Sreeram is Indian Idol 5

MUMBAI, Aug 15: Hyderabad-based Sreeram Chandra has won the fifth season of music reality show "Indian Idol". He was announced the winner by megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

The 24-year-old singer pipped Rakesh Maini from Agra and Bhoomi Trivedi of Baroda to win the contest. Sreeram has been consistently performing well on the show and receiving compliments galore from the Who's Who of the Indian music industry.

His victory on the show has landed him Rs. 5 million cash, one-year contract with Sony BMG, a Tata Winger car, and for the first time, a chance to sing a song in a Yash Raj Films' project.

For Sreeram, winning the title on India's Independence Day is a special feat.

Before winning the title, Sreeram said, "Independence Day has always been important. If I win, I will feel lucky that I have received my identity on a day when my country celebrates its independence. For the rest of my life I will celebrate this day as my victory day."

A Good DJ Creates Great Sound, Great Trip:

says DJ EXCELEON

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, July 30: With the new pubs, clubs and radio stations fast sprouting in metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, the DJing is fast becoming a fad. However, DJing is yet to reach certain acclaimed levels in India. Abroad it has created history, says DJ EXCELEON, who has been hit by the sound bug since he was 13.

Speaking to TheTribuneOnline.com, world renowned DJ EXCELEON said "Djing is not just playing CD's one after the other. It is about creating the right rhythm, tempo and energy. It is about creating flawless trip of music.

He says: "A good DJ means a good sound creator. A point to decide a good DJ is when he makes a good blend in with his different records. It doesn’t mean a track needs to be fresh or old. It just needs to create a good trip."

EXCELEON is an automobile engineer and has lived in the United Kingdom for almost 10 years. Originally from India, UK based DJ EXCELEON completed his undergraduate education in University of England. At 23, DJ Exceleon is an entrepreneur in the field of music being one of the most in demand producers in the world.

He got interested in sound systems when he was just 13. “I used to make my huge sound setups by mixing two or three HiFi systems. Soon I got a grip of the mixing sounds by a preamp. Soon thereafter, I got my first love The Denon 2600F, the mother of all CD players. Post which I started DJing for private parties and social gatherings."

On any formal training in music, he said he has learnt the keyboard, table, jazz drums and little of the guitar. Apart from strumming the instrument he can also flex his vocal muscles.

He is the first Indian to have his tracks played on Vh1. Though music is his passion, House and Electronic Dense Music (EDM) is his forte. He also sometimes spins Bollywood tracks.

He has released tracks like “Sunrise” and “Eternity” in the UK and has now released “Eternity” in India.

Initially he started with spinning in house and mobile parties and later moved on to playing in commercial parties at Geneva, Miami, London, Mumbai etc.

He said “DJs are often not considered as a part of the mainstream music in the country. They are the main judges for any house, trance or EDM producers. They are the ones who can make your compositions or your track a hit in the club scenes. India is now picking up with the DJing scenes and the right kind of crowd."

He said "the DJing abroad has created history. The Indian DJs don’t get the right chance to prove their talent, they need more exposure. They are under paid and they don’t get the right platform to perform. Whereas, the DJs abroad are well respected. In India DJs are considered as an extra pack with sound set up and they are obviously free as the organizers pay only for the sound setups.”

EXCELEON is also all in support of the remix trend that had particularly taken the Hindi non-film music industry by storm. He does not agree that it is the reason for the death of non-film music genre in India.

"Remix is a choice, remix are generally made for the clubs. Certain popular tracks are under powered for clubs and they can never be missed from playing them in the club. Therefore, the DJs need to add some sounds and make it club ready. I support it."

The young DJ also owns a music label, “HOUSE OF EXCELEON” (HOE), which was started in the United Kingdom three years back in 2007 and has hosted lot of events worldwide.

“EXCELEON” is a French word with a blend of Excellent and Leo, his zodiac sign. Therefore, he has chosen to write the name EXCELEON in Capital letters. On the corporate side, it also features his tagline where E stands for Entertainment; C is for Celebrity; and L for Luxury. Thus, with the tagline ‘Entertainment, Celebrity, Luxury’ DJ EXCELEON strives for perfection and excellence and precision in everything he pursues.

