Sunday, May 17, 2026

5 Step Process to Facilitate Negotiation Among Multiple Stakeholders

 

(Reference - CHATGPT generated on 17MAY26 with ref - c0f12eab-e4c0-47d7-bfbf-9ccd72452b0e)

In this blog-post, an attempt is made to present a negotiation-cycle comprising of following steps: -

Initial State à Negotiation à Agreement à Execution à Final State

The negotiation step in this negotiation cycle is further represented through following 5 step negotiation process: -

Clarity à Trust à Risks à Conflicts à Convergence

The purpose is to present a possible process to negotiators dealing multiple stakeholders.  

(1)   

The Negotiation Cycle

Negotiation happens in many areas of life, such as business deals, workplace discussions, conflict resolution, and even everyday situations like deciding plans with friends. But, what exactly negotiation means?

“Negotiation is the process by which parties bargain in an effort to reach an agreement. Parties often negotiate the terms of a contract before entering into it.” (Ref – Cornell Law School)

We will assume that a negotiation is a structured process of communication and bargaining between two or more parties intended to reach a mutually acceptable commercial or legal agreement regarding rights, obligations, or transactions.

Let us go deeper and try to build an understanding on negotiation. Elaborating on the above definition, it may be reasonable to assume that negotiation happens to reach from an “Initial State” to an agreed “Final State” following the steps given as under: -

Initial State (Pre-Negotiation Arrangement) à Negotiation (amongst Stakeholders) à (Binding) Agreement à Execution (of Agreement) à Final State (Post Agreement Arrangement)

We may call this as Negotiation Cycle and can be represented as following 5 steps: -

Initial State à Negotiation à Agreement à Execution à Final State

The initial state is the given (AS-IS) scenario. Usually there are problems in the initial state and negotiation tales place to solve the problems by executing a mutually agreed agreement to reach a final state (TO-BE), which solves the problems (which were being faced when at the initial state).  

In the next section, we will dig deeper into a possible process any negotiator may consider to bring all the stakeholders to negotiate and converge to an agreement.


                                                                 (2)

The 5 Step Negotiation Process in Reference to Negotiation Cycle

In this section, we attempt to develop step by step process to help professional (and non-professional) negotiators, while conducting negotiations amongst stakeholders. We may call this as Negotiation Process and the steps in the process are as under: -

Clarity à Trust à Risks à Conflicts à Convergence

 These steps are explained under the following points: -


1.    Clarity and Conviction for Intended Benefits (Clarity)

A negotiator must be convinced that there is a merit in reaching Final State from Initial State in the Negotiation Cycle. So, to say, that the transformation (reaching from Initial State to Final State and sustaining at the Final State), which is brought about by the transition (executing a binding agreement) has an advantage (can be expressed as solving problems being faced in Initial State). The endeavour to go through the Negotiation Cycle is the motivation to reach position of advantage and benefit out of it. The promise of this motivation is expected to foster and to bind the agreement amongst the stakeholders.

Thus, a negotiator must first get a thorough understanding on the mechanics of operations in the Initial-State to the mechanics of operations in the Final-State and more importantly sustainability of Final-State to produce intended advantage for the stakeholders.

This clarity is most important as a negotiator needs to be perceived as convincing, credible and knowledgeable expert, who supports stakeholders taking positions in the interest of transformative advantage without any other motive.

Initially the negotiator may present the idea in letter and in spirit that fuels the efforts to traverse the Negotiation Cycle. All the queries, confusions and information relevant to stakeholders be addressed at this step.

 

2.    Mutual Trust and Intent to Execute (Trust)

Once things look clear to the stakeholders, trust is the next important factor to take the negotiation forward.

The output of negotiation is agreement amongst stakeholders (as per Negotiation Cycle). This is followed by execution than to reaching the Final-State and eventually to reaping the outcome in terms of sustaining at Final-State for perceived advantage.

In this process, assurance of holding-on to the agreed positions in the agreement by stakeholders and going ahead keeping commitment to play respective part during the execution are the two major apprehensions a negotiator has to deal with during any negotiation. Further, keeping all the stakeholders convinced that execution will continuously be focused on achievement of outcome could be challenging.

Trust amongst stakeholders keep the negotiation engaged towards a prospective agreement. Developing mutual trust amongst the stakeholders is a subjective matter and may greatly get influenced by socio-cultural norms or impactful legal dispute resolution system in place.

