Krishna and Man of Steel

Before getting into Man of Steel, let's revisit the story of Krishna.

Kansa (the bad guy) was creating havoc in the city of Mathura. He arrested Vasudev and Devki and wanted to kill Krishna.Vasudev saves Krishna from the tyranny and took him to Nandgaon where he was raised by Nand and Yashoda.

While at Nandgaon, Krishna did a lot of 'small acts of greatness'. A lake in the village was poisoned by Kaliya Naag. Cows and cattles who drank water from the lake were dying. Krishna went into the lake and 'tamed' the Kaliya Nag with his 'super-human' powers and saved the people of Nandgaon. Then again, when Indra Dev was angry and showered torrential rain on the village, Krishna with his 'super-human' strength lifted Goverdhan Parvat with his little finger and used it as an umbrella for the entire village.

At last, Kansa learned that Krishna was in Nandgaon. There was a dramatic fight between Krishna and Kansa and finally Krishna won and saved the entire Braj Pradesh!

Story of Man of Steel is somewhat similar to the story of Krishna.

Krypton had become too unstable both environmentally and politically. General Zod (the bad guy) wanted the genetic codex hidden within Kal-El. Kal-El's father sent him in a spaceship to earth. Kal-El was raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent as Clark.

While on earth, Clark realizes he has 'super-human' powers and does a lot of 'small acts of greatness'. He rescued kids in his school bus which met with an accident and was drowned. He also saved a crew stuck in a burning oil rig.

At last, General Zod learned that Clark/Kal-El was on earth. There was a dramatic fight between Clark/Kal-El and General Zod and finally 'superman' won and saved the world!

I was amazed at the similarity between Man of Steel and Krishna. Sometimes I wonder how great an epic Mahabharata is! A lot of movies/novels have plots which have been inspired/inherited by one or more episodes of Mahabharata.

Do share in case you came across any movie/story which had resemblance to some episodes of Mahabharata

SAGN: Photo Contest

What: A photo contest with theme - "Good News!"

How:  Mail the picture to sagnchannel@gmail.com and we'll upload it to the official Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel)


Winner: Winner will be selected based on the number of people sharing and liking the picture that we'll upload on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel)

Deadline: 'Votes' (i.e., linking and sharing) will be calculated till 1st July 2012, 23:59 Indian Standard Time. So, it makes sense to upload your pictures as early as possible to get more votes.

Prize: South Asian Good News Channel merchandize!

The 'Best' Cricketer

Rahul entered his home and tried hard so that he is not noticed by his mother and brother. He went to his room, opened a book and pretended to study. In his book he could see himself a few hours ago when he was playing cricket with his friends in the gully near his home.

Sachin: Khelna nahi aata toh cheating toh mat karo
Rahul: Hey, mujhe cheater mat bulao, ha
Saurabh: That's what you are. Cheater. Cheater, Cheater
Rahul: Saurabh, mujhe cheater mat bulao
Sachin, Saurabh and the other kids started in chorus: Rahul is a cheater. He is a cheater. He is a cheater.
Rahul: Cheater nahi
Sachin:  Cheater (Screamed so loud that other voices couldn't be heard)

His brother came to his room. Rahul got back to the present. Rahul's heart started beating faster. His mind started racing with thoughts. He was wondering why was it necessary to score runs in cricket? Why was it necessary to take wickets? According to him cricket was a game. And like any game, it was a game to have fun. Just then his brother interrupted him.

Brother: Rahul, when did you come back?
Rahul: Just a few minutes back.

His brother started searching for something in his cupboard. Rahul's mind started wandering again. He started questioning, should the team scoring the highest run be winner? If the purpose of the game is to have fun, shouldn't the team enjoying the game the most be the winner? The team which plays with what's called the sportsmanship, with integrity and having the most fun be the winner? Suddenly his heard his brother's

Brother: Have you seen my The God of Small Things?
Rahul: No.

His brother continued his search. Rahul thought, perhaps the game is designed to keep the players fit. Then, shouldn't the team which exercises their muscles the most be the winner? Perhaps the objective of the game is to instill team spirit among the players. Shouldn't then, the team with the best team coordination win? Rahul considered 11 years as too young an age to answer such questions. He was still not sure what was the purpose of the game. Was it having fun, exercising or instilling team-spirit? Or a combination of these factors. If so, how does the run scored or  wickets taken indicate how well the purpose of the game is fulfilled.

