She braved social censure, terror threats and freezing temperatures to chase what people told her was an impossible dream. Today, she is the country’s top coach in her discipline, teaching her wards the power of dreams.
Meet Bilques Mir from Srinagar, head coach of India’s national women’s kayaking and canoeing team. All of 20 years old, Bilques is one of a handful of sportspersons who are changing the face of terrorism-ravaged Kashmir.
The daughter of a forest ranger, Bilques fell in love with kayaking when she was 13. At a time when virtually no one dared to venture close to the Youth Service Sports Club on the Dal Lake, she went out alone on the water — throwing to the winds the opinion of scornful neighbours and the fear of terrorists.
“Often, I would be alone in a kayak, breaking the ice with my oars,” says the winner of over 25 medals at multiple levels. “People gossiped, criticized my parents for encouraging me. Sometimes I would capsize in the bone-chilling water with no one around. But I kept at it. My parents stood by me all through,” she says.
Eventually success came. Bilques passed the Sports Authority of India-certified coaches training course from Roorkee, and was appointed by Kayaking and Canoeing Federation of India as their national junior coach. It was a moment of history: Jammu and Kashmir had produced its first-ever woman national coach.
On her return from the Junior World Championship in Korea, Bilques was made head coach of the senior team, which is now in Bhopal ahead of the pre-Olympic qualifiers in Komatsu, Japan.
“I want to be a top international coach. I am saving up to train in Hungary,” she says. “I want Kashmiri girls to do well. We have natural talent… hundreds ply shikaras on the Dal...”
© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Salaries for IIM-A graduates up by 20 p.c.
* 76 p.c. accept offers to work in India
* Highest international salary accepted was Rs. 1.44 crore per annum
* 30 per cent to join consulting sector, 11 to start their own ventures
AHMEDABAD: Contrary to the apprehensions of a general slowdown in the international economy affecting management institutions, students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, fetched an average of 20 per cent higher salaries this year compared to last year.
With the campus placements of the two-year Post-Graduate Programme in Management, Post-Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management, and the newly introduced one-year Post-Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy completed successfully, a happy IIM-A director, Samir Barua, said at least his institution was not impacted by the economic crisis.
‘Most preferred institute’
He also said that the IIM-A continued to be the most preferred institute for recruitment not only in terms of the diversity of the organisations that participated in the recruitment process but also by the offers made by them.
Prof. Barua declined to draw any comparison between the IIM-A and other management institutions in the country on the issue of salary and said that he was not aware what “bonus” components, which mark a bulk of the total salary package offered by international and Indian companies, had been incorporated in the total average salary in the placements conducted in the campuses of other IIMs .
He also said it would be wrong to judge the performance of the students and the standard of the institutions solely on the basis of the highest salary offered instead of going by the average salary offered to the entire batch by the different companies.
The highest international salary accepted in this year’s campus recruitment went up to Rs. 1.44 crore per annum as against Rs. 1.20 crore offered last year. Even the average international salary offered this year was about Rs. 47.60 lakh , against Rs. 36 lakh last year.
Domestic salary
The average domestic salary jumped up by about 30 per cent from Rs. 13.7 lakh last year to about 17.85 lakh this year while the highest domestic salary accepted was about Rs. 70 lakh.
The chairperson of the IIM-A PGP placements committee, Piyush Sinha, said that though the financial sector was supposed to have been hit hard by the economic slowdown and many companies had imposed “hiring freeze,” as many as 113 of the 255 students of the 2006-08 batch would be joining the financial sector.
Recruitment
The major banks to recruit the graduates included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Barclays .
While about 30 per cent of the students would be joining the consulting sector, about seven per cent would go to general management and over three per cent to operations.
At least 11 students in the current year’s batch have already opted out of the placements to start their own ventures.
Pointing out that 76 per cent of the students accepted offers to work in India and another 11 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, as against the total of 77 per cent last year, Prof. Barua said for the first time a French student, Diane Gabriel, doing her dual degree programme from both the ESSEC business school and the IIM-A, had preferred to stay back in India and would be joining a local company after completing her degree.
Similarly in the Agri Business Management Programme, the average salary offered increased from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 12.30 lakh .
For a batch of 31 students, 30 companies participated in the placements which for the first time also saw consultancy and other peripheral companies vying with agro-based industries to recruit the IIMA PGP-ABM students.
