Entreprenuership Lessons From A 12 Year Old Kid

A woman selling mangoes at Maho train station, pictured from moving train

Ram Charan says great entrepreneurs can be seen from street corners to board rooms. Yet it's a rare breed.

I agree with him. This story is another proof.

A 12 year old girl, from Anuradhapura came with a bucket full of mangoes. I asked “how much?” and was about to do the transaction. Another vendor (a mid aged male), from behind, started scolding her. All eyes in the train compartment turned towards the kid. I asked “why?” She quickly gave me mangoes, took money and turned back. Muditha also asked “why?”

“We are not supposed to be in this compartment.”

She went, and I got the point. First class compartment is out of bounds for vendors. A supervisor is always on guard to check intruders from taking vacant seats, theft etc. I watched her go past the scolding vendor, who feared wrath of the supervisor. Loud scolding and everyone looking at her - it was too much drama for a 12 year old kid.

I expected her to cry, to turn red, to yell out an explanation, to complain and run away.

Instead she calmly walked passed the vendor - her eyes fixed on the floor, maintaining her balance in the speeding train. She started selling in the next compartment as if nothing ever happened.

“Very good mangoes for just Rs. 50” Muditha said to me.The passenger behind me started moving out of first class to third class to buy mangoes from the kid. Few more moved out.

Then I saw a climax scene out of a movie - the supervisor welcoming the kid and directing her to first class. Almost everyone bought. Muditha also bought some more. Muditha gave her a bracelet as a gift. She folded it in her pocket, smiled back, and swiftly moved to her next customer.

Lessons I learnt from her...

How not to loose emotional balance, facing blame and appreciation.

How to focus on customers in turbulent times.

How to be patient, taking care of all the stakeholders, yet achieving the prime goal of sales.

How to communicate crisply, only the message that needed to be told.

Dr.Ari at 80 - Make a wish !

This is where it all started...Kanatholuwa, in 1958.

I heard of him in my school days at Mahinda. I heard him as a great social worker. At that time 'Sarvodaya' did not ring any bells in me.

After university I worked in many places - then I quit. I thought I will not work any more in an organization. Then I landed in Sarvodaya - by accident. People told me many negative stories. They asked me not to go there. I reflected - I wanted to do something new, I decided to be awakened.

I saw something amazing inside Sarvodaya. Something that you can experience wholeheartedly. I cannot put that in to words. It is a direct experience, that changed my life.

We all call Dr.Ari affectionately as "Loku Sir". I meet him always, when I am in trouble.

I learnt from him...
How to take my own initiative, and make my own goal
How to be humble in achieving my goal
How to see the big picture
How to be patient when everything crumbles around you
How to be a proactive listener
How to empower my self, before empowering anybody...

Happy Brithday Loku Sir ! I wish you all the very best and good health, to bring sanity in these troubled times. 

Fusion created a web space to collect thoughts from all around the world.
In creating this space, and looking at these comments now flowing through, I realized the far reaching effect of his global foot print.

Please leave your wish here > http://fusion.lk/wishdrari/

It takes only 2 minutes. I promise, it is very user friendly.

India, Get Your Business Online !

Google has started giving free websites to Indian small and medium enterprises.

Context: 

India is the world’s 2nd biggest mobile phone market with about 870 million. Internet penetration is about 100 million, or less than a tenth of a country of 1.2 billion, still making it the world’s 3rd-biggest Internet user market. 8 million small and medium businesses, of which about 400,000 have a website and 100,000 have active online presence.

What the Indian enterprise gets...

• Free, easy-to-build, professional website
• Free .in domain name and hosting for one year
• Free email addresses
• Free 365 days support

To register, the enterprise need...

an identification document, either a permanent account number, or a tax deduction account number or a corporate identification number. 

After the first year, the enterprise would have to pay a nominal charge if they wish to renew their domain name.

I think this is a neat initiative. Of course Google would have a business plan behind, ranging for years to come. They do have the investment muscle, so why not? Opening internet up for small and medium enterprises is a clever move. Wish we also had this for Sri Lankan enterprises.

Cancer: Steve Jobs and my neighborhood

Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. He was one of the richest in the world. He left his empire, and loved ones - money could not make him live another day.

A 2 year old kid and a 50 year old lady in my neighborhood are diagnosed with cancer.
They are on treatment. I wish them good health.
While everyone in a state of shock, it reminds me, life is short - really short.

When you meet someone with cancer, do not try to share the pain. He’s already in pain. He does not need you also in pain. He needs to release his pain.

