Mumbai : The much awaited

The journey to Mumbai began via our Train to Mumbai from Gorakhpur, Lokmanya Tilak Super Express on  13th March, 2014 at around 9:00 pm. After 48 hrs long journey of Train we finally reached LTT, Mumbai on  We were very exhausted because of train journey and  were delighted when we were picked up by our friend in Mumbai. Then from there we reached Hotel Shubhangan   around 5 am. The day had nothing much to do while we only rested in our hotel. We stayed in Mumbai till morning of 18th March , during which we visited many important landmarks of the magnificient city.

Day 1, March 14

Band Stand: 

We asked the auto bhaiya ( auto driver) about nearest tourist attraction from our hotel and came to know that Band fort was one. Band Fort was something like Garden of Dreams in Nepal, all famous for the couples in love. We came to spot the place as shooting spot of many Bollywood movies like: Tarey Jameen Pey, Wanted etc. I saw sea for the first time (Arabian sea) and was amazed the water mass intensity ranging to a distance very far. 

We clicked some photos together and were also happy to see the magnificent Bandra-Worli Sea Link. 

Juhu beach:  

We visited Juhu beach and quite a few lesser known beaches. Juhu was all lighted up and glittered beautifully in the evening. The surrounding was vibrant - the foods stalls showcasing different variety of local foods, the photographer were busy spotting and clicking tourists, many mumbaites hanging around for evening walk, many tourists hovering here and there etc was amazing to observe. We also played in water, felt the sand slipping from below our feet and got ourselves clicked. We also tasted the famous local food: Pau Bhaji ( Bread and Cooked vegetable) which I tasted good. 

             

Day 2, March 15

Rotaract Stuffs:

Second day was for the main purpose of the visit. We organised a joint meeting with Rotaract Club of HR College, Mumbai and also signed Memorandum of Understanding( MOU) for International Twin Club relationship. The meeting was really enthusiastic and fun-filled. Also we were also careful to learn many new things like meeting procedures followed and meeting etiquettes. 

We saw a different and interesting way of attending a meeting and have summed up with some take-away. There were many things to learn and share between the two clubs. We got a warm reception there and planned to play holi together on March 17th. 

Gateway of India:

I was very happy to meet some of my Rotaract friends from (Rotaract Club of Government Law College) Mumbai whom I had met via facebook and had also organised some joint project between the two clubs. Though it was our first meeting, we found them very co-operative, friendly and caring. Together  we had great fun in the evening. We visited some restaurants, had punjabi food, visited Gateway of India and Taj hotel in the evening. Back to hotel we boarded on train which was not that busy like the daytime. 

Day 3, March 16

Chatrapati Sivaji Terminus (CST):

Also a UNESCO World Heritage Sites, CST was built in 1887 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. CST is one of the busiest railway platform of India serving as a terminal for both short and long-distance trains.

We went to CST for train tickets to Goa. Unfortunately we couldn't get the ticket the same day because all the reservations were full. Meanwhile with all the ICYEP team, we paid a visit to the Gateway of India and took a ride in the ferry over the Arabian sea.  The ferry was just supposed to take a round on the sea and come back. Shopping was next on our list. We visited both small and big shopping centres in close vicinity and bought lots of items. The prices were reasonable and the variety was good.

Marine Drive:

Visit to Marine drive in the evening is one of the rarest thing to miss in Mumbai. It is a 'C' shaped boulevard of about 5 km along the coast that look spectacular during the night by the street lights along the drive. The place is famous to observe the setting sun and also for evening walk, grasping some fresh air. The place is also famous for many prominent hotel in Mumbai like: Oberoi, The Intercontinental, Hotel Marine Plaza etc.  

Travelling in Local Train:

Another thing which we enjoyed was travelling in local train. Local train system in Mumbai is extensive and  travelling during peak hours, during office hours is really hectic because the rush at this point of time is just too much for anyone not used to it. You really need lots of alacrity, patience and practice to travel during these hours. For the rest of the day, the crowd is manageable. Travelling by train gave us a firsthand idea of life of people in Mumbai. Without these trains, life of 12 million Mumbaites  becomes crippled.

Day 4, March 17

Holi In Mumbai:

We Rotaract Club of Kasthamandap together with Rotaract club of HR college celebrated holi.It was also one of the most unforgettable moment. It was a mesmerizing experience. We learned new way of celebrating and also a good chance to exchange our culture and learn new tradition. Dancing all wet was the most interesting part.

Autos:

Travelling in Autos is also one of the major thing to witness in Mumbai. It is said that there are about 300 thousands Autos in Mumbai itself. During mine stay, I came to know of most of the auto-drivers as helpful and cooperative. We travelled major part of Mumbai with the help of Auto-drivers and are also thankful to them.

What we most enjoyed during our stay in Mumbai was visiting many beautiful places especially in the evening. The whole thing was really interesting and a completely new experience for us.

