'Haragouri' Flower - tiny beauty in garden !!

 Another lovely flower which we have in our home garden is 'Haragouri' flower. This tiny looking flowers look good in the morning dews, given a shiny look. 

It is also known as the 'Balsam' Plant. It has hundreds of varieties ranges from colours to the shape of flower. However, it always remain tiny- like handful of flowers.

In India, mostly it is used like a regular flowers, but in other countries like in China and Korea the stalks and leaves of 'haragouri' are used to treat the infected areas caused by insect bites or snake bites. 

We have few of those species grown in our home. Have a look of them...

Organic 'PLANTAIN' Garden !!

 Banana is one of the very popular and widely available fruit grown in almost all countries. Banana can be eaten ripen as a fruit, or in dessert. It can also be cooked in raw form for many delicious preparations. 

There are many varieties of banana grown across the globe - green, yellow, red, purple, and brown. Some bananas are with seeds whereas most of the species are seedless. 

In every house or hotels you will definitely find this fruit as a part of meal to offer either as whole fruit or as dessert.

In a survey in 2017, it was declared that India and China were the highest banana producers in the world, which was approximately 38% of the total production.

Banana is also well-known for its health benefits - it is rich in fiber, Vitamin B6, and Potassium, Manganese, Magnesium. It also has iron, phosphorus, Vitamin- B1, B2, B3, B5, Vitamin C, Zinc.

Banana helps to keep away the constipation problem and it is very useful for the people who does hit the gym regularly. 

Here I am showing few samples of home grown banana from my own organic garden. 

Picture Courtesy to Self...

White species of Asian Pegionwings !!

 Yet another species of Asian Pegionwings, which we mostly call it as 'Aparajita' flower. In my previous post I have shown the purple flower of this species from my home garden which is purely organic.

Here are some white pegionwings flowers from my own garden. 

Picture courtesy to self...

Asian Pegionwings (Aparajita) - Beautiful Flower !!

 Asian Pegionwings, we mostly call it as 'Aparajita' flower. In India, this flower is widely popular as one of the holi flower and is used in many puja's. 

The shape of this flower is imagined to be the human female genitals, hence the latin name of the flower is called as 'Clitoria Tarnetae'.  

The beautiful purple flower, tiny shaped upto 4 centimeters (approx) length, bloomed in the greener plant. Some species are white colour as well. It is believed to be a very useful herb (flower) in ayurveda. 

It has the medicinal properties such as fever, gastritis, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, skin problem, throat problem, and many more..

The above pictures of Aparajita Flowers are from my own home garden...... 

A Peaceful Mind makes Better Decisions !!

 At times we all had to take many decisions, even today we do take multiple decisions depending on our situations, however not all the times decisions turned out to be correct. It happens due to our state of mind. 

There is a saying that you should not take the decision when in angriness or when you are very happy. In this context I remember a lovely story which depicts a powerful decision making skill through a calm mind.

The story goes in this way....

Once a farmer lost his precious watch while working in his barn. It may have appeared as an ordinary watch to others, but held a deep sentimental value for it.

After searching high and low among the hay for a long time, the old farmer got exhausted. The tired farmer did not want to give up the search for his watch and requested a group of children playing outside the barn to help. He promised an attractive reward for the person who can find his beloved watch.

After hearing about the reward, the children hurried inside the barn and went through and round the entire stack of hay to find the watch. 

After a long time looking for a watch in the hay, some of the children got tired and gave up. The number of children looking for the watch slowly decreased and only few tired children were left. The farmer gave up all his hope to find the watch and called off the search.

Just when the farmer was closing the door, a little boy came up to him and requested the farmer to give him another chance. The farmer did not want to miss any chance of finding the watch so let the little boy in the barn.

The farmer was delighted to get the watch and rewarded the little boy as promised.

After a w little while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand. The farmer was happily surprised and asked how the boy succeeded to get the watch while everyone including him  had failed.

The boy replied “I just sat there tried listening to the ticking of the watch. In silence, it was much easier to listen to it and direct the search in the direction of the sound.”

➥ Moral of the story :

A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Once in a while allow a few minutes of silence to your mind. Sometimes all you need is to do is relax and listen. 

You will be surprised that you can visualize your decisions and can judge it better way. 

