Inspiration

Afternoon can sometimes be quite boring especially if it is a hot summer afternoon with the sun blazing outside and everybody cooling their heels inside; the sense of drowsiness and languor that threatens to overtake you... It is at this hour that thought of negativity and pessimism looms larger on the mind's horizon looking for a slight leeway to take over one's entire thinking process...

Today was one such particular day and I decided to tear myself away from it so that I do not take the spiraling route to the dark despair which such thoughts have generally on people..

In such a situation I turned to the best buddy available i.e the internet and googled on hope, optimism and inspiration.. I really got some gem which I want to share with all of you:

" Treat your life as a television set. And when your thought project channels of unhappiness hit the next button on your mental remote. Switch to something pleasant and stick to the happy networks...." Alex Shalman

Have you ever asked yourself what is inspiration?
When the word inspiration is broken down into it's component parts, it simply means "in - spirit".
When you are living "in - spirit" You feel excited about yourself and your life. You have a special connection with all parts of your mind and body.
The question is how can we connect to our spirit at all times to take that actions that make all things possible ?
Below are ten keys to opening your doors to your inspiration.
1. The first key to inspiration is enjoyment. It would take a spiritual master to get inspired about doing the dishes. So find something that really excites you. It can be anything that you really enjoy.
2. The second key is love. When you are actively pouring love into what you are doing, this will guarantee that you are opening yourself to experiencing more inspiration.
3. The third key is to trust yourself. Listen to that little voice inside yourself and know that this comes from heart. This is called intuition.
4. The fourth key is to follow what your intuition tells you. The more you listen to it, the stronger your intuition will become. If you don't pay attention, that little voice gets fainter and fainter until you can no longer hear it.
5. The fifth key is to keep telling yourself "I can". These are some of the most powerful words that you can ever use. When you say this to yourself often enough, you build abridge between yourself and your inspiration.
6. The sixth key is not to listen to anyone that says "no you can't". They might think that they may not be able to, and try to project this negative belief onto you, but remember to keep telling yourself that, "I can! "
7. The seventh key is to believe in yourself. When you are backed by a strong belief in yourself and your dreams, nothing is impossible.
8. The eighth key is to avoid negativity. Ask yourself, do you really need to read the newspaper or watch the news on TV everyday ? Nothing kills inspiration quicker than being surrounded by bad news.
9. The ninth key is acceptance. Accept that on some days you feel much more inspired than on others. This is normal, nobody can be completely inspired every minute of the day.
10. The tenth key is possibly the most important of all. Take action every day, no matter how small a step it seems. Action is the fuel to the fires of inspiration. Make it a daily practise to keep your fire burning. The taking of actions, no matter how small, will fill you with inspiration for taking the next step....

Ek Ruka hua faisla

Watched this brilliant movie yesterday which is an adaptation of the 1957 Hollywood movie "12 Angry Men".. I had watched this movie long back as a kid when doordarshan was the only channel around and maintained high standards... It remained in my memory as a faded image and over the years I tried to locate the movie and add it to my collection.. However, as I could not remember the name and also the fact that google did not helped in this matter greatly either, the wish remained an unfulfilled one

The story revolves around 12 jury members who have been given the task of arriving at a a unanimous decision regrading a boy who is accused of murdering his own father... The cast included some of the stalwarts from the parallel cinema and T.V of those days... The setting was one room in the court premises where all the drama unfolded...

The story kicks off with 11 out of 12 jury member declaring their verdict against the accused... Only K.K Raina, playing as Juror 8, felt that the boy might be Innocent.. What unfolds after that is a treat to watch.. As you savour each and every moment of the drama unfold, one but could not help one's self from getting involved in the whole process mentally... 30 minutes in to the movie, you feel as part of the jurors and peak and wane as they do... Its a gripping and almost taut storyline that keeps one at the edge of the seat...

The cast include such stalwart of Hindi parallel movie like Pankaj Kapoor who as the ever bilious, angry and heartless old man makes you to hate him with all you have..... Anu Kapoor (who I could not even recognise till the end of the film) as the trembling and fumbling septuagenarian... S.M Zaheer as the quintessential gentleman and intellectual who lives up to his image... The film is out and out winner and a must watch for every body...

The movie is made by Basu Chaterjee who made widely loved and remembered comedy like , Khatta Meetha, Chhoti Si Baat, & Baton Baton Mein... only to name a few.... In this movie he has put all his creative energy and talent in ensuring a gripping tale is told to the audience in a restrained way which adds magic to the whole saga...