Gorakhpur, India : ICYEP first day

A city famous for its massive train networks throughout the country, Gorakhpur, lies in Uttar Pradesh state of India and is one of the closest train platform from Nepal border.

A 3 hour bus ride from Sonauli (Nepal-India border) via a UP state-government bus and then you reach Gorakhpur train station. We reached to Sonauli early morning at 6 am. After a little of fresh-up and light breakfast we headed towards to cross the border. In contrast to our imagination, we cleared the border very easily. We  talked to officials in a polite manner and showed the evidence that we were to attend a program in India. And thus no hassle :)

Then we catched a UP state-government bus from Sonauli to Gorakhpur , a distance of around 3 hours for just IC 92. ( saved  from exp. tickets of private bus operators). The landscape is almost same to the plains of Nepal so we didn't had much to enjoy from the scenes .  As we had train to Mumbai in the evening, we visited the famous Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur and stayed there the whole afternoon. Apart  from the rest of the city, the temple seemed to be well-managed and looked after.

In the evening we reached to Train station which was to be our major transportation means for the rest of our stay in India. As many of us hadn't seen train previously , some of my friends were excited to see train passing after every few minutes.  We tried to find out how train system worked ( Indian railway is also features in HBS case study and is one of the largest employment provider in the world) .Frankly speaking , the train system in Gorakhpur  was not properly managed and seemed troublesome. We didn't know about different train jargons like : wait list, tatkal, SL class, ac-tier, train number, etc. We tried to take help from railway police, but to no avail. Finally by asking to other commoners we were able to locate our train at 9 pm  and the journey to Mumbai began.

Exhausted  for the whole day because of psychological pressure  to understand train-system( with objective to not miss the train) , we took our SL class berth and soon fell asleep ( or at-least pretended so as it was our first night in train, sound sleep was difficult ). We were witnessing the backbone of development of India and the basic means of transport in the live of billion of Indian commoners.

Visit to India : ICYEP

Visit to India was a trip planned since last two years. Back in 2012 in Rotaract we had a proposal from our then International twin club in Mumbai, Rotaract club of Government Law College for Inter Club Youth Exchange Program (ICYEP) . But then we couldn't schedule it because of different reasons. As usual then I was one of the member who so wanted to visit Mumbai.

And finally we got invitation from another Rotaract club this year for Inter city Youth Exchange Program ( ICYEP). I then approached them to come to Nepal for the first round of ICYEP ( so that in latter part I can be stress free regarding the second part of hosting and all ;) ). However things didn't go as expected and we were to make our virgin trip to Mumbai ( as it was first visit to almost the members of ICYEP from Nepal).Then began official information sharing among club members and selecting of ICYEP members. Done with selection, it was a hectic event to plan for the whole event as all of us didn't had experience of how India was like. Being a team leader it was me to had opportunity to learn many things in advance ( of course with some stress) . Learning about Indian train system, booking of tickets, managing Indian currency , counselling team members etc was sometimes tough. 

With all these things real thing that encouraged us was when we decided to go to Goa also ( was in addition to our original plan). And then until we reached Goa it was like everyone humming " aajaoo on the beach yaara photo merely khich" :D

But things that always motivated me for the visit was

1. To know about how India was.
2. To make some new friends in Mumbai.
3. To share culture and good-will with each other.
4. To explore myself in terms of leadership, confidence, team management etc
5. To avail myself of the opportunity to strengthen relationship with my fellow club members. 

And many more ...

Follow upcoming post about other exciting experience about India visit....

Review of "Subarna Shamsher: A Politics of Ethics"

Among six photographs printed in a banner of Nepali Congress, I had difficulty in recognizing one face ! However I could figure it out later with a help of my friend that I had hit the nail in the head ! A correct guess. He was none other than Subarna Shamsher-one of the founding leader of Nepali Congress.

Suwarna Shumsher is one of the founder of Nepali Congress-oldest political party of country. Though much is known about his contemporaries, B.P Koirala, Ganeshman Singh, Krishna Prasad, on contrary, very few has been explored about Subarna Shamsher. As I was longing to know more about this very person, I was lucky enough to grab a book recently published featuring the contribution of Suwarna Shumsher to Nepali democratic movements.

Subarna Shamsher was born in in the tyrant ruling Rana family that ruled Nepal for continuous 104 years.The power politics and struggle for power was so massive that it ended with endless conspiracy and massive conflicts within the family. Rana clans had to live their entire life with terror and suspicion at all the time. Adding insult to injury was when the family of Suwarna Shumsher was kept in exile from Kathmandu valley by categorizing them as "C" class Rana family who would not have a say in the role based leadership in Rana family.  Later Subarna Shamsher family left to Kolkata ( India) and settled there for business. Educated and down-to-earth Subarna Shamsher established an business empire in Kolkata by venturing successful ownership of British property at cheaper rates.

