Motivational speaking has become a fashion these days. It was not so when Mr Dhananjay Bantia was pursuing his studies as a school boy in Cambridge School, Cuttack. Born and brought up in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Odisha, he had never dreamt of becoming a motivational speaker! So, when he decided to be one, it was indeed a tough decision but he decided to take the plunge anyway. Contrary to the popular myth that ‘ A Basil leaf smells so when it is a sapling, ‘ Dhananjay was a shy kid as a school boy and even fumbled when he had to speak in public, even when he was doing his MBA. At first he was in finance, like his Dad before he ventured into motivational speaking. He struggled for more than six months, before he could get any trace of success. There were times when the remuneration was low and he had to travel by local bus, to reach his destination. Now he travels via flights and stays in star hotels and all these are arranged by his organizers. He has already travelled to 18 states o...

Grandmother and grandfather are words that are becoming scarce. It is not that they don’t exist but today’s children are denied an access to the store of wisdom that can come to them through these wise, old people. We can blame the breaking up of joint families for this but the fact remains that unitary families are losing wealth of knowledge. I consider myself fortunate to have the blood of the Aryans and the Dravidians. So I have got the best of both the races. If the Aryans have the Vedic tradition, the Dravidians have their ethnic identity, culture and tradition. Hence I would venture to narrate all that my grandmothers shared with me. Both my grannies from the paternal and maternal sides were staunch Hindus Brahmins, with orthodox religious base. My paternal grandma was an Oriya Brahmin and my maternal grandma was a Telugu Brahmin. My Dadi i.e. paternal Grand mom had great practical wisdom. It was said that once she rescued my Dad from sure death, from a deadly cobra bite by tying...

In  Hindu epic Ramayana, Shravan Kumar was killed accidentally by King  Dasharatha . Shravan Kumar's parents, Shantanu and Gyanvanti were hermits. When they became aged, Shravan wanted him to take them to the four most sacred places of pilgrimage to purify the soul. Since Shravan Kumar could not afford the transport, he decided to put each parent in a basket and tie each to an end of a bamboo pole, which he would shoulder while on their pilgrimage. According to  Ramayana , while hunting in the forest of Ayodhya, then-Prince Dasharatha, heard a sound near a lake and unleashed an arrow, hoping to hit an animal. When he crossed the lake to collect his kill, he found that his arrow had fatally struck a teenage boy, who was bleeding! The injured boy was Shravan, who then told Dasharatha that he had come to the lake to collect water for his sick and aged parents, who were both blind and whom he had been carrying on a sling. With his dying breath, Shravan requested Dasharatha ...

There is a saying, child is the father of man. Every child has tremendous potential. All that we need to do, is just spark it so as to ignite their minds. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, our former President of India, always had the view, children have tremendous potential. What we need is to motivate and channelise their potential by recognizing and utilizing their latent talent.  Children have a powerhouse of potential. The recent exercise of making the children write on a topic has brought forth many surprising discoveries. We, as teachers or parents, should never underestimate the innate talent of these youths. They are the future citizens of the world and on their shoulders, will rest the burden of our future. Therefore, we as teachers should vow to nurture and utilize their expertise and recognize their real worth. It is my personal take that we should never write off any child. Even a seemingly dumb-looking child, can surprise us with his or her potential! So let it be our ...

One often wonders whether we should blow our own trumpet in this age of advertisement or not, is a million dollar question! Well, there goes an adage that we should be silent workers. ‘Work hard in silence and let your successes make the noise’ is a famous quote by Frank Ocean, the American singer and songwriter. It simply means that those who succeed in life are the ones who continue to do their work without much talk. Truly, it is their success which speaks for them. We can take the example of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation. His actions spoke volumes about his hard work, to get us the freedom to our country in 1947. Can there be a better example of keeping low profile and yet aim for lofty ideals than what Gandhiji did? It was said about him that his greatness was his simplicity! People who keep blabbering and boasting are the ones with no inner worth. They only talk and do nothing. Frankly speaking, successful people are those who do not boast about their abilities and ach...

At the first look, you may say that I am going to speak about the three wise monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi. Well, I would say, both ‘yes’ as well as ‘no.’ Yes, because I am going to use these three words called ‘see’, ‘hear’ and ‘speak.’ No, because I am going to write about how these three words are misused in the modern world, away from what Gandhiji wanted to preach us. Someone has rightly said that “Every odd is now a style.” Conventional values have taken a back seat. What was a taboo once, is now a thing to advertise and glorify, among the people. Now let me come to the topic of my write up. “See, hear but don’t speak, if you want to live in peace.” Let’s ‘see’ everything because God has given us a pair of beautiful eyes to ‘see’ the beauties and bounties of His universe. Let’s ‘hear’ everything that is soothing to our ears. But ‘speaking’ requires restrains as we must not hurt others’ feelings by our true but hurting words as truth can be bitter at times!  Let our minds be ‘open...

     I never held your finger while walking,       Cause you taught me to be independent!       I never held your finger wherever I went,  Cause you always guided me,          Through your words & cautions,               And advised me, that,     This world can be cruel to  Those, who are gullible,     And believe others!  Your words of caution  Were better than if        I held your fingers!   Thank you for, what  You always were!          I know you will be           Watching over me,      And wishing that           I s...

  Being born to a Brahmin family, my grandmother Bhagabati Mishra had all those qualities that a Brahmin woman should have. She was born at a village near Sambalpur, Odisha called Gurupali. She had a great source of practical wisdom. She could make some utility artifacts out of inexpensive material with exquisite colour and design.  She was super active and agile, while doing her work, be it cooking indigenous dishes or creating art and craft of exquisite looks and traditional design. She had a large repertoire of stories of various types, which she would narrate from time to time at ease like an expert.  With an amazing sense of humour, she would narrate them to perfection. The characters of her stories had superhuman strength. Some of them had indomitable will power. A few could fly with ease like birds and others could become invisible anytime! A few could take any shape and play tricks on anyone! She would open her box of stories mostly when she would feed me and ot...

Being an Ex-RKCian, I feel very nostalgic about my alma matter Rajkumar College, Raipur and its guiding principle. “ Swadeshe Pujyate Raja, Vidwan Sarvatra Pujyate ,”(the motto of Rajkumar College, Raipur ) is a noble saying taken from a book called “ SUBHASITANI ,” a collection of many Sanskrit Shlokas, consisting of many ancient Indian scriptures, written by our great sages thousands of years ago. The full maxim or Subhasit in Sanskrit reads, “ Swa Gruhe Pujyate Pita, Swa Grame Pujyate Prabhu, Swa Deshe Pujyate Raja, Vidwan  Sarvatra Pujyate. ” In simple English, it reads as “ A king is honoured in his own country; a learned man, throughout the world. ” Honouring the learned has been the hallmark of RKC and RKCians, be it in art, music or academics.  Well! This is the motto of Rajkumar College, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, one of the premier institutions of India. It was founded by Sir Andrew Fraser , the then Chief Commissioner of Central Province and Berar in t...