My Top Songs for 2009

Continuing my tradition of listing my favorite songs for a year, I'm presenting 'My favorite songs' for 2009... As always my criterion is worth being listened to again and again

1. Panchadara bomma - magadheera

2. Uppenantha ee prema ki - Arya -2

3. Povodhe prema - Oy

4. Neetho unte- Josh

5. Ila entha sepu - Sashirekha parinayam

6. Anandama - Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kashtam

7. Naalo nenena - Baanam

8. Tanemando ando ledo - Ganesh

9. Atu Nuvve Itu nuvve- Current

10. Muddugare yashoda - Village lo Vinayakudu

Other very good songs.. :)

1. Seheri - Oy

2. Bommalee - Billa

3. Oy oy - Oy

4. gundello guitar - Ek Niranjan

5. amma ledu - Ek Niranjan

6 Meghama -prayanam

Top songs for 2008

The Year that was - 2009 .. And a Happy New Year 2010

Image by b. inxee♪♫ via Flickr

2009 is a very eventful year for me. I have much to thank for and much to learn from this year.

Personally, it was a roller coaster from happiness to sadness to grief to happiness again. I got married this year and career wise also it was good growth. More than ever, there is more clarity that you have no excuses for not doing what you want to do. I am thankful for a loving wife, and wonderful friends in my life.

I have vacillated between contributing back to the society by various forms like volunteering for teaching, contributing money etc and going back on it due to lack of time or interest. And my new year will be the year of learning and sharing where the emphasis will be more on giving. And as on every Jan 1, the resolution of exercising daily does make an appearance. I hope I would be able to act on it this year. I think I will find more time for personal growth this year to run marathons, join new degree or venture into raw foods.

Regarding the other things which capture my mind, there have been quite a few wins like the introduction of nano car, Indian team becoming the number one test team. In Hyderabad, the PVNR express way was opened which gave me some cheer. As PC, the home minister said we were really lucky to get away in this year without a terrorist attack on any of our cities. This year will be remembered as the year of economic recession, but there are very good signs that economy is back on track. Even as the Indian govt says that inflation is reducing, the cost of food grains especially rice and pulses is steeply rising, which is a cause for concern. This year saw the reelection of congress both in center and in the state. But what I have been disappointed is the apathy of the voters in rejecting good parties (LokSatta) by staying away from voting and allowing the other parties a free run to run their corrupt show. The GHMC elections later this year was also a rude shock to me and to LokSatta as it proves that clean politics doesn't have a place. But I being eternally hopeful, am hoping that Loksatta will learn from its mistakes and grow its grass roots support. This year saw Chiranjeevi entering politics and is just learning. This year saw the end of YSR, who was a man of the masses but despised by many. The Telangana movement, which was down due to the strong leadership of YSR, came back to haunt the congress and the centre which has done flip flops and now it is seriously hurting the prospects of a United AP. The BJP has gone from bad to worse and is facing a serious leadership crisis. Google's Android continues to capture mindshare and market share from other mobile platforms. Google's wave launches but fails to gather mindshare. Twitter matures and I also have become a little more active on twitter in sharing links.

After living through the year, I somehow feel I am coming closer to the 'SthithaPragna' state defined by Sri Krishna in Geeta. As I have written elsewhere in this blog, the amount of goodness and badness in the world is same, if you feel that you can change the world it is just your innocence. It is that in helping the world to change, you are helping yourself. Hence I have already started to take all what comes with equanimity but ofcourse always working to get a desired outcome.

I want to end this post with serenity prayer which was told to me by Ketan in his comment to the 2009 new year post

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Wishing you a happy new year 2010

My New Year Resolutions

Its new year time again and it is time for resolutions.. :)

1. Health:

wake up at 6 am daily

Exercise and run daily

Run a half marathon

Drink a smoothie daily (almost)

2. Career

Avoid multitasking as much as possible

Do the best with what you have - not a smart goal - just qualitative ( Should have zero issues with my work )

Join another degree - either political science or Green energy

3. Relations

Strengthen relations with existing friends with emphasis on giving

Develop relations with people in fields of interest ( alt energy, raw foods, music, pd)

Go to a trip with family once

4. Finances

Earn 30 lakhs :)

5. Personal

Write 60 blog posts atleast

Write a short story and publish it.

Read atleast 10 books this year and write the reviews

Apply and use 'Ten faces of innovation' in work to have atleast one innovation.

Avatar - A visual Treat

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I watched the much awaited James Cameroon movie Avatar and true to it stands true to what has been said about it. It is a visual masterpiece. The story premise is simple. There are lot of themes in the story but that is not what makes it a must watch.

He created an absolutely believable CG world. There are Navis and other fauna of the jungle, the modified dogs, which look villianous, some other varieties of animals, the birds on which the Na'vi people fly are also amazing. But the most wowwwwwwwwing things are the flora on the planet. The plant life showed will take your breath away. The glittering plants, the tree where the souls of the dead Na'vi lie is superb. The mountains and waterfalls are also amazing.

In the middle of the movie, humans attack the planet and there is destruction everywhere and the resemblence of the damaged Pandora to earth is unmistakable. Cameroon hits his point home with the appearance of the planet before and after the war. By the time the first strike happens, you will be rooting for the Na'vi and their breath taking world and earthlings feel villians to us.

The hero after a few visits to the Na'vi world says " The forest looks so real , whereas this world (The world of Humans) looks fake to me". After the movie ends I was having the same thoughts craving for more of Pandora and their beautiful environs:)

I watched it in a 2D theatre and definitely plan to watch it in 3-D.

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Book Review: Hyderabad - Narendra Luther

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With the issue of Telangana boiling in Andhra Pradesh, I just chanced upon a book called Hyderabad, a biography of Hyderabad written by Narendra Luther.

It is an account of Hyderabad from its beginnings till now. It starts with the building of Golconda fort till the debacle of the IT chief minister of the state ChandraBabu naidu.

I learnt a lot of interesting things about Hyderabad from that book.

> Md. Quli was the person who built Hyderabad. There was just a small settlement at the banks of river Musi before that. He built it exactly where he saw and married Bhagmati, his lover.

> There were two dynasties who ruled Hyderabad. The Qutb-Shahi and the Asaf-Jahi dynasty.