Though Subarna Shamsher was excelling in his business ventures, he could not pacify himself as he was forced to live his country and that his country was ailing. And thus the waves for changes began to start. Suwarna Shumsher vowed to overthrow the Rana rule and to bring democracy in the country. Later he came in contact with BP and collaborated with them to form a single political party which main objective would be to out-throw the Rana regime and bring about peace  and democracy in the country. Initially it was said that Suwarna Shumsher offered the then Rs 1 crore to B.P to carry-out pro-democratic movement in Nepal. With astounding support of Nepali people and financial support from Suwarna Shumsher, the revolution was successful.

Describing all about the political stories of life-time of Subarna Shamsher would be too time consuming. However, I would like to summarize of Suwarna Shumsher of as a far-sighted, morally balanced and ethically correct figure of Nepali political fraternity upon whom the current citizen can look upon. Following points proves of his greatness.

1) Sole financial supporter of pro-democratic movement of 2007 BS.
2) Supported party cadres, party and party leaders in exile continuously from 2007 BS- 2015 BS.
3) Didn't misuse power for personal benefits.
4) An intellectual figure of Nepali politics, he penned a far-sighted budget , though it was the first budget of the country (even first PM of India Jawaharlal Nehru is said to have praised him for his economic insights)
5) Didn't use state-coffer for political cadres and his own party: A man with strict financial discipline.
6) Always valued ethics, friendship more than power ( though he was offered for PM by then King Mahendra many times, he refused and proposed BP Koirala for the same and kept the part unity intact)

" 2 States: The Story of My Marriage" a Book Review

Marriage might be a private affair in western countries where people are more individualistic in nature. However in a eastern country like India, for a couple to get married, it takes to soothe the both side of the couple at the first place. It's very rare that the "to be married couple" have very nominal or not at all role in the course which would influence their life for forever. All this has been portrayed by Chetan Bhagat(C.B)  in his yet-another best selling novel "2 States".

Chetan Bhagat has been " the biggest selling English novelist in India's history" by the New York Times. Besides his previous best-selling like 3 mistakes of my life, One night at the call center, C.B has also inspired some of Bollywood movies like "3 Idiots", " Hello" and also an upcoming " 2 states".

Written in an autobiographical note, an IIT and IIM graduate C.B plots it very cleverly about the love affair between a Punjabi boy: Krish and a Tamil girl: Ananya who represent two different states of India: Haryana and Tamil Nadu respectively. C.B draws a perfect plot to the novel by beginning from the early friendship of the two fresher of IIMA who firstly get to know each other in college canteen. The relationship that begins with only friends leads ultimately to love relationship where the couple with the passage of time decide to take seven rounds in of fire ( to get married). And usual to C.B novel, the story flow gets more interesting as C.B describes the couple getting involved themselves in the pre-marital sex affairs in each-other dorm rooms ( I really wonder if all these happens in IIMA !! ;) )

The couple serious enough in their love relationship vow to marry and stat a really tedious task of taking their parents in to agreement for the marriage. After series of workouts full of discomforts and tensions(like Krish moving out to Chennai to befriend Ananya family, helping his "to be" brother in law with tuition classes etc) , they become to soothe both of their family for the marriage. Around this part, the novel is very much about the family affairs in India and how important it is to get families approval in-order to get married. Also the novel depicts it beautifully the contrasting views of the older generation with the new generations in terms of love-life relationships.

Beside the stuffs of love, relationship and ambitions, the novel attempts to convey a beautiful message about how India should be. The idea is depicted more clearly when Ananya gives birth to a twin and C.B mentions by saying that the babies belong to a state called "India"; ending inequality.  So as to develop a better version of India, its citizen ( esp. Youths) should rise above and beyond the narrow domestic fragments of caste, creed and state ( India first ! )

2States: Movie 

Apart of the usual moral lesson, I read this novel in order to know about the life in IIMA. (which the book reveals really less and out of what it reveals, I believe most of it is exaggerated and flawed :D ) However I like this book of C.B more than 4 previous book of him. And Yes, Can't wait for the movie revision of the same releasing this weekend( April 11, 2014).




Well this is just kind of light read. And don't expect to dig out some great lessons or morals from this novel. If You really love Bollywood romantic movies then this book might be a right pick.

Success story with Amica ma'am- Dwarikas Hotel

Perseverance, dedication and determination are basics to success in every business initiatives. Combined to all these there must be another factor which paves the way to success, ie. taking your passion as profession. I had read about these things in various biographies of entrepreneurs and have also experienced somewhat by myself in some aspect of life. However one fine evening, I got to know in person about the experience that a old yet enthusiastic, Ambica Shrestha had to share.

Group photo after the Interaction program

I first came to know Ambica ma’am as a hotel entrepreneur (The Dwarikas 5 star). Getting more in-depth into social life, I also came to know of her as an enthusiastic Rotarian. The wrinkles on her face was the expression of many dreams that came true by her hard work and determination, the infinite lines in her hands expressing of her old age were the representation of many more years of hard work and reflection of perseverance. As a strong old mountain she stood in front of us, with a gentle smile and in an enthusiastic tone to share what life had taught her and what she had to teach us, youths of the present.

