Why I love International Congress!

I just love AIESEC International Congress! There are several reasons for that of which I want to highlight the key ones:

1. I get to be with over 700 people from 106 countries and all these people are passionate about things which usually people our age find fluffy - changing the world, fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa, creating more awareness, being culturally sensitive and leaving this place better than we found it.
2. I am motivated to work even harder to achieve my AIESEC as well as personal goals.
3. I get trained by the top management people of top brands about management and leadership.
4. I get to dance all the AIESEC roll calls and learn some more.
5. I get inspired to continue my AIESEC XP and to complete it by participating in every stage.
6. I find value in my life and get the confidence back which kind of seeps away during the course of the year.
7. I become closer to whichever team I am part of.
8. I get to talk to people from such countries which no one can imagine and change my perception about those countries - this year, the country about which I learnt the most is Afghanistan
9. I get to make friends who will last the lifetime
10. I understand the importance of my friends back in Singapore and most importantly my family.
11. I get to thank God! for whatever vegetarian food variety I get to eat.
12. I get inspired to travel round the world.
13. I get to see the cultures of different countries and specially of the hosting country.
    
14. I find the value in the phrase - "I am an AIESECer"

Isn't is amazing to do all this at the age of '20' and be willing to give back to the world?

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Achievement is a mental game!!

Go for your golds the way an athlete pushes himself to reach his full potential

What rating would you give yourself on personal productivity?

Do you have a systematic plan for improving your effectiveness in your daily work?

Super-achieving business people and athletes know what it takes to motivate themselves, maintain focus in the face of obstacles and drive forward to the completion of their vision and dreams.

They take charge of their work by being aware of their personal patterns of behaviour and adjusting and experimenting with new ways of doing things. Imagine if yu could quickly recover from fatigue, mental setbacks, surprise problems, overloaded task lists, lack of time and all else that can stand in your way of working near optimum levels.

Top achievers begin the process by carefully noting what is and what is not in their control. They then only focus on those things over which they have control and let go of those things that are out of their control.

If you list all the things you must do in a day and all the roadblocks that might fall in your way, you willl quickly realise that the only thing you have true control over is yourself.

Start with yourself

So to improve productivity and effectiveness, begin by focusing on yourself.

Focus on your attitude, your thoughts, how you feel, how you react to problems, how you prepare to succeed, how you review your performance and how you set and go after realising your goals.

Here are some tips for improving personal effectivess:

1. Plan your work and then work your plan

This is an old saying, but it contains simple wisdom. You have to know where you want to go before you get there.

2. Remember, "Mile by mile it's a trial, but inch by inch, it's a cinch"

If you look at everything that you must do, it can seem overwhelming.

But if you break down each project into tasks and objectives and just focus on these bite-size portions, you will be amazed at how quickly the little things combine to complete major tasks.

Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.

3.Ask yourself, "A month or a year from now, will this matter?"

If you get mired in trivia, get distracted by surprises or get sidetracked by things that "feel good to complete, but that are off-task", then ask if what you are doing now will have any impact on your future goals. This will keep you focused on what is truly important.

4. Set deadlines and make timetables for executing each objective that takes you closer to your goal

It is amazing how a future due date drives current behaviour.

Keeping records of tasks completed gives you proof that you are making progress.

Having a deadline creates some urgency to complete the task.

5. Post and consult your priority list many times every day

This will keep you on track through those crazy, unpredictable days. It is so easy to lose sight of what is important and to begin putting out fires when you should remain focused.

6. Review your day and ask yourself, "What were the top three things I accomplished today?"

This makes you accountable to yourself and helps you measure how well you stayed focused on our priorities. It will also help you set up the next day.

7. Clean up the tasks and projects that annoy and frustrate you the most

This might be office clutter, paper piles, a messy desktop on your computer, not being able to find things, or anything else that bothers you every time you look at it or think about it. Conquer it and free your energy.

8. Celebrate your successes

Many people go through their days and weeks barely congratulating themselves for their good deeds and accomplishments.

Don't keep focusing on what you lack or on what you still have yet to complete. Give yourself credit for jobs well done and for wading through the many tasks you finish each day.

9. Continually reset new goals once you reach each goal

This is one of the true secrets of super achievers. They continually re-adjust strategically as each goal is met. They endlessly create new goals to fuel the fires of motivation and to take themselves closer to their potential.

Maintain your self-awareness, make adjustments and execute your plans like top business and sports performers, and you also can become a super achiever at personal effectiveness.

Adopted from The Straits Times, Saturday, August 16, 2008, which is adopted from Bill Cole, the Mental Game Coach.

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Passion and The Future!

Today, I realized the power of my life and the difference I can make to the world, to the future. Being present in the plenary of International Congress means that I have the brains, the talent, the skills, the passion to make a positive impact in society and make up the top 2% of the 32,000 members present in the AIESEC network. This gives me immense influence, even beyond my realization, but only for one year. I have 2 options now. To have a good impact in this 1 year or to have an unbelievable impact on the future? I can celebrate the 60 years of AIESEC’s history or work hard to make history which impacts the next 60 years of AIESEC and the world in general. If I believe in anything, I need to be BOLD. If I don’t know what I can do to change the world, I still should be BOLD anyways.

