Useful Links

Sanskrit: Sanskrit Dictionary: Click here

 

English: A good site on Phonetics: Click here

English: A good site which includes reading materials and exercises: Click here

English: All aspects of English grammar: Click here

English: Online Grammar Exercises for Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels: Click here

 

 

Chinese: A useful Chinese language site: Click here

French: A very good site on French Tutorial: Click here

German: 100 Exercises (For Ist Senior level and above) NB: Keyword: "begin": Click here

German: Information on Higher studies in Germany: Click here

German: Study and Research in Germany: Click here

German: Study Opportunities in Germany: Click here

German: Universities and other Higher Education Institutions in Germany: Click here

Japanese: Good site for JLPT Vocabulary Quiz: Click here

Japanese: Photos on Japanese Culture etc: Click here

Spanish: Learn Spanish Grammar: Click here

Spanish: Good site for Spanish Study: Click here

Spanish: Business Spanish with audio: Click here

Spanish: Study Spanish: A good Bilingual site Click here

What I Learned from Richard Branson...

Branson in Bucharest (a city known as the “Paris of The East”) and wanted to share my takeaways with you to help you take your career and life to its next level of wow.

Richard was polite and larger than life. A pleasure to share time with. And a man who clearly adores all he does. I encourage you to read his autobiography “Losing My Virginity” as well as his book “Business Stripped Bare” if you haven’t gone through them yet. Uber-inspiring. For people who want to become Remarkable Entrepreneurs – and express their absolute best.

Anyway, I’ll get right into some of my observations as well as the ideas we discussed. Please don’t underestimate the power of these simple ideas – superbly executed, they yield brilliant results.

1. Politeness Matters. As mentioned, Richard Branson was unfailingly polite. He mentioned to me that when he was a kid, if he criticized someone, his mother would make him stand in front of the mirror at home and say, “what you’re seeing in others is really what you’re seeing in yourself. So look in the mirror.” This educated him on the key leadership habit of looking for – and then encouraging – the gifts and talents within other people.

2. Be Massively Independent. When Richard was just four years old, his mother stopped her car and instructed him to find his own way home, over many miles. When he was about 12, she told him to cycle 100 miles to Bournemouth alone, to visit a relative. He expressed to me that these childhood experiences were his mother’s way of growing his self-reliance. And building the invincible inner core that has served him so well as an entrepreneur.

3. Screw It – Just Do It. What makes a great company (and great life) isn’t so much the inspiring idea as the flawless execution around the big idea. As Edison once said: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Richard shared that much of his success came from his philosophy to disregard the naysayers and those telling him his dream was impossible and just get the dream done. (Please remember: the impossible is generally just the untried). This is a man with a giant bias towards action.

4. Lavish Praise on People. I know you know this: the bigger the dream, the more important the team. Having worked with many of the best entrepreneurs in the world, I’ve learned that every single one of them gets that you can’t do it alone. Beautiful to have a brave vision. But the real key is finding the genius-level talent to get that vision delivered into reality. And if all you know how to surround yourself with is mediocre people, you’re destined to experience mediocre results. Richard is brilliant at finding the right people that bring his targets of opportunity to life. And he confirmed that once they are on his team, “I lavish them with praise.” Our takeaway: relentlessly celebrate+develop+inspire your people.

5. Be a Radical Innovator. When he was a young entrepreneur with nothing more than the little college newspaper THE STUDENT, he still showed a lust for disregarding all the rules. He challenged the status quo. And disrupted what was considered normal. An example: he somehow was able to get John Lennon to do an original piece of music for him. He then put the song on a special disc and packaged it into the newspaper, right next to the interview he’d done on the rock ‘n roll legend. At Virgin Records, he recruited the Sex Pistols and reinvented a whole category of music. At Virgin Atlantic, he gave passengers massages on airplanes and dropped them home in limos. And with Virgin Galactic, he’s taking people into space. Very cool. Fantastically bold.

At the Bucharest meeting, he told the 2500+ people in the concert hall that “sometime in your lifetime, every one of you will have visited other parts of the universe.” And I believe it.

6. Build Your Brand. Richard Branson gets branding. He knows what he – and the Virgin name – stands for. Fun. Good Value. Strong customer service. And so at every possible opportunity, he evangelizes all it stands for. Oh, and he’s also clearly a master of getting attention. From hot air balloon adventures that made global news to showing up at a press conference nearly naked to promote Virgin mobile, this Remarkable Entrepreneur gets the value of owning a share of our brain cells.

7. Find Your Necker Island. Get this: Branson paid roughly $300,000 for his beloved Necker Island. He and his then girlfriend Joan were visiting the Caribbean on a getaway. They fell in love with Necker – but it was about $4,000,000. But he wouldn’t give up (let’s never discount the power of a ridiculous amount of persistence around your most closely loved goals). A few months later, the owner needed cash. Branson made his deeply discounted offer. It has served as his retreat away from the world for many years. Here’s the real point: in the world of so much noise and complexity, find your personal retreat (even if it’s an aged wooded bench in a public garden) where you can withdraw to think+create+renew+rest.

