40 Tips to increase your blog traffic

Some of these tactics are more effective than others , and jointly implemented directly , but you can create long -term and organic growth path .

1.     Create a large following on Twitter
2.     Link your blog to your Twitter profile
3.     On Facebook to connect to your blog
4.     Facebook Your post
5.     Create and publish great content
6.     People sharing a Pinterest button to easily share your content
7.     In exchange for their email address and name of the people by offering a free book to record your blog to provide an incentive
8.     Add a group of people in many places
9.     Add an RSS feed option
10.     To link your blog to your YouTube channel videos
11.     You can write the best caption
12.     The guest blog is a great blogs in your industry
13.     Other bloggers commented articles
14.     Respond on your posts
15.     Important and influential bloggers in your interview
16.     Have a strong social media presence for your business testimonials from those in
17.      Ensure that mobile devices can be easily read on your blog
18.     Such WordPress SEO ( also known Yoast ) Optimize for search engines using a SEO plugin
19.     Search engine friendly keywords in your blog content , including images, to improve
20.     followed by a new article
21.     In the archives links to your blog
22.     To list your most popular posts
23.     A SEO friendly platform for online publication ... " WordPress " to use
24.     A simple design to focus on your content and your use of profiles
25.     ( Floating buttons very good ) buttons to share your articles are placed on top of the " main " Add social media
26.     You can easily follow the social media people you want to be displayed in a prominent place
27.     Twitter and other top bloggers share content and share them inform you specify a @ topblogger
28.     Copy and bloggers to follow up strategies
29.     That is compelling and draws readers to write a great introduction
30.     They came back to become loyal fans for your readers
31.     Reliability is a key condition to your awards , such as gains and build social proof to show
32.     To connect to your blog in your email signature
33.     Facebook groups to participate in the
34.     Hot topic in your industry and to encourage it to develop in a Google+ Hangout
35.     Rights to participate in groups
36.     To attract attention and create some controversy
37.     Publishing articles Stumbleupon
38.     A business card on your blog
39.     Instagram photos taken ( there are more than 130 million registered users ) and share them on Facebook and Twitter
40.     Expand the reach of your blogs include multimedia in your articles . Videos , infographics , podcasts and SlideShare presentations in some cases, learning a priority in text format .

Make Money From Online Training

Growing online jobs or online lesson learned . There is no training for new jobs . All of the necessary qualifications and experience to make a big school or university together young people from a variety of subjects , college students , and elderly people to teach a foreign language could be interested in studying new things . Training is usually done in your own home or student houses , but now can be trained to do more online . All that you need to be an online teacher is a computer connected to the Internet . Online training usually pays less than traditional training , but the time and you get a full picture of the costs associated with commuting is that it should consider .Your qualifications , skills , knowledge and experience to teach almost nothing can be based . Music , foreign languages ​​, mathematics , science , whether in a school or university level , and training opportunities can be found online about this and all other subjects . You have large groups of 10 , 15 , 20 or more people or a class with a single teacher work online . Thanks to the internet you can now reach customers globally and is controlled by your city or neighborhood .
Where to find jobs online training ?

     Start your own website or a blog . This is a great way to find customers . You can start a blog about subjects you intend to learn to write useful tips and articles , and is interested to learn more , you will be able to provide training services .
    Online training agencies . You can join one or more online training agencies . You can join online , there are a number of agencies . Training agencies aim is to match the online classes to their customers . There are still some special and Spanish language , such as research subjects in all university departments to take various other classes, five classes are looking for specific fields . Before sending your application , you are a teacher to check the status of their questions and their needs . Their degree ( Masters , Bachelors , Masters at an accredited university ) , they accept all applicants from around the world or from certain countries may be required. Teaching experience they require a minimum of two or three years . You can join the Chapter agencies are :

      BrainMass - a graduate level ( Masters or PhD) degree from an accredited university accepts applicants . BrainMass accepted applicants from all university research departments .
    For a purpose - to teach the subject they all Bachelor accepts applicants from around the world . You English language , mathematics , science can be taught .
    Bilingual United States - Georgia and Florida accepts instructors from the Spanish and English .
    Everywhere in English - a TEFL / TOEFL accepts applicants can qualify to teach English .
    EduWizards - provides a flexible part-time hours , and using a whiteboard and voice technology classes to qualify accepts an order .

