Outer Beauty & Inner Beauty

          I want to throw some light on how society has conditioned us in believing beauty is all about physical appearance. I want to stress on the fact, how inner beauty is far more important than outer beauty and share some ways of how you can enhance your own inner beauty.

      As an example, I recall a story I read some time back. There was a notorious gangster living in a society. Obviously people thought he had a bad influence on the kids and they were fed up with the violence. So they set up a meeting and put a plan in place to drive him out of the community. One morning the gangster was going on his casual walk. Somebody came and stopped and said "Good Morning! What happened? Your face looks so dull". The gangster continued to move ahead thinking "Why do I look dull today?" now the second man joined him and he said "Oh! What happened, you look so sick and tired? You also seem to have lost some weight, you look very weak. Haven't you seen the doctor yet?" now the gangster is already feeling tired and his body temperature has slightly gone up. In his 1 mile walk, ten more people joined him and said the same things. And by the time he gets home, he has high temperature fever and he feels really sick. These people didn't stop at that. Every 30 mins, without fail visit him and tell all the things to him. Believe it or not, in the short period of 5 days, the gangster died.

         Now, all that it is a simple story that may or may not have happened. But this has a very strong psychological lesson in it. It clearly depicts the power of a message that is repeatedly bombarded on us. Regardless of the message that is true or not, it has the same effect. Now, let's draw some parallels about the society has done to us in the context of beauty. Over decades, the society thru television commercials, magazine ads, thru celebrities, models, they portray the image of beauty to us. An image that says "beauty means falling under a certain height and weight, beauty means having a six pack body, beauty means following latest fashions and trends" and it goes on. Especially woman, they are under enormous pressure to look young and beautiful. It makes me wonder just like the plan that the community put together against the gangster, is the plan that the society has put together to keep a woman worrying about her hair and makeup. In that way they don't strive to achieve bigger and better things in life.

While the external beauty goes with age, inner beauty grows with age. To grow old and die one day is the law of nature. There is not one single product or procedure to stop that. For my question "Why fight a battle, if we cannot win?"

Say if you are investing in something, what do you think? You think about return on investment right? If I put this much of time and money, what am I getting back in return? If I ask you "I have a great project, invest Rs.10000 in it today, and 5 yrs later, I'll come back and give you Rs.100, would you invest in it?" We should be smart enough not to invest something that is not going to appreciate in value with time.

     We all think the same way, then why this foolishness? Why make investments in external beauty that we all know for sure will fade away with time, and not in inner beauty that is going to increase with time. 

Now what are the some of the ways that we can enhance our inner beauty?  I want to share four important points

1. Try to understand yourself, constantly develop qualities like compassion, kindness, generosity, patience, honesty and other noble qualities.
2. Surround yourself with amazing people who inspire you and let you own inner beauty shine thru.
3. Read excellent books that enrich and expand you thinking.
4. Avoid negative thought and focus on the positive things.

        I am sure there are lots of things that you can do. But, if you can focus and daily practice and working on these four things, I am sure you are well on your way to let your inner beauty blossom.

       To summarize, remember outer beauty goes with age while inner beauty grows with age. I urge you to be smart in the investment that you make from today onwards and don't fall for the spooky tricks that the society and the media plays on you.

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others. For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness. For beautiful figure, share you food with the hungry and for poise, always walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."- Audrey Hepburn

Green Green!!

          Today, every manufacturer has strategies to go “green”, but what does it really mean by “going green”? Why do businesses go "green"? Who is the "green consumer"? You'd be knowing a basic idea on "green" after reading this article.

        With the precise approach and definite goals, green manufacturing holds good economic benefits including long-term cost savings, waste reductions and Eco-efficient processes.

Why do Companies Go Green?

       Some business owners and executives actually have conscience to go "green" and provide a competitive edge to customers that are environmentally conscious.

                                                                                         

      Going green improves public image and enhance positive impact on customers. Probably, one of the biggest reasons could be an opportunity to be seen as "Environmentally conscious". Companies who go green can play up to the emotions of customers, and say "Hey, buy from us. We're Green, we care about our environment, and our non-green competitor apparently does not."

