This article has been taken from the personal blog of Potharaju Ravindra , author of GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR , http://ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com .
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Param Vir Chakra Awardees so far , in chronological order

1. IC-- 521 Major Som Nath Sharma, 4 Kumaon Regiment, November 3, 1947, Badgam Kashmir (posthumous)

2. IC-22356 Lance Naik Karham Singh M M, 1 Sikh Regiment, October 13, 1948, Tithwal Kashmir

3. SS-14246 Second Lt Rama Raghobe Rane, Corps of Engineers, April 8, 1948, Naushera, Kashmir

4. 27373 Naik Jadu Nath Singh, 1 Rajput Regiment, February 1948, Naushera, Kashmir (posthumous)

5. 2831592 Company Havildar Major Piru Singh, 6 Rajputana Rifles, July 17/18, 1948, Tithwal, Kashmir (posthumous)

6. IC-8497 Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria, 3/1 Gurkha Rifles, December 5, 1961, Elizabethville, Katanga, Congo (posthumous)

7. IC-7990 Major Dhan Singh Thapa, 1/8 Gurkha Rifles, October 20, 1962, Ladakh, India

8. JC-4547 Subedar Joginder Singh, 1 Sikh Regiment, October 23, 1962, Tongpen La, Northeast Frontier Agency, India (posthumous)

9. Major Shaitan Singh, Kumaon Regiment, November 18, 1962, Rezang La (posthumous)

10. 2639885 Company Havildar Major Abdul Hamid, 4 Grenadiers, September 10, 1965, Chima, Khem Karan Sector (posthumous)

11. IC-5565 Lieutenant-Colonel Ardeshir Burzorji Tarapore, 17 Poona Horse, October 15, 1965, Phillora, Sialkot Sector, Pakistan (posthumous)

12. 4239746 Lance Naik Albert Ekka, 14 Guards, December 3, 1971, Gangasagar (posthumous)

13. 10877 (P) Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, Indian Air Force, December 14, 1971, Srinagar, Kashmir (posthumous)

14. IC-25067 2/Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, 17 Poona Horse, December 16, 1971, Jarpal, Shakargarh Sector, (posthumous)

15. IC-14608 Major Hoshiar Singh, Grenadiers, December 17, 1971, Basantar River, Shakargarh Sector

16. Naib Subedar Bana Singh, 8 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, June 23, 1987, Siachen Glacier, Jammu and Kashmir

17. Major Ramaswamy Parmeshwaran, 8 Mahar Regiment, November 25, 1987, Sri Lanka (posthumous)

18. IC-57556 Captain Vikram Batra, 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, July 6, 1999

19. IC-56959 Lt Manoj Kumar Pandey, 1/11 Gorkha Rifles, July 3, 1999, Khaluber/Juber Top, Batalik sector, Kargil area, Jammu and Kashmir (posthumous)

20. No 2690572 Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, 18 Grenadiers, July 4, 1999, Tiger Hill, Kargil area

21. Rifleman Sanjay Kumar, 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, July 5, 1999

This article has been taken from the personal blog of Potharaju Ravindra , author of GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR , http://ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com 

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I love playing the game  "Guess the person" with my daughter Sahaja  . One person has to think about a great personality and the other person has to guess the name within ten questions . It was my chance and i could not guess the name within the stipulated questions . After making me accept defeat she revealed the name "Som nath Sharma " .

I was irritated and rebuked her : " You are supposed to think of only famous personalities . Who the hell is this chap , Som nath Sharma ?"

She replied : "Daddy , he was the first armed force personnel to be awarded the Param Vir Chakra."  She then went down to play .

To be very honest , i felt like a vermin . I thought about it for a real long time and realized / wondered  

 I had no idea about the real war heroes of India . In other words i was blissfully ignorant of the Valiant soldiers who demonstrated patriotism of the highest order. I should have been extremly proud of this worthy son of soil . But how can i be proud when i was not even aware of him .

 If i were to take a poll , most of us would know the likes of Amitabh Bachchan , Shah rukh khan , shilpa shetty , richard gere , sachin tendulkar ,  Mukesh Ambani ,   Aishwarya rai , Sri Sri Ravishankar  , Baba ramdev  etc  . How many of us would know "Som nath sharma" ? I can bet that most of us would know more about Dawood or Osama Bin Laden rather than Som nath sharma . what a shame ..

    There are no comics on the War heroes of India .

    Children textbooks do not include the war heroes of india .

    There are margs / streets names in metros after so many worthy names but was there  any street in the major metros named after any of the "Param Vir Chakra " awardees .