He got out without making any runs today also. Despite knowing that he got out, he didn't agree. He stood on the crease until his friends Sachin, Saurabh and others started calling him a cheater. He left the game and came up. He was feeling bad. Today was not a one off case. He generally gets out for lesser runs and feels bad about it. He dreads his brother and other family members asking him - 'how many runs you scored today'? or 'how many wickets did you take?' He wondered why they never asked him - 'did you enjoy the game today? or 'was today's game exercising enough?' or 'What did you learn about team spirit from today's game?'

His brother shut the cupboard with a bang. He had 'The God of Small Things' in his hand.He turned around and asked Rahul

Brother: So, how many runs did you make today? How many wickets did you take? Did you make the highest run of did that Sachin made the highest run today also? I think he was on his 99th century in the gully. Could he make his 100th today or did you take his wicket before that?


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Raj was a little sad today. He had not be able to get that dance step correctly. He had not been selected in the dance troupe. Raj loved music and dancing. However, he wasn't a good dancer. He had been trying to hide this news from him mother. He tried to keep himself busy. He was searching for 'The God of Small Things', the book he had started reading when he was in 10th standard but couldn't complete it till now when he's is the final year of his under graduation. He found the book in his cupboard, had a casual chat with his younger brother and went towards his study room silently.

He wondered, if the purpose of dancing is to have fun then why isn't the person who enjoys the dance the most considered the best dancer? Why is knowing difficult steps considered important?

On the way to his study, he heard his mother's voice:

Mother: So, did you get selected in your college's dance troupe?

South Asian Good News Contest

The objective of South Asian Good News Channel is to spread happiness – to spread the news about good things that are happening in the SAARC region.  South Asia is a beautiful region where each country can get inspiration from other South Asian country. We want to spread this message in a play-way though a contest.

[For those who don't know, SAGNC is a social media channel which shares 'good' news from the SA region. Check out the Facebook like to get an idea about the channel -  https://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel]

Objective: To post an article on the SAGNC wall about good things happening in the SAARC region

Rules:

1.       The post should be a link to a news article or a blog post or a website

2.       The news should be ‘good news'

'Good News' are news about:

a.        Grass-root development and innovation

b.       Citizen’s initiative

c.        Acts of kindness

d.       Inter-community harmony

e.       International peace initiatives

f.         Green initiatives

g.        People welfare

'Good News' shouldn’t be about

a.        Criticizing other nation, community, religion

b.       Calamity, Accidents, Death, Riots, terrorist attacks

c.        Corruption

d.       Anything that is offensive

e.       A film star dating another one.

3.       Go through the SAGN Facebook Page to get an idea of what constitutes ‘good news’. An example of a good news post:

SA GOOD NEWS CONTEST: Dhanam, like millions of rural women across India, is a housewife first and bread-earner second. And just like those other women, making some extra money after finishing the housework would greatly improve her family’s lifestyle.

For this 38-year-old living in the outskirts of Coimbatore, the low-cost sanitary napkin maker designed by A Muruganantham is a boon. Working for a comfortable 6-7 hours daily, Dhanam makes close to 400 pads, supplementing her family income by Rs 3,000 per month, which is going towards her daughter’s college fees.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/TamilNadu/An-entrepreneur-helps-women-stay-free/Article1-819048.aspx

4.       We understand that there is a lot of subjectivity involved and there is a huge ‘grey’ area – in the definition of ‘good news’. But there, definitely, are clear ‘white’ areas – news that are definitely good. We are looking for those news items only

5.       You may write explanatory text giving a brief about the news article in the post

6.       The post should start with the following phrase - ‘SA GOOD NEWS CONTEST:”

7.       The news posted will be moderated. Links that are not ‘good news’ articles will be deleted by the moderators without any intimation

8.       The decision of the moderators will be final

9.       You can post more than one good news article. There is no upper limit.

Submission:
Go to https://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel and like the page. Only participants who ‘like’ the page will be considered for the contest 

Selection Process:

1.       For each participant a ‘score’ will be computed as the sum of ‘shares’ of all the posts posted by that person

2.       Person with the highest score will be the winner.

3.       For e.g., if you posted 2 articles through two different posts such that the first article was shared by 20 people and the second was shared by 36 people, then your total score is 20+36 = 56. 

Deadline:

1.       The contest is open from 5^th March till 20^th March 2012 23:59:59 IST

2.       The score for each participant will be computed for his activities till 15^th March 23:59:59 IST

3.       It is advisable that you post the link to the good news articles as early as possible to let your friends and theirs and theirs enough time to share the news.

