A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

I would say that I am really enthusiastic about taking this challenge to completion. Why else would I rush to sit at the desk and turn the computer on even before eating my dinner? Why didn't I do this early in the morning? Well my answer is getting on the road so I avoid too many coffee drinkers and then not coming home until just about a few minutes ago. My husband wonders about why I take up challenges like these. I do because I feel good when I write.

Healthy challenges are a very good resource in the sense that we learn to accomplish things. It may be a volunteer thing like blogging that may lead to good habits of keeping up with promises that we make for ourselves. So I gather that enthusiasm is one big resource. I am not so sure how many times or how much the word zeal is used. As a matter of fact I wonder if it is being used at all. I have not come across in any of the magazine articles I read or even a blog using the word zeal or even zealous. Well these are the words that mean energetic enthusiasm. I think if a person has it, it is not only good for him and his family but for his job as well. 

Heartfelt Thanks to Arlee Bird and the whole A TO Z Challenge Team. 

Congratulations to everyone who wrote. Last but not least thanks to everyone who reads. It makes it all the more worth while.

A To Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

In Indian folk tales when ever a young man went out to seek fortune or even earn a living, his mother would tie a piece of paper in the shirt tail of his Kurta (a long shirt). The piece of paper would have instructions to keep his values. The most important instruction would be to have a positive attitude and a good attitude in general. To this day the saying goes to make a young person understand that his/her attitude is no one's to claim or rob or sell out.  Our elders told us that we should be willing to try any task as long as it does not hurt us or others. Also we should be willing to help others out. Sometimes as children we did not feel like doing the things our grown ups asked us to do. We still said yes and did the task even half willing. Later on as we grew older we realized our own attitude and felt ashamed. I am not saying that we should have to do everything everyone tells us, but it is nice to try. I still find it interesting how little kids are more willing to try new things than adults are.  Also I noticed that kids are more accepting of compliments than grown ups are. Therefore I would say that in order to make it in this world and to feel good about ourselves we should think good things about ourselves. How many times did we compliment others on having the qualities we do as well? How many times we pat our own backs for accomplishing things that are tough versus how many times we kick ourselves for not meeting the standards?  So next time you fancy meeting someone you are a fan of, don't think that it is impossible. Say yes, it is possible. Same goes for a project, a class or even a change you want to make for improvement.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The English Alphabet X is very versatile in use. This fact was taught to us not in English class but in Algebra which was taught to us by our school principal. She was a very gentle lady but her selection of hiring teachers was tough. She wanted the best possible teacher in every subject with not only the knowledge but the patience required to be a teacher. While a lot of women had the patience, not a whole lot of women had the knowledge of Algebra. She only wanted to hire female teachers. Therefore she had to teach. My husband was surprised that what he learned in eighth grade I learned in seventh grade namely the value of X.

Each and every Roman numeral may not be very attractive but I like the number ten, the letter X.  It seems like the letter X got the respect it deserves.  It may not have a place at the top of the hour in a clock, but the place of letter X as the mysterious answer to questions in Algebra is very fascinating to young students. I am used to Metric system as India changed the measurement of cloth and liquids and weights. My daughter read an article that was arguing about using twelve as a method of counting things. It says that twelve is an easier number to deal with than ten is because it is divisible by three and four while ten is not. 

Whether or not Roman numeral ten is used today, I think it is important to learn the Roman numerals just the same as history is a great resource for us to learn from. 

A To Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE  MANAGEMENT  

 Chinese philosophy of working for worldly goods is only to work a third of the day.  Another third is for finding things for our spiritual happiness (like being with our family or spending time reading or entertaining and the last third is for sleep. Then why do we define ourselves by describing the job we do? Why don't we say that "She is so and so and is a cat lover or likes embroidery or he loves to cook"? Well, these tasks will be associated only if they are done professionally like an animal trainer or a chef or a designer.

I understand that Work is one resource that helps us get food, shelter and clothing which are the three main resources to live. The problem I have with work is that we give work so much importance that we tend to forget that it is only a means not an end, just like money. 

Most professional people like doctors and nurses and even lawyers are so much engrossed in work that they hardly enjoy their money. It is a different thing that their families especially their children get used to buying expensive things which are used as a trade off for the time missed with each other. 

Unemployment rate in the State of New York has gotten better, which is really good. Sometimes I wish that people who can afford to have their lawn done would hire someone to do it instead of saving money and doing it themselves. Even some other chores can be shared in exchange of even minimum wage.  There are people who really want to make an extra buck because they need that buck. 