If I am lucky enough, I have 60 more years to live. Do I have a dream to change the world? What am I doing this year to achieve my dream? And now I ask you, do you have a dream to change the world, to make a difference? What are you doing to achieve it?

“If your dreams are not scary,
they are not big enough”

The very reason that I am sitting in International Congress is because I am afflicted by the passion which runs through the entire organization. But is this passion becoming my comfort zone?

“Passion is scary only when its right”

To experience that observe a person who is head over heels with love, the passion is terrifying, but its right coz Love is always right. Is my passion of creating a positive impact in society scary?

What difference will I make when its time for me to move on in AIESEC?
What difference will I make in the world when I am done with life.

Life is a gamble.
In the end, death always wins.
But what are you doing in the present to impact the future?
Living in fear always or being BOLD and creating the impact?

Its not about creating Your Future, but its about creating THE FUTURE!

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APGN Pre-meeting

Last year pre-meeting played a big role in deciding the direction of my IC XP, in instilling me with the high spirits that lasted through IC and in making some wonderful friends, so this year I was really looking forward to it. I just love the energy AP creates as a GN and makes sure that every member of the AP family gets immersed into this energy. The roll calls it showcases, the warmth it emits and the diversity it unites inspires me (and I am sure a lot of other people as well) and motivates me for giving my 100% to this GN and whatever I do in life. Another important aspect of Pre-meet which I simply love is the opportunity to talk about the hard-core AIESEC stuff with AIESECers from all the countries (at least most of them turn up for the pre-meet).

The most inspiring part of this year’s pre-meeting was the session on Talent Management run by Daz, the Talent Management Unit (TMU) Chair, exclusively for the VP Talent Management and Local Committee Presidents of the AP region. Those who know about my work life will definitely know that my topmost priority for this year’s IC was to develop a comprehensive Tracking template with quantitative and qualitative tracking. This session gave me very cool ideas about the tracking template and a lot of other things to motivate me to work harder. But the way the session was run by Daz really inspired and touched me through and through. I reached a new level of passion which I have never experienced before. I always thought that my passion for AIESEC is already at the maximum level possible, but I would say that this session proved me wrong.

Last year, I was thinking of heading for the future after my LCP term and go for the NOC programme of NUS. I remember very clearly that during Pre-meeting, something struck me and I decided that I will run for Vice President Talent Management. And here I am, Vice President Talent Management AIESEC Singapore 08/09. A similar thing happened to me this year during the pre-meeting. I thought that I will not be going to the exchange part of the AIESEC XP. The pre-meeting was very much focused on exchange and they presented Vijit Bhaiya’s case study. There I saw how my brother is not only impacting his life but also the lives of so many different people in both his internships in Poland and Austria. How people from all the countries come and ask me if I am Vijit’s sister! And ask if I am going to have the same kind of wholesome AIESEC XP. And this inspired me to finally decide that I will be going for an internship, even if its only DT for a couple of months. I will complete my AIESEC XP because that not only impacts my life but the lives of so many different people.

So with renewed energy and passion, I thought that I was prepared to experience AIESEC International Congress 2008 (Responsible Youth. Sustainable Future)

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Rio De Janeiro!

If Sao Paulo was about being introduced to the Brazilian culture, then Rio was about being awed and shocked by the culture, beauty and reality of Brazil all at the same time. The loud music, the most exotic beaches, a warmer weather, bus breakdowns a number of times and one of the seven wonders of the world present a striking contrast between the 2 cities.

Journey to Rio: So we joined the Study Tour to Rio on 15^th (which is also the independence day of India) and reached Rio at 10 pm. However, it being a Friday night we all went to a club. It was great to see the live culture of Brazil. One striking difference between the clubs in Singapore and in Brazil is the music. While in Singapore we dance on world popular songs, the Brazilians enjoy dancing to Samba music. Samba is a very close couple dance. I was introduced to the open and fun culture of Brazil. I am not sure if its true but from my observation, I think that if a guy wants to approach a girl here, he passes her a flying kiss. If the girl shows welcoming signs then they start dancing together. Another thing which I observed about Samba is that it usually ends in people kissing each other and many times being more physically intimate. It is also not uncommon to have more than 1 Samba partner on the same night. I could also see some budding AIESEC couples in all the festive mood J

The next day (Happy Raksha Bandhan to all the brothers and sisters of the world) started with a bang (no perversion intended) at the Copacabana Beach. Copacabana is one of the Best and most famous beaches in the world, and I would definitely give my vote to it. The sand was super cozy. I could just sleep on it (if the sunshine wasn’t so staunching). The water was crystal clear and to my great relief was quite cold. The waves were also quite high and I enjoyed watching some people water surfing. There were a lot of people wearing too scantily-covering bikinis on the beach which as an Asian is a rare sight for me. I also savoured the Best Coconut milk I have drunk till now on the beach.

