How does a Vision and Mission Statement Help an Organisation

 I wrote a short blog article stating "A vision and mission statement serves as a beacon that directs a think tank to develop purpose and values" in the Meghalaya Monitor. https://meghalayamonitor.com/vision-and-mission-statements-tools-for-efficiency-of-a-think-tank/

Musings, Anecdotes and Experiences

Yes, my book is out. "Musings, Anecdotes and Experiences-Compilation of Articles on Research Communication, Policy Engagement and Communicating Data". If you want a copy kindly send me an email to annaravi.consultant@gmail.com. 

Remembering Z

 Dear Z,

 I am penning these words for you with a lot of difficulty. WE met on the badminton “court” me as an amateur and you as a good player. We used to look forward to the evenings where initially we used to prop up a net between two bicycles and play badminton at Vrindavan Estate, where we all lived a s big happy family. The simple game then grew to a more serious sport where tournaments were organized and you were my mixed doubles buddy. You used to defend, protect and shield me from the opponents and yes we won several matches. Then I started experimenting my culinary “expertise” on both you and Faiaaz. You both along with Rohit became my “guinea pigs” for several of my dishes.

We played carrom board, watched Film Fare awards and you also introduced me to English pop music. I remember you taped several songs/genres for me, effortlessly several afternoons. Neither of us had a tape recorder but managed to use one from one of our neighbours.

You were a son to me and an older brother to Rohit-took him for his haircut on several occasions, baby sat him often. In fact you were like an older brother to several of the children I knew and used to come to my home.

I could not have done the workshops at Bal Bhavan without your support and patience. All the kids used to love you and look forward to spending time with you. I believe your tutoring in badminton led some of the kids to win prizes in tournaments.

You have interacted with my mother-in-law, played carom with her, interacted with my parents too. I remember my mom used to call you Xerox and Faiaaz as Fax, since she could not pronounce both your names.

You have gone too soon my friend, we may have not interacted a lot in the last few years. But whenever we spoke it was fun, laughter and happy times.

I will miss you and was hoping to meet you in Vadodara next month to eat the yummy akuri (I still can’t make it as well as you despite your training) and of course dhansak (which I refused to learn since I wanted to only eat what you made).

I am sure you will always hover around Dee and Zahan and Murphy-3 lovely people who had you in their life.

Musings Anecdotes and Experiences: Compilation of Articles-Personal Reflections

Hi All, it took me over five years to write the articles, conduct interviews which are part of this book titled-Musings, Anecdotes and Experiences: Compilation of Articles:  Personal Reflections. You can read the same on the link below

Musings, Anecdotes and Experiences

 

 

 

 

Hi All, it took me over five years to write the articles, conduct interviews (which are part of this book titled)-Musings, Anecdotes and Experiences: Compilation of Articles:  Personal Reflections. This is a brief of the what you will see.

If you would like to buy a copy kindly send me a mail at annaravi.consultatnt@gmail.com.

 

Lisboa-a place you can visit and should revisit

 

 My Personal Experience and Enjoyment

Thirty-eight years back I went to Lisboa on a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for data collection for my Ph. D. in Indo-Portuguese history. Those were the days when we did not have access or affordability to own a mobile to capture fond memories or social media platforms to share fond memories, for that matter even a computer. I only owned a small camera where I could click some photos. In fact, I bought an Antares typewriter to type all my chapters and send it via air mail to my guide who was based in India. I always felt that someday, sometime I will revisit Lisboa and I got the opportunity to do so.

I strongly believe that all good experiences are etched in one’s mind come what may if it has been eons. With this background I decided to travel to Lisboa with my family. The family includes my husband, son and daughter-in-law. We visited them in the UK and then we planned for a week’s trip to Lisboa. Kudos to my son and daughter-in-law for planning the entire trip.

The Journey

We flew from Gatwick Airport (since we were in the UK) and the flight duration was short.
The momnt we landed in Lisboa I had to have my pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tart) at the airport, while the family was retrieving the luggage. Historically, the pastel de nata was made by Catholic monks even before the 18^th century.  It is told that egg yolks were used as starch for clothes and the left over yolks were made into custard and tarts, by priests and nuns. However, post the Revolution in 1820 the pasteis da nata was sold by nuns and priests to earn money. But soon a sugar factory bought the recipe and established the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém in 1983. 

