Lakshman Ganiger – An Artist in search of his Highest Possibility!

Welcome back to my world!

It was an early Sunday morning, while jogging through the pristine landscape of my favourite Cubbon Park in Bangalore that I chanced to happen to almost wiz past a wall that displayed a series of beautifully painted watercolor illustrations mounted on simple black rectangular cardboards. I immediately slowed down and came to an absolute halt. Creatively done paintings in pleasing colours, hues and shades spread breathtakingly across a large  expanse of the wall. Impressed, I just had to the meet the artist and searchingly looked around till I finally located him lovingly caressing a couple of his creations!

Lakshman Ganiger was a 21 year old passionate young artist whose welcoming eyes twinkled with enthusiasm while his warm smile spread charmingly across his face as I introduced myself. He was happy to talk to me for a while and we settled ourselves down on the grass verge close to the Bandstand.

Lakshman and his family hailed from a small village named Kurchi close to Belgam in the north of Karnataka. Born to a poor family, his father was an arts teacher and, quite obviously, he seemed to have become a chip of the old block. While as a child he had dabbled with his father’s paints, he had never taken his talent seriously till much later when he realised that formal education in any other subject than art was not his cup of tea.

While as a young child artist he had won several prizes for his paintings in local competitions, it was when he won the prestigious Pratibha Puruskar Award at the age of 15 when he seriously started contemplating on furthering his natural dexterity in his inborn forte. It was his father who eventually encouraged him to enrol himself in a course in Visual Arts for a better understanding of this medium.

As we sat engrossed in conversation, I realized it was a wonderful journey I had embarked upon with him: a depiction of what art meant to an artist. To Lakshman art was about totally dissolving oneself into ones creative existence within the mind which ultimately would catalyse the process of crafting the definitive creation. Painting, unlike most other forms of art has no sound or vibrations. It only has a visual impact and communiqué. And this is why he believes that painting is one of the most powerful mediums of self-expression.

 

In addition, Lakshman also believes that there is an artist in everyone. It all depends how deep you seek within yourself to find it. He also believes that art is a natural talent and one should not entirely depend upon a teacher to nurture it. One should not imitate or follow another artist’s style of expression or else one will lose one’s own individualistic articulation and will merely become a clone of another.

Apart from his passion for art, Lakshman also has a strong faith in the fact that everyone can achieve their dreams no matter what it takes. While in the National Cadet Corps during his teens, he had noticed that many of his colleagues who dreamed of finally joining the Defence Services gave up their aspirations because of personal or monetary pressures. This led him to create an association which he termed as the ‘Roaries’ whose tagline was: Stop killing your Dreams! Through this association, he and his team members have helped the youth to take their first few steps onto the trail of finally achieving their desired goals in life, including a future Olympics hopeful in rifle shooting!

Lakshman’s  true concept of Leadership is to be absolutely conscious of every moment that one exists in. And not only to be conscious but to exclusively exist in each moment and attempt to create each and every moment into a masterpiece of one’s expression!

Finally, as the sun rose higher into the morning sky, I asked Lakshman what his final goal in life could conceivably be. His eyes took on an expression of mixed enthusiasm and determination as he looked at me and said, “I want to reach my highest possibility as an artist and yet I have no idea how or when that will ever happen. But I will never ever give up and will keep practising till the day I achieve it!”

And then with a twinkle in his eyes he further added, “But the real question is: when I finally achieve my highest possibility, will that be the ultimate or will there be an even higher possibility to achieve?!”

Lakshman Ganiger. Age 21 years. In search of his highest possibility. I looked up at the Universe and smiled…

Anand K Nair

Leadership Coach. Motivational Speaker. Life Counsellor. Author. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

Email: anand@anandknair.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipinitiatives

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

On Love and Bonding!

Welcome back to my world!

It was a chilly Diwali morning as I sat on my balcony with my regular cup of green tea after my usual workouts. Across my apartment existed a fairly large expanse of a roughly walled piece of land occupied by a sole caretaker and his family of three residing in a hut surrounded by a meagre growth of daily necessities including a couple of banana and papaya trees, two cows and a scant number of chickens. The rest of the topography was a miniature jungle of sorts but pleasing to the eye considering the neighboring concrete expanse.