"My label HOUSE OF EXCELEON (UK) is a full time record label, production house and artist management company. HOE looks after all high end outdoor production as well apart from its mainstream."

Responding to a question on how is HOUSE OF EXCELEON different from other production houses, he said at HOUSE OF EXCELEON, we look for fresh talent. “We provide a platform for young artists while others pick up well established ones. Moreover, we have something called the ‘production infrastructure’. Here, we custom make our clients’ projects. We undertake gigs and organize their invoices. Once an artist in on the House, we take care of everything. This makes us stand out.”

Though the young musician has not done any Bollywood project, but he is keen on joining the bandwagon.

Apart from his label that keeps him busy, in the future EXCELEON wants to be the one stop shop for music.

He also wants to give his lovely fans more and more good music. “I have recently invested in a racing team hope it gets us the best wins.”

Narayana Murthy's son and Venu Srinivasan's daughter engaged

CHENNAI, Aug 8: Two of the most well known families in corporate India, Murthys and the Srinivasans are firming up their ties, literally. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's son Rohan Murthy got engaged to Lakshmi Venu, the daughter of TVS Motor Co Chairman and Managing Director Venu Srinivasan last week.

"Both I and Sudha are very happy about Rohan and Lakshmi's decision to come together. Knowing that both are very smart people, they will make the most of it," said a delighted Narayana Murthy.

Murthy, who flew down to Chennai this morning, however, did not comment on the possible date of marriage.

The bride-to be's father, Venu Srinivasan, accepted the good wishes on his daughter's engagement, but he also did not reveal the marriage date.

Rohan Murthy, 27, is a Microsoft fellow, pursuing PhD in Computer Science from Harvard University. He is an engineering graduate from Cornell University and has completed schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore.

Lakshmi, 27, has a degree in Economics from Yale University and a PhD in manufacturing management from Warwick University in the UK. In Chennai, she did her schooling at Shishya. She has maintained a keen interest in the family business and has been groomed to take greater responsibility in Sundaram Clayton (an auto component maker) and TVS Motor (India's third largest two-wheeler company).

Her mother Mallika Srinivasan is the vice-chairman of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE), which crossed a consolidated turnover of Rs 4,850 crore and a volume of over 100,000 tractors last year.

The Murthy family has about 4.5 per cent of the shares of Infosys Technologies, which has a market capitalisation of Rs 164,368 crore. Rohan reportedly has 1.39 per cent with over 79 lakh shares in the company that his father co-founded.

Worked non-stop for 3 days to save scholarship: Kalam

ITANAGAR, Aug 4: The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Wednesday disclosed that in 1950s, when he was a student in the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), he worked non-stop for three days on a project to save his scholarship.

Speaking at the second convocation of the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) here, Mr. Kalam said at the MIT he was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft together with six other colleagues by his design teacher Professor Srinivasan.

Professor Srinivasan, on a review of the project, had told him in apparent disgust, “Oh Kalam! I am disappointed.”

Mr. Kalam said he requested Professor Srinivasan to give him one month's time, considering his difficulties in bringing together data base from multiple designers in those days without computers.

“I had to get the inputs from five of my colleagues without which I could not have completed the system design.”

He got the jolt of his life when Professor Srinivasan told him, “Look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days time. If by Monday morning I don't get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped.”

“At the prospect of losing the scholarship, I and my colleagues did not sleep that night and went on working non-stop on the drawing board.

TERI University appoints Prof. Bhavik R Bakshi as Vice Chancellor

NEW DELHI, July 8: TERI University has appointed Prof. Bhavik R Bakshi, a preeminent scientist and proven campus leader as its Vice Chancellor, overseeing all academic and research enterprises at the university. Prof Bakshi has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Chemical Engineering Practice (MSCEP) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (B. Chem. Eng), Department of Chemical Technology University of Bombay.

Prior to joining TERI University, Prof. Bakshi was at the Ohio State University, in the US, as Professor of Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering. He has also been Visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Prof. Bakshi has a distinguished record of teaching and research extending over two decades in India and the US. In addition, he also has over 100 peer reviewed publications and research papers to his credit in the areas
of Sustainability Science and Engineering, Process Systems Engineering, Complex and Multiscale Systems, Industrial Ecology, and Applied Statistics and has been speaking regularly at international conferences. He has distinguished himself throughout his career with several accomplishments and a high level of professional recognition. He was conferred the NSF Faculty Early Career Enhancement Award (CAREER) in the year 1998.

