Nasir Zaidi

We all like to impress others. It is a natural tendency. In this page I will share certain maths tricks with you (which I learnt from Benjamin and Shermer), which you can use to impress your family members, friends, colleagues or acquaintances. They will be swept off their feet when you do this. So get ready to be in the limelight.   Become a mathemagician. Trick 1 How to MENTALLY multiply any two-digit number by 11 Simply add the two digits and insert the sum in between the two-digits. Example: 32 * 11 3 + 2 = 5 So, the answer is 3 5 2 (multiply the conventional way and check for yourself) Note: As long, as the sum is in single digit, the method remains the same. But if the sum of the given two-digit number is in two-digits: For example: 85*11 8 + 5 = 13 Then your answer will not be 8 13 5.     In this case insert 3 in between 8 and 5 and add 1 to 8, so the answer will be 935. (multiply the conventional way and check f...

My mother named me Haider so said Ali son of Abu Talib to Marhab when he said that his mother had named him Marhab. If only Marhab had recalled, at this juncture, what his mother would tell him when he was a child. ‘My son, you’ll be a great warrior. Your fame would spread throughout the Arab world. But keep in mind one thing. If in any battle you come face to face with a man named Haider, do not fight him. Just lay down your sword.’ If Marhab had paid heed to his mother’s advice, he wouldn’t have met the fate he met with in Khaiber. But he was high on ego; drunk on his strength and fame, he thought, how anyone could fight him. He was Marhab – how anyone could challenge his might? In every battle, Ali always introduced himself as Ali son of Abu Talib. But in Khaiber, he introduced himself as Haider because he was aware of what Marhab’s mother had told Marhab. This is sufficient evidence of Ali’s knowledge of the unknown. If in Khaiber Ali had introduced himself as Ali a...

                                                        10 Great Stress – Busters (+ One Bonus) Stress has become a part and parcel of our daily life. Be it the office-goer, the housewife, the student, or anybody else from any other strata of society. Everyone experiences stress, sometime or the other. Some of us are able to manage it, many of us can’t. Stress is a silent killer. If not handled well, the consequences could be tragic. Therefore, we should be prepared to face it, fight it, and flush it out of our life. Below are 10 great stress – busters. 1.      Read the Scriptures A page a day should be enough. Read the Holy Koran, the Holy Bible, the Bhagwad Gita. Or for that matter any holy ...

                                                                            Lipstick is the only weapon a woman needs to stun, surprise, seduce, mesmerise, transfix, attract, cajole, coax, involve, pacify, please, release, cool, fascinate, hypnotise, engross, hold, spellbind, bamboozle, charm, melt, thaw, hook, bend, tease, torment, excite, enchant, lure, delight, enrapture, beguile, bewitch, captivate, enthral, engage, thrill, daze, amaze, simmer, warm, draw, invite, allure, persuade, force, tempt, sway, convince, influence, motivate, move, encourage, provoke, arouse, prompt, stimulate, inspire, spur, goad, rush, woo, control, soothe, appease, placate, stir, tantalise, manipulate, manoeuvre, satisfy, weaken, galvanise a man. Depending upon the colour she uses, different impact she will hav...

Very few people are born magnetic. They have a natural charm and people are attracted towards them like bees to nectar. But we all nurse a secret desire to appear attractive to others. We want to be magnetic. There is nothing wrong in having this desire - it’s very, very normal. But how do we become magnetic? How do we develop that charm, that charisma, that pulls people towards us? Believe me or not, there are ways to make people incline towards you – I’ll share a few secrets that will make you a magnet – a magnet so powerful that people will find it impossible to resist your charms. Secret 1   Learn how to tell a joke : This is a sure-shot winner. If you know how to tell a joke, how to begin it and end it with the right punch, then you will have people liking you instantly. They’d want to be in your company and will find ways to be near you. No one likes to be with grumpy, all-the-time-serious people. Everyone wants to be with people who can make them laugh. So, b...

                                                        Continuing from where I left yesterday, furnished below are some more rules of life. If followed religiously, they have the power to impact our life positively. After all, as I said, it’s only one life that we get to live, so why not make the most of it? Why spend our precious time wallowing in self-pity, anger, hatred, envy and jealousy instead of being positive, happy, contented and relaxed. The key to our happiness is in our pocket (or purse/wallet) and we shouldn’t give it to others. For the moment you hand the key to your happiness to someone else, you become a puppet. And puppets move only when strings are pulled. None of us want to be at the mercy of anyone else to be happy. Circumstances and situations may differ from person to person but it’s how those circumstances and situat...