The story began when husband of Ambica ma’am started being worried about the old wooden monuments and carvings. He had an immense love and care for the old tradition and art of the country. Slowly the passion of collecting such old wooden carvings began which would in future be one of the most successful hotel chain in the country.

It seems like an easy task at the end of the day when a person has achieved a great deal of success. However nobody understands the process and the condition that the person has to go through to achieve such a stardom of success. Getting back to past, Ambica mam says” Living in joint family was not easy then, especially when you wanted to do something different from the rest of the society”. Shrestha family then shifted from their ancestral home to Battisputali where they made a house with few rooms. One fine evening a foreign researcher came to Ambica ma’am and asked her to let the lady reside in her house for some days. After this the foreigner lady did word of mouth advertising to some of her acquaintances and helped Ambica ma’am to realize her dreams.

Getting confronted with the peaceful ambience of the Dwarikas, full of ancient monuments and sculptures, one feels like being in a heaven. Like that of in the palace of the kings of Malla dynasty. As such Dwarikas Hotel is not only a story of success and perseverance, it is also a school of many more generations to come to study about the pride and heritage of the Nepalese generations. At times when Youth like us are focusing on following hot-shot western cultures, Dwarikas remains there as a connecting bridge to the past; to feel the ancient glory of Nepalese and also to realize the tremendous potential hidden within us when we unfold our unique culture and tradition.

Life is the most beautiful lesson. It teaches you various things, confronts you with different aspects of life: ups and down, thick and thin. However, the only thing out of such circumstances is to stand rock-solid as against all adversaries. Perhaps this was also the lesson that Ambica ma’am had to share.  For a single lady it might have been difficult to stand out as a successful person in a society where people take women as a inferior gender. Her vast experience as a leader in much social organization also might have many lifelong lessons to share. However sharing of all these would not have been possible within a short period of time. And this blogger aspires to wait for another chance to meet this beautiful and inspiring lady.

Brush-Up leadership skills : Go Trek

Human behavior including Leadership is one of the most studied yet least understood field of inquiry. One cannot predict the behavior that a personnel is supposed to display at a definite period of time. Leadership development in not an overnight process, nor is it totally academically inclined. An individual must accumulate an array of experiences to enrich leadership acumen in him. However such experiences are of varied nature and may encompass myriad of different culture, context and situations. Among such different activities and circumstances, current leaders often refer to trekking as a unique experience to boost their leadership potentiality.

I would like to call trek as  a  first instinct of leadership. Most of the time trekking is fun, a refreshing one. Usually trekking may span for couple of hours to days long, difficulty ranging according to geography, location, temperature and so on.

During Hike to Chisapani, about 20 km from Kathmandu

While most of the people take days off from offices/colleges and take rest at home, I prefer trekking. In contrast to our common belief, we get much exhilarating experience of feeling refreshed and relaxed as a result of trekking. As such, whenever I get chance to have couple of free friends and a combination of good weather and happy pockets, we mark into it, to enjoy the beauty of life, to embrace the touch of nature, love of friends and learning many things while having endless fun.

In Kalinchowk(3700 m) after trek of 6 hours( 20 km)

So far I encounter following memories of trekking:

1.       Sundarijal-Chisapani-Sundarijal

2.       Sundarijal-Chisapani-Nagarkot

3.       White Gumba

4.       Balthali-Namobuddha

5.       Charikot-Kalinchowk and many small routes

I began to ponder of about trekking when I came to know that Cornell MBA alumni come to trekking to our country Nepal so as to boost leadership traits(Nepal Leadership Trek) . Saving a day off from your business in a hectic schedule in a rustic city not only provides you with lungful of fresh oxygen but many other added advantages. I have listed some of them:

1.       Plan, Plan and Plan:

Where do you want to go, what is the time schedule, who are going together with you, what is the estimated cost, what is the route, where are you staying at the end of the day? etc and so many questions to ponder about !

2.       Organize:

Manage for the optimum time which is suitable to all ( at-least the majority), and Just do it. If you are the leader you have to take the lead: in showing the route, manage of refreshments and breaks in between and so on.

3.       Know and interact with different situations:

Be prepared for the worst thing to happen but don’t expect them. If possible take a first-aid kits with you.  Some friends may not be able to walk so take rest in regular interval. Interact with people of the surroundings.

4.       Rejuvenate yourself:

Going for a hike is letting yourself go beyond and above your comfort zone.  Entertain yourself by playing with the nature, interacting with the people, enjoy the touch of the fresh air, embrace the beautiful environment  and foremost enjoy your companion.

5.       Strengthen relationship with co-workers and friends:

Taking time free from your friend will enable you to enhance and strengthen relationship with your friends and family. While on hike you get a chance to interact with your co-workers. The interactions may be about your official works seeking some suggestion with friends, taking about personal life with close friends, sharing of success and failures, remembering some golden past days  and about future plans. All these will help you rejuvenate relationship with your friends.