Some of the major accomplishments of Prof Bakshi’s work include pioneering research in the areas of: Multiscale data analysis and empirical modeling using wavelets, with applications to efficient process operation Bayesian data analysis and modeling that helped in bridging the gap between the latest theoretical advances in statistics and practical methods for solving engineering problems Ecologically and economically conscious decision making - combining methods from systems ecology and systems engineering via the common language of thermodynamics Accounting for ecosystem services in industrial decision making Life cycle evaluation of existing and emerging technologies – applying to products such as transportation fuels and products from nanotechnology and green chemistry.

Welcoming this appointment, Dr RK Pachauri Chancellor TERI University and Director-General TERI, said “I am delighted to welcome Professor Bakshi to this exciting position of leadership in our research-based institution of
higher learning. He is a dynamic and forward thinking individual with a wealth of experience. His dedication and commitment to education and research on sustainability science at the national and international levels is a great asset to our University, taking it closer to realising our vision of a university of excellence for this entire region. Professor Bakshi's return to India also demonstrates significantly that we can now attract talent back to India from the best institutions in the world.”

Bulu Imam popularizes Khovar, Sohrai Painting

NEW DELHI, July 2: Bulu Imam, Convenor of the Hazaribagh Chapter of INTACH has popularized Khovar and Sohrai Painting Internationally through the Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC).

The Khovar and Sohrai mural paintings of the Upper Damodar Valley (North and South Karanpura) in Jharkhand represent the longest continuing mural painting tradition in the world being continuations of rock-art of the region going back ten thousand years. The paintings are made on the mudden walls of their village houses by the tribal women and are the continuation of a ten-thousand-year-old tradition of painting descended from the rock paintings of the ancestors.

The Khovar art is a delicate comb-cut sagraffito art made with a piece of comb using mud pigments of white kaolin and black manganese. The Sohrai art is painted with chewed Saal twigs (kuchi, datwan) using natural ochres and earth colours pounded and mixed with water and glue. The art on the walls was successfully brought to art paper through research in collaboration with the famous art expert Erwin Neumeyer and the University of Vienna.

The Khovar art is practiced during the marriage season in the spring and summer to decorate the bridal house. The Sohrai paintings on the other hand are made on the house walls in the early winter months to celebrate the harvest festival just after Deepavali.

Industrialist, philanthropist Obul Reddy passes away

CHENNAI, June 30: P. Obul Reddy, industrialist, philanthropist and patron of the arts, passed away here on Wednesday after a prolonged illness. He was 85, and is survived by two sons and three daughters.

Mr. Reddy, who was one of the first industrialists from the South to enter into the television business, was the proprietor of the firm that sold the popular Dyanora TV sets. He was also the former managing director and founder of Nippo Batteries, and was the managing director of Panasonic India, formerly the Indo Matsushita Company.

Recalling Mr. Reddy's philanthropic activities, S. Prabhakar Rao, executive director, Corporate Affairs, Chemplast Sanmar, said a number of schools and other institutions had been started by him both in Andhra Pradesh and in Chennai.

Pappu Venugopal Rao, secretary, The Music Academy, who was associated with him for over 30 years, said Mr. Reddy, a vice-president of the Academy, had endowed one of the largest amounts and was keen on popularising the works of Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Annamacharya and Narayana Tirtha. He also recalled his association with the Andhra Mahila Sabha from the days of its founder Durgabai Deshmukh and the starting of the P. Obul Reddy Senior Citizens Home and the Vocational Training Centre.

Senior Bharatanatyam exponent Chitra Visweswaran said he was a gracious patron of the arts who belonged to an era when such patronage was motivated by neither political, economic, nor social pressures. It was based on sheer excellence and merit.

“No classical dancer can ever forget the part he played in establishing the ‘Nritya Choodamani' of Shri Gana Sabha as a much coveted title. An unconditional supporter of classical arts and artists, he will be sorely missed by the dance and music community,” Ms. Visweswaran said.

Senior mridangam vidwan Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman said his death was an irreparable loss to the world of fine arts. “As an ardent devotee of Saint Thyagaraja, he sponsored Thyagaraja festivals in all sabhas in the city. He also promoted many, many music concerts every year,” Mr. Sivaraman said, speaking on Mr. Reddy's “highly laudable” contributions.

