Aggie

I am an Aggie which  means an alumnus of Texas A&M University. Texas A&M or A&M or Aggieland as it is known has its main campus at College Station. In Texas, you will see car signs by native Texans which say "Texan by Birth, Aggie by the grace of God". It is funny and nice. I am however Indian by birth and I chose to live in Texas since I came to the US in 1993. I am an Aggie as I went to Texas A&M. I am a US citizen now. I came up with a slight twist.


"Indian by Birth,
Texan by Choice,
Aggie by the grace of god".

Mahesh

This day, that age - Feb. 11

Growing up in South India, the newspaper, "The Hindu" was the paper of choice. They used to have a small section called, "This day, that age" and would highlight what happened 50 years ago. I thought it was very cool. In the same spirit, I would like to bring attention to what happened on Feb.11, 1861. Lincoln had been elected President and was heading to Washington leaving behind friends in Springfield, Illinois. A moving speech called "The Farewell Address" was delivered by Lincoln, Read and enjoy.

My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

A child's education

I have a daughter Sanjana. She is three and a half years old. She is a joy . Anyway she goes to a montessori. We started noticing that she was not focusing when she was doing her ABC's or her 123's. So my wife started spending time with her after school and she is now doing really well.

It is funny and weird because Nimmi (my wife) and I strongly believe that education of children is parent's responsibility first and the teacher/school's second. We had kind of not focused on her as we thought that since she was going to a Montessori, we did not have to worry. This was a wake-up call for us.

Mohana Chandrasekharan National English School

I went to National English School in Gopalapuram, Chennai/Madras from my kindergarten until my 6th grade. It was one of the best things that ever happened in my life. I remembered something in my 5th standard recently and I thought I would blog about it.

NES as it was known then was very rigorous with monthly exams to test learning and knowledge etc. I was an OK student in my class until my 4th grade. And 5th grade came. In my first monthly exam, I had failed in all my classes. That was not a good thing. My mom totally freaked out.

Mohana Chandrasekharan was the principal of the school and was a strong willed woman who ran the school very well. My mom came to school and check on me with the principal and the teachers. I got called in to the principal room which was not a good thing.

I go in and see my mom with all my teachers and the principal. The principal then asks me to open my notebooks and sure enough I don't have anything written down. She then asks one teacher each day to monitor me while I catch up with my notes and make sure that I was reading and studying what I was writing down after classes.

This went on for a month and every day a teacher would stay with me while I caught up after classes.

I was monitored for a couple of more months. The habit of taking down notes, reading and studying them helped and by end of the year in my annual/final exams, I was fifth in my class. From the bottom of the barrel to the top 5 in a class of 40 was nice indeed. I surprised a whole bunch of people with that.

That practice helped me throught my academic life from NES to CIT and to Texas A&M.

Thanks Mrs. Chandrasekharan.

Mahesh

Effective or Efficient

A lot of times, we hear people talk about efficiency. Let us say it takes 2 hours to produce a widget. Let us say by cutting corners, you get it down to an hour and 48 minutes. You have achieved an efficiency of 10% not which is not bad. What if "you think out of the box" and figure out an innovative way of making the same widget in 30 minutes. That is a 75% improvement which is much better.

When you hear people talk about efficiency, it always helps to take a step back and look at the task in question and ask whether there is a more effective way of doing it. The quest for efficiency does not necessarily have to preclude an option for effectiveness. In fact, it should be a first check.

Making an ineffective process efficient is like masking the symptom of a problem.

Go forth and be effective and efficiency will follow.

Doing what you love

A couple of years ago, I met a friend in Houston who was working for a firm. The money was good, the work was OK and there was travel. We were talking and it turns out he was miserable. We followed the discussion thread to its logical conclusion and I asked him the following. "What would you rather do than leave the comfort of your home and your family? In other words, what motivates you to get out of the comfort of your bed, your home, your loved ones and do something else?". He said he did not know.

Figuring the answer to the question would go a long way in doing what you really care about or your heart or your passion as the case the maybe.

Of course, we all have to make a living which is one big motivator but it is an economic motivator not a personal fulfilling motivator.

People who are very happy tend to find a happy medium between these two motivators.

So go forth and find your passion and find a balance between these two powerful motivators.

Mahesh

Short Term/Long Term/Tactical/Strategic

One of the ways I like to think and act is to use the following quadrant. On some kind of interval basis, usally a week or a month, I look and categorize the things that I did and put them in the quadrant.





If I find myself most of the time in the lower left quadrant (i.e. short term tactical), then I know I need to step back and focus on other quadrants as well. Since I am in middle management, I don't get to focus in the upper right quadrant all the time(i.e. long term strategic).

The key is to operate in all qudrants over a period of time so things are not lost.
Depending on your role and charter, you will have to see where you need to spend your time.

People who are stressed out most of the time tend to stayin the short term tactical quadrant. People who do the big picture and nothing else tend to float in the long term strategic quadrant.

But the key point is for you to spend time in all quadrants consummate to your role for long term career growth.