Loud Thinking

Archive for October, 2014

My article titled “Why peace not war..?” published today, by the daily “Pakistan Observer”.

Link:- http://epaper.pakobserver.net/201410/29/comments-2.php

“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember… the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.”

— Zig Ziglar

“We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.”

—Diogenes of Sinope (died 323)
Greek Philosopher

Optimize Your Office Space for Better Productivity

More companies are using workspace to encourage innovation and collaboration. To design your offices to improve organizational culture, workflows, and employee satisfaction, think more directly about how to meet people’s needs. Start by:
Going straight to the source. Use your company’s intranet or another internal communication tool as a way for all employees to ask tough questions or offer opinions about your office environment.
Generating more data. Gauge peak workload times and think about how your space can encourage more departmental cross-pollination during down time. Optimize the most popular spaces and reform conference room duds. Coffee bars, communal tables, and quiet rooms can be more productive uses of space than underutilized meeting rooms.
Incorporating technology. Conference room technologies can let employees know when rooms are free. They can also keep track of reservations and meeting agendas, making it easier for people to get together.

Adapted from ” Design Offices to Be More Like Neighborhoods” by Max Chopovsky.

My write up in the daily “Dawn” dated 1 August, 2014.

Link:- http://www.dawn.com/news/1122621

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
Aug 01, 2014 05:17pm
Immediately after taking over, the threat hurled against Pakistan, by the new Indian army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, is quite understandable; considering that he is under severe inferiority complex and has to prove himself, worthy of the Indian army chief’s position.

In 2012, when the present BJP elected MP General VK Singh was the Army Chief, then Suhag was heading the Eastern Command in Dimapur, Nagaland. Singh had imposed the Discipline and Vigilance (DV) ban against Suhag for an alleged botched up military intelligence operation by a unit under him in Jorhat, Assam. General VK Singh, was also against Suhag’s appointment as the next Army Chief.

However, if this gentleman is really worth his salt, he should think and act about China, which every second month, takes over some Indian territory and establishes its own camps, rubbing the nose and prestige of the so called Indian military might, to the dust.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, it knows very well how to handle the Indians in the battlefield. Hope General DS Suhag remembers how Pakistan snatched Gilgit, Skurdu and a large chunk of Kashmir, from the clutches of the Indian army, during the early days of its inception.

One wished General DS Suhag had not proved within minutes of his promotion, his former boss General VK Singh right, who never found this son of a retired Subedaar (foot soldier), fit to head the Indian Army.

Also, never ever in the world history, the famous Peter Principle that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence” was proved correct, by any army general, after his promotion, so soon.

And to the rest of the Indian army personnel, we can only extend our heartfelt sympathies..!

Tell Your Team You’re All in This Together

We’re hardwired to want to work together. Research shows that the feeling of working together can lead to greater motivation, engagement, and performance. But ironically, while we have team goals and are judged by team performance, few of us actually do our work in teams. Yes, the projects we complete are done in teams, but most of the work we do today still gets done alone. But there’s a powerful way of making employees feel like they’re working as a team, even when they technically aren’t: Simply say the word “together.” It’s a powerful social cue to the brain that signals you belong, you’re connected, and there are others you can trust. Managers should make use of this word with far greater frequency. By repeating that you and your employees are working toward something together, they’ll know they aren’t alone and will be motivated to do their best.

Adapted from ” Managers Can Motivate Employees with One Word” by Heidi Grant Halvorson.

“Much of the pain in life comes from having a life plan that you’ve fallen in love with, but that doesn’t work out. Having to find a new life plan hurts. The trick is not to become too attached to any particular life plan and to remember that there is always a better, even happier life plan out there somewhere.”

— Karen Salmansohn

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen

New Year Resolution (written on 31 December, 2013 refreshed on 27 October, 2014 and 17 January, 2015 and still even more relevant TODAY, when both the countries are almost on the brink of a nuclear war, due to very aggressive ceasefire violations by the Indians on the LOC; and as admitted and claimed by the Indian National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, Indians have embarked upon a proxy terror war against Pakistan, under the nomenclature of “Defensive Offensive” doctrine. However, under the scenario, it is not very difficult to visualise the reaction of a nuclear Pakistan, if another Indian sponsored terror attack on Pakistan, resembling the type and magnitude of 16, December 2014 genocide of school kids in Peshawar, is repeated on its soil, by the proxy Indian trained and financed agents, as per own admission of Ajit Doval).

From Pakistan With Love to All the Indians… – Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Posted at www.snayyar.com by Syed Nayyar Uddin on December 31, 2013 refreshed on 27 October, 2014 & 17 January, 2015 in India Peace and Pakistan, International Affairs, My Views, Pakistan | Edit | Subscribe

New Year Resolution – From Pakistan With Love to All the Indians

While wishing all the Indians a very happy and prosperous new year 2015, we would like to inform everyone in India that if at all we have to be friends, then that friendship must be in a true sense; and we must not act and behave with each other, in a hypocritical manner.

Let India and Pakistan be friends in true sense, or else let the leaders of both the countries inform the teeming millions of the sub-continent that an India vs Pakistan all out nuclear war, IS AN OPTION.

It must be clear to ALL the civilian and military leaders in India that assuming (just theoretically) without any Pakistani retaliations, if India (God forbid) reduces the entire Pakistan to rubbles, with a nuclear attack, INDIA TOO won’t be able to survive the radiation, which will reduce the vast agricultural lands in Indian Punjab and other areas, totally uncultivable for hundreds of years, leaving millions of Indians to die, of hunger and diseases.

