10/11/2015 If you think something small cannot make a difference,

try going to sleep with a mosquito in a room.

An inspirational thought indeed. But we forget that in the room,
when the person wakes up by the buzz, there is a clap of the hands
and the mosquito is crushed. A dreadful thought. What we need to
remember is that if there is only one mosquito, the fate of the world
changer is sealed. There are hundreds, thousands of such buzzing
mosquitos, many of which would be slapped and clapped away but
the buzz created and the sting which will remain is enough to
destroy the persons sleep. To make the difference in the world, the
mosquitoes have to come together and create the buzzing and
stinging, with many of them knowing that they would have to
sacrifice very early. An inspirational thought for people like me who
think that my writing may not have any impact on the world.
10/11/2015 After having worked for 18 years, in various capacities
and organizations, working with NGOs, dealing with children from
various strata of society, this is what I found. Everybody has a voice,
some of them find it sooner and say, some of them find it later but
many of them have a very feeble one. But if one listens to them
keenly and intently, all of them are trying to something original and
contribute.
I have found that all of them are in a shell. Some of the children are
able to see their shell and having seen it are able to break it even it
be hard. Some of the shells are weak, but the very idea that they
are in a shell shocks the kids and they do not break it even it be
very soft and brittle.
EXPRESS IMPRESS: Expression is the very essence of a living
being. All living beings express themselves in some way or another.
There is not one living thing, which does not express itself. It is
difficult not to express. We express ourselves by talking, singing,
actions or even by being silent! Expression is our inherent nature.
Our expressions create impressions about us. How we express is
essentially how we impress. The articulation of our thoughts through
speech and action is expression.
10/11/2015 You are embarking on a journey, say the journey to
write. There has been a nagging feeling that you want to write to
express your thoughts. You have looked at various books and sites
and have been inspired to write. You decide to write. And for one
small confirmation, you take a look at how to publish. There are
many options traditional/conventional publishing, subsidized
publishing, self-publishing. You go through the various sites who
have a lot of information on them. You go through the comments
section. Some of the comments are encouraging but many have

horrendous experience in publishing. The authors have faced

difficulties and issues to get themselves published traditionally or
self. A doubt worm now starts to wiggle in your mind. The worm is
now eating into the determination and resolution of writing. The
worm starts to gnaw away at your resolve. The self-doubt starts to
grow and a thought occurs that Am I biting off more than I can
chew?. This feeling remains for a while about an hour or so. Then
you remember the inspirations read such as Brenda Ueland and the
resolve is taking shape once more. The resolve that was clouded in
the fog of self doubt is now getting clearer as the light of the
inspiration is dispersing the doubts. You again say I can and I will
do it. Whatever time it takes.
10/11/2015. The creative power given by God is in the overhead
tank. There it is full. There is still a constant flow of creativity being
poured in the overhead tank. But the tank has a finite capacity and
there is no overflow valve. If the creativity is not is not let out
through the tap, then there is a bursting of the overhead tank. The
only way to remain sane, balanced and stable is to let the creativity
flow through you.
11/11/2015. WHY I WANT TO WRITE THE BOOK.
I have started the journey of self-employment. Before the start of
this adventure, for eighteen years I lived as a corporate
professional. I have had wide-ranging experiences. My experiences,
my training for and on the job and my personal learning formed
within me a framework of thoughts and ideas.
In all the corporates I worked for, I had the opportunity to attend
some of the best training programs. The trainings I received were
about the latest technologies, running and changing an
organization, handling of self, peers, team members and superiors.
Exotically named training programs such as Managing Innovation
and R&D in complex technology growth, Change Management for
the 21st Century Organization, Strategy for the technology company,
Leadership and effective Self Management for Efficient Results were
attended and many of the concepts imbibed. The broad range of
trainings helped me to expand my horizon of thinking and also
helped me make me a good professional. I voraciously read about
Innovation Management, Change Management, Strategy and its
execution. I was also trained in Organization Excellence Models. I
was deeply impressed by Systems Thinking and Theory of
Constraints as management philosophies. I undertook self study of
these philosophies and imbibed the concepts and models. Sadly, the
organizational constraints, the pulls and pressures of the day-to-day
running of the company, the changed priorities of the management
or plain stupid ignorance or office politics also meant that only few
of the concepts could be implemented with the organization.

