Silence does not mean the end of speaking. It is not the end of anything. It is the beginning. A great man once said, it’s not so much the words you speak. But the silence in between them that give the fire to your message. Gives the passion to your message.  Silence is best because it allows you control.  Staying in silence for a day if one can manage it is an exercise that will test your will tremendously but leave u with a will to communicate and converse  with conviction.  The will to convince is a tremendous tool We see it all the time. Someone walks up to an individual and tries to convey to him, spends an hour unable to get through. Then someone else walks up to him, and in ten minutes manages to turn the person around. So is it the words, the logic or the language?

Or maybe its none of the above. Maybe it is the pause of the conviction that he is able to carry in the same words that his predecessor has used and failed. That force of conviction comes from within. An energy that is invisible, indecipherable, but incisive, impactful, without leaving a tangible mark on both the speaker and the listener. Sitting in the audience when great ones have spoken is something people carry for a lifetime. It leaves an impact not just in the eardrums but in the mid. It changes the way you choose to live your life in an instant.  Hearing Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Mother Tersa, JFK or  Mandela, all of them have left an indelible mark on our history and will continue to leave their mark for eons to come. Their words continue to echo and reverberate in far distant lands from whence it was spoken and there is no accounting for that resonance. For  that power. For that majesty.

The common threads holding Asia are its values and work ethic, making it very attractive for the West to do business here. Businessman Vijay Eswaran analyses why we must capitalize on these strengths.

‘Service’ is most fundamentally an Eastern or Asian concept than it ever has been Western. The concept of ‘service’ is something that is ingrained in our culture and traditions. It is the heritage of the Asian continent.

The reason that Asia is best suited for the service industry is because we are a people oriented culture. Asian culture and ethos is more people-driven than comparative cultures in the West, which tend to be more individualistic. Team work, communal efforts, working with others, and deriving benefit from it, is intrinsic to the Asian culture.

The changes in the service industries, from call centres to outsourcing, which today has created the multimillion dollar BPO industry, with decentralisation as the key word, Asia will evolve into a service hub and that will be the new theme of the new millennium.

The Asian work ethos has always evolved in a different way from the other continents, even while sharing similar agrarian backgrounds with Africa and South America. It has, still, retained an essential difference. The European and North American continents have undergone gradual, but significant changes over the last 5 centuries.

The gradual migration that happened after the industrial revolution basically developed this mindset of mechanisation, very essential to the industrial revolution of North America and Europe. The craftsmanship that evolved from a purely agrarian platform into designing, tooling and manufacturing, redesigned a whole new breed of people that eventually began to permeate every strata of society.

The farmer, who was the main core of the agrarian culture, was relegated to the bottom of the heap. The process of industrialisation diluted certain agrarian social strengths. This process resulted in individualization. Craftsmanship became more and more apprentice- oriented, and instead of a whole family farming together, you now had two strangers doing it, and the thought process moving towards specialization. 

In Asia, however, the farmer and the peasants who worked the farmlands, had to make the migration at a far greater speed. An entire generation, a lost generation if you like, was formed towards the mid-19^th through the end of the 20^th Century, throughout different parts of Asia. This ‘lost generation’ saw the leap forward, which however cosmetic, it may have been on the surface, was still not enough to change mindsets of the people. It resulted in them having the mentality of an agrarian farmer, but with the working environment of a manufacturing-driven society.

It was a mindset which allowed people to treat their work as they would till the soil. The mundane monotony of mechanization did not frustrate them, neither did it deter them. They went to work with a gusto.

When mechanization resulted in mass production, such as in the case of the automobile industry revolutionized by Henry Ford in USA, the impact on Asia was stunning. It enabled the Japanese to make a leap forward because they were able to perfect their craftsmanship and reduce the cost of manufacturing even lower. What you had in the 1960s and the 1970s was a Toyota car produced at one quarter the cost of an American comparative make, but at equal if not better quality. What the Japanese lost in terms of not having the equal or more technical superiority, they made up for, in terms of greater versatility and improvement, adapting the car for the mass. This basic cloning of the latest technology from the West gave Japan impetus in its industrial movement that was incomparable.