It was the dawn of the Festival of Lights, an occasion where families of traditional orientation wake up much before twilight, vigorously rub themselves from head to foot with oil, bathe, pray, joyfully burst crackers and usher in with the rising sun victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. However, in our modern day ‘simulated’ existence the average urban family wakes up to a combination of hangovers over the previous night’s exultant unbottling of spirits while chucking around playing cards over a crowded table, checking of messages and emails on their smart phones, or better still digging their heads back under their pillows and extending their nap time till lunch!

And since I had participated in none of the above and instead, done my regular thing every morning, I was blissfully reclining in my cane chair and sipping out of my teacup when quite suddenly the door of the caretaker’s hut flew open and out burst the family in absolute wild abandon laughing away to glory. Obviously this caught my immediate interest and I couldn’t help but focus my entire attention to what had begun to unfold before my eyes.

Father, mother, daughter and son held each other swaying gently to the chants of a prayer being sung by them while facing the rising sun from the east. Once this ritual was over it was time for the next which was the oil bath. Both son and daughter seized the oil bottles from their mother’s hands and started smearing oil, most lavishly, over their parents’ heads as they sat quietly on a few stones wholly enjoying the massage. It was then the children’s turn and positions were switched interspersed with much giggling and playful ‘smacks’ from their mother. This was then followed by a cold water bath which was exuberantly accomplished by pouring water on each other from an old blue cistern followed by warmly rubbing each other with a couple of thin cotton towels and then turning back to the sun in a final salutation before hugging each other tenderly and re-entering their hut.

And then there was silence for a while before the family came out once again joyfully lighting up a few sparklers while the chickens ran amuck.

As I sat sipping the remnants of my green tea, this visual encounter I had just witnessed repetitively played within the portals of my mind. What an amazing experience! It took me back several decades when, as a young boy I had been part of such similar rituals. A period when our lives were untouched with cybernetic influences but filled with practical moments of value, love and bonding. Value, Love and Bonding which were expressed through thoughts, words and deeds. Not through simulated creations that merely required one to express oneself through an oblong pad of alphabets. But through a desire to communicate one’s deepest feelings of adoration and respect through physical touch and expressions that only a pair of eyes and a smiling mouth could emulate.

I also realized what an amazing show of parental Leadership I had just witnessed! Keeping the family fused with traditional values and ever-bonding love while respecting each other’s individual freedom requires humongous understanding and patience by parents. And all this while ensuring relationships within the family never become estranged.

This was a morning I knew I would remember for a long while. A morning that was so delightfully extraordinary. A morning that forced me to reflect momentarily on the past and the way we existed today. And yet a morning that was wonderfully spiritual and festive!

I stood up from where I was sitting and wondered why my throat felt a bit choked and my eyes just a tad watery…

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

Email: anand@anandknair.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipinitiatives

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

Suicide – From Snap to Oblivion!

1930 hrs

I stood on an extended balcony of a friend’s residence 24 floors up on a high rise building with only a 3 foot extension in front of me and a world hustling chaotically several feet below. Through the ravages of my mind I recalled the newspaper article I had recently read of a young girl who crossed over a similar extension on a high rise building eventually ending her existence once and for all. As I observed the sheer drop from where I stood the blood in my veins turned cold. I was appalled with the very thought of what could it possibly take any human being to just walk off a ledge into committing suicide in this manner. In fact, I was even more dismayed trying to understand why people would want to end their lives in whatever form they adopted, be it a sheer drop from a tall building, a noose hanging from a fan, slitting their wrist or even consuming pesticides. And as I watched the road far below I figured that committing suicide must require humongous amounts of courage! After all, if it wasn’t courage, what else can it possibly take?

That’s what I assumed till I decided to reach out to several suicide survivors. Being an active Life Counselor all I had to do was to speak to most of my ‘patients’ and through them connect with those who made that one last attempt but survived. And believe it or not, the ensuing journey was an education of a lifetime!

The Mind is a very powerful connect between the Soul and the Body and can be likened to fire which can cook your food and cook you too! Within the precincts of the Mind exists three minds: the Conscious, the Subconscious and the Unconscious Minds. The Conscious Mind consists abysmally 5% of the entire Human Mind. The rest 95% constitutes the Subconscious and the Unconscious Minds. The Subconscious Mind holds memories which are recent in nature while the Unconscious Mind records every moment of one’s experiences of life. It is an amazing storehouse of memories from the day we were born!