You can try to make him smile.

I remember the days, I used to visit my mother’s sister, who had just been amputated by diabetes. I meet her with all smiles and make her laugh. I did the same for other patients in the ward. Doctors did not like me first, but I made them laugh too.! Few days later, patients would share their funny stories with me. They were waiting for me to come - not for food - but for laughs.

As I said, life is short. It is the truth. You and I may never know - whether we may get cancer, or (I wish) not. But don’t live like you are bullet proof. Live each day as if it is your last.

Androids for village development

Kids at Maharatenna in Kandy, using an app in Google Nexus One phone

In January 2011, when Fusion was discussing with Tag ID, on our ambitious venture in to
"Smart Village" (using smart phones for village development in Sri Lanka), price of smart phones was a barrier at top of the list. Now in October, the project is moving forward with some refreshing learning's.

Read Tag ID post.

Read Fusion Blog.

Thanks to Android OS popularity, things have changed dramatically. Now android phones can be bought at Rs. 13,300 (roughly $ 120) in Sri Lanka. Amitha has done a good survey of models and prices below Rs. 35,000, in his blog post. Read Amitha's post.

Are you a android user? How do you think Androids can help meet challenges in rural Sri Lanka?

An inconvenient truth

I blog about building communities, because I enjoy it.
Your office is a community. Your family, relatives, and your neighborhood too.


We all like to contribute to our communities. Problem is - some may don't like what you do. Then you think they are either jealous or stupid, may be both. You harbor bad feelings. You crave for appreciation, but what you get is criticism and worse, sarcastic remarks. What can you do?


1. Ask Questions
Very simple. Yet you forget to ask important questions at a crucial point cos you forget, because you are busy- and have no time to think. Later you fire fight a lot because you did not ask a question.
"Who has time to ask all those questions?"
I hope you may not ask that question.


2. Then listen
This is the hardest part. You just listen. No questions, no emotions. Just listen. Take down few notes.


3. Think fresh
Go to a quite place, alone. Go through the notes. Make a new plan.

Let's focus !

We live in the age of distraction. Internet is a necessary evil. It makes us efficient. 

Bad news is - it can make us efficient in doing wrong things. 

That's when we have to gauge the effectiveness of work we do.

Steve Jobs : A celebration of Life

Brief Bio:

Abandoned by his own parents, given up for adoption by foster parents, Jobs dropped out of school to follow his instincts. At age 21, he founded a powerful computer company called "Apple" in 1976 - eventually to be thrown out by his own board in 1985.

Shattered, he goes on to make another tech company called " NeXT" and a breakthrough animation company called " Pixar ". Fate has it, NeXT was taken over by Apple and Jobs returns as CEO of Apple in 1997. He stepped down as CEO in August 2011- in the way, making Apple the best tech company in the world, overall, ranking only behind Exxon, the oil giant.

Our future is CLOUDED !

Apple: 

In 1983, the Mac PC, named LISA, had a memory of 1.7 MB, roughly enough for one or two pictures. $ 10,000 was the price tag.  

When asked in 1998, what "i" stands for in iMAC, Steve Jobs said " 'i' stands for internet, individual, instruct, inform and inspire."

Steve Jobs has the midas touch. This year Apple announced iCloud. I get the feeling, that Apple is on to some thing big. Really big.

Recently Apple built one of the largest data centres in the world - the size of 9 football fields, costing $1 billion. "iCloud" will be the central role in this massive data centre, selling set of online services to people to access music, photos, files and software across devices. Jobs said,

"We are going to demote the PC and the Mac to be just devices, we will move your digital hub, your digital life right in to the cloud"

Google Wallet

Finally it's here on earth. Take 5 minutes and watch these 2 videos. This will save so much of your time on learning about Google wallet. Enjoy !

Videos and link below courtesy : Greg Kumparak through TechCrunch review.

GOING THROUGH THE APP

ACTUALLY DOING A PURCHASE

Related Links:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/19/techcrunch-review-google-wallet/

#WSO2con - a hash tag to follow

Today is the 3rd day of WSO2 conference 2011, titled WSO2con

WSO2 has done some serious stuff, and some big names are in their profile. The biggest of all is eBay. 
eBay uses Open Source WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) for more than 1 billion transactions per day ! That is roughly $2000 worth of transactions per each second.

“ Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice "
Anton Chekov

WSO2 got an idea for a conference when they did a workshop in 2009 targeting 50. It ended up with 150. Then in 2010 they had the first con attracting 250, for 2 days. This time it is bigger, global and grandeur.  The event spans a week including tutorial sessions. 