In India we had women who came to do dishes for my mom. I offered to do dishes after school. My father said that I should not take away someone else's job. They had a family to support. 

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

My parents sent me to a private school. My mom sacrificed her own needs to make sure that my clothes were as stylish as everyone else's.  She did not want other girls to judge me. It is sad that in high school style becomes a standard. It is sad that it does not matter how good a girl is, she loses confidence if she does not keep up with the styles. On the other hand the school my brothers went to (All Saint's) had a uniform for the students. Now if you looked at a group of students you would not be able to tell who was rich and who was poor. What I liked about their school was the motto "Virtue Alone Ennobles".  I asked several adults the meaning of the word "Virtue". They gave me all different answers, all meaning a quality in a good human being. For example if a person prays a lot but does not share his food, he would not be virtuous, or if a person  holds a degree or two but criticizes others and puts them down then he or she would not be virtuous. Even the most stylish girl who wears the latest and most expensive outfit would not be virtuous if she thinks of herself  as being better than anyone else. One of my friends told me that to her a good human being is more important than whether or not he or she is from the moral majority.

Would I be wrong if I say that we are all counting on each other's virtue? It can be a resource for all of us if we are not judgmental.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

My husband agrees with some of my blogger friends about the dangers of learning about one's medical condition via the Internet. I tease him about not being tech savvy  (although I am technologically challenged myself).  He says that even if he knew a lot about the internet he would still depend on doctors because Universities with medical schools are not easy to get into and that makes a doctor more knowledgeable than anyone who writes their experiences on the internet.

   

I argue that there is more to learning than just going to the university.  I believe that learning can be done anywhere and everywhere provided the sources for learning are available and we have the desire to learn. Also I tell him that while it is great to be able to get into a University we can be successful if we use our intelligence. He tells me not to use the example of Bill Gates because it is not an everyday example. I agree, but I also think that we as society should not push young people to go to a University if they cannot, because there are Unlimited resources out there if they use their time and energy to make a living and to see if they can use their talent and handy work in a positive way. 

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

  A lady who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis once told me that she found out about her disease in a very scary way. She came home very late from work one night and she saw her garage door closed.  She put the breaks on so she could park her car in the driveway. Instead she ended up crashing into her garage door. The car stopped because there was a wall in front.  By this time her husband and her older kid woke up and ran downstairs.  She was puzzled and started telling her side of the story while getting off of the car. She could not get out, her feet seemed like they were frozen and she fell on the garage floor.  It was very hard for them to convince their homeowner's insurance and their auto insurance that she was not drunk. They went through several tests and finally she was diagnosed. As sad as she was, it was a relief for her. Today she wears a medical alert pendant and she knows that she will be taken care of in an emergency. We started talking about today's Technology and compared age old telephones and other method of communication to today's cell phones and smart phones. She is just thankful that it is because of technology that she is able to read on internet a lot more about her disease. Also now people like her are using modern kind of wheel chairs because of technology.  I told her that if it was not for technology we would not have Twitter and we both laughed.

                                       

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT In one of the Hindi epics a very intelligent princess loses a contest of intelligence and knowledge to someone who did not go to school at all. The reason was that he was home schooled  and he learned things that a lot of scholars usually neglect to teach people. He was a poet and also some what mystical and looked at the world from an angle other than that of people who are into building fortune and who want to go to school to build future rather than to learn. The question that made him win was "Next to God what can we rely on?" The poet answered "Our five senses."

I came to realize how important our nervous system and our five senses are after I saw my mom suffer from stroke. Right then I had promised myself that I will take my medicine very regularly. Well not everything is in our hands and unlike the poet says a lot can happen to us without any fault of ours but I do understand the value of my nervous system even though I am not a science person.

Speaking of Science people, in the show "Big Bang Theory" Sheldon does not believe in giving presents, but when told that presents are social obligation he agrees to give one to a friend. We always believed that social responsibility on our part is a resource for others and vice versa. Also it becomes our social responsibility to help some of us who are not able to use any of our five senses.                                   

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

We need to look forward to progress and aspire for modern things to improve our standard of living therefore we need to build something stronger than rain barrels to save and conserve water. This was the message that got the citizens of Hyderabad to agree to let their taxes fund the reservoir at Tank Bund.