We reached the hotel and took some rest. The next morning, we went walking on the Avenidade de

Liberdidade, the avenue was built between 1879 and 1886 and is modeled after the boulevards in Paris. It became the address for people from upper class and the creation was a landmark in the Northwards expansion of the city. During our walk and we saw that the roads are dotted with several statues. The pavements known in Portuguese as calçada portuguesa or calçada (tiny square stones) and is made of limestone. They are hand laid and represent black and white waves ad include symbols and images of animals.

On the way we had sweet pineapple juice at Praca dp comercio-, the uniqueness is the way the pineapple is carved out and the juice extracted is served in the hollow part of the pineapple and the sliced pineapple pieces are placed on the rim of the fruit. In fact, this was available at the touristic spot.

 
We then went and had lunch at Timeout market which is the is the first market in the world where the food has been chosen, tested and tasted by food critics and journalists. It sprawls over 32,000 sq. ft. with 900 seats and has 26 restaurants & 6 kiosks. Being a vegetarian fortunately we could get food.

The next day we went to Sintra by train which was one the hot destination for the royal family. It was called glorious Eden by Lord Byron it has gardens, castles colourful villas and is surrounded by lush forest. When one walks through the forest you are taken back to fairy tales-Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel to name a few. In Sintra the mode of transport is bus or one can drive. But we chose to walk to enjoy the environment.

The next day we visited The Belém Tower (Torre de Belém). It was built between 1514 and 1520 by Francisco de Arruda, a Portuguese architect and sculptor in the Manuelino style. It was classified as a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. The Belém Tower is built on the northern bank of the Tagus river today it serves as a light house and customs house.

Constructed on the northern bank of the Tagus River, this tower was used to defend the city. Years later, it was transformed into a lighthouse and customs house. It's located right by the Jerónimos Monastery, so we recommend visiting them on the same day. The towers include five floors and all the storeys are connected by a narrow and spiral staircase. Each floor had a designated usage – the King’s room, the chapel, family room, audience room and a roof terrace.

The Jerónimos Monastery is a beautiful structure which includes the Manueline, or Portuguese style of Late Gothic architecture. It has vaulted ceilings and sophisticated decorative elements, and the site reflects the clerical ecclesiastical and royal commissions that characterized the era in which it was built.

What I enjoyed the most was the huge monument - Padrão dos Descobrimentos situated on the banks of the Tagus river estuary, in Belém. It commemorates the departure of Vasco da Gama to India and the Orient in the 15th and 16 centuries, celebrating the Age of Discoveries

In the evening we went to the Pink street, which is known as the red light area. It used to be home for brothels and it is now dotted with bars, fenced cafes and gambling houses. The reflection of the lights actually gives a pink colour on the street.

The next day we drove to Lagos a town in Southern Portugal's Algarve region. It is an old town which has walls surrounding to include cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean. It is dotted with wooden steps which leads to the cove of Praia do Camilio. The scenario extends to a lighthouse, a castle, cliffs of Piedade and a church (from the 18th century) the Igreja de Santo António.

The next day we went to the Benagil cave, which is also known as Algar de Benagil. It is not only famous but has beautiful caves. History says that the natural caves are more than 20 million years old. Due to erosion the caves have developed cavities in limestone. The boat ride was for around two hours and the natural formation of the caves, mountain ridges was fascinating. We were unlucky to not encounter any dolphins. Our boat “captain” wisely said we do not bait the dolphins by throwing food into the ocean and I thought that was a good approach.

Our last leg was Sagres is located in the extreme southwest of continental Europe. (estimated straight-line path over land-11,241 km, ending near Jinjiang in the People's Republic of China.

We visited the Fortress of Sagres – Fortaleza de Sagres. It is a 15th century fort which has strong walls which tower over the cliffs and served as a stronghold from enemies and invaders. Sagres appears to be a small town with a laid back attitude, there is no chaos or hustle-bustle, despite attracting tourists. The São Vicente – Farol de São Vicente, lighthouse was initially   occupied by the Franciscan monks and hence the name.

