Grow Something Good

There once was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

This farmer was very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow something good, we must help our neighbors to grow something good


This was shared by my colleague and I wanted to share this to my group.

Spread this to your wider audience and lets grow something good :-)

Trek to Tree Top

Last Saturday, ISACA Singapore Chapter had organized a Tree Top event for the members and I decided to participate to have a flavor and make new friends

We reached venus Car Drive around 8:30 AM and filled the Registration Forms. ISACA Caps along with water Bottles were provided  and were divided in to 6 teams of 5 members each.

We slowly started walking as a group around 9 AM, in to the silent and serene part of nature where one could experience stillness.  It was a 7KM walk amidst nature/ fantastic scenic view and  above all an excellent morning workout.  The Team members from ISACA included expats from Thailand, Malaysia, India and many more countries including native Singaporeans.  It was good to talk and understand more about the hobbies/culture and lifestyles of people from different countries.  On the runway, we also saw amateur photographers who carried sophisticated cameras that could easily weigh around 10kgs. On enquiry, we found that they come every weekend to spend the morning to catch a glimpse of frogs and some rare insects. Looking at that , I felt that these guys are living life and making it rich by doing what they really loved.

Sign boards/ Milestone posts were positioned at regular intervals to measure progress and understand the time required to complete the trip.  The event also had a competion to arrive at the best Photos shot up using iPhone/Android phones during our trek. Win from our team was pretty focussed in taking click after click at some of rare sights and made sure that we had a head start to win it big :)  Ravi shared insights about how the ecosystem of Singapore worked and also provided suggestions on other natural spots to venture.
Overall the discipline and approach to give health a top priority was evident among native Singaporeans and also with people who have stationed here for years.

After about 1.5 hours, we arrived at the Tree Top with some breath taking views and fascinating scenic landscape. The team rushed to take photos of everyone and also those important tourist attraction. Sounds of Cricket was clearly heard from underneath. We then walked over the long narrow Tree Top section and started moving ahead.  We then reached slowly and steadily to our end destination.

We resumed back to our starting place within 11:30 AM and were feeling really hungry. Seema and Andrew discussed about the Job Market and perspectives around Banking for ITSM professionals.Once all were ready, Car pooling was done to take us to the Western Bar to have our Lunch. Being a Vegetarian was a challenge as the buffet did not have choices for Vegetarian. However, the organizers made sure that they had ordered a special pasta/vegetarian dish for couple of us and to be honest, it was prepared very well.

As we completed our lunch, it was time to reveal the photos that took the winning place. All of the photos shot from the teams using iPhone/Android phones were submitted to Shirley.  Dave then displayed his Photos taken during the trip on a Slide Show mode on the screen available within the restaurant. With all photos looking good, organizers decided to go for Voting System and guess what?  Team 2 and Team 5 ended in a tie. The Organizers then called both the teams in front, reran the photos once again with the members and finally picked Team 2 as winners. We claimed as 1st Runners. - This is dedicated to Win who made that happen. Overall it was a splendid and remarkable experience attending this trek and hats of Dave who  managed this whole effort seamlessly. We look forward to more such events from ISACA

Consulting - What makes it interesting?

After respite of 2 years, it is a welcome sign to get back to Consulting.  Looking back there are no regrets for the different roles that have come across before this assignment.

Doing a Process/transformational Consulting is a different ball game for the simple fact that you make or break based on how your meet the Customer expectation day in and day out face-face.

Over the period of years, what matters most is not only your technical or functional expertise but how you moderate/facilitate your workshops/client engagements. This means  taking control  of the situation and achieving the desired outcomes of the meeting.

Culture, Seniority and above all baggage that Customers carry have a significant impact on the way you would be challenged/ridiculed or even cornered.

The art to deal with it would be to change the styles of operation tactfully without offending the audience but making the point firm.  Everyone wants to be heard and like to position themselves as experts and the least they expect is advising them that they are wrong.

To get them nod to your view point requires skillful play to get it verbalized through them without they being aware that you created a plot to trap them get to the agreement.

Communication (Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues), listening skills and ability to present the point lucidly and succinct are key attributes to win at work place

Making the Customer and Consultant collaborate like Partners and  establishing personal rapport will help in a long way to achieve win-win results.  At the end of the day if we put ourself in to the shoes of our customers and understand the view point, it makes so much easy to design/package and deliver to make Customer delight a reality.

Living away from Family

After a long time, the situation has come to be away from my family for work @ another Country.

It is tough to get through this phase from both ends. My son who is @5 wants someone to play with him physically run around/jump and spend quality time

Thanks to Skype and othe social tools to hook up and talk to them over an hour, cracking jokes and pulling legs.

Emotions take a toll when you are away. No one to vent out your feelings/frustrations and share your moments. I have come to understand that the physical presence of you dear ones can make you quite relaxed and acts as real stress buster

Listening to the family, doing group activity with them, Going out together and above all developing the bond during family time is something that I sorely miss.

At the end of the day, it is not all about work/money. It is about spending your time with your near and dear ones/Supporting them and creating a positive and fostering environment to laugh loud, play and achieve the status of Blessed Family.

The upside aspect is that it has given me the insight and rigor to make sure I fully utilize and enjoy the time I will spend with family and make it a memorable one for years to come.

Singapore - Quick Review

I have been to Singapore earlier on a tourist visa for 3 days where we did visit the places of interest and flew back.

This time, I got an oppportunity to come on an Employment Pass for 3 months and this post is about my quick review of what this place is all about...

The City ranks very high among Citizens/Expats and Mobile crowd for 2 distict reasons. 1. Cleanliness 2. Security/Low Crime rate

This is particulary true and have observed females going about without inhibitions alone past midnight.

The Public transport is outstanding considering the tie up with MRT(Train) and SMRT buses.

People are quite cordial and helpful and everyone speaks English. But you cannot get away with "la" at the end... Ok la... :)

Rentals are pretty exorbitant and the residentship is of two types. HDB (Housing Development Board -Govt apartments) and Condos (Privately owned)

There are rooms let out for shared purpose. i.e)If you have a Master Bed Room and 2 Single Rooms , they share the Single Rooms separately and also Master Bed Room and make the agreement done

House Agents/Brokers get a month of rental as deposit and tenure is either 1 year or more. The More the tenure, better the bargaining potential. 1-2 months advance as deposit and pay in advance while occupying the posession.

China Town and Little India have domination of the respective Countries. Lot of Indian Restaurants and particularly south indian cusines are well in demand.

Work wise, people are hardworking and they are quite reserved. They (Native Singaporeans) do not socialize much with other members from foreign countries.

Weather is little humid with showers intermittently varying between 28- 32 degree Celsius all through the year.

There are lot of artificial monuments/sight seeings and less number of natural spots.. Hope to post more as I spend some time @ the Asian Hub in the days to come.