Watch it for some superb acting and storyline... Its again a good case study for B-Schools on people to people interaction and how to win people over.... Watch it with somebody who share your enthusiasm of such tale... Highly recommended...

Lessons in Friendship

Today I was reading a story about friendship and its various facets (some quite natural others very strange). From whatever I read and whatever I knew from my experience I could rattle out various virtues of friendship like steadfastness, reliability, a deep understanding about each other unaffected by time and opinions of others etc etc.. But the fact of the matter is that at the end of the day friendship is like a solid rock to which one could hold on during hours of despair, is like a beacon of light which gives one hope in the darkest phase of one's life and more than anything is a belief "that no matter what my friends will stand up for me irrespective of all other considerations'.....

As a child I often listened to a very popular story from Panchatantra as told by my granny which was a favourite with all kids....


The story was a simple story and revolved around 3 characters - a monkey, a crocodile and a Jamun tree...

The monkey was the 1st character in the story... The monkey used to live atop a old Jamun tree by the side of a river... The monkey was happy with his surrounding and lived happily eating the sweet Jamun berries from the tree... Occasionally he will throw few of the berries to some animals who would wonder below the tree and look up in expectation...

The rainy season that year had the heaviest of rainfall that any animal around the place could remember... As the animals scurried for shelter in the high grounds, the monkey stayed back in the tree unwilling to abandon it...

The rain slowly decreased in its intensity and the dark clouds gave way to rays of sunshine which played out magic on the blue canvas of the sky and painted many colours in the form of rainbows... Slowly life returned to normal and to the great relief of the everybody and the monkey, the tree was unaffected by the rains or the flooding of the river at the other end...

With the receding flood, the river brought in its belly many strange creatures... many known and a few unknown... The usual inhabitants of the adjoining ecosystem, including the monkey looked at the flowing stream (with its strange inhabitants) with amazement and sometimes horror...

When the flood water receded completely and life returned to normal, the monkey got back to his daily business of hopping from one tree to the other and giving out berries to animals who looked hungry and needy... In this exercise the monkey noticed something which was a disturbing spectacle to him...

Every day, while the monkey will go on his daily business of distributing berries, he will see a crocodile (must have been swept by the flood water from upstream) approach the tree and look up in anticipation of catching few berries... The monkey, in the beginning ignored the presence of the crocodile.... But however the crocodile would come everyday and repeat the same routine over and over again ...

The monkey took a pity on the crocodile... 'poor croc, must have come a long way away from home... In this new surrounding he may not know where and how to get food..' thought the monkey...Thinking this the monkey started to give out few berries to him each day...

Soon in few days they started talking with each other and shared their story with each other... The crocodile (as correctly thought by the monkey) was living a peaceful life up river when suddenly due to torrential rain and flood, was swept downstream along with his wife.. In the cruel flood they lost their 2 baby croc... The crocodile's voice choked with emotions as he narrated this tale... The monkey being a kind hearted creatures also found his eyes moistening at such heart rendering tale... Slowly the friendship among the 2 grew fast and thick...

The monkey now had only one purpose.. how to keep his friend happy and do all things possible to ensure that the crocodile's bitter memory becomes a thing of the past.... Towards this end he used to find the juiciest and the plumiest Jamun in the whole tree and used to drop it to his friend in the river... The crocodile will ask some more berries during the time of his departures each day his wife which the monkey generously obliged...

The 2 friends spent their days happily and all was going on smoothly... However, for last few days the monkey was really concerned about his friend's condition.. The croc had become quite withdrawn and looked very depressed.. Indeed, the monkey thought that he saw him cry sometimes too... Unable to bear such a mental state of his friend the monkey one day asked his dear friend:

"My dear friend, what is the matter with you... I see that you are no longer happy and constantly worrying about something... I miss my happy and bubbly friend who was such a joy to be with... honestly tell me what is it that is ailing you and taking away your peace of mind from you" the monkey asked almost pleading...

The croc let out a cold sigh of dejection and few drops of tear rolled out from his eye... " You see dear friend... I do not want to trouble you with my problems... you have been very kind to me and I do not want to take undue advantage of your kindness"... Said the croc and let out few more drops of tear...

" No, No" said the monkey " you will have to tell me.. I insist"... said he almost passionately..

