“Past is experience, Present is experiment & Future is expectations. Use your experience in your experiments to achieve your expectations. “ – Anonymous

An interesting quote opening my mind about life. I loved the relationship between past, present and the future. It says, past is experience. We gain experience ,every day of our lives. Some moments are joyful and others, may not be.

But each day of our lives, is an experience in reality. It definitely teaches us, to deal with the uncertainties of life. Some days ,we may be successful and on other days ,we may not be. But each day, we learn something new, if we want to learn.

We cannot say ,that over the years ,we have not learnt anything in life. We learn every day of our lives, starting from our childhood. Some we learn by succeeding in our efforts and others by failing. Some joyous moments in life ,teach us valuable lessons. But, possibly the best lessons are learnt ,when we fail , because we sit back and reflect on those experiences.

I have seen project managers, dissect a project and review them ,after the project is over and document ,the lessons learnt. This not only helps them improve in future but also enables other project managers dealing with similar challenges ,to overcome the same ,more effectively.

Life is no different. We learn from our experiences, every day. We need to reflect on our good and bad experiences and document them ,at least in our brain memory ,so that we learn from them and do not commit the same mistake, again.

Our present ,is like a mine field ,for us. We can experiment every day of our lives and try out new things. One of the questions asked by my young Mentees is -“how to make our job interesting every day ? “. I would always say that ,if we are willing to innovate and experiment, in our work every day, it becomes interesting.

Daily life, gives us ample opportunities to experiment ,in every aspect of life. It could be as simple as, taking a new route to go for our morning walks instead of ,the daily ritual of walking on the same path. It could be meticulous planning for a day and no planning for another.

We could decide to meet many people on someday and be alone ,all day ,on some other days. Today ,with hybrid working, it could also mean ,working from home, office or a forest, on some days. For eg. I am at my creative best to write, when I am travelling in a plane or train and listening to music.

Each one of us ,can find ways and means, to experiment every day. The only limitation may be ,in our ability to think. If we are willing, to let the mind wander, we may find life ,as a new experiment ,every day. This in itself ,can make life interesting for us.

The only caution is that, we have to regulate our mind some times ,to achieve our day to day goals, on time. We cannot give the excuse of experimentation, to delay our tasks at home or shirk our responsibilities at work.

The future ,is our expectations. It is like the clouds in the sky. When they are dark, we start believing that all of them will end up in heavy rains. Some do and others dont. Similarly ,our expectations may be like dreams. We may dream for ,unlimited things in life. But to convert those dreams into reality, we need to use our experience and be willing to experiment.

As in the quote above, we need to learn from our experience, try out our experiments every day ,to fulfil our expectations ,with discipline as the underlying principle. If we fail to use our experience gainfully and are not willing to experiment, then expectations will remain a fantasy and an unfulfilled dream in life.

Let experience teach us to experiment to fulfil our expectations in life.

S Ramesh Shankar

17th July 2025

We have ,both rights and duties in our life. Even our constitution guarantees us fundamental rights. But it also defines ,fundamental duties applicable to all citizens, in India. We generally are fully aware of our rights but ignore our duties.

Let us start from our homes. As children, we are fully aware of our rights and always fight for it. But, when it comes to our duties ,we either feign ignorance or fail in them. This is equally true, for parents and siblings in the family too.

Then, if we move to the workplace, the situation is not very different. Most employees ,are fully aware of their rights but plead ignorance, when it comes to their duties. I have come across, very few responsible union leaders at the workplace, who remind their members of their duties ,before they demand their rights.

As citizens in a democracy, we are fully aware of our rights. We demand them and also ensure, that we benefit from it. Sometimes, when a right is denied, we approach the courts ,to enforce a denied right by the state. However, when it comes to our duties, we are either ignorant or selectively forget them ,when we are expected to behave in a particular way.

I am not sure, if it is a psychological make up of a human being, in a democratic set up or it is a fundamental human flaw, as designed by the almighty. Why are we not responsible enough , to first do our duties before we demand our rights ,at every stage of our lives.

I wonder why ,unions do not voluntarily advise their members ,not to strike work in public services like hospitals or public transport, during a nation wide strike. They only relent ,when the government declares them as an essential service and enforces, by the dictates of law.

As citizens in the world’s largest democracy, why do the so called literate citizens ,especially in urban India ,not go out and exercise their franchise ,during a general election. On the other hand, we shout at the top of our voice , demanding for civic amenities, from elected governments, when they do not deliver.

Today, we read a lot of children ,demanding their right to succession of parental property ,even before their death. But, they are reluctant to look after their ageing parents ,as it interferes in their life comforts. They ,even admit them in old age homes ,to shirk this basic duty, as a child.

As we can see, as members of a family, employees of an organisation or citizens of a state, we are more than aware of our rights and demand their enforcement. On the other hand, we are reluctant to perform our duties ,with the same vigour.

Let us do our duties first ,before we demand our rights ,from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th July 2025

“Luxury is artificial poverty, simplicity is natural wealth”

The simplest things in life are possibly the most difficult to achieve. I was recently watching a TV show, where someone shared this quote. I found it interesting. Let me illustrate this ,with a simple example.

Many of us resolve in the new year, to go for a walk every day ,to maintain good health. It is so simple ,since you do not need any equipment ,nor anyone’s help to do this. But, most of us fail within the month of January itself.

A daily walk is simple and natural way to maintain our health. On the other hand, if we do not do any exercise every day and end up being over weight, we may be advised to go for a bariatric surgery to reduce unnecessary body weight, which is artificial and against nature and we may call it artificial poverty to reduce our weight.

Life is not very different. If we look back at our forefathers, they lived a simple life and were healthy, wealthy and wise. Today, we have all the technology in the world . In India, the middle class is prospering and have all the comforts of life. But our children are becoming obese and people in their forties ,are getting heart related diseases.

I am a great fan of technology and how it can make life more comfortable, for mankind. Even the latest fad of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can definitely make our lives more comfortable and predictable. But when we tend to make technology as the end in itself, rather than the means to an end, we end up struggling in life.

We need to continually invent new technologies and be in control of the outcomes ,for the welfare of mankind. However, if we allow technology to dictate our lives and become a victim of the same, then we may have to face the ill consequences of it.

Let me illustrate this with another simple example. The mobile phone is ubiquitous today. Most of us will find it difficult to survive without it . It enables us to remain connected with family and friends. It works like a watch/clock, calculator, GPS, bank and even as AI assistant, for all our questions in life.

However, if we stop having good conversations with our family members/friends and restrict communication to whatsapp or social media exchanges, it could lead to broken families and friendships.

Emails, whatsapp and social media do not have emotions, but people do. So, when we exchange messages through these media, many a time,we may hurt feelings of others or get hurt by others ,without any intent to do so. When two human beings interact face to face, such misunderstandings are minimised ,since you are able to clarify to each other ,based on the reaction of the other person.

We do not visit family or friends ,when they are in distress. We are happy to send them bouquets and smiley through social media. A person in distress ,may need a hug or someone to talk to. But, we do not realise the same, unless we ourselves are personally in distress.

Let us learn to simplify our lives and go back to basics.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th July 2025