Kayaking - An Unique Experience

We were recently able to spend a day out in Deep Cove - and what an amazing experience it was! This trip was different than others..
Truly An Unique Experience easy trail, beautiful views, fantastic town, and was accessible via public transit.. 

When you have people in group who are enthusiastic and fun loving - from the get-go, ready to learn and explore, for sure you will have best experience of world. 

In our group we have people from age 2 to 60 and believe me everyone is go gaga, we accept all activities with so excitement that even simple activity become most enjoyable and memorable experience.

We started filling our self with delicious pizza and homemade burger from Pomegranate Grill house & Cafe,  A Must Go place! So delicious!  Great atmosphere, good prices and service. Pizza was unique and tasty. We tried 3 different pizzas and one was better than the other.

From there we went for Quarry Rock Hike, it had lots of stairs at the beginning and just when you think it levels out, you go down and up again. Some narrow parts where you might have to wait for others to pass but its a scenic hike with a very beautiful view at the top.

Once we were back from hike we went for group paddle on the sunset. But, I must admit it was easier than we thought! After strapping into our life vests, we get pushed off from shore.  Despite the fact that we’d never kayaked before, it wasn’t hard to get a feel for it. We bumped our kayak into tree branches on the shore because we didn’t figure out quickly how to control speed & direction. Soon enough, we were paddling till Quarry Rock.

 

Like everything in life, timing is paramount. Once we were able understand how to row and where to we had a safe, peaceful & relaxing experience. We now realize our first time in a kayak was a peak experience and one that we will continue to use as the gold standard for our future experiences. We had an amazing time, fun and exceeded our expectations...

Leadership Lessons from Prime Minister of India

Since Mr Narendra Modi took over as the 15th Prime Minister of India, he has given us some valuable lessons on leadership. He has all qualities that a good leader should possess. You don't need to be his follower to  notice his leadership skills.. Listing down some of the very important characteristics which I can observe very frequently...

  ( The woods are lovely, dark and deep,. But I have promises to keep,. And miles to go before I sleep,. And miles to go before I sleep....)

1. Time management :

 I have very strong feeling that no one can beat his punctuality..  since last so many year's we have heard too many news about his effective time management instances that truly inspirational. Although he’s undoubtedly one of the busiest men in our country with a packed schedule to follow every day, he knows how to manage his time well.

2. Voicing your team’s opinion :
 Mr. Modi knows how to take a stand for the people he represents. He has expressed opinions of Indians and highlighted many of their issues at a global level. Taking a stand for your team and voicing their opinion is an essential trait every good leader must possess.

3. Dedication:
 Since the day he came to power, he has been working relentlessly towards improving the conditions of his nation. At age of 65 years his dedication is commendable.

4. Learning Empathy : 
 When following any news about Mr. Modi any can notice his empathy for Technology , Learning new... He is one of the first few political leader to use twitter and Facebook to stay connected with his followers.. Now we now clear role of latest technology in his historic win in last elections..

5. Positive Attitude : 
 When we listen any speech of Mr. Modi we can clearly sense the positivity, Enthusiasm .. It plays very important role into leadership and increase team's confidence into his leader. He inaugurated the Swacch Bharat Mission by cleaning the roads himself. Every leader should be enthusiastic enough to practice what he preaches rather than merely making big claims

6. Clear Vision : 
From the very beginning, he has been clear about his goals and plans for the nation. Although while campaigning for elections he made some big claims, we can’t ignore the fact that he has actually accomplished many of the milestones he’d listed. A leader’s vision is essential for the progress of the entire team. Hence, it needs to be crystal clear. 

7. Believe in teamwork: 
Delegation brings you success.. Delegating task to correct hands makes you available for Lead & Manage, rather than micro manage.. Once Mr. barack obama also mentioned in his one of speech that "Winning future requires Teamwork"

Some of the skills like effective public speaking or leading way with example Mr Modi has not comptiton at all. After ex-priminister Mr Atal people liked Mr Modi's speeches alot, his program "Man ki baat" is good platform to listen his ideas regularly...Let me know your observation as well..

 Courtesy: News, magazines & several other online resources.

Education....

Education is an institution , an effort of the senior people to transfer their knowledge to the younger members of society. Through education they learn basic rules, regulations, norms and values of society. The greatest loss in the world of education today is the lost awareness of what education has means ? What is the Purpose of Education..

I think first most answer would be to earn bread & butter … Is this ALL? Most of us would be agree with no that’s not all…Let me tell you an story , its about a black guy and his Struggle for an Education before end of slavery in the United States , a journey filled with obstacles, including hunger, cold and exhaustion. Many people help him along the way. The journey has spiritual overtones. With fortuitous assistance from strangers, he triumphs over his obstacles, and reaches the object of his quest. 

