Monday, September 27, 2021

Reflection # 1 - Sep 26th

Everything works when reset. This certainly applies to human & human relations as well. Managing kids' schedules, managing family, Office schedules & expectations, managing external stress, all add up; it takes a bigger toll on you, your life, and your loved ones. We must take some time off & do something different, unless you break the routine schedule, you don’t feel like living. Everyone needs some time & space for solitude. This weekend is one of best to count in, in that aspect.

Kids don’t listen to us; they repeat actions. Regardless of the situation, if you can’t behave well, you can’t expect kids to behave well either. I could see Kovid & Tanvi shouting at each other occasionally, maybe it’s because of what we are doing without consciousness. Time for simple changes when I am talking: think before I talk, express dissatisfaction without anger/shouting. That rolls up the most impact and finally reflects this weekend. 


Communication. The proverb "Talk is cheap, but action speaks" is true. However, talk is not always cheap; it is the most impactful and easy mechanism to build trust and relation. Choose your words carefully, think as if someone were saying the same thing. Choose an impactful conversation vs talking more. Connect with your loved ones regularly.


Pic: Avin & Tanvi, never say no for ice cream. 




Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Small is Big

Daily small progress is much more effective, productive & efficient, compared to taking up a gigantic task all at once.

I just got great joy and satisfaction in following this principle once again in my personal life. Going into details...I firmly believe in DIY theory. Recently I purchased an additional storage rack for my garage. After reading the manual, watching online videos, I summarised the DIY process as six steps.

1) Find the correct position on ceiling joist and drill holes for the ceiling brackets
2) Fix ceiling brackets to the roof
3) Assemble Vertical Posts and FixVertical Posts to ceiling brackets
4) Attach outside frames
5) Central frame
6) Finally fixing the wire decks.


Hardest was the first step, finding wooden studs on the garage ceiling joist was the hardest, for my home they are side to side and they are not uniformly distributed. I spent a couple of hours and tried two more times to find correct positions, tempted to call in Amazon Home Services to fix it several times, and then strongly reminded my self about small-and-regular-progress theory. I started to carefully measure lengths, using a stud finder to find ONE position per day and I stoped the work once I find a position. It took 3 days to find a rite spot for the first two horizontal ceiling brackets. It took two more days to find the right position for the next two ceiling brackets, drilling one more day.  Final assembly one more day.

Overall start to finish, it was a week-after-office-work. Small progress made on a daily basis results in a very fulfilling product. 

Here is a Before & After picture for the storage rack. 



Friday, August 23, 2019

Purpose Driven Actions & Ideology

If we can define the 'Purpose' (why - are we doing) for our actions, writings, talks & thinking, then, Purpose will help us to set priorities, plans, energy, focus, drive, and responsibility. A Purpose will make us feel that we are working to achieve something bigger than just actions or talking. If you strongly believe the purpose, you don't feel tired or working hard or discouraged or unhappy. Once you have strong grit and will towards achieving the purpose, that purpose-driven mindset makes you wake up at 5 AM without an alarm and let you work till 5 AM the next day. Finally, you will feel - fulfilling that purpose is as important as 'breathing'.

I defined and calibrated my purpose in life several times based on situations & conditions. Example, When I was an engineering student, my purpose was to support my family financially by getting a job, as simple as that, given financial situations in my family, I need to support my mom. I always selected my goals, learnings,  plans, friends, projects, and subjects aligned with my purpose, which was to get a job. I always checked my self am-i-job-ready by attending mock interviews, communication classes, and professional courses. Sometimes I avoided bigger ambitions like doing Masters (MTech) or MBA because I strongly believe in my purpose and I strongly feel my purpose was relevant for that stage.  March 13th, 2006 when I got a job in Wipro Technologies, it was the most fulfilling day of my life, I was really happy that day, I know I was going to support my family from now on. To date, I redefined my purpose to stay relevant to the situation, challenged myself to rediscover my purpose.