 

While the reservoir got a lot of visitors both from within and outside the state and created businesses and revenue, a lot of people used to be happy that we got the respect that our city deserved. I have always been very proud of my birth place but I think that our respect comes from within us. We need to earn and deserve it. Therefore while the city gave a lot of importance to the looks so it can project an image of a rich city, I think that when it comes to our own finances we should spend within our means so we don't get broke in the hope of getting respect from the rich.

A TO Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

I remember being in Montessori school when we were asked to feel the petals of a real flower and compare them to the petals of silk flowers. We would then ask questions and then we learned a lot from the answers that we got. We would also be asked questions and we gave answers without the fear of being wrong. My mom liked this method a lot. However  when we went to grade school, we would  not be able to ask questions in some classes and those were the classes that we did not get the best grades in.  Here in America, at work a lot of people do not ask questions. The fear of wasting time and not achieving productivity standards keeps us from knowing what's what until an injury takes place then we get certain answers from the conclusions. I used to ask a lot of questions and then a time came when I was looked at as "the wise old women from India." So I stopped. However I would always encourage people young or old alike to ask questions. Please do not get angry at your kids when they ask a question. Even if the answer is an embarrassing one tell them a simple version of the answer in polite words as close as possible to the real answer. They will admire you when they grow up and even think that you are a cute parent.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

One of my neighbors was wondering as to why I was working when I do so much at home already. I told her that first of all I like to work and secondly I think that it is nice to have some experience in case something should happen to my husband. Then I suggested that it would be nice if she also got some work experience. To that she said that she does not have to worry because if anything happened to her husband she could count on her son. I asked her how old was her oldest. As far as I knew she only had a two year old boy. She confirmed that the baby was her first born. I was too shocked to say anything. I was confused as well. My husband then explained to me that a lot of people have kids in the hope that they can make money for them when they grew old. This was the only example I had where someone actually started counting on their offspring as a resource. To me my children are answers to my prayers because I had a lot of love to give them. I never looked at them as a resource for my survival. My husband thinks that it is only a matter of perception.  To me, my eyes are resources just like any other sense organ. The idea of the way our mind sees things was something that had never occurred to me. Now I realized that we look at things in so many different ways. 

I would always suggest that parents let their kids participate in Shadow days. They will be able to understand and explore their potentials.  They will also have a better perception of a job from early on. Then they will be able to look at the world and the different tasks that are done in the way they actually see them instead of depending on what was told to them at home or in school. 

  

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

How many of us have experienced the bitterness of being robbed by a coworker or even a supervisor who stole your idea and called it their own. You make a display in the window and it looks fabulous, your manager loves it and right then someone comes and claims it as their own work. You dress up a mannequin and add that little detail of fashion to make it outstanding and then someone says something to imply that it was their work. Thank goodness for the surveillance cameras that record everything and the truth is visible. The cameras are there to record  workplace injury if any. It is very sad that pettiness also gets recorded. My husband thought that it was not fair even though people who do things for the love of doing them do not care about getting the credit.  So is credit everything? My brother thinks that those people who take other people's ideas and call them their own are just hoping to use the chance to get ahead at work. They are simply opportunists.

 I wish that my grandmother was alive so I could go to her for answers. I thought that an opportunity was a chance given to you to do something nice in this world, for a cause or even if it was for making your fortunes it would not be by taking someone else's work and calling it your own, but by working hard and proving to yourself that you can do something. 

Jennifer Aniston's new movie called "Call Me Crazy" is about creating awareness in people about mental illness. I would say that she took the opportunity to do something nice.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Our eighth grade civics teacher while teaching resource management sounded very much disappointed when she said that money some how found it's way not only in the villages and the towns but also in our homes. We, as kids were oblivious of the fact that human beings used to use goods as exchange for goods or services. We went along with the syllabus and eighth grade was over and so was the class. In college however, the professor of Economics sounded just as thrilled while teaching us facts about money, the stock market, the skills in demand for jobs, the marketable qualities in human beings. etc etc. Wow, my head would spin. I would think things in old fashioned ways, like my grandmother would say "What is the world coming to." So in order to get jobs to get money we had to find resources other than the three simple ones ie food, clothing and shelter. Smart and well to do people would be in tune with time. People like my parents sent us to English speaking school while sacrificing their own needs.Some people who lived in villages sent their kids to cities to live with extended families. Some people used Nepotism and some stayed behind because of no connections. In America, while Nepotism still works like a charm, people with average income and people with backgrounds with not much education can also fight this race of carrier  development. Now there is something for people like us, and this resource of survival is genuine and very straight forward and this is what we call Networking. Registering himself or herself by simply writing their experiences in their field in various networks can not only help a person find a desired position, but also can help companies find suitable people. There is also another kind of networking which is made up of people like friends, neighbors,  coworkers and last but not least your own family members.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

