EQ or IQ?

Who's the Greatest? I like to emulate folk with a high Emotional Quotient (EQ) which is more important than IQ. Education and experience bring success. Success brings confidence. Confidence breeds arrogance. We tend to forget that everything we do needs teamwork, and the smallest person in our family, office or home can help us succeed. It's important to give everyone importance. Empathy is all about putting ourselves in the other person's shoes.

At work as a Team Leader, I found that the most annoying demotivated engineer on my team could be converted into the most productive, positive guy. I spoke to him as a friend and created the space for him to find expression in meeting his own long term goal. In the bargain, his new positive attitude influenced the rest of the team and my project was a huge success. I didn't do it. They did. Giving everyone importance is all about teamwork. My role model is one who remains humble in the face of success because he knows its a result of good teamwork.

This spirit of cooperation is inbuilt with every tribal community as with the Warli tribals of Maharashtra shown here where all the villagers dance together around the Tarpa player.

self help - A Positive Attitude

I can because I think I can. Experience is a good teacher but its fees are high. Those who want by the mile and try by the yard, should be kicked by the foot. The learning curve is all about trying. The more we fail, the more we know what not to do and that's how we learn. Its the journey that's exciting. Once we've learnt something, we should target new goals that motivate us to learn some more. Mentor others, and encourage them to learn as well.

A Mexican proverb teaches us four ways to handle a problem - Be a rock, doing nothing, saying nothing. Be a tree looking in all directions. Be a mountain lion, fierce and ready to fight. Or be an eagle that flies high and sees the problem as small.

soft skills - Communicating Effectively

As both writer and illustrator, my job is to communicate effectively. My language changes according to the age group I'm talking to. It's amazing what you can say in very few words - 'less' is 'more'. People can communicate without saying a single word - through body language. A person who has the gift of the gab is not necessarily a good communicator. In fact, an overdose of words makes you switch off. You tend not to concentrate when the conversation is too onesided.

In today's fast moving world, let's be effective communicators. Listening actively is just as important as saying what you mean. We talk endlessly on our mobiles, send a zillion e mails, but we can also communicate in silence.

Take a few minutes everyday to communicate with God, our Creator. Before your finger reaches to start up your computer, talk to God for a minute - His mobile in never engaged.Use God's mobile to take pictures of the world He created and enjoy and love the environment. Try a new ring tone everyday that sings His praises. Communicate your happiness and positive attitude to everyone around you by being satisfied with what God has given you. I'm starting on it right now.

A Tough Assignment

Genesis 6:8-13

God loved Noah and planned to save him and his family even when He decided to destroy everyone to clean the world of sin.
God gave Noah very detailed plans about how to build an enormous boat. The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet deep which is equal to 522 cars.

Inside this ark, God told Noah to put a male and a female of each kind of animal, then he and his wife and his sons and their wives should all get in. These would help start the new world that would come after the flood. Folks say Noah only needed to bring about 16,000 pairs of breeders, though others say that he needed about 4 million species. Feeding all those animals was tremendous work for one family. The ark was stuffed with dirty animals that were noisy because they didn’t enjoy being caged. Since a cow weighs half a ton, the animals alone weighed more than 1600 tons and their food added to that weight.

Then God sent a huge flood which wiped out every person on earth except Noah and his family who must have been scared stiff. It rained and poured for forty days! When the flood was over, Noah, and his family got out of the boat and began a new society that would listen more to God. Most ancient cultures have a story about a big flood. People claim they have found Noah's ark and call themselves "arkeologists."

God brought the ark to rest on the mountain. God gave us the rainbow as a reminder of His promise never to destroy the earth with water again . The light of God shines through the rain, causing the light to bend and reflect off the rain. The rain acts like a prism, splitting the white light into the 7 colors. Noah built an altar unto the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings. Most people would curse if God destroyed everything, but Noah was grateful that he and his family were spared. Talk about a positive attitude!

Joy Cowley - Children's Writer

Joy's early life made her tough, balancing many jobs, looking after ailing parents and younger siblings and her writing career later. One of the most successful children's authors, she says dealing with success is tougher than living without it. Now she balances her fan mail, her mentoring through workshops, her writing and looking after her husband Terry.

Joy's personality shines through her work. Her sparkling humor and her ability to write for any age group are astounding. Her easy readers are a big hit, including some specialised for Inuit children. By reaching out to kids of all cultures she's a role model for encouraging world peace.