“His association with The Music Academy has been very intimate for well over probably five decades and his presence in the concerts not only in the Academy, but other sabhas too would give a lot of fillip to the musicians, because musicians found in Obul Reddy a fine rasika and a connoisseur of music.”

Besides fine arts, he also contributed to charity institutions and humanity must thank him for his philanthropic attitude, Mr. Sivaraman said. “The whole world of carnatic music, and rasikas have lost a very great patron of fine arts. The vacuum created by his death can never be filled. He was a very good friend of mine for many years and personally, his death is a great loss to me,” he said.

Governor Surjit Singh Barnala sent a message to his daughter-in-law Preetha Reddy, managing director, Apollo Hospitals, condoling Mr. Reddy's death.

Through the eyes of street children

By Deepak Arora & Pix By Noyanika

NEW DELHI, June 1: Akash, Piyush, Adnand, Taslim and several other kids have never been to school. However, they have thirst to work and create. This is what some enthusiastic volunteers and artists from “Delhi-Accueil-Mein Tendue” discovered when they visited these kids at the Salaam Baalak Trust – Aasra shelter in Pahar Ganj here.

The volunteers have been working every week for the last year with the kids from the SBT Aasra centre doing drawing and painting workshops.

An exhibition of the works of these kids has been organized at the Alliance Francaise de Delhi. To show his support, French Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont personally came to inaugurate the exhibition.

Nelly, who has been working with these kids for the past year, said “the aim of the exhibition is to demonstrate that the children can be proud of the artistic work they are able to achieve in spite of the fact that in the past they have had to try and survive alone on the streets, with nobody to look after them.”

Jessie Hodges, a volunteer and Coordinator Communications at the Salaam Baalak Trust, has also been spending times with the kids.

“Main Tendue” is the charity branch of the French speaking association Delhi Accueil. The aim of the Main Tendue is to support several Indian NGOs which have become fruitful partners. It offers them financial and logistical help. Presence in the field and fund raising are their main activities.

In 1988, Salaam Baalak Trust began discovering the world of street children – the raw, harsh underbelly of the city. Through its 11 centres in Delhi and Gurgaon, the SBT aim to create secure places for these children thanks to a dedicated and highly trained staff of over 100, and an equal number of volunteers.

Every year, SBT provides services to over 2,500 children. Where the conditions are suitable, children are encouraged to return home. Through its helpline service, over 5,000 children have been restored to their family. For others, where the city is a better alternative, it creates opportunities to help them realize their talent.

Whatever the SBT can do, it will be a poor fraction of what these children deserve.

Bihar’s all Super 30 crack IIT-JEE again!

NEW DELHI, May 27: All 30 students of Super 30, Bihar’s free coaching centre for poor students here, cracked the IIT-JEE this year.

“All the 30 students have cleared the IIT-JEE,” Anand Kumar, the institute’s founder-director said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“It is a matter of great pleasure as we have achieved it again," he said, adding that since the inception of the coaching centre in 2002, a total of 212 students have cleared the IIT-JEE examination, which is considered as one of the toughest examinations in the world.

Mr. Kumar said the students hail from very poor families and commit themselves to a year of 16-hour study each day after passing a competitive test to get into the coaching centre.

“Now we will try to arrange loans for the education of the poor students who qualified for IITs,” he said.

Mr. Kumar, who himself missed a chance to study at the Cambridge due to lack of money, gives full scholarships including room and travel to the students.

When contacted Shubham Kumar Gautam from Nalanda, whose father is a poor farmer with income less than Rs 2,500 per month, said he would not have been able to qualify for IIT had Super 30 not helped him.

The institute figured in Best of Asia list of Time magazine a fortnight ago.

13-year-old American boy becomes youngest to climb Everest

KATHMANDU, May 22: A 13-year-old American boy on Saturday became the youngest climber to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, according to information posted on his climbing team’s blog.

Jordan Romero and a team of climbers, including his father and his father’s girlfriend, reached the summit early Saturday, it said.

“Everyone sounded unbelievably happy,” the support team said on the blog after the climbers made contact via satellite phone.