We went to a restaurant and had lunch and drove to the airport at Lisbon

We spent most of the day in seeing some sights, since we had to drive back to Lisboa to catch our return flight to the UK. 

The Denture Experience

 

I had been suffering from tooth ache for some time and hence decided to visit my dentist. She asked me to take a dental x-ray and I was shocked to see the condition of my teeth. Dr. S advised me to extract all my teeth which of course shocked me. Professionally I am a trainer and a communicator and I am expected to be communicating (orally a lot of time) with stakeholders and professional acquaintances. So it hit me as to how am I going to look toothless? Will I be able to speak? How will I look? To top it all I had a couple of important events (thank fully virtual events).

The whole process took around a month. I remember that I had speak to the dentist, Dr. S to understand the process. She painstakingly explained to me the entire procedure and took into consideration my professional work too. Thank you for that Dr. S.

So the 1^st step was to see how many teeth will be removed at a time and how do we phase it out. Dr. J who extracted my teeth was a gentle person. I used to shout in pain, sometimes be dramatic (I think). The fun started when I had to be conscious that I did not have any teeth. I remember that I had to blow away the cream from my coffee and when I tried doing it, no air come out 😀. So I had to use a spoon to remove the cream.

A lot of time I used to put tooth paste on my brush and then realised that there were no teeth to brush.   

Then came the next phase to take the impression (we had to wait to ensure that there were no lesions or ulcers). Dr. M was a kind and patient person. 

Impressions were taken then fitting and some minor adjustments (what is called as filing). Thank you to all the doctors and Shoba.

I am now getting used to the dentures. I can proudly say that I managed to participate and speak (almost normally) in 2 key events in our organisation.

Moral of the story: Don’t take things for granted, take care of yourself as much as possible.

 

 

Swiss Tales-a Road Trip

I consider myself lucky. I had the opportunity to attend a conference e in Geneva in the first week of February. The first few thought that came to mind was WOW, this is the first time I will be visiting Switzerland, it will be snowing, should I stay back for a couple of days, post the conference, to travel and see some places. The answer to my last question was YES. So I spoke to my son and daughter-in-law who are based in London, to check out if they are available for a road trip in Switzerland, they were game for it! So the planning started and both of them ably charted a road trip and the journey began from Geneva.

We hired a car, from Europcar, and drove through Lausanne, to a tiny but picturesque village – Miège - where we had booked accommodation in an Air BnB. A comfortable 2 bedroom, one bathroom, flat equipped with a kitchen, living area and a small sit out. Basic utensils were provided. What stood out was clear instructions were provided to the guests on how to enter the house by punching in numbers in a secure door lock, and what to do and what not to do. Instructions and contact details to supermarkets, restaurants, takeaways were provided. We reached our accommodation late in the evening and on our way had picked up some grocery and food. Me being a vegetarian, I had to carefully pick up food that I could eat and it was pretty easy. I believe that with most of the world understating vegetarianism and vegans, grocery shops also stock food to cater to people like me. It took us around 4 hours to reach Miège from Geneva as we stopped a few times. The drive was lovely, all you could see was the contours of the Alps, different shapes and sizes. Some were capped with snow, some were bare and some were dotted with pine trees. Miège is a municipality in the district of Sierre and boasts of a unique mixture of history, culture, marketplace and restaurant. It is also a place to taste one of the finest vines. Like, in India we have coffee and tea estates attached to residences, vine yards were spotted outside people’s home.

Miege, Switzerland-Notre Dame replica- Miège is first mentioned in 1226 as Mieio. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Miesen, however, that name is no longer used. Miege houses a replica of the famous Notre Dame cathedral. After traveling around the quaint little town we returned to our house at Miege-the ski village.

The next day we woke up to a barrage of snow. Our car, the lawn, roads the mountains were all carpeted with thick snow. Surely we were disappointed, assuming that we had to be caged in the house. But when we saw the neighbours shoveling their drive way, the city civic authorities sending vehicles (that looked like tractors) clearing the road of snow. This gave us an impetus to get ready, armed with layers of warm clothes and some snacks and water, we drove out of Lausanne. Our first stop was Lake Blausse.  