" OK.. hear if you must... For some days now my wife has been insisting to meet you and wanted me to invite you for lunch" said the croc with a sad look.. " Even after my repeated convincing that you live in land and can not come and meet us in water, she insisted that I invite you failing which she will not talk to me.... "

" Oh... so the matter is this..." said the monkey and started laughing uproariously... " My dear friend it is such a minor thing.. for you I can do anything.. just give me some time so that I can get ready and we can then go and meet your wife..."

The croc's face lit up and again he became the old friend whom the monkey always knew..

The monkey got ready and climbed on the back of the croc who swam in to the river... As they went in to the mid stream and the river became full and its abdomen swelled... Suddenly the monkey could feel as if he was about to topple over and fall in to the river... He pleaded with his Friend ' dear friend, please help me as I am about to fall' As he said this he saw that it was his friend who was trying to topple him over..

"But why.." Why do you want to kill me" said the monkey fully dejected and dismayed at the whole thing...

"Dear friend... please forgive me..." said the croc again teary eyed.. "after eating the sweet berries from the tree, my wife told me that your liver would be more sweeter to taste and insisted that I kill you and brought her the liver"

The monkey's brain was racing... He has made a big mistake in selecting his friend which has put his life in jeopardy.. Now was the time to think upon something which will help him survive...

"My dear friend..." said the monkey "such a small issue... you could have told me about it even before we started on this journey.. the fact is I keep my liver in one of the holes in the tree so that people may not be able to steal it from me.. if you could take me back to my tree, I would happily give it to you.." finished the monkey in one breath

The crocodile, being the stupid oaf that he was, turned around and headed back to the tree with monkey sitting in his back and praying hard to all the gods and deities of the universe...

As soon as the shore came and the branches of the Jamun tree touched the water, the monkey heaved a sigh of relief and jumped back to the tree... Once he was back in the tree he addressed the crocodile thus:

" I took you to be friend despite knowing about your natural violent instincts and trusted in you.... But now I realise that apart from your natural instinct you are so dumb that you got ready to carry out your wife's bidding to get my liver without the slightest hesitations or thoughts despite our friendship.. I have learnt a lesson in my life that friendship does not only mean spending time with each other or having a great time together, it also means trust, steadfastness and the ability to put faith in your relationship despite what others may think or tell you about your friend... Now that I have escaped your clutch, I will never ever entertain you and you should also never expect that we can be friends as before"

Moral of the story : Friends who believe others and form opinion about you deserve the least to be called as friends

Sojourn at Mahabaleswar

Recently was in Pune visiting a friend who has been pressing for sometime to visit his place... With about 3-4 days in hand (which is again a luxury in my current position), we decided to visit Mahabaleswar and Panchgani... As our car wound its way through the hill with the mighty western ghat rising in the distance, it brought back fond memories of my earlier days there....

The photographs below are taken during the visit....

Circa 2004 February, at TISS Campus in one of the classroom...

The faculty was about to brief the MHA batch of 2004-06 about their final placements. It has been a very stressful and exhausting final semester for the students with academic rigour coupled with the final campus placements.

The final internship was always with the Directorate General of Health Services of state in the country. The previous batch had it in the hill state of Uttaranchal. Chances were bleak that the current batch would get the same place again. rumors was agog that either it would be with the state of Gujarat or Maharashtra....

A silence fell in the class as the teacher approached the podium...

"Maharashtra it is" she announced... Sighs of dejection can be heard throughout the class...

"Your district of posting would be Satara" she announced gravely... "A group will be at the Wai block and the other will be at Mahabaleswar block"

A rapturous shriek of delight went through my batch mates of MHA-2004-06......

Of the lucky half who were assigned to Mahabaleswar taluk, I was one too....

We started one morning on what happened to be a moderately cold Mumbai morning on a state transport bus. By mid day we were at Satara and reported to the DM&HO at the district hospital where we were again briefed about our assignment and stay...

From Satara onwards the group split as we took the bus to Mahabaleswar. the entire road was dotted with scenic beauty with the mighty western ghats rising majestically on the side...

The breathtaking and proud western ghats

The road was serpentine and wound its way up the hill... We reached the rural hospital at Mahabaleswar by sundown....

Rural Hospital, Mahabaleswar

Here at the rural hospital we met the medical officer in charge and the Gynec surgeon Dr. Tadas.. We were shown to the guest house (which was actually the quarter of the surgery specialist who commuted from Satara). It was a small quarter and had a 'sarkari' feel to the whole place...

