A Gesture - Very Memorable

All of us aspire to have better opportunities or a better prospect in life. But, how many of us actually think of sharing such an opportunity or a prospect with others? Very few - considering the amount of cutthroat competition we have in the current world. However I am glad that I met one of those “very few people”, who gave me an opportunity to be part of an event, which eventually has become a memorable event for me.

The person is Ms. Anna Lopez or in short Anna (Manager of iVolunteer –Bangalore) and the opportunity was to visit Vidhana Soudha and participate in the launch of “B-TRAC-2010” i.e. the Chief Minister's 10 Point Program for Improvement of Bangalore City Traffic on 11th May 2006.

Though I am a Kannadiga by birth and a die-hard Bangalorean day-in and day-out, I had never explored the monument – “Vidhana Soudha”. The B-TRAC 2010 launch at 5PM was postponed to 6:30 PM. This gave me an opportunity to explore the length and breadth of monument. Anna and me walked through the huge corridors and the pillars and enjoyed every moment looking at the architectural wonder of the Kempegowda era.

Then we both entered the conference hall where the launch was about to begin. First time in my life I had seen so many VVIP all together - The Commissioner of Police, Commissioner of BDA, BMP, BESCOM and ACP’s, State Ministers, various media personel and most importantly The CM. Well whoever might be the chief minister but the designation CM itself demands respect.

The B-TRAC 2010 launch stated off with a

• Welcome note by one of the ACP,
• Then a small presentation of the current situation of Bangalore traffic
• The Police Commissioner gave a brief overview about the 10 Point Program for Improvement of Bangalore Traffic and
• Finally a movie was played to explain in depth about the 10-point program.

After this the Chief Minister released the brochure of the 10 Point Program which is a rapid action plan to bring about visible improvement in the traffic situation in Bangalore city. The 10-point program covers a wide range of activities chosen for their immediate impact and to be implemented in a coordinated manner by the concerned agencies.
The 8th point is where we as volunteers can work on i.e. “Traffic Education / Publicity”. For further information you can visit http://www.bcp.gov.in/trafficpolice/press.htm.

Though the launch was over, the actual work for which I had been there started and i.e. “Networking with People”. But Hay! While networking I realized that I was in fact walking around with a VIP herself, yes our very own Anna. Every VVIP out there knew her and obviously iVolunteer.

The police commissioner was very enthusiastic about volunteering activities and invited me to meet him at his office for further communication. I did get similar responses from many of them, which has inspired me to do a Phase-II of the volunteer driven event on “Traffic Education / Road Safety Awareness”.

The event B-TRAC 2010 was over, but I will forever carry the joy and the pride of meeting the CM and the other VVIP in the beautiful monument Vidhana Soudha.
However all this wouldn’t have been possible if not for the kind Gesture of Anna to take me along to this memorable event. Thanks a lot Anna.

Success and Happiness..

Is this a blog of two guys ..."Vijay" and "Anand"..? The answer is No and Yes....are you confused!!! Don't worry, I will explain...

 

During the the initial stages of my life i.e. childhood, school days and even during my college days I always thought of "Winning" or "Succeeding" is everything in life. Whether is was winning a lemon and spoon race in Kindergarden or winning the 100, 200, 400mts running race in school or winning inter-dept or inter college tournaments.....I just wanted to WIN. Some times I won and some times I lost.....but failure never diminished my desire to WIN.

Even after entering the corporate world (IT Sector) I was still striving for winning ...either "Customer Satisfaction" or "Employee of the month" or "The Internal Job Posting"....

 

However, in this journey of winning.....I started to introspect..."what am I getting by winning?", "what is it that I want to acheive?", "Is winning giving me the happiness I wanted?", "What is happiness?", "what gives me happiness?".

 

This introspective mode, brought in the other charecterestic in my life that is "HAPPINESS". Now my life is more "Energizing". I am not in greed of winning any more, instead I look for HAPPINESS. Doesn't matter who is happy; it could be me, it could be my family, could be some stranger on the road, could be a begger or even an animal...but at the end all that matters is HAPPINESS.

 

However, this again hasn't taken away my desire to win, but the WINNING has HAPPINESS attached to it and hence its looks complete.

 

Hence the confusion is over, its only one person VIJAYANAND (that's me)....but the two charesteristics are VIJAY (WINNING) and ANAND (HAPPINESS).