In a nutshell, the Conscious Mind converses with the outside world and the inner self through speech, pictures, writing, physical movement, and thought. The Subconscious Mind, on the other hand, is in continuous contact with the resources of the Unconscious Mind which constantly communicates with the Conscious Mind through the Subconscious Mind. It provides one with the meaning to all interactions with the world, as filtered through ones beliefs and habits. It communicates through feelings, emotions, imagination, sensations, and dreams. Hence the Subconscious and the Unconscious Minds play a very active role in tandem with the Conscious Mind to ensure an overall healthy and productive Mindset resulting in a remarkable existence of one self.

However, when the Conscious Mind begins to get excessively and relentlessly barraged with piercingly stressful thoughts and experiences, the Subconscious and Unconscious Minds strain to maintain the stability of the Conscious Mind. And as the Conscious mind ceaselessly becomes more and more turgid, it quite suddenly breaks away from the safe anchorages of the Subconscious and Unconscious Minds resulting in, what we call, the act of suicide. And this could happen at any given point of time: while walking on the road, working at the office, reading a book at home, working out at the gym or even watching an exciting IPL Cricket final!

For all of those who are presently harboring suicidal tendencies I can only advice:

1.  Stay within the Powers of your Inner Being. There is enormous Greatness within you! Feel it, embrace it and believe in it!!

2.  You can’t get out of life alive. So why prepone it? Life is a many splendored thing. Enjoy the meandering journey and don’t mentally resist when things don’t look too good. It won’t last forever! Never does!!

3.  Spend time deep breathing and meditating. Stay in the 'NOW'. You don't live in the past anymore. And the future can become awe-inspiring if you concentrate on creating beautiful Masterpieces with the present moment! Appreciate yourself for who you are and not in comparison with anyone else. You are YOU! The final Creator of your own Destiny! There never is a need to be anyone else when you can be fabulously YOURSELF!

4.  And finally, Celebrate Life…Celebrate being YOU!

And to all of those of you who are connected with someone struggling with suicidal tendencies:

1.  Please avoid interacting if you can’t help or remotely understand how precarious the person’s Mind is at the moment.

2.  Stop mirroring your personal stress and frustrations through your actions and words. It will have a deliberating effect and deteriorate the mental crises.  

3.  Be patient, loving and caring no matter how stressful the situation or relationship gets. It remotely compares to what’s actually happening in the person’s Mind!

4.  And finally, you have to realize one burning truth: IT DOES NOT TAKE COURAGE BUT JUST A SNAP TO OBLIVION!!

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

Email: anand@agnileadership.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

The Deceptive Desire to Finally Light “Just This One Last Puff!”

May 31^st, 2018.

Newspapers, magazines, journals, news channels and almost every media available announce the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ and endlessly woo smokers to give up the habit.  A host of articles enumerating the hazards of smoking cover all the dailies delivered at doorsteps. The internet is abuzz with videos covering visual accounts of near fatal cases due to smoking. Commercials in almost every form of communication pump up the pot purée of information with likewise disastrous descriptions.

And yet the smoker reaches for his pack and lights another cigarette! 

I remember years back when I was graduating, we used to jokingly term a cigarette as “a roll of tobacco with fire on one end and a sucker on the other!” Years later when most of us became ‘suckers’ eventually, the joke spiked out more embarrassingly than humorously.

The fact is, just like within every fat man there is a thin man dying to get out and vice versa, within every smoker is a man desperately trying to beat the habit of lighting up a cigarette every 15 minutes with a deceptive desire to finally “light that one last puff” once and for all…

The fact is that every smoker is absolutely aware of all the hazards of his vice and no amount of information, data, statistics, facts or figures proving it all will make that big difference resulting in the smoker chucking the habit.

The fact is that the smoker knows he’s hooked by a powerful drug called Nicotine existing in tobacco and as long as his brain craves it he will remain a prisoner to his vice.

Like every smoker, I knew I was literally burning away both my health and finances for just that craving for a few ‘puffs’ more. And as long as the craving taunted me night and day, I gave a damn about anything else but lighting up and believing how much I was enjoying every moment ecstatically as I deeply inhaled the smoke into my lungs giving myself a temporary ‘high’ till the next cigarette. And never mind the dirty nicotine stained teeth or the discolored finger tips.

