How to beat exam stress

Examinations are a time of anxiety and nervousness –not only for the students but also the parents.

To increase productivity and take the exams well, it is also necessary — besides studying hard — to focus on eating habits, sleep patterns, mental and physical fitness.

Here are some tips — for parents as well as students — to beat the examination blues.

A balanced diet is important, especially during examinations. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide children reserves of energy and increase their ability to concentrate.

“With a healthy diet of vegetables, fibre and fruits, your mind stays alert. If you have heavy junk food like pizzas and burgers, it slows down,” says Gargi Sathe, a Pune-based dietician.

“Spicy and salty food just prior to the exams can lead to a lot of sluggishness during the exams. Green, leafy vegetables, fruits, salads and pulses should be encouraged during examinations,” she adds.

She underlines the importance of home-cooked meals – Dal, rice, Roti, a vegetable (alternate between a green, leafy vegetable and sprouts), salads, and a seasonal fruit.

“Many a time, children munch on chips, wafers, etc during studies to beat boredom; instead, eat walnuts, nuts, or fruits,” she says.

Avoid excess tea, coffee and chocolates. “Though they stimulate you temporarily, they will get you tired,” says Sathe.

“Have a small meal prior to the exam; it will help you to be more wakeful during the exam. A heavy meal will make you sluggish,” she adds.

Take care of the eyes

Exam time means a lot of reading, writing, stress and strain. Make sure not to overexert or strain the eyes.

“Make sure there is ample light in the room where the child is studying. Reading with a night lamp is a strict no-no,” says Dr Aniruddha Joshi, an eye surgeon.

Use a table and a chair to study and write, Dr Joshi says. “Leaning on the table or reading in the sleeping position for a long time will strain your eyes.”

Rest your eyes after half an hour of continuous reading; blinking helps. Avoid rubbing the eyes. Splash cold water instead.

Sleep is important

“Do not compromise on sleep,” asserts homeopath Dr Reena Dhaware. She advises strongly against staying awake all night to study. She also advises not to hit the bed immediately after studies; a few minutes are needed to get out of the ‘books mode.’

A short walk, a glass of water or just glancing through magazines before going off to sleep will help de-stress.

Get outdoors

“Students must have at least 15 minutes of outdoor activity even during exams,” says Dr Dhaware. ”It helps them exercise and relax their muscles.”

No bans, please

This one is for parents: Don’t ban extracurricular activities for your child. A short stroll in the garden, brief play time (can be a board game too) or some television will help de-stress.

Don’t get obsessed

Talk about things other than examination. This will have a relaxing effect. Share some jokes, some interesting anecdotes of the day to lighten up the atmosphere at home.

Calming techniques

Practise deep breathing, meditation, and other relaxation exercises as part of your daily routine and encourage the child to use them during the examinations.

Be neat and tidy

Give a thought to your clothes, not just while going for the exam, but also during studying. Remember, neat and tidy clothes help lift spirits.

Humour

Laughter, as they say, is the best medicine. You could try watching Tom And Jerry for a while. It will help you relax.

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today-Part 6

Though we may not necessarily look at it that way, the lack of a strong role model is the greatest issue facing young Indians today.

At a recent book launch, software icon N R Narayana Murthy pointed out that ‘the number of role models our youngsters can look up to is decreasing’.

The corrupt, he said, are slowly but surely becoming the only role models for young Indians.

‘Our youngsters don’t have role models to look up to and therefore and sadly because of corruption, some of the people who are doing exactly the opposite, dishonest, deceit, ‘chalta hai’ and all of that… they are becoming more and more powerful, they are becoming wealthier. Therefore, our youngsters are getting the wrong signals. They think maybe this is the way to succeed. I don’t blame them,’ he said.

Saida Raval agrees, “There is little that children have around them to be inspired by. I can’t see a lot of people having role models. I don’t come across kids who say they want to be like person x. That also makes them a little more lost. Parents are always trying to get their kids disciplined but rarely do they see what comes out of this discipline, what is the result, who they can be! There is no such towering figure in that sense for this generation that can drive them towards single-mindedly achieving something.”

Raval’s point does strike a chord with me. Surely there is Anna Hazare you may say but, I am a little sceptical of calling him the icon of my generation, not so much because of who he is but because of who we are.

In fact, when you think about it, you don’t see too many towering figures in fiction too. For what they were worth, our parents and their parents had their set of heroes. Be it Jay Gatsby or Atticus Finch or even Feluda or Devdas. In films too, you had Anand, ‘Mother India’ and Bhootnath.