My  mother used to make several jars of Guava jelly whenever our Guava tree had dozens of big juicy ripe guavas. She would then send the jelly jars to our auntie, to our grandma, to our neighbors and our friends. My brothers were the ones who always did the job of delivering them. I do not recall even one time when my brother did not return with a gift of some fruit or some treat covered with a nicely decorated cloth. Almost every family was in need of some treat as resources were limited. This way the exchange of gifts made it easier for parents to provide something different for their kids. We would be thankful and eagerly enjoyed the goodies. My mother hoped that people enjoyed her jelly as well. 

Our milkman's wife would give us some fresh curds whenever my mom made a dress for her babies. My grandmother used to explain to us that this is the way people can not only show gratitude but save some money. Later on in life we learned that this was a method called barter, except that in the case of family or friends it was an unspoken exchange. I really do not know how and when money sneaked into our lives. I mean, there is a whole chapter of the history of money that is really boring. 

It was so much easier when our father was in charge of the budget and we just had to be responsible for our own little allowance, which our mom monitored anyway. I wish that I could go back to those times when I did not have to deal with bills in the mail or to have to balance the checkbook, or even keep receipts for tax refunds. When I say this my husband  laughs and says that I should not be talking like this because I had Economics for my major and what is Economics without money. Now how can I explain it to him, that money is not a resource, it is only a measurement of exchange for the resources we need in our lives. It is only a means.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

A lot of my coworkers would work in second shift because they were going to college. While most of them were young and studying towards getting a degree some of them were going to the community college to learn English.  Away from their homeland and working hard and studying hard at the same time made them extra tired.  Needless to ask, they were learning English because it is the language of America and they knew very well that it will help them in getting better jobs if they knew how to speak English fluently. Looking at those coworkers of mine made me grateful  to my parents who made sure that the school we went to had English for medium of instruction. A lot of us went about doing our jobs and as complacency is the enemy of progress we ended up staying where we were. We forgot the fact that some places in the USA more people are speaking languages other than English.  When our company gave pink slips to a lot of us, and we started looking for jobs, the hardest hurdle that came in our way was the fact that we were not bi- lingual. Then I realized some thing that was very important. Every language is important whether or not we speak it, because times change and with time jobs requirements change.

There is one language I like in particular and I wish that I could learn it. It is non other than "Sign Language".

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

I am technologically challenged. Therefore my blogs are very simple. Hardly any pictures or fun stuff.  However  one day I will be able to learn how to work with computers the way young people do. Or will I ever. The fact is that computers are so advanced that you learn one thing and a new thing comes in.  A lot of my family members who are my age don't even use computers and are now disgruntled because the H.M.O they work for is asking for electronic records. I have a desire to learn.  I remember my elders telling me that as long as we have a thirst for Knowledge there is nothing in the world that we cannot learn or do. While that could have been an exaggeration their intention was to encourage us. My daughter bought this book in a book fare when she was younger. She still loves it, even as an adult. 

Last night while watching the television show "Shark Tank", I was feeling sorry for the people who had very good inventions but did not have the  knowledge of  simple  business terms. 

"Science and technology make our lives easier but art makes our lives worth living," they say. I agree with that 100 percent. However sometimes people with useful knowledge do not get the attention they deserve. People in performance art get so much media attention and maybe ten times the money they deserve (except for some good artist). When was the last time a scientist who saved his/her company from recall of medication while working in quality control got any media attention or when did a nurse working in an orthopedic facility get credit for standing on her feet hours in a row? No wonder our president worries about the lack of thirst for useful knowledge in today's youth.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

I am finally able to convince my husband that it is about time that we understand that people do what they want to do in life.  There is no point in classifying jobs as his or hers. I think we should do what we do best. One of my brothers likes to cook and I say all the power to him. I like to cook and sew but I also like to paint the walls. I once put new tiles on the kitchen floor while my husband was asleep. He was surprised as he was going to call a professional to do it. I used vinyl tiles and they were peel off and sticky type. He wondered how I found out about them. I told him that I have no qualms about doing any kind of task. I just have to be fit to do it. I was a stay at home mom then and was feeling that I needed to do more than just raising kids. I also wanted to set an example for trying to do what we like to do.These days when you go to apply for a job, people do ask you what your hobbies are as they want to understand the non-job related aspect of your life as well. 

