Five golden rules for finding your life partner!
This one was a wonderful mail sent to me by one of my friends, Seema. It
talks about what you really need to look at while searching for your
soul mate.
You CANNOT build a lifetime relationship on love alone. You need a lot
more. Here are 5 questions you must ask yourself if you're serious about
finding & keeping a life partner.
QUESTION #1:
Do we share a common life purpose? Why is this so important? Let me put
it this way: If you're married for 20 or 30 years, that's a long time to
live with someone. What do you plan to do with each other all that time?
Travel, eat & jog together? You need to share something deeper & more
meaningful. You need a common life purpose. Two things can happen in a
marriage. You can grow together, or you can grow apart. 50 percent of
the people out there are growing apart. To make a marriage work, you
need to know what you want out of life - bottom line - & marry someone
who wants the same thing.
QUESTION #2:
Do I feel safe expressing my feelings & thoughts with this person? This
question goes to the core of the quality of your relationship. Feeling
safe means you can communicate openly with this person. The basis of
having good communication is trust- i.e. trust that I won't get "punished"
or hurt for expressing my honest thoughts & feelings. A colleague of
mine defines an abusive person as someone with whom you feel afraid to
express your thoughts & feelings. Be honest with yourself on this one.
Make sure you feel emotionally safe with the person you plan to marry.
QUESTION #3:
Is he/she a mensch? A mensch is someone who is a refined & sensitive
person.How can you test? Here are some suggestions. Do they work on
personal growth on a regular basis? Are they serious about improving
themselves? A teacher of mine defines a good person as "someone who
is always striving to be good & do the right thing."So ask about your
significant other: What do they do with their time? Is this person
materialistic? Usually a materialistic person is not someone whose
top priority is character refinement.There are essentially two types
of people in the world: People who are dedicated to personal growth &
people who are dedicated to seeking comfort. Someone whose goal in life
is to be comfortable will put personal comfort ahead of doing the right
thing. You need to know that before walking down the aisle.
QUESTION #4:
How does he/she treat other people? The one most important thing that
makes any relationship work is the ability to give. By giving, we mean
the ability to give another person pleasure. Ask: Is this someone who
enjoys giving pleasure to others or are they wrapped up in themselves &
self-absorbed? To measure this, think about the following: How do they
treat people whom they do not have to be nice to, such as waiters, bus
boys, taxi drivers, etc. How do they treat parents & siblings? Do they
have gratitude & appreciation? If they don't have gratitude for the
people who have given them everything, you cannot expect that they'll
have gratitude for you-who can't do nearly as much for them! Do they
gossip & speak badly about others? Someone who gossips cannot be someone
who loves others. You can be sure that someone who treats others poorly,
will eventually treat you poorly as well.
QUESTION #5:
Is there anything I'm hoping to change about this person after we're
married? Too many people make the mistake of marrying someone with
the intention of trying to "improve" them after they're married. As a
colleague of mine puts it, "You can probably expect someone to change
after marriage .. for the worse!" If you cannot fully accept this person
the way they are now, then you are not ready to marry them. In conclusion,
dating doesn't have to be difficult & treacherous. The key is to try
leading a little more with your head & less with your heart. It pays
to be as objective as possible when you are dating, to be sure to ask
questions that will ! help you get to the key issues.
Labels: Matters of life
General Motors, on the brink of bankruptcy?
The front cover of mid-February issue of
FORTUNE is rather scary though
not too unexpected. The magazine, which is famous for its annual list of
top 500 global companies, has raised questions over viability of
General
Motors, the world's biggest car manufacturer. It may have to resort to
chapter 11 sooner than expected, the magazine says.
The woes of GM are not unheard of in Detroit. The company is saddled with
the burden of funding employee retirement schemes of some 11 lakh odd
employees. This costs GM over USD 1,300 per vehicle sold in the US. To
add to the trouble, the Japanese car makers are gradually eating the
big daddy's pie in the home market. GM's share in the US auto market
has declined from about 45 per cent in 1980 to less than 30 per cent in
2005. The company lost USD 8.6 billion last year.
GM is also struggling to reinstate the brand image in the mind of American
consumer. It seems that GM's cars have lost touch with time. The company
has found difficulty in launching new models successfully in recent
time. Moreover, though the company claims that it now manufactures more
reliable cars, the 'once bitten twice shy' American consumers are not
interested in taking chances. They prefer the vehicles from the Japanese
car makers.
The reflection of all the bad news can be seen in the performance of the
GM stock on the bourses. It is currently trading at a 25-year low of
about USD 23. The slide in the value of the stock since it touched an
all-time high of USD 93.75 in April'99 is tiring. The credit rating
agencies have already junked the bonds of the company.
The executives at GM, it seems, are trying all that they can to save
the 98 year-old company from bankruptcy. The most preferred tool in such
cases is cost-cutting. The company may have to take seriously the term
'equality of sacrifices' coined by one of the investors. Under this,
the management is suggested to cut upon not only wages and other employee
benefits but also dividends paid to the investors. As per the latest news,
the management is planning to take up a 50 per cent cut in dividends.