    Craigslist - is the world's largest advertising platform . Create your account under which your ad free lessons and training . Easy to create ads , and provide service training to explain that you need to create ad title . Craigslist ads are based on the date they are posted . After this period of time to see it because you want your ad to register again .

Make Money From Youtube

Is the world's largest video sharing site Youtube . Millions of people can see them, they made ​​their holidays with their friends , pets , animation or music videos , posting the videos . Youtube can also upload videos to YouTube without any technical experience and is very easy to use and almost no one . Their videos on YouTube have made a lot of money today, you will find information about YouTube's stars . Youtube is even millionaires are even stories about people online . Made millions of dollars from his videos on Youtube , for example, is a Korean singer Psy .
Two things you must do to earn money on Youtube
1 . Uploading videos on YouTubeIf you do not already have a full process on Youtube money to the account . Videos and uploading them after you start . To upload a video on YouTube which you can do it . You can make a video diary of your vacation , and pets can not talk about . YouTube is a omlet or do anything else you want to share with millions of people , some video tutorials on how to use computer software can do . If you want to be a YouTube partner with you to upload your videos to YouTube for the audience to create a decent amount of money to start with . Videos to make sure they are in harmony with the terms of service , or delete your videos at stake when your account has been terminated .
2 . Becoming a YouTube partnerIf you like you can also earn money on YouTube . Someone they click on ads on your videos you money . You must be able to do on Youtube firs YouTube partner . Adsense is a publisher that is not easy becoming a YouTube Partner . It helps if you already have an adsense account , but it is very difficult to becoming a YouTube Partner . Some of the videos you have uploaded all your videos , such as the number of views , number of subscribers , the number must meet
If you do it correctly youtube master and can be very lucrative online income opportunity . It is fun and decent quality videos with the help of computer software such as Movie Maker is not hard to do . It is difficult to say how much of that from your videos , but you somewhere between $ 3 to $ 10 and your videos can expect one thousand views .

Revenue Sharing Sites

You can start earning money from revenue sharing websites need two things:

        Revenue sharing website or open an account. You can do this for free, you will need to fill in all the form and e-mail address.
        Account GoogleAdSense. Open an Adsense account before considering the acceptance of your application usually takes some time. Ad networks Chitika and other revenue sharing websites such as Amazon, but you have to use to make money with AdSense account is a necessity so that AdSense is the most popular. And approved the content you submitted with your application, some websites will help you. This Webanswers, a question, you open Adsense account 50 posted and approved answers which will help you in the case of a revenue sharing site.

     Revenue sharing websites and 50% share of the revenue to pay people to publish their articles. Once you reach the minimum payment amount of your income through Google if they do not receive payment. You can write about anything you want. Most of the revenue sharing websites that allow you to publish content about anything. , Google AdSense words in harmony with it until the food, lifestyle, art, technology, business, politics, entertainment and other categories.

     Revenue sharing websites you can join here:

        Infobarrel - Publishers provides 75%
        Bukisa - 60% share of the population pays to publish their articles.
        Seekyt - Snipsly ad revenue 70% rewards writers - writers, pays 80% stake.
        ShetoldMe - 100% share of the writers.
        Xomba - 50% of revenue rewards writers.
        Snipsly - you can keep advertising revenue share of 80%

       You can only find these online money in the future for a long time that you can create a passive income online revenue sharing, a number of websites. Join now making money while you sleep.

Tell Google About High Quality Small Sites That Deserve Better Traffic

Do you want to inform Google about a small website that should get better search engine rankings and higher search traffic. Google wants to know from the community about such great small sites that should rank higher.

In a tweet, Google engineer Matt Cutts invited people to fill this special form to inform about such websites.

The disclaimer is clear –  this is for getting feedback only about high quality websites and they do not promise any review or higher site rankings by filling this form.

Especially since Google introduced the manual penalty viewer, and then removed reconsideration request forms for sites stuck with algorithmic penalties – I guess thousands of webmasters stuck by Google penalties will fill this form as this seems a new way to get Google’s attention.

Suggest a high quality site today!

