Pearls of Wisdom for Laymen, Management Students

How does a person stand uncompromised on ethical values in business and in life? How does one find answers to queries on loss and gain, finding success, countering negativity, social engineering and such other questions? Is morality dying in business practices? How to find spirituality in daily life?
The book In search of meaning: A spiritual perspective of management by Management Monk Moid Siddiqui attempts to quench both the spiritual thirst of laymen and the moral dilemma faced by most businessmen.
Though akin to hundreds of in-spirational books on the art of living, the book is written with a st-rong judgement over some less-discussed topics including bea-uty contests, cosmetics & porn industries, sex reassignment surgery etc. Denouncing the glamo-rous world and its illusionary attractions, the author says success lies in living in the contaminated world and getting the least tainted.
He says beauty treatments and products harm India's culture, civilisation, chastity and the national character; beauty contests are a frog's leap towards indecency, encouraged by cos-metics industry for its gain. The author justifies his opinions by quoting American Rabbi and author Harold S. Kushner: "There is no right way to do a wrong thing."
Though some of the 65 articles in the book seem quite opinionated and one-sided, others make the reader see the world of spirituality in a new light.
Moid asks the reader not to go on looking at a 'closed door' but to look around and see the many open doors and walk towards one of them confidently.
An interesting theory debated by Moid in one of his chapters is the presence of 'God Spot' in hu-man brain, discovered by Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, Head of research team at University of California (San Diego). He says that scientists believe if a 'God Module' exists, then it might suggest that individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural circuit. But he believes atheists choose to deny the 'truth' and are willfully blind.
Every piece has a quote by a well-known personality. Though most quotes are quite commonplace, it is refreshing to read them again and try to associate them with the pearls of wisdom given in the chapter.
Small stories in most chapters interspersed like seeds in a fruit are a delight to read, as mere write-ups seem like dry sermons but remain anchored to our consciousness if delivered with interesting stories. May be that is why children are taught morals through stories. Though told in simple language, Moid's words are sprinkled with wisdom at its best when he says: If you want to live your truest life, fill your heart with so much love and passion that there remains no place for hatred; Unless you join two perceptions, you cannot understand the Whole and clichés Humility is the sign of greatness or Laugh at yourselves...
Management students can take a leaf out of this book in case they find themselves at crossroads. Moid's lessons for them are based on analyses of the hu-man mind and its workings. He teaches them the 'art of building a cloud' to examine a problem and resolve differences and conflicts to get a win-win situation. Though they make for a smooth-reading, some oft-quoted sentences seem unrealistic to adapt in life.
Moid, who has written numerous books like The Corporate Soul, Management Parables, etc., with his articles published in the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series, is the MD of Intellects Biz, known for its innovative training and consulting out-looks. The collection of articles are a delight to read for those in the management and people who hanker after motivational books. Laymen too may gain from the pearls of wisdom in each page.

Mysore seen thru kaleidoscope of colours, words

Rain-stained walls, cracked windows, creeper-hugging pillars, crumbling steps, rusty gates, desolated and littered gardens, houses that seem to tremble beneath the burden of the past, either engulfed in assorted weeds or standing isolated like a lone warrior struggling to hold back the adversary called time, buildings that seem lonely at the outset but whisper secrets about the long-gone dwellers when you go near... they beckon you to visit them and revisit them on the pages of this digest titled 'between Mysore & Mysooru.'
The coffee table book, with poems on the left and cityscapes on the facing page, is not a book to be read, but one to be enjoyed and contemplated upon.
The verses penned by artist and art curator Shoaib Chadkhan, who has brought out the book, create a world intermixed with innocence and maturity towards life and its happenings. The unedited verses, though seem unrefined at first glance, stays in one's mind long after the page has been turned. Reading between the lines becomes easier with the simple words which carry profound meaning when seen through the eyes of a Mysorean.
The poems say it all; about the feeling of belonging to a place, considering that place as one's own even when it is inhabited by lakhs of other strangers, the onslaught of bland modern housing style -- apartments -- replacing quaint old houses with their own architectural beauty and the blinding of the city's walls with ugly, gaudy posters, the vanishing of emotional value about one's place which have been replaced by material value...
New-age artists like H.K. Vishwanath, Sujan Ghosh, Vishwanath Kondlighatta Hiriyanna, Dhanashree Gadiyar, Kavyashri Shastry, R. Shiva Kumar Rangaiah, M. Chandrakala, B. Brahmanand, Smitha Ningaraj, Yogananda Lakshmaiah, H.S. Vinay, Ambika Shankar, P. Anil Chandran, Shoaib Chadkhan, Manoj Guddekuppa Sripadamurthy, Sharath Kumar, Deborah Stromberg, A.M. Swamy, Mahesh B. Lingaiah, H.G. Kumar Gowrav, Shaitan Singh, H.S. Suresh, Bharath Kumar, Akhilanka, K.J. Pavan, C.S. Vijay Kumar and N. Punith have travelled across the city, searching for the houses which may not have been declared heritage but carry the legacy of the city in them.
The collection is an artistic documentation of a heritage city which, in a quest for development, loses its identity and becomes as mundane as the next city and the next... as seen across the land after advertisements, hoardings, buying and selling gained more space in a city than the basic necessities. When seen through the kaleidoscope of colours and words, the book seems to come to life and begs to be considered in terms of conserving the heritage of this royal city.
Though the efforts of the artists are quite appreciable, the book would have helped old-timers and the young generation who are unfamiliar with the serene beauty of old Mysore, their purpose would have been served better if the paintings carried the titles of the buildings and places alongside to identify them and reminisce on their history. Some browsers, who try to find correlation between the poems and the art on the opposite page, remain disappointed as both do not have any connection whatsoever, apart from a joint mission to protect the heritage of Mysooru.
However, the book is an artistic journey back in time through well-known and hidden landmarks of the city like Ashoka road, Sayyaji Rao road, Doddagadiyaara, Free Mason’s Building opposite Town Hall, Chikkagadiyara (Dufferin Clock tower), Seetavilasa Choultry on Chamaraja Double road, the dilapidated quarters near Nallappa Thana on Dewan’s road, the road that leads to Jaganmohan Palace, bungalow where former President late Prof. S.Radhakrishnan lived...
Hope the artists succeed, considering the poem in the book which is a dialectic on itself:
"isn't it funny
that
anything over a hundred years old
is considered old
it is like a psychological benchmark that got crossed."

