War Stories Whenever I watch a movie that pits a small force against a larger enemy, I always look for the battle strategy by which the smaller army conquers the larger one. It excites me to see a bigger enemy, who comes into battle confident of gaining the upper hand because of the sheer number of people on their side, made to bite the dust by a smaller opponent through their sharper wits and smarter battle plans. Watching Prince Caspian’s... Read more
Experiential Conclusion I was recently organising an event in church, and had to work with a couple of people, both men and women, in order to conduct it. To my surprise I found that the women in the team completed their tasks on time. They then picked up the slack when a couple of men failed to deliver what was entrusted to them. They went the extra mile to help me, shouldering the extra burden brought on by this delinquency,... Read more
Legal Parlance In legal circles, prosecutors and defense attorneys both have the goal of defending their clients successfully. They, however, use different approaches to fulfill the different requirements needed to complete their assignments. Choosing the right defense attorney who can plead your cause and bring appropriate outcomes is crucial to your case! A prosecutor must charge the defendant with a specific crime or set of crimes, which he or she might have or might not have committed. On the other... Read more
Remote Sensing The science and practice of acquiring information about an object without actually coming into contact with it is termed as remote sensing. Used in numerous fields, it is actually the off-site acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, and is in contrast to on-site observation. The key idea here is without physical contact and from a distance. Today in many areas of our daily life we opt for and use the nuances of remote sensing, especially in... Read more
Natural Defenses Defense mechanisms are natural, normal, in-built, and part of all life forms. Flora, fauna, and humans use various defence tactics and strategies to exist and survive in this world. Plants have developed natural defense systems, physical, chemical or mechanical, to fight against infection. Mechanical defense mechanisms include thorns and trichomes (plant hairs). Chemical defense mechanisms are found within the leaves. Examples of physical defenses are thorns on roses and spikes on trees such as hawthorn. Plants use these... Read more
Definition One of my co-worker, a very down-to-earth, practical person, thought of himself as being emotional in his orientation. I have always considered him to be one full of of rich emotions, rather than an emotional person. Since there is indeed a vast difference between the two, he was pleasantly surprised when I proceeded to enlighten him. I then grasped how important it is to differentiate between sympathy, empathy and compassion. People often confuse one with another, and end up... Read more
The Occasion Story One time I was privileged to be judging a competition in one of my city’s well-known schools, along with others. The chief guest of the day, a young writer and educationist, rephrased the an old Aesop tale in four different versions. The old and proverbial hare and the tortoise story was revamped with an input from each version. The first version was the usual one we have all heard of, the tortoise winning the race. It gave... Read more
The Leadership Roles Some time ago I wrote on parent leadership as new paradigm in leadership styles. I explored the differences between various leadership models, such as traditional, bureaucratic, charismatic, etc., and goals of each. Recently, I have come to understand the two types of roles that make up parent leadership. Each of these roles is defined by its own responsibilities and its own spheres of action or influence. Neither can do without the other. Each must accept as well... Read more
Randomness and Uncertainty Uncertainty, one of the most famous but misunderstood ideas in physics, points to a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what can be known about the behavior of quantum particles. In Isaac Newton’s clockwork universe which covers macro particles, all things follow clear-cut laws on how to be and to move. Quantum theory, on the other hand, governs the deportment of the smallest scales of nature. It embodies an aspect of uncertainty, and a level of... Read more
Women Help Needed As the world focused on felicitating women this month, I was occupied with deciding whether women helped other women. Are we, who were being praised and applauded, really supporters and promoters or adversaries and opponents of one another? I recalled a speech of Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of Pepsico, where she opines that women do not really help one another in the work place because they do not know how to give or receive negative feedback.... Read more
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