This was to be our home for the coming 3 weeks......

Guest House for internship at Rural Hospital, Mahbaleswar

Daily routine at Mahabaleswar used to be a rigorous and a monotonous one... We were 4 of us together... Rising from the bed was an early affair at 6 a.m... It used to be very cold and chilly at that hour of the day.... Daybreak used to be a good 1 and half hour later.. The hospital attendant used to boil water for our use...

Two of my friends were in one PHC nearby where as myself along with another batch mate were posted in Panchagani PHC...

We used to have early breakfast in the Mahabaleswar main market place which used to consist of 'poha' (a spicy preparation of dry beaten rice) and 'sheera' (a sweet dish prepared from much akin to the sujisuji halwa)

By 9 a.m we used to be present at PHC, Panchgani reporting in for duty. The M.O and the Deputy M.O at the PHC were cool customer and helped us quite a lot in our assignments... We also got to attend the birthday party of the deputy M.O the cooking of which was outsourced to the nurse in charge. The preparation was a local dish and till today the memory of the chilly laden food sends shivering chill down my spine... ;) However the dish was very tasty and we ate to our fill despite the chilly only to realise our folly later....

By 6 P.M we used to be back to our solitary quarter at the rural hospital.. Evenings used to be very boring and a never ending affair.... We used to stroll around the market place which used to be full especially with honeymooners and couples.. This used to frustrate some young men in our group to no end... ;)

Mahabaleswar Main Market

The food at Mahabaleswar apart from being very spicy used to be an expensive affair and the money of each of us from home got exhausted almost at the mid way of our internship...

The only other solitary confined person apart from us was Dr. Tadas who was a bachelor and lived life king size.... He had a bullet motor cycle and a car...

Dr. Tadas' residence. Still the bullet motorcycle stands proud ;)

He took us around Mahabaleswar and showed us almost all places of tourist attraction (Mahabaleswar has 12 such points part from the temple, numerous strawberry firms, lakes etc)

Our friends from the plain (Wai was a place at the foothill leading to Mahabaleswar) used to visit us some time during weekends and public holidays... In turn we also visited them at Wai...

Boating in the Lake at Mahabaleswar

The memory of Mahabaleswar remains etched in our memory till date and when we left I made a promise to come back to this place sometimes in future...

The current trip was like a walk down the memory lane... I visited every single place and location that we visited during our internship and was like a local guide for others with me....;)

The high point of the trip was when I visited the rural hospital... after my wife was totally exhausted taking snap at the various places we used to stay, hangout etc etc... we were about to exit.. Thats when we saw some staff of the rural hospital siting in the early morning sun and I thought I recognized a familiar face... Suddenly I recognised him to be Dr. Tadas and I gave my introduction to him.. He still remembered and reminiscences the happy day which all of us had as a group.. He also lamented the fact that the rural hospital has been in a very bad shape since we were last here.. The IPD previously was closed but now the OPD hardly functioned.. A typical and universal grief of the public hospitals in India... After sometime of chatting thus I stood up to take his leave....

With Dr. Tadas at the Rural Hospital

After wards we visited Pratapgarh fort... During our internship we had stayed in a small lodge called Kailash lodge when we visited the fort...

Kailash lodge near Pratapgarh

The majestic view of Pratapgarh Fort

By afternoon we had completed Mahabaleswar pilgrimage and were ready to leave for Pune and as we left with the sun setting in the back, I fondly looked back and bid the beautiful land adieu for one more time with promise to return once again....

Bidding adieu with a promise to yet meet again.....

Warrior of light

Another pearl of wisdom from Paulo Coelho in his regular updates "Warrior of Light" of which I get a mailed update.

Word such as Paulo's is what keeps me focused and inspired. This inspiration is with a believe that whatever I am doing and the way I am doing it helps me grow as a person and learn from my victories and failings.

Here is the excerpt from the great man's thought....

"The Warrior of Light is always trying to improve...

Each blow of his sword carries with it centuries of wisdom and meditation. Each blow has to have the force and the skill of all the warriors of the past, who still continue to bless the combat. Each movement of the fight honors the movements that previous generations have tried to transmit through tradition.

The Warrior of Light enhances the beauty of his blows. Although he behaves like a child.

