Posted by Haja in Personal

For some reason, I always thought the ads in the US were of high quality, and something interesting to watch by themselves. After 4 days in the US, the ad quality, I must say has been a big let down, and mind numbing, to say the least :). Most are so imminently forgettable, that I frankly do not remember more than an ad or two.

However, I saw this ad- for the American Red Cross, and it touched me! Rarely do ads really touch me, but this one – with its line of "Whose life will you change?". Not just did it make me appreciate the ad, but also got me started thinking… whose life will I change.

Going back to India, and doing a role which can make a significant impact, I am thinking to myself- that I may be in a good place, at a good time, and working for a great company, that could help me answer that…. Got a lot to be thankful for in this life.

Jul.14

Ryna in the 2nd Performers Piano Recital

Posted by Haja in Personal

This is a link to Ryna in a Piano recital she did at NUS last weekend. NUS had organized this session called the 2nd Performers Recital and had children (around 220 of them) who had the opportunity to come and present a piece or two. A wonderful opportunity for children to showcase their experience and also for the younger ones to get used to to the concept of practicing piano in front of a crowd. Ryna’s teacher Ms. Janice Ong obviously knew how to make this work and this effort is all thanks to her… Ryna is obviously very excited with this experience. And we are too 🙂

Jun.16

Back to India :)

Posted by Haja in India

After 12 fantastic years in Singapore, we have decided at last, to move base to India. Whilst the decision was taken after some deliberation, it was made easy when one puts the core reason for going back in focus- which was for the children to settle down and get familiar with their motherland (and their relatives). Also other personal reasons which made it relevant to consider going back. Continuing to work at Microsoft, a great job in the Public Sector were the icing on the cake 🙂

Singapore has been fantastic to us.. We came here with 2 suitcases 12 years ago..after long stints in IBM and Microsoft and a comparatively short stint in Iomega, we go back with 2 kids, a container load of stuff (which we did not know we had,) and tons of memories -mostly good (except 1- which was the loss I made on the car 🙂 – overall it has been a great run. Singapore has changed our lives – and set us up for the next innings 🙂

Sad ? – yes.

In two minds? – no.

Absolutely excited to be going back to Bangalore – and getting in at a time when the whole country is BOOMING!

What is also interesting is to see the sheer number of NRI’s returning back – and all for a reason – to ride the wave in India…

I am looking forward to it – but for the time being – it is chaos – as we finish our packing – and more importantly, figure out, the pending work – which seems to be popping out of every nook and corner 🙂

Selling my car has been my biggest grouse though :(. I guess I will come to terms sometime soon 🙂

In the meanwhile – India calls… Will land in Bangalore End June 🙂

Keep you posted on what develops as we go along…

Jun.12

Mind Maps and Tony Buzan Certification

Posted by Haja in Mindmaps

Singapore -24-27 March 2008

One of my key goals in 2008 was to get certified in Buzan’s Mindmapping. It gets me a step closer to my longer term goal to be a trainer and help people achieve their untapped potential. And the sheer opportunity to do this is amazing.

I am currently undergoing the certification course to become a “Certified Trainer” and hope to start some level of training in the near future. This also gets me the learning to a)officially and b) correctly train people in this fantastic technique.

Nevertheless, over the last 2 days we have had a series of thoroughly enjoyable training sessions which have taught me some new things about Mindmapping- which I had not practiced earlier. Working with Henry and his team has been an interesting experience & I am looking forward to the rest of the 3 days to complete this.

I wanted to share this interesting output. I have absolutely no art background and when we were asked to draw a portrait it obviously had me running for cover. But with some great ideas, and simple techniques I managed to generate the drawing below. The better looking one is the original 😉 (in case you are wondering).

I am obviously delighted. The exercise to Juggle Balls was a completely different story! Will get there as well in the near future 🙂

All said & done, I hope to complete this certification done by the end of this week.

Wish me some luck 😉

Mar.25

Innovation for your bread :)

Posted by Haja in General Interest

I have been meaning to write this for the last couple of days. Could not come to it because I got busy with a training I am attending. (More on that later). During our weekend dinner outing to the Katong area, we came across this simple innovation that bowled me over! Whilst we (Indira & I) constantly think what might motivate my daughters to have their breakfast without their daily complaints (and grumbles) – one never imagined that the solution could be in something this simple! So interesting, that it had ME interested in eating the bread with more interest!

It has to rate as one of the most innovative "tool" (I cant think of what else to call it). This is a plastic unit that creates an imprint on the humble bread with a word that says "SMILE" – it had me say WOW looking at the bread. I wonder why most hotels have not yet seen this or used this! It would definitely impress their clientele. I know I would have been if I had seen this in any of the hotels I travel to.

Innovation is still possible on small things that all of us take for granted….

Truly impressive! In case you are interested, I bought this in Cold Storage.

Mar.25

Make a difference

Whose Life will you change?

Ryna in the 2nd Performers Piano Recital

Back to India :)

Mind Maps and Tony Buzan Certification

Innovation for your bread :)