the Roha plant of Sempertrans Nirlon Ltd., the JV with Nirlon Ltd., I started to deal with the union, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), affiliated to Shiv Sena. We had to visit Sena Bhavan at Dadar frequently to discuss issues with Union office bearers, the then President, Ramakant More and the then General Secretary Krishnakant Kondalekar and afterwards their successor, Suryakant Mahadik and Kiran Pawaskar. (Kiran left Shiv Sena and is now MLC of NCP). Once I, along with our Plant Head, COO and local union committee members went there to discuss the long pending bonus issue. We were waiting for the meeting and discussing with Albert Pinto, the secretory and our plant union in charge from BKS. Suddenly everybody started to move. We understand that Balasaheb was coming at the Sena Bhavan. The whole building suddenly woke up. I sensed different energy in that building that day. While walking towards his office, he just saw us, we greeted him, he smiled, waived his hands. Albert introduced us with him. When he understood that we were from Sempertrans Nirlon, the JV between Semperit and Nirlon, he enquired about the JV and financials. Balasaheb had a soft corner about Nirlon Ltd as it was among first few units where BKS started their unions in 1970s. “Fight for the right, but don’t close the plant.” He used to say to workers. My reaction was, he came, he saw and he conquered. It was hardly 2-3 minutes conversation, but his persona, his style influenced me and my team members. When he visited Roha for rally, he chose our Guest House for the short stay.                      

People loved him and made him icon, larger-than-life, in politics. He was the mascot of Marathi pride. Balasaheb Thackeray always was a God to common Sena workers. He was the example of tough but popular leader. He was the great cartoonist, with generous humor. He was the only fiery orator, who could bring Mumbai and Maharashtra to a standstill with a wave of his finger.

What makes him a great, charismatic and most influential leader?

1)      Kingmaker instead of being a King: Balasaheb never contested any elections. He never dreamt to become Chief Minister, Prime Minister or never projected himself as a candidate for any position. When Sena-BJP alliance came into the power in 1995, he chose Manohar Joshi as Chief Minister. This was unusual in the history of India. Even, it was possible for him to crown his son Uddhav as Chief Minister, he chose Manohar Joshi. People admired his gesture.
2)      People Connect: I personally experienced this when I attended his rally or even his short 2 minutes gesture. He spoke what people wanted. This does not mean that he was luring people. Through his gesture, body language and speech, he used to connect with the people easily. He ensured self-reliance among people. He was advocate of new things. The Pune-Mumbai Express highway, flyovers in Mumbai and infrastructure development was his idea and he did that.
3)      Unconventional Views: He was known as much for his unconventional views. He never fought shy of expressing that views, sometimes contradictory to political philosophy of alliance. He supported Prathibha Patil and Pranab Mukharjee during presidential elections. He also supported his political rivals when it came to something good. He admired Hitler for his art and leadership qualities.  
4)      Talent Management: Yesterday, one Shakha Pramukh (In charge of a ward in the city) was interviewed by news channel. He was a waiter, got opportunity to work with the party and was entrusted the responsibility of the ward. He said that this is possible only in Shiv-Sena. And this is true. Though he was the remote control for the government, he gave the opportunity to all people. Maharashtra witnessed, the first Bramhin Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi, OBC leader Chagan Bhujbal was the first Mayor (from Sena) of Mumbai Municipal Corporation and first Leader of Opposition of Legislative Assembly. He developed leaders at all social strata and delegated responsibilities. He aligned them towards one political goal.
5)      Charisma: He had a Magnetic persona. Very few people have this. He had built his image with lot of thought. Being a cartoonist he had a great sense of humor. He always used this humor in his speeches. His voice was authoritative. There are many magical ways to express with voice. This is required to command and Balasaheb commanded his party workers with this authoritative voice.
6)      Leader, organizer, team builder etc etc.: Shiv Sena is the success. This party has an influence over the Maharashtra politics and nobody can ignore them. This is not possible without leadership qualities.

Balasaheb Thackeray was the tiger, warrior, he roared, he fought and he ruled over heart of millions.

