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Oindrilla’s Bit on Uniqueness …. a well composed article..

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At work our only constant companion is the need to be churn something different something unique all the time. Being unique today is truck load more difficult that what it was even half a decade ago ! The probability that what I think is a novel thought would have been used maybe minutes back by someone and my big idea would just remain a good idea already used.

When my friends in brand management talk over the phone as meeting is more rare than solar eclipse we always allocate time to discuss this problem! And yet have not come up with solution !

Thinking out of the box is easy to talk about than follow and some methodologies available makes life much more simpler but innovating all the time does take a toll on our mental health. Out performing each time, every time is no longer an option to most of us, its become a way of life. You do have option, either you are in the race or you are out. So actually speaking thinking you have an option is a mirage that some how makes you feel powerful and in control.

I started thinking why are we getting competitive at neurotic pace, why are needs so high and satisfaction levels so low ? Why does our hunger for variety never cease and stability only means stagnancy ? Why is polygamy in and monogamy boring ? Why is danger sexy and right seem so stupid ?

Well this is what I think is the cause of our plight today. Today we have 1000 things which we do not really need and have gone ahead and labeled them as necessity. We want to satisfy others, we are more tuned to strangers and yet we turn deaf ear to the call from with in. Further more we today look around us for strength, for inspiration, for thoughts, for ideas and have forgotten to look inside us. We have forgotten US .. the unique person that each one is, with a set of goods, bads, madness, thoughts, values, preferences etc. Maybe if we spend more time with ourselves, making it a conscious choice we will be able to understand the most basic human relation, the one we share with our own selves, once we reach a stage when this relationship with self turns harmonious, we will be able to transfer this uniqueness from us as a being to our job, to our way of handling problems, to evolve as better people both on and off job.

An acquaintance would always comment saying “you marketing professionals are this” and “you marketing professionals are that”. I always told him “my profession does not define my individuality.” and now to add to it, lets add individuality to our profession only if we understand ourselves better and then bring this understanding to our work. Uniqueness will follow !

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My 2 bit on it…

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Uniqueness is something that does come from within, but I guess it’s easier said than done, to have something coming out. Why does this stop, is cause we have been programmed to be delivering something that has been tested and proven. What makes it even more funny is that, its been tested and proven from a land far beyond us. Is innovating new things uniqueness. Is making a different style of presentation uniqueness. Is thinking and drawing the next big thing on a piece of paper uniqueness..

Yea sounds all weird, but that’s something I’ve gone through. I’ve been part of the big thing, that the world’s known out of India, after the curry, snake charmers and tandori chicken. We are geeks, but funny thing, is that we do not innovate. Our forefathers (read the generation, still alive in the IT industry and often been label’d as the father figures) forgot that innovation stopped with them. Its all processes and mundane lines of re-processes.

Our education system (and not something coming out of 3idiots, though which is something I strongly believe in), is complete kuku’d off (if there is a word like that and also due to my lack of vocabulary).. We do not give the students something to work with. I’m telling this from an experience of 10 yrs, where I’ve been going to colleges to hire fresh talent for our company. All I get for a response, when asked a jumbled up query is “I doubt we were taught this, do not know what it means, definitely out of the syllabus”. Am I to believe that these young and fresh mind, untouched by the corporate hulla hoop would be bringing out fresh ideas in the plate. Not that we do not get astonishingly bright folks, who change the way we think, but that’s a rare case, as rare as you getting a double large for the large drink u ordered in a club

Anyhow, the bottom line, speaking again from facts, that our grass route levels need to work. We have folks being taught in the professional institutes, by giving them “NOTES”….. we are asked questions, from the syllabus, as otherwise, we have a right to comment that it’s out of syllabus!!! We are told to read something from a particular book and a particular explanation only, else otherwise, you are seen as an overtly smart ass who is trying to prove an aged old professor wrong…

But yes, I also agree that one can change immediately, after s/he has joined professional services (or otherwise). In my career and especially, after starting my kicking coaching training program, I’ve had the opportunity to sweat it out with folks from different career streams and understood their working style. But the common point, I’ve seen is that mostly, everyone is curbed with processes and points, that needs to be adhered. This has also made me realise that one can change into the spectrum by learning from the folks around u. This is something I’ve learnt. To be unique, I need to learn from all the elements around me, including the human element. And after dwelling in my mind with all this, I can then make something unique out of it… how ever, would be a byproduct of all the learning I’ve done. So is that uniqueness? Well I tend to think so, cause atleast I’m listening