> Quli's city was one of the best in the world. There were lot of garden's in and around the city. All the Baghs in Hyderabad were all gardens from his time.

> Most of the modern development in Hyderabad happened in the prime ministership of Salar Jung.

> Hyderabad was a very beautiful city even till independence. It was after independence that city expanded rapidly.

You can read some of the poetry written by the Nawabs of the time. It was a breeze to read through the book and its like a whirlwind view of that society. But I was saddened to see the the last Nizam actually didn't do much and was sidelined by the Razakars and how the last Nizam was very stingy that he offered biscuits himself that to one by one and put in them in the locker!!!

Not a must read, but you can pick it up if you want to know about Hyderabad or particularly interested about history of Golconda, Charminar.

For the telangana issue, seeing by the history, the chief ministers who ruled A.P have violated the provisions of Gentlemen agreement and hence it makes a strong case for a separate Telangana.

Separate Telangana or United Andhra - The Way Forward?

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When on Nov 29th, KCR started an indefinite fast for separation of Telangana from AP, no one would have thought that he will get it. But the congress govt. surprised everyone by announcing the formation of Telangana state on Dec 9th. All the parties namely TDP,PRP and the left except the Congress were supportive of the Telangana cause then. All the parties have done a volte face and started working towards Unified Andhra pradesh...

Assembly is adjourned sine die and there is no work that is going on in the state. Most of the MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema region have resigned and they are working towards a united Andhra Pradesh.

Looking at the historical facts that surround Telangana, it is clear that having a separate state is good for Telangana and the need is also there. Time and Time all the promises made to Telangana have been violated and the situation is right for a separate Telangana.

But there is no movement on the issue, what can be done - The Centre has to invite TRS and the leaders from the united movement to come for a discussion. As TRS leaders say that they will wait till 2014 elections for Telangana, the Centre can ask for certain demands of Telangana which will be fulfilled by 2014 and implement all the guarantees of the 'Gentlemen Agreement' given during the formation of AP. Centre can broker that peace deal such that if those conditions are not met, the United leaders have to peacefully agree for separation and if all the guarantees and safeguards are implemented, then I think the Telangana movement will die down peacefully.

Its time of redemption for Telangana people and they have to be convinced that staying together will be best course of action for all involved and not only for Andhra people who have invested in Hyderabad. That way the situation can be resolved amicably.

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Music Reco - Leader

It has been a long time since I have shared some good music with you. Arya-2 provided some good music and after that there is no good music in the market.

Now Shekar Kammula is back with a new movie called leader and the music of the movie is very good..

Enjoy the songs :)

What can LokSatta learn from Telangana Movement?

Image via Wikipedia

Sorry folks it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post.... Just got married and hence took a small break from blogging. Not having an internet connection at home also made blogging difficult.

Anyway I am back to blogging with more passion than ever. Start reading..

Leader A:

He wanted to bring democracy back to the people. He wanted to clean politics of its murkiness. That person who left a most coveted government job of Collector to make our place corruption free. He has the best solutions to the current system's problems. He gave a guarantee that he will pay you a fine if government services are not rendered in the SLA specified. He wanted to change the face of politics as it is played now to ensure that money power cannot silence vote power. He started a movement called the second freedom movement to prove that democracy is indeed the government - by the people, to the people and for the people.

Leader B:

His record is murky. After being denied a bigger role, he came out of a party to form his own party. He just demanded for a separate state without telling what will he do if he comes to power. He became a laughingstock by talking utter gibberish. He once said he will start a fast-unto-death and had taken food by the end of the day. He broke all the promises he made to himself and to the people. He had no real agenda. Even this time, he was about to break his promise of fast-unto-death but being cornered by all the people who supported him had to undertake it.

By now you would have guessed who leader A and leader B are... Leader A is Mr.Jayaprakash Narayan(JP), the LokSatta leader and leader B is Mr. K.ChandraSekhar Rao (KCR), The TRS leader. These two leaders faced two tests.

Leader A, JP went all out in the recently concluded GHMC elections. But he was not able to win atleast one seat in the elections and hence he failed in the test.

Leader B, KCR had no options having got a drubbing in the recent general elections, didn't even contest in the GHMC elections. He took a way out in doing fast-unto-death. And he turned into a hero for a yet to be formed new state.

How did this happen? Person who looked credible in implementing an agenda got nowhere but a leader with the least credibility was able to achieve a big thing. Though I know that Telangana is a cause whose time has come and it was just crystallized because of KCR's efforts and it was not created just because KCR fought for it is one thing. I think there are a couple of things which LokSatta can learn from the success of KCR.

1. Elections are won on charisma: In the general elections, JP won because he had the charisma in LokSatta. No other leader had that charisma except Rathiah of Vignan, who had lost too we will see the reason in a minute. If someother person other than KCR would have done that fast-unto-death, I am not sure if the Delhi Durbar would have responded so promptly with the announcement.

2. An Emotional Connect is required: KCR had an emotional connect with the people of Telangana on the issue whereas, though each person hopes to get all the above in the agenda of Loksatta, nobody was really hopeful of getting it and was not really emotionally invested in its success. Loksatta needs to do more grassroots work to build up that emotional connect by telling how implementing each can change their lives.

3. Market it so that people make it their cause: KCR had to do just a little, most of the work was done by the student unions who created a war type situation in the state as they identified Telangana as their cause. So Loksatta has to market itself in such a way that people feel good governance as their cause. I couldn't but quote Seth Godin here - 'You are a marketer whereever you are' KCR is a better marketer than JP.

Hope LokSatta learns these lessons and grow from grassroots now so that it can win in the next elections.

I love Tumblr

Tumblr is a blogging software and I am loving using it. how is it different from other blogging platforms?

It is more a platform for sharing quotes, pictures and links we like more than writing long blog posts

It makes sharing quotes so easier - Just select some text on the page and click the share on Tumblr bookmarklet and a quote type of post is shared on tumblr.

It has lovely themes - more stunning themes than in blogger

These two things have made me love it.. Now I use delicious for saving and sharing good links (Delicious automatically posts to twitter). Twitter has a 140 character limit and everything is a url where we have to click to see it, Tumblr simply helps aggregate all the good content in one place.

Just take a look and may be you will also like it very much.

This is my tumblog: http://ananth.tumblr.com/

Check it and let me know your comments.