What we had then was a feudal society with feudal practices and mindsets that evolved into full-blown mechanical, industrialized society. This advantage gave us a work ethic, a work culture that was discipline-driven.

This analysis is not to show Asian society as being feudal. The reference to the feudal origins is to prove that it is because of the intrinsic discipline, respecting one’s work as one would respect the land that one tilled, brought about this obedience and self-discipline, which enabled a better work force in Asia. A competent work force which was dedicated and could work long hours. This has brought Japan, Korea, Taiwan, eventually Hong Kong, and today China and India to where they are in the global economy.

The Asian work ethos has been about putting together shoulders and surviving as a unit. It is best seen in the hill slopes of Java, and in the Philippines where farmers have fought the odds, cut crevices in the hills, creating terraced farming to grow rice. They overcome them challenges and triumphed over them.

What do people come to Asia for? Although beaches are similar everywhere whether in Miami or in the Maldives or Malaysia, the spirit of service is certainly not. The service that one receives in Bali and Thailand, most of Vietnam, Laos, and the rest of the Pacific Rim, is legendary. The concept of service, the ability of the Asian work ethos to embrace and not look upon it condescendingly, is the strength that we can draw upon. This is something that is universal from Japan, all the way across towards India.

This is why the lure of Bali, Phuket, Koh Samui, Malaysia, Singapore, the Maldives, is stronger, as opposed to more exotic destinations such as Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Vienna, Venice and the like.

Another strong factor binding Asia together is the spiritual connection. Asia is the religious hub of the world. Every major religion known to mankind comes from Asia, from Palestine to India. What strength does that convey? The religions that came from Asia traversed the entire globe, and are now in every corner of the world. If that is not a demonstration of our ability to network with each other, what is? This ability is going to be our strength in the new millennium.

Asian countries have many commonalities. The thriving sea routes and overland silk routes have bound us together historically, so much so that there are no real cultural conflicts in Asia, of the kind that are there in the European continent. The commonality is in language, food, in music and the religions. Although we don’t look alike, unlike one half of the African continent, or the South American people and the Indians, Chinese, Malay, and Asiatic races are different, the commonality comes from our approach towards relationships that have been there since the time of the Chinese and the Indian sea farers.

Whether or not legal trade agreements ever come into place, whether or not ASEAN works or doesn’t, whether a body like the European Union is ever formed in Asia, we are already there, in a sense. It does not need any government impetus to bring Indians to Malaysia or Malaysians to India, or Singaporeans to China and Chinese to Singapore. If the restrictions were taken off, the flow would be that much faster. The only issues preventing Asia from working together arise from political and social economic differences, which have created artificial barriers. If not, I believe, we would very subtly, silently, but surely, merge to one. And that strength is generally what one does not see from the outside.

So, the strength that we will be able to cultivate is the fact that our ability to interact with each other is much more stronger, much more powerful, in Asia than in any other continent. Asian weddings typically compromise of 1000 people at the very least. For a many Europeans and North Americans, having 20 people would make it a big wedding. This defines how people in Asia relate to one another. Nearly two thirds of the world lives in Asia and the mass of humanity that throngs Asia makes us thrive amongst each other.

It only makes sense that Asia will represent the next Millennium. But only if we do not get too westernised, not get decimated in our thinking, not get distilled. This will be the true strength of Asia, traversing the future and becoming the true Asian millennium. As the Roman Empire once stretched across most of the known world, followed by that of Genghis Khan, the new Millenium will be then that of an Asian millennium with globalization being the impetus of growth. Then the question is not where Asia is, the question is where Asia is not.

This is not a book for someone sitting on a rock contemplating on a lotus pond.  Not for someone who is retiring into a forest and walking the path of zen. This is not a self realization book and not meant for spiritual upliftment of mankind.