Anyhow, the point being brought here, after all the rubbish being put across and you having to endure this long paras of utter nonsense, uniqueness can’t just come… one has to figure within him/herself and unlearn those things taught in the school/ college, about having to go through mundane acts like notes and stuff and spoon feeding. Maybe then, uniqueness will value out…

Could be absolutely wrong, but hey, wouldn’t hurt letting out my 2 bit, eh!!

- kNiGhTrIdEr

To find out answers to these questions, we need to go back a few decades, where you have the best of the industrialists and inventors, coming from lesser known educational institutes and backgrounds. They have made it big and doing the best in their industry.

What made them successful? Was it their big degrees and best institute? Did they do well in schools? Did the best of inventors, were excelling in their schoolwork? From our history, we have learnt that they have all failed in their educational institute or have dropped out from their studies. But the fact is that, they had the brains and intentions to make the things better in life.

So what makes anyone, getting good grades in their school and having x amount of percentage in their college smatter enough to go and work in their premier companies of the country. It would unwise for me to name the companies, but it’s well known that you need a certain amount of marks to get into these companies. The worst part is that these companies do not see their talent, but only their marks.

Coming to more a more serious note, these same companies demand the same sort of marks and percentages, even if the candidate has an experience outside. So are we trying to tell that all the experience gained in the industry is worthless?

Why is the topic ganged around a Pizza Delivery Person? Most of us have gone to pizza restaurants and have seen these young boys and girls, who would speak very good English (that being the only basis of knowing whether a person is educated), and friendly enough. They take our orders and deliver the pizza in time and make sure that we are looked after well. Have we tried to figure out where they come from? Most of them are either new to the city, searching for their better job, or coming from smaller and lesser-known engineering colleges and trying to do a course, which would secure them good jobs later on. They would work hard and study harder. If you speak to them, one would find that their smartness level isn’t below our high marks students. They are also street smart, as they know what it takes to survive. They are equally good in their “Coding” as that’s what is required to work in the IT Company, especially in the big premier companies.

If you ask these pizza boys and girls to sit in the same entrance test for the company, chances are that they would also score the same marks, if not more as these big companies deal mostly on aptitude, and who better to score on these, than a person who has seen the hardship and different walks in life. But the fact is that they are never given a chance to even come to close to the vicinity of sitting for these tests. Their resumes are sent in the garbage bin of the computer, because they do not match the stipulated marks in their school?

I had the opportunity of meeting and working with some of the finest minds in the industry and I can safely say that they were the best brains and have gone a long way in the industry. I had the chance of working with a M-Tech from the US and an Ex Bell Labs employee, I had the chance to sit and work with a Botany graduate, a science graduate, an Arts graduate and I can safely say that they have been able to bring in loads of business to the company we were working for and have excelled in what ever they have endeavored.

But they all did without a formal educational background, barring one. In the same lines, I have had the opportunity of working with the engineering graduates, coming from premier institute and having a big degree in their hand. But their formal training in the labs and the seats of those schools and colleges, has just given them enough information to talk endlessly, but when the goods have to be delivered, they have not been able to, in the same manner as these “lesser-fortunate” employees have been.

Am I saying that education is nothing? No, I do not believe that. I am a firm believer that education is the foundation of the person, but then it should not be used as a basis of telling someone that s/he is better of than the other person, who got less marks. How about just giving a chance to them and seeing them excel.

My first campus interview in a college was my most memorable one. Why? Well we had not put a cap on their marks and education qualification. All we said was, make sure you have cleared your 10^th and 12^th and clear your college when you come to join us. We do not care if you got 40% or 80%. Yes, you have to clear my written test and my interview and what do you know, we got the finest brains, and the privilege of working with them. These same minds are now working elsewhere and have formed a solid foundation for their companies. But the funny part is, if they still approach those “premier” companies, they are respective e denied even an interview, as their marks wasn’t good, even though they could be the best suited for the job posting.

