Sifat Ash Sheik, Oman

Date: 29.Jan.21

This week, we visited a place which is famous for snorkeling and fish catching. Enjoyed boat ride with friends and explored few islands far from the shore where people do full day camping to spend time with family. Locals, expats and tourists go by boat in the morning around 8 AM , fixing camping tent ,carrying food , short hike on the mountain and a beach in front for swimming, snorkeling , catching fish , having fun and return by 4 PM to the shores.

Seeing these isolated islands far from each other reminds me of my favorite actor Tom Hanks movie 'Cast away'! Of course no one wants to go through that plight which his character had gone through in the movie yet I must say its a Hall of Fame movie.

One can enjoy the weekend either in isolation having 'ME' Time or spending  time with family both  gives immense peacefulness in these islands.


When it was dusk, we lit a small camp fire at the shores with the straw and wood  collected by our little climbers Akshaj and Arohi with their tiny hands and a big trunk by our friend.

An impromptu view of moon rise and its glittering light on the sea waters came as a bonus to our weekend trip and made our day awesome!

                                                            Picture Courtesy by Jeet

Here is the map whoever wish to visit this beautiful place in Oman. 

https://goo.gl/maps/45wGzeJyPb5zWdjh6

Bandar Al Khairan, Oman

Last week ,I had a fun filled packed day with friends to a beautiful place Bandar Al Khairan in Oman!

                               View point of Bnadar Al Khairan

Felt like ,I was in the middle of the sea though its not too far from the shore but no one around in the vicinity, alone in the Arabian waters doing kayaking, listening to my own heartbeat in that silence surrounding by mesmerizing mountains.The layers of water hitting the bottom of the rock mountain yet it stood sturdy without a sign of trembles, which made me realize that no matter what comes in your way to distract you from the destination you still need to focus at your goal.

Thanks to Jeet for introducing me to kayaking...its my first and great experience...

Me and my friend Hetal did hiking on these mountains, when I was nearing the edge of rocky mountain, heart beats fast with a fear of falling but seeing the beautiful blue waters felt a kind of peacefulness and my feet stopped wobbling.

                                                    A beautiful video of our fun filled day.

                                                             Video Courtesy : Jeet

Combination of Recycling and creativity!

 Trying to understand how Recycling and creativity goes hand in hand and here is my experience!

Went to pebble beach with friends a month ago its so clean,beautiful and serene. Good for strolling and spending time with family. Here is the location map if anyone wanna go...

https://goo.gl/maps/CvE7hhPirGCR3SSy6

I collected a bag of pebbles, brought home thinking to do something out of these and kept it in the balcony doing nothing for a month.Surprisingly , my son picked some of them , arranged the pebbles and made a smiley on the mat.

Seeing this, an idea struck me and the result is below..ta da.. A Pebble Mat

I recycled a old floor mat with pebbles glued on it making it to a new Pebble Mat.

This looks beautiful in a aesthetic sense as well as good for my feet . Ambling on it gives a good foot massage too.

Recycling an old material with an idea is called Creative Recycling ...Hmmm....

WABI-SABI : The Japanese Philosophy for a perfectly Imperfect life

 

My son Akshaj used to scribble a lot on the walls with his color pencils which is not a surprise to any of us as they are children and its obvious they do all this stuff ,after all he is just 5 year old now.


However, interesting thing which I have learned from him is, one day I lost my patience and screamed at him ,'Akshaj , this is the last warning to you, just stop spoiling the walls.' His response blew my mind, 'Mamma, I am not scribbling, I am making family picture on this wall, see its you ,me and papa'. When I keenly observed its true I was able to see the drawing of three of us.

All my anger gone for a toss that very second looking at what he drew with his tiny hands that's when I realized the wall is looking more beautiful now with his doodles and squiggles like a puzzle to find a family picture instead of plain pale yellow color wall without any design on it.

I cuddled him, no words just love to my baby boy (this incident happened when he was just 3 year old).

Finding beauty in imperfection is an art and I have learned it.

Later I came to know about this beautiful concept name as 'Wabi Sabi' which means 'Embracing Imperfection and celebrating happy incidents'. This Japanese philosophy encourages us to focus on the blessings hiding in our daily lives, and celebrating the way things are rather than how they should be.

Have a great day with this new learning!

