I came across some wonderful videos.
I especially love the comment at the end of the following one from John Cleese suggesting, ‘laughter is a force for democracy’!

More laughing yoga…

Popularity: 41% [?]

I am fortunate to be part of the organising committee that organises the Birmingham to London Cycle (UK) ride every year.

I just wrote the official marketing letter:

It is that time of year again to start training for the ride of your life (Birmingham to London from 21st to 22nd July 2007). If you took part last year, you will remember, the friends, fellowship and fun that we all had raising money for Whizz Kids.

If you did it last year (brilliant!) or are new to the ride, come and join again this year on our 18th ride to raise money for this year’s charity: Children with Leukemia.

Application forms are now available and we strongly recommend you apply early to avoid disappointment - Just as important, it is essential that you start training now.

Many ride application options are available this year, i.e: solo, fast track and team entry.

They say that ‘you take the journey with you’. We suggest that you make the journey of your life worthwhile by helping others.

We look forward to receiving your application form (NB official entry until 30th June 2007).

Best Regards
SACA Bike ride organisers 2007
http://www.charitybikeride.com/
Enc: 2007 Ride application form

SACA is the abbreviation for the Sikh Arts and Culture Association. The ride was initially developed by the British Organisation of Sikh Students and was later transferred after a few years to SACA.

Over the last 17 years over £90,000 has been raised for children’s charities, for example, Contact a family, Ealing Hospitals ‘Playground in the Sky’, Wolverhampton Hospital’s Children’s ward, NSPCC, SCOPE, deBra, Dr Barnados and Whizzkids. Approximately 3,500 people have taken part.

The event is followed by a charity evening at the end of September / early October. The purpose of this event is to say Thank you to the riders, the supportive families and organizers that have sponsored the ride. Medals are also presented together with many musicians that give up their time to raise further funds. Competitors for the most money raised through sponsorship are awarded and the charity is presented with a cheque for the total amount raised.

As I said in my letter, we take the journey with us. By the way, I saw that saying on a SoutWest trains poster advertisement. The phrase does touch one’s soul - we need to ensure that we help each other as after all our journey of life is unpredictable and should be treasured.

If you would like to take part in the ride, please feel free to drop me an email or simply head for the ride website at: http://www.charitybikeride.com/ It would also be great to hear from companies as this event is a fantastic opportunity for corporate responsibility! Remember, apathy is too easy!

Popularity: 50% [?]

Last week everyone watched with shock and horror the post nightmare of the Virginia Tech shootings. Scholars and lecturers were gunned down in a pointless sense of rage by one lost soul. Was it true that a single armed individual could cause so much pain and suffering, creating a ripple effect of shock and disbelief around the world. Yes, unfortunately, the killer, whose name does not deserve to be in print, established himself as a mass murderer.

One has to ask why and a hope that it will not be repeated? Yet, I wonder if the underlying reasons for him ‘snapping’ were more than his apparent inability to be ‘in with the in crowd’. Maybe he was mentally disturbed or his condition could have been as a result of an accumulative set of circumstances.

If people feel left out, unfortunately little is done to help them reach out and find a support group or a proactive approach to help get involved in team activities, for example: school games, competitions or techniques to bring out the positive qualities of individuals. I believe that today there are many lonely people in a world. Ironic, as we are surrounded by over six Billion individuals. Clique mentality exists everywhere but little is done to expose possible areas of stress.

In the case of the Virginia Tech shootings I am certainly not giving any excuses to the person who’s loose screw eventually made him lose any sense of reality.

What continues to confuse everyone about this killer is the potential difference between his online and off-line persona. Maybe he hid his true mental situation well and that no amount of profiling would have exposed this would be killer? Although I mentioned the need for a proactive approach to pick-up on potential killers, it appears that in late 2005 a special Justice’s order directed the Virginia Tech killer to seek outpatient treatment and declare him to be mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself. Why did no one pick-up on this fact? This fact alone fits the federal criteria of him (the killer) being unable to purchase a gun i.e.: The stated circumstance should have immediately disqualified him.

I am not implying that we need Big Brother type policing. However, today we certainly have sorting algorithms and data mining tools to review and correlate data in an attempt to profile potential killers.

Finally, a lot has been written about whether the world should have been exposed to his online documented persona. One argument is that this exposure immortalises him and that may have been one of his aims. However, I believe that the reverse is true. We see from his videos and pictures that he was truly beyond reason and had ‘lost the plot’. His videos expose him as a fraud and deluded.

For our proactive approach to halt such a reoccurrence, we are able to learn more about opening up our attitudes to people and the need to urgently consider new strategies to capture potential lost souls.

Popularity: 43% [?]

A few years ago I was invited to a Business Exchange type of networking event - an event where there is hope that a lot of business folks can get together and hopefully help each other out in winning business or developing new strategies / synergies for products/services. It was held at what was described as one of the finest hotels in the world – With hors d’oeuvre’s of all shapes and sizes.

I probably didn’t know what to expect as the way the event had been described to me was very different to what it turned out to be. Upon arrival we were led to the hotel’s grand hall. Waiters rushed backwards and forwards ensuring that upon entry each entrant was supplied with a glass of whatever.

In front of me was a sea of dark suits, both men and women engaged in filling the hall with the sounds of rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb… With a glass in one hand and a plate of mini quiche’s in the other I walked towards groups of people in a hope to contribute at an appropriate point of interlude. One group was busy discussing the power of quality procedures, another on how financial management (cash flow et al) is important and another discussing financial management arrangements. It then dawned on me that most of the conversations were being led by financial and legal consultants who would typically emerge from the right hand side of the hall and ‘net’ individuals within their vocal grasp. I remember being financially propositioned (in a ‘would you be interested in a business loan’ manner) at least twice. In addition, being introduced to at least two legal experts, ceremonially leaving their cards with me on departure.

Maybe what I have described is not typical of what happens at all these events. i.e: I have heard of good events where guest speakers pitch their services and there really is potential to engage in valuable debate with identifying possible synergies. Maybe I just had a bad experience!

The power of fantastic resources like http://www.sikhiwiki.org and http://www.sikhnet.com together with audio podcasting bring an opportunity for us to share knowledge. It is great that at some Gurdwaras we see Power-point translations using Sikhi-to-the-max. I hold out hope for the power of the Internet and its potential to connect people in a non-threatening way and through sensible discussion (and equality). Most of all without boundaries or subversive control. With social (online) media people can exhibit their personal creativity, share thoughts and record activities, assuming of course that they know how to use the required/necessary online tools. This raises the question of whether those that are more technically savvy have an unfair advantage?


Ending on a positive, new technology brings us great opportunities to share knowledge (just take a look at the growing number of Sikh Bloggers and be impressed!) and what would be even nicer is the potential to fuse or ‘blend’ the online experience with face-to-face events.

Popularity: 35% [?]