                                                                    All of us have only one life to live. Shouldn’t we make it pleasant and interesting for us? It’s in our hands to lead the life we want and not anyone else’s. There are rules that can help us in leading such a life. I’ll share some in this blog. If you wish to know more, write to me separately, and I will happily share the others too. Rule 1 Live in the present What is done is done. Jo ho gaya, so ho gaya . Do not dwell on it. The more you live in the past, the more detached you become from the present. And in the process, you lose valuable moments of your life. The world will pass you by and you’ll be left wondering why. By living in the present, you are in control of your existence. You can decide, plan, dream. Rule 2 Be as you ar...

                                                              All music lovers must be aware of what raga means. According to the Indian musical tradition, it is the means to evoke emotions in the audience. Congress’ RaGa failed to do that. He sang but the melody was tuneless. He couldn’t even touch Amethi’s soul, leave alone touching India’s. Relying only on the aura of Nehru-Gandhi name will not help the party. Congress, once an invincible political force, is now only a shadow of its former self. The party has good leaders still but not effective leadership. Unless the issue of leadership gets fixed, Congress is not going to go anywhere. Narendra Modi is a formidable opponent. Congress has to pit an equally formidable leader against him. Someone who can match Modi’s oratory, shrewdness, forcefulness, street-smartness ...

Baa Baa Black sheep is a nursery rhyme that all of us fondly remember. Baa Baa Black sheep has three bags full of wool. One for the master, one for the dame, and one for the little boy who lives down the lane. From the time I became aware of this rhyme, my curiosity has been at its peak. Who is this little boy who lives down the lane that Baa Baa Black sheep talks about? To find the identity of this mysterious little boy I took a flight to Great Britain. On a wet, damp morning, I drove a white Hyundai coupe rented from Hertz, to Cotswolds, an area 60 miles of London, between Oxford, Stratford on Avon, and Bath. I was supposed to meet a gentleman by the name of Jack Shepherd – the master of Baa Baa Black sheep. I passed through vast open meadows and fields and saw plenty of sheep grazing on them. There is a quaint charm about this region. Cottages built in honey-coloured limestone dot the entire landscape. On reaching the cottage called Baa Baa, I stopped my car, and got out....

There is no exact theory of management that CEOs can use to deal with their innumerable problems. And the way things are transforming, the command-and-control method of CEOs, is on the wane. Nowadays, so much data and information are available at every level, the CEO’s decisions can be challenged anytime. As Jack Welch, one of the most famous CEO’s commented: Leadership of organisations is going to become much less CEO-driven.   So, the CEO’s job is becoming more demanding day by day. This requires a shift in the way CEO’s think. The mind of the CEO has to change. The first and the foremost thing that they have to do is to find space to reflect. Amidst the chaos, that is the sanest action. The time they spend on reflection will give them a clear direction because they’ll be able to think more profoundly. This will enable them to make good progress on their strategic goals. Handling technological advances is another challenge they have to face - deciding on what to adap...

                                                 Men and women though living on Earth actually come from different planets. In 1992 a book by John Gray became a best-seller. It was aptly titled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus . Both - men and women - speak different languages. Their natures are also different and they have conflicting communication styles. That’s the reason why conversation between a man and a woman - husband and wife – several times end in arguments, bitterness, hostility and ill-will.                 According to Gray, men are like rubber bands and women are like waves. Men retreat into themselves; women sink into depression – that’s part of their nature, it’s their normal behaviour. But the other person does not understand this. This leads to further confusion and irritation and sudden ...

                       A sea of thoughts floods my mind; B uoyed by them, I float like a log. C harismatic clouds sail above me; D rawn by them, my soul escapes. E levation limits the imagination; F orever dream beyond the skies. G reat chunks of emotions detach; H owever, they still cling to me. I soar in the wide cosmic world J ust like flutter of butterflies flit; K now yourself before knowing God. L eave the ego, then see the effect, M oments will become your slave, N othingness will seem like paradise. O ther than you, you’ve no enemies. P ick yourself up whenever you fall; Q ueer are they who give up easily. R ide calmly the waves of optimism, S tretch your mind till you touch T he moons and the stars and the U niverses parallel to this universe; V icissitudes of life are essential, W himsical thoughts, keep at bay. X ylophonic sounds from the...

                                                                  Our mind runs us. That’s why we find ourselves stressed out most of the times. We become moody, irritable, angry and depressed. Depression has created a multi-billion industry. Imagine growing rich from other people’s problems and sufferings. That in itself is so depressing, but that’s the fact. Our mind is full of items that need not be there. That should not be there. There’s a book by Ajahn Brahm called Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung? That’s what we do and keep doing. We continue ordering truckloads of dung and then wonder why we are so messed up and stressed out. The more dung we store, the more difficult it becomes to clean the mind. If we are to really sweep our mind clean, we should determine not to order any further truckloads of dung. ...