         Going green makes sense and make profits by reducing the company's energy consumption expenses and provide a healthy environment to the society.

       A large number of companies would claim to be "green", although defining a "green" company is difficult and depends on the criteria adopted, While few are "green" in all aspects of their operations.

Who are Green Consumers?

         People who care sufficiently about the environment to make a conscious effort to buy products that avoid environmental damage are generally called as Green Consumers. They are very concerned about the environment and purchase only Eco-friendly products viz. non-toxic, recyclable, products made from natural ingredients, products made without causing pollution.

     People at one end of the spectrum pay little attention towards environmental issues, though environmental concerns expressed by opinion polls are increasing day by day. People's main interest is "Value for Money", and they would only buy a green product if it were not expensive. At the other end of consumer spectrum is the tiny band of committed greens, for whom green credentials are deciding factor when choosing a product. Since, Green products tend to be more expensive, price "resistance" is a major constraint on market demand.

French Fried Oil Change

         There are two types of men in this world. The one who get under the hood of the car and change the oil themselves and the others touch the oil when they eat French fries. People who know me, know that I'm French fries kind of guy.

         In the recent times I decided to make a change. I thought of doing oil change myself. Accordingly I  designed a four step process how to do it.

1. Research

2. Planning, 

3. Execution and 

4. The last and more important Show Off

What you are reading right now is Step 4. Some optimists like to call it communication. With that thought I would take you through the first three steps.

1. Research:

          I went to university library and I was searching for the book, "oil change for dummies". I didn't find it. I went to the sweet girl in the counter and asked for the book "Oil change for dummies". She gave me a strange and weird look, like as if I was hitting on her. I wanted to explain to that lady that "I've come here looking for a book, not a woman". I figured out that world is not supportive for a man who wants to do oil change on his own. I reluctantly got into the Internet. I decided that was my last option available.

2. Planning:

       I have high amount of distrust about the information available on the Internet. Somehow I took the information, and compartmentalized the things to do under the car, things to do under the hood, things to do inside the car. I made an extensive notes and arranged in file folders, took some photographs of my car and compared it with the diagrams on the Internet. with this much research and planning, I was ready for the mission, took my laptop, my Iphone, put them in my backpack, with hundreds of research papers and walked towards my car. I had a walk of a man who would not take a NO as an answer.

3. Execution:

        I approached my car and got under the car, it was a world of darkness. but I was excited because that was the first time I have ever gone under the car. I looked over and unscrewed the oil reservoir to get rid of the old one. kept the oil pan which I had purchased during planning stage underneath it. the oil was slowly falling down. I noticed something was going wrong here. I always remembered engine oil was dark blackish/brown in color, but the oil which was dripping was light in color something like water. then I realized I just opened the transmission fluid tank instead of oil tank. As I am the master of the perfect cover, I closed it with my hand and managed to open the oil tank. there was few drops of transmission fluid that got lost, I don't know how much does that matter to a car.

         After the successful completion of step under the car, now it was time to get under the hood. I opened the hood, and that opened a new gate of my life. I looked inside the hood, and what I saw was bliss. The sight which eluded me for so many years of my life. I located the oil reservoir, poured the oil  into the oil reservoir, I poured another liter too. after searching a little bit, I found oil filter, removed it and replaced with the new filter I had lubricated and put it back. Oh! By the way, taking out an oil filter is not an easy thing. I had to use all the 750 muscles in my body to remove it. Realistically I could have used a hammer and plopped it. Now task under the hood is completed.

         I looked around and I saw some people walking by, completely oblivious to my achievement. How Rude!! They didn't care that I have achieved such a great thing. I closed the hood with a sound that gave a bad boy image, and then got inside the car and started the ignition. Then I heard sweet music of engine saying "Thank you Aarvi for the oil change". The car started and I was going smoothly on the sweet land of satisfaction and sweet land of male ego vindication.

        On the half way thru, the dash started beeping. Beep! Beep! the message that the dash was showing was so embarrassing.

People say, "For any good story, don't spoil it with facts."

Let me tell you folks, there are two types of people, one who go under the hood of the car and change the oil and there are others who go under the hood of the car and put 2 liters of oil in transmission tank.