However, a negotiator may assess the stakeholders for any issue with trusting fellow stakeholders or the viability of proposed benefits in the end of the Negotiation Cycle. All the possible efforts for alignment must be done at this stage. In case, it is observed that there is an extremely vulnerable stakeholder (with respect to issues pertaining to trust). The negotiator may try to build address concerns of this stakeholder with others in a consensual way.

Sometimes, a possibility of introducing a mechanism for compensation to extremely vulnerable or risk averse stakeholders in case of unforeseen circumstances can be helpful.

 

3.    Articulation of Ground Realities with a Neutral Position (Risks)

Once clarity on negotiation cycle and mutual trust has been achieved it is worth deliberating on execution (as per negotiation cycle) and executional risks.

The proposition of benefits of transformation looks promising but the ground realities to reach to a position to reap the benefits are often grounded on rough realities coupled with unforeseen risks hidden in futuristic promises.

A negotiator may maintain information symmetry and neutral position in articulating the risks associated with the agreement, execution plan, sustainability of Final-State and with reaping the benefits (through the advantages achieved after reaching to Final-State).

Mitigation to known risks be allowed to be part of negotiation discussions.  To address unknown risks, agreement on guiding principles be finalized so that in case of occurrence of such unknown risks, a resolution be achieved with minimal conflicts amongst the stakeholders.

A transparent monitoring plan with options to renegotiate in certain circumstances (like – situation get unfair to any stakeholder with respect to spirit of the initial agreement) could be helpful. A communication plan tuned to the monitoring plan also helps in keeping stakeholders adequately informed with the proceedings and guide them with possibilities in foreseeable future.

 

4.    Reduce Differences to Core Conflicts and map to Vested Interests (Conflicts)

Once the deliberations on execution and executional risks have been rigorously conducted, the entire negotiation cycle is expected to be crystal clear to all the stakeholders. Probably, this is good time to start understanding the differences amongst the stakeholders.

Differences are natural and more so when stakes are high on an endeavour. Differences amongst stakeholders may be reflection of underlying conflicts. Therefore, a negotiator may try reductional approach to breakdown differences to lesser numbers of conflicts and conflicts to still fewer numbers of core conflicts.

Core conflicts can be understood in terms of vested interests. The negotiator may decode the core conflicts and objectively link them to vested interests but may refrain from any attachment to the interests of stakeholder. It is better to remain at a distance and illustrate the facts in polite, firms and indifferent way. The negotiator be seen as solely concerned about the achievement of intended benefits by making the agreement to happen with mutual consensus.

While understanding the vested interests and working towards resolution be left to the stakeholders themselves, a negotiator may try to help in rational understanding of interests and related consequences to the larger objective of the negotiation cycle. Illustrations on how competitive interests can be made collaborative and how to shift attitude towards interests from compromising to accommodative could present helpful guidance.   

 

5.    Allow Deliberations to Foster an Agreement (Convergence)

Having elaborated on clarity, trust, risks and major areas of conflicts with utmost honesty and complete fairness, a negotiator has set the stage for open discussions, debate and deliberations amongst the stakeholders to converge at in-principle agreement.

By now, all the stakeholders can see through the end-to-end negotiation cycle with clarity and understand the dynamics of negotiation cycle with the help of above-mentioned negotiation steps.

In this stage stakeholders conduct give and take of vested interests to manage conflicts, dissolve differences and eventually come to a broad stake holding arrangements with an outline of roles, responsibilities and duties to be performed for realization of promise of transformation the negotiation cycle proposes.

It is not unlikely that power dynamics and social positioning may have had influence in resolution of vested interests, stake-holding pattern and conditions of the agreement. Sometimes, these factors may have shaped the agreement in such a way, which may not be in the best interest of outcomes of the exercise being undertaken though the negotiation cycle or even may not be as per the prevailing notion of justice. However, in the capacity of a negotiator, it is better to ignore such aspects leaving them to be handled by the society at large.  

Once an in-principle agreement has been reached amongst the stakeholders with broad agreement on conditions, provisions and schedules of the agreement, a draft agreement with finer details be prepared (with due consideration to legal, commercial, social aspects) and put-up for formal approval by stakeholders after following the due process.



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Saturday, December 20, 2025

How to Write a Better Functional Requirements Document?