Now I am 15 yrs into my Job, have two kids. Learning on how to be a role model for my kids (my son is teaching what not do too many times), I need to support my wife Nikhila to be independent, working women, I need to move up in the job, taking more responsibilities in office, learning new technologies, reading bookings, stay healthy, sleep well, eat good food - lots of goals. It's really important for me to be careful about what are my priorities, what job's or works I need to pick up, where I need pay attention, time and focus, that means, it needs a define a purpose for this stage. After working on this idea to have a purpose definition, I finally came up with a simple one. That's, Be Happy. I know several people said the same on the internet, their purpose of life is to Be Happy, but, How do we find Happiness in everything we touch, feel, work, think & talk. 



Applying Filters: 

It drills down to what choices we are marking on day to day basis, Are we saying "No" if that's not relevant to us, what are the things I evaluate  (Values) &  what guiding rules (Principles) I follow for the tasks I committed.

The finding purpose for various stages or actions or thinkings, several times help me to self-discover my limits and helps me to define new learning goals. I did a lot of mistakes in this journey and I am sure I will be doing in future, but I simply followed & will follow my principle of being honest with myself to accept, retrospect my choices & actions to make things better... take full responsibility for the results. It's not that there is a fixed algorithm or a program I run to check If I can work on something that can make me feel happy. Its a process of self-discovery. Sometimes it's my intuition vs intelligence which kicks in to tell me what's the whole point of doing something. 

Here are ...(Some) Values & Principles I defined for myself:

(Some) Values I defined for myself:
1) Relations 
2) Learning & being challenged 
3) Helping others
4) Financial Independence 

(Some) Principles I defined for myself:
1) Honest
2) Trust 
3) Integrity
4) Leadership
5) Avoid comfort zones & conflicts 


Sunday, March 24, 2019

What's Your Choice?


How do you make choices? 
How do you finalize your options?
You remember your last miserably failed decision?
How do you re-calibrate your choices to stay on course?
What makes you think you made the right choice based on the situation? 
When you fail, you take responsibility or blame external factors or influences?
On a day from the moment, we wake up from the bed, till we go back to sleep, At an average human will get around 70K thoughts.  Most of them are about making choices and decisions.

let's see if we can breakdown our choice making process, with two hypothetical situations,

Situation 1: You Found a ten 10$  and 100$ note on a desk, and you are allowed to take only one, which once you choose and why? (Don't read, make your choice & think why?)

My simple answer is 100$ note because it got more value & I can buy or invest more with it if I make this choice.

Situation 2: You got 100$ note and 4 tickets for your families favorite premium show for the coming weekend? What's your choice?

My answer will be premium show tickets, why? that's costly to buy for this weekend, most importantly if I attend that show, I emotionally feel happy and hopefully, my family will be happy too, any journey with family is always memorable.



More I think about how I make my choices, decisions, behavior, communications, actions, retrospection's & gratitude is based on how I "value" the outcomes. Simply, based on my values, or value system. Now, we got a new question (remember, our original question is "What's your choice?") What are your deeply rooted core values? What's are the benefits "value" based decisions system? (We will discuss more in my next blog post)



Let's see how one can define your value system. It's simple(!), just revisit some of your best & worst decision, what instincts made you move that direction? oh, wait, if that doesn't look simple at all, with a daily rate of 70k thoughts per day, If you can't look back! Okay, let's look forward, let's see if we can think about every choice you make now on wards and re-think end of the day or week to retrospect why you made that choice & prepare your core values.



Think about what are your core values? At the end of the day, week, month, a year or even on last day of your life, what do you cherish the most, must be your top value right? 



Will continue to ponder my thoughts about core values based decisions & will share a glimpse of my own values, I worked on it over the last several months, all in my next blog.



Warm regards,
Mohan Vamsi

Monday, October 29, 2018

Tanvi's birth story..

When I saw Tanvi first time, my first thought was like, "Looks like Kovid". Tanvi was born on the perfect score like date in October. In labor room except me, everyone was female, from the moment she was born everyone talking about Tanvi's eyelashes.

I can't imagine, the pain, anxiety, relieve, love, excitement Nikhila experienced in this 9 months journey, hopefully, she forgets everything looking at someone looks like her.

When we told Kovid we going to the hospital, Kovid was super excited to meet his sister, All day he was excited bit shy, bit nervous, a bit like a big brother, a bit of everything. That was the cutest version of my Kovid I ever saw.