I think in this age of information science, we have to stop being naïve and stop judging the book by its cover. We have to start looking at the fresh minds, the lesser known faces, because who knows, we get the next best thing from them.

And yes, I firmly believe, we can make an IT Guru out of a Pizza Delivery person, because the same person has what it takes to work hard and make it big. Let’s just give them a chance and see how it goes.

- kNiGhTrIdEr

Look at me for instance, I was planning to write an earlier article on a subject and told my friend, I am going to pen-down my thoughts. But quickly realized I shall be using what Apple and Microsoft Corporation have provided, a iMAC book and MS Word. So where’s that pen-down coming from? Shouldn’t it have been, Type-Down?

Then I started to recall, when was the last time I written down something big, by actually penning down my thoughts. Yes I do use a lot of paper and pencil, as I firmly believe that there’s nothing better than those 2 little things, to get our minds working and making our designs the best. In fact, when my wife and I moved into a new apartment, we had to design the whole décor. We had to buy everything new. But we got it done, with the minute details, on a piece of paper, a pen and our imagination and I can safely say that it has come out excellent.

But its true, in today’s “COMPUTER” world, we are loosing the oldest art of human, “Writing”. We have become so dependent on the computer. Even my colleagues in the office would use the computer to get their ideas out. They would not indulge into the paper-pen concept, but rather use the computer to think about their design. The only time the paper-pen is used, when they have come to come in the meetings and seminars, where a computer does not become handy.

Haven’t we also lost the art of sending hand-written letters? Haven’t we stopped sending greeting cards, with our hand-written thoughts and words in the card? It’s the age of Email and E-greetings, where everything is either typed or clicked. Even some colleges are making their students get their laptops, so that they can type what ever the lecturer speaks about, rather than making notes on their notebooks. Where are our pens? Have they become only style statements? Are they being used only to sign documents? Or do we wait for digital signature to take precedence and we loose that art of signature as well?

I was watching a documentary on how the e-governance has changed the shape of the country and schools are making use of computer for the students. The students are now submitting their home works on email and writing, or should I say, typing their home-works on their home computers. Isn’t that a bit ironical, as a couple of decades ago, my teachers told me to use Ink Pens, as they would be better for my handwriting. So what are the teachers saying now? Use the computer, because your typing would be better?

When I was finishing college, we all had our memory books being signed by all our friends. I used to write pages for my friends and like-wise from their end. What are the students doing now? Writing Blogs and Testimonials about their friend’s on their home page?

When I was seeing my wife, well those days, the girl I was hoping, who would overlook my eccentrics and marry me, I would write long hand-written letters. She would love them. I had once tried to type in a letter, got it printed and gave it to her, and she had only a disappointing look on her face. Most ironically, that same letter was one of my best pieces to her, but it lost all its charms because it was not my handwriting.

There are companies, which value a person’s handwriting, because they are into creativity. So are we telling that handwritten materials are only meant for those hoardings across the city or those movie banners, which are sprawling around the city walls? Is it only meant for a painter now, and has lost its value for a “Computer” Savvy person?

Let’s keep this art of writing alive. Who knows, sometimes we would get our ideas across, just because it is handwritten, I mean after all, I didn’t get good points for my typed and printed version of that love letter, it was the handwritten one, which won me my wife

- kNiGhTrIdEr

If there’s one thing, which is allowed in every form of martial arts, it’s SPARRING. A deep, calculated and pre-empted strike, can really force a devil out of the opponent. Every martial art boasts their best strikes, which could cause a deadly impact on the opponent and can cause unimaginable damage, not just externally, but internally shaking the person from within and causing damage to vitals.

But what does it take to have that perfect sparring session!!

1. Does it take year’s of training? Well if you have been training in some of martial art, chances are that you have been repeating that one particular technique over and over and over again, till it comes to you unconsciously.
2. Does it take some form of secret technical movement – Chances are that you have tried doing all this and have spoken or seen some youtube videos and still falter in it… what’s the remedy, well go back to number
3. Does it require some proper energy moment? – if you have been following Ashwin’s gyan on Chi and how the energy moves around the body, its possible that you have been getting some great shots at the bag/ opponent.