The conference has 5 themes: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform, Cloud, Enterprise solutions, eGovernment & Banking and Finance.

Techy as may it sound, but what I loved most about the con was the keynotes.

1. WSO2: Disrupting the middleware industry - Dr.Sanjiva Weerawarana, Chairman, Founder & CEO, WSO2
2. The Global technology outlook - Dr. C Mohan, IBM fellow
3. Service Orientation and why it's good for your business - Sastry Malladi, Distinguished Architect, eBay.

These keynotes addressed the technology frontiers that will shape the future of our planet.

Here are some startling facts and observations:

• There were 7 billion connected devices (mobiles, tablets, pads etc) in 2010. By 2020 there will be an amazing 50 billion !
• In the arena of customer retention, the big analytic is playing a huge role
• while it is convenient to connect everything, it also allows everyone to get in, making security a challenge.
• Wireless play a key role where infrastructure is not much developed
• Growing countries can learn from the Western societies and generate less garbage and better energy consumption

Recommended : Follow #wso2con hash tag to get the latest updates from the tweeps at the con.

Powerful Partnerships - Sarvodaya + Microsoft

" Since Microsoft-Sri Lanka inception in 2003, Sarvodaya had been a powerful partner, and we are looking for a greater future ahead "
Mr.Sriyan De Silva Wijeratne, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka.

Sarvodaya was one of the entities appreciated at the “Microsoft Annual Partner Conference  and Awards Night 2011” aptly titled “ Powerful Partnerships” on Sep 13, 2011 held at Hotel Galadari.

Microsoft’s philosophy stems from Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates’ desire to see as many people as possible have access to software across the world. We see this as a responsibility, stemming from that philosophy. As a result, when a need is there, Microsoft will stand behind that need. Our focus is very widely spread.

Mr.Sriyan calls this “ creative capitalism”. Taking the ICT benefits to rural Sri Lanka is Microsoft’s aspiration, and Sarvodaya-Fusion had been with them from its’ inception in 2003. He links this to Sri Lanka’s climb in global competitive index from 79 to 52 in 2 years. http://gcr.weforum.org/gcr2011/

Yet technology readiness is an issue. That’s where ‘knowledge creation’ is important. Microsoft plans to do this in coming years with indepth relationships with their partners in private, NGO, and public sector.

I wish them all the best for an active role for a visionary Sri Lanka.

P.S: I dedicate this ‘Fusion Education’ video to Microsoft for their whole heartedness in supporting rural IT education in Sri Lanka.

Why should I be on Twitter?

Research team headed by Prof. Athula Ginige from University of Western Sydney, interacting with community at Udubaddawa Nenasala (telecentre) and Sarvodaya-Fusion team

Last week of August, as I explained, had been a week of interaction and reflection on mobile for development. From meetings, seminars, events to field visits, in every instance, they fueled my imagination for a future with great possibilities.
I love meeting people from different walks of life, and I ask questions on their usage of mobile phones, internet and of course social media. Here I note Q&A from 3 youth I met.

Meet X, a 20 year old editor of an upcoming teen magazine on education and entertainment. She's studying IT at a leading private institute and excited about possibilities of 'android' and smart devices.

Q: Are you on Twitter?
A: No, it's confusing !

I promised to do a guest post on Twitter, for their upcoming edition.

Meet Y, a 18 year old, from a remote village in Kurunegala, aspires a career in bio technology, awaiting his A/L exams next year. He uses 2 mobile phones - one for internet browsing and one for voice/text, totaling 4 mobiles and 1 fixed line in his household of 4 (father, mother, younger sister and him). Not only the team of local and foreign professors, I too was in for a surprise.

Q: Do you use Twitter?
A: Yes, I use it to share my knowledge on technology. Also I follow 'Ada Derana' and registered my mobile number in Twitter. So I get SMS on news alerts for free on my mobile.

Q: How do you manage time on social media?
A: I manage my time consciously. I get good knowledge from wikipedia on my Science studies. As I face A/L exams next year, I have cut down my interaction on social media for a minimal.

I was very happy, to see this mark of responsibility and innovation from a student of 'Fusion Education'.

Meet Z, age 30, an artist making wood handicrafts at a remote village in Kandy.