Ninnu Choosi Vennele anukunna... Lovely Lyrics

The lyrics of Happy Days songs are excellent...



Songs could be listened easily but there are some bit songs which we have to listen only in the movie... I always loved them and hum them...



First one plays when Chandu sees Madhu in a half-saree...



"ninna choosi vennele anukunna
monna kooda ninnala kalaganna
adigetu padutunna
tanavaipelutunna
kunukaina raani samayaana
kanu mooste chalu tamarena
pena vesukunna pranayamuna yamunaa teerana"



Second one is when he tries to patch up with Madhu but he is unsuccessful



"ningi loni taraga neevunna
nelakande daarule choostunna
eduruga nenunnna
eragavu kaastaina
oka manasu tapana choosaina
odi cheravela o lalana
alajadulu bayatapadutunna avuna kaadanna..


kariga oka theepi kalaga..migila eenadu shilaga..
musirey nee oohalanni.. saakshalugaa.. "





What a lovely feel... :)



Thanks to Kaburloi Kaburlu for the lyrics

Is it Never Too Late or Is it ?

Sometimes things go wrong in our life or there are times when we think back to a decision we made with a regret that we would have not made it.

And if you really want to make a change, it is really never too late. But the too late is dependent on the expectations you have created for others either knowingly or unknowingly. If you know the right thing to do, then this is what you can do if you feel it is too late.

1. Have a conversation with the parties involved: - Clearly explain why do you want to reverse a decision or a commitment. Explain to them how it helps them. Explain why do you think it is the best thing to do for you. Explain why this is the only thing you want to do.

2. Be committed to your decision:- You may want to change or revert a decision but even after telling all your points the other parties are convinced it is not the best of your decisions and keep pressurizing you to maintain the status quo. But you should not give up then but stick to your decision.

3. Make the outcome your decision: - Now after those deliberations and due to the new views which you have garnered, you take a decision which might be the one you might have originally wanted to revert back or vice versa, own up your decision and act accordingly. Understand that too much water has passed under the bridge and now do full justice to the new decision.

Remember as George Elliot says it, " It is never too late for you to be the person you always wanted to be "

Ciao until next time.. :)

A really useful related post: It is never too late

Celebrating the 100th Post.. Thanks to you

My Blogging Journey

I think I created my first blog in 2006. I thought it was a good way to make money. I think I was inspired from oniondosa.blogspot.com which was a blog about telugu movies. I created a blog (I dont remember the name) and wrote the review of movie Pokiri which I saw then and published. That was the only post in that blog. After that I couldn't continue it. Then I read many tech blogs which I still read today (Techcrunch, Gigaom, AVC) etc and then I was really hooked. I became so excited that my first post when I started this blog, my first post was My most visited websites in 2006. In January 2007, when I started this blog, I wrote about 18 posts on various topics.. Tech posts, recommendations, hot news, movie reviews etc.. but then the steam went out soon. In February there were no posts at all. And in 2007 I wrote just three more posts two in May and one in June. I restarted blogging again in October 2008 with emphasis on sharing what was going on in my mind and to share good links with everyone. I have gone pretty much strong from then with many posts on various topics. The topics which interested me was life, how to lead a good life, what is the aim of life and explored about relationships like love and friendship, social obligations like marriage and monogamy, my reactions on current topics like Mumbai attack, death of YSR, satyam fiasco and general elections and lyrics for a various songs I liked and enjoyed and reviews of books I have read and movies I have seen. Apart from these, I have written reactions to blog posts by various other authors like Seth Godin, Arundhati Roy etc.

The most popular post in this blog is a post of lyrics of the song Seheri in Oy movie. There are 22 comments in that, ofcourse half of them mine, but I was really happy about the way people have curated the lyrics and we ended up creating the complete lyrics. It was the first result in google for it then and it drove the traffic to the blog.

This blog is mostly a collection of thoughts which I think, of music, books, poems and lyrics and movies which I like and thoughts of other people which I am inspired to share.

Thank You All

I want to thank you all for visiting the blog and commenting. Your comments are the boost for my blog posts. I want to thank Ketan, Vyshu, Srinivas, Raj, Saandeep, Sukumar, Vidya for regularly visiting and commenting on my blog. I would like to thank Susheel and Sharath for trying to understand the fast lyrics of Seheri and posting here. Keep visiting the blog and leave your valuable comments for discussion.

The Simplest Way To Live Life - And the Happiest

As you know, life as in 'how to live the best life' is my favorite topic to write on this blog.

And after writing these many posts about that, I feel that I have been getting more clarity on most important things...

To summarize,

What is life?

Life is essentially meaningless and it is we (I, and the society around me) try to assign meaning to it. Nothing is permanent and hence everything will be lost one day or the other. (Still some probing going on my mind here. - Like what about the legacy people leave after they go. Remember: If we are able to see further, it is because of standing on the shoulders of giants)

The Easiest Way to Live

So now the latest question is what is the easiest way to live - The easiest way to live is to do the things that naturally come to us. It might not hit you like a profound idea for the first time but think about it. What are the things from your childhood till now which made you happy. There are many assortment of things but you felt happy when you did things which you were drawn to. And doing things which we are interested already is very easy isn't it?

But the problem arises when we allow the society to assign meaning to our life and then trying to reach it in a way which is unnatural to you. It is then that life becomes difficult. So it is our responsibility to make sure we are not programmed by the society to do things which we are not natural to us.

Though it is not always possible to only do things which we love to do, we should make sure that one typical day contains activities which do excite us.

Sometimes to do things we like to do we may have to confront people, break existing rules and take some financial risks, but it is all worth it... Life is beautiful when things happen in the way we want to.

Overcoming Disappointments

People are very lucky if they had their way always in life and never had to feel disappointed, but generally we all might have faced some disappointment or the other. The best way to get over our disappointment is acceptance. Accepting the situation as it is is the best way to overcome disappointment. Acceptance doesn't mean we will cry for the rest of the time. No, what it means is to understand and accept what is the current situation. Then question ourselves what can we do about that now. If there is any action that we could take now which can change our situation - Just take it then and there. Else - just accept the situation. Accepting the current situation would help us make the best of the remaining life. Though, acceptance doesn't come easy, I have seen that letting the past be, is the best we can do in the present to make the best for our future.