So what is that brings the sparring out of you? What’s about to be written down, is something that has been followed in the class and to an extent, being successful as well. Martial Arts, like Science according to me, changes with every person’s understanding, the core behind the art and developing newer forms and ideas. This is just my way of understanding the art of sparring and delivering it. There might be some points, which could be questionable, or at least worth discussing, which I guess we could take up as and when you all decide to comment on it.

Always remember, there are 2 very different stances, when it comes to sparring. One’s a defensive strike, which means, you block and strike back.

The second one’s an attacking stance, as this would allow you to have that much amount of reach, plus let you flow your energy in properly.

Do’s – Defensive Sparring

1. Always ensure that you are slanted in a 45degree angle, to get the best defensive flow movement.
2. Keep your body stance straight out, with the knees always bent. This would allow you to move away from a potential strik
3. You would have to keep yourself in a level, which allows you to move around. Ensure that your guard’s up… hell if it ain’t up, you better be light in your feet and to jump away  ..
4. Always ensure that you are ready to block yourself first, especially your vitals. Normally, people like to hit the face, as they all think that if you hit the face, you have hurt the person’s ego.. which I think isn’t entirely wrong. Either ways, my funda of keeping the face intact is that you shouldn’t get hit on the head, while in a defensive stance. If you get knocked on your head hard, there’s a pretty good chance that you might just forget all  your skills as a martial artist and would resort to street “jangli” fight… which would result in your defeat in front of a trained fighter.
5. The idea is to always block and attack in a defense move. Stand ground and watch the opponent use their feet.
6. If there’s a punch coming up, use blocks to get away from getting a bloody nose and use your leg on the opponent’s shin. Why would you do that? Well, this when you making your opponent’s mind work double time. The opponent is thinking about using the punch but another party of the mind moves to gather the pain in the shin.
7. When you get hit (and yes you will get hit), make that distance count. Your opponent would be coming in a rhythm and you got to break the rhythm to counter attack and get back to your stance.
8. Never loose focus on your opponent. Do not look at the limbs and fight, rest assured, you won’t be able to block any of the strikes.
9. Always ensure that your leading hand is always a bit forward than your trailing hand. This guard is just perfect to ensure that you will be able to block and strike back, whenever you see an opening.
10. Blocks should be with legs. Always make distance with the opponent. If the opponent comes down to the zone, move around and don’t be around in a straight line of vision with your opponent. It screws up the mind and hence will always cause a doubt coming into the opponent’s mind, on whether to go ahead and release that strike or not !!!

Do’s – Offensive Stance

1. It’s a bit different from a Defensive one. (Well that didn’t require a genius to figure it out.. hell why else would I have a separate section)
2. In an offensive stance, you would have to square off your shoulders. You will be keeping them in the same level and same terms, so has to ensure that you are facing your opponent
3. Keep your guard a bit down, as compared to the defensive one. You would wanna see whom you want to beat up black and blue.
4. Keep the elbows down a bit, to protect the vitals, like the Liver. This is required, as when you are on your way beating the pulp out of your opponent, your opponent might have read through the section above and wants to hurt sections, which might distract your mind.
5. Keep your body stance in a forward stance. You would be going in with combinations and hence would be using your body energy to drive in most of the strikes, which has to be flowing forward, rather than standing stagnant in one place.
6. While in an attacking position, it is important to be moving forward with every strike. This is useful it cornering your opponent in a submission position and hence making the opponent getting their guard up.
7. Take the energy out of your mind and your body. Keep counting each of the combination. This would help letting your body moving.
8. Team up every strike in combination of Punches and Kicks. You need to understand that your opponent would also be applying some of the defensive tactics and would want to screw up with your mind. Hence ensure that you let your opponent also keep the mind working on the guard.
9. While giving out combinations, focus on your opponents eyes. Never look at where you hitting. Always ensure that your legs/ strikes are from the opposite side (that is, if you finishing with a left punch use a right leg and vice versa). This would make your opponents body move around and hence give the opponent less amount to time to figure out a strategy.
10. Switch stances. This is another thing (which means, all strikes and techniques need to be trained in both the stance) which will completely screw your opponents mind. Blocks are based on a particular stance and the moment the attacker changes, while attacking, the blocks have to be timed in accordance to the stance and hence will make your opponent be in the back foot always.