The Job situation today is tougher than ever even in America. Working as a vendor audit for a company that sells Jeans and T-Shirts for three to four times higher price than the average cost was not what I had in mind as a job. I took the job because the company found me to be a good candidate and the benefits were great. We all have dreams when we are kids, but sometimes it just so happens that what we dream of does not get handed out to us. Meanwhile we can see if we can do what is out there, as long as it is within our capacity and is safe.

 

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Every Friday night we watch the television show called "The Shark Tank". This show is about investors who have a lot of money and want to invest in something lucrative.  These millionaires are very careful in investing because they do not want to lose money in the wrong business. This show also teaches us about what to look out for when we want to do business. I basically know most of the rules as I studied business in college. I am interested in the show because I get to see the products people come up with and ask the investors money for their ideas to change into business. I also like how people's imagination works. Most of the inventors are grown ups but are just as excited as some of the teenagers because their product was their own "brain child".

When I think of hundreds of toys, especially the smart toys only one thing comes to my mind. We would not have them if someone did not ponder and imagine them to be real. I just admire the imagination of the person who made them.  So next time your child talks about his or her imaginary friend don't make fun of him or get angry at him. Go along and believe in him. He may discover something some day. Even if he does not, he will love you for believing in him.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

My childhood memories of Nature Study resonates with these words: "We need natural resources not only to live but to be healthy and to have dignity of life."  As a little girl I would tell my grandmother what we learned in school. She would then confirm that what we learned was true. Sometimes she would add some wisdom of her own, like how we should be thankful for what we are given. My mom and I always remembered her words whenever we got together especially after my mom started getting different health problems. She also said that not being healthy is like cutting short on the supply of resources. When she had a stroke I realized that our Health is a resource in itself.  

We use natural resources to keep healthy and in turn health becomes a resource in itself.  I am hoping that when we understand our health issues, life will become easy for us. Some people say that the health care industry will not be happy with people who take good care of themselves as their services will not be needed that much. To them I say that people who have invested their money in the health care industry will have to do with smaller profits. 

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

History tells us that a lot of times kings who were harsh with their subjects were thrown out sooner or later. Then a nicer person,(slave or even one of the court's men) would do the job of the king. For young people, seeing a bad guy lose in the end and seeing the triumph of good guys is very important. However as we grow older, we stop admiring kingship and start liking Democracy.  We start understanding that it is not nice that just one single guy gets to rule, just because he is born in a Royal Family. This is where our Political Science class would overlap and have debates with History Class students. It used to be fun. Learning about different types of Governments throughout the world and through different time periods. Different philosophers would have different opinions and different analogies for different kinds of governments. At the end of the third year of college we all came to an understanding that a government is a tool for people to have an orderly world. Therefore a government is a resource for  every person living under it and should be carefully safeguarded.

   Everyone should do his/her best to safe guard his/her government, (his/her tool) to make his/her lives safe. We should make sure that it guarantees that  everyone is having a fair chance and every voice is heard. As long as everyone feels safe and everyone feels that the money they are contributing in the form of taxes is being used for the good of the people it does not matter by what name we call that government.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

I asked my daughter to donate some food to the local food pantry on the third day of my funeral. I told her that I will save some money and keep aside for that purpose. I just hope that our extended family and our friends respect this wish of mine. Traditionally, on the third day of someone's funeral the survivors arrange a huge lunch and invite a lot of people. This is supposed to help us get salvation. In India there are a lot of poor people so along with family and friends they get food served. Here in America we noted that everywhere we go, the guests are only well to do people. It seems like we are not doing what we are supposed to do.

FOOD is a need, a necessity and a resource that is given to us to be used and to be shared. A lot of our childhood memories are about the foods we had while growing up. Food is also a big part of all of the cultures. Sometimes we forget that the basic purpose of food is to sustain all kinds of life form. Also sometimes we forget that good food is a privilege and not a right. So, I have decided that I will order as little possible when I go out to eat. I will also not make a fuss about the taste. 