In his words One day, while at work in the coal mine, he overhear two miners talking about a great school for colored people some where in Virginia. This was the first time that he had ever heard anything about any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little colored school in his town. As they went on describing the school, it seemed to him that it must be the greatest place on earth. Not even Heaven presented more attractions to him at that time than did the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, about which these men were talking. 

He resolved at once to go to that school, although he had no idea where it was, or how many miles away, or how he was going to reach it.  He was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with him day and night. It has started out on a, "wild-goose-chase."  He had very little money with which to buy clothes and pay his travelling expenses.  Finally, the great day came, and he started for Hampton. The distance from to Hampton was about five hundred miles. By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, after a number of days, he reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton. When He reached there, tired, hungry and dirty, it was late in the night.

               He had never been in a large city, and this rather added to his misery. When he reached Richmond. he was completely out of money. He had not a single acquaintance in the place; and, being unused to city ways, He did not know where to go, He asked at several places for lodging but they all wanted money, and   that was what he did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do, He walked the streets. He walked on the streets till after midnight. At last when became so exhausted that he could walk no longer.  Just about the time when he reached extreme physical exhaustion, he came upon a portion of a street where the board sidewalk was considerably elevated and then crept under the sidewalk and lay for the night on the ground

               The next morning he found himself somewhat refreshed. But extremely hungry. As soon as it became light enough for him to see his surroundings, he noticed that he was near a large ship. It seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig-iron.  He went at once to the vessel and asked the captain to permit him to help unload the vessel in order to get money for food. His work pleased the captain so well that he told him that he could continue working for a small amount per day. He continued working on this vessel for a number of days. After buying food with his small wages there was not much left to pay his way to Hampton. In order to economize in every way possible, He continued to sleep under the sidewalk.

               When He had saved enough money with which to reach Hampton, He thanked the captain of the vessel for his kindness, and started again. Without any unusual occurrence he reached Hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin his education. 

               As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, he presented himself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, he did not, of course, make a very favorable impression upon her. He could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. For some time she did not refuse to admit him, neither did she decide in his favor. He continued to linger about her, and to impress her in all the ways he could with his worthiness. In the meantime he  saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly to his discomfort. He felt deep down in his heart, that he could do as well as they, if he could only get a chance to show what was in HIM.

               After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to Him, "The adjoining recitation room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it." It occurred to him at once that here was his chance. Never did  he receive an order with more delight. He swept the recitation room three times, than He got a dusting cloth, and He dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench , table, and desk, He went over four times with his dusting cloth. Besides, every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. He had the feeling that in a large measure his future depended upon the impression he made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room.   

When done he reported to the head teacher. She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls and over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I guess you will do to enter this institution."

               The sweeping of that room was his college examination. He was tired, was hungry, was everything but discouraged. This was story of Brooker T. Washington , from his autobiography "Up from Slavery". "My Struggle For An Education" left a great impression on me. This story explains us about constant passion required to achieve  objectives.

In My opinion education should produce citizens who have the reading, math, and science skills to meet the evolving needs of society... The chief purpose of education is to help towards filling in framework which is made up of the talents and capabilities that each individual posse… to study history means to search for and discover the forces that are the cause of those results which appear before our eyes as historical event not in just remembering birth day of some ancient King..

Therefore education must help us understand the profound extent of life. It must help us become individuals that can live a life free from any form of anxiety, discrimination and trepidation. Education must prepare us for life. Our existence on earth is an assemblage of people from all walks of life. Thus we cannot simply limit our understanding of education only to formal academic education. We have to co-habit and understand the tenets and canons of a happy and peaceful co-existence. This should definitely come from a structured well thought out set-up of education but it must also come from an education that we derive through observation, experiences and influences in life. Education should generate the overall growth and development of an individual. A quote from Aristotle sums up all: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” As much as it is important to arm and educate our minds it is equally important to educate our hearts as well. Let us all educate ourselves to realise the value and worth of our fellow beings as much as we value and treasure our individual hearts and minds.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
  Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
 If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
 And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
 Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools:


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
 And risk it on one turn of pitchandtoss,
 And lose, and start again at your beginnings
 And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
 To serve your turn long after they are gone,
 And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
 Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
 With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
 Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son...

--- Rudyard Kipling

Karvan Guzar Gaya

स्वप्न झरे फूल से,
मीत चुभे शूल से,
लुट गये सिंगार सभी बाग़ के बबूल से,
और हम खड़ेखड़े बहार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे!