    We have statues of our politician all over the country but how many statues have we built for our war heroes ?

    We have a plethora of biographies / autobiographies , what about our war heroes ?

Some highly entertaining movies like "Bunty aur Babli" become massive hits whereas movie like LOC becomes a flop . Do we go to see a movie like LOC Kargil for entertainment or for realizing the great sacrifices made by our war heroes ? I have heard comments like " the movies was very violent " . If these people flinch at seeing the movie , can one imagine how these brave people actually fought against such unfavorable conditions ? BORDER was a hit but can one recollect the names of our war heroes in the Indo Pak war of 1971 ?

How can we call ourselves " a developing country ' when we are not developing any kind of reverence to these war heroes as a nation ?

All my thinking finally led to a decision :

 There was no excuse for my abysmal ignorance about the war heroes of my country . However , i would make amends and initiate few small steps which are in my control . To start with :

 I am going to get hold of as much information on each of the Param Vir chakra Awardee and post it on my blog . I am confident that everyone who read them will ensure visibility of these war heroes within their friends and colleagues .

This article has been taken from the personal blog of Potharaju Ravindra , author of GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR , http://ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com 

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 I had heard  many good things about Mr R Seshasayee , MD Ashok Leyland and President CII . To me it sounded too good to be true . Looked as if he was an ideal human being .

I approached him to write few words on GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR  . To be frank , i never really expected him to respond . You can imagine my exhilaration when he gave a very positive feedback on the book and kindly consented to write the foreword .

After the book was released , i personally went to Chennai to thank him . I am not mincing words when i say that i am totally floored by this person. Let me share my views on this most wonderful person .

To me , my transactions with him are a source of  great  personal learning and i will cherish them throughout my life . I do not know if i will ever reach the heights he has achieved but i am determined to follow the great traits of this unbelievably simple person. 
 
Simplicity : I am simply floored by the simplicity with which he handles his dizzying success . I experienced it first hand when i met him in his house . He never gave the feeling either to me or my brother that we were meeting such an illustious person. Can you beleive it ? he personally opened the door for us and personally saw us off after the meeting.

His greatness lays in "making the other person feel important"  rather than impressing on the person that he himself is great . Generosity is thy hallmark .
 
Integrity  : He consented  to give his feedback and gave it without any follow up . While  this may sound simple ,  I know for sure that not many people do this .
 
Meeting commitments for many  is normally a function of  whom they  perceive as important / useful and what they  stand to gain . 
 
Clarity : Even if I had to write a feedback on my own book , it would not have been any where close . The Clarity in the forword  is amazing . Even in my personal conversation , i never found him grappling for any words though he shared his widom on varied topics. He just knew what he was talking about . I just listened to him enthralled.

I guess , Clarity , Integrity , Generosity and simplicity  are all interrelated . When you see these traits powering highly successful individuals , you can locate the likes of Mr Seshasayee .

This article has been taken from the personal blog of Potharaju Ravindra , author of GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR , http://ravi.givemebackmyguitar.com

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I have personally followed most of his articles and have read them with a lump in my throat when he shares his childhood and also about his parents who were probably poor but extremely rich in values . " Go kiss the world" remains my all time favorite speech by anyone . 

I greedily grabbed this book when i first saw it in landmark . I have read and reread this most wonderful book " The High Performance Entrepreneur - Golden rules for success in today’s world - Subroto Bagchi . Mr Bagchi has the moral authority to write this "valuable book " given his experience and  background . And he has done a great job of it .

I personally believe that "truly great books" can be written by only "truly great people" who "leave behind lasting Value" to the world . Both Mr Bagchi and his book will do just that . ( Incidentally " leave behind value "is one of the important lessons he learnt as a child when they were shifting houses )

To me , Mr Bagchi is first a great human being and a role model for many of us. This what allows him to achieve dizzying success with integrity and then handle it with simplicity . he also happens to be an outstanding entrepreneur and now an author . 

I do not consider myself to be competent to comment on this invaluable Book . I personally loved it and strongly recommend everyone to  invest in his book and also his articles .

I do hope to meet Mr Bagchi in person , one day . Meanwhile i invite everyone to share their  views / experiences on Mr Bagchi and his articles . 

You can access his articles at http://www.mindtreeconsulting.com/subrotobagchi .

This article is written by Potharaju Ravindra , the author of the bestselling "fools work hard for others" . His latest book is "Give me back my guitar " published by Macmillan
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The moral of the “Hare and Tortoise” story is, Slow and steady wins the race. If the chastened Hare were to race the tortoise again, would you bet on the tortoise?