But yet, there are smokers like me who finally did give it up, and quite suddenly! YES, it can be done and it’s actually no big deal!!

The truth is that no amount of emotional blackmailing or advice from relatives and friends made me make the decision to quit. Quitting a vice that one has lived with over several years can’t be done on somebody else’s opinion, guidance or suggestion. Quitting a vice is a very personal thing. The decision lies squarely on the victim of the vice and on nothing or no one else.

So then how did I manage to quit? Did I have an exemplary Will Power over others? Was it because I loved my family and close friends so profoundly that I wanted to do it for them? Or was it because of the circulation of so much information on the nuisances of smoking intermittently being bombarded right from several media options available to the permanent cigarette packet design?

Actually, it was none of those. Like I said, giving up any vice is a very personal decision and no one can ever influence it except one’s own mind! It was just one amazing moment in my life when I suddenly and most passionately wanted to change the way I existed. And just to never, ever light another cigarette in my life. The fact is that when I deeply desired to become the CHANGE I secretly always wanted to be, this desire overtook and overshadowed a continuously nagging desire to remain the SAME as always. And the moment that happened, I chucked it all away and never looked back again! So when I say giving up a vice is a very personal thing, I know that this is the truth because I am a practical witness to prosecuting my own iniquity.

To all the smokers across the world who are actually enjoying their regular bouts of ‘puffing’ it up, don’t bother about how good or bad it is for you. Don’t give a damn on who, genuinely or sincerely, want you to give up the habit. And don’t even remotely fancy that you lack a formidable Will Power to never light another puff (after all, how does it matter anyway). And of course, screw the fact that you have smoked away buying a new house or a fancy car or even some top of the line threads for your wardrobe with every cigarette you bought and puffed over the years.

But for those of you who secretly desire to quit smoking once and for all…all you got to do is do what I did. First, seriously contemplate on it. Then give yourself a comfortable time frame to quit. And as you gradually reach towards the end of the timeframe, continuously keep concentrating on crafting an intense desire within yourself to become the CHANGE that you covertly wanted to be instead of remaining the SAME as always. It’s really this simple. After all, you wouldn’t be doing all this if you seriously didn’t want a change!

CHANGE is an amazing constant. Yes, it will be a wee bit difficult in the beginning. A little tough in the middle. But AWE-INSPIRING at the end! It all depends on how passionately you have desired to embrace the CHANGE.

And believe me. If I can do it…SO CAN YOU!!

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

Email: anand@agnileadership.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

Preeti - The Young Yogic Healing Wonder!

During my consistent jaunts at the Cubbon Park early Sunday mornings, I often observed a young girl teaching Yoga to a fairly large group of people. She has been doing this for the last 2 1/2 years and I really didn't ever closely watch her as I regularly jogged passed the green stretch she occupied behind the Bandstand. 

But last Sunday, I just happened to stop by and observe her more closely and something fascinated me to a large extent. As I watched her expertly exercising along with the people participating in her free session, I couldn't help cherish the intensity of her love and passion for what she was doing, clearly etched on her face! Very rarely does one happen to observe such dedication and commitment bonded with so much affection. I stood for quite a while observing her till she finished the class and then decided to have a chat with her, to know more about her and what encourages her to do what she was doing.

Preeti hails from Chandigarh and is in her mid-twenties. Her love for Yoga and more importantly Pranayama, was due to an emotional and physical debacle she had faced several years ago. It was through Pranayama and Yoga that she was able to heal herself entirely and it was then that she decided she would, most passionately, heal as many people she could meet who would have had similar pasts, or otherwise.

As we got chatting, I realized with much adoration that Preeti and I held similar views regarding our purpose on Earth and the Powers of the Universe as expressed in my first book: The Sledgehammer’s Edge. She firmly believes, just like everyone else, she was born with a certain purpose decided by the Universe and she realized this soon after she overcame her personal debacle.

She strongly believes in the Power of Love - to Love selflessly and without prejudice! And, through this love, to heal those that needed to be healed. Needless to say, many people have overcome some of their most tasking health conditions just by being with her and attending her classes. In fact, I happened to meet a few of them in the group that morning.