Tax Free Bonds: Best Way to Invest Blogging Income

How do you invest your blogging income? Tax Free Bonds might be the best way to save income tax. In India, probably the most popular way to invest money safely for the long term is by bank fixed deposits. But with a whole range of tax free bonds hitting the market in 2013-2014, fixed deposits do not seem to be the best way to invest and make your money grow in the long term.

 

Probably if you make enough blogging income (especially in addition to your day job), there are high chances you might earn enough to be charged 30% tax rate. Even if you invest in a 8.5-9% fixed deposit, it effectively comes down to below 7%, as the interest income adds to your total income and is taxed.

Whereas if you invest in a tax free bond, they usually have a annual interest which is not taxable, and after your maturity period which is usually 10-20 years, you get your original money back. The incoming interest can then be reinvested in other financial instruments like shares, bonds, mutual funds etc. So for a tax free bond at 8.5%, the effective pre-tax rate can come as high as over 11.5-12%!

Though tax free bonds come rarely every year near end of  tax assessment years, this year it might be different as the Indian Government has allowed 13 public sector institutions (PSU) to raise Rs 48,000 crore in 2013-2014 via tax free bonds! This means many top Government organizations (which are long term safe investment bets with high safety ratings) will hit the market. Some of the top PSU which will offer tax free bonds are like India Infrastructure Finance Company, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Housing and Urban Development Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation (which is already open).

A large portion of the total available bonds (like 40%) is reserved for retail investors like you and me, which means there is a good chance to get the bonds. Though these public issues are open for several weeks, they are mostly available on first come first serve basis, so if you really need to buy them, then buy these tax free bonds on the first day the issue opens. Also note that retail investors have an upper limit which they can invest (mostly like 10 lakhs).

Though the bonds offer long term investment options, many might be traded in stock exchanges (like BSE, NSE), but the rate might be lower as usually retail investors get  a higher interest rate. If you sell these bonds in the secondary market before maturity, it will invite capital gains tax, which will vary depending on short or long terms capital gains. Since interest rates vary with investment period,  it is very important to understand the interest structure and choose the best one.

Buying bonds has become very easy with online trading services like ICICIdirect, ShareKhan etc which allow you to buy these bonds in a few clicks! But if you really want to invest, keep an eye out for these tax free bonds in  financial newspapers, keep free money in your bank / trading account  and save a lot of income tax!

NOTE: We are not financial experts. Please read the bonds prospectus and seek expert investment advice before performing any financial action. This is not a sponsored post and this article is for informational purpose only.

How to Create Street View Like Interactive Business Tour

Google Business Photos brings together trusted photographers to help create 360 degree street view like panoramic interactive tours of your business. A interactive tour of your business premises not only wows your Google maps street view visitors, it also helps you showcase your business like never before, even before shopper actually visit your store.

If you use Google Street view and love it, imagine much your business visitors will love it if they can enter your shop and get browse around it with the same interactivity! Now you can get it professionally done for your business.

Google Business photos offers a simple process to promote your business. The first step is to hire a Trusted Photographer or Trusted Agency – these are Google certified based on their skill and competence to help you get an amazing photo shoot and then they can stitch the photos to get you the amazing street view experience for your business, which they will upload on Google+ Business.

Note these photographers are not affiliated with Google, but are certified by Google. Also note they will charge a fee for the photo shoot, which needs to be negotiated and can vary across different Agencies. If you check the list, you will also find that these professional photographers or photo agencies are only available in select countries and cities only, mainly in the US.

If you are an expert in photography or your agency has the necessary technology, you can also apply to be a Business Photos Trusted Photographer. This business options is wide open right now for expert photographers. It will not only help you earn more by collaborating with local businesses, but will also help you get more business in future by being listed as a trusted photographer.

 

Design new Google AdSense text ads

Google AdSense is a more elegant background design for your text ad testing. I discovered the new text designs on our website during the display of text ad formats and seems to be visible in several ad sizes as well.

This is a interesting characters such as AdSense force a background change in the text ads and she does actually look nice, but it leads to a higher click through rate and earn you more money... that is what matters.

Note, that originally both show this for large format font Verdana set, blue links, light grey URL, dark black text and a white background. Now this one looks you carefully show - she sees open Sans font (newly added AdSense options), the color of links seems a brighter blue, the text is overwriting the white background with a shaded grey design easier several shades, but what is striking.