However, as per the more plausible scenario, if Pakistan decided to empty on India, all and entire of its nuclear arsenal, (Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is increasing at a pace faster than any other country and now is reported to have more nuclear weapons than that of India, reports TOI in its news item of 17, January, 2015 titled “Pakistan’s fourth nuclear reactor appears operational”) either as a first strike, or second strike, almost entire India will be vaporised. And as calculated by the scientists, this all out nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, will raise so much dust that the entire planet Earth, will have a complete blackout of sun rays for decades, resulting in a dooms day day scenario, for every living organism on Earth.

Moreover, no foreigner will even think of staying and visiting india, with so much high radiation everywhere. Indian nuclear policy decision makers must know in advance that nuclear wars are ABSOLUTELY NO option, with very close neighbours. In such a geographical and military situation, which exists between India and Pakistan, nuclear war is a ZERO sum game, if at all, it is a game.

We would also like to assure the Indians that even if we wanted we can’t conquer India. At the same time even if India wanted, it can’t pull down Pakistan, without India being destroyed, as well.

So, why to waste our time and energies in an imaginary hatred policies? Why to waste our precious resources, in being the prisoners of our foolish past? From the first day of the new year 2015, let us bury our bitter past and be friends in true sense, like all the European countries. India and Pakistan can and must live like United Europe, rather than wasting all the precious resources for living like divided Korea.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Let us have a genuine peace. Let India remove all its strike forces from the Pakistani borders, without any fear. Let us join hands to wage a war against poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy. Let us turn this subcontinent into a bastion of peace and a heaven on earth.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

India and Pakistan just need a period of single decade of genuine peace, to turn around its fortunes, for emerging as the most potent economic and cultural power house of this world.

The only condition is the genuine and authentic peace, like the one which exists in between the EU countries.

Don’t be afraid of problems between the two countries, because they will remain for ever, but we have to give priority to peace, over the problems.

Let us make a new start from the beginning of the new year 2015, with the slogan:
– Long live the friendship of the teeming millions of India and Pakistan.

An open letter to the Indian PM

Dear Mr. Narendra Modi Sahab,

Greetings.

We in Pakistan, really appreciated the desire to visit Pakistan, expressed by the former Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, in his press conference on 3 January, 2014.

In this regard, I would like to suggest to the current leadership of both the countries, to take advantage of the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the region; and let India and Pakistan try a NEW APPROACH towards the peace: by first deciding upon a list of such core thorny issues, which are complicated and can only be resolved after full confidence, between the two nations is restored; and freeze all such issues or problems, for a short period of just one decade.

In the meantime, India and Pakistan should restore full friendly relations, by genuinely restoring confidence, by further pulling back troops from the LOC and start immediate cooperation in all the fields of economic activities, visa free to and fro, travel (for all the cities) of citizens of both the countries, special facilities for the businessmen of the two nations for opening of trade offices, banks, business shops and show rooms, in each others country, removal of all restrictions on cultural and sports teams visits and full permission of the TV channels, to be viewed in each other’s country.

It will be just of a sorts of a no war pact (which should also include 90% withdrawal of troops from the entire valley of Jammu and Kashmir and 100% withdrawal of troops from the Siachin area, for a limited period of ten years).

Moreover, it should also be decided that in order to avoid any misunderstandings, on account of any illegal crossings from the LOC, joint LOC patrolling of Indo-Pak troops along with the UN observers, should also be considered as a part of the overall peace agreement, which is surely expected to work wonders, like a magic, in the economic emancipation of the teeming millions of both the countries.

Sir, hope you know very well that ordinary people of both the countries are fed up with the acrimony between the two closest neighbours; and earnestly desire hundreds of years of peace, for which the only impediment, is the lack of statesmen and visionary people in the policy making arena of both the countries.

Now, your and our leadership has got a golden chance of a life time, to jointly work for the peace of about 1.5 billion humanity.

Please extend your hands to meet the gestures of genuine peace, already offered at EVERY occasion, by the Pakistani PM Mr. Nawaz Sharif, to make the peace aspirations of the hundreds of millions of residents of the sub continent, come true.

Remember, may be this golden chance for the peace between the two nations, if missed now, may not come again in decades.

Also please inform all those military and political planners in your country, not in favour of genuine peace with Pakistan that low intensity war named as offensive defensive operations, or other covert hostile methods, are no more a long or short term options for, as well as, against; a nuclear power, which possesses more military nuclear arsenal (as reported today by Times of India) than India.

All such paradigms are out dated being a ZERO sum game, in the ultimate nuclear scenario. Such policy planners have no business to stay in the past non-nuclear status frame of mind; and they must develop a NEW and FRESH vision, to guide a major nuclear nation, like India.

Policy makers of nuclear powers must not have a mindset of a non nuclear state. And the foremost responsibility of these policy makers must be to ensure, at all costs, that under ALL circumstances, nuclear flare up or provocations under offensive defensive doctrine, MUST be ruled out: irrespective of the defined policy of no first use of nuclear weapons or retaliatory use of WMD’s.

Sir, if Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi can be awarded Nobel Peace Prize for their noble campaign for peace through education and child rights, just imagine how kindly the world will remember the immortal bold acts of Mr. Narendra Modi and Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, in ameliorating the hardships due to hunger, disease and illiteracy of more than 1.5 billion humanity of the entire region.

Please remember that war results only in devastation, deaths and destruction, whereas, dividends of peace are construction, prosperity and happiness.

Last but not the least, it must be a very clear objective of the leadership of both the countries, to ensure that India and Pakistan must not live like divided Korea, rather, we should live, like the united Europe.

Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year 2015.