Image courtesy to google.com

Clean up your mind before judging others | A Nice Story

Today I was having a chat with my old friend after almost a year and we were discussing about the current ongoing situation and it's impact on all of us, merely how we are spending our lives at present. The conversation was very casual, suddenly I felt that my friend became too complaining. He started blaming one of our common friend with some incidents. However, I know our common friend very well and atleast he is not up to the character which was being described to me. I kept quiet and ignored my friend's disguises. 

After dropping the call, I was thinking about the conversation. Like my this friend there are many in this world who doesn't take ownership to understand the other side facts.

I remembered a very meaningful story relevant to our conversation. Though to share with you all.

The story is about 'DIRTY LAUNDRY - Clean up your mind before judging others'. Here it goes...

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood state. One morning, while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hang the washed cloth outside.

"That laundry is not very clean", she said, "she doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look! She has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said: "I got up early today morning and cleaned our windows!"

➥ Moral of the story: 

What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look. Before we give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our state of mind and ask ourselves if we are ready to see the good rather than to be looking for something in the person we are about to judge.

Think of it !! In our leadership role manier times we just assume and take decision about others without realizing the actual fact about the circumstances; and it turns out to be wrong in most cases. Some times we repent, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we ignore ad move on by considering this as our part of life. But did you even think what happens to the person on whom you have powered with your dictatorship decision.

Just think of it once again !!

Image courtesy to google

A Successful Professional with Learning Attitude | Deepak Kumar Dhal

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." And we call the person as "Professional". 

We are either leaders now, or we work under a management team in our current positions. Regardless of the circumstances, I am here today to talk about a professional who undoubtedly has created a great impression through his professionalism.

I met many individual and have interacted with them in various capacity through out my professional journey till date, many have created unforgettable memories in my life. One among such individual is DEEPAK KUMAR DHAL. 

He has an incredible personality with extremely high energy and dedicated at work all the time. I happened to meet him on 14th August 2018 for the first time at the poolside restaurant of Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre, eventually it was the hotel I was about to begin my another career stint from the very date. Thereafter we had multiple occasions to get to know each other and had training interventions in line with operational requirements. And we become very well-known and helpful to each other.

Easily approachable, detail oriented, innovative thinking, business agile mentality are few of his key attributes which I can keep listing. A true professional with 'thinking from heart' is an amazing quality Deepak always cherishes. Living by the essence of hospitality industry where it is absolute necessary to connect with others from heart, as we are into people service industry, Deepak is a true example to cite. 

Remembering a moment at work, where he was setting up his pool-side restaurant for dinner and I was on my audit rounds, I noticed his 'attention to details' to a special request by a couple-guest and sensed his assurance to the team for smooth functioning. The guest pre-booked to experience a 'special couple evening' to treat his fiancée. Team Food and Beverage was on their toes, all arrangement were set as expected. However, as a special gesture Deepak went beyond his limitation to personally procure special valentine gift for the couple to create 'WOW' factor. The guests were extremely delighted with the gesture and the services rendered, and also had taken their excitement to the social media (trip advisor) as well, narrating the experience (Refer the feedback links below).

Well ! I asked him, 'Why did you do such gesture by going beyond your professional capacity, although it was really amazing?' He explained calmly how he received the guest's dinner-booking over telephone and how the guest (male) was expecting the evening to be special in order to impress his fiancée. And the rest was history !!

Deepak's bonding with the guests through 'warm smile' and 'caring attitude' brought him the array of successes both personally and professionally, during his tenure at Novotel Hyderabad Convention Centre; which were evident in the guest's feedback in social media platforms. The best part in him is 'Never Say No' attitude and how confidently he handles all the assignments and challenges which come on his way. 

One of his best creation to increase the F&B revenues was 'theme based poolside couple dinner', which brought him success in revenue growth for the outlet he handled, also accounted for greater customer satisfaction. 

Guests showered with the incredible feedbacks in online platforms (e.g. Trip advisor) as the reflection of his sustainable performance. To list a few.....