Although I have seen in previous AdSense tests that try, test different fonts and colors, I've never seen, they change the background. Another important thing to note here is that I improve features in as arrow and favicons, so likely that try had disabled viewing, the CTR of our simple show in a better way to improve.

I love the text-display design, as it blends very well with the site design and looks less like ads, but it better create the CTR, show a detailed analysis. What do you think about this new text ads?

HDMI 2.0 now available

HDMI-Forum has released HDMI version 2.0, which promises to increase bandwidth to take entertainment to the next level of consumers, significantly extends the support for tech companies, expand, new technology and higher-end gadgets.

HDMI 2 increases the bandwidth up to 18Gbps, support for 4 K ultra high resolutionenable. 4K@50/60 (2160 p)-, the 60 fps technology offers 4 times the clarity the currently with HDMI 1.4 is widely available HDTV 1080 p/60 video resolution. He is also the immersive audio experience to the next level with the support of 32 audio channels! It enables the simultaneous deployment of multi-stream audio up to 4 users and dual video streams for multiple users on the same screen with support for the theatrical wide angle video aspect ratio 21:9.

A good feature is, use that attach HDMI specification version 2.0 backward compatible with previous versions will now become the common gadgets such as video cameras, HDTV, HD cameras, Playstations etc..  HDMI 2.0 was developed by the HDMI Forum technical working group, a collaboration of leading manufacturers in the electronics, computers, mobile phones and components.

Category 2 HDMI cable , often as "High Speed" marked support the HDMI 2.0 specification. So the next time you HDMI cable purchase, make sure that you buy the latest version for compatibility with your future gadgets.

How to get your first tweet on Twitter

If you want to find your first tweet on Twitter? Using Topsy and you will find all your older tweets, including your first tweet. Topsy indexed all the tweets from any Twitter account and now its advanced search database of not only tweets from any account can be displayed, but offers very valuable social analyses.

When you started, probably remember not even your first tweet on Twitter a long time ago, but I'm sure, you want to know what it is. I my first tweet, not more, but my first tweet on Twitter, which is more than 6 years back, found via the

3 Settings are important when searching for older tweets on topsy-

What you are looking for - we used from: Qot enter the topsy search search for our Twitter account @qot . Replace your Twitter ID qotsorted by oldest - this will give you your oldest Tweets. By default, the Tweets are otherwise sorted by relevance.Can sort of all time - this way Topsy oldest tweets Goinf looking back to 2006! By default are selected only the last 7 days.

 

Kaufen Sie Bücher bei Amazon, holen Sie sich gleichen Kindle Bücher kostenlos

The new Amazon Matchbox program can Amazon book buyers free Kindle Edition by the same non free (for selected eligible books) get.  The great part is that the deal is valid for all print books at Amazon at any time in the past also purchased. For example, if you have a popular novel in 1995 bought the book can now for Kindle for free into account!

Not all print editions for free Kindle editions are of course. The prices vary from book to book, and many have to pay $0.99, $1.99, or a maximum of $2.99 to download books on your Kindle.

Kindle books are usually cheaper than the non, but not free, or even dirt cheap.

Actually this thing is quite similar to Amazon Autorip, users to download free mp3 music of your purchased music albums until 1998 back.

Kindle is by far the best selling e-book reader on Amazon and the new versions promise an amazing touch experience, while the Kindle Paperwhite take the brightness of the screen to a new level. With the Kindle a popular option is easy in countries such as India of increasingly eBooks now available. As space continues to shrink, are the preferred way to read eBooks.

So what happens if you don't have a Kindle? Now there are many Kindle apps that download and read books on your Mac, PC, Kindle iPad and read even a mobile Smartphone Android!

MatchBook launches in October with about 10,000 eligible books , including to ignite several best-selling editions. So get your favorite books for free download ready or very cheap prices and take your entire collection online and read from anywhere on any device.

Samsung Galaxy transmission smart watch [videos]

Samsung has launched its Samsung Galaxy transmission Smart Watch, and it promises to change the portable technology market like never before. Previously, there were several attempts to create watches of technology companies such as Sony, smart and although the rumor Apple iWatch still is expected, some have become smart very popular watches like a Pebble . The Samsung Galaxy gear promises to watch, this watch-mainstream technology is expected to make and be popular.