6.       Preparing for future/strategic planning:

When people feel exhausted in a daily official work and are head-out of fresh ideas, they mark for a hiking. Hiking not only provides them with free time from the usual setting but also encourages them to think beyond a box. It is often said that creativity is fostered in a new and different circumstances. Hiking will also enhance you to see of the problems in a new way as you free yourself from usual circumstances and surroundings. As such if you are in between horns of dilemma about future course of actions, go for a hike with your companions.

7.       Get plenty of golden memories for future refreshment:

Most of the time you may not get plentiful of time to take yourself off from work and entertain hiking. In such a situation, memories of the previous wonderful time can be enthralling. By going for a hike you can collect some wonderful memories to cherish for a lifetime. In a exhausted daily life of future, you can add energy to self by collecting memories of the hike that you enjoyed with your loved ones.

On the way to Charikot from Kalinchowk

Other benefits might be:

8.       Increased productivity in official work

9.       Increased performance in an individual basis

10.   Abundance of new ideas and opinions

11.   Enhanced team work

12.   Strengthen family relationships

13.   Sharpened leadership skills

Formal vs Informal Authority

Recently in a seminar about Youth and Ethics, Christoph Glaser (trainer) began with a pragmatic example illustrating the significance of formal vs informal authority in a leadership position. He stood tall enough in a confident posture to drag attention of about 60 youths from different walks of life. He accompanied there as a formal authority to conduct the session. However he tried to achieve informal bonding with participants before he could start the session effectively. His conclusion was that in order to be successful in a leadership position, a person should not only possess a formal legitimate authority but more importantly a respectful informal authority.

By formal authority we mean duties and responsibilities that a person in a status accompanies as a result of being in a position. Formal authority provides the person with a limited jurisdiction under his/her arena. Whereby by informal authority we mean a informal respect and recognition that a person gains by the virtue of his/her personality and the long term practices. Such authority is bestowed upon person if only the ideal and principles followed by him compliment with that of vast majority of people.

Well that was some sort of analysis. I was pondering about these things and recently got confronted with a heated dilemmas in Nepalese medical sector. The background is that most of the public institution in Nepal face political appointment of the head of such organization. Under political influence most of incompetent and less competent make it into the helm of those organization. Similarly Dr. Sashi Sharma was appointed as Dean of Institute of Medicine (Tribhuwan University) by the Vice-chancellor of the university. Nepalese medical sector at present is going through different malpractices. It is often said that there is mafias of people who lobby for such political appointment to get their vested interest executed. Providing legality to Proposed Medical college without appropriate infrastructures, appointment of incompetent people in top portfolios, using undue pressures in selection of medical students etc is common. Having a strong opposition to these malpractices, Dr. Govinda KC launched a sit-in protest of fast-unto-death in-front of IOM demanding the immediate removal of Dr. Sharma who is said to have been no. 38th in the merit list for the position of Dean. The cause of Dr. KC was fair enough: to free medical sector from political interventions. After some days of protest, the public support engulfed in such a way that the case become a heated one in Nepalese socio-Political arena. After facing lot of pressure from different sectors and public, the government finally decided to nullify the decision of the TU board to appoint Dr. Sharma as a Dean. (Read here about the case)

My conclusion here is, Dr. Kc advocated for a ethical practice: to free IOM from political intervention. He had a clean image of helping people in need, regardless of country, be it in Uttrakhand natural calamity (India), or in devastating earthquake in Bhuj(India), Burma after cyclone Nargis in 2008, earthquake in 2008 in Haiti and so on, all of which were self-sponsored trips. Over the time period Dr. KC had gained so much of respect and recognition in his profession because of which his informal authority had elevated. And finally he was able to prove it, even if you have informal authority and are supporting something ethical, the chances are high to be in your favor even if the formal authority is against you.

iNSPIRE the Youths: WYFEB

Ethics is often referred to as a grey area, especially when we talk about it in correlation with business. However in interaction with about 60 dynamic youths representing various walks of life it was put forth that ethics though is an abstract concept, should be put forth as Blank and White area.

Though it is often said that ethics is ingrained in DNA of we Nepalese, business fraternity of our country is still progressing in terms of ethics practices and beliefs. We still encounter many cases in which many business organizations follow unethical means to attain their business goals. In such a scenario, World Forum for Ethics in Business satellite conference was organized here in Nepal, and as a part of the same, World Youth Forum for Ethics in Business was also organized on Jan 15 and 16, in Hotel Annapurna. During the event trainer from WFEB instilled on the dynamic participants, the values of ethical leadership and ethical practices in business . It was promising two days with renowned ethical business proponent and trainer Mr. Christoph Glaser and Mrs. Ranjita Kulkarni.

After two days of intensive workshop from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, I came to summarize following learning and highlights from the conference.

