Don't Quit!!!!!

After New Year Party hangover, when I logged into my office network this morning, a wonderful email was waiting. It was from a senior director citing the challenges our organisation faced during 2011. And there, I found very inspiring lines embedded titled DON’T QUIT!!!! It would be unfair if don't share it with others

“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit-

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It might be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -

It's when things seem worst that you must not quit”

< Unknown >

Excerpt from 'The Glow Worm' email thread by Mr Amitabh Srivasatava, LexisNexis India

Salutation to the Dawn

I was browsing through this Dale Carnegie book and suddenly this title catches my eye. Later found it being part of many motivational speeches and webinars, so here it is:

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:

The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendour of beauty

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow only a vision
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

- Kalidasa, Famous Indian poet and dramatist

India and World in 2050

Check out the world economic outlook of 2050 would be, projections by HSBC in a recent study:

By 2050, the emerging world will have increased five-fold and will be larger than the developed

world, China (#3 now) and India (currently #8) will be the largest and third-largest economies in the world, respectively; US at #2 and beating Japan (#4), Germany (#5) and the UK (#6).

19 of the top 30 economies by GDP will be countries that we currently describe as ‘emerging’.

The working population will rise by 73% in Saudi Arabia and fall by 37% in Japan. India stands at #6 in the list of working population growth with ~40% increase after Saudi Arabia, Egypt Israel, Venezuela, Malaysia. No one stands near to us considering above 1 bn working population (1.6 bn total population by 2050 as estimated in the same study) but I have concern over population explosion. we would most populated country by 2050, beating us China with controlled 1.4 bn.

This becomes the reason for us to stand last in Top 30 list in terms of Income per capita despite being #3 in size of economy and second highest per capita growth (close to 600% from now) . We need to take serious and bold step to control the fast pace of our population growth and improve our position in these statistics and eradicate poverty, better health and utilities & resources availability to Indians.

No. 1 in terms of agricultural output 18% of GDP. I believe we will be less worried on food crisis than any other economy in the world but (as study says) there are still a lot more resources to be put towards more productive use.

India would be the fastest growing economy among top 30 leaving China behind post 2030. As study cites, "It will come as no surprise to see that China is near the top of the growth table. But as income per capita rises and the one-child policy leads to a demographic headwind, India’s growth rate soon overtakes that of China beyond 2030."

We have huge potential and need to capitalize on it. And, it could be altogether a different story.

Full study can be read at:

http://www.research.hsbc.com/midas/Res/RDV?ao=20&key=ej73gSSJVj&n=282364.PDF

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, by John Keats, 1819

Today, I saw this title somewhere and that reminds me this beautiful classical ballad which I first read in my School poetry book. This is one of the poems I loved the most! ...sharing here:

-------------

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful - a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery's song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true'.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed - Ah! woe betide! -
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

----

Isn't it amazing. Anyone will be lost, like I am now...