kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

This post was originally published on Digimantra.com

This post is a quick note about one of my favorite sites – ManyBooks.Net. ManyBooks is an archive of a number of Project Guttenberg, Public Domain and Creative Commons etexts. What it thus becomes is a library of classic literature and text (starting from Vigil and Herodotus, to the contemporary) on and around culture, literature and the humanities.You will find many a number of historical and cultural classics here. All cahced on the Amazon S3 and rendered into a number of formats as per your request. There are 24,144 eBooks available here in about 59 categories, all for free.

This post was originally published on Digimantra.com

This is not a poem, this is a philosophy.

Never tickle the sleeping panda
‘coz then the panda awakens.
The panda, then, feels hungry
and, the panda eats bamboo.
Then, there is not enough bamboo,
to make paper, and,
so there are no more books.

How will, then, you fall asleep?

I hopes you understand it (while i eats some caek)! :D

It so happens, in day to day life, that we stumble upon some piece of news, some stuff, that makes us feel like shit. We blame the system. We say the nation is going to its doom. We blame the government. The Media. The Herd-like crowd. Everyone. Everyone, but ourselves.

And we proclaim, nothing good can be done for this nation. And though I write this for my nation – India, it stands true for almost all nations. After all, who doesn’t like to find faults. And if truth be told, I love to crib a lot.

Such one day, I was cribbing about my nation with my friends. How various evils, various negatives haunt India and what should be done for it. We talked about a lot of issues – poverty, illiteracy, environmental concerns, corruption, morality, mortality, media etc. A lot of things. And all we kept concluding was: “The government won’t get things done. It’s all concerned with being in power”. And we were not just talking about the current Congress power. We were quite indifferent to what political party is in power. It’s the same everywhere.
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Dear Reader,

I intend to tell you a secret – my secret. Kindly keep it with you. One of man’s biggest fantasies has always been to time travel. Since the era of the magi and the witches to the dawn of science and its zenith, we have, time and again, deliberated upon and considered the issue of time travel. Deviously tried to devise solutions and achieve the exemplary act of time travel. To no avail, of course. Until now, I must add.

I claim to have conducted one small time travel expedition. Ask me no questions and I won’t tell no lies. So this is all I will tell you: I developed a time travel machine which excessively used quartz, a not so uncommon mineral resource as fuel and the principle was based extensively on the Special Theory of Relativity. Whatsoever its composition, it worked. I can say that, since I have used it. Yes! I did travel using this contraption of mine and travelled far into future. Well, not so far.
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Johari window is a management concept which describes a person’s personality in terms of two variables: Attributes known to self and Attributes known to others. On the basis of these two, the personality of any individual is defined in terms of four specific windows:

1. Facade: Attributes known to self, not known to any one else
2. Arena: Attributes known to self, also known to others
3. Blind Spot: Attributes not known to self, but known to others
4. Unknown: Attributes known to no one.

It makes an excellent exercise to build one’s own Johari Window; it is also a useful tool for self-discovery and self-improvement. Read more about Johari Window.

During my graduation, we used to conduct a small exercise in class. On any given day, we would select a single student and for the next ten minutes the class would contemplate about him and then on a small chit of paper, write some positive and negative points about the individual. This is a primitive implementation of the Johari Window. Though an interesting exercise, it was not done on a regular basis and hardly beyond a frequency of about five times.

On a particular day, I was made subject to this exercise. Out of a class of 60, I got a total of 43 replies of which I have been able to preserve about 9 chits (it has been over 4 years since this exercise was conducted). It was quite true to what I was then, to an extent it is true for what I am today too. I share these 9 chits with you today (I have added my own remarks in parentheses with every chit):

1. The first chit lists my positive attributes as: “Very helpful during exams, down to earth, and helpful”; while my negative traits are: “shakl achchi nahi hai (does not have a pretty face), chashma bahut bada hai (wears glasses of a big frame), shave nahi karta (does not shave)”… Okay, a bad chit to start with…
2. The second chit does not see any negative in me, it says Kinshuk is “good in studies and hard working”.
3. The next chit also doesn’t see any negative traits in me, strangely it doesn’t see anything positive either. it simply states some of my behaviours. Kinshuk is, it says, a “man of principles and values, always talks of philosophy, and has a different perspective to life”. Hmm….
4. The next chit is a wise one. according to it, I am a “typical bihari, our own joker, and very intelligent”. That means either I have a good sense of humour, or an extremely pathetic sense of humour so as my follies make others laugh; silly me.
5. The next one stays true to the exercise, a bit. It says, my positive traits are: “punctual, intelligent, and helpful” and my negative traits are: “hairless (??), too outspoken, and always raising questions”. Now, outspoken-ness has always been a big problem of mine.
6. The next one again skips my negative traits (I love all my classmates). My positive traits, according to it are: “computer mechanic (must mean skilled in computers), always lives in technical world (trying to be geek), sentimental towards Bihar and —– (knowing my classmates, must be ‘girls’; how and why, escapes me), and motivator (a-ha!)”.
7. The seventh chit is critical of me and also tries to state facts about me. It says: Kinshuk is “argumentative, changes words very oftenly (I am quoting the exact wordings from the chits), is mad for something he himself doesn’t know, is very rational and logical, and wants to be a very true human being”.
8. The next one finds me praiseworthy: Kinshuk is “decent, helpful, soft spoken, good in studies, jolly, and small in size (err…)”.
9. The next one looks like a person who didn’t know me well, for they attempted to copy what the person writing the 8th chit had to say: Kinshuk is “decent, helpful, soft spoken, good in studies, and [some scribbling]“. Perhaps, they ran out of time.

I would recommend such activity to you but with some alterations. An effective Johari exercise should be conducted:

• In small groups. Don’t go for a huge sample of 60 students. Do it with a group of 4-7 friends. Repeat it with a number of such groups.
• Prefer people who know you well, but do not exclude people who have just got to know you. First impression, after all, is the last impression.
• Be honest and sincere. Take all criticism positively.
• Don’t try to suck up to people; Don’t try to impress them or be in their good books; Don’t try to be too harsh or over-critical. You are ruining the exercise.
• Document all results.

I found an online solution that simplifies this process to an extent. There is a web application developed by Kevan Davies (at Kevan.org) that provides you your own Johari Window. In fact, Kevan went a step further and created another application of Johari Window, which he calls Nohari Window. The first application is your Johari Window for your positive traits or Virtues. The Nohari Window is your Johari Window for Negative Traits.

You can find my Johari Window and Nohari Window at these individual locations.

Feel free to share your experiences with Johari Windows, suggested exercise, or anything else for that matter.