Q: How can smart phones help you?
A: I know Fusion provided a smartphone to our Sarvodaya society, and our kids are using it for their education. I know the potential and benefit of using internet, facebook and other media. Also I know it is now much more easier to get on line with smart phones. But here's the problem. I know I can input my products and contact details on web. I am very busy, working and selling my craft to make a living. I have no time to be on internet. And even if I do, how do I know if I would ever get a response to my requests? If I get a quick response, I would definitely use it.

In the coming weeks, Sarvodaya-Fusion and a team of researchers will explore the possibilities on how internet/smartphones can cater for such focused requests and quick feedback. May be tweaking of existing social media or an fresh idea for a app (mobile application).

What do you think?
Please share your comments here to spark some imagination.

September - Line up

Last week of August, saw me dashing around meetings, field visits, presentations and networking events. Refresh Colombo on 25th, TweetupSL on 27th, field visit to Udubaddawa and Maharathenna on 29th, a mobile for development workshop on 30th, a presentation at World Bank and finally ICTer conference.

3 words to distill the packed week would be : mobile, mobile, mobile.

Why?

1. Hype created by media, research and seminars
2. Most importantly rural communities are embracing the potential of mobile phones for their development.

I'll write a series of blogs in September around this mobile thing, capturing my direct experience.
So how would it affect us?

2 good questions to ask yourself at this moment would be,

1. Mobile .. for what?
2. Ok....so what?

Stay tuned for September.

TweetupSL 2 - Yin Yang today !

pic credit: blog.gremln.com

 Small actions create big change. In the last decade social networking revolutionized the way people communicate online. On twitter, each second 600 tweets and 'tweeted'. It's an exponential growth.

Think of it. If we make use of these expanding communications and collaborations, imagine the difference we can make in our communities.

Most do not get what twitter is. Even some die hard social networkers I meet, have doubts on it. I also had doubts. I joined twitter in April 2009, and played around a little and disappeared for one year, until I realized its' potential. (see my moment of truth here)

I am a firm believer of Yin Yang.

It's a Chinese symbol synonymous with Kung fu which describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world.

In short, I believe in Offline and Online - Yin Yang.

It's true that lot of stuff is happening online. Yet offline face 2 face interaction is priceless.

80% of the followers / following in my profile @isura are online friends. I have not met them face 2 face. Today I have the chance to meet them. TweetupSL second edition is happening today at Dialog World at 5 PM.

The hype and the expectation of meeting 300 odd tweeps in Sri Lanka is creating frenzy on time lines of Sri Lankan tweeps. Last evening they were all online, trending #tweetupSL. I am sure they' ll be up today for some kick ass action.

Folks.....It's time to blend. Very much looking forward. !


Related Articles:

TweetupSL official site: http://www.tweetupsl.org/app/


Indi on first Edition on 26th Aug 2010:  http://indi.ca/2010/08/twitter-meetup-today-tweetupsl/

Amisampath on First edition: http://www.amisampath.com/2010/08/tweetupsl-first-ever-public-tweetup-in.html

Gihangamos video on first edition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ikHJ6jp6IYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ikHJ6jp6IY

Daily Mirror article on second edition; http://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/54115.htmlhttp://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/54115.html

Mission of my blog

 Photo Credit: John Lund /Digital vision/Getty Images

This is a very valid question. This was asked by many readers. Though there are only few comments on the blog, thanks to social media, emails and my increased face-to-face interactions lately, I was able to get first hand feedback on my writing and stuff.

FYI- This blog was started in January 2010, with this purpose: To tune my mind to live a meaningful life, each day, one step at a time. So they were just random posts on stuff that made meaning to my life.

Then with some encouragement from peer bloggers, I thought of writing as a routine. Like say, 2 times a week. Then it hit on me, that the more you write, the more focused you get on what is important to you. And while I was thinking on stuff that is important to me, I 've got comments from readers, which was a quite happy feeling. Incidentally  what readers want and what I wanted to write, was kind of the same. Then I re-read my own post on making a mission statement for life. And here I am tweaking the mission of my blog, right in-front of you all :)

Like many of the readers told me, I should write more on what I do at work - e-Empowerment of communities, and how ICT is accelerating the growth potential for social entrepreneurs. Yeah, it makes sense. This is my bread and butter, and it will come from the bottom of my heart, and yes, it will be tossed with happiness tips and fried with practical action suggestions. That creates my new menu at isura.biz !

Happiness tips for [ social entrepreneurs ] , [ building communities ] & [ ICT ]

A stupid question

Section of the Mech Engineering students at the "Social/community projects" lecture

Last week, on 10th August 2011, I presented Sarvodaya-Fusion's social enterprise work to second year students from Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa. Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary, Sarvodaya, gave overall view of Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya. Suchith Abeywikrama & Manoj Silva presented on projects in 5R  (Relief, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Reawakening) and disaster management respectively.