It isn’t a surprise then that many of our filmmakers are steadily turning to classics, attempting to remake them and reinterpret them for our generation.

Of these, the one film that stands out is Anurag Kashyap’s Devdas. The intelligent interpretation of the story and indeed the characters sees Kashyap’s Devdas giving up his Paro and choosing to go back to Chandramukhi.

Unlike Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s protagonist who burns the candle from both ends going out all guns blazing, Kashyap’s modern Devdas returns to his little room, back to his little life and a conventionally happy ending.

That in more ways, speaks to me not just about our heroes but also about our generation — that loves to arrive with a bang but almost invariably goes out with a whimper.

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today-Part 5

Amit Bansal is a career counsellor and trainer who heads PurpleLeap, an organisation that works with colleges to make students employment-ready. One of the greatest challenges he hopes young today overcome is the unusually high expectations they have from their workplace.

“Many engineers and management graduates have little or no understanding of what kind of work they would be doing in their first job. Everyone wants it to be glamorous; it isn’t. Engineers are disappointed because they have to work on other people’s code and don’t get to write one of their own till almost two to three years in their careers. Fresh off the boat management trainees want to work on pricing, branding, marketing — things that you can get to only after some amount of experience in the field.”

Bansal recollects his first job where during a one-on-one interaction with Bharat Puri the then top boss of Asian Paints asked him what he saw himself doing in the company. Enthusiastically he told him how frustrated he was and exactly what he wanted to do. After letting him finish, Puri simply told him, “This is what I do after years of experience. If you do all of this, what job will I get to do?”

Patience really is the key, Bansal points out, and one that young Indians seem to have lost somewhere along the evolution path in part perhaps because of lack of mentors and mentorship programmes as part of HR activities in corporate houses.

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today-Part 4

Fitting in often comes at a price. If you have a Nokia, you want a BlackBerry; if you have a BlackBerry, you want an iPhone.

Surely a young adult has more demands than his/her parents can handle but living in an increasingly globalised world where everything is accessible at the click of a mouse and swipe of a card, many are lamenting the rising materialism amongst young Indians.

Sadia Raval points out that folks of my generation and half a generation before mine — children of the ’80s and ’70s — even give in to their children’s demands in part because we never had those opportunities. The other reason, she adds, is guilt.

She says, “Most of us are working parents getting to spend little or no time with our children. Buying things they ask for is seen as a way to compensate our absence in their lives. What we don’t realise is that because we didn’t have certain things, we have certain values. So in a way it is the parents who are to be blamed for compensating their absence with gadgets and games and filling their lives with things they don’t need. We don’t seem to be telling our kids that struggle is part of life.”

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today- Part 3

If on the one hand parental pressures aren’t bad enough, peer pressures make matters only worse.

“It matters to young people how many friends they have on Facebook or what brand of clothes they wear, what mobile phone they use and who they’re seen with. The funny part is that they may be ok with what they have as long as they don’t know what their friends do too,” Sadia Raval tells me.

A friend and a mother-of-two once told me that her daughter was angry for purchasing a Maruti Swift because it was too downmarket for her. Her daughter is said to have told her that she ‘should’ve considered a Honda CRV’. My friend, a single mother in her early 50s and had the liberty of having a car quite late in life herself, gasped at the thought and quite simply asked her to take the bus since she found being seen in a Swift below her dignity!

Doctoral candidate Antoinette Landor who presented some of her findings at the World Congress for Sexual Health in Glasgow has drawn a connection between teens losing their virginity and peer pressure.

Landor explains that peer pressure often drives young people into their lovers’ beds. “They are more likely to have a higher number of sex partners and a higher number of oral sex partners. They are more likely to not delay sex, and engage in sex without any contraception,” she says.

Although Landor’s study does not include Indian teens, the findings are relevant to the (urban) Indian context too. A former colleague who studied in one of the more posh schools in Mumbai with more than a dozen Bollywood kids as his classmates told me that they ‘went the whole hog’ by the time they graduated out of Class Ten. He laughed heartily as I looked at him with some amount of disbelief (and perhaps a little jealousy) and assured me he wasn’t lying.

What he said was confirmed by India Today‘s most recent survey that revealed at least 24 per cent respondents across the country had lost their virginity while they were still in their teens (the figures were 20 per cent higher in Delhi).