8. Lucky Wins. We make luck. Enough said.

9. Don’t Do It If It’s Not Fun. Branson wears a smile pretty much all the time. He laughs naturally. And radiates happiness. Zero doubt: he loves his life – and all that’s in it (George Clooney said he’d swap his life for Richard Branson’s – much to the delight of Richard’s wife). The lesson for us: life’s just too short to be doing work that destroys your soul. This is the best time in the history of the world to become an entrepreneur. Find work you adore. And get busy changing the world with it.

10. With Gifts Come Responsibilities. OK, so Richard Branson’s one of the richest people on the planet. But he gets that being good trumps shiny toys. He mentioned to me that, “with great wealth comes great responsibility.” And so he’s spending a lot of his days evangelizing Virgin Unite, his foundation that helps kids in need. Reminds me of what my amazing father taught me – using the words of the great poet Tagore – growing up: “Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Son, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice.”

So there you go. What the iconic Richard Branson shared with me on a sunny Wednesday in Bucharest. I hope the lessons also serve you well.

P.S. If you want to learn exactly how the best entrepreneurs in the world get their results in these uncertain times and grow the business of your dreams, I’d love for you to join me June 2+3 at The Remarkable Entrepreneur SuperConference in Toronto, Canada. There are just a few seats left so I strongly encourage you to grab a seat while you still can. Here are the details: http://www.theremarkableentrepreneur.com

 

Is Swadeshi good for India?

Is Swadeshi good for India?
Some people have recently started a campaign to make India 100% swadeshi. They want that our industries, technology, education, healthcare, language, food, dress : everything must be swadeshi. Is 100% swadeshi good for India? Jago Party is of the view that insisting on 100% swadeshi would be disastrous for India. Reasons for this are given in the following dialogue between a supporter of swadeshi and that of Jago Party: Swadeshi: India has been a spiritual guru for the entire world in the past. India developed atma-gyan, ayurved, jyotish, vastu-shastra, artha-shastra, etc. Real happiness and peace can come only if we follow our spiritual culture. So why should we copy the bad materialist Western culture? Jago : We too respect great Indian spiritual culture. But, there are two aspects of this : individual and political. We think every individual should be free to choose his or her lifestyle (such as food, dress, religion etc). Even Indian culture never forced its ideas on any individual or nation in the past. As to political aspect, we have to discuss merits or otherwise of a swadeshi economy. Swadeshi : OK. Let us start with industries. We believe that no foreign companies should be allowed to operate in India because they are exploiting us by taking away huge profit from out of India. Jago : A company makes profit only if people buy its products at the price fixed by the company. So let people decide whether they want to buy such products or not. If these products are bad or inferior or expensive compared to goods manufactured by Indian companies, people would not buy them. Besides, foreign companies bring in a lot of capital, new technology & new management techniques; they generate a lot of employment; give better salaries to their staff than Indian companies do; pay huge amount of taxes. So, what is wrong if they reinvest it in India sometimes, while take away profit another time? Swadeshi : But why should we allow our money to go out of country? Jago : If every country thinks like you, international movement of capital, goods and services would completely stop, thus every country losing its advantage in specialization in certain sectors and depriving all other countries of its unique skill and product at lower price.  Secondly, now Indian companies are investing in other countries and they also repatriate their profit back to India. So repatriation of profit works both ways.  So if we follow you, we will end up losing whatever capital is coming to us. After lots of liberalizations, India has now come to rank 3 in terms of Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index 2010 after China and the US. Because of your obsession with swadeshi, India will lose this advantage and slip into isolation again. Swadeshi : You appear to be right on this. But surely our Gurukul system of education was the best. So why should we follow Western educational system? Jago : Modern education consisting of science, humanities, math etc started only about 300 years ago for the simple reason that before this, there was no systematic scientific knowledge on any subject. Besides, there was neither printing press, nor paper, nor books. Gurukul system was teaching mostly Vedic mantras and spiritual knowledge orally to a few selected students. There was no professional knowledge at that time like our modern day engineers, doctors, chartered accountants etc have. So, obviously the Gurukul system cannot meet the professional requirements of today. Of course, we can incorporate yoga too in our curriculum even today and keep it optional for students. Swadeshi : OK. But you would surely agree that our Ayurveda is the best in the world and it can cure all diseases. Allopathy on the other hand treats only symptoms. Jago : Let this be decided by people. If Ayurveda, Pranayam and Yoga can cure all diseases, the whole world would start following it. Why do you demand that government should ban Allopathic science and permit only Ayurveda. You just sell your idea vigorously : if there is a merit, it will be accepted by the masses. Then automatically, there would be more demand for Ayurvedic doctors and people will start studying your Ayurveda all over the world. Then allopathy would die a natural death. Swadeshi : You have awakened me today. Thank you very much. Jago : You are welcome!