नींद भी खुली न थी कि हाय धूप ढल गई,
पाँव जब तलक उठे कि ज़िन्दगी फिसल गई,
पातपात झर गये कि शाख़शाख़ जल गई,
चाह तो निकल सकी न, पर उमर निकल गई,
गीत अश्क बन गए,
छंद हो दफन गए,
साथ के सभी दिऐ धुआँधुआँ पहन गये,
और हम झुकेझुके,
मोड़ पर रुकेरुके
उम्र के चढ़ाव का उतार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे।
क्या शबाब था कि फूलफूल प्यार कर उठा,
क्या सुरूप था कि देख आइना मचल उठा
थाम कर जिगर उठा कि जो मिला नज़र उठा,
एक दिन मगर यहाँ,
ऐसी कुछ हवा चली,
लुट गयी कलीकली कि घुट गयी गलीगली,
और हम लुटेलुटे,
वक्त से पिटेपिटे,
साँस की शराब का खुमार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे।
हाथ थे मिले कि जुल्फ चाँद की सँवार दूँ,
होठ थे खुले कि हर बहार को पुकार दूँ,
दर्द था दिया गया कि हर दुखी को प्यार दूँ,
और साँस यूँ कि स्वर्ग भूमी पर उतार दूँ,
हो सका न कुछ मगर,
शाम बन गई सहर,
वह उठी लहर कि दह गये किले बिखरबिखर,
और हम डरेडरे,
नीर नयन में भरे,
ओढ़कर कफ़न, पड़े मज़ार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे!
माँग भर चली कि एक, जब नई नई किरन,
ढोलकें धुमुक उठीं, ठुमक उठे चरनचरन,
शोर मच गया कि लो चली दुल्हन, चली दुल्हन,
गाँव सब उमड़ पड़ा, बहक उठे नयननयन,
पर तभी ज़हर भरी,
गाज एक वह गिरी,
पुँछ गया सिंदूर तारतार हुई चूनरी,
और हम अजानसे,
दूर के मकान से,
पालकी लिये हुए कहार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे।

– गोपालदास नीरज

Words & Silence

     I’m amazed with relationship between two methods of communication… communication with words and silence. Have you ever used silence to make a point? Then only you understand how very powerful this communication tool can be… Even In today’s marketing world Silence proved itself a very powerful tool Recharge your battery...

     Being able to use the sound of silence is one of the greatest conversational arts. Our ability to be quiet may confirm that we are intensely interested in what is being said. I heard some where “Most of us know how to say nothing; few of us know when to let our silence speak louder.” Silence allows us to speak with ourselves and regain our strength to fight back…. All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms…

    'Be still,' said Jesus, 'and know that I am God.' in bible Jesus mentioned it several time… Feelings of love or other emotions are always shared with silence … Quietness always proved itself very powerful sword…

     Last week I read an article in which, they mentioned that we are so much habitual Of noise in our life. We spent hours in front of TV just to have some noise in our life rather than doing something fruitful.

     And we all know about power of words –some time only one word makes great difference… Whether within our own thoughts, spoken or written, words have the power to transform the world we live in… Several time I faced myself in situation when I call someone with nothing to say, or to say nothing that’s on my mind…. Selection of words to express feeling is very important otherwise I feel neither silence nor words can convey your message... And I think we don’t like to be dumb up to that extent so use these swords to have win and win situation always…

Purpose of Education

Actually yesterday this one started in a very strange manner, we were watching news at our room… then I came to know exams of CBSE board have been started… First of all I want to wish all the best to students who are appearing in board exams this year… And then suddenly a question came into my mind which I want to share with you all... What is the purpose of education? Why we invest around 15 years to earn education …? I think first most answer would be to earn bread & butter … Is this ALL? Most of us would be agree with no that’s not all…Idealistically emphasize that education should produce citizens who are politically informed, environmentally conscious, and capable of critical thinking… Is our education system doing so???

I think no, since last few years I am habitual to news of suicide of students why so... why our child is not capable in bearing little pressure?? In modern age we have converted life a race, everyday we start racing with everybody, even with ourselves. It’s we who forget real meaning of education; we want our child must be first in his/her class or age group. We force him/her various ways comparing with other kids, even sometime with punishment also … But it’s not only parents fault alone… somewhere structure of education system is also responsible for parents this behavior… to get admission for higher education like in engineering or medical our kid has to fight with lots of thing like percentage cutoff, reservation etc, etc, etc … as parents we want to give our kids better future so we pressurize them to get more and more percentage so that by no other means they should left to get admission, in this race we get people with Good degree and may be with great percentage in their mark sheets but we loose great thinkers and good human beings. I would say for human society that’s a great loss. Education should produce citizens who have the reading, math, and science skills to meet the evolving needs of society... The chief purpose of education is to help towards filling in framework which is made up of the talents and capabilities that each individual posse… to study history means to search for and discover the forces that are the cause of those results which appear before our eyes as historical event not in just remembering birth day of some ancient King… the art if reading and studying consist of remembering the essentials and forgetting what is not essential , remembering that ancient kings birth date can give us good marks in mark sheet but that will not give us great IAS , good politician and engineers of human race.. I think we should re consider our priorities what our society needs in future … and re-architect our education system to make worth our childhood learnings And this is my suggestion to our students also; guys never ever give up … If everybody will be broken in single defeat we would never have Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Alva Edison, Sir Isaac Newton and many more … Every defeat consists of several lessons for future success...