“It is almost like a competition,” my Maruti Swift-driving friend tells me. “If your friend has slept with someone, you want to as well, just to prove a point and just so you can fit in with the group.”

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today- Part 2

Things get complicated when parents decide to add their two bits worth. A friend and mother-of-two likes to (somewhat incorrectly) call this ‘the 3 Idiots syndrome’. “It’s a typically middle class thing to do — push your kids into B-schools and expect them to earn eight-figure salaries at the end of their education.”

Sadia Raval agrees. Parental pressures aren’t easy to fight off she says and these very pressures drive young children up against the wall. “Very often, taking up a stream (of education) you don’t like results in a great deal of confusion and disillusionment. There are cases when kids manage to get into IITs but sooner rather than later realise their hearts are not into it; they fare poorly in their tests; disillusionment sets in and that leads to demotivation and loss of self esteem. It’s a vicious circle.”

These kinds of parental pressures, Raval says, exist at all levels often starting when the child is still in school.

When I asked Parul Sharma how early these pressures really start, she chuckles, “Pretty early on in life.”

Sharma’s book Bringing up Vasu: That First Year, offers a tongue-in-cheek view of a first-time mother’s attempts to give her son ‘everything that is best for him’. And while the situations described in it seem almost farcical in nature, the protagonist’s attempts to get her son into the best pre-school or make available the best that is there for him in the market does touch a chord.

“There is a certain type of parent that tries to push on its child his/her ambitions and there are others like Mira (her protagonist) whose intentions are well-placed and driven with the sole purpose of getting the best for her child. Does that justify the pressures on the kids? I don’t think so,” she says.

Raval continues, “Parents often push their children into tuitions and extra classes in the hope that they turn out to be superstars.”

The results however are far from desirable.

“There is so much on their plate that many students simply cannot cope with it. I have seen fairly bright students breaking down and giving up,” Raval says adding that the number of children breaking down just before Class 10 and 12 exams has gone up drastically in the last few years.”

Source: www.rediff.com

Issues young Indians face today-Part 1

Prayag Arora sounds groggy on the phone. He hasn’t had a good night’s sleep for a while now. During the weekend he was working on the Twitter feed for his client and managed to double their followers on the microblogging site. On Facebook, he’s involved in getting them more ‘likes’ for each of their updates; more the ‘likes’ more he will get paid.

It isn’t however about the money for Arora. He comes from a fairly affluent family in Mumbai and could have chosen to take it easy this summer before he began the next year in college.

Yet Arora, almost 19, is restless. Last summer he was interning at a newspaper office in the city. This year he is interning at a social media company. And he’s already sure of what he wants to do by the time his college reopens for the academic year in June — he has a few ideas which he’s already run by his current bosses which he hopes to execute in the next few months.

Although she isn’t from the same city as Arora, Shruti Sharma, also 19, is ‘preparing for life’. With six weeks staring at her, Sharma who hails from Nagpur, has enrolled herself in a local grooming class, is learning German and when I last spoke to her, was looking for an internship so ‘I don’t waste my time’.

Arora and Sharma share the restlessness of a generation that seems to be eager to get ahead in life. Even though neither knows exactly what s/he wants to do, both have a vague idea of where they see themselves in the next five years.

While Arora is toying with the idea of ‘doing something’ in the media industry, Sharma hopes to get into the civil services — ‘probably IFS’.

What brings these two seemingly diverse souls under one umbrella is their impatience, an earnest desire to ensure they get some sort of a head start in life.

“It’s hard to find work. And it’s ping off to see how even in today’s times, you need contacts to get a job. If I have four internships on my resume when I apply for my first job, my boss is bound to look at me differently,” Arora tells me, sounding like a man who could with a little more sleep, “There’s just way too much competition and if you’re not ready, you probably will be left behind.”

The pressure to ‘make it’ in life in the face of immense pressures is one of the greatest challenges that young Indians are faced with today, feels psychologist Saida Raval.

While some like Arora and Sharma are fairly clear about what they want to do in life, Raval says that the various career options available for young people today tends to leave them a little, well, lost.

“They often find themselves torn between doing what they want and what will help them make money,” she says.

Source: www.rediff.com

Top 60 soft skills

The Smyth County Industry Council, a governing body based in the US, conducted a survey recently. The results of the survey was called the Workforce Profile which found “an across-the-board unanimous profile of skills and characteristics needed to make a good employee.” The people most likely to be hired for available jobs have what employers call “soft skills”.