A to Z Challenge

A to Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

 Most of us who graduated with my class were lucky that our parents sent us to good schools and made sure that our grades were good. However Education was not compulsory in India. Children whose parents were not able to give them the basic needs of life could not even think about sending them to school. Still the Government of India would give the messages of the importance of education especially when it came to looking for jobs. Kids with a desire to learn would some how find ways to educate themselves at least to the level of reading, writing and arithmetic.  When I started working I realized that the companies that hired me did not even need my knowledge of the subjects I studied. I was hired because of my communication skills and the knowledge of the product we worked with. I always wondered about the four years I spent in the University and the money that my parents had to come up with for my tuition. Yet, if I were to go back in time, I would still want to be educated. 

In America, I see the most beautiful aspect of  learning. It is what we call Special Ed. In India since education was not compulsory, children with special learning needs did not come in the picture. It seems like American schools have a passion to teach every child including the ones with learning disabilities.  I think that it is important that we all understand that as long as a child is trying , it does not matter what grade he or she is getting. I would like to wash out the notion that  education only means getting best grades and graduating by a certain age. 

I also came to an understanding that education is not the only means of survival. I know people who have Masters and PhD and yet they are not doing good in finding jobs or even keeping their jobs. I think that education should not be limited to only getting a degree, but we should extend it to teaching children how to communicate from early on. Building confidence and trust needs to be part of any given syllabus.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

A and B are terrific grades, but I would not compromise my health in order to achieve them, as C and D are also passing grades. Remember "D"  is for Diploma .
 Degrees and Diplomas are great resources but even if you  cannot make this year, there is always next year. Meanwhile we can dream that the Dogwood will bloom soon. Right now the clouds are playing with the Sun. They have cold air around them. The Sun will  win though. It has to. We need to see the Daffodils.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT"A challenge is a chance to prove yourself," they say.  I think it would be much more appropriate to put it this way, "A challenge is like fuel for your willingness and capacity to do things that you need to do or want to do in life." Today a lot of us are faced with all kinds of challenges, from being single parents to being seniors to being college students who have to plan for their future endeavors.  As much as people find resource management to be a boring subject they ask questions like "How do you do it? How come you are not in debt?" Well, I say that both my husband and myself were lucky enough not to have had educational loans. Also, we try to control what we spend. We are sometimes looked at as cheap, but we are old enough not to get hurt by name calling.

Colleges in India used to teach that someone's Credit line does not mean that they have that money. They taught us that the only money we actually have is what we had in cash or what we had in our bank accounts. When we came to America , we understood the use of Credit Cards and God only knows how many times we came on the verge of using the maximum amount and paying the minimum, especially after buying our home. The fear of being called cheap and the desire to keep our home looking nice is innocent. However credit lines have a price which sometimes is more than what we can afford and makes the joy of buying something seem unimportant. I think this fact is not learned by listening to someone, but by experience alone. So from now on it is either pay in full or don't buy for us. Some people are lucky enough to just swipe the cards and pay the bill in full. This way they get the sky miles, the cash back bonus etc, which is neat as long as they can pay back the bill when it comes. Otherwise, swiping the card is good when the money comes out of the checking account and no bills to pay.

A to Z Challenge

A TO Z OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Teaching and parenting are both works in progress. Not too many decades ago, grown ups used to tell young people to use their brain whenever they made a mistake. As a parent I did not tell my children that and if I were lucky enough to be a teacher, I would not do that either. Now I know enough to understand that not everyone's brains work the same way. I also know that my own brain may or may not work the way it used to. I do try to avoid using things that are harmful for my brain and try to use the things that are good for my brain. 

In eighth grade resource management class, I raised my hand and said "Blessings" when our teacher asked us to give the name of a resource that is useful for us human beings. The kids in the class laughed. The teacher simply asked another student who raised her hand and I guess that girl gave a right answer. I was too upset to even pay attention to the class as I thought that I was told something wrong by my elders. They always told us to get blessings as they would come in handy when there is struggle in life.  As time passed I understood  that blessings are something you believe in and I also understood that you get back what you give, so therefore our elders were not wrong because we got their blessings whenever we did something good for someone else.

Whether it was the eighth grade resource management class or the section of Economics class of resource management the most important thing we learned is how to balance our resources for a good life in every way possible. They taught us how to balance a budget and a checkbook. They taught us how to divide a job among laborers and they taught us how to divide laborers among managers. However, they did not teach us how to understand that balancing our time and energy between our jobs and loved ones is just as important. Our elders told us that nature has a way of balancing the world and we individuals are a part of nature. To me it sounded so utilitarian. I still think that we can do our own job of learning how to figure out our priorities.
  Books have always been a good resource for me. Not the kind that we read in school, but the kind we read to understand people and their problems.