Mission accomplished

Sep 10

I dedicate today's blog to two of my course - mates, who have accomplished the Missions they set themselves in their own inimitable styles. It all started off a few weeks back. In fact their achievements are so mind blowing that I would be doing a disservice if I did not tackle them individually.

                           Gp Capt GJ Rao and Mrs GJ Rao

The world suicide day is observed today every year. Why September 10? There seems to be no apparent reason as to why this particular day . But it is indeed commendable that the awareness of prevention of suicide is made public to help people to recognise the signs of suicide and help prevent it . In this respect my coursemate and fellow toiler GJ Rao has spared any effort. In the period since the beginning of the course, he has been working tirelessly to contribute to the prevention of suicide. He has made the government of Telangana accept his model of prevention of suicide. His efforts have culminated in the 

State of Telangana accepting the grim reality

 that suicides are a part of life and have to be prevented. He has released a paper in this respect and 104 has been now accepted the official number for counselling/ calling for all people who are desperate enough to feel the urge to commit suicide. After finally having completed his task he came back to ASCI to report to us his succes. We are proud of the fact that one of us has done some work which is useful to the public in general. In a relaxed frame of mind he is finally a satisfied man.

When The Going Gets Tough , The Tough Get Going

Sivaram  has not been far behind. Sivaram's passion is bicycling. He started bicycling a few years back just to keep fit. It has now become his mainstay and in addition to bcycling he has done extensive research on the subject. In the past three years in Hyderabad he has been a familiar sight on the roads of Hyderabad. In fact he knows the places where he  has been posted like the back of his hand - thanks to cycling. Not unlike the belts in karate this event also has stages of 100, 200, 400 and 600 kms. The mega event sometimes called the blue riband is the Paris - Brest- Paris 1200 km Brevet or the randonneuer, started in 1890. It is now a non competitive endurance test. Sivaram has been preparing for this 600 kms event for some time and has at last accomplished this Mission. It involves a lot of mental and physical toughness and as is evident he possesses both in plenty - and as the newspaper clipping will testify, of the 29 cyclists who attempted this only 12 completed it. Kudos to Sivaram for putting youngsters to shame; He is 53 years old.Finally about class. We can imagine what a tough job the ASCI is facing when we attended the trade union class. Prof Swarnalata gave us a sample as to how trade unions function .We had a mock session with regard to negotiating the deal with the trade union. I suppose that trade unions all over feel that the management is the only entity which is enjoying the fruits of the labor of any organisation. Even in the mock session it was amply proved that the trade unions had a single point agenda - that of not agreeing with the management. No amount of pleading , cajoling or reasoning seemed to work with the union. It was all or nothing . Tempers ran high (remember it was a mock session) and the class ended on a frustrating note with no common understanding in sight. Lessons learnt were many including the one that it does not pay to lose temper.

The afternoon was devoted to Indira Nooyi and how communication played a big part in her success. Prof Swarnalata left no stone un turned to see that the lessons were hammered into our psyche. Her teaching methods are fresh and innovative, We indeed are fortunate to have her teaching us communication . By the end of her capsule it is a given that our comminication skills will improve manifold...