While being trained on the modern management principles and my

self study of Systems Thinking, I got curious about the management
principles in Ancient India. During the childhood had read the
Panchatantra and Hitopadesh. As a child fascinated by the stories,
and even after having grown up never thought of them as
management principles or theories. Doing my own research on the
Ancient Management Systems of India, I came across Chanakyas
Arthashastra. Flipping through the pages in the bookshop and
reading it perfunctorily, I was amazed by the simple tax system
proposed and the need to follow it by the king. I became more and
more interested. I started to read anything and everything about the
ancient management systems. Chanakya Niti, Sant Ramdas on
Management, Bhagwad Gita for Management. And in this Internet
world, I researched about the comparison of Modern Management
techniques with the Ancient Wisdom.
Many papers and few books written have compared the modern
management with the Ancient Indian Wisdom. I was fascinated
about the wisdom of the ancients. But then a thought kept gnawing
my mind. All the papers and the books only project the ancient
thought on the modern management thoughts. It felt like the
drawing of a large three-dimensional object on a two dimensional
paper. In the engineering drawing class we learnt to make a
projection of the three-dimensional object on the two-dimensional
paper. It is like the blunder made by the historians of the 19 th and
20th century in fixing the dates to the ancient cultures.
The historians predominantly from Western Europe had taken the
bibles interpretation that the world was formed only 4004 years
before Christ. Thus the entire dating of the history compressed to fit
this time frame. Now archeology, carbon dating and other sources of
history have shown that the date of the start of the world as
assumed is wrong, there is a new dating of the various cultures of
the world. And all those dates are getting pushed further into
antiquity. Similarly, I felt that projecting or compressing the ancient
Indian wisdom on the modern management principles is doing
disservice to the original wisdom. And in imposing the ancient
management principles we may be diluting or missing some of the
concepts that have not been touched upon by the modern thinkers.
Allow me to be clear here. I am in no way suggesting that the
modern thinkers have not thought about certain management
principles or that the ancients discovered all the management
principles but the probability exists. As modern thinkers we should
be open to such skeptical and critical thought.
The purpose of this book is to invert the gaze and look from the
ancient Indian wisdom to the modern management principles. It is
looking at the three-dimensional object in the 3D plane only and not
to project it on a 2D plane.

I have started on an adventure. I want to use the first principle

approach for my journey of the path of entrepreneurship. My first
principle approach is the use of the ancient Indian wisdom, relate
the corresponding modern management thinking and if required
compare. In this endeavor, the biggest challenge I will face is to
keep myself true and honest. This fear is not due to any bias that I
want to prove the greatness of ancient Indian thought over the
modern management thinking but due to the fact that my first
exposure and training is in the modern management.
Entrepreneurs need guides and the management thinkers and the
management principles are those guides, which will ensure the
success. To test out the ageless principles (no bias here!) of ancient
Indian wisdom, I shall be following these principles and practicing
them in my journey. I hope to use this book itself as my guide and
navigator.
12/11/2015 WHY I WANT TO WRITE THE BOOK.
The endeavor of my book is to use the Management Thinking
Systems of ancient India as the foundation. There are books written
on Indian Management by using Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayan and
Upanishads. Technically speaking Mahabharata and Ramayan are
historical stories, which have lessons in management but are not
management thoughts by themselves. Bhagwad Gita is more of the
science of Self management rather than that of organizational
management. The development of management thoughts for
organization and managers are found in Neeti Shastra, Arthashastra,
Panchatantra and Hitopadesha. These books have laid down the
actual management principles for organizations or in those time for
the kingdoms.
16/11/2015. I want to find out how the management thinkers of the
ancient India handle risk, creativity, innovation in an organization or
kingdom in their approach. On the level of individual, the risk aspect
has been handled by the Gita, Upanishads. Karmaneyava
dhikaraste.. is the loudest and the most telling shloka about risk
taking. But this is at individual level. How is this aspect handled by
the management thinkers of yore or creativity considered only to be
at individual level? How about innovation at organization wide level?
Fostering of innovation within the employees or other stakeholders,
how was it handled?