I would not. After his defeat, the hare is sure to realize that he lost the race due to his own fault and not because the tortoise was slow and steady. This time he would not repeat the mistake of taking a break from the race . He would take a break after finishing the race. This would leave the poor tortoise absolutely no chance of winning .

Let us analyze this defeat as to why a champion racer like him lost the race to a mere tortoise . Was it because that the tortoise was SLOW AND STEADY that he lost ? No , that was not true . He lost the race because he did not finish the race and the tortoise did . Had he not taken rest and finished the race , he would have easily defeated the Hare . Then , nobody would have said

“ SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE” .

Was it because the tortoise had more potential than him ? No . Obviously he had much more potential as far as racing was concerned. The tortoise was no match . . But all the potential was of no use because he did not finish the race .

Why did he not complete the race ? If he were racing against his peers , would he have taken a nap ? He took the nap only because he was racing against the tortoise . The race was not challenging enough . That is the reason he had become complacent and could not bring the best in him In his case of the tortoise the goal would really stretch his abilities and was a great challenge . It brought out the best in him .

Also , He had agreed for a race where he had everything to lose and nothing to gain . Even if he had won the race he would not have gained anything . He was anyway expected to win. He had nothing to gain in recognition or fame or rewards . However when he lost to the tortoise he had lost all his reputation in one day .

For the tortoise , it was the reverse , this race he had everything to gain and nothing to lose . So it was worthwhile for him to enter this race . If the tortoise had lost , no one would have ridiculed him because he was anyway expected to lose . He became an instant hero when he won the race.

This article has been written by Potharaju ravindra , author of the bestselling book " fools work hard for others"  .His latest release is "give me back my guitar" published by Macmillan India .
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Change”  has become the current global Buzzword for solving most problems .  Everyone is talking of  it and trying adapt to CHANGE like never before .

If organizations are not doing well then the usual conclusion is that they have not Changed with times and a “ Change Strategy “ is evolved and a “ Change Process “ put in place .

 If nations are having problems then it is not unusual to see leaders talking about “ Change “ .

Motivational speakers and most leadership programs will never tire of expatiating the virtues of change and also the dire consequences of not changing .

 Counselors will always advocate “ Change Yourself “  if you want to improve a strained relationship .

 But CHANGE from what ? No one talks about that .

 What is the reference point for change ? How do we know what to change and what not to change ?

 Do we have answers to the following questions ?

 Why do millions of people across the world , including in wealthy nations , go to bed on empty stomachs ? This is in spite of the fact that Nature  has provided so much that it can produce and feed ten times over the current global population  ,

 Why are millions of lives getting affected due to violence in the name of religion  .?

 Why so many people get killed due to meaningless war ?,  .

 Why do Companies only think of top lines and bottom lines ?

 You will observe that the problem lays in change .

 Change has occurred and that is why :

 Nations no longer follow their constitution . The great people who founded nations always thought about internal prosperity through global peace

 Original preaching of the religions has been distorted to suit few individuals. We all know that , no religion in this world preaches violence or hatred .

 Companies deviate from their Purpose and Core Values to keep the business analysts happy  . Founders of great companies  have “ Service to community ‘ as the Core to their business .

 If  Change from the original state is the root cause for so many problems across the world , then the question I would like to bring to your attention is :

                                     Should We “Change” ?

                                                 Or

                                     Should We “Undo Change “?

 Should we not endeavor to “ undo Change “ and revert to the natural state that ensures peace and prosperity at the individual level across the world .

 If change is the ONLY CONSTANT  then should we not keep UNDOING IT .

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Do visit www.givemebackmyguitar.com to know about his latest book and also the author .

This article is written by Potharaju Ravindra , author of  the bestselling "fools work hard for others" . His latest book published by Macmillan India is "Give me back my guitar "

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It is powerful thoughts and not positive thoughts which execute . To understand this let us look at the whole process of execution which has its root in a desire .

The desire gets converted to action which in turn gets converted to accomplishment .

Desire is a thought . And thought is a form of energy . It is energy in stored form .

Execution or action is also another form of energy, energy in motion .

So when we act upon a desire , we actually convert the stored energy in our desire to energy in motion . One form of energy is getting converted to another form of energy .

This is exactly like in archery where the stored energy in the Bow gets converted to energy in motion , the movement of the arrow .

So Action or execution depends upon the energy that our desire stores .

In fact , The process of accomplishment exactly operates on principles of archery .

