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Obsessive Learner

Technologist / Lifelong learner / Cloud, Data, API / Engineering Leader / Traveler / Habitual reader

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Resilience is Key

March 7, 2016 by Ashwin Leave a Comment

Resilience

Resilience is key to leadership.  It is one distinct quality that differentiates an extraordinary leader from the rest.  It is a skill that can be built using a combination of competence, confidence and courage.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity and delivering commendable performance both as an individual and in a group.

How many of you know about Arunachalam Muruganantham?

Popularly known as Indian Sanitary Pad Man, he revolutionized the distribution of sanitary pads in a community where the mere access to them is difficult.  He invented a cheap machine that can produce pads at a lower cost for women who could not otherwise afford them.

This invention came at the cost of his family, society ridicule and money.  But with one quality, he kept going on and delivered a miraculous product that can change the lives of many – resilience.

He is a true leader who embodied resilience in his real life.

What’s your moment of resilience that you can immediately recall?

Image credit: Flickr Creative Commons by Brett Curtiss

Filed Under: Good Life, Leadership Tagged With: adversity, arunachalam, india, leadership, resilience, sanitary pad man

Understanding the Indian Housing Loan

August 5, 2014 by Ashwin 2 Comments

Photo Credit: Flick Creative Commons by unlistedsightings
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons by unlistedsightings

In India, the ultimate goal of every middle-class Indian is to own a home.  It may be a villa in the remote outskirts of a city or a narrow apartment in the city center, the goal is to own one.

Banks as usual understand this temptation and do their best to offer home loans at “attractive” rates.  At the time of availing a loan, not everyone (including me) understand the long term implication of a housing loan with floating interest rates.  Read on to get some some details. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Finance Tagged With: home loan, housing loan, india, personal finance, property