Salsa Bangkok Fiesta 2007

The Bangkok Salsa Fiesta 2007 was organized by salsabangkok.com (The Bangkok Salsa Community) headed by P'Apple,P'Roj,Josci,Keng and others with the idea of promoting latin dance in Bangkok. It was a four day Salsa event from 27-30 September 2007 carefully planned and executed making it memorable for everyone.

The event kicked off with the Salsa party at La Rueda (oldest Latin Pub in Bangkok). Small though it is….its the haunt of every latin lover on a Thursday night during the party there was a demo of things to come on Friday (Performance Night). This truly lived up to everyones expectation with stunning performances by artists from USA, Indonesia, Singapore,India and Thailand (home country)

The dances include Tango,BellyDance,Salsa(which of course had maximum performances) and even Bollywood

Saturday night was the night which quite a few people were waiting for including myself. The night of the 1st "Social Dance competition" in Bangkok. It promised to be a fun filled night which would include some performances too after the competition followed by dancing to DJ Henry Knowles one of the best Dj's in the world.

The competition began at around 8.30 and comprised of 3 rounds - After the first round of 2 songs 6 couples were chosen out of 10 and after the second round (two more songs) another 3 were dropped leaving 3 couples for the final - one song. It was a very interesting and exciting competition.

My dance partner Maria and myself won the prize as 'Havanna's favourite couple'

Check out some more pictures of the competition here……

http://picasaweb.google.com/sanjeev.pinto/SalsaBangkokCompetitionNight

The final day of the Fiesta was the party at Indus which was a relaxing time with friends from all over.

The Power of Reading

Want a great, colorful life? Start Reading.

Want to fuel your imagination? Start Reading.

These are just two of the reasons to start reading although am sure you can find many more reasons to start reading. Reading does not equal seriousness. So relax it won't turn you into a 'geek'. On the contrary you can have much more fun than your friends who don't read - Try it.

I read to relax, to educate myself, to pass time, to explore new ideas,to gain more time etc

Some of my favourites are

Comic Strips - Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert

Novels - by Sidney Sheldon,Erich Segal,Richard Bach,Paulo Coelho,Dan Brown

Wealth - Rich Dad,Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Investments - One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch and

- The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Strategy - The Art of War , Sun Tzu

Productivity - Getting Things Done by David Allen

Management - Winning by Jack Welch

- Getting the Right things Done by Peter Drucker

Relationships - Intimate Communion by David Deida

Motivation & Inspiration - 'Awaken the Giant within' by Anthony Robbins

' First Things First' by Stephen Covey and

' The monk who sold his ferrari' by Robin Sharma.

The impact on my life has been mind-blowing and I've been able to have an en-riched life for that.

Build your library of great books which you can re-visit from time to time. Believe me it will be one of your best investments over time. Finally - Remember to Share

MindMaps an Interesting Tool

Being always a seeker of better ways to do things and the constant thirst for ideas led me to pick up a book titled 'How to Think like Da Vinci' by Michael J Gelb. Little did I realize that it would completely change the way I think or analyze in terms of the process. One of the topics I came across in the book fascinated me. It was the topic of Mind Maps.

In its most simplest form its just a way of depicting information about a topic which encourages free thinking and removes the shackles of linear thinking. It's been such a great asset to me that I would like to share briefly about it with Illustrations.

Steps involved

1. Begin with a symbol /picture/Topic at the center of the page. This opens the mind to free flowing thoughts.
   
2. Write down keywords relating to the central picture.
   
3. Connect the keywords with lines(branches) radiating from the central picture
   
4. Print one keyword per line
   
5. Use colours and Pictures/codes for greater association and emphasis.
   

   

   
   

   In this Sample using Free Mind I have used an example from my work.
   

Some tools that can be used for mind mapping are

1. Freemind (A Free java based tool) available at http://freemind.sourceforge.net which requires Java Runtime atleast version 1.4.0
   
2. Mindjet's MindManager available at www.mindjet.com
   
3. Smart Draw available at www.smartdraw.com
   

   
   

Questions are the Answer

One of the best takeaways from the book 'Awaken the Giant Within' by Anthony Robbins was "Questions are the Answer"

The quality of questions that we ask in life will determine the quality of our life . There is nothing more true than this. Think back for a moment on the most wonderful memories that you have. What was behind those wonderful memories? 99% of the time it would be questions like – How do we make this wonderful ? How can we have an enjoyable time? What's the best thing in this moment?

Life changing events too have powerful questions. If you've watched the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" the hero –a man who is always on the move and living in poor conditions sees a guy drive up in a Ferrari and ask's him 2 questions . What do you do ? How do you do it? The answers to those two questions transformed his life and made him into a financially savvy man with a large personal wealth,not without hard work though.

Questions help us focus on what we really want in life and anything we focus on we usually manifest in our lives.

Tony Robbins advocates asking ourselves "Power Questions" in the morning and in the evening.

Some of 'Morning Power Questions ' include

1. What am I grateful about in my life?
   
2. Who do I love in my life?
   
3. Who loves me in my life?
   
4. What am I excited about in my life?
   

Some of the 'Evening Power Questions' include

1. What did I learn today?
   
2. What have I contributed to the world today?
   

Some other great questions to ask

1. What are my top 3 current goals?
   
2. What is most important to me in life?
   
3. If the my world was going to end within one year, what would I be doing right now?
   
4. What will I do today towards my major goals?
   
5. What action can I take instead of worry right now?
   
6. What can I do right now to release negative energy in a positive way?
   
7. What beneficial routines can I start today?
   
8. What will I do, see, explore, or experience today that is new?
   
9. How will I make today great? How do I define great?
   
10. What's the most powerful thing I can do right now, today to increase my business?
    

Learn to ask Empowering Questions which will lead you to a wonderful life wherever u are Work,Play,at Leisure,while planning that trip, deciding your goals and all the important moments of your life.

Let there never be any Question about the Kind of Questions u ask.

A life worth living is a life worth sharing

Haven't we all learnt from what other people share about their lives, their work, their hobbies, their ideas, their thoughts, their beliefs. Why not share some of the things that shaped my own life and things that I have learned along my journey in this life.

Some of the posts u will read have already taken place in my life and some might be moment to moment. As time goes by the topics will expand.

The topics for now will include

• Tools and Productivity
  
• Mind Mapping – a favourite topic of mine
  
• Project Management
  
• Human Growth & Motivation
  
• Personal Experiences & Learnings
  

  
   

Feel free to comment on them.