Sharing Ideas

Often people ask me how being in corporate world for more than a decade I am now getting inclined towards social service.  I am one who is always engrossed in work and work and no second thought.  So, I thought let me share the story of how the seeds of social service were roped into me. So, it was my birthday and who is not excited about the birthdays? As a small kid I am over excited every year for birthday. Till the time I do not know about my gift I keep on asking everyone at home and disturb them a lot looking for an answer. But this was the day when everyone had decided not to answer me about anything and everyone had their lips sealed lips. So the day passed, noon passed so passed the evening and till that time I was waiting for my gift. May be the year was supposed to be a turnaround for me that’s and I think it was destined that way. Suddenly later in the night my sister asked me “Do you want your gift?” with wide open eyes; “yes”, I said. She said come ...

Ice Breaker Techniques In any office setup, some time ice breaker techniques are required. Either it is for a group or for individuals, this technique is required everywhere to start a conversation and to make people comfortable with each other. Some of the common techniques are: 1.        Brainstorm : Divide the whole group in equal sub groups. Give each of them a topic, pick a funny topic. Like what you will do if you are alone in desert..etc. Match the clock and give them two minutes only. At the end of two minutes, the team with the most items on their list wins! This helps people to share ideas without fearing what other people will think. 2.        Fact or Fiction : Every member in team should write three surprising things about themselves, two of which are real and one is made up. Each and every one will read their list and the rest of the group votes on which is fact and which is fiction. A group can have mo...

Recently while watching TV, I suddenly hooked on to a channel featuring movie Pinjar . The movie was so serious and heart rendering that left me speechless and shocked. Pinjar or Skeleton as the name suggests is based on the adaptation from the novel written by Amrita Pritam. The movie shows the real plight suffered by the people from both side of the border (India-Pakistan) during partition without being biased. The story catches my eye as I could relate to the plight my family faced during the same time when fearlessly massacre was happening and every family was looking for a way out to of the country to other land; Hindus and Punjabis to India and Muslims to Pakistan. There were many such novels and movies featured that era, the time when ruthlessly females were raped, houses lit on fire, kids butchered and both the sects run into a never ending fight. In this story Urmila Matondkar plays role of Puro and Manoj Bajpai of Rasheed, respectively. Puro's bliss is shatter...

Transgenders is one such community which in India is considered as sacred, touched by God. They make their living by blessing people at the road side, in trains, buses, on signals in lieu of money. Their blessings are considered to be auspicious. Few months back an Advertising Agency took the help of this third gender community in spreading awareness of using car belt while driving. The team use to present a skit at every signal in Mumbai with same saris worn by everyone; mainly known as Seat Belt Crew. They are themselves attraction of the skit but people do listen to them, take their videos, and on top of it they appreciates the way this community agreed to play a part in educating Indians putting ON the seat belt while driving. The use of their special clap is quite catchy and slogans like "seat belt pehno, dua le lo" "If you wear your seat belt, we will bless you."  The agency tried to use the emotional aspect of this community and to lure Indians ...

Processing of fruits and vegetables is only 2% in India in comparison to 80% in USA and Malaysia , 78% in Philippines , 70% in France and Brazil , 40% in China and 30% in Thailand . The food and agro processing industry employed over 16% of total workforce in the organized manufacturing sector whereas it is 32% of the total workforce in the unorganized sector. In total, the industry employs 13 million people directly and 35 million people indirectly. An average Indian spends around 53% of his/her income on food. There are around 300 million upper middle class consumers for value added foods. Wastage of fruits, vegetables and grains in India is pegged at INR440 billion annually. Fruits and vegetables accounts for the largest portion in the wastage. India is the largest producer of milk, fruits, pulses, cashew nuts, coconuts and tea in world and accounts for 10% of...

Women comprise a significant share of the labor force engaged in agriculture as farm laborers, producers, distributors, marketers and agricultural entrepreneurs. In Latin America 20%, in Asia 30-60% and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 50-75% of the Agricultural labor force is supplied by women. However they do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as their male counterparts. It is estimated that women are responsible for 70% of actual farm work and constitute up to 60% of the farming population. In vegetable cultivation women contribute from seed sowing to marketing and post-harvest operation like their male counterparts. In many cases women force are better options than men like nursery raising, hand pollination of pointed gourd etc. Table shows the result of a study conducted in rural Rajasthan to quantify the contribution of women in several farm activities in India . Percentage contribution of farm women in several agricultural activities Farm Activities P...

In our day-to-day life we come across many type of callers, there are different categories of callers: 1. Non-stop talker: To handle a caller who is continuously talking over phone and not allowing you to utter a single word can be tackled in following ways: Hear initially: This goes with every caller you come across, you should hear clearly and patiently in initial minutes of calling so that he should not have any complaint that the receiver is not listening to me. Jump in when the caller begins to repeat the story: Some callers get carried away and repeat their phrases, as a good call handling person one should prevent this thing to happen and barge in to stop the person to blabber un-necessarily and waste time. Interrupt and try to catch the person’s name: to stop the person to drag his talks, it’s good to say “sorry for interrupting…can I have your full name”? This will put a stop in the speed of his words, which may be useful to stop him to speak a lot late...