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"...make me an instrument of...

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Recently I came across a message twice that read something like this: Unless you are capable of violence you are not capable of true peace because unless there is a streak of violence in you, you are essentially harmless. I know the vocal and verbal violence I am prone to and the violence that lurks beneath the surface looking at all the injustice and unfairness in the world. It’s a violence that I manage to become aware of and try to keep under check and manage to do so, most of the time. But when it erupts, my family members and an occasional neighbour see it and hear it. From the age of 10, I have been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and what he tried to do with the lurking anger at the injustice of it all. I do not claim, by any stretch of imagination that I am anywhere close to him in terms of non-violence or his self-mastery. Maybe I have a couple of generations to go and maybe I need to be meditative at least 8 hours a day in the midst of a noisy and chaotic traffic signal; daily for...
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The promise I made my daughter do

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Written and shared on FB on 15th August 2014. My daughter and I were goofing around in the bed in the morning, tickling each other crazy and arm wrestling when she stopped dead serious and looked at me deep and said, 'You better not die. I will tell god not to kill you. I want you around.' I wondered if she asked the question in light of my conversation with her last night when I made her promise me that after I die, she will help in donating my eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas? Seeing the changing expression on her face last night, I didn't have the heart to tell her to thereafter give my body away to medical students. Instead, I told her to imagine how much that donation would help so many other people and how she can continue seeing my eyes in someone else and to imagine the happiness of someone with a new kidney and the like. Even through her confused looks in the eyes, she promised me. Coming back to today, I asked her what she'll do if I do die? ...
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Space and pace

Recently in a session I was asked a certain question and in response, the following words came out of my inner self: Instead of showing people their place and putting them in their place; let’s visit their space, understand their pace and gently invite them to our space at their pace. What do you say? PS: Btw have you noticed that the word space contains the words pace and ace. #Maturity #Mindfulness #Expansiveness
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Compete or Complete?

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Along with the Ubuntu, I am also guided by the words of the late American football coach Bill McCartney: “We are not here to compete with one another. We are here to complete one another.” Recently I was in a session where, I guided the fractured group through various experiential processes to reach a place where they became willing to walk up to at least 3 people, greet them and ask: “What would you like me to know about you and what would you like me to wish for you?” I also requested them to be open to receiving as much as they were expected to give. Having done this scores of times beforehand I knew what all emerges in such situations and I was prepared. One of them turned to me midway and said, “Hey Sree, they are asking for things that are not possible for me to give them right now.” And that’s when I pointed out once more that the question is not “What would you like me to buy for you” but rather “What would you like me to wish for you?” The difference and impact is always simpl...
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Me, the NCC, Mohabattein and a managerial training session

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I am sure hard core Hindi movie fans would remember this image of Amitabh Bachhan and his line from the movie Mohabattein. Well, some time back I was conducting a 2 day session for a client and at the end of the first day a young girl came to me and said: "Sir, when I saw you in the morning before the start of the session, it looked like you are a very distant, kadak person like Amitabh Bachhan from the movie Mohabattein." Even as she struggled to remember his key words, I chipped in and spelt those words for her: "Parampara, Pratishtha and Anushasan". Her spectacled face nodded with a wide smile on her face. The 49 year old me couldn't suppress my own smile. The initially-hesitant, reserved, ambivert me tends to sometimes unwittingly radiate that impression. "But at the end of the day today, you turned out to be amiable, approachable and fun to be around. We had some great learning." Till she mentioned it, I had never thought of those words in a way t...
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