Of the first 33-students batch of the PGP-PMP, mainly coming from the government and other public sector organisations for a one-year stint in public management and policy, nine students would be returning to the parent organisations who had also sponsored their IIM-A studies. The salary offered to the remaining 24 students, having an average 12 years of work experience, ranged from Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh per annum with an average of Rs. 24 lakh per annum. Prof. Barua said the batch size for the PGP-PMP course for the next year would be expanded to 45 students.
© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu
* Highest international salary accepted was Rs. 1.44 crore per annum
* 30 per cent to join consulting sector, 11 to start their own ventures
AHMEDABAD: Contrary to the apprehensions of a general slowdown in the international economy affecting management institutions, students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, fetched an average of 20 per cent higher salaries this year compared to last year.
With the campus placements of the two-year Post-Graduate Programme in Management, Post-Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management, and the newly introduced one-year Post-Graduate Programme in Public Management and Policy completed successfully, a happy IIM-A director, Samir Barua, said at least his institution was not impacted by the economic crisis.
‘Most preferred institute’
He also said that the IIM-A continued to be the most preferred institute for recruitment not only in terms of the diversity of the organisations that participated in the recruitment process but also by the offers made by them.
Prof. Barua declined to draw any comparison between the IIM-A and other management institutions in the country on the issue of salary and said that he was not aware what “bonus” components, which mark a bulk of the total salary package offered by international and Indian companies, had been incorporated in the total average salary in the placements conducted in the campuses of other IIMs .
He also said it would be wrong to judge the performance of the students and the standard of the institutions solely on the basis of the highest salary offered instead of going by the average salary offered to the entire batch by the different companies.
The highest international salary accepted in this year’s campus recruitment went up to Rs. 1.44 crore per annum as against Rs. 1.20 crore offered last year. Even the average international salary offered this year was about Rs. 47.60 lakh , against Rs. 36 lakh last year.
Domestic salary
The average domestic salary jumped up by about 30 per cent from Rs. 13.7 lakh last year to about 17.85 lakh this year while the highest domestic salary accepted was about Rs. 70 lakh.
The chairperson of the IIM-A PGP placements committee, Piyush Sinha, said that though the financial sector was supposed to have been hit hard by the economic slowdown and many companies had imposed “hiring freeze,” as many as 113 of the 255 students of the 2006-08 batch would be joining the financial sector.
Recruitment
The major banks to recruit the graduates included Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Barclays .
While about 30 per cent of the students would be joining the consulting sector, about seven per cent would go to general management and over three per cent to operations.
At least 11 students in the current year’s batch have already opted out of the placements to start their own ventures.
Pointing out that 76 per cent of the students accepted offers to work in India and another 11 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, as against the total of 77 per cent last year, Prof. Barua said for the first time a French student, Diane Gabriel, doing her dual degree programme from both the ESSEC business school and the IIM-A, had preferred to stay back in India and would be joining a local company after completing her degree.
Similarly in the Agri Business Management Programme, the average salary offered increased from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 12.30 lakh .
For a batch of 31 students, 30 companies participated in the placements which for the first time also saw consultancy and other peripheral companies vying with agro-based industries to recruit the IIMA PGP-ABM students.
Of the first 33-students batch of the PGP-PMP, mainly coming from the government and other public sector organisations for a one-year stint in public management and policy, nine students would be returning to the parent organisations who had also sponsored their IIM-A studies. The salary offered to the remaining 24 students, having an average 12 years of work experience, ranged from Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh per annum with an average of Rs. 24 lakh per annum. Prof. Barua said the batch size for the PGP-PMP course for the next year would be expanded to 45 students.
© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu
Monday, January 14, 2008
Six Behaviors that Increase Self-Esteem
By Denis Waitley
Following are six behaviors that increase self-esteem, enhance your self-confidence, and spur your motivation. You may recognize some of them as things you naturally do in your interactions with other people. But if you don't, I suggest you motivate yourself to take some of these important steps immediately.
First, greet others with a smile and look them directly in the eye. A smile and direct eye contact convey confidence born of self-respect. In the same way, answer the phone pleasantly whether at work or at home, and when placing a call, give your name before asking to speak to the party you want to reach. Leading with your name underscores that a person with self-respect is making the call.