Easiest way to live is the natural way, doing whatever comes to us naturally without having to struggle to do it.

But if you ever have to do something against it, then make it your decision and do it smiling...

Here I remember a quote by A.R Rahman in his Oscar acceptance speech... "In my life many times I had to make a choice between love and hate. I chose love and I am here"

And finally

forgive others easily and more easily forgive yourself.... for a happier life...

Why I prefer to be an atheist?

What does following a religion give us?

Following a religion gives us hope, faith and confidence about problems which we cannot solve ourselves...and a sense of humility which is very necessary in this random world.

It also is used to give some sort of stability, checks and balances in the society so that it will not degrade..

But with extreme religion people get carried away to think that things can happen without their working, and making each and every thing in scriptures as absolute law even if it is not at all logical are the ill effects of religion. I know that there are some things which might seem illogical at this level of consciousness, but may make sense if we know more things.. Especially in the hindu culture, most of the rituals have some inner meaning which we may not decipher for some things but they do have some significance...

If we can understand that it not all necessary to follow everything which is said and follow only those that make sense to us and remember the first line..(courage, faith, hope and humility) we can have them ourselves without attributing them to a superpower.. and in that way we can even avoid the ill effects of religion.

So why atheism?

If you think closely, you can understand that what the world runs on is the survival of the fittest. You can see lot of people committing lot of sins to earn money and power. People often tell that 'God sees the truth but waits.' But nothing happens. You know lot of people who have committed sins and still go scot free in the world. And people who haven't committed any sins but are powerless suffering. I am not advocating that we do illegal and immoral things and get away with it, I say exactly otherwise. It is up to you to determine what is really illegal and what is really immoral and not depend on a religion on a text to tell you what is it. This way you will be more in control of outcomes in your life and there will be no false hope for miracles.

I know I am treading a dangerous path here, because life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And by saying I don't believe in miracles, I am setting myself in a path where I will never see miracles. Okay so how many of you readers have seen something extraordinary, something unnatural or something miraculous, not which was told to you.. something which you have personally experienced? I haven't experienced any such thing from my childhood till now. So I have decided that there is nothing like that until proved otherwise. If it has to come with belief, then I choose not to believe because things that I have to do something to be happy in afterlife doesn't make sense to me. The fact that we have to repent for our sins committed in previous life doesn't make sense to me. The fact that I am reborn also doesn't make sense to me.. what the heck.. if I am meant to improve and reach God, why should I forget what I learnt in the last life... why cant I remember it so that I can make better progress?

I feel it is up to us to live and let live. I don't need to do that with a fear of some power overlooking me.

Let us not talk about the caste system. If such a system is proclaimed by God who chooses to distinguish between people based on birth, I don't believe him. Ok let us leave hinduism... If there is a religion which proclaims there God is true blue God and others are not, then how can you accept such God? All these things make me feel these things were only created for manipulation and power-grabbing. Hence I reject them.

Other Religions and Philosophies :

I have written previously on aim of life here,

If the sole aim of a human is to reach God or salvation or mukti whatever we call it and there is nothing else for humans to do here except worshipping God, then why should he create people at all? If God is the one who created us and wants us to reach him, then why should he create us at all? Here people talk about karma siddhanta that we are born because of the papa/punya phalas of our previous birth. Then I ask how did it accumulate its papa and punya, Initally it should have been a blank slate right? Why is he created then? Is it just that Gods wanted to see a game? Doesnt it look strange to be born freely, do what ever we want but being awarded points for being good or bad respectively, and again being born, not freely but with the points we accumulated in the previous game, and this happens cyclically till our good overwhelms the bad and we reach God. Doesnt it seem like a game and we are just coins in His hands? This is the limiting point of the theory. People argue this way too - why do you argue about where you came from, as you know the end point try to reach the end point of salvation. But when I am not convinced of the starting point, how can I be convinced of the end point?

Thus I rejected this philosophy.. 

Christian philosophy is a lot better in that sense... It doesn't bind you saying, you have to bide your time for previous sins. It just says - 'acknowledge your sins, and leave them to God and you are free.' If you are a believer, this is a lot better because you are free. What I argue is what you are technically doing is letting go of your sins, that you can do without imagining that you are giving it to a God. And it has its own misgivings.. 

If you think about what you get from religion, you will easily understand that all the good in religion can be incorporated in our life without the need for a super human being and if we reject the religion, all the unnecessary parts can also be left out.

Finally, now I don't believe in a super human being and automatically which disqualifies me from all the famous religions. Now my view of the world is something very rational (Darwinian view) to a different kind (subjective view) as explained by Buddha. Darwinian theory is a proved and very rational theory and it is true by default and I need not prove this. But I also want to explore the subjective view more to see if it is true or not.

What is my world-view?

Now, as you know our life is mostly meaningless. Don't misunderstand me.What I am trying to tell is it doesn't matter in the long run. And we always try to assign meaning to whatever we are doing as if it really matters. Yes, that is the only way we can live life, otherwise there is nothing to look forward to. But the fact that life is essentially meaningless, and it is in fact ourselves that assign meaning to it should never be forgotten. Anyway you all know that you cannot take the wealth you create or any of your possessions when you die. So what is the best way to live.. I feel that to recognize the fact that we should understand the futility of trying to living up certain standards but do what makes us happy but in the end, it doesn't matter what you did. I don't feel right cheating others to get what I want, so my philosophy is to live and let live. I don't need a religion to tell me that.

This topic has received a lot of interest in this blog. All the posts in this series

1. Aim of Life

2. Karma Yoga & Advaita vedanta

3. Waking up to a Dream - Subjective Reality

I know this is a topic which can be quite divisive, for it is concerned with beliefs and it takes a lot of questioning to reject a strongly held belief. So what do you think about this?

Reflections on YSR

YSR is the first AP chief minister to have died on duty. On a wet wednesday morning, in his wish to know the problems of people he set out, only to never return.

I never had a good opinion about the congress party. When I was first analysed the politics of the state, TDP was in power and considered Congress as a bad opposition. I expected the TDP to win in the 2004 elections but Mr YSR with strong leadership had captured the hearts of the masses to win handsomely in the elections. I was a strong supported of NCB at that time and hoped he will win with all the development he had done in AP. I strongly believe that we should work to get our food and hoped that should be the same with everyone. When YSR introduced schemes like free power I wondered whether he was doing the right thing. He started many more populist schemes which took him even closer to the masses and I kept wondering if this what people wanted. Though he had started many populist schemes, the fact kept hitting me that 1. he is using tax payer money which could have been put to a better use than giving handouts. 2. He is not solving the long term problem.