Don’ts of Sparring – General

1. Never ever focus on the limbs, while sparring, irrespective of what stance you taking, whether the Defensive or Offensive
2. Always remember to keep your guard. You can’t be attacking much, if your brains don’t work much and then wouldn’t be able to think.
3. Do not forget to breathe in and out… very very important. You can stand like a stiff ass and look like a Robot trying to enact the human anatomy, or you can be free flowing
4. Never ever keep your body stiff. It would help you take blows easily. You need to stiffen up at the last moment of impact, irrespective of whether you are hitting or getting hit.
5. Do not ever pre-empt a strike and go ahead without a back up. Every strike needs to have an escape, incase your opponent is a way smarter fighter.
6. Always keep light in your feet. The last thing you want is get stage fright when you see a punch coming in. DO NOT stand and look at a strike coming to you and think in your mind “Damn This is going to Hurt ME!!!” …just think “GET OUT” and move away.

Hope these few points will help all potential fighters some insight on sparring. Combination and flow of energy with moving from stance to stance is just a way to always keep your opponent at bay and never allowing them to think much about the next move!!..you win the mind, you win your opponent’s body and hence you have a proper fight.

-       kNigHtRiDeR

Disclaimer – all points are based on the writer’s (that’s me) views and may differ in fundamentals from other practitioner’s of martial arts. Please feel free to disagree with the points.

I have had the opportunity to meet and understand some of these fearless fighters, who still hold on to their traditional values, even though they are staying over in the big city like Nairobi. They have only thing to say, Give Life a Purpose…

What makes a Masari Man, a Warrior. They have this concept of coming of age as a MAN and its got nothing to do with them being of a Certain Age. They have to Tame a Lion.. yes .. a Wild Beast… tradition had it that they had to go fight a Lion and Kill it, but with Animal Conservation and Rights, they just have these events once in few years, where they just get the Lion in their will..

What makes them a great fighter? Is it their super human strength? From the pics, they do look like someone who is about to be put in the UN’s watch list for famine suffered pupulation. But they have strength, and no, it doesn’t come out from those dusty bones. Its their WILL to fight. WILL to hold on to their ground and to earn their respect from who ever is there in front of them.

During the conversation with this particular band of fighters, I had this feeling that they are not scared of being defeated by their opponent. They see it as their destiny to be falling down in front of their opponent. Even if they win, they do not rejoice by making mockery of their opponent, but talk about the heroics of their opponent whom they had defeated. They have a vice like grin on their emotions. They welcome a challenge and give their best. They strategise, much like all of us, before our fights, and they observe with patience much like all of us. But what separates them from us, is that their patience goes on miles together.

Their Patience is so well known about the local Kenyans, that they hail them for their warrior instincts.

I proudly told them about my association with martial arts and how I have been training for the last couple of years. They just had one advice, to follow your heart. Be precise about your goal. What do you want to achieve from this.

It is this GOAL that has strieved them to be one amongst the best fighters in the world, even without those sophisticated guns in their hand. They Win thru their opponents because they can see that as their goal.

This most feared Tribe is actually very humble and show their respect to every human being crossing their path. They have a show of their hand to greet every single passerby. These selfless people would also come to your aid, when they see you struggling or being attacked by some goons. Very Silent, dressed in their traditional attire and often seen with huge amount of traditional ornaments, these gentle folks are one of the true students of martial arts, as what they do, comes with years of discipline and practise, something, that we “URBAN” folks should start learning, that you don’t achieve anything in a fortnight.

The Inputs and Stories are as told to me by the Masai Warriors (interpreted by a local kenyan) and Local Stories of this feared tribe. I hope that these information are as true as they can be and the views of what makes them extreme fighters is mine, from my experience of meeting them and seeing them in some moves. Apologise for any changes or distortion from what’s commonly available on-line or in books.

-kNiGhTrIdEr

Yes, that’s the link.. for the MTV WASSUP shoot. It was fun… considering SHIREEN (MTV ANCHOR) herself came around and did the day’s training with us.