 

 

(Image Reference  Image created using AI through ChatGPT) 


Unaddressed gaps in functional requirement document is one of the most common causes for failed IT (Information Technology) projects (intended for Strategic Business Transformation). In this blogpost, I have tried to highlight some points, which (if given consideration) may help in improving capture and documentation of requirements for any major IT project. These are: -

1. Story of Transformation is more about the Organization and less about the Technology - "Information Technology" implements “Information Management” as per "Information Design" for any organization. Therefore, it may be noted that clarity in organizational information design and in execution of this design (through information management) are more important than underlying technology (which is merely a tool to implement design through electronic means).

2. An Organization is a System of Systems - It may be helpful to express an organization as an institutionalized entity having responsibility of pre-defined work to deliver (tasks with activities) with the help of an organizational structure (organizational chart of designated officials with respective responsibilities and associated authorities) and a set of governing rules (for systematic operation of organization to deliver work with institutional obligation to remain just, fair and transparent in conduct). Thus, an organization may be viewed as a system having dependencies on many (sub) systems.

3. Understanding the Information Design behind Organizational Practice of Information Management - Information Design within an organization could be viewed as a template for rule-based exchange of information across the organizational structure intended to operationalize delivery of work (as expected from the organization). Implementation of information design through information management allows administration of information in such a way that appropriate and authentic information is available within the organization in timely manner.

4. Information Management is a Specialized and Critical Service to drive Organizational Operations - Success of a "Functional Requirement" document lies in representing information management as a structured entity logically connected with organizational workflows, which are executed by officiating officials (human resources working as per (usually) hierarchical roles with defined authorities and responsibilities). Thus, information is serviced to facilitate organization (through underneath organizational structure) to work in accordance with the needs of intended objectives.

5. Three Aspects to Organizational Information - Three broad aspects of information management within an organization could be considered as - information capture, information flow and information storage.

6. Objectivity on Transformative Information Technology Project is Important – Since any transformative information technology project is essentially an organizational endeavour to change organizational Information Design (usually) to support a mid-to-long term strategy (targeted at operational changes with the motive of business prospects), it is important to have objectivity embedded in the design of such a project.

It could be helpful to develop a ‘Mission Paper’ (usually aligned to Organizational Vision) on Strategic Organizational Transformation (including Strategy, Feasibility, AS-IS & TO-BE Guidance) to make the objectives of endeavour clear, precise, tractable and measurable. The ‘Mission Paper’ could become input to project charter for the associated transformative project(s).

7. Assess the Need for Engaging Workforce on Transformational Endeavours – Try to assess understanding and existing capacity of the workforce to take-on the transformational journey. Give heed to needs to educate end-users and to bring them onboard into the project so that they get actively engaged to become prospective performers in the TO-BE scenario implementation. Accommodate requirements for holding sensitization sessions and discussion sessions with end-users to build internal consensus on upcoming change. Precise understanding of AS-IS Scenario & TO-BE Scenario (with respect to work, structure, rules and information management) and understanding of intended organizational benefits to get intended strategic benefits out of transformational endeavour engages the workforce and at the same time wins credibility and trust of senior management in the eyes of workforce.

8. Traverse all the Actors and Paths in Work-Flow and associated Processes – Try to design Work-Flow for every entity (actor) under organizational structure taking TO-BE Scenario in consideration (also include actors at interfaces to the organization – (say) stakeholders outside the organization - like customers / suppliers / prospective-candidates interested in joining the organization / partner-institutions to an organization). Traverse all the possible paths in every workflow. Diagrammatically represent Workflows precisely highlighting the most important paths critical to delivery of prime responsibility of the organization and highlighting associated paths addressing quality concerns of the most important path(s).

9. Design of Wireframes Helps – With agreed workflows as input, designing wireframes to ensure UI / UX (User Interface and User Experience) helps reducing any confusion, any apprehension or any operational concerns in the minds of user community (while operating under TO-BE scenario). Expectations from new applications in the minds of decision makers also gets a reality check while traversing through TO-BE wireframes. With approved wireframes the application development team also feel confident about clarity of requirements.

10. Include Monitoring and Control of Information under TO-BE Scenario – It is good to incorporate requirements for monitoring and control of information. While designing an Information-Management system including reliable information capture, logical information flow, modular information storage requirements incorporating authorized accessibility of organizational information are important but monitoring organizational information for availability, accuracy, completeness and with prompts for finding related information (or provision for knowledge management) is equally important.

11. Keep in Perspective the Next Steps to follow after the Requirement Document – It is advisable to not to lose the sight of end-to-end project while doing capture of requirements. It is much better to keep the other teams and stakeholders on-boarded with the proceedings during the capture of requirements.