The previous record holder for the youngest person to climb Everest was Temba Tsheri of Nepal, who was 16 at the time and lost five fingers during his 2001 ascent from frostbite.

Unlike Nepal, which requires that climbers be at least 16, China imposes no minimum age limit on Everest climbers, so the Romero team made its ascent from the base camp on the Chinese side.

Jordan’s goal is to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. His final peak to meet that aim is Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

Over 5.5 lakh Children to Paint the Delhi of their Dreams

NEW DELHI, April 20: On Thursday (april 22) over 5.5 lakh children, across Delhi NCR schools, will participate in a painting competition to express their solidarity for a clean Delhi and a clean Yamuna. The event, titled Sri Kriti Painting Competition, is being held on The World Earth Day and is being organised by the Art of Living Foundation as part of its ‘Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna campaign’.

Children will paint the Delhi of their dreams under the ‘‘My Clean Dilli Dream Dilli’’ theme. The initiative has the support of MCD who have joined hands to aid their ongoing efforts for a Clean Delhi. It is also supported by Delhi Jal Board and UNICEF.

“Through this initiative, it is our endeavour and vision that every citizen stands together and takes responsibility for our land and environment. We are working for a change in mindset. And rather than promoting a blame culture, we wish to inspire citizens to become the change that they wish to see,” said Ms Rashmi Paliwal, Art of Living APEX and Sri Kriti organiser.

All zones of Delhi-NCR will come together including Central Delhi, East Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, North Delhi, Dwarka, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad.

There will be 3,00,000 children from 11 zones of MCD primary schools, 2,90,460 children from 500 schools including: Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sri Sri Vidya Mandir, Carmel Convent, Don Bosco, Heritage, DPS, Sanskriti, Modern, G.D Goenka, Bal Bharti, Apeejay, Jesus & Mary Convent, Air Force, Summerfields, among others.

Along with Schools for Children with Special Abilities like Deepalaya, Association for Welfare of Handicapped, Astha Centre for Children with Special Needs, Muskaan, Navjyoti, Akshaypratisthan among others.

This endeavour will be held at the premises of the participating school itself and also aims to educate children of their role and encourage them to pledge their support by maintaining and sustaining environment friendly habits. The competition will be conducted in the presence of Art of Living representatives and will be held across 2 categories: Category 1:(Junior) for students from Class III – VI and Category 2 (Senior): for students from Class VII – X.

The awards will be presented in a grand finale in July/August 2010 by a jury panel that comprises members of Art of Living Foundation, UNICEF and eminent painters of India. Awards will include cash prizes along with 10 Special Prizes for Under privileged Schools and 10 Prizes for Special Schools. A certificate of participation and a trophy will be given to all the schools with minimum participation of 100 students in each category and a Merit certificate will be given to all entries submitted for Junior/Senior category by each school.

Art of Living and MCD are in talks to formalise a procedure to empower children for making Delhi a no-litter zone and a way of penalty for those found littering, defecating in the open, using polythene or wasting water, and to launch a helpline for the same. We envision making all participating students from Class VI- X into ‘Clean Delhi Warriors’ who will be given I-cards with a photograph.

‘Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna’ is a social initiative that was launched on March 16, 2010 under the aegis of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Spiritual & Humanitarian leader and Founder, Art of Living. The campaign will work through “3A’s” - Awareness, Action and Accountability, among multiple stakeholders, who will be exhorted to play their part to restore River Yamuna to its original pristine condition and to create a clean, green city of Delhi.

The initiative will culminate in a Clean Delhi Citizen action on September 19, 2010 (before the Commonwealth Games) where thousands of volunteers, citizens and supporting organisations will clean the city of Delhi.

How to improve your social skills?

By Dr Agyajit Singh

BOSTON: Hardeep (name changed) was a very studious student when I was working as a school teacher at Chandigarh. He was introvert, shy but snobbish in nature. He used to stand first in his class. He completed degree in mechanical engineering and joined an organization as an engineer.

One of his classmates, Sandeep (named changed) was an average student in studies but extrovert, smart and jovial in nature. He did civil engineering but could not find a suitable job. He joined M.B.A. where he sharpened his social skills. After completing his management studies, he was able to find a job as personnel manager in the same organization.