So as always i thought, he is just pandering to the people to win in the elections. But one thing changed my opinion. His scheme Arogyasri, helped lot of people to live when the outcome could have been otherwise. Though there were lot of wastage in the scheme like doctors billing more for insurance etc, it has helped save people's lives. Now should he have considered long term and developed govt hospitals and infrastructure or he has done better by saving lives. By not developing hospitals and other infrastructure, is he not responsible for creating a life threatening condition which he only solves by giving insurance for getting it cured. Though it can be argued both ways, he has done what others even didnt think of doing. The same situation was there in NCB's time also with nothing much done, YSR has atleast done something to solve the problem.

It is always a question of allocation of scarce resources... And though I prefer a methodical and thoughtful way of LokSatta in solving such problems, we have to consider the fact that though he might not have made a big difference, he had made a difference to each beneficiary of arogyasri as in the story of the person who tries to throw the star fishes in the sea. When a person remarks it doesn't matter because there are too many star fish to save, he remarks 'It makes a difference to this one.' A certified coach Hanna Cooper says it best about the conflict here

It's partially a question of where we want to put our time and resources, as individuals working to make a difference, and as a society. We want to save individual starfish, but in times of scarce resources, where can we get the most impact from what we do? While it's certainly important to help individuals in crisis, what could be done to prevent them from getting into difficulty? How could we move up stream?

YSR chose to give the resources right to the people, which made him popular with the masses.

This type of help is best done by an individual but what we want from leaders is to solve the system problems and make sure it doesnt repeat. But in Indian democracy, the visibility is to those who have the impression of having given which makes people like YSR succeed. I am not sure how our people will get to elect people who will actually think about avoiding fires rather than always just putting out the fires. Though I was very enthusiastic around last time about LokSatta who rather see it systematically, but I understand to have that public mindshare, credibility and support from the masses, the systemic approach might not be suitable.

Ysr had his share of failings too. Though I am not sure how much of it is true, there have been stories around forced conversions to christianity. If this is true, then it is a big blemish on otherwise good Chief Ministership. It is also said that he has put a christian as an EO in TTD which could have been very easily avoided and that he has encouraged alcohol in Tirumala. I being an atheist dont have problems with these things but he could have easily left them to a wiser judgement of respecting people's sensibilities.

I would not doubt the fact that YSR really cared about helping poor people whatever his methods were. The irrigation projects which he started are really one good thing. I really hope all those projects are completed and his dream of irrigating a crore hectares of land comes true.

It is not possible to satisfy everyone and YSR is not an exception to this. What he has done might not be the best that could have done with the resources he had, but it was good enough to please so many people to put him back in power. YSR will surely go down in history as the 'Man of the Masses.'

Whats a good life?

Is it a life spent in service of others?

Is it a life spent in achieving something against all odds?

Is it a life spent dutifully taking care of your family?

Is it a life spent sacrificing for the greater good?

Is it a life spent spent orderly?

Ohhh..no its not...

Isnt there something missing?

Good life is a life spent being happy,

Lucky is he who can do the above things

without losing his happiness....

Ye Dooriyan - Love Aaj Kal Lyrics.

I liked the movie Love aaj Kal very much... There is a soulful song in the movie called 'Ye Dooriyan'... I have listened to the song hundreds of times but still I want to listen to it another time...

These are the lyrics of the song...
Yeh dooriyan
Yeh dooriyan
Yeh dooriyan

In raahon ki dooriyan
Nigahon ki dooriyan
Hum rahon ki dooriyan
Fanah ho sabhi dooriyan

Kyun koi paas hai
Door hai Kyun koi
Jaane Na koi yahan pe

Aa Raha paas ya door mein ja raha
Janu na mein hoon kahan pe

Yeh dooriyan

In raahon ki dooriyan
Nigahon ki dooriyan
Hum rahon ki dooriyan
Fanah ho sabhi dooriyan



Yeh dooriyan
Yeh dooriyan


Kabhi hua yeh bhi
Khali Rahon pe bhi
Tu tha mere saath

Kabhi tujhe milke lauta
mera dil yeh khali khali haath
Yeh bhi hua kabhi
Jaise hua Aabhi
Tujhko sabhi mein paa liyaaa

Tera mujhe kar jaati hai dooriyan
Satati hain dooriyan
Tarsati hain dooriyan
Fanah ho sabhi dooriyan


Kaha bhi na mene
Nahi jeena mene
Tu jo na mila

Tujhe bhule se bhi na
Bola na mene chahun fasla

Bas fasla rahein
Ban ke kasak jo kahen
Ho aur chahat yeh aur jawan

Teri meri mit jaani hai dooriyan
Begani hai dooriyan

Hat jani hai dooriyan
Fanah ho sabhi dooriyan


Kyun koi paas hai
Door hai Kyun koi
Jaane Na koi yahan pe

Aa Raha paas ya door mein ja raha
Janu na mein hoon kahan pe

Yeh dooriyan

In raahon ki dooriyan
Nigahon ki dooriyan
Hum rahon ki dooriyan
Fanah ho sabhi dooriyan

Thanks to LyricsMasti for the lyrics.

Skid Row - I remember you lyrics

Just read the lyrics of this song and loved it.. So touching.. Hope you like them too.. :)



Woke up to the sound of pouring rain
The wind would whisper and Id think of you
And all the tears you cried, that called my name
And when you needed me I came through

I paint a picture of the days gone by
When love went blind and you would make me see
Id stare a lifetime into your eyes
So that I knew you were there for me
Time after time you were there for me

Remember yesterday - walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand - I remember you
Through the sleepless nights and every endless day
Id wanna hear you say - I remember you

We spend the summer with the top rolled down
Wished ever after would be like this
You said I love you babe, without a sound
I said Id give my life for just one kiss
Id live for your smile and die for your kiss

Remember yesterday - walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand - I remember you
Through the sleepless nights and every endless day
Id wanna hear you say - I remember you

Weve had our share of hard times
But thats the price we paid
And through it all we kept the promise that we made
I swear youll never be lonely

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain
Washed away a dream of you
But nothing else could ever take you away
cause youll always be my dream come true
Oh my darling, I love you

Remember yesterday - walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand - I remember you
Through the sleepless nights and every endless day
Id wanna hear you say - I remember you

Remember yesterday - walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand - I remember you
Through the sleepless nights and every endless day
Id wanna hear you say - I remember you

Some Random Reflections about 'Counting Your Blessings'

Image via Wikipedia

Just read a post 'Counting My Blessings' at Vyshu's blog. Ofcourse it made me about things I like and feel blessed about. But it made me think of something else too...