Reward:

1.       The person to win the contest would win so because his posts have been shared (and possibly read) by the highest number of people. This spreading of happiness in the form of good news is the biggest reward.

2.       A customized goodie! (Only if the winner is based out of India)

In case you need any other information please feel free to contact us at sagnchannel@gmail.com. 

Let’s show the world and more importantly start believing ourselves that our SAARC region is amazing and there are a lot of good things happening!

South Asian Good News Channel – Logo Competition

Objective:

 To develop logo for South Asian Good News Channel that it could use in various communications

Rules:

1.       The logo should be original and shouldn’t be copyrighted

2.       The selected logos cannot be used for any other competitions or for any other organizations

3.       The logo should depict the ethos of South Asian Good News Channel. South Asian Good News Channel aims at providing good, happy, development news from the SAARC nations through Social Media. The primary audience is youth (15 to 30 years old) of the SAARC nations. More information about SAGN Channel can be obtained from the SAGN Facebook page or from the following articles (article 1, article 2)

4.       The logo should have a maximum of 4 colors

5.       The logo should preferably be distinct and simple

Submission:

1.       Go to https://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel and like the page

2.       Upload the logo image in the ‘Logo Competition’ Album. Only photos uploaded to this album are eligible for the competition

3.       If selected, send a high resolution version to sagnchannel@gmail.com

Selection Process

1.       The winner will be selected based on the number of likes and comments a logo gets on the Facebook page.

2.        For each ‘like’ on the logo the designer will get  1 point and for each comment he/she will get 1.33 points

3.       The likes and comments on the album will not be considered for determining the winner

Deadline:

1.       The count of the number of likes and comments will be done on 5^th December 2011. Likes comments after 5^th December 2011, 11:59 pm will not be considered for the competition

2.       It is advisable that you submit your logo as early as possible so that there is enough time for people to review it and give cast their ‘vote‘ - likes/comments

Reward:

1.       The winning logo will get a chance to be the official logo of SAGN Channel

2.       A strong resume point for winning an international logo design event and creating official logo for a social imitative

3.       Customized goodies which will have your own created logo (only if  the winner is based out of India)

In case you need any other information, please feel free to contact us at sagnchannel@gmail.com

                                                                                                                                

Fast Leadership

[All characters in this article are fictitious and bear no resemblance to any person living or dead. Any similarity with anything living or dead is purely coincidental]

The leadership fever has engulfed the nation. Everyone wants to be a leader. The person walking ahead is leading from the front while the one walking behind is leading from the rear. And the 'education industry' wants to bridge this gap - the craze among people to be leaders and their leadership skills. This is nothing new for the education industry. They have effectively tapped the obsession of nation with CAT. Now, they have risen up the value chain and have started courses on developing leadership skills.The pioneer in the field of leadership training is 'Fast Leadership'.

'Fast Leadership' training institute claims that they provide holistic training to transform a normal person into a leader very quickly. They also update their curriculum with the latest trends in the leadership domain. Their program is very comprehensive. One of their key courses is on delegation. According to the Ramesh Babu, director of Fast Learning, a leader should delegate work to his team. Since he is leading the team, he should delegate all the work. In times like these, when no one wants to work, a leader should effectively and authoritatively delegate work. 'Decision Making' is another very important skill that is taught at Fast Learning. A leader should take his own decision. Listening to his team, only means that his team is better than him. Even if he doesn't have a clue about the problem, he should make the decision.If one knows something, it's very obvious that he will be able to take decision. But what differentiates a good leader is his ability to take decision even when he has no clue about things.

According to Ramesh Babu, 'Communication Skills' cannot be over emphasized. A leadership should be good at talking to an audience. Even when he is having a small meeting with a couple of members of his team, he should behave as if he is talking to a gallery of 5000 people. The logic is very simple - if something is said with an intensity that 5k people can understand, then definitely 2 will. A leader has to Make Decision, Delegate Work and Communicate Effectively. The leader should represent the group at forums and should take credit for the success - after all, he is the leader. A leader should have good 'Evaluation Skills' to evaluate and identify the improvements. A leader should constantly let his team know where they are going wrong so that they can improve.