After few years, by the dent of hard work and social qualities, he was made CEO and later on promoted as vice-president of the company where Hardeep was also working. He did not relish being his subordinate as he was quite superior to him in academic matters in the school. He felt frustrated and left the job and joined some other organization as an engineer.

Due to the social skills the later student rose to a good position. Social skills matter a lot to be successful in life and to be effective in one’s professional life.

Social skills are the most important attribute of human personality. Developing the charismatic personality of a human being is one of the main objectives of modern education. Personality is not which appears only overtly but it also involves the inner beauty of a person. What the covert qualities a person possesses cover the basic dimensions of one’s personality.

A well-integrated personality means that a man is physically fit, mentally alert, emotionally matured and socially adjusted. In fact social adjustment is the main prerequisite of one’s personality. Social adjustment depends how a person has developed his social skills.

Social skill is the ability to respond to a given environment in a manner that produces, maintains and enhances positive interpersonal relationships. Social skill is a part of man’s total social competency, which is the overall social functioning. It includes a composite or a multitude of generalized social skills. Social competency can be improved by teaching social behavior or social skills. It is also related with the process of socialization.

Social skills are a group of skills that human beings use to interact and communicate with others. Communication is one of the components of social skills.

Communication may be verbal or nonverbal. Verbal communication includes talk or conversation with others, cracking and sharing jokes with others, sharing views and discussing ideas which may be related to politics, current events, religion, fashion, music, technology, sports or movies etc.

These are the common topics, which are discussed among friends while conversing with others. How much exertive and impactive you are in convincing others to your view points shows your smartness, ingenuity, knowledge, way of expression and also the technique of presenting your ideas to others.

The verbal talk should be in a sequence and in smoothness of delivery i.e. it should avoid stuttering or giving any awkward pauses. Your speech should be audible and comprehensive i.e. neither too loud or harsh or too soft or slow. Your speech should help in getting ideas across i.e. words are designed to grab the attention of the listener.

The non-verbal communication includes how patient listener you are and secondly how your body language works. What are your actions, reactions and responses to others in your movements, gestures, facial expression etc?

Moreover how much confidant you are in your stance i.e. standing up straight, putting your eyes into the eyes of others while conversing. It will enhance your confidence. Your body language should also be attuning to your verbal message.

Good communication helps a person to develop self-expression in speech, which should be fluent, flawless and rhythmic. Self-expression will definitely increase the self-confidence, which will enhance your self-image, self-concept, self-prestige and self-esteem. Hence communication is one aspect of social skills.

The following guidelines are suggested which will help you in increasing and improving your social skills.

-Have a positive attitude towards others. Positive attitude will lead to positive thinking and positive action.

-Be optimistic in life. Never think of the adversities likely to occur.

-Have a pro-social behavior. Develop the feeling of altruism and imbibe a helping attitude to others.

- Consider the good and positive qualities of others and ignore their negative points..

-Express empathy in thoughts by giving accurate picture of the situation.

- Give kind and sympathetic hearing to show that you understand the whole matter.

-Work with smile and show your smiling and pleasing face to others while greeting.

- Show good mannerism while interacting with others.

-Be broad-minded and ignore the trivial matters

-Make peace with the past. Forget the unpleasantness of the past, face the present with reality and think about the future rationally..

-Adopt the policy of forget and forgive.

-Be very objective and don’t criticize others for nothing.

- Don’t give disparaging remarks even if you don’t agree on some arguments.

-Ask for help when you need it

-Participate in the discussion when it is being held in a group of your peer mates.

-Encourage others when it is required and praise others when it is needed.

-Give feedback to your friend when he is wrong and convince him without any rancor.

-Say kind words in the conversation.

-Accept the differences and listen to them patiently.

-Try to resolve conflicts amicably when they occur.

These social skills are very useful in transforming one’s life. They can bring incredible effectiveness in your professional life. They can add new meaning and purpose to your life. They act as motivational tools and energize you to work more and more at your work place. You can win over friends with your pleasant demeanor and lead a happy, harmonious and prosperous social life.

Dr.Agyajit Singh, is former Head of the Department Of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala in Punjab (India)

How Smart Are You?

By Dr Agyajit Singh

BOSTON: Everybody wants to look smart covertly and overtly. But how much a person appears smart may be judged from other people perspectives. To be smart is the inner desire of everybody, as it enhances the self-image, self-prestige, self-concept as well as self-esteem.

