People at Work & Play

Good news for us coffee lovers. An article in today’s “Times of India” rebuts the myth that coffee drinking can be harmful to health. Apparently, recent findings indicate that a moderate amount of coffee, 4-5 cups a day, is not harmful and may even have some health benefits.

1. Recent research at The Institute for Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University Medical centre in Nashville, US shows significant presence of antioxidants in coffee beans. Antioxidants are proven to help mitigate the chances of heart disease and cancer.
2. Caffeine can help relieve a migraine or even stop it if consumed at an early stage of the headache.
3. Coffee has been used to combat asthma in Scotland since at least 1859.
4. Evidence shows that drinking coffee may substantially reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes.
5. Scientific evidence indicates that coffee may help provide significant protection against development of liver disease.
6. Relatively low amounts of caffeine, 100-200 mg. significantly improves alertness in sleepy subjects. Useful for those going for a long drive or studying for exams.

Join me in reaching out for that cuppa!

Realized that in my last post, I had omitted to mention a link to the works of Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar.

I find that the number of students at Harvard who have signed up for his course on Positive Psychology is over 1400!

His articles make for interesting reading. Go through them at leisure. I like the one on Giving & Receiving. This covers not only money and material goods but knowledge as well.

In today’s world the emphasis is on sharing knowledge. As I told a participant at a recent workshop, at this stage of my life my aim is to “Help People Grow”.

This post is on the eve of our 30 th wedding anniversary. Shobana and I were married at Bangalore on February 21, 1977 . She was 21. I was 25.

I take this opportunity to thank God, my children, all our family and friends for giving us so much happiness in all these years.

Let me quote Tal Ben-Shahar: “We need to regularly express gratitude for all of the good things in our lives rather than take them for granted. It will not only increase our levels of happiness, but will also increase our success. We become more optimistic and are more likely to see the positive and create more positivity in our lives”.

If you have not come across the name, Tal Ben-Shahar is a Professor at Harvard whose course in Positive Psychology has been breaking all records for sign-ons. More than 850 students have signed on forcing the administrators to shift his classes to the 1166 seater Sanders Theatre.

Ben-Shahar speaks of happy people functioning better and optimism being a skill that can be taught and learned. A take away: How you see things can matter more than what actually happens.

Last week’s issue of Business World came out with heaps of data following the annual Business World and Gallup survey on Salaries. See this in the context of the Indian IT-ITES industry likely to touch revenues of $ 47.8 billion in March this year. This is expected to rise to $ 60 billion by 2010.

Exhaustive details are provided on salaries at various levels across different sectors. The highest entry level salary was not unexpectedly in the IT sector at Rs. 28,840. The hottest sector seems to be the Financial Sector with it being the highest for Junior Management (Rs. 67,000), Middle Management (Rs. 1,50,000) and Senior Management (Rs. 4,20,000) !.

An interesting comparison showed that salaries for Indian CEOs were much, much less than that of their Global (actually US) counterparts. The annual pay for the top 10 Indian CEOs put together was less than the $ 56.66 million paid to Richard Fairbank of Capital One Financial who ranked 10 in the Global list. Top of the Global ( read US ) list was Terry Semel of Yahoo. His annual pay: $ 230.55 million.

Excuse me while I fish out my calcy. Wow, that translates to ( at Rs 44 to the $) Rs. 10120 Million !

As I work with a wide cross section of executives, one cry I hear fairly often is that they get absolutely drained by the end of the day. Fatigue creeps in, for many, as early as the late afternoon. By the time it’s time to pack for the day, many return pretty much on auto-pilot!

Fatigue leads to mistakes and expensive re-work. On analysing a mistake, we feel like kicking ourselves for having made such a silly mistake. Often this happens due to lapses in concentration due to fatigue.

You may recall the TV ads which showed Kapil Dev & later Sachin Tendulkar telling us that “Boost” (a health drink in India) was the secret of their energy! Apparently, more useful is good old exercise. Exercise fights fatigue more than stimulants or a nap says research from the University of Georgia.

Here is a link which you will find of use: Ten Tips to starting a Fitness Program.

All the best in this endeavour and stay fit!!

Saddened to read today in the Times of India that a Wipro staffer, Ramesh Babu Das Setty jumped to his death recently. A diabetic, he was depressed after his hand was amputated due to gangrene. He was only 26 and has a young wife.

WHO stats. indicate that a huge 171 million people across the world suffer from diabetes. Worse, its incidence is rapidly increasing. Estimates point out to this number doubling by the year 2030. India is supposed to have the largest population of diabetics in the world, something like 30 million.

Diabetes often goes undiagnosed because many of its symptoms seem so harmless. It’s a good idea to understand who is at risk.

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented in many cases by making changes in diet and increasing physical activity. A review article by the American Diabetes Association recommends maintaining a healthy weight, getting at least 2½ hours of exercise per week, not too much fat intake, and eating a good amount of fiber and whole grains. Although they do not recommend alcohol consumption as a preventative, they note that moderate alcohol intake may reduce the risk.

The Diabetes India Association has an informative website whichcould be useful.

I would be happy if by reading this post even one person becomes more aware of the dangers of diabetes and takes steps to prevent it.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” wrote Charles Dickens in his “Tale of Two Cities”. I was reminded of this famous quotation when I mused about India today.

India in 2007 presents a similar paradox. For the fourth successive year, India Inc shows tremendous optimism for 2007. A recent survey showed that we were the most optimistic out of 32 countries surveyed. Another items making the news today is the report that Indians will get the biggest pay hikes in 2007.

On the other hand is the fact that this prosperity still does not touch a majority of the people.
“Despite India’s economy growing at nine per cent a year, almost two-thirds of India’s 1.1 billion citizens continue to live on less than £1 a day” says an article in today’s Telegraph

I mention this because large cities in India like Bangalore are facing and will face more of social tussles and pressures as the gap widens between the haves and the have nots. Recent events in many cities of India point to such inequities being the primary cause for social, political and even communal unrest.

We had a pleasant re-union on Sunday, Feb 4. The occasion -the release of a book by Prof. Joe Philip, President & Founder of XIME. Was invited as XL alumnus since Joe is probably the senior most XLer in Bangalore having passed out way back in 1960. He served as faculty and Dean in XLRI in subsequent years.

The reason why most XLers of my vintage turned up was obvious. No, it wasn’t the beer alone. It was a chance to meet Fr. McGrath, going very strong at 84. He hasn’t lost one bit of his charm and wit. I asked him to autograph my copy of Joe’s book. I offered to hold his beer while he wrote a few words. “Don’t drink it!” was his quick reply.

As Joe Philip said Fr. McGrath has over the years become an institution having first come to XLRI in 1949 ! I couldn’t agree with him more when he said that for many batches of XLers, XLRI was Fr. McGrath and Fr. McGrath was XLRI.

Got the chance to meet old friends: amongst others, Aubrey Millet, Tito John Idiculla, George Olapally,David D’Costa and Bijou Kurien. My batchmates there were Harinarayana and Ravi Krishnaswamy.

My not having dyed my hair and growing old gracefully fooled Hari whom I had not met for many years. ” Which batch are you from, Sir?” he asked very politely. “Yours” I said.