Kovid gifted a toy to Tanvi, spent all day with his sister. At the end..."I can take her with me"...

Look at his eyes, I never saw them that anxious :) 


First Time: Kovid met Tanvi 


Monday, April 9, 2018

ఓ పచ్చటి పాఠశాల

తన్నుతాను నిలువుగా చీల్చుకొని..
ప్రతికూల పరిస్థితులకు ఎదురొడ్డి..
నేలను పెకళించి..తన గుండెను, మండే సూర్యుడికి చూపి.. తనలోని జీవానికి అర్థం వెతుకుతూ..విత్తనం చిరు చిగురాకుగా మొక్కగా ఎదిగింది!! 

ప్రతి మొక్క, ఓపికతో, శ్రమతో, ఆశావాదంతో, ఎలా ఎదిగి ఒదిగి ఉండాలో నేరిపే ఓ పచ్చటి పాఠశాల.




Saturday, February 17, 2018

ఆయుధప్రేమ?

ఆయుధప్రేమ?

అరాచక..అమానుష..అతిక్రూర...“ఆయుధం”

అమృతతుల్యం..జీవనపరమార్థం..ఆనందం ..“ప్రేమ”

‘ప్రేమ’ రోజున ఓ బిడ్డకు ఆయుధాన్నిచ్చి, పదుల కుటుంబాలకు ప్రేమను దూరం చేసిందెవరు?

ప్రోధున బిడ్డలకు ముద్దులిచ్చి పంపిన తల్లికి, రేయికి శవాన్ని మిగిల్చిందెవ్వరు?

గువ్వలా రివ్వున ఎగరవలసిన పిల్లల భవితను గాలిలో కలిపేసిందెవ్వరు? 

బతుకును సైతం చావులా బ్రతకమని, చావుతప్పి బతికిన పిల్లల మనస్సుని శపించిందెవ్వరు? 

తమ “ప్రాణాలను” ఎర్రటి నెత్తుటిలో చూసుకొని, తమ “ఆశలను” శవాలుగా మోసుకొంటున్న తల్లి తండ్రుల బ్రతుకుకు అర్ధం చెప్పేవారెవరు? 

రాజ్యమా, నీకు పట్టిన ఆయుధ జాడ్యయాకి బదులివ్వు, బిడ్డలను బ్రతకనివ్వు. 

- ఓ తండ్రి

Sunday, July 31, 2016

కొత్త కొత్త బాష ...

కొత్తగా మాటలు నేర్చుకున్న బిడ్డ బాష ఒక్క తల్లికి మాత్రమే అర్ధమవుతుది, ఏందుకంటె అది బిడ్డ కళ్ళు పలికే అమ్మ మనసు వినే బాష..కోవిద్ చాలా మాట్లాలాడుతున్నాడు, నాకు వాడి  బాష అర్ధమైతే క్యూస్షన్ బ్యాంకు అవుంతుందేమో అని అనిపితుంది, నిఖిలకి మాత్రం ఓ పి.సుశీల గానంలా వినిపిస్తుంది.

అక్షరాలు లేవు ...
డిక్షనరీలు లేవు...

ఆశలెన్ని వున్నా..
అచ్చు వేయలేవు ...

పిచ్చి పిచ్చి బాష ...
అచ్చమైన బాష ...

నవ్వులోని బాష ..
కళ్ళలోని బాష ...

అందమైన బాష ..
వెన్నలాంటి బాష ..

బిడ్డ పలికే బాష ... 
అమ్మ బాష!

- వంశీ

Sunday, July 17, 2016

A Parada between You & Your life..

Starting your day glancing lifeless mobile screen? You made any attempt to count how many hours you stare at 'any' screens a day? Did you felt, you are checking for missed call or unread message when you are not expecting one? ... Ever, you felt a vibration without one in your pocket.

Gravity subsist in transforming ideas to actions, happily struggled in putting some action in play for a year in avoiding electronic screens in my life, using a real or not-so-hitech alarm, instead mobile alarm. Bed Time - A Electronic free Zone. Pre-sleep routine, "Real life heroes" article in Readers Digest magazine. Started maintaining Personal Collage and Stopped Facebook, checking What's app once a day or when ever necessary. Keep mobile in Vibration all time, DND at nights. Strictly follow No Screen time for few hours every day - No Tv, No mobile, No PC just people, books and life. Shifted my-view on "inbox" as To-Do list coming from others, I sort and read emails 3 or 4 times a day, vs all day.