The company has also initiated consolidation of its business activities
in USA. It plans to cut over 30,000 jobs and shut down multiple plants
in the country by 2010.
It is offering attractive pricing schemes on its cars. But a stark
possibility of bankruptcy is worrying consumers. In such a case, the
company may falter to carry out maintenance contracts.
A bankruptcy at GM is not a music to Ford's ears. The major US rival of
GM may have to face a spate of discounts and low prices offered by GM
dealers to clear the inventory if GM files for chapter 11.
Perhaps, GM may not have to face a bankruptcy. It is still the
biggest auto company in the world and holds majority stake in the US
market. Moreover, the US government, at an opportune moment, may bail
out the grand daddy just like the Italian government has done for Fiat
in the past. Only time can tell that.
Labels: Corporations
Look mom, we got Gilchrist....finally!!
It was an action-packed day at Lahore's Gaddafi stadium on 13 Feb'06. A
solid match-winning century partnership, fantastic balling spells by
upcoming pacers, a solid knock by almost written-off little master, not
one..not two but four catch drops.. that too by the winning team and an
uncanny enthusiasm of no else by the President of the losing nation. A
perfect cocktail for a cricket one-dayer between India and Pakistan.
This was also the day, when India could officially announce its answer
to Australia's Adam Gilchrist, a magnificent wicketkeeper as well as
one of the best openers in the cricketing world.
Yes, I'm talking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni. I saw glimpses of his batting yesterday, and was mesmerised the same way as General Musharraf was by Dhoni's haircut (in fact, later on, the general did suggest the man of the match not to do
away with his mane as it suits him!)
At last India got a wicketkeeper who can not only bat but snatch victories
from down under time and again. The entire Indian team and the country
is now in the celebration mode though deep in the heart of Kolkata,
the Bengal tiger might be desperately counting his blessings...
Labels: Cricket
Brothers... not in arms but with arms and ammunitions!
Why did RIL take a pangaa with NTPC? I pondered while going through the news stories about the incidence. In late December last year, NTPC sued Mukesh Ambani led RIL for not accepting terms of a certain gas-supply contract agreed by both the parties some time back. Well, the matter went to the court of law and RIL reasoned out that it would not find any financiers if it accepted the contract in its present form ( which,alleged RIL, had some binding clauses. These would have been activated in case of failure to supply gas penalising the company disproportionately).
Now, if that was the concern of RIL, then why did it agree upon such a contract in the first place? RIL employes shrewd enough executives to understand simple things in life... as simple as impact of forfeiture clause in an agreement. So, RIL's reasoning (which would sound quite logical if heard in relation to a football match on the college campus!) was hard to believe.
Come February and bingo! The cat was out of the bag.
In early February, RIL floated a press release saying it had accepted the agreement which it had signed with Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL). The agreement was formed between Mukesh and his brother Anil last year in presence of their mother (this historical meeting eventually split India's biggest private business empire between the two brothers; Anil got control of RNRL).
No sooner than RIL released the press note, a director of RNRL claimed that RIL had deviated from the original terms in the agreement pertaining to gas supply to NTPC. And what was that deviation? In a three-page statement, this official said that as per the (new version of the)agreement, if for any reason, the NTPC contract did not materialise,or was cancelled, RIL's (led by Mukesh Ambani) entitlement of the 12mmscmd of gas to NTPC will also go to the group led by Anil Ambani in addition to the 28 mmscmd (this 28 mmscmd was agreed mutually in original contract without any obligation of 12 mmscmd), thereby making an aggregate base volume quantity of 40 mmscmd for Anil's group, and not 28 mmscmd,as the Mukesh Ambani group maintains.
Now that increases incentives for Mukesh group to dump this NTPC deal and be a spectator to predicament of Anil's group over the issue!
Does it sound like sibling rivalry?
Frog Tales
This one was mailed to me by one of my old-time friends and I found it quite interesting.
The story goes like this. A group of frogs was strolling in a park one day when two of them fell in a ditch. Both the frogs started jumping to come out of it. Other fortunate frogs gathered around the ditch to get a feel of the width and depth of the ditch and concluded that it would be simply impossible to get out of it. The verdict was immediately told to the two troubled frogs. One of them understood the message and gave up all the efforts and waited to meet its destiny. The other frog in the ditch seemed indifferent to the judgement of the masses and kept on trying. The frogs around the ditch now started clamouring more vigourously about how difficult it was to come out of that mess. Surprisingly, this persistent frog went on jumping even higher and finally popped out of the ditch.
During the after-math of the situation, it was clear that the frog who succeeded was almost deaf and thought for all the time that its colleagues were cheering it and encouraging it to get out!
Moral of the story? Well, moral is that the words we use are immensely powerful; powerful enough to make or break someone's life. So we need to be careful when we speak to people around us. One word can make hell lot of difference to someone's existence!
Labels: Matters of life