What made the class even more fun, was the fact that Each and Every Individual was giving their best shot. No one died on the training and it was a Proud moment for the entire class to have a full on 360Degrees training, which included

1. Stretches… got some lovely ones.
2. Warm up… don’t know though why they call it warm up.. it’s actually SWEATS OUT
3. A full on endurance, which was a mix of work outs and techniques
4. Shadow Boxing, which included a lot of combination moves… boxing and thai boxing.
5. Partner training, mostly on the knees.
6. Chi Gung, to bring down the system and cool the heart rate, there by ensuring our energies stayed back to us.
7. Sparring (well for the camera … ) … which went on pretty well..

Over all, it was a fun class and many thanks to the Students to have put up a lovely show. Alas, its a 1minute footage, which couldn’t capture the total essence of the class, but none the less.. the Gals and Guys went all out and gave their very best for it.

That’s Kick Boxing for you all!!…

- kNiGhTrIdEr

Well yeah you do, but its just that these emotions are coming up while you fight… its just does not seem to be working any more. All shots are heading wild..  what the hell happened?

Simply put, you are just getting angrier, you are letting your emotions take the best of you. Yes, we all go through this, whether it’s the controlled environment of one of our centres, where you have one of the instructors, ensuring that you don’t loose your ground, or outside, where it’s even more riskier, cause you are fighting wild (verbal or physical).

The point of any fight, or any argument, is to keep your cool. And why, cause you are a chicken, and hence won’t hit back!!… well not exactly, cause you are smarter. Cause you are looking for the weakness in your opponent. Whether it’s verbal or physical, hitting and getting hit is going to be part of the whole game. Best of the fighters (debaters in verbal) have gone through a situation, where they were at the receiving end. But that doesn’t mean, they have won their battles by just hitting back with all their anger.

Curb that anger. Channelize it. Nurture it, cause that anger and emotion is good, if it’s moved cautiously forward, for that ultimate goal of being the last man (woman) standing after the battle is over.

Well so much about talking on what not to do, but how the hell does one keep his or her anger at bay. Well simple, by first acknowledging that “Yes I would get hit”, “My opponent can also get lucky, or can just be that talented to hit back”… that means, you are learning from your opponent’s move. That blow on your face, is just another technique providing opportunity to try something new. Does it stop the anger within, well it does, cause now you working that energy of anger and emotions into a positive though, letting it move places within your brain.

And yes, you could use this outside as well. Imagine a bike just brushed past your car.. do you come out and beat the pulp out of the poor fella (cause hey, you are that great martial artist J ), or would you just focus on how the hell this happened. So it was his fault… punish him or her if you have to, but without loosing your cool. You don’t wanna be doing something you would live to regret later on.

By curbing your anger, you would ensure that the rest of the journey after the brushing incident is still managed. You are not hard headed.

You could apply this even on the streets, when someone accidently, or intentionally tries to brush past. Yes, you punish the poor sucker … (why the hell are we teaching you those techniques), but then rather than being angry on why it happened and you should broken his neck, instead of his hand, think about how it worked out for you and maybe the next time, if you moved around a bit more and use that footwork, maybe you would have to use lesser of your force J …

So yea, Curb that Anger.. it ain’t healthy for your fights, certainly not for your training program within the martial art’s arena and definitely unhealthy for those valuable relationships which matter to you the most.

- kNiGhTrIdEr

Traditionally it isn’t really wrong to think this way. We have seen numerous time, that a bigger person really nails down others. But somehow, its not just built that does the trick. Its also the whole intimidation that does a lot.

So does that mean, if you ain’t big, bulky and huge, you should just run away, when you get to meet these chaps? I guess that’s one way of looking at it. Use your parkour skills! Considering if you small and lightweight, that means you can move faster. But what if you can’t really run away?

That’s when you need to realise your core strength. Its within each one of us. Just requires us to bring it out. Training needs to be put forth for the same.

There are a lot of traditional manner of achieving it. There’s ofcourse the brute ways as well.

There are different variations of working with your partner, but all use the same method. It increases your inner strength. Helps you develop that power within you.

And why do you require the inner strength? Its going to help you in every simple way. You can channelize this energy in your kicks, punchs, or even grappling. If a street situation comes up, you can channelize this energy and get out of it, by using minimum strength. This also means, you would have more patience and calmness within you, as at the end, you are not going to get a heavy head with all the energy lost.

So maybe all you folks, who really aren’t big and bulky, with all round muscles, shouldn’t really worry. A right training in gathering that inner strength and using it will take you a long way.