The Samsung watch features a super AMOLED 1.63-inch Panel with 320 x 320 pixel resolution. The camera is attached to the bracelet and 1.9 megapixel captures photos and 10 second 720 p videos with an autofocus lens. It is powered a single-core 800 MHz Exynos processor. It has a metal face with tie down straps in 6 colors available. It features 4 GB of onboard storage capacity and the 315mAh battery lasts a day.

The clock simply connects to your Smartphone Samsung Galaxy and provides support for nearly 70 applications such as Pocket, path, EverNote, RunKeeper and Runtastic Pro! The Galaxy equipment for sale expected worldwide end of September for an estimated price of $299. [Image credit to Engadget].

View the exciting hands on video

They show everything, what Nokia phone Nokia Museum

All Nokia phones made want to see today? Nokia-Museum-online gallery offers the best way to visualize all once top cell phone manufacturer Nokia mobile phones. Probably you have already heard Microsoft bought Nokia mobile phone business after the successful Windows phone software to run smartphones Nokia Lumia and has revived interest in older mobile models.

So visit the Nokia Museum Gallery and feel the nostalgia and find it was published first in Nokia mobile phone check the specs and compare with your current Smartphone. The Nokia Gallery of features a complete collection of all Nokia phones, sorted by year, click to the whole article, the Nokia phone to see photos and full technical specifications.

Probably every one of us heard a Nokia phone sometime in our lives, either when an early adopter, mobile technology in the 90's or convert a new Windows phone attracted by the excellent design of Lumia. I had the opportunity to take advantage of the old and new Nokia phones. My first Nokia phone was Nokia 3310 and the Nokia-Lumia-720 is my latest. New cell phones have the best cameras, resolutions, makes packaged apps and low radiation .

Write a comment about your first Nokia phone model and why you loved it?

Design new Google AdSense text ads

Google AdSense is a more elegant background design for your text ad testing. I discovered the new text designs on our website during the display of text ad formats and seems to be visible in several ad sizes as well.

This is a interesting characters such as AdSense force a background change in the text ads and she does actually look nice, but it leads to a higher click through rate and earn you more money... that is what matters.

Note, that originally both show this for large format font Verdana set, blue links, light grey URL, dark black text and a white background. Now this one looks you carefully show - she sees open Sans font (newly added AdSense options), the color of links seems a brighter blue, the text is overwriting the white background with a shaded grey design easier several shades, but what is striking.

Although I have seen in previous AdSense tests that try, test different fonts and colors, I've never seen, they change the background. Another important thing to note here is that I improve features in as arrow and favicons, so likely that try had disabled viewing, the CTR of our simple show in a better way to improve.

I love the text-display design, as it blends very well with the site design and looks less like ads, but it better create the CTR, show a detailed analysis. What do you think about this new text ads?

Labels, Mental Health and my Split Blog Disorder

 LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 08: Nobel Prize winner Sir John Gurdon talks to reporters on October 8, 2012 in London, England. Sir John and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan have both been awarded the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for their work as pioneers of stem cell research. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

I have a post over at Psychology Today about Labeling and its deleterious effects. That did lead to some heated discussions on Facebook, so be sure to add your voice to the discussion by commenting on the post.

The way I have framed the above issues, I’m sure you know by now, which way my sympathies lie. To make it explicit, I do not like labelling children / adult who have slightly differently wired brains, or who are temporarily thrown off-track due to acute stressors and circumstances beyond their control, with mental disease/illness labels – I believe the stigmatisation that accompanies such a labelling does more harm than good. This does not mean labelling per se is bad- we do need to label differences amongst us, both to harness properly the special abilities that such a diverse population presents, and to help them overcome whatever shortcomings they have by providing adequate and tailored societal support to accommodate such differences. Labelling becomes bad and counterproductive when the label is seen as permanent and innate (even a ‘gifted’ label is counterproductive if such giftedness is seen as innate and non-malleable), and has a negative, stigmatising and disability connotation.

