Kishor Cariappa » Life

Find an expat winner and win RO 100,000!

Kishor — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 08:17:00 +0000

For the last two years, I recollect coming across a handful of expat winners in the weekly draws conducted by Bank Muscat. I was told the basic criteria to qualify for ‘Al Mazyona’ draw is that a person should have a ‘healthy balance’ in his/her account. I can understand that a majority of the middle class expats do maintain a thin balance, but what about those wealthy businessmen or professionals who have made Oman their second home for decades now. Why aren’t they winning either? I am flummoxed.

Meanwhile, things are looking much brighter with National Bank of Oman (NBO). An Indian expat has won NBO’s Al Kanz mega prize worth RO 50,000. Lucky chap!

The race of life

Kishor — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:30:00 +0000

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle awakens. It has only one thought on its mind: To be able to run faster than the fastest lion. If it cannot, then it will be eaten.

Every morning in Africa a lion awakens. It has only one thought on his mind: To be able to run faster than the slowest gazelle. If it cannot, it will die of hunger.

Whether you choose to be a gazelle or a lion is of no consequence. It is enough to know that with the rising of the sun, you must run. And you must run faster than you did yesterday or you will die.

This is the race of life.

- African Proverb

May Your Soul Rest In Peace

Kishor — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:35:00 +0000

From the day I landed in Oman, I have interacted with Adil Mansur for a host of issues – from visa to resident card to admin issues to HR issues. He is the Admin Manager of our company, and I had a very good rapport with him. Whenever we bumped into each other in the corridor, he would say, “kief halak” (which means, ‘how are you’, in Arabic), and enquire how much of Arabic skills I had mastered in my two years of stay in Oman. Whenever I pounced on him for some serious issues, he would cool it down with his clean wit and cheeky smiles. For me, he was one Omani in office, who would speak very good English, and had solution at hand for anything and everything.

Today morning, I was glancing through the newspaper and was dumbstruck looking at a condolence message. A couple of calls later, my fears came true. Adil had died of a heart attack yesterday night. I am going to miss him.

Parenting

Kishor — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 07:55:00 +0000

Yesterday, I attended a lecture on “Happy Parenting” by Swamini Vimalananda of Chinmaya Mission, and I must admit, the talk was highly educative and enriching. Here are some points from the lecture:

1. Absolutely pamper your kids till they are two-and-a-half years. From 2.5 years till 17 years educate them, and from 17 years be friendly with them, but never be a FRIEND.

2. Every human being has four layers to himself – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. To feel contented and satisfied, all the four layers must be tapped or channelised in the right direction.

3. Investing ‘in’ the child is more important than investing ‘on’ the child. Investing on the child is providing him worldly comforts, while investing in is teaching him values of life and making him/her a better human being.

4. Kids tend to ape the actions and behaviour of the parents than their words. Parents must exercise caution in their day-to-day behaviour and set a right example.

5. Allow your kids to tune themselves to the nature’s way of living. Just because they are ‘bored’, don’t go on and on to satisfy their needs by mindless investment on toys, activity classes, etc. They must realise to have fun you don’t have to necessarily pay all the time. When we were kids a lot of games would be played outside the four walls of comfort and that too most of the games like lagoori, gilli danda, kabbadi, and marbles were played free of cost or at a minimal cost, and with maximum fun. But, these days, fun is associated with money.

6. Teach the kids that money is important but not everything in life.

7. When kids are young, allow them to follow their instincts. When a kid wants to climb a chair, or do adventurous things, just allow that to happen. Scary parents restrict these natural movements, which will pave way for fear factor to develop in the kid, and ultimately he will end up being a scary personality for the entire life.