 

Meet to Plan & Finalize 2014-15 Activity Calender

Hi All

 

Theme: - We are conducting a meet to Plan & Finalize 2014-15 Activity Calendar based on the No of volunteers available and the time allotted by them.

 

 

Meeting date      :      1^st June, 2014 Sunday @ 5.30PM

Venue                    :         Ground Floor, C/o Sarath Chandra, Near BK Guda Park, SR Nagar, Hyderabad

                                  Help Lines         :      9177999263/9032840686/9666664562

 

 

We can do all the following activities with JUST 1 HOUR TIME IN A MONTH OF 1 VOLUNTEER.

 

 

YOUR 1 HOUR IS VERY CRUCIAL AND IMPORTANT, HOPE YOU CAN FIND 1 LEISURE HOUR IN A MONTH

 

 

 

 

ANY ONE CAN TURNUP, if

ü  You can spend 1 hour in a Month either regularly or occasionally

ü  You can suggest us and help in planning

ü  You want to meet our active volunteers

ü  You can help our Coordinators by providing (online) useful info which can be useful in our activities like info for Students, Stories, Inventions and other innovative teaching methods, ideas to improve their knowledge/skills

ü  You can do paper correction of Essay Writing and other competitions conducted in Schools

ü  You are willing to be a part (offline/online) of our Content Research & Development Team for schools etc.,

 

 

 

 

 

 

WITH YOUR 1 HOUR WE CAN DO THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES (OUR PLANS FOR 2014-15)

 

1.    CONDUCT MONTHLY SESSIONS IN GOVT. HIGH SCHOOLS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS (5 to 8 Schools-2 Hours of a Saturday in a Month to each school)

Ø  Conducting different types of Educational competitions & activities

Ø  Conducting different types of Sports competitions

Ø  Conducting Awareness Sessions

Ø  Teaching them Communication, Dancing, Painting and other skills

 

2.    CONDUCT WEEKLY SESSIONS IN 2 PRIMARY SCHOOLS (Every Monday Morning 1 School and Afternoon 1 School)

Ø  Teach Basics of Telugu, English and Mathematics

Ø  Inculcate values through different types of activities

Ø  Conducting different types of Educational, Entertainment Sports & activities and competitions

 

3.    CONDUCT WEEKLY / FORTNIGHT/ MONTHLY SESSIONS IN ORPHANAGE HOMES

Ø  To spend time in our monthly Orphanage and old age home visits

Ø  Teach them Values, Morals and Subject

Ø  Motivate them with Inspiring Stories

Ø  Conduct different entertainment, educational and sports competitions

Ø  Monthly Groceries and provisions donation

 

4.    CONDUCT QUARTERLY BLOOD DONATION CAMPS

Ø  Blood Camps to Support & save 2000+ Thalassemia Children

Ø  Create Awareness about Thalassemia & Blood Donation

 

5.    CONDUCT MEDICAL CAMPS OCCASIONALLY OR REGULARLY

Ø  Conduct Medical Camps In Slums

Ø  Conduct Health related Awareness Sessions

Ø  Guide Poor patients in Hospitals

 

6.    FOOD DISTRIBUTION (INCLUDING OLD CLOTHES AND FRUITS)

Ø  To Road Side destitute

Ø  To Poor Patients attendees in Hospitals

 

7.    PLANTATION AND SAVE EARTH RELATED ACTIVITIES

Ø  Plantation in Schools and Colonies

Ø  Plastic & Save earth awareness in Schools and Colonies

Ø  Rain water Harvesting Pits construction

 

8.    CONDUCT SESSIONS ON RTI

 

9.    PERSONALITY & OTHER SKILL DEVELOPMENT SESSIONS TO VOLUNTEERS

 

10.  Apart from the above still we have many other administrative works like

Ø  Accounting (Tally updates, Vouchers Checking etc.,)

Ø  New Volunteers Follow up

Ø  Reviewing activities

Ø  Motivating Donors

Ø   Communication with the Group Members, donors, volunteers

Ø  Updating Blog

Ø  Posting Mail updates to the Group members and Many more

 

 

You all know, it’s not an easy task to run as organization in our leisure time, but still our Volunteers doing it with utmost dedication with minimum available resources, Kudos to all of them. They are spending their entire leisure time to help others. It would better if every one of us can extend our support just by spending 1 Hour in a Month.

 

There are kind hearts to donate money and we are very less numbers of people who donate time. Hope you can…..

 

 

 

Please Note that Schedule/ works will be flexible based on volunteer timings

 

Please do turn up to the meet to take part in planning.

 

Love all-Serve all

AMMA Srinivas

www.aswa.co.in