Read the rest at the source; the last point needs elaboration. Just as labeling someone as Gifted may have negative effects, labeling someone as stupid or incapable also has long lasting negative effects. My TOI blog post touches on how Sir John Gurdon faced such a situation and came out victorious.

What are the chances that you would overcome such negative feedback, not be irrevocably scarred by such negativity, but instead show a high degree of resilience and positive attitude and take that as a challenge rather than a setback; and finally become not only a successful scientist, but also receive the highest honour in your field- a Nobel Prize? If that seems too good to be true, take heart. Sir John Gurdon, who received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for 2012 has actually lived that life. However, while most of us may wither into nothingness after getting so much negative early feedback; he took that as a challenge – he got that report framed and put above his desk in the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge (the only piece of accomplishment he ever got framed!) – And decided to prove his teacher wrong.

This brings me to announcing my brand new blog at Times Of India, which would be targeted more towards the layman, and also have a contemporary and Indian touch. My first post, on the occasion of world Mental Health day, questioned the exclusive focus on disease and illness to the detriment of a focus on health and positive aspects.

Consider again the widely available public knowledge that some children, having a particular genetic vulnerability (one form of Serotonin transporter gene), if abused as children, have a greater likelihood of getting depressed when they grow up. How many of us, also know of the recent Orchid and Dandelion hypothesis, whereby the genetic vulnerability is more of a heightened sensitivity to environment, whereby the same vulnerable children, if abused, can become depressed; but if provided a nurturing and supportive environment, can paradoxically be more resilient and resistant to stressors than those not having that gene variant. However, as the discourse on protective and resilient factors is lacking, the spotlight continues to shine on seeing such children as ‘at-risk’, rather than seeing them as resilient, if provided the right early start. These orchid children, requiring exquisite early care, to bloom fully, continue to be seen as liabilities rather than assets to be proud of.

And that finally brings me to my Split Blog Disorder. I think I owe a post listing all my various blogs. If you are reading this you are already aware of The Mouse Trap.

My other psychology themed blog is at Psychology Today, called The Fundamental Four.

I use my The Creativity Post blog The Muses and The Furies to focus exclusively on creativity and intelligence and also their relationship to insanity.

I have started blogging for Times Of India, and Mind Cafe focuses on topics of general interest with a psychological angle.

Some people would have noticed that I proclaim myself as ‘Programmer, poet, philosopher !’; a couple of my poetry blogs include The Fools Quest and Songs to Soothe Your Soul.

Apart from this I have a Tumblr blog Flotsam and Jetsam, where i typically post quotes that I find interesting.

Not to leave out, I curate a lot of content on scoop.it and would recommend highly you take a look/subscribe.

 

Epischen Liebesgeschichten: eine Buchbesprechung

the Fisher-girl married with his father to take oath on the abdication of his right to the throne to get. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Although this blog mainly about psychology, I have interests in mythology and Devdutt Pattanaik"7 Secrets of Shiva' have read above, check under the Blogadda book program." Therefore the possibility, epic love stories by Ashok banker under the same program came to check, I couldn't resist not to me. During Devdutt Pattanaik reinterpreted myths in modern light and draws explicit analogies, Ashok banker adheres to a retelling of the myth in his original spirit - and beautiful.

Banker has a series of five such short books in the epic love stories are based come series Mahabharata, and two of them for me are sent to test - she arrived today and they were comparatively short and interesting, I ended up the biggest part of my evening reading and thinking about the issues presented.

The first book, I read a story that was sort-of Bhishma and AMBA I was already have seen it before (a love story that was never meant to be). It's a simple story of abduction by Bhishma from three princesses from a Swyamwara, so that they can leave it to his cousin as his wives. While the older Princess begins with the AMBA hate her musculus abductor, n the course of the trip back to Histanpur to see the bravery and protection offered to them by Bhishma, she fell in love with him.

One can easily confuse this for that earliest representations of the Stockholm syndrome, but then would be the point that Bhishma not abuse or harass the princesses miss their life but rather rescued, though, as he had also abducted them.

If the success of a fiction induce a willful suspension of disbelief by his ability in the readers is assessed, is Ashok shiny succeeded. She could almost visualize and streamline, the different types of arrows, Spears, canons etc in the struggle between Bhishma and his pursuers used. To build so you felt the chemistry between Bhishma and AMBA. Ashok ends up abandoned in the right tone, AMBA and scorned and tip in the direction of nowhere to leave.