                                                                                                        Perfect place for a tranquil Candle Light Dinner

Great Stay and Services                                       Exemplary Hospitality 

 

                                                                                                                             A memorable stay                    

    

 

                                              Birthday Surprise                                                      Candlelight Dinner

            

 

                            Candle Light Dinner                                                Private Rooftop Candlelight diner

 

                          Rooftop Candlelight Dinner                                           Best Moment of my life

Memorable Moments                             Evening in La Cantina

    

                            Anniversary Celebration                                                    Fast & Fabulous                               

On an informal moment at work I asked him once, what motivates him so much with high energy and focused in business agile attitude? He had a very simple reply, "Sir, I hail from a simple middle class family. With God's grace, I gained the qualities from my parents, we value each other, respect each other's sentiments. I have learnt to excel through constant performance in all circumstances from many leaders. I am still putting my best to be on the game. I feel happy to experience the success after putting my best efforts into action".  I acknowledged his words coming straight from his heart and realized how genuinely he was expressing his thoughts. 

He is climbing the career ladder. Being a growing leader, Deepak has mastered his training skills too. I remember his trainer certification during 'Train The Trainer' workshop, he was on top of his ability to perform with his seasoned experiences. His contribution to train his team members are noteworthy in terms of man-hours he invested in training. Being a trainer he has another great quality, listening which makes him to understand his guests very well. 

His passion at work brought him success in form of several awards and accolades, out of which the most recent was - being awarded as 'The Best Hospitality Professional 2019' by The International Hospitality Council (IHC). He was also being recognized as the 'Spirit of Conquest Person of the Year' by Accor.

His recent assignment is being 'HOD - F&B Service' at Novotel Lucknow, where with his own skills and traits he turned around the business to GOP even in this pandemic situation when many hotels are badly struggling for the revenue. Being a first timer 'Department Head' he is more excited about the challenges he is handling. He feels that to shine in this industry there is lot more skills to master. 

Very rarely I can find such talented individual who inspire others with his capability and commitment. I remember a great line, 

'A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.' 

Deepak is a true example of it. Dedicated, Energetic, Efficient, Passionate, Active and Knowledgeable professional.

He has always been a great asset for the company he works for. I am certain that he will shine always like a  STAR.

You have a PROBLEM if your employees are always BUSY !!

If you are a Boss or a Manager or an Entrepreneur, this could be an alarming sign for your organization. When you go for a round of your organization or a property walk to have quick glance of what all happening in your organization and you witness your employees are busy with their works every moment.

You might think that they are doing their work; of course they are being well paid off for their respective jobs, but it could be a sign of 'theatre' moment.  If everyone is always flurry when you are around that's likely to be a show they are putting in for you.

As once the great scientist Albert Einstein said, "Our brain needs a period of incubation to be creative". So if you never see your employees are slacking, it might be an warning sign that they are wasting their energy at work or they are not putting enough efforts to be creative.

As Jessica Stillman mentioned in her article in June'2020 that "Visible busyness is often productivity-theatre, not the productivity". 

Well then how to rectify it? Very simple !! Change your leadership style and you must follow these points:

➥ Connect with your team more often. Understand their work habits.

➥ Don't be too bossy, yet get the things done.

➥ Tickle the creative minds of your employees.

➥ Expose them to new dimension of tools and techniques.

➥ Make them part of your strategic discussions.

➥ Show your values. It says, "you can expect the same how you show to them".

➥ Be with your team. No matter what the circumstances are.

➥ Do ice-breakers with them to break their monotonous work if it is genuine.

➥ Encourage them to follow structural methods (e.g. - using post its).

➥ Don't let your authority dilutes among human connections.

➥ Keep the gossips and bad-mouth people away from your organization.

I am sure that if you follow the above listings you will not find your employees showing off as 'BUSY' always.

Let me give you an example how the culture travels from top to bottom.

Few months ago, while at work we got a summon form our General Manager (GM) mentioning in official whatsapp group as our corporate team would be visiting hence all the departments must be on their toes - no off's or leaves to be entertained on that particular day. 

As usual all HODs had to follow the order from top boss and it was a great show. Corporate Head went very happy, seeing every employee was at their best performing the duties. 

Eventually thereafter, to gain unseen brawny points, few HODs instructed their subordinates to be on shift and work rigorously whenever the GM is in rounds. On his daily walk-around, GM found the department to be very hard working and he praised as well. However, in few guest comments there were poor ranking about that department. But how? 