Lets love people and use devices not the opposite.

How many hours you stare at life less devices and ignore lovely beautiful hearts around you? 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

ఇలా మొదలయింది! ఒక చిరు కోపం...

"ఏంటి కోవిద్ అది?"
"దా దా .. "

నోటికి దగ్గరగా తీసుకున్నాడు ... 

"ఓయ్ ఏం చేస్తున్నావ్?"
"వూ ... "

నోట్లో పెట్టుకున్నాడు. 

"ఒరేయ్ అతి నా కొడకా !!" 
తన నోట్లో నా వేలు పెట్టి ఆ చెత్తఏమిటో తీయాలి అనుకున్నా, నన్ను తోసేసాడు. 

ఇంతలో... 
ఓ సొట్ట మూతి.. 
కళ్ళలో ఓ రెండు కన్నీటి ముత్యాలు.. 
రెండు పసిపాదాలు పుడమిని క్రిందకు తోసాయి.. 
లేలేత తాటి నుంజులు, ఆ బుగ్గలు, గజ గజ వోణికాయి.. 
కొత్తగా వచ్చిన పాల పళ్ళను గట్టిగా కొరికాడు... 
లేతపిడికిళ్లు బిగుసుకోనాయి.. 
చూపు దేనిపైపో వెతుకు...
ఓ చిరు తుఫాను బలపడింది.. 
రెప్పపాటులో నా చుపుడు వేలును తీసుకొని, కోరికేశాడు, కాస్త రక్తం వచ్చింది.

ఆ రోజు నాకు అర్థమైంది, కొడుక్కు కోపం వస్తుంది. రోజంతా ఆలోచన. 

తనకు నచ్చనిది చేయనివ్వక పోతే కొడుక్కి, నాన్న మీద కోపం వస్తుంది, చాలా ఎక్కువగా వస్తుంది. అది తన మంచి కొసమె అని తెలుసుకోవడానికి ఒక తరం పడుతుంది. మా నాన్న మీద నాకు గౌరవం వచ్చిన రోజులకన్నా, కోపం వచ్చిన రోజులే చాలా ఎక్కువ. నన్ను కొట్టిన ప్రతిసారి కోపంతో ఊగిపోయివాడిని. క్రికెట్ ఆడుకోనివ్వడు , అప్పుచేయనివ్వడు, చదువుకోమంటాడు, టీవీ, ఫోన్ వొదంటాడు ఇలా ఎన్నో గుర్తుకు వచ్చి ఆ రాత్రి, నా చేయి కోవిద్ కి దగ్గరగా పెట్టుకొని, నిద్ర పోయా...

- వంశీ 

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Unwritten exam

Continued reading question paper after 45 minutes into 10th class Telugu exam, Bujji didn't understand a lot of questions, instead got additional questions...


1.   Does the examiner want to kill Telugu?

2.  Can my newly purchased examination pen or pad turn my fortune?

3.  Are there any simple ways to play-shuttle-before-exam and get marks?

4.  Poems’? Grammar ... telegraph morse code sound continued..

5.  OMG.. this looks like a physics question...but, why is it in Telugu paper?

6.  What the hell other guys are writing..

7.   Look at that Shakeel..WTH is he up to & writing 

8.  Let me take an "Additional" will that makes me Hero with zero marks..

9.  What if "I write anything" and I get 90%

10. All the questions look very generic; should I generalize the answer too..


Questions still flowing... Bujji, sweating, and shivering feel the earth moving under his feet,  air electrified around him; the exam invigilator looks like an interrogation officer, holding his head with his hands.. thinking about his father's reaction to failure in the exam and many more. Closed eyes in pain of failure in Telugu exam!

 

Suddenly Opened the eyes to the bed, mid-night from a deep dream, in Raleigh North Carolina US.