The other book in the series that I read was "the love triangle that changed destiny": a story about Devyani, Sharmishta and Yayati.  Despite what the symptoms that looked like it was no simple love triangle. Rather there were several stories is embedded, the context of the history embedded in the eternal struggle between asuras and Devas, the domination while other subtle highlighting the Varna System- how people can be, a Brahmin, a Raj Kstriya by birth, or as a Brahmin could some in spite of being to collect other Brahminhood or curse them, if need be - as the Brahmins and Kstriyas existed, a Dsometimes thought they consider as the others - what were the various dharmas of other varnas, the slaves-hood and the Kings, the right (actually Dharma) to sleep with the maids, and in addition it is a parent topic Sanjeevini or eternal life there, or at least this could be his life a thousand years or a life can be exchanged where the age with someone of his youth - all questions, which you consider that if we have elongated life or became immortal, would we still have the same animals - powered by same desires to retain our youth / or we be more threats by human concern - same Dharma obliged in our productive meet years to feel by our duty done?

Difficult issues remain, lurking in the background, while the story is mostly about supposedly, if you someone in love or whether it follows naturally and from the inside can trick.

This was a longer to read something, but again the story is fantastic and keeps turning page after page, especially for someone like me, who have forgotten the original story, was the rediscovery of the myth.

Overall, it was a nice evening spent pondering on the theme of love in the epics of unwed mothers and Sage of siring sons, Swayamwaras and obvious choice exercised by women, about the good things in life like vows to keep victims for your parents and the dark side, where maids are treated as properties and inter-Varna marriages are problematic and where someone violently competing women anybody as his or her cousins

There is such a wealth of emotions and wisdom, if the epics to reconsider and try to appreciate the universals behind such folk - that the merit of the authors such as bankers who can pull people that such issues back.

Business Sutra: the marriage of management and mythology!

Regular readers of the mouse trap will know that I have to key interest in all things mythological. so by profession I am a middle manager.  Top this with the fact that I am an a fan of Devdutt Patanaik and have written a couple of posts before about his work, and you will not find it strange that I could not pass a chance to review his latest book, business Sutra, which successfully entangles mythical narrative and interpretation with sound business and management principles and practices.

The book appears voluminous, with more than 400 pages, but is easy to read and like his 7 of secrets of trilogy, is path breaking in its format. On on average, each page contains an illustration / hand-made cartoon, making the read lively and entertaining.  Mythical narratives are used to elaborate on management principles in the main text, while in - text boxes contain real / made-up anecdote from the industry to deepen our understanding of the issue involved.

The book deserves to be savored just for its innovative form while, the content its eleven leaves you more than satisfied. Business is lakes as a yagna - where a Yajman offers services / products in the form of Svaha to the Devta- which is the consumer of the service/product and once the consumer has been seduced to except the svaha, he is under obligation to return favors in the form of Tathastu. The tathastu is the return on investment (svaha) that gets the yajman.

Re-imagining business as a yagna is a little counter intuitive, even for someone as steeped in Indian culture as me, so I can sympathize with my readers, if they do not get the hang of this-for really appreciating the analogy you have to read the book.

To give a button of things, I'll list the principles that have been clubbed under the heading of decisions:

He who takes a call is a Karta.Every one is a potential KartaA karta who allows and enables others to take a call is a yajman.A yajman has the power to take and give life.The size of the contribution does not matter.All calls are subjective.All decisions are contextual.Not everyone can handle the burden of uncertainty.Every decision has a consequence.Decisions are good or bad only in hindsight.Decisions are often rationalized in hindsight.If the decision is bad, yajman alone is responsible.If the decision is good, yajman is the beneficiary.

Yourself, as you can see, the principles he elaborates on are not revolutionary-but the way he entwines mythology and makes a business case out of ancient wisdom is mesmerizing. All said and done, after reading the book, you will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation of Indian mythology and how that affects the Indian culture, of know-how, than you want to manage context in a MNC.