A romantic rendezvous with Mysore architecture

Words may mean different things to different people. However, images open up a whole new dimension. When artists create images, then the mind registers them better. "between Mysore & Mysooru" is one such set of images, impressions and words.
The book, authored by art curator Shoaib Chadkhan, will be released by veteran journalist Krishna Vattam at a function to be held tomorrow at Art Dissemination, No.11, Opp. Bal Bhavan, Bannimantap in city at 5.30 pm. MLA Tanveer Sait will inaugurate. An exhibition of a group of paintings published in the book will be launched by K.R. Ramakrishna, Commissioner, Dept. of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage on the occasion.
Usually a book or an exhibition on a town includes the history of the place. But here, the author and the artists do not believe in writing about the history of Mysore. This coffee-table book by art curator Shoaib Chadkhan is an artistic documentation of a heritage city through the eyes of artists. He says though the title would suggest a Mysore story, it is, however, the story of many places across the land; places which are in a quest for development. The book is also about how we evolve to the things and experiences around us.
The 80-page book is a fictional story of the curator's own life depicted through Haiku-type poems — it is a romantic rendezvous with the architecture of Mysore and the artists here.
The book is quite a 'page-stopper' as the reader, who after contemplating on the beautiful poems, sets his eyes on the paintings and gets captured by the aesthetics in the paintings, quite forgetting to turn the page and move on.
It is a journey which started in 2009 when the author stayed at the India Song House in Vonti-koppal, a quaint old house that had a history of being a creative space with hosting of exhibitions like Abstract Perception & Contemporary Cows at Crossroads.
The house was sold by their owners to a firm from Bangalore who in all likelihood had seen it more as a real estate investment rather than the heritage that the house held, says Chadkhan.
Yogananda, a young city artist, was keen on creating a painting of this house. Chadkhan used the painting to put up a story on internet. The response that it evoked was huge and quite emotional. A lot of people were concerned about the way beautiful spaces like these were being treated. It was there that an understanding of the romanticism took place, the melancholi-ness and all the feelings that a painting could evoke was bro-ught forth. This led to a quest for more such buildings and to use this type of imagery to create a subtle but powerful way of re-introducing sense of aesthetic and thus go about preserving them.
The making of this book has changed how these artists and their friends see a building today, says Chadkhan, adding that now they see it as a life form in itself.
Totally, 30 contemporary artists  of Mysore have created 70 paintings of Mysore in their varied forms and styles and about 50 of these paintings will be exhibited in the show.
If one artist has painted in monochrome, then another artist has made the house become a subject for a stamp. Hence there was a need to photograph them, have artists make portraits of these houses, make a book, make a film and document it in some form.
The landscape paintings, which are vivid both in colours and black & white, portray the places the artists have explored and painted, often with rich metaphorical possibilities. These artists have used the paint medium to raise awareness on conservation concerns. The series of paintings capture a changing Mysore, which is falling prey to changes in time and the inevitable urbanisation.
The heritage Mysore that has a unique identity, has been revisited by the artists with a tinge of nostalgia and raises the question of introducing a policy to conserve the heritage of the city for future. The 'Tropical Architecture' of Mysore homes with typical Mysore roof tiles, sloping roofs, chajjas, wooden trellis work and solid wrought iron grills, have been recreated by the artists to show the signature look of the city, says Suresh Jayaram in his critique in the book.
The author says T.P Issar's book 'Mysore the royal city' helped in reiterating the belief that most paintings have a stronger emotional quotient than photos. The poems have been penned by Shoaib with an earnestness to create a little world through words and images.
Though the inauguration is by invitation only, the painting exhibition will be open to the public from May 19 to 25 between 10.30 am and 7.30 pm at the same venue. The book is priced at Rs.3,000 and will be available on a discounted price during the show at Rs.2,400.
After Mysore, the exhibition will move on to Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bangalore.