Ways of looking at things : Positive and Negative

Last week, we had a small Deepavali party ( a Hindu annual festival held to celebrate the victory of "good" over"evil") in my brother's (Sundar) house in Penang. We invited many friends. I was surprised to meet a few of my very very old colleagues from my company.

An interesting scenario happened when I met these 2 guys. I think the last time I met them was around 2-3 years ago. The 1st responded, "Wow, Subra is it you? You look so different. My God!, you changed a lot."

The 2nd responded, "Subra nice to meet you again, you look the same. you never change a bit".

Totally confused.

2 ways of looking things : Positive and Negative

Positive :

-The 1st guy wanted to make me happy by telling that I changed a lot and look more "matured", more intelligent", "more majestic".......I know you are getting jealous.

-The 2nd guy wanted to make me feel that I am still as young as how I looked few years back.

Negative:

- The 1st guy intended to tell me that I changed from being a good guy earlier days and now I look pretty messed up.
-The 2nd guy intended to tell me that I never changed and still behave clumsy the same way I did a few years back.

Now , for the actual impact of the 2 contrasting comments - all depends on how I want to interpret. I chose to take it positively. I am a changed person - by look and thinking, at the same time, I am a person who did not change - by my good character and jolly good behaviour.

How the other person interpret seems to be lost in my analysis. I was happy for many reasons on that day:-

- it was Deepavali time
- I met long lost friends
- both had opinions on me
- and I see both opinions to be positive about me.

I am happy and I am sure my day will be great throughout.

There are always many ways of looking at things : Positive and Negative, but you can choose only 1, choose wisely.

Subra

He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT & GOOD

I went to a “Bank’s” automated centre in Penang. I saw a”KWSP” (EPF=Employee Profident Fund) statement printing machine there. Since the machine was there, I thought of trying to print my EPF account statement.

The steps were simple. I have to slot my “MYKAD” (Identification Card), wait for the verification, then place my right thumb on the scanner, wait for while, then click (touch the screen) for the statement printing. Like a magician’s wand, the statement came out in a standard A4 size paper. Wow, great technology, great use.

I don’t have to go to the EPF office to get the statements. I love technology.

After printing this year’s statement, I saw an option to print the 2007 statement. Nothing to lose, I clicked (touch the screen) the option to print the 2007 statement. The automated equipment did it’s sound effect, colourful screen changes, beeping sound and I looked at the slot where the printed statement should come out, nothing was there. I waited for a while, nothing happened. Waited a little longer, still nothing happened. Then there came the famous words, “Machine Temporarily Out of Service”.

Now I was in dilemma, did the machine print my 2007 statement? If yes, it would be stuck inside and the person who is going to repair and reset the machine will have full information about my EPF. I wasn’t feeling very comfortable. I asked the security officer to ask the bank officer to help me to get the stuck paper out. The security officer said nobody can help now, the bank will do it later.

It was only around 4:20pm. I was in the midst of deciding whether to make the issue big or not. At that moment another guy came in and straight away went to the EPF machine to get his statement printed. The moment, he saw the screen saying out of order, he cursed the bank and shouted to the security officer.

Guess what happened, the security guard went inside the bank and brought out an officer. That officer went into the bank again and came out with another officer. They opened the machine and removed my statement which was stuck. They handed me my statement, then reset the machine and locked it again.

I thanked the bank officer and the security guard, but neither replied or cared to respond to me.

The guy who came after me created a chaos, didn’t even thank anyone nor appreciated the help rendered by the officer. He cursed them further.

The officers apologized to this guy.

Now,
I asked nicely, no action.
The guy shouted, immediate action was taken.

I thanked the officers, they didn’t acknowledge.
The guy cursed the officers, they apologized to him.

I think the phrase, “He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT and GOOD”, is true to it’s core.

Subra

http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2index&pg=bm_p2index_service&ac=3&task=kiosk

If I can reverse the time.......

I am very sure many of us did wish that we could reverse the time in order to amend back some mistakes we made in the past. Just imagine if we really had such a mechanism....wouldn't it be wonderful.

Don't you think everyone in this world would be happy. Every mistake you make, you reverse the time and amend it again. Another mistake another reversal of the time and another amendment, that's it, everything is corrected and all are on the right track.

Surely nothing can be wrong anymore isn't it?

But before you think on the feasibility of this wish coming true, can we define what is right and wrong. Yes, if you can unanimously get a list of right and wrong, then you can ask for the time reversal equipment. What is right to one person can be wrong to another person and what is wrong to one person can be right to another person.

I think we are getting to something now. I make a mistake, reverse the time and amend the mistake. With a great smile of achievement I carry on with my work. Then came a man who is not happy with the amendment I made because it effected him. Therefore he would reverse the time back and amend my changes according to what he wants.

All this will continue and many of us will be engaged in reversing the time and amending what we have done in the past. Neither of us will bothered to think on how to correct the mistakes from happening again.

We will choose to sit on our mistakes and spend time thinking on how we could have avoided the mistake then reverse the time and amend it. All these regrets and time spent to do the reversal act dampens our vision to move forward.

Once you know it was a mistake, analyse what went wrong, think on how to avoid it or prevent it, then move on...don't stay on the mistake for too long, many other things are happening and if you missed it, then you tend to miss more.

Think again.......If I can reverse the time.....it will be a disaster.

Change and excitement - What we wanted and what we got!

We were all eagerly waiting for changes.

Changes that happened:
4 states changed hand.
Many seats in the parliament changed to opposition members.
The perspective of democracy changed.

Changes that did not happen:
Policies and tactics (which are base words for politics) used by ruling government did not change.
Mentality and thoughts of the ruling party did not change.
Information disseminated to the public is still based on "I talk you listen-don't ask, don't think".

Think back on what we (the rakyat) wanted.
We wanted real change in the arena of politics.
We wanted to see the political parties and the politicians change their view and their stand on the race based political system.
We wanted to see some initiatives triggered to realize these changes.
We wanted the opposition party to take over the government from the ruling party in order to give a wake up call to the ruling party.

We thought that the ruling government will understand possibility of the opposition party's intention to take over the government may happen.
We thought ruling party will think for the benefit of all the people in Malaysia and do something to correct the wrongs and re-align the path for betterment.

But what happened was:
Ruling party is just struggling to keep their job by taking care of the few who decide their immediate positions (positions in their party and the governmental positions that come together with the party's position) - "rakyat" is forgotten.

Opposition party made fantastic promises and indeed staged a good performance till they tumbled on their own deadlines.

I am not complaining on the opposition party's "missed" deadlines, but I feel that, the dates were committed by themselves and were not imposed by the rakyat.

If I ask you to dig a 1000 feet hole within 3 days without knowing your capabilities and your equipment, your failure to dig the hole can be shifted to me. But if you yourself committed that you can dig the hole within the specified time frame, your failure is 100% yours - knowing your own capability and your resources, your commitment should be realistic.

We wanted changes, but both parties (ruling and opposition) gave us some excitement, not the real change.

See it for yourself : What we wanted and what we got - Change and Excitement !

In everything you do (in work or life), bring in the change and not just the excitement.