This was part of a lecture on the latest module "Social/ Community projects".

Purpose of the orientation is to ‘recognize diverse needs of the society and fulfilling social responsibilities as engineers’ 

Needless to say, I am so happy to see this. I believe this will break the monotony of semester rat race of exams & assignments. As a person been through it all, I am so excited to be a part of this new wave.


Here is my presentation.  This is with few tweaks from the presentation I did for M.Sc students at University of Colombo a month back.
Overall, I am getting valuable feedback. Connecting with young minds is always refreshing.

Sarvodaya-Fusion at University of Moratuwa

View more presentations from isura silva

I started my presentation by sharing this story.

" Exactly 10 years back when I was in first year at the mechanical lab down there, we were given an orientation to the lab. We had this very curious friend, who would ask many many questions from the instructor. That instructor was very compassionate and answered every question my friend asked. My friend was obsessed with the 'power in' of every equipment he saw. So he was checking for 'power in' of every unit he laid his eyes on. Then he hit the bull's eye. He couldn't find power in at one equipment. He asked the instructor, again. Instructor was now having a faint smile in his face.

He replied " Ah.. malli (brother), this is a unit where you don't get power in, it only gives power out. This is a generator !"

We used to kid our friend on this for a long time, but his insatiable urge to query never stopped. That's why he's now doing well as an Electrical Engineer outside Sri Lanka!

[ There is no stupid question. Every question has its' unique context and purpose. ]

In my presentation, not surprisingly, students asked only 3 questions. This was the case from our times too (I studied at this same uni from 2001 to 2004). We were afraid to ask questions, fearing humiliation.

Well, this coming week, it will be my turn to ask stupid questions. 16 groups of 3 students each, will pitch their  ‘problem definition’ in pursuit of making their idea to see day light as a social/community project.

Why I should ask stupid questions? I need to know exactly what they mean by the words they say, and to assess if what they say is realistic to kick of a project. This is kinda BBC's Dragon's Den (a series in which budding entrepreneurs get three minutes to pitch their business ideas to five multi-millionaires willing to invest their own cash). Love it !

5 reasons for why you should be at 'Refresh Colombo'

It's been 9 months since I've been exposed to Refresh Colombo. I presented Sarvodaya-Fusion's work at December 2010 meet up (presentation here).
Many thanks to Gihan for introducing me to Aloka, Nazly, Milad, and Milinda who were behind the scenes of Refresh Colombo from its' inception, and for capturing me on video.

Here are 5 reasons why you also should be there.

1. To connect

It's exciting to connect with youth, the buzzing geek energy a.k.a Generation Y. So simply showing up at the meet up is a good starting point. You may not get it at first, but do stay on. It's refreshing to bump in to happy new faces once a month.

2. To connect, virtually

Once I connect face2face, I keep in touch with them on twitter. It gives me access to their timelines, and vice versa, until I meet them offline again in next meet up. I learn a lot on twitter. Trust me on this.

3. To learn and to be open

I've learnt atleast twenty new trends by listening to some awesome presentations, which are very interactive. I like the Q & A setup. It's an open forum. Each of us knows little, but if you are open about it, you'll learn more. It gets better each month.

4. To be happy

I go there to be happy about the future of this country. So many talents of youth in Sri Lanka go unnoticed, because they don't get a platform. Search for talent is a global war. So they migrate. I don't blame them.
To see Sri Lankan youth pitch it out there and get whacked by an energetic audience is a sight worth a million.

5. It's growing

I missed the last (July) meet up. It was the biggest so far with 120 + on board. I did my pitch in December for a mere 30. Though I missed the latest party, I studied the whole session, thanks to some bloggers who took time to share what they saw.

Indi said,

Why I’m so happy is that groups like Refresh Colombo are growing and that there are kids on Kottu and all over who are interested in Linux or Android or obscure databases and bits of javascript. That’s cool. That’s how it should be. I pray that kids in the north and east will get the same chance. 

 Chamindra notes,

To sum up, the whole meet up was a success and the 120 odd people who came to the meet up got some valuable knowledge on all the topics that were discussed during the evening. Personally, I was really happy that I made it this time and meeting up with all those tweeps was simply great. I wish the team at Refresh Colombo all the very best for the future and hope they will grow from strength to strength to enable awesome talents of Sri Lanka to share their knowledge with their peers and help Sri Lanka to glow at the world stage.