World Youth Forum for Business Ethics in Nepal -Nepal Chapter

1)      Formal and Informal authority

So as to convince bunch of followers, a leader should not only be convinced about formal roles and responsibility but also emphasize in strengthening informal authority. While most of the hard core skills are needed to be successful in getting the job done, soft skills on the contrary will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the task being done under your domain. With informal authority comes relevance to trustworthiness, dependability etc. Imaging the status of some politically appointed chairs of institution that have fallen down in informal authority. As such the means to gain respectful informal authority is to act ethical.

2)      Lead with smile :) 

Smile is as natural gift to human beings. It is the most influential way of communicating with others. Most people find it difficult to smile because they are never relaxed and are often haunted by dogma of fear, frustration and restlessness. Be ethical and fair enough in your practices and then you unravel the illustrious origination of smile.

3)      The dynamics of teamwork

Being a team player is not as easy as it seems. In a team there are people from different walks of life who have many learning and experiences. As such when we develop a bonding within a team we come to realize: differences in opinion, differences in learning and so on. People’s level of patience, confidence, trust-worthiness etc varies. Moreover when most of the member in the team is enthusiast and dynamic, getting convinced with a team leader can be difficulty. However if a team player is visually ethical and fair enough in his profession, his/her teamwork will easily accept this/her supremacy in the team.

4)      Ethics as a concrete concept

Throughout the two days conference I was pondering about why they people were talking about a concept which is so abstract and vague to describe.  Your perception of ethics has high chance to be in conflict with that of mine. What might be ethical to you might seem apparently unethical to me. Let’s come to a case: say that a business is operating in a society following all the legal criteria, but still some of the negative repercussions of the business are not guided by the law. As such in such case the debate of ethics can be really conflicting.

However the concluding answer to ethical dilemma was put forth by chairman of WFEB-Nepal chapter, TirthaMan Shakya. He opined of ethics as something which regardless of the legal conditions, when acceptable by the society, will be ethical and promising.

5)      Nepal as origination of Ethical values

Down the lane of thousands of years, Nepal has been origination of ethical beliefs and practices that has been advocated by Hindu saints and yogis, Buddhism preaching’s and practices. This mountain country is the origination of Hinduism and Buddhism principles which advocates for ethics in not only business practices but overall in Human values and principles.

6)      Downside of being unethical

We forge to practice unethically in want of being too rich in a short period of time. But in contrary we don’t notice that along with the pleasures coming from unethical practices, we keep on being victim of different miseries that become fatal in days to come. Tension of being interrogated by police, loosing friends, high blood pressure, frustration etc come as a gift to unethical practices. So the result is you lose your smile and pleasure and thus become poorer than before. Ponder about the importance of wealth that makes you socially out-casted.

7)      Mantra for Sustainable business: Be ethical

With the advancement of the management thoughts and practices, business started to identify the presence of the society in which they were operating. Of late the concept of giving back to the society i.e Corporate Social Responsibility has started being relevant and thus prevalent. The concept of CSR is one way or another, a reflection of the companies to start to adhere to ethical practices. For those companies that tend to curve the rules and want to be successful overnight should understand that being unethical is a momentary business and a way forward to dig your own grave. Think of these businesses: Enron, Union Carbide Corporation (Bhopal disaster) etc

8)      Zero tolerance to unethical practices

The best thing to start to adhere to ethical practices: start to talk.  Talk about what is ethics to you, why the concept of ethics in you is different that of your friends, how we can promote ethical practices and beliefs in us, and so on. It may be difficult to convince those old people about ethical values and beliefs but we can of course try it convincing to Youths. Convince the youth of your age the power of ethical values and practices and by doing so we ensure a path to regain the prosperity and fame of our country very soon.

9)      Foundation of ethical practices: Yoga and Spiritualism

Positivity fosters when we are relaxed. The roots to relaxation are yoga and spiritualism. When soul becomes full of positive vibes, we drift apart from unethical practices. As such all the ill-byproducts coming out from unethical practices disappear and you enjoy the beauty of life.

Way forward:

The most basic thing is keep the ball rolling. WYFEB will keep talking about the ethical practices in the country and how can we strengthen it in days to come. We have realized that not only the future of the country rests on our hand but also we are a driving force of present. As such in days to come we will be strengthening the network of youths who believe that ethical practices can be realized in our lifetime and our beautiful country can attain the status of Peaceful-Prosperous Nepal.  Fate and prosperity of Nepal rests in the hand of us Nepalese.

Work-Place Morals from Mahabharata

Mahabharata is not only the second largest epic of the world, but also a compiled book of Philosophy with much of management lessons ingrained in it. It comprises of many lessons of management and strategy(art-of-war) which can be used with greater significance in modern life of management practices. Written by Veda Vyas about 3000 BC, Mahabharata consists of numerous life lessons with a touch to "dharma" and "truth". My first memory about Mahabharata joins to  B. R. Chopra's TV serial of Mahabharata that was broadcast-ed in Nepal Television when I was a kid. Mahabharata has many instances from which parallels can be drawn. From leadership, strategy tips to marketing tips, Hindu mythology can help solve a contemporary manager's  many 'dharamsankats/dilemmas'.  The most basic lesson that Mahabharata teaches us is: Try managing yourself”, meaning that reach a level of efficiency and effectiveness or else you are going to be a face in the crowd”.