Second, always show real appreciation for a gift or complement. Don't downplay or sidestep expressions of affection or honor from others. The ability to accept or receive is a universal mark of an individual with solid self-esteem.
Third, don't brag. It's almost a paradox that genuine modesty is actually part of the capacity to gracefully receive compliments. People who brag about their own exploits or demand special attention are simply trying to build themselves up in the eyes of others — and that's because they don't perceive themselves as already worthy of respect.
Fourth, don't make your problems the centerpiece of your conversation. Talk positively about your life and the progress you're trying to make. Be aware of any negative thinking, and take notice of how often you complain. When you hear yourself criticize someone — and this includes self-criticism — find a way to be helpful instead of critical.
Fifth, respond to difficult times or depressing moments by increasing your level of productive activity. When your self-esteem is being challenged, don't sit around and fall victim to "paralysis by analysis." The late Malcolm Forbes said, "Vehicles in motion use their generators to charge their own batteries. Unless you happen to be a golf cart, you can't recharge your battery when you're parked in the garage!"
Sixth, choose to see mistakes and rejections as opportunities to learn. View a failure as the conclusion of one performance, not the end of your entire career. Own up to your shortcomings, but refuse to see yourself as a failure. A failure may be something you have done — and it may even be something you'll have to do again on the way to success — but a failure is definitely not something you are.
Even if you're at a point where you're feeling very negatively about yourself, be aware that you're now ideally positioned to make rapid and dramatic improvement. A negative self-evaluation, if it's honest and insightful, takes much more courage and character than the self-delusions that underlie arrogance and conceit. I've seen the truth of this proven many times in my work with athletes.
After an extremely poor performance, a team or an individual athlete often does much better the next time out, especially when the poor performance was so bad that there was simply no way to shirk responsibility for it. Disappointment, defeat, and even apparent failure are in no way permanent conditions unless we choose to make them so. On the contrary, these undeniably painful experiences can be the solid foundation on which to build future success.
Following are six behaviors that increase self-esteem, enhance your self-confidence, and spur your motivation. You may recognize some of them as things you naturally do in your interactions with other people. But if you don't, I suggest you motivate yourself to take some of these important steps immediately.
First, greet others with a smile and look them directly in the eye. A smile and direct eye contact convey confidence born of self-respect. In the same way, answer the phone pleasantly whether at work or at home, and when placing a call, give your name before asking to speak to the party you want to reach. Leading with your name underscores that a person with self-respect is making the call.
Second, always show real appreciation for a gift or complement. Don't downplay or sidestep expressions of affection or honor from others. The ability to accept or receive is a universal mark of an individual with solid self-esteem.
Third, don't brag. It's almost a paradox that genuine modesty is actually part of the capacity to gracefully receive compliments. People who brag about their own exploits or demand special attention are simply trying to build themselves up in the eyes of others — and that's because they don't perceive themselves as already worthy of respect.
Fourth, don't make your problems the centerpiece of your conversation. Talk positively about your life and the progress you're trying to make. Be aware of any negative thinking, and take notice of how often you complain. When you hear yourself criticize someone — and this includes self-criticism — find a way to be helpful instead of critical.
Fifth, respond to difficult times or depressing moments by increasing your level of productive activity. When your self-esteem is being challenged, don't sit around and fall victim to "paralysis by analysis." The late Malcolm Forbes said, "Vehicles in motion use their generators to charge their own batteries. Unless you happen to be a golf cart, you can't recharge your battery when you're parked in the garage!"
Sixth, choose to see mistakes and rejections as opportunities to learn. View a failure as the conclusion of one performance, not the end of your entire career. Own up to your shortcomings, but refuse to see yourself as a failure. A failure may be something you have done — and it may even be something you'll have to do again on the way to success — but a failure is definitely not something you are.
Even if you're at a point where you're feeling very negatively about yourself, be aware that you're now ideally positioned to make rapid and dramatic improvement. A negative self-evaluation, if it's honest and insightful, takes much more courage and character than the self-delusions that underlie arrogance and conceit. I've seen the truth of this proven many times in my work with athletes.
After an extremely poor performance, a team or an individual athlete often does much better the next time out, especially when the poor performance was so bad that there was simply no way to shirk responsibility for it. Disappointment, defeat, and even apparent failure are in no way permanent conditions unless we choose to make them so. On the contrary, these undeniably painful experiences can be the solid foundation on which to build future success.
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