Ten Commandments for Ishna

1. Have a dream. Dream big and then work hard to realize that dream but don't get dejected if even after your full efforts u r not able to realize the goal. Let it go. Don't get attached emotionally.

2. Dare to speak your mind out always living by your convictions. Never think about how popular or unpopular sharing a particular belief is going to make you. The only thing to take care is to be considerate of others and not being arrogant but have an opinion and stick to it. Remember a rolling stone does not gather any moss.

3. Life will always throw two choices at you whenever u r faced with hurdles ... be it in your personal life or professional life. Either be on the problem solving team or be an eternal cribber complaining about everything and anything. Always be on the problem solving team instead of cribbing about it. People are defined not by absence/presence of events in their lives but by how they rise to the occasion, not by their reactions but by their responses. You can well convert a failure into an opportunity. Depends on how u look at it and tackle it. This is when the leader in u peeps out.

4. Carry a deep sense of pride about doing things your way. That does not mean u should criticize or demean others' ways of doing things.All of us do things in our own way,the way that suits our life-styles, temperaments,  budgets, social strata....But never should we allow others to demean us or try to demean others just because they are different than us.

5. Be committed to your work. Don't rest until the task u r on is not finished. Always be willing to accept more work without being made a dumping bag by the couch potatoes.Never complain about being too busy not to be able to dedicate time to another assignment that is thrown at u. Remember the best way to get a work done is to give it to the busiest person in the room. Work out the details of a job to the minutest level possible but don't be a micro manager. Be a big picture guy.

6. Listen to the feed-back that people will give you but don't be pulled down by their criticism. Learn to know the difference. Similarly appreciate the subtle differences between seemingly similar words as that will help u go a long way in your life. Be self respecting but not haughty, humble but not servile, opinionated but not arrogant, doubtful but not faithless......

7. Remember "Equality" is a big sham. There will always be people better than you-learn from them and there will be people slower than you-teach them. Please don't misinterpret me to mean you should discriminate among people on the basis of their skin color, religion,nationality etc. Many of these things don't mean much anyway. I would like you to appreciate the uniqueness among all individuals rather than trying to put them on the same podium.

8. People always ascribe "rights" to themselves and assign "duties" to others. I would like to c u on the opposite side of the mirror. Always carry out what you think are your duties without aspiring for rights. There is nothing like a right. We just lend exigency to something that we feel comfortable with and later begin to drum it as our right.

9. Learn to take responsibility for things-especially when they go wrong. Nobody expects u 2 b perfect (and even if they would, u r not answerable to anybody and then perfection is a relative term). Don't be a face in the crowd pointing fingers at others when things go wrong and wanting all the laurels to come your way for a job well done (may b by others).

10. Last but not the least learn from others' mistakes. U can't make all of them yourself. One lifetime will be too short for that.

Your Dad