With a faint collection of some parts of Mahabharata and taking help of some references, I have come forth with some lessons that can be applied in real life scenario.

1. Develop Trust-worthy and Powerful allies:

No matter how strong you are, how invulnerable you seem to the unfavorable circumstances, you need allies for your lifetime. Friendship (network) is power at this contemporary time just like it was in the time of Mahabharata. Everyone knows that in contrary to Kauravas, Pandavas were poor: with no accumulated power, wealth, but possessed powerful allies. They established relations with Panchal via marriage with Draupadi, Dwarika via marriage of Arjun with Subhadra, Magadh via marriage of Shadeva and Viajya and so on. As such the allied forces were powerful and with a single goal to defeat the Kauravas. 

2. Transform your weaknesses into strengths:

We need to transform our weakness into strengths. The process needed to convert our weakness into strength takes time. It requires dedication and determination. A careful identification of ones' weaknesses and identification of the methods to overcome them is essential.  Though the process make take time, but at the end of the day perseverance pays.We can take reference of Pandavas brothers in this case. During the years of exile, Pandavas brothers focused in the transformation of their weakness into strengths.  For instance: Arjun went on to attain “Divyasastras” during his years of exile. It is also said that Yudustir excelled in the “game of dice” and turned out to be invincible in the dice game. This reveals that when you go on overcoming weakness with strength, in the long run you are sure to be a successful manager.

 

3. Value teamwork Over individual work

Together Everyone Achieves More is the essence of the TEAM-Work. Right team consists of right set of individuals with right man assigned for the right job.  When you are in team you need to assume that every man has unique capabilities and should try assigning responsibilities matching their unique capabilities. Lord Krishna in Mahabharata can be seen as a counselor. His way of inspiring, invigorating and counseling the entire Pandavas and associates in the War-time is truly exceptional. Also while considering Teamwork we must assure that team-goal is prioritized over the individual goal. Here Kauravas were engaged with individual goals: Karna wanting to kill Arjun, Bhisma wanting to protect throne of Hastinapur, while Drona and Kripacharya were because of their allegiance to the throne of Hastinapur. In the contrary, Pandavas and their associates, we mostly had kinship among themselves acted as a team with a single Goal. They were united to their “common war” against the Kauravas.

4. Share your responsibilities

While in a team, assume shared roles and responsibilities. In allocating roles, a perfect match between ability and responsibility is essential. Identification of ability of team-mates and assigning them with the right task is essential. Imaging how awkward the situation would have been if Arjun was asked to use “Gadha” and Bhim “Dhanush”. In case of the Pandavas, though they had been assigned with different individual responsibility, they remained with a common goal of defeating the Kauravas. They were driven by team spirit and achieving of the team goal in a unison effort.  In contrast, most of the Kauravas were involved into the war with an individual goal, the team spirit was low and thus led to an devastating result in their favor. As such epic Mahabharata provides us with a golden moral lesson of achieving a goal via effective sharing of responsibilities. 

5. You failed: wake up, the reason is You

When the reason of your success if based on your inherent talent, why is not your failure a result of your incompetency??  If you go on blaming the cause of your failure to be some external factors, you will never achieve success in life. The most basic thing that you need to execute when you fail is to make an assessment of self, of your team and combined capabilities. When Pandavas lost their kingdom to Kauravas in gambling, they blames the lost for treachery and fraud. In another epic “Ramayan” we find that Lord Ram while leaving for exile says that neither his father nor Kaikeyi is to be blames, in contrast what we find in Mahabharata is that the Pandavas blame Kauravas for fraud.
 
We can take this story as an analogy/metaphor to business misfortune. If some misfortune happens we must make self-introspection of where we lacked, what we were incompetent in and so on. In case of Ramayana, Ram took the responsibility though he was not the reason, while in case of the Mahabharata the Pandavas didn’t took the responsibility though they were to be blamed at. The onus rests on you, whether you want to be a Ramayana type manager or Mahabharata type.
 

6. Make a gender balance team:

What was significant during the time of Mahabharata is also equally true at the contemporary time. Female empowerment was very crux of the strength of the Pandavas as Kunti (their) mother was focal point of their unity. The Pandavas always took advice from their Mother and other females associated to them. Their wives were always their better-half as they were constantly involved in the collective decision-making and played their roles very effectively. By striking a gender balance we make sure that we are balancing the aggressive and dominance part of male by feminine traits of sensitivity and empathy of the females.