 

"Managing Virtual Teams"

 During this pandemic, all around the world almost all the IT companies and  non - IT companies announced work from home for some months or probably for an year.

But the question is, do we Project Managers have essential skills to manage virtual teams effectively?

I was going through few articles on this topic, interestingly , I found a well explained quote by Julie Wilson.

'Managing a virtual team requires managers to double down on the fundamentals of good management,  including establishing clear goals, running great meetings, communicating clearly, and leveraging team members' individual and collective strengths," says Julie Wilson, founder of the Institute for Future Learning and instructor at Harvard University.

Top three challenges Leaders and Project Managers(PM's) go through were  very well explained in a nut shell in one of the Harvard university education blog.

1. Communication
2. Trust
3. Productivity


Based on my own experience and interaction with friends ,I listed few challenges a  PM face while managing virtual teams but are not limited to are

1.  Giving assurance to the employees that they will be treated equally, irrespective of whether working at office or from home .

2. Communication skills are the key in managing virtual teams successfully.

3.  Ensuring the virtual employee's work is in  line with the teams work for the common goal- successful completion of a project.

3. Assigning and Monitoring employees work but not the time logs of employees online status as  working from home is different than working at office especially during this pandemic time as there are many challenges  to face  at home and the situation is same for all of us in the family -children's online classes, spouse work from home ,almost everyone has the same start timings in the morning.

4. Collaborative working and strategic team building can help instill trust in remote and onsite workers.

"Managing a virtual team can be challenging, but addressing those challenges head-on is worth the effort, " said Julie Wilson.

My son Akshaj and his number blocks!

Akshaj  makes 1 block from 6 alphabet frames with acute concentration, like these he makes as many as possible .Then he plays with them counting, adding, subtracting and what not ,he even fight with those number blocks.

When I asked him ,'Akshaj don't you get bored of these ?'

He simply says, ' I love numbers and I always want to play with them Mamma'.

This simple act of my son made me realize to love  the task in hand  which helps in getting rid of  mind wandering.

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about!

Unsung Heroes and their inspirational stories!

Recently, I came to know about Uncle Moosa and his story thru one of my friend which inspired me and sure will motivate you guys to pursue your area of interests.

Uncle Moosa, a Keralite whose original name is  Sathyanarayan Mundayoor quit his government job in the Income Tax department in Mumbai in 1979 to pursue his dream of teaching children and joined in Vivekananda Kendria Vidyalaya school in Arunachal Pradesh , influenced many young children with his new ideas and inculcating in children the book reading habit in his unique styles and methods. He established 13 Bamboosa libraries in remote areas like Wakro, Chingkham ,Lathaw,Anjaw and his libraries has10,000 books which are volunteered by children who are regular to libraries.

Uncle Moosa was bestowed with Padma Shree Award, the fourth highest civilian honor this year for his contributions towards education in the northeast remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh.

Akshara Santa /Saint of Letters:

Harekala Hajjaba is an orange vendor from Harekala village in Mangaluru, Karnataka, popularly known as ‘Akshara Santa’ or ‘Saint of Letters’. He saved up money from selling oranges and started a primary school to educate the children in his village in Mangaluru

He got this motivation to begin a school came from his own inability to talk to a foreigner who asked the price of oranges in English. 

Hajjaba started a primary school in his village in 2000 with just 28 students. He then took out loans and used up his savings to buy land for that school. A few years after that he also started a high school for students aged 10 to 14 in the same village.

Our Government of India awarded Padma Shri to Hajjaba for providing affordable education in 2020.

Beena Rao

Another unsung hero, Inspired by her father, Beena Rao is  changing the lives of thousands of slum children in Surat Gujarat with her simple initiative of introducing Prayas, a free coaching institute for slum children with the help of her husband.

She started with teaching 2-3 children herself. Now, she has a team of 34 volunteers who teach around thousands of students at eight different coaching centers across Surat, the capital of Gujarat.

Her TED talk on ‘How I changed slum children’s abusive slang to scientific jargon’ is an eye opening to all of us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jGk_r8vtTg

Source of the stories: https://www.thebetterindia.com

There are many unsung heroes in India and abroad where they are dedicating their entire lives for the noble cause of contributing their knowledge/wisdom to the society.

 I understood from the lives of these extra ordinary people  that Dedication, Discipline and Patience are the three important tools on which one should work on to achieve any dream in life.

“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence” –Rabindranath Tagore