This is a day-to-day manual that can be used to create a dossier of one’s own progress thru life. The objective is to stop, think, reflect, introspect. It's is meant to question, challenge the standards that we have become accustomed to. We have allowed ourselves to fall into somewhat of a trap by allowing our habits to dictate our destiny from thought to word, word to deed, deed to habit, habit to character, character to destiny.

The objective of the book is to break the process at the very onset, when at the thinking stage. If thought is the architect of your destiny, then it’s the thought that needs to be the force of change. Its thought that needs to be addressed and challenged.

As we grow in material gains, acquiring various trappings of wealth, we are trapped, ensnared, and locked by it. We don’t seem to be able to get out of this comfort zone. Hence, the process of this book is designed to challenge it.

In essence, the book is designed to look simplistic and designed uniquely in a fashion that is meant to attract the reader's attention and draw him to every page. It's with this in mind that the words and the phrases used are all designed for a  specific purpose, to stop one in their tracks. The attempt here is not so much to overload the individual with information, but to make him find his own solutions within himself. It is my position per se that all of us have answers that are unique and specifically designed for our position in life. These answers though are sometimes very clearly in front of us, usually completely overlooked if not ignored. It’s the purpose of the book to search and find these answers ourselves. Atleast to begin the process that would lead the process.

Answers change, day to day as it were. If it does not, by then, by definition we have not changed. Our ability to analyse, assess and apply these answers in day to day life grows as we grow. Hence, the answers to these problems, appear different to different people. These answers have many levels of understanding and many levels of application. And this process is something that engages you at every level.

Life is not just in colors…its in hues.  Therein lies each of us, the answer within each of us. The quest to these answers actually leads to us asking better questions. And that would be the ultimate purpose of this book.

In essence all of us have an internal source of energy. Something that we acknowledge in many ways. Eastern culture refers to as 'Qi'. In Sanskrit it is referred to as 'Prana'.   It’s a mental/physical/spiritual energy source. Its an internal balance that this energy source creates. This internal balance is between the kinetic and potential, the yin and yang, the negative and positive, the shiva and shakti in Hinduism. This balance of energy is found within us. The sphere of silence forces one to basically tap into this energey and build up its reserves in a way. Its an application of self discipline everyday.  Keeping silent for one hour , we are forced to communicate with oneself.  This helps us get in touch with ourselves instead of living in a façade.

 
We create this artificial barrier between who we are and who we want the world to perceive us to be. We walk around with this mask, assuming the face behind the mask in reality is the mask itself. Here I refer to the masquerade that one is forced to put up to live in the social strata. The three essential questions we have to ask every day:

1. Who we are?
2. Where we are?
3. Where are we going?

 
We need to ask these questions everyday because the answer to these change everyday. The process of analysis helps keep us very much in touch with ourselves. In this process we build up the inner "Chi", the strength in action, the versatility in language.

 
The application of this doesn’t have an immediate or direct  objective. If one doesn’t even achieve the objective just the process of trying everyday is enough because you have embarked on the journey. There is no such thing as the proper time or proper place. There is no waiting for the right time. It must be done everyday, like breathing.  It is the trying that makes all the difference. Eventually, there are people without trying very hard, simply by virtue of their being manage to achieve an hour a day. They actually gain from the process can be lead. The trying is fundamental to the change.

Someone who managed one hour is maybe ahead mentally, physically, spiritually to someone who managed 20 mins a day.  But to someone to who this comes easily, is not growing. For someone who struggles to do this 20 mins, is pushing oneself and hence the percentage of growth is higher.

You cannot define the process by the  1 hour or the 21 days. But define it by how much of a struggle it is for you. Hence, naturally the process of struggling against oneself , however mediocre it may seem to the rest of the planet, is what is important.

I don’t lay any claim to the originality of the process. Something that I acquired gratefully…….. its a labour of love to take it across the planet. The effect it had on my life. By making it a process that I could share with others.