Blausee is a small lake in the Kander valley above Kandergrund at 887 metres, administratively, it belongs to the Bernese Oberland. The small lake, which is really more a pond, is in the middle of a beautiful 22-acre nature park. According to a legend it is said that a maid lived close by and fell in love with a shepherd. Every day they would row on the lake and spend some romantic moments in the moonlit nights. Unfortunately, one day the shepherd fell off the cliff and died. The maid, would row everyday to mourn for the loss of the shepherd but drowned to death. Legend says that the lake turned to an intense blue colour which matched the maids eye colour.

Factually the lake was created by a landslide over 15,000 years ago. The water is crystal clear and is at a constant cool temperature.

Our second stop was Zermatt, what comes to one’s mind when you think of Zermatt is the Matterhorn Peak. Zermatt is famous for its Ski resorts and is a transport free village. The only way in and out is a train from the neighbouring village - Täsch . Our adventure started after we took a funicular to Sunnega (this houses people and all the ski equipment) and then walked down the ski slope.  We checked with the Tourist centre, since we wanted to go and have a meal at the famous Chef Vrony at Findeln. What we didn’t realise was that when the officer mentioned it is only 10 minutes walk, it was on the snow  ski slope meant to advanced skiers and not tourists on foot! We saw young, old, children where the mothers were holding a harness and skiing after them. This made one realize that people will do anything for the love of skiing. Holding my daughter-in-law’s hand I managed to walk on snow for 45 minutes. The journey was full of adventure, slipped twice – like a professional ballerina – legs in a shape of a diamond, felt scared a couple of times, but never gave up.

Our journey to eat at the Chef Vrony-Findeln was surely an adventure. It is precariously perched on a peak. Originally it was a Swiss Chalet and is today a Michelin-star restaurant, listed in the Gault Millau guides. It is surrounded by the Alps and overlooks the gorgeous Matterhorn peak – lovingly known as the Toblerone Peak. To our disappointment we could not find a table, since we had not booked in advance. However, we were directed to another restaurant which was equally beautiful. The view from the small plateau where the restaurant was perched, was breathtaking. The hostess was a chirpy lady and tried to keep all the patrons warm and happy. We had a hearty meal and were wondering if we had to trudge all the way up? However, we were informed that there is a Gondola (suspended tram) that will take us back. We bought our tickets and went high up facing bitter cold and returned to the base.

The Matterhorn Peak is on the border of the Swiss and Italian Alps. It represents 4 faces which are steep and these face the compass points. No man has dared to venture this glacier. I was in awe of this huge beauty-clear, pure and mighty.

The Principality of Liechtenstein was the next stop. It is the sixth-smallest country in the world and lies in between Switzerland and Austria in the heart of Alps. History says that the Princes of Liechtenstein originally hailed from Lower Austria. They purchased the County of Vaduz and the Dominion of Schellenberg in 1699 and 1712 and merged the 2 areas via an Imperial Diploma.

Vaduz is the capital and home of the Prince of Liechtenstein. Vaduz has a car-free center and encourages tourists to walk around freely. We had a sumptuous meal at Restaurant Adler. The host was friendly, speaking fluent French and managing English. The only words we could say was merci and smile and appreciate the ambience.

We visited Bern and saw the house where Albert Einstein Lived. Being Sunday,

the house was closed, but we managed to catch a glimpse of the house (from the outside). It is located in the center of the Old City at Kramgasse 49around 200 meters from the Clock Tower (Zytglogge

On our last day, we returned to Geneva and walked towards the UN building and Geneve lake. The UN building looks so grand with all the colourful flags swaying with the wind. The Huge chair with 3 legs and one broken leg, speaks of history and stands in from of the UN building main entrance. It symbolises opposition to land mines and cluster bombs, and acts as a reminder to politicians and others visiting Geneva.

To me the trip was awesome, lots of learning and speaks history from every corner.

Fact Sheet ·         Better to have a car and drive around ·         Air BnBs are good and cost anything from 350 swiss franc to 500 swiss franc for 3 nights and 4 days ·         Take lots of warm clothes (layers, if possible), a good pair of walking shoes and an empty water bottle (water is one of the most expensive drinks in Switzerland!)