7. Know your enemies, Exploit their weaknesses

Being powerful is not only sufficient to win war/business. Sometime more that being powerful you need to hit on where the enemies are weak and hit that weak spot. Before the Pandavas entered into war with Kauravas, Yudhistir went to take blessings from his seniors from Kauravas. While doing so he was not only taking blessings from his elders but also entering in to an implicit contract of receiving favor from his seniors. He touched the chord and was supported by his allies. In fact he played a real Master game there and knew all the loopholes of his enemies. Thus in real life also you need to find the loophole of your enemies/opponent and act accordingly.
 

8. Know and accept the ground realities

When you are exposed to different situation s and people with different walks-of-life you are supposed to broaden your knowledge. Knowing people of different strata, working with people of different problems, understanding differing cultures, adapting to differing workplaces etc not only enhances your knowledge but also strengthens your adaptability skills which is really relevant as a trait for a successful person. If you are a top-level manager of your organization you need to destroy the barriers/remove ego problem to understand the life of your subordinates and jurniors and then only you can inspire them for a greater result. Taking a reference from Pandavas we can say that in contrast to Kauravas they spent the greater part of their lives in poverty, constantly shifted to different places, confronted to different ideologies and principles, experienced with ground reality by being in contact with people from various walks of society, and in most of the case followed a sense of brotherhood as taught by their mother (always stay together).
 

9. Art of decision making/ Consequences of a decision

Decision making is really a difficult task. E.g.: the condition that Shantanu faced while making Bichitrabir the Prince and not Bhisma, the condition that Bhisma felt when he denounced the throne and promised to maintain Bhramachari, the condition that Pandu faced when out of repenting killing of Rishi he denounced the throne and so on. At each decision making point we are confronted with difficulty as we are supposed to make a careful analysis of the calculated risk of each decision, the trade-off of the result of the decision and if another decision was made and so on. As such decision making is difficult and at each time is perceived differently by different people based on his or her individual point of view. Thus while making any decision one must take into account of the repercussions of the decision to be made. Also he/she should have a valid point to back the decision. Most of the time decision made are not rational but needs to be rationalized. Just in case the preference of Bhisma to die from hand of Shikhandi (female), though female were not supposed to take part in warfare. 

References: 

B. R. Chopra's TV serial of Mahabharata

Mahabharata: Starplus

http://hinduism.about.com/

Youth in Politics : Be the change

They say Youths are future of the nation, I ask why not the Present !!!  And in a country with percentage of Youthful population of about 30% ( 20-40 years age group as per census 2068 BS), the Vitality of Youths is even high, especially when the country is riddled and what we call "developing'.

It’s obvious that politics influences every aspects and sphere of the society. The system of governance, bureaucracy, law of the country etc is truly guided by the Polity of the country. It not only shapes/influences the life that we are living at present but to a many future in a manifold manner. When most of the People seem to give a damn care to Politics, I am confused how they are pretending to avoid the influence of this omnipresent and omnipotent force.

We Nepalese people over the years have defined politics in a less intelligent way. Our seniors could not give a priority to it and as a result it became full time occupation of many incompetent, people who would make this country an ill-fated in a long term. The state of Policy making was and is lagging behind and was often parallel with just the functioning of the government. For an instance, Election manifestos of the major political parties which has stated their vision for development without depicting any means and resources. The struggle for power and resources was what they practiced as Politics. And in a long run, such Power hungry politicians led to the profound state of -corruption, mismanagement and gave politics a bad name. Time and again when some idealistic leader appeared in Nepalese political arena, they were shadowed, some suffered panic accidents, some ill-disease and some were trapped by the power hungry politicians under other country influences.

US President from Harvard University

In many developed countries the system ensures that they have their best guy involved in the politics. In contrast to others, such people are able to focus on the future of the country and envision the future of the country. Taking an instance of the politics of the US, where most of the elected leaders are the alumni of the top-ratedUniversity. They establish a proven leadership and accountability before joining into politics and thus are successful in a long term. In this context student politics might seem to be important. Yes, Student politics is prevailing in a competitive way. Though some significant work has been carried out for the welfare of the students, we can figure out the wrong part very easily. More than practicing leadership and Camaraderie, it is misused as platform with access to undue influence in the colleges, practicing corruption and as a political hatch-back of the top-notch politicians to overturn the government, enforce strikes and so on.

As such politics as a whole is lacking a serious concern and focus of the capable and educated Youths. We keep saying on that system is corrupt and dirty but don’t produce courage to clean the system, We keep showing the problems but not been able to produce the solutions, we keep focusing on being good on our profession but with no interest in the sector that guides all the profession, we keep escaping from the problem and blame that the system doesn't get fixed by itself, and what not!

Until and unless Politics becomes the focal interest of the Youth and of the intellectual top-notch of the society, we are not going to be improved. Of late some enthusiastic Youths have involved themselves in Politics but we still lack serious concern for those enthusiastic Youth. We cannot dream of change until and unless we change ourselves. As MK Gandhi quoted: “Be the change you want to see in the world. “

Written in the context of Nepalese Politics : 2013