Very simple, it is just to show GM that the HOD's team was always on top of their duties, hence no slackyness at work. 

But, think from your heart for once ! If you are the owner of this organization, would you want to have such culture among your team?

I am sure that your answer will be 'No'. And here is my point, just rectify the 'problem'.

**********

Leave your thoughts in 'Comment' section below...

FEVICOL Story - From being peon to a successful businessman

This story is about a person who used to work as a peon and later he became a successful entrepreneur to build a company with more than Rs 6,000 Crores revenue!

The person is Mr. Balvant Parekh who was born in Mahuva, a small town in Gujarat in the year 1924.

One day, he decided to start his own business with the help of an investor and started importing cycle, areca nut, paper dyes from western countries. He observed that the Indian Adhesives Market was dominated by glues made from animal fat which were clumsy and cumbersome.

The adhesive market in India was unorganized and had very few branded products.

Seeing this as an opportunity, his company started manufacturing white synthetic resin adhesive (white glue) called Fevicol which made the lives of carpenters easier.

Fevicol was initially used only for industrial or commercial purpose (like in furniture making industry).

Fevicol frequently sponsored activities for carpenters and their families like free dental checkups, celebration of festivals, scholarships for children, blood donation camps etc.

Fevicol Champions Club (FCC) was another innovative initiative which built a platform for carpenters to increase their social contacts.

🐘 Today, the word Fevicol has become synonymous with glue in India and the brand has close to 70% market share!

Logo courtesy to google.com

New Online Fraud - OLX Scam

 There is this new online fraud emerging now a days - The OLX Scam. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, many have lost their jobs so they tried to leave the city and go back to their hometown. For which, many such people sold their house hold items, furniture, vehicle, etc. on olx (a popularly known website to sell out or buy the second hand products in much considerable rates).

Now here comes the trap. While many sellers try to sell out their house items in olx, they put the pictures of item with required rate in the website. Few scammers here pose themselves as genuine buyer and tries to connect with the seller.

The buyer almost agrees to buy the item from seller with or without much negotiation and without seeing the product (for sure). He then gives his identity as an Army officer on duty, who requires the items for his family, he himself couldn't come to collect however his family member would come and pick the item. However he would do the payment online in advance.

Here comes the real twist.

He asks the seller whether the seller has paytm or phone pay or google pay account! If no, he insists that he can only transfer the amount through these online platforms, as his office restricted him to do internet banking transactions. 

Somehow he buys the trust of the seller and convinces him to have transactions through the above accounts. 

The buyer then plays the trick. He asks the seller that he is ready to send the amount and guides the seller to put the amount (which was agreed for selling the goods) in G-pay/Paytm/Phone-pay from his bank account and the double amount will be transferred from buyer's account. He would also convince the seller that it is the army card transaction rules. 

If any doubt arises, the buyer would send an aadhaar card posing an army person, which is purely a scam as the aadhaar card was scanned from someone else (of army professional). This would certainly make the seller believe to be true. 

The buyer would ask the seller to do the transaction same way how he explained earlier, and the seller would do so. For more trust, the buyer would ask for a small transaction as testing, first (e.g. - he would ask to do a transaction of Rs. 100/- , once you do so you would receive Rs. 200/- from other side). Once the seller is convinced, the man amount will be transacted. 

And the seller's money is gone by now. The buyer would say that the transaction is on hold, please do the same amount again, and he would pay back the double amount. 

And it goes on.....

Now, what should you do if in case you encounter such situation?

1. Verify the product physically before purchasing, if you are a buyer. In case of seller, get the person physically verify the product.

2. Better to encourage cash payment, if it is small amount.

3. Verify the identity card sent by army personnel, as it turn out to be fraud.

4. Do not get trapped with any special rules for Army Cards as they mention.

5. Do not scan any QR codes sent by them

6. If in doubt, lodge a police complaint.

Read this article posted by TIMES OF INDIA on OLX Fraud in Hyderabad.

I was eventually trapped while selling out my house-hold goods on olx, but fortunately I have a friend who works in defense, I checked with him about such army cards and he advised me to be careful. Which saved me from becoming the victim of a large amount.

Stay alert always !!