presence of mind

Presence of mind is nothing but giving spontaneous reply to the situation. No more definition is needed for this topic. There are some factors which influence presence of mind. They are;

1. Sense of Humor

2. Keen Observation

3. Thinking Out-of-the-box

Each of the factors can be explained with an example situation.

Sense of Humor: Only human has the boon of laughing. Laughing relieves a soul out of stress. Laughter is the finest jewel one can adorn in his face. Laughter is the best medicine (Even the best doctor prescribe it).

A friend of mine is a very talkative guy. No matter what! He would never stop talking…Once a professor made him sit in a place away from me as he was talking to me during the lecture. There too that guy did not stop. Again his place was changed. He continued talking. Again his place was changed. This continued and at last he came back near me.

The professor made a comment on it.
“You were sitting near him when the class started. As you were talking I changed your place, you continued there too and at last no place has stopped you from talking and you are back to the same place. This shows that………”


Before the professor stopped this guy stood up and replied
“Sir, I am back to same place where I started. This shows that the class room is round in shape”.
Our professor lost his temper with his reply but praised him for his presence of mind. We all enjoyed the situation.

Keen Observation: It is difficult for a person to learn everything reading books. Many times we have to observe what is happening around us and also what we are doing. We should always be alert.

My friends and I were just walking leisurely around, after the class. One person’s cap fell down. He fetched it and was wiping the dust on it. The other guy asked him
“Your cap is superb. Where did you get it from?”
The answer was
“This is a Nike cap. My sister bought it for me from US”.
The second question came up with a little heat
“You are an Indian and you are using an American cap. Are you not ashamed of it?”
The reply for this question came spontaneously
“I don’t like an Indian Cap getting dirty”.
The guy who questioned was fascinated by the reply.

Think out of the box: Always don’t think in a narrow way. Think in multi- dimensions asking yourself questions like “Why Not?”, “How?” and the like. It expands your thinking.

A man was driving home late one afternoon, going far above the speed limit. He noticed a police car with its red lights on in his rear view mirror.


He thought: "I can outrun this guy."
So he started racing down the highway, the police car hot on his trail. Finally, as his speedometer passed 100, the guy gave up. He pulled over to the side.
The police officer got out of his car and approached the man. He said:
“Listen mister, I've had a really lousy day, and I just want to go home. Give me a good excuse and I'll let you go.”
The man thought for a moment and said: “Three weeks ago, my wife ran off with a police officer. When I saw you, I thought you were that officer and you were trying to give her back to me!”
The officer let him go.

There are many factors that influence the presence of mind of human beings. Apart from human beings some animals too have the capacity to think but not as much as a human. It is only the human who has got the boon of thinking and laughing as said before. Always be optimistic when dealing a problem or situation. It really eases the tension from that environment.

I hope you would have enjoyed reading this article.

Thank you.

this pic is dedicated to prakash, sitting before me.

ease yourself...

it was 1830 hrs. rain was slashing the city. me with my friends were entirely
drenched and we somehow reached beach railway station. we waited there for abt 45
min. it was an unusual crowd there.


when enquired we came to know that rain water has stagnated in the railway tracks and
there was no train service for past 2 hrs. we had a conversation,

"if we wait here we would never reach home..so, lets hire a call taxi and share the
cost". an aged man was listening to our conversation from backside.


an announcement came that the train to tambaram will leave after 15 mins (train
service is from beach to tambaram). we again conversed abt the crowd and decided to
go by call taxi.


this old man interrupted us and said "listen young boys, don’t waste your money.
these crowds r part of life, aceept it, iam going to travel amid this crowd upto
chrompet..why cant u?". before he stopped his speech the train too arrived.


the crowd got ready and we decided to split ourselves. dashing the crowd and with a
pull from one friend and push from the mob i was thrown into the train. the train
started moving slowly (till end)


it was raining outside and sweating inside for me.


people inside the train felt it horrible to travel that day. at each and every
station the crowd was increasing. i thought, it should be the worst day in my life.
but not. few excerpts from conversation between X and Y's in the crowd.

X: I couldn't bear the crowd.. i feel as i should jump out from the train
Y: relax boss.. crowd will decline in the next station.. u can feel easy

after 3 stations

Z: the crowd is horrible today.. its very hot inside the train inspite of rain
Y: relax boss... crowd will decrease in the next station... u can feel easy

it was st. thomas mount station. the new subway had rainwater stagnated. it was full

A: see the subway(screamingly) what is this? i couldn't believe this!
B: This is called rain water harvesting!

X: still the crowd is heavy... (hastily) what train service is the government operating in
difficult situations
Y: relax boss... crowd will decrease in the next station.. u can feel easy

R got tensed by Y's repetitive comment and gave and counter comment, "relax boss, the train will become empty in tambaram, and we all can feel ease...” (tambaram is the last stop)

whatever it may be.. its within us to take the situation. that is called as ATTITUDE.

Our Beloved President Speaks here...

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s Speech

I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr.Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life. I see four milestones in my career:

ONE: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist.

TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.

THREE: The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very light material called carbon-carbon.

FOUR: One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300 gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic centre. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr.Sudarshan; he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs. We want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 years old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Do you have 10 minutes?

Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours. YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, and mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.” YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kmph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost." YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. You can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country why cannot you be the same here in India. Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay Mr.Tinaikar had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place or are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution n to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....

I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.

"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"
Thank you.

its me friends

Kodai Trip