What do you think? Is there any more reasons to why we all should be at Refresh? Do drop a comment here.

---------
Here are 4 related links to dig more in to July meet up.

Indi's blog: http://indi.ca/2011/07/refresh-colombo-refreshing/

Chamindra's blog: http://chamindrah.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/review-refresh-colombo-july-meetup-2011/

Ada Derana report on the July meet up : http://adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=14304

Malinthe's photo assignment for July meet up is here.
(Picture credit for all pictures appearing in this blog except for Refresh Colombo logo is attributed to Malinthe)

Cups of energy

I was walking down an aisle of a big supermarket. This was after a draining day at work and some 20 kilometers of traffic. Mind was urging the comfort of a peaceful place to unwind. I was itching to get back home soon.

Then these cups took my attention. They filled me with energy. It helped me to focus and inspired me to review my day. The effect was wonderful. Energy can come from very unlikely places. Hope these cups will fill your day too :)

TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More
We can't spell SUCCESS with out U

If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
Success is 10% inspiration, 90% last minute changes

Coming together is a beginning, beginning together is progress, progressing together is success
A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd

127 HOURS

There are enough spoilers on web, that would kill your excitement of watching "127 hours."
So I will not explain the story line, would rather share the trailer and a role play to entice you to see " 127 hours."



A and B are 2 friends. A had watched the movie, and he shares it with B. Here it goes.

(Role play starts)

A: You should watch it. It's directed by Danny Boyle.
B: Who?
A: You know that guy who made " slum dog millionaire?
B: No
A: That Same guy made 127 hours
B: Oh...should be good then.
A: It's awesome
B: Filmed in India?
A: No, this is filmed in Utah, in the beautiful wilderness of Blue John Canyon in USA.
B: I heard this is about a guy who got stuck in a boulder...
A: True, just watch it man...BTW, the music is done by A.R.Rahman, He's rocking.
B: Really ? !
A: Yes, and he has done a duet with Dido, which is a treat.



B: Ok, I'll watch it.
A: Sure, and don't read the story before seeing the movie, FYI, It's a true story, published in Readers Digest.

B: Is this film that special?

A: Yeah, you know why? It changed my perspective of life. It showed me that life is most precious, when we are stuck in a deep abyss.
It showed me when in deep trouble, to look at all the available resources and " just think" !
B: Ok, I ll see it.
A: Super, do let me know, what you feel, after watching it. May be comment here, twitter, FB, G+ where ever, just spread the message.

(Role play ends)

P.S: If anybody is interested, I have a good copy to share.

Thanks Udara for sharing a worthy movie, and Thameera for the story lead on Readers Digest.

Rumours

The old story:

Once a father took his son and donkey on a trip. They started all on foot. Seeing this, a guy said "What a waste of resource." Hearing this, father put his son on donkey.

Then a woman came " What a shame, a son rides in comfort, while the father's on foot."
Now father got on to donkey, son stepped down.

Down the road, seeing this, an elder said " What's wrong with this world? A father letting his son walk!"
Exasperated, both the father and son got on top of donkey, and they continued, until they heard this.
"Oh my, how unkind humans can be? Look at this poor creature."

Ashamed, both father and son got down, back to where they started.

Morale #1 : There's no morale !


Extension to old story:
Father and son went back to their village after the trip. They found almost everybody talking about them. Lot of them bugged father and his son, individually.

It was getting acute. Son started hating his father. Father ended up in guilt.


Morale #2: Rumours spread fast. Best to ignore them. BUT make sure the team have a common message to deliver. Eg: Father and son should have talked over the incident and agreed on one message. When both of them give the same message, rumours run dry, with no drama.

Precaution: You should talk to donkey too. You may never know when donkey starts talking!

Wisdom: Plan your trip in advance. Know where you are going. Be mindful of the journey. Anticipate bumps. Complete the trip and review. Communicate one message.

Serendipity: The oblivious man and " sansare piya satahan "

See the man sitting across the road in this picture?
I see him most of the days, around colour lights, where W.A.Silva mawatha turns to Galle road at Wellawatte.
I took this picture, waiting in traffic.
He sits there, not moving, no emotions in his face.
A pedestrian gives an occasional look & traffic moves through unbearable heat and sound.
What ever the chaos, he's oblivious to this world.