People are shocked, because they forget that children need to enjoy themselves, play, be a little irreverent, ask inconvenient and immature questions, say silly things.

And they ask, horrified: "And this is the spiritual path? He isn’t even mature!”

The warrior feels proud at that comment. He keeps in contact with God through his innocence and joy, and acts in this way because at the beginning of his fight he affirms to himself:

“I have dreams.”

After some years he realizes that it is possible to reach where he wants to go. He knows that he will be rewarded.

At that moment the great joy that filled his heart disappears. Because on his travels he has discovered the unhappiness of others, the loneliness and frustrations that afflict so many people. The Warrior of Light then feels that he does not deserve what he is to receive.

When he learns to handle his sword, he discovers that his equipment has to be complete – and that includes armor.

He goes out to look for armor and hears what some vendors propose to him.

"Wear the breast-plate of solitude," says one.

"Wear the shield of cynicism," answers another.

"The best armor is not to get involved in anything," suggests a third.

The warrior, however, does not listen to them. He goes serenely to his sacred place and dons the indestructible cloak of faith.

Faith softens all blows. Faith changes poison into crystal-clear water.

His angel whispers to him: "Yield everything." The warrior kneels down and offers his victories to God.

This deliverance obliges the warrior to stop asking silly questions and helps him to overcome his feeling of guilt.

And if, even so, he still feels unworthy of his reward, a Warrior of Light always has a second chance in life.

Like all other men and women, he was not born knowing how to handle his sword. He makes many a mistake before discovering his Personal Legend.

No man or woman can sit down in front of the fire and tell the others: "I have always acted properly." Those who claim this are lying and have not yet learned to know themselves. The true Warrior of Light has already committed injustice in the past.

But during his journeys he realizes that the people to whom he has acted unjustly always cross his path again.

That is why the Warrior of Light has the impression of living two lives at the same time. In one of them he is obliged to do everything that he does not want to do, fighting for ideas that he does not believe in. But there is another life, one that he discovers in his dreams, readings, and meeting people who think like he does.

The warrior lets both lives draw close to one another."

"There is a bridge that connects what I do with what I would like to do," he thinks. Little by little his dreams take over his routine, until he realizes that he is ready for what he has always wanted.

So, a little bit of daring is enough to transform the two lives into just one.

This is his chance to undo the bad that he caused. A chance that he always seizes without any hesitation.

A decade past and a decade to look forward to

The 1st decade of Y2K has come and gone. I still remember the hype and hoopla that Y2K brought on its wake... The whispered conspiracy of the invisible hand hijacking the entire Internet highway with the Y2K bug... or the forecast of Doomsday with the advent of the year 2000... I think all the forecast, foreboding and misgiving was proved to be yet another mild tremor threatening to derail normal life in the long history of mankind...

The last 10 years have been eventful in the history of the world, more so in the case of India and more so for me individually...

The last 10 years has seen the world come more closer due to information and technology and the axiom of Global Village has never been truer than at present... where distances have been compressed in to kilo and megabytes of data flying through the information super highway at the speed of light... bringing lives closer... making sharing of joy as easy as a click of a mouse or a button... never ever man has felt so close and so loved as in the last decade.. it was also a decade which stirred the fear of self and that of others in man.. as terrorism raised its ugly head and manifested itself with all its fury globally... people huddled close to each other and those affected leaned on shoulders of strangers to cry on and trusting them to provide them succor... bringing home the truth that there is none bigger a religion than humanity and none better unifier than human empathy and love for each other... we have learnt to be patient, empathetic, willing to understand each other and the individual perspective... all along willing to prove to the minority of those who nurture hatred the fact that its love, compassion and understanding which sways the majority of humanity which indeed shall ensure the survival of human being as a race...

Closer home, India as a country matured and graduated gradually to claim its rightful position in the league of nations.... its maturity as a democracy and a secular country has been phenomenal in the last one decade where the silent billion have again proved to the world that it has the capability, the resilience as well the will power to hold itself together as a country which was written off time and again by all and sundry as the most unlikelihood in the concept of a nation... but time and again the nation as a whole has risen to the challenge and proved why this glorious country continues to exist since time immemorial in the face of such adverse force and circumstances which it faces from time to time.. as a nation in the last one decade we have not only been able to consolidate our economic growth but also we were able to redefine the extent of equity in the shared wealth of a nation more emphatically.... we saw our political geography and context undergoing a paradigm shift and a nation opting people as leaders on criteria which was purely based on performance and the ability to deliver setting aside narrow consideration of caste, religion, regionality etc aside... we also saw our political leaders more candid and forthcoming in admitting to their failings and willing to reform... true the transition has not been perfect or ideal but augurs well for the time to come when we will hopefully have a clean political system...