Rest in peace Balasaheb!

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Find out some time...

It's all about Life Management…


People always ask me about my different activities. I write blog and articles. Colleges and institutes call me as a speaker. Sometimes I spend my time with NGOs and also involved in CSR activities. This all is done after office hours. In professional life there are lot many tasks which are beyond my JD and still I perform with passion.

 “How you get the time to write all this?” One of the friends asked me.
“I don’t get the time, I find out the time.” I answered.

We all run with the time. Sometimes we also don’t know what we are doing. People have great excuse of time always. People really work hard but getting some time is dream for all. This is all about the attitude towards our life.

Here I remember the statement of famous person, “Assign responsibilities who have lot of work, people who just say that they do not have time for doing something, will not do the job best.” Fact is you will not get the time anyways, but the reality is if you find the time for something, you will definitely get the time.

This is all about the attitude towards life. If you have positive attitude about the time, time will be there to support you. The question is how you go the extra mile. Sometimes we do not challenge ourselves. I am involved in budgeting exercise. Making budget and then aligning with the finance is real challenge. We have different styles. In past I use to spend almost 10 days in making the budget. Today I complete the budge within 2 days without errors. In past I was doing hard work and now I do the smart work, the result is more time for more value added activities. I recognize that my time is very important to the company. I need to spend my time on relevant value added tasks. However I even can’t delegate the budget exercise to team members as it involves lot of confidentiality and integrity. So what I did, I made a programmed excel file, where I just need to put the relevant percentage for increment as per the cost center and whole calculations are done automatically.

I have seen, people actually spending time on the tasks which can be handled with effective technical knowledge. Actually, you need to be innovative. Every morning when I go in the office, I ask one question to myself, how can I improve, innovate and change today.

How many times, we go extra mile and push ourselves? When I decided that I have to find out time for some other activities, I push myself. Coaching you team for taking more responsibilities and delegating some activities will definitely help. For getting some personal time, I started to cut my sleep by ½ hour by every morning.  

There is everything available on Time Management, but we will not get the time by just reading such references. We actually need to go extra mile and push our attitude..

Hence first find out some time to get the time. After all Life is not about finding yourself, Life is about creating yourself.  

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Break

I could not post a single blog for last 4 weeks and I started to receive questions.
“Vinod, are you still in dream?”
“Have you stop writing?”
“Vinod, what’s happened to your “want to”?
“Where are you? We are waiting new post.”
“Every Monday after lunch, I read the post and now I am missing something.”
“Your writing is informative and I am missing something new.”

Thanks for all for remembering me. I appreciate.

I am receiving mails, calls and updates from my blog followers and regular readers for last one month.

I haven’t stop writing. Today, I still “want to” write and discuss on. However, I have taken a break deliberately on this. Sometimes you need to take the break to refresh your mind. I was not on holidays, but was busy with some personal and professional priorities and I thought that this is the right opportunity to take a break, (though I could have written something and really don’t wanted to write for the sake of writing.).

This is a new start now.

Please wait for my next blog in next week…

Saturday, September 29, 2012

I have a dream…

I have a dream... but I need a action...
Mahatma Gandhi saw the dream of Independent country with peaceful and powerful society. And off course he was the firm believer of dreams and power of dreaming. He had written “A man, whilst he is dreaming, believes in his dream; he is undeceived only when he is awakened from his slumber.”

You all know the dream seen by Martin Luther King in 1963. Martin Luther King had a dream of country which is free from race and region. He says in his famous speech “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

India is independent country and one of the economic power and Martin Luther Kings’ dream was manifested a year later, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which (also) guaranteed blacks the right to vote.

And you know Tata group and dream of Jamsethji Tata. His dream about building the nation with Industrial revolution with human development and also building the largest power utility company and so on…

There are people who dreamt and also fulfilled their dream with passion, innovation and out of the box thinking.  

We all have a dream. Or more accurately, we all had a dream. Dream of becoming committed doctor, successful industrialist innovative scientist and great engineer. We all dreamt of making a difference.  