Preeti strongly believes not only in the power of Yoga but more importantly in the power of Pranayama or the manner in which we breathe. She firmly expresses how important it is for everyone to practice Pranayama for at least an hour daily. While most yoga teachers generally revolve exclusively around Yoga exercises, Preeti blends her one hour class with both Pranayama and Yoga most skillfully as I had observed that morning. She considers Pranayama as the soul of Yoga and hence the two cannot be isolated from each other. She also advocates that one should combine Pranayama with Meditation regularly.

Incidentally, Preeti who is a strict Vegan, wakes up at 2.30 am every morning and meditates till dawn. While this may seem quite a stretch for most of us, the result of what she does vividly shows in her physical form and in her exuberance for life!

It was most enjoyable chatting up with Preeti that morning and I can add a thousand more words to this blog about her! But instead, why don’t you drop by on a fresh early Sunday morning at Cubbon Park and discover this young yogic healing wonder yourself!!

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Founder,

Anand Nair Leadership Foundation

anand@agnileadership.com

www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipfoundation

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

The Sledgehammer's Edge

The Sledgehammer’s Edge is a moving story about how one can use the several Powers of the Universe to successfully achieve every dream in one’s life and create amazing masterpieces for the world to enjoy.

It is because we think, we exist and not the other way around. The very content of our thoughts dictate the standards of our existence. We have a choice in every moment of our lives to either be a victim or a winner! The story entwines itself around a young boy whose personal and professional dreams are turned into reality by a man who makes him recognize the inner strength he has by surrendering to the Universe and all its Powers embedded within his inner Being.

This book takes you on a path of realization of the enormous powers that lie within you to be exemplary in every walk of life. Hence, this book is not necessarily entrepreneurial in nature, but deals immensely with the Soul, Mind and Body and how they subtly relate to each other in creating masterpieces in whatever one does, both personally and professionally.

Leadership is not about leading a group of people or an organization to success but living a life delightfully and living it from the very core of one’s inner being without being prejudiced by the fears of the unknown influenced by one’s external experiences.

Written in the simplest form of narrative, this book will tug at your conscience and lead you to believe, just as Raj, our protagonist did in the Powers of The Universe. I have written this book in a simple and uncomplicated language flow so that anyone, across the world who reads it, will be able to understand each and every paragraph crafted by me.

I hoped to emancipate your existence through this book and have faith in the fact that I finally will. 

So download the Kindle vesion and enjoy this journey with me…

Anand K Nair

Leadership & Motivational Speaker. Mentor. Counselor. Author. Educationist. Business Consultant.

Author of: The Sledgehammer's Edge

(Readily available on Amazon Kindle)

Musings of an old Maverick: Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fin...

Musings of an old Maverick: Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fin...: Cubbon Park. Sunday  0600 hrs.   .  Bliss and harmony combined in an area of approximately 190 acres - once over 300 acres i...

Cubbon Park - A Kaleidoscope of flora & fauna, fine art performances, fitness freaks and CEOs!

Cubbon Park. Sunday 0600 hrs. . 

Bliss and harmony combined in an area of approximately 190 acres - once over 300 acres in size but forcibly shrunk by rapid urbanization.  For those living in Bangalore including several corporate 'big-wigs' (preferring to talk  business informally in an open fresh environment instead of during Saturday night cocktail circuits...finding them too cliche and meant only for the uninitiated!) flock every morning to the pristine offerings of this natural park. 


Intricately shaped trees, centuries old, interspersed with a wide variety of plants and flowers, rare winged birds, squirrels, butterflies (the list could go on almost endlessly), never cease to serenely calm the mind, body & soul of every walker, jogger and casual visitor to this wondrous green abode. Just a few kilometers of an engaging walk through its meandering pathways can revive the most tired or stressed individual from the aftermath of the week gone by.

But these are not only the offerings that this park engulfs you with. 

It also offers to a plethora of people of various shapes, sizes and ages to work out their bodies to the rhythm of a trainer and his music, free Yoga classes conducted by those devoted to the cause of good health & vitality or simply setting up a net and playing badminton with friends or picking up a cycle and lazily biking around...or just doing your thing by working out all by yourself over large expanses of greenery!  


















But for me, the most fascinating contribution that this awesome place offers is an absolutely enthralling and captivating set of performances executed by young artists involved in fine arts and folk music on the Bandstand from 0600 hrs to 0830 hrs! 

I can assure you, that this is one visual treat for the senses that will effortlessly prove uplifting and joyful...something that can rarely be experienced by those who never flock towards the Cubbon Park on an early Sunday morning!!