I don't know his story, but he teaches me one thing.
Life is a bubble, it can happen to anyone.
He makes me think about my life, my day, my time and my mind.
He makes me think calmly, to be responsible, in my thoughts and action.
It can happen to any one, I owe him for his message.

Then on Asela poya day, a similar experience to mine, had been captured on "sansare piya satahan". It's a 25 minute one episode SIMPLE teledrama, which captures essence of humanity. It airs on Jathika Rupavahini every poyaday at 0725 PM.

I loved this program from 1994, but missed it badly, till this episode.
It is one of the very few programs on Sri Lankan television, that deserves credit for authenticity and creativity. Even after all these years, it still inspires me.

Hats off to Mr.Ananda Abeynayake, the Director.
Those days Maliban used to be the sponsor, these days it is Sampath Bank.
A big thank you to both.

Prioritization - What would I do today?

Prioritization of work is really hard. That's why we screw up things, we should not.
Prioritization induces us to focus on what's really important, first.
Sounds straight forward and easy, yet so eluding.

Most of the time I end up doing things not so important, but seemed at the point of execution, so urgent.

Randy Pausch had a good story on this.

When you have a frog to eat, don't think, just swallow it.
When you have 2 frogs to eat, select, swallow the largest, first.

Frog is taken here to project our mental image towards important stuff, which is always not so easy, taking quality time, and produces lot of complaints from our mind.

Working from home

Life is much more simple - working from home.
All of a sudden I find my self working, efficiently, away from office.
Funny.

Mind works well with out interruptions. This is call freedom to the mind.

Problem is how disciplined I am. I can be much more productive for 4 hours - at home, which is more than work I can do in 8 hours at office + 3 hours of traffic - a wastage of fuel, time and tension.

Balance.

Yes, balance is the key. This whole day had taught me that. You can't be at extremes for too long.
I missed the tea time at office :)

Balance. Be happy for the moment. Don't hold on too tight.

I love new year...but

I see my fellow citizens buzzing around in the streets. They are holding bags full of clothes, food and drink. A time to celebrate. The new year.

One question kept nagging me for a week. Do we really need to buy this much to be happy and share happiness?

Do we really need to spend lavishly this much? I for one, is really curious.
How are they going to survive the next month?

To others as to myself

It is very hard these days. The Avurudu (the new year) is coming: getting gifts to relatives, cleaning one's own places, balancing the work at office. I heard many more from my colleagues to the list. Top of that the heat is really unbearable. Sun scorches in the day and at night, now heavy rains. Traffic is getting to the nerves. People seems to be crazy, and sometimes I also get in to the flow, making things worse.

With all these pressures...yeah...it is not a vacation anymore, it is more loaded work on your plate.

So sometimes the tension can get to you, may be depression in really good times around, but your heart and mind are somewhere searching.

So this few words "to others as to myself" worked well for me. It is so simple, and works as a guardian of your thoughts and action. Some times word and action slips away. It's ok. Let the peace come back to you.

Disappointed after Sri Lanka loosing to Pakistan? Don't be.

I would have love to see a Sri Lankan win. They had the edge - but things got messy and strengths became psychological traps. Every match is as fresh as a new day.

Good thing, Sri Lanka did show some resilience at the end of the innings to be just 11 runs short. Net run rate is stable. I felt we could win even with 8th man down. That exposure to batting line up very early in a world cup is priceless. It makes every team member to think and reflect " we are not bullet proof".

Thanks to ICC lackluster grouping and scheduling, Sri Lanka, for that matter the other 3 heavy weights in group A (Pakistan, Australia & New Zealand) need not worry. Why?  Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya will not challenge other top 4 countries in group A. Hence the top 4 moves to quarter finals unharmed.

Fact is, Sri Lanka can even afford to loose to Australia and New Zealand, and still be in quarters. Same applies to group B. South Africa, India, England and West Indies will be in. So basically first round of world cup is warm up for quarters. Funny, ICC should not have added OFFICIAL warm up matches before 19 Feb kick off, teams have plenty till quarters.

I remember how Australia bounced back after loosing to Pakistan in first round in 99 world cup. Then Australia was beaten by South Africa in super 6 stage too. But Aussies made their mark when it mattered, drowning South Africa and Paksitan in semis and finals respectively.

So relax guys. It's just a practice match. The world cup is yet to start.
India Vs England match was also a practice match, with substantial excitement. But Sanga and his mates will have plenty to learn looking at how brits chased an impossible 330 +.


photo credit: cricinfo.com

Is Shahid Afridi way too much?