In your life you have had some people who like you but somehow you have not had that much liking for them as much as they have... and there are some people whom you like very much but it feels as if there is not much reciprocation... And sometimes it feels as if I have to somehow like those people who like me but how much ever I try I find that an unsatisfying pursuit. They just don't seem to sustain my interest. I am thinking hard if it is because of a prejudice on my part? Or is it because of my inability to see them right? Do you feel blessed for such love existing in your life?

After much thought on this, I came to the conclusion that it might be possible that we might look interesting to some people whom we may not find interesting enough and we might find some other people interesting to us to whom we might not seem much interesting. It is quite natural for thing like this to happen and am just thinking of the possibility where each person find the other interesting. That might just spark a super spiral of emotional growth , happiness, bliss and purpose.

Is it a romantic thought or not I don't know. Is it the right thing or not I will not know but my heart revels in the fact that something like this is possible...There is a longing which never disappears... Have you ever felt like this ever?

Recession Proof Graduate

Recession-Proof Graduate

View more documents from choehn.

Found this nice ppt via sethgodin. Very interesting.

Book Review - Upbeat

Rajesh started a company during the dot-com bust in 2000. He says it was a blessing in disguise though he never felt it that way then. He tells his experience of what he learn then and about how to thrive in business having an 'Upbeat' attitude.

As the saying 'It is your attitude that determines your altitude," Rajesh guides us how to choose the right attitude in these tough times. He asks us to avoid the many traps which hit us day in and day out making us even more a part of the problem than of the solution. He prods us to be tenacious, disciplined, flexible and more true to ourselves. He asks us to set higher standards for ourselves and raise the bar in the market and in the process becoming more remarkable and valuable.

Rajesh always has a great take on relationships and network. He teaches how to leverage and improve the network in these tough times by adding more value to it. I liked what he has to say on strategy.

Imagination is a poor substitute for reality. Otherwise people will imagine their way out of their troubles. Reality is real. Now that you have accepted reality, you need a game plan to address this reality and accommodate in your thrive plan. This will call for ruthless re-priortization of your projects.

And finally he exhorts us to play the game rather than watching it from the sidelines by saying "you need to paly the game to get somewhere"

As it is said knowing is not doing, doing is doing, Upbeat has a D I Y helpbook, after it offering practical suggestions to implement the various ideas explained in the book. I liked the excercises very much and it will surely help in making the most of the book.

Seth Godin says that the content of the business book can be condensed into a few lines, and Rajesh's message in Upbeat is to choose the right attitude and focus on what we can control and to tenaciously stay the course. Then why write a book ? It is about the motivation, it is about the persuation and the call for action and Rajesh doesnt just stop there but offers practical tips on how to go about applying the ideas in the book. Ultimately, though it is clear that we have to invent our solutions to the recession problem, reading this small book would definitely put us ahead in finding our solutions.

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Love Aaj Kal - A love story of our times

I have just watched Love Aaj Kal and just cant wait till tomorrow morning to tell you how great a movie it is. Generally I prefer telling the plot of the stories but I dont want to do it for this. Just watch it on the screen. It is the story of our times where there is a confusion between career and love, the seperations, the break-ups, long distance relationships, the being far yet being very near. The story of self-discovery of what is more important in life, the fun and despair of modern times, the innocence and love, the missing and the pain everything packed in a two hour movie. I just loved it. Go Watch It.

Still not convinced.. then this is for you..

What is important? Do you want to continue a relationship even if you dont feel fulfilled? Do you just allow any relationship to fade only to come back after you understand what you missed? What if it is unrecoverable? What if it is not possible? What price are you paying to succeed in your career? What is really important. All these questions are explored in the movie and director succeeds in showing how the feeling of being in love doesnt change through the ages... Imtiaz Ali, the director to watch for..

Tuesdays With Morrie Book Review

I read a book called 'Tuesday's with Morrie' a non-fiction book written by Mitch Albom. The book chronicles his meetings with Morrie Schwartz, his favorite professor in Brandeis University, who is battling ALS(amyotrophic lateral scelerosis) and has his days numbered. But rather than wobbling in self-pity and die decides to live each of his day fully.

Morrie is Mitch's favorite prof when in college, and promises to keep in touch with him after leaving college. But he gets caught up in the rat race becoming a sports writer and publisher and never gets a chance to meet Morrie again. He accidentally meets him on a wheelchair while going somewhere and has to visit him but not before completing his work. And he is hooked after the first meeting. He is reminded of the days when he used to study under him, discuss things about life with him. Due to the union strike in his company, Mitch gets a chance to visit his professor every tuesday which is the name of the book.

Mitch who considers Morrie as a coach decides to ask Morrie about the questions vexing him. I felt these questions universal and surely every reader would identify with it. To quote Mitch

On the plane ride home that day, I made a small list on a yellow legal pad, issues and questions that we all grapple with, from happiness to aging to having children to death. Of course, there are a million self-help books.

But there seemed to be no clear answers. Do you take care of others or take care of your "inner child"? Return to the traditional values or reject tradition as useless? Seek succees or seek simplicity? Just say no or Just Do It?

This forms the core of the book as Mitch discusses these things with Morrie every tuesday that he visits him as Morrie tells his thoughts about the world, culture, love, money, marriage and death too. In the context of dealing with emotions, he says that we should let the emotion take over us, experience it completely and after having the knowledge of the emotion, to detach from it. And he makes a profound statement with regard to the impact that culture should have on us.

He says

" I don’t mean you disregard every little rule of your community. I don’t go around naked, for example. I don’t run red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things - How we think, what we value - These you must choose yourself. You can’t let anyone- or any society - determine those for you"

The book is very touching and just put the fact that the things which make us happy are the simple joys of sharing and caring.

