Nasir Zaidi

                                                The famous nursery rhyme goes as: Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after Did Jack and Jill really climb the hill for the purpose mentioned?   How did both Jack and Jill fall down? How come Jack broke his crown but Jill didn’t? Don’t you find something fishy in this rhyme? I did and so I put on my thinking cap (which is getting worn out, for lack of use) and donned the role of the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and set my grey cells to work.   If there was water on the hill, logically it should be flowing downhill. The natural tendency of water is to flow along the water table at a descending angle. Just the same way it flows on the earth’s surface. It follows permeable rocks and ultimately finds i...

Inspired by the title of John Ruskin’s book The Seven Lamps of Architecture , I have titled today’s blog The Seven Lamps of Relationship as I intend to write about the spotlights that illumines a relationship. Without these lamps, relationship will flounder in darkness. Just living together does not mean the relationship is hale and hearty. The seven lamps that I am going to talk about are the lamps that if we turn them on will guide the ship of our relationship through the rough waters of life. Lamp 1 Communication The single most important lamp. If there is no communication, there is no relationship. Communication lamp should be always on. if it is switched off, it means you are switching off the relationship.   Talk even if you severely disagree on a matter. Discuss in detail whatever bugs you. The wife may dislike a particular thing about the husband and the husband may detest a specific thing about the wife.   Spell it out. It’s ok to argue. But don’t leav...

                                                          Old Bill* was not only a great dramatist but a prophet too. His words Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan does often lose both itself and friend has stood the test of time. How often have we extended a helping hand by way of lending money to our relatives, friends, acquaintances and colleagues only to find that we have lost both money and the borrower? I have experienced this plenty of times. And I am sure all of you must have too. I have also seen that if the request for loan is refused politely the relationship doesn’t break but strengthens, in many instances. Whatever hard feeling there must have been in the person on hearing the no, softens, and life goes on the same way. But if instead the money is lent, then the borrower (relative, friend, acquaintance, colleag...

I always believed that love at first sight was a myth until I met Daisy. I instantly fell in love with her. It was a long, dark, lonely night, and to make matters worse, rain was falling in torrents. I was returning from a friend’s birthday party when I saw her standing alone at an empty bus stop. I slowed my car as I reached the bus stop – I was hooked the moment my eyes met hers.   They were the bluest of blue, oceanic blue, to be precise. And they had in them a mysterious charm. So bowled over I was by her that I stopped my car, without bothering to park it properly, and got out, unconcerned, carefree, about the pelting rain.  Within moments, I was drenched. But I remained rooted to the ground. In my mind a song played: Teri aankhon ke siwa duniya mein rakha kya hai . A big fat raindrop splattered on her pretty nose and she flinched. I felt like rushing towards her and hugging her but I knew that if I did that, she might resent it. I didn’t want her to get the impres...

                      Thank God for a good boss! There’s so much less headache when the boss is good. Everything else fades into the background – the employee can live with the other shortcomings if he has peace of mind. He can go about doing his work without worrying about the reactions and responses of his boss. He knows that he is not spied upon, or micro-managed, or will be blamed if things don’t work. So, in the morning when he wakes up, he doesn’t have to force himself to go to office. He will stay with the company despite other hurdles. But if the boss is bad then even the best of situations turns nightmarish. The employee gets stressed and is unable to function in a normal way. All the time the fear of boss keeps dangling over his head like the sword of Damocles. He is on his toes all the time, unable to relax, forever thinking that at any moment the boss may yell at him or pass a sarcastic remark or accuse him of so...

Life is about touching others. Maybe with a kind act, or a kind word. Maybe with a kind expression, or a kind smile. Maybe with a kind touch. When you connect with a person’s heart, you experience love. When you connect with a person’s mind, your intellect sharpens. When you connect with a person’s soul, you attain nirvana. As Krishna said: Yours and mine; big and small – erase these ideas from your mind. Then everything is yours and you belong to everyone. Reach out to others and the universe will reach out to you. Be the first to smile. Be the first to greet. Be the first to shake hands. Be the first to hug. Be your ego’s master. Don’t let it rule you. When you go on an ego trip you ultimately reach a dead-end. Instead take a journey beyond the skies - by holding someone, by helping someone, by hoisting someone. Create your own heaven on this earth. You need only good deeds to do that. We feel thrilled when we buy a house and the bigger it is, the better ...

We all are magicians. Some of us bring out the magic in us, while some of us fail to do so. Those who bring out the magic in them become well known, great names. Those who don’t, remain unknown. The only one who stops us from displaying our full potential is no one else but we. We are our biggest hurdle and not situation, circumstance, luck, opportunity or god. Blaming someone else for our inability to do something is the easiest thing. We should take responsibility for our shortcomings, failures and the helplessness to create magic in our lives. That should be the first step if we ever wish to achieve something. The truth of the matter is if we really want to do something, then nothing can stop us. How badly we want it to be done – that’s important. Passion, determination, and the fire within are the three main factors that can make a difference to our lives. If any of them is lacking, then we can’t. The road to success is a lonely one but once you succeed, you’ll have many...

Thinking out of the box is a thing of the past. The rapid pace at which change is happening, the out of box thinking will take business nowhere. If business has to remain competitive then it has to change the way it thinks. The authors de Brabandere and Iny - innovation experts at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) - in their book Thinking in New Boxes have provided newer ways to light the idea bulb. Creative thinking is the key that unlocks ideas. If this key is not used then organisations will keep doing the same thing the way they have been doing. They will be stuck in a rut. So, there won’t be any wow experiences for their customers. And if business is unable to provide delightful experiences to their customers, then they risk losing them. If retention becomes an issue for business then how they’ll attract new customers? By thinking creatively, business can consistently reinvent itself, thus not only retaining their existing clients but attracting the new ones. Business sho...