But the difference is we left our dreams in between and curse the luck… and say… “Oh bad luck...”

Think for a moment, how the world would be if all people had chosen not to strive for their dreams and make a difference. People like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and even Sachin Tendulkar (http://vinodtbidwaik.blogspot.in/search/label/Dream).

However these all are great people. You may feel somewhat daunted and would ask “Can I really make a difference? But what sacrifice I can do to achieve the dream?”

It is easier to live a compromised, mediocre life, hoping that someone else makes a difference, but the fact is we all want to be successful and want our dreams. The imperative things are to believe on our dream and take certain actions.

First action is challenge the status quo. We like status quo because we are comfortable with that. I mean psychological status quo. Same like elephant story. Elephant even could not think to break the chain tied to his legs.   

Yes. It is time to confront our upbringing, conditioning and circumstances.

You can fulfill your dream by with following simple tips.
  1. Challenge the status quo,
  2. Dream big,
  3. Believe on your dream and believe on yourself that you are capable to fulfill your dream,
  4. Visualize that you are close to the dream,
  5. Convert your dream into SMART objectives,
  6. Take actions…
  7. Keep a log of your actions,
  8. Work Hard and also work smart…
  9. Learn from mistakes done in actions and move on…
That day is not long when you will actually see what you dreamt… Best luck…J

Monday, September 24, 2012

Seven Wonders of the World…

We (DSM and employees) are associated with the girls’ blind school (http://vinodtbidwaik.blogspot.in/2011/04/inspiration-underprivileged-children.html) near Pune. We not only sponsor the education, food but also ensure to spend quality time with these girls. Recently on Saturday we visited the school on the occasion of Ganapati Festival. After lunch we had some fun activities with the girls. Somebody asked students to list what they thought were the present Seven Wonders of the World. Girls started to mumble among themselves. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes with the help of our volunteer.  

1. Chichen Itza in Mexico
2. Taj Mahal
3. Petra in Jordan
4. Colosseum at Italy
5. Christ Reedemer in Brasil
6. Machu Pichhu in Peru
7. China's Great Wall

After finishing the consolidation of the list one girl raised her hand hesitantly.  

“Yes? You have something different?” asked one of the teachers available there...

The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I have confusion and I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many." The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."

The girl hesitated, then started, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:"

1. To see
2. To touch
3. To taste
4. To hear

She hesitated a little, and then added

5. To feel
6. To laugh
7. And to love

The place was so full of silence you could have heard a pin drop. It is far too easy for us to look at the exploits of man and refer to them as wonders while we overlook what God has done for us. Those things we overlook as simple and "ordinary" are truly wondrous.

And most amazing was, it come through the girl who knows the value of these senses and wonders...

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Three years of successful blogging! Thanks all!

Dear All,

I wanted to do that…

I published my first blog (http://vinodtbidwaik.blogspot.in/2009/09/want-to.html) on 17th Sept 2009. Today is 15th Sept 2012; I didn’t notice that this blog has completed 3 years. One of the friends called me yesterday and asked me, “Vinod, it’s a time for your book now!”     

My intention was to write something by every week. I learnt the real life philosophy from my son and that is “just want to do that.” And then I started and continued by every week. “I want to continue” was the feeling when writing every blog post.

When we drive from one city to another city, we don’t directly see the place. We just are able to see the few meters of road ahead and as we pass by, we compete that few meters to complete the kilometer and lot of kilometers drives us to the desired city.  Life is like that only. We need to decide something to do. Writing the blog was my personal goal and continuity was the major challenge. I was not sure how many blog post I would write, but I was sure that I will write one post by every week and it continued. Now this is a third year. My blog has successfully completed 3 years with 0.58 million hits and with 109 followers and thousands of e-mail receivers.     

And off course the journey will continue till I decide to do something else.

Thanks for all for making it so popular and value added. I promise that I will further continue with your value added inputs.

Please feel free to send your suggestions, comments, remarks….

Regards,
Vinod Bidwaik

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