A must read to see life from the perspective of a dying Morrie who considers himself lucky to have the time to say good bye to his loved ones. And he says 'Everyone is not so lucky'.

Wish we make the best of the short time we have.

Civilization - State of Affairs

The Pulitzer prize winner Arundhati Roy rants eloquently about the neo-imperialism and India's policies and asks What can we do now that democracy and free market are one?. To summarize it she argues that democracy does not encourage equitable development of all as it is pandering to corporate who look at india as consumers ignoring all the other people who are poor and destitute. She asks if there is another form of government which can do better and she prods us all to fight against the government.

There is a comment in the post which struck a chord with me.. It is below the fold

For better or worse, what we're all experiencing today, world-wide, is simply the consequences of being civilized. And, civilization itself is a consequence of the Neolithic Revolution that emerged as the Earth started to warm and the glaciers began to recede some 12,000 years ago.

Becoming civilized is a long, complicated story, but the most important factor is that humans did not "progress" to a sedentary subsistence and life way, no, the first herders and farmers were forced to it in order to survive. The practices of agriculture nearly always borrow too much from the future to maximally enrich the present. Always. The reason this survival strategy has lasted so long is because the Earth is huge. In time, agricultural / industrial civilization will collapse. Survival strategies are never sustainable.

In every case, where agriculture emerged, civilization soon followed with it's social hierarchy, organized warfare, the pyramid of power and wealth, an ever-expanding human population, simplifying the local biota, the selection of plants and animals by size, the need to store and defend surplus food, a coin economy, writing, music, organized religion, monumental architecture, etc.

Democracy, in all it's forms, is simply the rule of the majority, and sometimes, the tyranny of the mob. Yet, small-scale, regional, direct democracy is probably the most accountable, and thus the best form of government possible (most likely, because it mimics the egalitarian ways of our paleo-lithic evolution) to civilized people.

Concerning capitalism and socialism and feudalism and fascism, all these economic systems work basically the same way with the same outcome. As each system matures, it creates a pyramid of wealth and influence for a small elite while simultaneously stripping the natural resources of it's region. Naturally, this creates the need for ever more resources to provide for an ever expanding population. It has always been so.

I suggest, the greatest illusion of being civilized is the illusion of "human progress" by means of technological, political or social schemes. Human beings, like all species, do not progress. Humans evolve, meaning, our populations change over time. Which human populations evolve - not progress - is based on our abaptation (our genetic ability to survive and thrive as conditions change) and adaptation (our good choices and good luck).

I think that is the root cause of everything, we have come till here all along solving problems and we will live to see another day solving the problems. As darwin said, it will only be the survival of the fittest. Evolution favors only those who are able to adapt to these problems and come out.

I have a question for Arundhati Roy. What is the other way in which India can develop if it will not embrace free markets? She writes

Today, words like “progress” and “development” have become interchangeable with economic “reforms”, deregulation and privatisation. “Freedom” has come to mean “choice”. It has less to do with the human spirit than it does with different brands of deodorant.

Yes I too agree that that freedom has come to mean choice.

Is she suggesting that we go to stone ages and live like that? If she is so keen to show the world how to develop sustainably, let her take a village which is not doing well and somehow make people happy there, then the whole world will be ready to listen to her words. Otherwise it will just be a rant and sustainable living just a wish.

I am not saying that sustainable living is not possible, but that doesnt mean that building infrastructure or more electricity is wrong. I think the government should find ways of doing in a sustainable and in a way that is least disruptive to ecology there but building them cant stop till an ecologically sustainable way can be found.

Neetho Unte Inka konnallu Lyrics - Josh Movie

Was listening to songs of movie Josh, starring Nagarjuna's son Naga Chaitanya and Radha's daughter Karthika produced by Dil Raju. The music is by Sandeep Chowta one of my favorite music directors. The film is building a lot of hype. I loved a song from this movie called Neetho unte inka konnallu, emavutayo edigina innellu.. lovely song sung by karthik.. So sad that I couldnt share it with you. The audio will be out on 20th July. Listen to that.. for now these are the lyrics

neetho untee inka konnallu, emavutayoo edigina innellu,

neetho unte inka konnallu, emavutayo edigina innellu,

ninnippudu chuste chaalu,chinnappati chilipi kshanalu, gundello guvvala gumpai vaalu

neetho adugeste chaalu, munumunduku saagavu kaallu, untunda venukaku velle veeluu

kalanne tippesindee eelaaa, balyanne rappinchindeevelaaa,

peddarikalanni chinaboyelaaa, podderagani nalupedo tarigelaaa.. voo voooo. o..voo voooo

neetho unte..

nilabadi chustaye aagi lellu selayellu chitranga.. nee vaiipalaa,

parugulu teestaye lechi rallu raagalu neelaaga, nalu vaipulaa,

bhumi anta nee perantaniki bommarillu kaaga, samayamanta nee taaranganiki sommasilli podaa

chedayina teepavutunde nee santhosham chusi, chedukuda chedutunde nee saaavasanni chesi

chedayina teepavutunde nee santhosham chusi, chedukuda chedutunde nee saaavasanni chesi

neetho unte..

eyo eyo eyooo oaaaa haeyo eyo eyo oo aaaaa

nuvvem choostunna ento vintalle annni gamaniche ascharyama

ye pani chestunna edo ghanakaryam lage garvinche pasi prayamaa

chukkalanni digi nee chupullo koluvuvundi poga chikatinnadika ralede nee kanti paapa daaka

prathiputa panduga la vuntundanipinchela telisela nerpetanduku nuvve paatashala

prathiputa panduga la vuntundanipinchela telisela nerpetanduku nuvve paatashala

voo voooo. o..voo voooo

neetho unte..