 

PS: The reality was, that Bujji painfully completed that exam with 74 marks and continued playing games for the rest of the exams, and got the least percentage expected out of him in the 10th class. But that first exam fears never left him and revisits him as exam nightmares. That's the end of the unwritten exam by Bujji many years after writing the exam with no preparation

 

Sunday, August 16, 2015

మరుక్షణం ...

మన జీవతంలో గొప్ప సంగటనలు అంటే?
వుర్తిగా అవగాహన వుండి కూడా, చెప్పడానికి లేదా రాయడానికి సరిగా వీలు కాదో.. అవి! అవి...

కలలాంటి నిజాలు ...
మరపురాని  క్షణాలు  ..
తెలుసుకోనేలోగ జారిపోయే  మధురక్షణాలు ...
సెలయేరులై  సాగే ఆనందాలు...
చిరు జల్లులాంటి భాష్పాలు ...
భాషలకు అందని అనుభవాలు ...
మాటలకందని భావాలూ ...
మనసు చేసిని ఓ తొమ్మిది నెలల తపస్సుకు ..
కాలం అనే సంద్రం చేసి మాకు ఇచ్చిన ముత్యం ... ఓ చిరు ముత్యం ... "కోవిద్",  ఐదు నెలలు గడిచింది, అంతా అంతటా ఒకటే లోకం ... "కోవిద్", ఈ ఐదు నెలలు ఓ క్షణంలా గడిచింది!!

ఆ బోసి చిరునవ్వు మాకొక లోకం, సర్వం, ఆనందం ... కోవిద్ ఈ రోజు (ఆగష్టు 15).


Moments in Life..


This blog was in 'Draft' mode almost 4 years. Some how missed it to 'Publish'.

Seventeenth, October 2011. It was going to be a great day, I know it, even before I open my eyes on the bed,well awaited day, however there was a beautiful unexpected surprise.

What I know was... I am going to join my 2nd Company after 5.5 yrs association with Wipro Technologies, not sure what to call my Old company, may be I can call it my SECOND College. I got graduated and joined Wipro on June 26, '06 to earn my first salary & to learn my life lessons. Wonderful journey. In fact, I made a video for that, Click here to see.

What I don't know ...was about this little angel baby girl for my Sister, on the same day. At first instance, she was not looking like her mother (my sister, Deepthi), she looks like my Mother.

For my Lovely Niece Ananyaa.... Click Here to see video about Ananaya.




Sunday, August 10, 2014

Super Quick Week's in Ohio

We were in Columbus last weekend, had fun in Ohio State fare '14. It reminded me of our childhood days Durga fare in Madanapalle... Very eventful.
Date: August 9th '14 - Today we went to downtown Dublin Ohio, Ironically its a super moon day, occurs approximately every 13 months. Biggest Moon in year 2014.


- Vamsi 

Monday, July 28, 2014

Life moves on..

Life is moving fast after May 2nd, do you know why? My wife reached Houston from India, it was like we just got married on May 2nd 2014, instead of May 15th 2013. Had great fun in our first wedding anniversary, followed by stay in Los angles for month.  Now, we are in Ohio, Columbus due to project work.

One Memorable Moment with my wife Niki...

Adventures in Maui Island

I miss you in Facebook, as I stopped using it but will be in touch with you in my blog.

With love..
Vamsi

Monday, November 4, 2013

Frame Work

It's already been two years since I moved to Houston & current apartment, its time to move into new Home. This weekend, finished a Well awaited photo printing & fixing in framework. On Friday we went to Krish 3 Movie it was a mixtures of all Marvel's super hero movies. Ender's Game is really great, I liked some of the scenes.

New Frame Work
- Vamsi

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Happy Birthday Ananyaa


Ananyaa looks exactly like my sister Deepthi, when she was kids. If you have sister, you can recollect, how many times you fought with her, but still, Sister is always first friend. Happy birthday to my little Angel, god bless you Ananyaa.
Ananyaa with Ammama on her second birthday.
Few moments in life just passes when you really don't worry about them. Like, My current Job in IBM, just completed two years.

 - Vamsi 

Reflection # 1 - Sep 26th

Everything works when reset . This certainly applies to human & human relations as well. Managing kids' schedules, managing family,...