The Workforce Profile defined about 60 “soft skills”, which employers seek. They are applicable to any field of work, according to the study, and are the “personal traits and skills that employers state are the most important when selecting employees for jobs of any type.”

1. Math.
2. Safety.
3. Courtesy.
4. Honesty.
5. Grammar.
6. Reliability.
7. Flexibility.
8. Team skills.
9. Eye contact.
10. Cooperation.
11. Adaptability.
12. Follow rules.
13. Self-directed.
14 Good attitude.
15. Writing skills.
16. Driver’s license.
17. Dependability.
18. Advanced math.
19. Self-supervising.
20. Good references.
21. Being drug free.
22. Good attendance.
23. Personal energy.
24. Work experience.
25. Ability to measure.
26. Personal integrity.
27. Good work history.
28. Positive work ethic.
29. Interpersonal skills.
30. Motivational skills.
31. Valuing education.
32. Personal chemistry.
33. Willingness to learn.
34. Common sense.
35. Critical thinking skills.
36. Knowledge of fractions.
37. Reporting to work on time.
38. Use of rulers and calculators.
39. Good personal appearance.
40. Wanting to do a good job.
41. Basic spelling and grammar.
42. Reading and comprehension.
43. Ability to follow regulations.
44. Willingness to be accountable.
45. Ability to fill out a job application.
46. Ability to make production quotas.
47. Basic manufacturing skills training.
48. Awareness of how business works.
49. Staying on the job until it is finished.
50. Ability to read and follow instructions.
51. Willingness to work second and third shifts.
52. Caring about seeing the company succeed.
53. Understanding what the world is all about.
54. Ability to listen and document what you have heard.
55. Commitment to continued training and learning.
56. Willingness to take instruction and responsibility.
57. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close environment.
58. Not expecting to become a supervisor in the first six months.
59. Willingness to be a good worker and go beyond the traditional eight-hour day.
60. Communication skills with public, fellow employees, supervisors, and customers.

How many soft skills do you possess?

Source: www.rediff.com

Is the job squeeze in India for real?

In September, the senior management of a financial services company debated a serious issue: Over spreadsheets and power point presentations projected on a giant screen, five people discussed whether to downsize a division that was eating into the company’s profitability or close the entire division for good.

Early October, with the Indian and global stock markets in a tizzy and the shadow of the Euro Zone debt crisis looming over the world, this Bangalore-based company hurriedly summoned some 60 odd employees of this division for an ‘urgent meeting.’

By the end of the day all 60 employees returned home with pink slips and the promise of a decent severance package — a part of their contract — in their bags.

“I couldn’t figure out why they fired me,” says 22-year-old Namit Singha (name changed on request), an economics graduate from Mumbai University who figured in the list of people who lost their jobs.

“The management didn’t convey if our jobs were taken away because of cost cutting or a downsizing of the workforce. What I heard from others in the company was that our division was not making money,” he adds.

read more:http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-is-the-job-squeeze-in-india-for-real/20111216.htm

Source: Rediff

 

 

Dealing with diversity at work

Demographic change, the global marketplace and greater tolerance for differences are increasing the importance of diversity at the workplace. More women, minorities, and people with different ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles are today entering the workforce. Organisations that do not manage diversity effectively will not be able to utilise the full potential of their workers, nor survive and grow under increasingly complex and competitive business conditions.

Many barriers continue to restrict the opportunities of diverse groups. These barriers may be from the environment, such as discrimination or stereotyping, and from individuals, such as poor career planning or inadequate skill preparation. Both external and internal barriers can be equally detrimental to the advancement of diverse groups. External barriers may be more obvious than internal barriers, but minorities need to carefully assess and identify the barriers they set for themselves and work on resolving them.

Organisations could provide employees with skills for operating in a multicultural environment, so that employees can understand their own as well as other cultures, values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and strengths and weaknesses. Training and education, can fill a company’s needs in areas such as awareness-building, skill building, helping employees understand the need for valuing diversity, educating employees on specific cultural differences, providing the skills necessary for working in diverse work teams, and providing skills and development activities necessary for diverse groups to do their job and have the opportunity for advancement.

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Below are the Q-A sessions in Rediff chat answered by Amit Bansal, the founder and CEO of PurpleLeap.

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Ashok asked, However, some of them are wiser with experience to understand, but the in experienced people…do not agree with the reason given to them or they would start arguing and crying…. How do you deal with such situation
Amit Bansal answers, Over a period of time people have to understand that a workplace has rules. I think just give it a little time, in the meanwhile reiterating the rules.