This book is a great read for those who are enamored of India, its mythologies and its culture, or are even fascinated by the human essence and psyche (like I am); but for those who are steeped in western principles of results-oriented business culture, this may not provide tangible solutions to perplexing business and management problem.

While Devdutt may have aimed high, at revolutionizing the way management science is defined and delivered, only time tell wants whether the svaha that Devdutt has offered to the reader gets a triumphant Tathastu from them. As for me, Amen / Tathastu!

Book review: A Lethal Inheritance

 

Today, i.e. 15th may 2013 is being celebrated as a mental health blog day by APA and in the spirit of the day I am posting a review of ‘A Lethal Inheritance’ by Victoria Costello. It is a book chronicling how ‘ a mother uncovers the science behind three generations of mental illness‘  and is an apt topic for the day highlighting the importance of public education and discourse about the topic of mental health.  this blog pots and book review is a homage to all the people who silently suffer from mental illness, most of the time undiagnosed, or even after diagnosis kept under warps due to associated stigma, and their family members who face the burden of not just care-giving but the counterproductive and unnecessary guilt that many of them either by themselves feel or are made to feel by indirect societal gestures.

Let me also take this opportunity to apologize to Prometheus Books and Victoria :  the book had come out a year ago and I was sent a review copy promptly, but could not review it earlier. Better late than never!

The book, as the subtitle reveals, revolves around three generations of Victoria’s family (this book is autobiographical) :  her two sons Alex and Sammy, which have their own mental health challenges  and  the unraveling of one of them: a first time encounter with a psychotic experience which could be quite disconcerting for everyone involved: leads her on on her journey to trace the roots of this malady affecting her family and also on a scientific pilgrimage where she  continues to search for reasons, symptoms and preventive measures for the various mental health conditions afflicting her family’s  three generations.

If the third generation is her sons, the second generation comprises of her and her sister Rita. While she struggles with undiagnosed/ untreated depression for most of her life, her sister is found struggling with serious substance dependence and addiction- which in the end cost her her life.

The first generation consist of an Irish immigrant grandpa in USA, whose claim to family fame, is that nobody wants to talk about his death: a purported accident where he feel asleep /drunk on the railroads and died. Now Victoria is a journalist and a good investigative journalist at that. Not satisfied with the account her mother has narrated to her, she undertakes an investigation of her own that leads to surprising discoveries like the fact that her grandpa had dies seven months before hew mother was born , rather than afterwards as believed. Also that his official death transcript reads as died from accidental drowning in a lake, thus casting doubts over the real conditions surrounding his death and also raising a question, could we ever really know if someone had committed suicide or died accidentally even if the incident was of yesterday and not many years before. The fact that his grandpa was an alcoholic, an immigrant laborer most probably facing economic stress and suffering from some mental illness, and likely committed suicide, based on the guilt/ disgust and many other emotions it aroused in his relatives (wife , daughter etc) points to the various ways genes (Irish inheritance) and environmental factors come together to wreak havoc.

The book is large part sensitive narration of one’s own story, some part thrilling investigative journalism and remaining parts informed scientific documentation of symptoms, risk factors, early signs, preventive measures and genes-environment interplay in the making and unmaking of mental health. While the scientific facts are up-to-date, they wont be path breaking as this is not mostly a scientific book- its value lies more in a first hand account of how a family deals with mental health issues and how there are common genetic risk factors that manifest in various forms- from a teen having conduct problems and eventually psychosis, to an adult in the grips of substance use and addiction, to a mother fighting and feigning at the same time that she does not suffer from depression, to a long dead grandpa who was alcoholic and probably committed suicide, to traces of violence in other relatives.

The book is also important as it highlights that mental illness and genetic risk does not respect diagnostic boundaries- from depression to conduct disorders to substance use to psychosis – all manifest in the same family tree and were perhaps myriad manifestations of a same common inheritance.

My recommendations; read it, read it as a piece of fiction , as an autobiographical account; as an educative opportunity to know more about mental illness and risk factors or just to get a first hand experiential account of what it meas to live under the weight of a lethal inheritance- read it whichever way you like, but you are bound to come out with an enhanced and more nuanced perspective that would be richer for having read this .

 

An infographic on schizophrenia

 

In continuation of the theme of May as Mental Health month, passing along an infographic received in email. Hope it helps in raising awareness.