DORK - The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Verghese

I whole heartedly recommend DORK to anyone who loves humor writing. In fact, to me, it is the best fiction writing in humor in Indian Writing English in all the books that I have read so far and definitely compares with some of the best in the world. Sidin Vadukut cooks up a wonderful dish with Mr. Robin Verghese, as the happy-go-lucky management trainee stumbles from one misadventure to another, never losing his enthusiasm nor nerve, always coming up with a new idea, always hoping for the best. Whether it is the girl, the job, the top position, the flat, the assignment or anything else, Einstein has a unique way of solving it as readers will find out.

Easy to read, easy to identify with and laced liberally with some really wonderful moments when the reader has to break up into loud laughter, DORK is a must read. Sidin Vadukut writes in a style that is entirely his own and sustains the joy of knowing Robin Verghese's secret thoughts, throughout the book.

Great Insight By Noel David

While sharing his impressions of how champions like Sachin, Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Anil Kumble and others prepared, Noel gave a valuable insight into the mind of champions. He said that they were so focused and they so loved what they were doing (in this case, playing cricket), that they always, always spoke cricket. At dinner, at nets, after the game, in the bus, they would always be talking about the game. 'Others, like me for instance, would get bored of all this talk and talk of something else, but not them,' he said.

This indicates a new habit worth cultivating for the champion, and the best part is, that it has some attendant benefits as well. It is best to keep our focus on what we want. It is also best that we talk about it as much as we can because we could pick up some useful tips and support in the process. Come to think of it, all people who achieve things are like that, always talking about what they want - even in circumstances where there are people who may not fit.

What this does, apart from keeping your focus on what you want is that it clearly demarcates the kind of people you tend to move with. You will soon shift to people who can appreciate your talk and who can help you in your endeavour in one way or another. It will quickly keep away people who do not have focus or who do not support your seriousness. Even in teams, I feel this kind of talk should be encouraged as often as possible to keep the seriousness and the focus on what needs to be achieved.

Thanks for the tip Noel. Invaluable indeed.

Follow-up for the Champion's Mindset

As follow up for the Champion Mindset workshop these are things to bear in mind, exercises to do:
1) Do one thing out of comfort zone every day and write it down in a journal
2) Create and remember to write down as many YES factors as you can during the day
3) Act on every thought - it is the act that makes the experience, not the thought alone
4) Take ownership for every act, thought
5) Remember that champions may not be popular but they are respected
6) Focus on the positives even when things go wrong, build up the positives and make this a habit
7) Measure improvement each day, whether it is weight loss or adding a new skill
8) Get comfortable with your strengths, with yourself, add more if you can from other sources
9) Fine tune your detailed action plan, just add a few lines everyday, sometimes just look at it until it makes sense to you. make more plans for dreams in other areas and journal down your progress
10) Set targets for yourself, raise expectations from yourself so you live up to it
11) The more you act, the more you grow, and the more you grow out of your comfort zone the more you participate in life
12) List down things you'd really like to do, which you have been postponing and start doing them right now
13) Figure out things that are not working in your life and take one step towards taking more ownership on it
14) Do things that make you smile, laugh
15) Be with people who help you on the path, support you

Champions Mindset at COD - Hectic 2 days

Developing the Champion's Mindset program at COD

The Champions Mindset workshop at COD went off very well. I was quite surprised to find that we had 19 registrations - I expected about 15. There were 4 nominations from Singareni Collieries (Joseph, Appa Rao, Venu Gopal and Biswanath Rano), 5 from Naandi Foundation (Rekha, Narasimha Rao, Narasimha Chary, Murali and Rajesh Patel) 3 from Ybrant Digital (Pawan Wankhede, Ramakanth and Sreedhar), 2 from Midhani (Gurulingam and Ramavadh), 2 from APITCO (Sanjay Das and Srinivas Raghu), 2 from HIL (Pankaj and Ananth Reddy) and Dhanalakshmi, a young professional who came on her own.

It was a heterogenous group with 55 year old DGMs from Midhani to young pros who have started out on their careers, a Director of Business Development in a growing company to an ISB graduate and I knew it had its challenges in getting them all on the same plane. However, it all went off very well.

Noel David, my good friend, was kind enough to come at the end of the first day to share his experiences on how champions think and develop champion traits. It was very interesting to hear him recount stories about Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Azharuddin and Laxman apart from his own experiences.

The 2 day program was quite hectic as usual. Amar helped me in the program by taking care of all the backup stuff and supporting me through the program and that gave me enough space to deliver the program more efficiently. The interactions from the group were good and I was particularly satisfied to see animated involvement from the senior professionals in the program just as I was glad to know that Bhagyalakshmi was enjoying the program and getting what she wanted from it. Since she actually paid her own hard earned money and came voluntarily I was more keen to see how she was faring, and her feedback in the end was especially satisfying. The overall feedback at the end was good and it made it all worth it. I just about dragged myself off  in the evening and Amar and I went off to Odyssey for a cup of coffee.

Thanks Amar, Madhavi, Siddharth, Naresh, Vijay Nair, Majid Khan and all the staff at COD and all the participants. I enjoyed the two days, gave it my all, and am now going to take a well earned rest over the weekend.

Short Visit by Satish

Satish flew in from Pune last Wednesday morning and flew out on Thursday. It was a packed couple of days. We reached home just in time to drop Anjali off for her first day at school. She looked quite eager to get into the school and away from us. We returned and then went out to get Anjali back and also to get some shopping done. Watched a bit of a movie, drank some beer, ate a nice heavy lunch and slept. Went out in the evening to Koni's house to watch a soccer match on his big screen television and returned late at night.

Next day was scheduled for breakfast at Taj, Secunderabad, followed by tea at Bhave's. I had to rush back to go to a function. Dropped Shobha, Satish and Anjali at Westside and went on my way. After I returned, we had to make another trip to pick up his clothes at Westside. I dropped in at Landmark to see both books of mine well displayed, signed some copies and returned home. We left for the airport rather late but made it in good time.

It rained nicely all along the way and the ride was good fun.

Champion's Mindset - Workshop With the COD

Pleased to announce a 2 day workshop 'The Champion's Mindset' being facilitated by me on 23rd and 24th of this month. The program has got about 16-20 participants as of current indications. Amar Chegu is helping me with the program. I am quite pleased with the number of registrations and I think it should benefit the individuals and thereby the organization's they represent.
On Day One we have invited Noel David for a chat on the 'Champion's Mindset'. He has shared the dressing room with some of the great of the modern day game including Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Azharuddin, VVS Laxman to name a few and it should be interesting to hear him speak.
Am currently preparing for the workshop. Will be relieved once it is over. It has been going on for a long time.

Column with the Indian Express

Good. Got an offer to write a column with the Indian Express for their Sunday magazine. I am really pleased because this will keep me focused on some serious humour writing. I have not written humour for a long time nor have I written seriously for publication. This assignment should do me a world of good. Will provide a link to the article once it appears.