Apart from the comprehensive course structure what really differentiates 'Fast Leadership' is their updated curriculum. There is a research team which studies the recent trends to incorporate them in the curriculum. Looking at the recent events, Fast Leadership has started a course on 'Fasting'. Ramesh Babu believes that this course is going to truly transform their students into real leaders. He gives examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Anna Hazare and recently Narendra Modi to show the importance of fasting skills in becoming effective leader. Anna Hazare wasn't a bureaucrat nor a lawyer. He did not have the background to understand the nuances of the Govt. Lokpal bill or to draft the Jan Lok Pal bill (which was not drafted in January) all by himself. However, Anna Hazare was the face of the movement. One of the key skills which he had was 'fasting skills'. If Anna Hazare couldn't control his hunger or taste-buds, would it be possible for him to create such a vast movement? Perhaps an Arvind Kejrival or a Kiran Bedi could have driven the movement. The skill that Anna had honed was 'Fasting Skills' and that contributed to a huge extent in making him a leader. He also goes to the extent of saying - Imaging if Gandhi couldn't stay hungry! Perhaps, the Britishers would have left a couple of decades later. Gandhi's fasting skills made him a leader.

He mentions that one of the features of 'Fast Leadership' is 'upgrade-ability'. Even after a person passes out, he can still get access (for a small fee) to newer courses that are developed. On asking about the past record of 'Fast Leadership', Ramesh Babu mentioned that they have developed great leaders out of ordinary people. Narendra Modi graduated from our institute in Feb 2002. He recently also upgraded and took our new course on 'Fasting'.

'Fast Learning' is all set to shape the leadership coaching industry. With knowledgeable people like Ramesh Babu, who know the worth of every pinch of skills that goes to make a true Leader, backing 'Fast Learning' it's clear that even sky is not the limit.

South Asian Good News Channel

Modi bribed my lawyers to derail PIL on riots: Sarabhai

15 hurt in Agra hospital blast, UP on high alert

Bharatpur riot: Rajasthan seeks CBI probe

Illegal mining: CBI finds goldmine in Reddy aide's locker

Dey murder: did weapon come from Nepal?


The above are the headlines from leading newspapers of the country. There is one thing that's common among them - negativity. The mainstream media is somehow focused more on the negative news and goes extra mile in spreading them. I am sure they have their reasons for doing that. The 'Good News' somehow gets dug in the 12th page bottom left 2"x1" corner of the newspaper. In such a scenario all that is available to aam admi is negative news. And being the most intelligent species, he discusses them at office tea table, in college canteens and shares it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. These creates a vicious cycle where we subconsciously breathe in the negativity and participate in spreading such negative news. Being cognizant of the negatives happening around is one thing and propagating them is another.

When being constantly bombarded by the media with the negative news, we tend to create an image about things and makes us lose objectivity - Politicians are corrupt. Pakistan is giving space to terrorists on their soil. Traffic police take bribe. These are some of the dogmas many of us have. I had a few of these. And the reason is we are not told of the good side of things. We are not told of a politician who is truly working towards making the life of his people better. We don't come across news of how a christian nun is improving the life of several children in the streets of Kolkata. How a farmer is innovating to pump water efficiently and in an environment friendly way.

Clearly, there is a need for source of Good News where good deeds happening around us are highlighted. These news would act as positive stimulus to our brains to think about solution, to get inspired. It would make us believe that life is not all that bad and that there is hope , there are good people and good things do happen. South Asian Good News Channel is a small step towards spreading positive news.

Now the question in your mind would be - Why South Asia? The seed of this idea - South Asian Good News Channel - was sown at SAYC 2011 where delegates from the SAARC nations got together to discuss real issues. We found that there was so much in common among the South Asian Nations. Not only history and culture - but the tastes, the likes and dislikes, our behavior, our take on issues was also very similar. At the end of the Conference, if was difficult to identify a Pakistani from an Indian and an Indian from a Sri Lankan. If such harmony exists at people level then this definitely needs to get highlighted. Pakistan is not India's enemy nor is Afghanistan Pakistan's. The media, to a certain extent, is over-emphasizing the conflicts and under-emphasizing the people-to-people harmony. The South Asian Good News Channel will help in highlighting not only good things happening around us but also happening across the borders to foster international peace among South Asian nations.

At the end of the day when you are tired after a day long work or frustrated by your irrational boss's unreasonable expectations - you can tune into the South Asian Good News Channel for your dose of inspiration.

To get the Good News from South Asia - subscribe to the Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel or the twitter handle http://www.facebook.com/SAGNChannel