KGB, the cold war era, Stalin through Gorbachev sounds familiar. But, did you know that the KGB had predecessors going all the way back to the first world war and the days of ‘Cheka’ ? That’s right.
KGB was, no doubt, the most successful and durable of all its predecessors but was no more operationally agressive than the previous ones. KGB’s expanded form in russian stood for “the committee of State security” and, like all things of the Soviet era, had a very formal name to a series of ultra-smart covert operations of intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence, protection for heads of the soviet and their military secrets, border security protection and “duty enforcements” (you probably heard the Stalin era) and even maintaining a list of people
Chocolate is something which we take for granted. It is something we can practically get whenever and wherever we want. But does anybody truly know where it comes from?
Recently I have written a case study on this issue. While discussing this case in the class, I was surprised to know that out of 40 students only 2 knew about chocolate slavery ( before reading the case i mean)
Here is a fact: Over 40 percent of the world’s conventional chocolate (i.e. non-organic and non-Fair Trade) comes from Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), where the International Labor Organization (ILO) and US State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery. Exploitation of cocoa farmers and farm workers is the global norm in the chocolate industry, rather than the exception. The largest chocolate manufacturers like Hershey Food Corp., Mars, Inc., Nestle USA, Kraft Foods admitted to the media that they were aware of these conditions.
Krishna: Arjun, Try to respect the e-mails of your colleagues.
Arjun: But Vasudev, how dare I send junk mails to my
honourable elders, who are logged on to honourable domains ? Krishna: Paarth, at this moment they neither are your friend
nor your foes. They are mere mail-users. So follow your
Net dharma. Logon and send dozens of junk mails. This is your Karma and this alone is your Dharma.
Arjun: Murari ! After seeing all this, I feel like
resigning from the company itself
Krishna: Bandhu, it seems you are caught in a vicious circle
of Maaya. In this material world you have none and you are commited to none. Junk mails have existed before you came to this world and shall remain long after you are gone. Rise above this Maaya and perform your duty. Just keep sending junk mails.
Arjun: But Devaki Nandan………..!
Krishna :…Victory or failure is not in your hands. So stop
pondering about results. Don’t waste your knowledge on the junk
shastra bestowed by your Guru.
Arjun: Hey Keshav, how is junk mail related to the ’system’?
Krishna: Junk mail is just junk mail. It has no connection
with Hardware. However, it is another matter that it overloads the system… fills up the hard disk….but you are not supposed to worry about it. Listen Kunti putra, the way Aatma leaves one physical body and moves onto another, likewise these junk mails move from system to system.
Arjun: How can one define junk mail?
Krishna : Neither fire can burn it.., nor air can dry it…
neither it can be conquered nor it can be defeated. He who sends junk mails cannot be looked down upon even by Mahadev… Junk mails are immortal.
Arjun:Hey Narayan! Now all my doubts on junk mail are
crystal clear. You have opened my eyes Yashoda Nandan, or else I would have lost Myself in Maaya and read all the junk mails myself.
I keep laughing whenver I listen to this song Doorie due to the lyrics… The first time I heard this song Doorie’s Lyrics was when I went to India, my cousin started singing this song.. I said ” kya bakwas gana ? He smiled and said .. “If I sing it will be bakwas only.. listen to the song first?” He played that song for me.. coupla days after, while we were having lunch, the video song was playing on TV… he jumped outta his chair.. rushed to the TV. Looking at his excitement, even I ran. When we came back, I asked him “what’s his name?” .. This time he was serious and said, “Are you playing with me or you really don’t know who that guy is?” I said, ” duh! I really don’t know him” … He tapped on my head and said “You pichi (aka idiot) that’s Atif Aslam.. The Atif Aslam” during the whole lunch time he kept telling me the history of this singer. My cousin is all crazy about Atif Aslam and so are most of my friends…
I highly recommend that you get a copy of your own. It is definitely fun and I hope it provides more insight to your personality like it did in my case.
It is hard to find something cool about a psychologist writing another one of those books on motivation, be it a self-helper, a ‘call for action’ or simple jane’s ‘confidence builder’. Not when you are Carol Dweck and your research is being talked about as the next hot thing in developmental psychology though. In her new book titled “The handbook of competence and motivation”, Carol Dweck provides a new dimension to some widely accepted notions on what comprises a “Growth Mindset” - an attitude which believes that values need necessarily not be inherent but can be acquired over time.
In contrast to centuries of accepted wisdom that there is a set of characteristic traits that make a leader, Carol is trying to drive the notion that the most effective leaders could often be associated with a ‘Growth Mindset‘, more of a ‘rapid,
KGB Predecessor