26 Feb 2011 - Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan - Group A, ICC world cup 2011.

Shahid Afridi, the skipper, came to field with his team to defend 277. Wasim Akram, the former captain of Pakistan, a crucial member of world cup winning 1992 team, was now a commentator.

Afridi was very vocal and animated. He shouted to encourage his team, had a constant chatter with every bowler, between every delivery. Wasim was upset. He said " Gul, Razak, and Akhtar are all seasoned bowlers. They shouldn't be told each ball, how to be bowled. Afridi may think he's helping them, yet it will put extra pressure on bowlers". Wasim went on to say " I ll be very upset if I was told every ball like this, I know my field and I would bowl according to my field".

This was the first 15 overs. Sri Lankan opening pair had put on 70 plus runs. Things were not good for Pakis. We could see Akhtar was panting in his very first over. The bowlers seemed agitated, exhausted very early on. May be humidity, may be crowd pressure, may be their internal team problems, who knows?

That 15 overs Afridi kept his vocal chords in charge. Then the first wicket felt. Then Afridi took his first in his first over, the priced wicket of Dilshan. Sooner Mahela was bowled by Akhtar, and then Afridi striked again removing Thilan. Sri Lanka struggled there onwards, with 4 down, before reaching 100.

That 4 wickets changed the flow. I don't know what Wasim would tell right now. Towards the end of the innings whole Pakistan team was vocal and Afridi achieved 300 wicket mark.


Moral: Leading a team is always difficult, when you have commentators buzzing. At the end of the day, when the voice of commentators are faded, when the dust on the pitch is settled, the result is written in history. Afridi did just that. This applies to our lives too.

photo credit : cricinfo.com

Floods in Sri Lanka: How Social media helped Sarvodaya's relief efforts.

Picture courtesy Sarvodaya Media unit

It was around 10 AM on Wednesday (12th January). I was writing a report, at my office, when suddenly a twitter alert popped up, mentioning my name. It was from one of my friends, wanting to donate his money to Sarvodaya's efforts, but worried because the online payment gateway of Sarvodaya website was not responding.

The tweets from @AmiSampath that got my attention.

Normally I would wait a while until I finished the report. That's how I manage twitter updates. But this one took my attention. I visualized the affected millions, and the ever so compassionate Sarvodaya field team with many volunteers, trying to help.
I got up, called few numbers from my mobile, and the technical matter was resolved in minutes. Thanks to Diyath Ariyaratne for speedy response !

@AmiSampath spreading the message after successful donation.

I updated, replied, retweeted the new link, and my friend Ami Sampath was able to do the donation. Not only he donated, but was kind enough to Retweet and spread the message.

Later in the day, few close to Sarvodaya, yet in different time zones, hearing the need from Sri Lanka, rallied on their twitter pages to spread the " need of the moment". Thanks Aparna Ashok, Isabelle Finateu, And Daren Forsyth for passionate tweeting.


Tag Development, the organization Daren works for, also joined in with a campaign.

On Friday (14th Jan) Sarvodaya joined in with a FaceBook page to spread the message on the rising demands. So Facebook friends also came in to help, in their smallest efforts, which at the end of the day, goes a long way to help millions !

I am still sharing and retweeting all #flood updates that I lay my eyes on. Thank you friends, I salute all of you on behalf of Sarvodaya, and in the name of humanity.

You can still join compassionately by clicking and donating at http://www.sarvodaya.org/wp-content/themes/arzel_gray/donate.html
AND sharing this story to 10 of your closed ones will be of greatest merit.

May the weather be peaceful !

Getting to work early morning - An example

pic by @isura

A little while back, I was inspired by a very courageous human. On my way from Piliyandala, passing Suwarapola, I saw a tailor, in his second floor shop, with a tube light on, working attentively on a dress. Time was 0605 AM. I was totally overwhelmed by the courage and determination of a single man.

Waking up early in the morning and planning the day, is the most important thing you can do in your whole life. It clears your mind out of clutter. You the see the day in different light. By the time you mix with the world, you have worked 1-2 hours more. And that's the best time of the day.

Here I am blogging this, to share a positive note. Have a great Monday, and have a wonderful week.

At 26, person of the year, 2010.

Many would argue, Is this the right time, for this accolade to Mark Zuckerberg.
I would say, I would not mind.
He has connected 550 milliong up to now. And at the rate FB is going, they expect the 1 billion mark in 2012.
It's no small feat.

This all started of a simple idea in a hostel room of Harvard in 2003. Simple idea, a simple mind. Wow.