It is a part of one’s personality. By wearing ornamental and costly clothes does not mean that an individual has become smart. Smartness includes that a person is active, has good mannerism, objective outlook towards life, takes initiative in every walk of life and leads a healthy life style.

He deals with other people in an affectionate and loveable way and he can impress others with his conversation, verbal and non-verbal i.e. with his gestures, manners, movements and gait etc. He may also interact with others nicely, so that others may say that he possess a magnetic and charming personality.

A charming and attractive personality is when a person possesses a well-integrated personality, which means that he is physically fit, mentally alert, emotionally balanced and socially adjusted. It is quite obvious that a well-adjusted person possesses a good personality. Social adjustment depends upon how much a person is emotionally matured and balanced. An emotionally matured person may, quite possibly, be mentally alert and a mentally alert person has good physique and may be physical fit.

Smartness includes both intra-active and interactive relationships. The intra-active relation means a person’s relation with his own self so that he may harmonize with his desires, motives needs and thinking according to his immediate environment.

By intra-personal relation is meant for understanding of self, access to one’s own feelings, emotions as well as understanding of one’s own cognitive strengths, styles and mental functioning. It consists of self-expression, language, music and other forms of expression. Such a person has the tendency for tension reduction, conflict resolution and stress management as early as possible.

By interactive relationship means a person’s relation with other persons in his environment i.e. his parents, family members, friends, peer mates, class fellows, colleagues as well as co-workers. These relations should be harmonious, cordial and desirable. Such a person is said to have high social intelligence.

Social intelligence is a part of one’s personality.

Intelligence is an overall ability-a general mental ability that is complex in character and underlying a great many different functions e.g. (i) the ability to make adjustment or adaptation of the individual to his total environment (ii) the individual’s ability to learn or benefit from experiences and (iii) the ability to carry on abstract thinking. According to this concept; intelligence is of three types (i) abstract,(ii) concrete and (iii) social.

Abstract intelligence is the ability to understand and deal with verbal and mathematical symbols. It consists the ability to solve problems presented in form of symbols, words, numbers, formulae and diagrams etc. Concrete intelligence is the ability to understand and deal with things; as in skilled trades and scientific appliances.

Social intelligence is the ability to understand and deal with persons. It is the ability to adapt or adjust with people. It is the capacity to behave effectively in social situations. The diplomats, salesmen, the ministers, politicians, teachers, psychotherapists and religious leaders must have this type of intelligence.

The socially intelligent person has the knack of getting along well with people, as he is an extraverted man. The extraverted individuals are outgoing, impulsive, uninhibited, involved in-group activities, sociable, friendly, craving for excitement and having many social contacts.

According to a well known psychologist Thorndike of early 20th century who gave the concept of intelligence referred social intelligence to the person’s ability to understand and manage other people and to engage in adaptive social interactions or it can be said that social intelligence refers to the individual’s fund of knowledge about the social world.

He also says that “By social intelligence is meant the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls-act wisely in human relations.” Another psychologist, Wechsler says that it assesses the individual’s ability to comprehend social situations because, according to him, social intelligence is just a general intelligence applied to social situations.

To conclude it may be stated that to look smart or appear smart to others, one must have high social intelligence. Social intelligence can be enhanced through learning, training and education.

A child must be exposed to a good and congenial environment where he may grow, prosper and blossom, where he is able to express himself liberally, think freely and make decisions independently to solve his daily or day-to-day problems amicably. He should be given full freedom with some guided control by elders to work and learn to encounter difficulties in his early life.

For understanding social intelligence how to be smart, an individual should consider the following dimensions:

-Understands people’ thoughts, feelings and intensions well and also accepts others for what they are

-Is good at dealing with people and is sensitive to other people’ needs and desires

-Has extensive knowledge of rules and norms in human relations

-Is good at taking the perspectives of other people

-Adapts well in social situations

-Is open to new experiences, ideas and values as well as displays interest in the world at large

-Thinks before speaking and doing

-Makes fair judgment about others

-Is frank and honest with self and others

-Displays interest in the immediate environment.

Every individual can become smart in his life by increasing his social intelligence.

(Dr. Agya Jit Singh is Retired Head of the Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)