11/26 - May their soul rest in Peace.

May their soul rest in Peace who were hit by the bullets coming from terrorists' gun.

My wishes & sympathy to everyone who lost their loved ones during this unfortunate act of terrorism in Mumbai in Nov-26.

I believe that terrorism is born from the act of hatred and unwillingness to accept the differences. The terrorist attacks are mere a symptoms of the hatred and unwillingness to accept diferences, developed over a period of time and based on various experiences in life.

When we fight against terrorism, we must understand what is it that we are fighting with. We cannot win the fight if we merely kill the symptoms.

So, to end the terrorism, we must end the hatred amongst ourselves. Irrespective of which religion or ethnicity or color or caste we belong to, we must open our heart and accept each other and each other's differences. It's these differences which make each of us unique and which make the life an interesting and memorable journey.

While we understand and act on it, we can take following actions in our day to day life to help prevent these unfortunate acts from happening in future:

1. Understand and practice the fact that Terrorism does not belong to any religion, ethnicity, color or caste.
2. Do not develop hatred for anyone or any group.
3. Respect each other.
4. Accept the differences amongst each other or the uniqueness in yourself
5. Stay alert for any troublesome act. Report if you observe any.
6. Help spread this message to others.
7. Be happy, content and joyful in life.

Thank You, All!

InnovateSF

When I look at different cities across United States or or in other countries such as Japan, China, India, United Kingdom, Australia, etc. San Francisco always comes ahead in innovation. San Francisco - Silicon Valley, the hub of technology, the hot-bed of innovation, the home of Inter-Galactic Ship, Enterprise, is perfect.

But I think, the city does have some problems, we do have some problems. We see it everyday when we leave the our apartment and drive on the road or walk on the pedestrian or ride the bike or take the bart or muni in the city. Yes, it’s the problem if homelessness. There are more than 5000 homeless people amidst this highly advanced city of San Francisco.

Innovation is defined as a new or more effective thinking or process or product or services to solve the known or unarticulated problems to create or develop the values for the customers.

So, yes there are areas such as such as Public Transportation, Safety & security, creating more jobs, creating better platform for innovation, along with the mammoth problem of homelessness, which are seeking some innovation.

We, You and I, as an individual and as a group need to come up with the innovative solution in these areas if we seek to innovate SF. It doesn’t matter which area you are in, whether you are a techie guy or a realtor or an attorney or businessmen or a designer, whichever profession you are in, you can contribute towards innovation.

I look back to find what does it take to be innovative. Based on my experiences and out of retrospection, I came up with following 5 things to keep in mind to become innovative.

1. Immerse to understand the problem.
2. Don’t settle to think different
3. Be curious
4. Dare to Try what you think of
5. Embrace the failure, because it’s not failure but it’s a learning which takes you closer to innovation.

At the end, Innovation is not an end but the means towards solution, better life

So, let’s together innovate SF for better solution, better life.

TPAR - Think, Plan, Act, Retrospect

After giving a speech, what comes to your mind? Do you feel that you gave a wonderful speech? Or, it could have been little better?

Right after a first date or the exam or a speech or a meeting with your client, you would probably think the same...uhmmm, I could have done little better. Many a times, you may spend quite amount of time simply thinking about it.

Approximately few months back, after the Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests, I felt something similar. AS a contest chair of the event, I felt that I could have done better. Right then, I felt, am I going to dwell on it? Yes, I try to be conscious about my thoughts. And So, I thought of what went well and what could have been better and told myself to move on.

In our life, we cycle through TPAR for every task that we do - Think, Plan, Act, Retrospect, unless you are a thinker (In which case, you just think!). Whether it is about going on a date, taking Exams, working on project or giving a speech, we follow TPAR. We first think. We think of whether I should give a speech this week or next week, whether I should give an informative speech or a humorous speech and so on. Once we have thought about it and made a decision, we plan for it - plan for the content, resources, time etc. And then, we act on it by preparing for it, practicing it and ultimately giving a speech. Then comes the retrospection, wherein we look back to see how we did. Retrospection is very important as it helps you get better at what you do in future. Unfortunately, when we look back, we mostly see and think about the things that went wrong. Often a times, we dwell on it and we are so caught up in it that we don’t start the next cycle of TPAR. Spending time, more than what’s needed for retrospection, doesn’t yield any value. It sometimes harms us, instead.

What did I do, when I told myself to move on - I signed myself up for different roles for the next two weeks.

So, Retrospection is important but we shouldn’t spend much of a time in retrospection and The retrospection should include both what went well (give yourself a pat on the back) and what could be improved. After which, move on with the next cycle of TPAR - Think, plan, act & retrospect.

Thank You!