My famous Uncle who worked with the Nagas

“Ambush is all you worry about. Can I construct a mountain road cocooned inside this Circuit House, by the army? Here’s where we’ll build the road.” Raj traces a finger over a wooded area. “Since it connects twenty villages, I’ll meet all twenty Gaonburas.”
“B-B…But the Nagas slaughtered the engineer before us in cold blood!” says the Officer.
“Relax! This is no close encounter with head hunters. They killed him when he tried to build the road in their territory employing outside labor,” admonishes Raj.
“So be it, Sir!” the Officer stomps off in a huff.
20 Naga Gaonburas meet Raj at the Circuit House. Placing their offerings at his feet, they walk backwards with respect.
“Dear friends,” Raj greets them as equals, “I’ve been sent to build a road that will benefit you all. Your state is so undeveloped because of no roads.”
“Sir,” replies the chief Gaonbura, “How can we simple folk build this road?”
“I have a plan,” says Raj. “You must build it yourself. We won’t thrust any outsider on you. I’ll walk alongside to show you the alignment and leave an engineer at each village to guide you.”
“We’ll cooperate, if you pay us Delhi rates, Sir,” insist the Gaonburas.
Raj submits to their demands. No seasoned laborer from Delhi can match the Nagas’ firm foothold in these rugged hills, he thinks.
“We’ll keep strict accounts-on a bamboo pole with cuts, Sir,” warn the Gaonburas.
“Hmmm,” agrees Raj eliminating all middlemen to work directly with the Nagas. This builds confidence and is cost effective. Teamwork is an intrinsic part of Naga traditions.
“First, we’ll scrutinize the cadastral map,” decides Raj, marking the road to be aligned. Raj treks 57 miles with his motley team of engineers and Gaonburas. With a sports champion’s stamina, Raj surges towards his goal, leaving an engineer with each village.
“We’ll make their basha (shelters) and supply all food,” the Gaonburas reassure him.
“Thank you,” says Raj.
The road alignment complete, Raj returns home without a convoy. “He’s a friend- not foe!” rings a bamboo whistle from hill to hill and Raj’s journey home is quick and safe.
Boom! Raj’s engineers blast the hillside to construct the road.
“Get going!” the Gaonburas mobilize their villagers.
“Where are the tools?”
“Pick axes, shovels, lathis, mamooty. Use anything.”
Hardy Naga folk dig up boulders, crack stones, and rig shelters, to work non stop at the site.
“We can do it!” From the Aos to the Zeliangs, all tribes work side by side. Pending for over two years, Nagaland now has 57 miles of strategic road within four months.
Villagers gather to celebrate, " Fill us up with modhu (rice beer) guys!”
A hornbill feather, cowries, beads, beetle wings and boar tusks - each Naga is arrayed in their vibrant shawls adorned with powerful symbols defining their status in the tribe.
Drums pound, men grab Raj’s hands to sweep him into a victory dance. Dhum-dhula-dhum!
How can Raj say goodbye? The Nagas tie a ponytail of beads on Raj’s hair.
“You’re a son of Nagaland.”

“How did you do it?” ask the Press.
“I didn’t.” Raj corrects them. “They did.”

self help - Success is all about Being Positive

As a story writer, my job is to create characters with tough goals. Then put seemingly insurmountable blocks on those goals. I have to see that my character can overcome these blocks and achieve his goals for the story to come to a satisfying end.

Real life too is like this. When I write a biagraphy of a famous person, I see that this is exactly what happens to them. They have an inner strength that carries them through thick and thin to achieve their goals. Success is all about turning 'I can't' into 'I can'. being negative never helps. Its the person who is willing to fail and pick himself up each time, learning from his failures, who finally is successful.

Thomas Alva Edison

One of the most creative technical innovators in the world Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) ushered in the electric age and holds 1093 patents for groundbreaking inventions like the light bulb and phonograph.

Upset by his kindergarten teacher dismissing him as addle brained due to his incessant questions and large head, his mother decided to home school him. With no formal education, his knowledge was gained through his constant experimenting and copious reading. Starting his career as a young crackerjack (expert) telegraph operator, he grew into a savvy and shrewd businessman with a talent for transferring technology from lab to market; making his inventions affordable, he promoted them to ensure success, building the first industrial research laboratory.


Edison did not invent the light bulb from scratch. He improved upon a 50-year-old idea, making it practical for the common man. After one and a half years of tireless work, he developed an incandescent lamp with a filament of carbonized sewing thread that burned for thirteen and a half hours in 1879. For a practical, safe, and economical electric lighting system Edison invented the parallel circuit, a durable light bulb, an improved dynamo, the underground conductor network, the devices for maintaining constant voltage, safety fuses and insulating materials, and light sockets with on-off switches. The first public demonstration of his incandescent lighting system took the world by storm at Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory complex.