Our next destination was the Maracana Stadium which is the largest Football stadium in the world and will be hosting the finals of FIFA world cup 2014. The finals were held in 1958 in which Brazil was defeated by Uruguay and they are now all looking forward to win the world cup in 2014 to get back their pride. We also went to the changing rooms of the players (my first time in a football team’s changing room). I had certain shots from the movie ‘Remember the Titans’ running in my mind. And when I was entering the field from the changing room, I had goose bumps.

Our next destination was Sugar Loaf. For this we could either go by cable car or hike up the mountain. Esvi and I decided to hike up (very tiring but a cool experience). The hiking was all worth it. The sight from the sugar loaf was mesmerizing. We could see the entire city of Rio De Janeiro from the top.

The next day started by going to Ipanema Hippie Fair where I did a lot of shopping. And then boom - We saw the most inspiring sight of our tour – the Christ Redeemer. I don’t think I can describe the experience in words, but it truly is one of the seven wonders of the world. (So, now I have seen 2 wonders of the modern world).

Another key highlight of the tour was striking a lot of friendships, 2 of which are quite close – with Joey (LCP, New Zealand) and Pedro (LC VP Finance, Brazil). Also, I came to know the weird Mathematics practice in Brazil. They interchange the use of decimal point and comma in numerals. Example, 1.230 is one thousand two hundred and thirty while 1,230 is one point two three.

The OC had done a great job and they were all very warm people. But now was time to move on for the Asia Pacific Growth Network Pre-Meeting (APGN Pre-meeting) which was to be held in Hotel Del Verde, Sao Paulo.

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Sao Paulo - Pre Congress

So I somehow managed to reach Sao Paulo after being in the air for about 29 hours and having very little food (they don't have veg food on board :P). My first impression of Sao Paulo was that its so much like India. And so it is-India in the mild winters at this moment.

All the buildings here are very different - different in the sense of architecture, the times they were built in, the material used etc etc. Most of them have the Portugal architecture, reminding me of the little of Europe I saw last year in Turkey. The roads remind you of the old Roman times as they are made of stones. One weird yet interesting fact is that they name their streets on dates 15 De Novembro, 3 de Dezember, 25 de Maio (May), etc etc. There are quite a lot of open squares in the place where u can easily spot fat (and really fat) pigeons. There was a road which reminded so much of Mussourie. I just couldn't get over the fact. The markets were bustling with people and samba songs. I even heard the song which inspired (for not wanting to show disrespect to Indian music directors) the music of Aap Jaisa Koi (Qurbani)

The people here are quite tall and sturdy. I won't be considered tall over here. Even the females are quite tall and sturdy. People, on the whole, are very friendly, sometimes too friendly to raise my suspicions. However, their sexual instincts get high after 4 pm, or so it seemed to us while walking. People were giving weird signs and it was no longer safe to walk on the streets even in a big group as ours. But we reckon that we went to the wrong place without knowing ;). Oh, and a interesting fact is that people think I am Portuguese and that is what I call truly exotic.

Language is a big barrier here. No one speaks English (Policemen to sales person in super markets or even the staff at the tourist places). But it is somehow a blessing in disguise. I have learnt more Portuguese in 1 day than I have learnt Chinese in 2 years.

As far as Tourism is concerned, Sao Paulo doesn't have a lot to offer. There's the Cathedral, Banco De Estado (the building from where I got to see the entire city of Sao Paulo) and the place where Sao Paulo was founded. These are pretty much the tourist spots. However, I would say that the city's normal life is a treat in itself to be savoured.

I kind of like the Brazilian food even though its very difficult to make people understand that I am vegetarian and there is very little vegetarian food. However, the fruits and milk are really good here and for someone who likes them a lot, Sao Paulo can be a paradise.

And now I am all excited to go to Rio de Janeiro in a couple of hours. :D

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Life and How to Survive it!

I was just reading Sharon's blog and found this amazing Convocation speech at the NTU Convocation 2008.

Life and How To Survive It!!

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

You’re going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there’s no life expectancy.

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Just Like That!

Hmm... I have been super lazy to update blog :P I was back in Singapore on 1st August and am a bit more learned than when I went to India.. I have learnt driving and microwave cooking... hee hee..

Birthday Bloopers


From a Different angle (My paternal side)
Vijit Bhaiya, you were missed a lot :D

India was fun as always, I didn't want to come back at all *hiks hiks* There was full masti and I went to Jaipur also... Amazing trip with my maternal family.. otherwise just chilling at home, meeting people and eating eating eating... gained a lot of weight :P

Mausi and Me (City Palace)

Most of us (Hawa Mahal)



Elephant ride with Anu (Chowki Dhaani)

The best part of the trip was the fact that my Best Friend, Rashika, was also in Agra at that time :D Which made it the most relaxed time of my life after so long... Those cooking classes where we made fun of everyone, going to eat random stuff, playing with aadi-diaa, going to school in a big gang, or just doing nothing at all :P Most cherishable memories!! :D The day when we all went out for Kismat Konnection.. Amazing and unexpected... Me having accidents :P... hahahaha..

Rashika and me (My place)

Aadi-Diaa (Rakhi at Rashika's)

And now, I am just a day away from leaving for Brazil! More fun awaits for sure~

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