No energy in your desire , no energy in action , no accomplishment

Little energy in your desire , little energy in action , little accomplishment

Abundant energy in your desire , abundant energy in action , abundant accomplishment

Unlimited energy in your desire , unlimited energy in action , unlimited accomplishment .

So , the Desire needs to store abundant energy . We need to first ensure that there is abundant energy stored in our desire and only then should we release it “.

In other words act or execute only when the desire is powerful .

The moot question then is how do we make our desires powerful ?

To start with , many thoughts can never lead to a powerful desire . The desire , a thought needs energy to be fulfilled .However a normal person has over 60000 thoughts in a day .The thought which is also your desire gets totally lost in this pool of 60000 thoughts .

Each of these 60000 thoughts consume energy . Even if you have abundant energy , you will waste all that energy in feeding these many thoughts

As a result the desire does not get meaningful energy .

Without energy in the desire , the action would be weak and erratic .

A weak action will not lead to accomplishment . So the solution is in packing abundant energy in our desire. And the only way is to Drastically reduce the number of thoughts .

Just for illustration let us assume that we have 600000 units of energy and 60000 thoughts . then each thought gets only 10 units of energy .

If we are able to reduce our thoughts to 10000 then each thought now has 60 units of energy . In other words our thoughts are 6 times more powerful .

As we keep reducing the number of thoughts so will the energy behind each thought keep increasing . If we have only 1 thought then this thought is now 6000 times more powerful .

The highly effective constantly endeavor to

Reduce the number of thoughts to one .

Store unlimited energy in it .

And when the thought is released from here ,

Action will be swift and effortless .

Accomplishment will be instant and certain .

An article written by Potharaju Ravindra , the author of  "give me back my guitar " , published by Macmillan India .

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Let us give Personal Energy Managment it's due and accord top priority in our lives .

Globally ,Organizations as well as individuals spend over 50 Billion US Dollars every year  in books , training programs , software , and other tools related to TIME MANAGEMENT  .

 The single objective , I believe is to improve their productivity . In other words , convert their Time effectively into various forms of  accomplishment  

 It is difficult to comprehend why  a similar stress is not being given to Personal energy management ,  considering the fact that it is  Energy which is the basic currency for accomplishment and not Time .

 In the absence of  energy we will not achieve anything irrespective of the time deployed . We all know it but we take energy for granted and continue running after time .

Effective management of our ENERGY and not TIME is what will lead us to a prosperous , smooth and abundant life . On the other hand if we are struggling then we need to check out our ENERGY FLOW  rather than time .Our Accomplishments primarily depend on our Energy Efficiency rather than Time Efficiency .  

 You cannot convert time into energy . For the simple reason that accomplishment happens only when one form of energy gets converted to another form .

 It is this  ignorance of energy and the blind following of Time that leads to frustration. One is not able to understand as to why their results do not commensurate to the best time mgmt techniques being applied . They keep chasing time like a cat trying to catch its tail . 

It  is not my intention  to hit out at the TIME INDSUTRY . But I do have very strong convictions on the roles  of Energy and Time in our lives . I urge the readers to mull over this  .

To me , Energy is the most undervalued resource in our lives and it is high time we accord Energy its rightful place .

Having said this , I do not want the reader to think that I do not value time . It would be foolishness on my part to do so .

 Both energy and time   have their own roles to play in our lives  . My issue is with the unfair treatment we all give to our personal Energy as  compared to time . We take it for granted even though it is the basic currency for all accomplishment

 To Put ,  ENERGY AND TIME in perspective , Let us look at the following .

 If  we want to differentiate two individuals based on their achievements on the data below .

 Person                                     Accomplishment

 A                                             100 Units

 B                                              100 Units 

 There is nothing choose  since their  accomplishment is the same .

 However if  we bring in the dimension of  Time then the whole thing would be viewed in totally different manner .  …

 Person                                     Accomplishment                                 Time Taken

A                                             100 Units                                             100 Units

B                                              100 Units                                             10 Units

 In this case Person B is able to accomplish 10 times faster than Person A .

 We can also say that Person B is 10 times more powerful than Person A  because rate at which he accomplishes is 10 times more than Person A .

 And this is where the TIME FACTOR comes .

 It measures  your  personal power .

 Like an athlete , Finally the time he takes to reach the finishing line is what will determine his power . But time is not what makes him accomplish . It is just a measure .

 So , while

 Energy is the basic currency for accomplishment .

 It is

 Time allows us to measure our  Personal Power .