My Mobiles - Nokia Vs Sony Ericsson

My first highly used mobile phone was a silver colored Nokia 6030 which I bought in October 2006. This phone was good basic model. It was a color phone and it had FM. I have talked for a long time on this phone approximately 1000 hrs. After these many hours, I could see that the battery was discharging fast and I decided to change the battery. As the silver color of the mobile looked worn out, I decided to replace it with a new case. So I scouted for original Nokia batteries in Koti and it costed about 550 rs for a new one. But I thought it was a little too much for a phone I bought for 2600 two years back. So I went to another authorized Nokia dealer and asked him to get me an original Nokia charger. He said it costed about 400 and that he would remove an original from a brand new phone and give it to me. I was stunned, because if they are removing an original from a new piece, that means they will put a duplicate one in that and sell to unsuspecting customers. Hmm, anyhow I bought it and also a new black case for my mobile. It stayed with me till the middle of May 2009 till it was stolen. I wrote about the ensuing drama after that here. But speaking of the phone, it was a very very good phone. I never had any problems with its software or battery. It worked very well. And I dropped it many many times.

I am reminded of two particular incidents which show the durability of Nokia mobile.

Once, when I was running behind an RTC bus to catch it, my mobile literally jumped from my shirt pocket and fell on the ground from a running bus. I got down, collected the pieces fallen on the ground, the battery came off, the case came out. I just assembled it again and switched the mobile on and nothing happened. It was working as before.

I put my clothes in the bucket for washing without removing the mobile in it. I realized it just a minute after I put in the water. I removed it but by that time, some water might have crept in. The center button was not working. I switched it off as presence of water will short circuit the internal circuits, and I put it under (not above ;)) a burning gas stove for few mins, again switched it on and after half an hour everything started working fine again. Except for that half an hour, my experience with Nokia phone was very very positive.

After I lost that mobile, I bought a Sony Ericsson C510 phone. It had all the wanted features like mp3 player, a 3.2 MP camera and bluetooth with 1 GB free memory card. It costed about 11,800 with insurance. I wanted to buy a Nokia mobile only but I saw the photo quality of Nokia mobile and didnt quite match the Sony experience. So for only that I bought a Sony ericsson.

Used to a Nokia, the battery was a let down. I had to charge it daily but I will accept it because of high usage. The photos are very good.

When i was getting used, I observed that the phone would hang sometimes and i have to restart it (In my two months of usage i did it only twice, so we could consider it an exception). But I was disappointed very much when the phone did not start when I tried restarting after changing the sim card.

And dont ask me about the customer service experience. It was very bad. There is no reception. When I went to the person taking the complaints, he asked me to wait and after that he didnt call me. After some time, when he didnt call, I went and asked then he noted it down. He told it was a software problem and it will take one hour to reload it. After one hour, he told it is not working and asked me to come and take on Monday. I had to beg him to repair it that day only. After lot of prodding, he agreed to do it that day only. On the whole, the sony ericsson customer service centre was run very unprofessionally, though it was not unbearable. A lot can be improved in the customer handling and experience. Already in two months, it gave me a scare. Im just hoping I never need to visit the customer service again.

One thing is clear, I can never take the sony phone for granted no where near how I would treat my Nokia phone.

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How to be an Innovator for life - Ideas from Tom Kelly

As I said in a previous post, I was listening to the podcasts there.

I have read a book called Ten faces of innovation written by Tom Kelly, CEO of IDEO a firm which does design. They designed many products and services, like the improving the in-patient experiences at a hospital etc. They have got more than 1000 patents from 1987. In that book he discusses the methods they use in IDEO for innovation. They are something like six thinking hats and make an interesting read as well as can be applied in our life.

He gave a talk in Stanford. In that, Tom Kelly proposes five ways to be an innovator for life..

1. Think like a traveller

2. Treat life as an experiment

3. Cultivate an attitude of wisdom

4. Use your whole brain

5. Do what you love..

Listen to the complete podcast at stanford ecorner

Thanks to the NET

This is a post where I want to thank the creators of the internet for it has changed my life in ways i cannot imagine.

How could I hang out with the likes of Seth Godin, Fred Vilson or Steve Pavlina if not for the internet?

How much would I have missed the experienced words of Joel or the head first way of Kathy Sierra?

How much the hacker and painter in me would have lost if not for the essays of Paul Graham?

How would I have missed the satirical takes of Atanu Dey on India or the touching posts of Rajesh for his kid, or the passionate posts of Rashmi and the well researched posts on Sastwingees ?

I am not even touching the increase in my productivity due to the various web applications which we use day in and day out.

Internet like never before makes it easy to hang out(blogs, twitter) with any person of our choice so easy and I am so happy for that.

Apart from being grateful for allowing us to learn from the experiences of the very best in their fields, I want you to point you to two great resources on the net which I am currently using.

I know youtube has lot of videos and channels for various things, but videos in these two places have inspired me very much.

1. TED talks: Ideas worth spreading.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

Some of the interesting talks there are why are or aren't we happy? or why we do what we do?

Head over to Ted.com and browse the various videos out there, you will not be disappointed.

2. Stanford University Enterpreneurship corner:

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Entrepreneurship Corner is a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. The mission of the project is to support and encourage faculty around the world who teach entrepreneurship to future scientists and engineers, as well as those in management and other disciplines. The site has been developed by a dynamic team of educators, entrepreneurs, engineers, and designers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)

Some of the popular videos here are The black swans of Energy Innovation by Vinod Khosla, Dont Kill projects morph them by Merissa Mayer

The whole lists of talks is here.

Dont you think internet deserves kudos for this. How on earth it could have been possible for you to attend those conferences in Stanford University if not for the net.

Thanks to the creators of the internet, you have changed the world definitely for the better.

What do you think the best thing about the internet for you?

Poems to Ponder

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

I would like to share with you two poems which I encountered during this week which impacted me...

One is about giving rather than taking.. About not being moochers of the world but being the value adders and value creators...

There are two kinds of people on earth today

Just two kinds of people, no more I say,

Not the good and the bad, for 'tis is well understood

that the good are half-bad and the bad are half-good.

No! the two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

I found the above poem in '21 Irrefutable laws of leadership' which I was reading.

Another poem is about how a good leader is like... I found that here

‘A good soldier does not inspire fear;

A good fighter does not display aggression;

A good conqueror does not engage in battle;

A good leader does not exercise authority.

This is the value of unimportance;

This is how to win the cooperation of others;

This to how to build the same harmony that is in nature.’

Don't know who wrote that but it is how a leader should be.

One interesting point which John Maxwell, author of 21 irrefutable laws of leadership makes about leadership is about the real test of leaders... It is 'influence'. How many can you influence for the better?