On the personal front too I saw myself transition from a world of fixed opinions, narrow perspective and possibilities to one of wider opinions, empathetic perspective and an energy which saw a wider array of possibility that I can do with my life and in the process the improvement I can bring in the lives of others... Post TISS I developed the habit of listening and empathising along with the habit of understanding others perspective and context before jumping to any conclusion... I also see a paradigm shift in the overall development of various people skills in me as I reached out to people from various walks of life and worked with them with ease and comfort ensuring result oriented outcomes... I realised that it is still possible to be good and finish first and also the fact that we do not need to step on people on our climb up the ladder... As I achieved satisfaction at professional front, I was blessed at the personal front in providence helping me to find a life partner who is not only caring, understanding and lovable; but also finding in her a soul mate who is a true companion in the journey of my life...

As we at a global, national and personal level look forward to the next decade with hopes and aspiration, we must remember that it is the indefatigable nature of human spirit combined with a spirit of compassion, understanding and love which will keep us all going in years, decades, centuries and millenia to come..

For Oceans Rise, Cities Fall but Hope Survives.......

E.Q versus I.Q

I am currently reading a book by Daniel Goleman titled ' Emotional Intelligence and working with Emotional Intelligence' which I picked up on my regular trip to the local Crossword stores. In hindsight I must say it was a good pick going by the few chapters that I have been able to read through... Few pages inside and I am totally hooked...

This book has a unique approach to it all and varies a lot from run of the mill books of this genre which tries to utilise mere motivational techinques in underlying the value of EQ over IQ... But this book is all different in its approach as it goes on to explain the scientific credibility of such a 'qualitative' aspect of human behaviour and attitude as EQ...

Till date, the book goes on to argue, much emphasis was given to the Intelligence level of a person (which is again measured by the well founded and proved IQ score) and people generally scoring high on the IQ scale found favour among job givers.. However, it was seen, and no wonder all of us have also seen it happen, that the most intelligent people are not the most capable or for that matter the one with qualities required to be able to work in a team and make things happen... hence to the frustration of top management these so called bright people floundered in their jobs while relatively 'mediocre' people excelled in being able to achieve success through mere Patience, hard work and team building effort... The author underlined the abilities of these people in having more of EQ than IQ which helped them survive tough situation and circumstances and come out right on top...

The author goes on to cite studies and real life incidence on how if a person is low on EQ, simple circumstances can hijack the advantage from his/her side... It goes on to explain that through evolution the development of the brain has been a 'bottom up' process i.e the spinal cord first developed, then the base of the brain and then the body of the brain and so on... primitive brain in lower animals down the phylum in the animal kingdom has shown much of the sensory and motor function being done by the spinal cord and a very primitive brain.. The author argues, based on scientific evidence, that the lower part or the base of our brain resembles close to that found in these group of animals... and rightly so, as the brain stem is, as we were taught in the med school, called medulla oblongota which was kown as the 'love centre' of the brain which processed emotional responses in man.. as these centres, like in lower animals, are attuned to either fight or take flight, on any sudden confrontation or situation, the first thing they do is to put up a fight or flee the situation.. this even before the rational brain (the centre of which is situated in the main body of the brain) has time to rationalise and take an appropriate response.. later when the person realises his/her response triggered by the 'love centre', it is too late to make amends...

It may have sounded a bit jargon ridden in the previous paragraph, but simply put it means that any response to man is first scanned by a centre which takes impulsive and irrational decision which if given some time will be processed through the rational centre and result in a more proper response...

The book also says that sometimes people find themselves in fits of anger in a given situation, where their previous experience combined with the immediacy for action, sends an emergency signal to the rational brain to stop all rationalisation and summon all energy to tackle the impending 'obstacle/danger' in hand.. at those time the rational centre in the brain also loses the ability to 'rationalise' as a state of 'emergency' has already been declared and it is 'forced' to sign up...

It is such an absorbing read that even after 9 hrs of office and 1 hr of working out at the gym, I still take some time out to read it every night...

Will keep you updated about the battle between the E.Q and I.Q... :-)