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Swapnil asked, Sir, I regularly come across with colleagues who has habit of taking core information from me and then advise the same to my superior to take credit of that. How to tackle this issue?
Amit Bansal answers, Stop sharing your ideas with others if they cannot display integrity. That’s the best way.

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Ashok asked, How do you manage the female employees when some strict rules have to be imposed. Like not giving leaves… Since girls / Women take it personally. I dont want the work to get affected
Amit Bansal answers, Ashok, I suggest just want you to reflect on this question. It may just be your perception. With the kind of responsibilities women are taking in any organizations, I would not generalize this. However, if you have women employees in your organization who are not very comfortable with strict policies, you may want to speak to them.

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Sudhir asked, How to deal with nosy colleagues who keep asking for information about my personal life like investments for instance ?
Amit Bansal answers, While you are talking to him or with others when this colleague is around, you can casually state that you do not like discussing your personal life at work. If this person is seeking advice in financial decisions, take it on the face value. However, if the questions are interrogative to seek specific information about your personal investments, ignore and do not entertain those questions by changing the topic of discussion. Making it obvious will give the person a hint that you are not interested to talk about certain personal details.

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Barada asked, Mr.Bansal in srategic things,particularly in Hr where there a cultural difference in different regions within India, how to motivate & indulge the people power to achieve the organizational or Business goal.
Amit Bansal answers, Being in HR is like being in the right place to use diversity to increase productivity and build better teams. I think within teams various activities should be conducted to bond people from diverse backgrounds. Initiating ethnic days where people dress up in their ethnic wear or even a potluck, contests etc. These are very effective ways to optimize on workplace diversity and turn it around into building a positive workplace.

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Rohit asked, Sir, how do you deal with stereotypes in organizations. though i am in favour of diversity, lot of types this leads to groupism and stereotypes. what to do?
Amit Bansal answers, In the stages of team formation, there is a stage of storming. Stereotypes is usually a part of storming phase. In certain places this stage is slightly longer than the others. Each individual within a team or an organization should do their bit to beat the stereotypes. It’s not a difficult task. If you are a part of a group and you do not believe in the stereotypes they are promoting, openly oppose to it and involve other people in your group. I think that will be somewhere to start with.

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gopa asked, how to deal with boss who never praise me ?.Always try to find faults in me
Amit Bansal answers, Some people usually find it difficult to appreciate people. If you can try to communicate this to your boss in a subtle manner it will be good. But if you cannot, I feel this is a great opportunity for you to condition yourself to be self motivated. Like I said some people find it difficult to appreciate other people and you cannot change that entirely. An awareness and a conscious effort is the only way that can help.

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abc asked, sir how to deal with a bully boss?
Amit Bansal answers, I think you need to talk to your boss over a one on one. Share instances when a specific behavior was disturbing. Help him/ her understand that it affects your overall motivation to work under him. Also, highlight certain things you like about working with him/ her.

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nottyn asked, sir, how do you deal with a colleague who is jealous of your achievements? what is the right way to confront the person?
Amit Bansal answers, Well, the first step is to find out whether this person is really jealous or is that an assumption you have. Sometimes we misunderstand people unnecessarily. Next step is to make friends with this person and make him comfortable with you. This will require you to make an extra effort. I am not too sure why you want to confront this person? Has this person been bad to you in anyway?

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khanna asked, dear Sir, i have recently moven to mumbai frm Delhi and i find the work culture very different from delhi. could you pls provide me some basic tips on what are the most important things i should keep in ming to not upset anyone
Amit Bansal answers, I have personally not worked in Mumbai. However, in every new workplace there is a settling in time. I think rather than getting too bother about the differences, check how these people work differently from yours and adapt. Give yourself 2 to 3 months to understand a workplace. During this time, think many times before you react to people and situations. Take your time to confide in people and discuss sensitive issues. I am sure if you allow sometime, you will be able to fit into the new culture.

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mamu asked, dear bansal sir..how do you deal with black americans at work…we first fo al don’t understand their heavy accents and then thye speak so fast..how to communicate with blacks?
Amit Bansal answers, I don’t think its just black Americans, southerners also speak in a very heavy accent. It’s a good idea to gently let them know because as much as you find their accent difficult they find yours. I guess letting each other know is a good start.

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Chat date: November 30, 2011

Source: www.rediff.com