Some expected upcoming activities after ‘Requirements Document’ could be: -

a.     Technology Design to support finalized UI-UX design. Technology Design may include: -

                                i.     Database Design

                              ii.     Application Design (Development of Forms & Reports, Incorporation of Business Logic - for Business Operations and Business Analysis)

                            iii.     Technical Architecture (Platform - Technology Stack, Integration, AI Tools, Database Implementation).

                            iv.     IT Infrastructure and Connectivity Requirements.

                              v.     IT Governance (including - Data Retention Policy, Security Policy and Certifications, Quality and SLA, Operation and Maintenance).

b.    Cost Estimation: -

                                i.     Make or Buy / Develop or Customize considerations

                              ii.     Procurement and Operationalization costs

                            iii.     Continuous Business Support (Operation and Maintenance) for a suitable period of time.


           

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Saturday, December 13, 2025

Why Public Spending on Climate Change gets Lost in Translation?

 


(Image Source - Blog title image generated using AI with copilot)

Public spending on Climate Change often gets trapped in translational problems. Even though there is lots of noise around climate change but it is evident that much less action happens on ground. This is also mentioned in the recent Lancet Countdown report of 2025. In this blogpost, I have tried to highlight three important translation leakages, which could be hampering effective efforts to address the issue of Climate Change. These are: -

1. Synchronization with Budget Cycles - Government budget (by any government) is prepared for a specific period of time. The period covered by a budget is usually a year, known as a financial or fiscal year. However, looking into the slow process of climatic changes, the policy perspective for Climate Budgeting has to be longer period of time (say 10 to 30 years). In order to financially support longer term climate policies through climate budgeting embedded within the annual government budget, annual budgets allocated to climate change efforts has to target at incremental efforts distributed across periodically (annually) managed budgets. This involves act of breaking down of policy led efforts (tasks) towards climatic changes to smaller parts (sub-tasks). These smaller parts (sub-tasks) have to be broken down to the extent that they get synchronized to fit the periodicity of the budget implementation cycle (usually a year).

The process of breaking down of efforts (sub-tasking) from a larger policy led effort (task), which is a logical entity under a longer policy roadmap needs adjustments to get budgetary allocation. These adjustments include keeping the broken-down effort in tune with the available time (usually yearly budgetary cycle), keeping the broken-down effort objective for quantified consumption and utilization of allocated budget (within the timeframe of budget cycle) and keeping the broken-down effort auditable in tandem with comprehensive budget outlay of entire budget spanning across all the other priorities. Even though such adjustments improve fiscal accountability, it carries risk of dilution and deviation of broken-down effort (sub-task) from policy led effort (task) in terms of meeting the core objective to minimize the impact of climate change impact on the planet.

Further, in dealing with public spending, it is observed that fixed shorter terms of budget-cycles (annual) tend to give preference to those matters, which are considered needing immediate attention. Often this happens at the cost of those matters needing long term persistence. Sudden preference to such matters needing immediate attention may be attributable either to unanticipated changes in fiscal conditions arising from local or global contingencies or to unexpected socio-political compulsions faced by governing bodies time to time.

2. Synchronization across Geographies - Climate Change is a global phenomenon, which needs to be addressed at local levels by locally governing entities across the globe. This means there should be synchronization amongst entities governing geographies. But different geographies are diverse in character and have their own socio-economic and politico-cultural dynamics. It can be easily observed that different countries face vastly different fiscal capacities, priorities, and vulnerabilities, making coordinated global action difficult.

Time and again it has been established that breaking-down collective actions on the critical issue of Climate Change to be addressed through regional or country level efforts have been ineffective. (Ref - The World Is Failing Its 2025 Paris Climate Target. Now What? | TIME)

The translation of a critical issue of global significance, which needs immediate attention gets easily overshadowed by local and regional priorities of individual countries. Collectively all the countries across the globe have not been able to curb the pursuit of growth driven development at the cost of one and another and even at the cost to human existence on the planet. Eventually, this leads to fragmented investments, uneven adaptation, and inefficiencies in tackling the global challenge of Climate Change (ultimately impacting collective public spending patterns at global level).

3. Synchronization across Socio-Political Spheres - Most vulnerable groups to climate change often are either ignorant about linkages of their problems to Climate Change or lack the political voice to drive the attention of the governing body towards lasting solutions to problems faced due to Climate Change. Many dominant groups with better understanding about climate change or with strong political voice are not expressive on the issue either due to vested economic interest (example - fossil fuel industry) or due to indifference towards vulnerable groups and / or towards future consequences.

What is perceived by politically dominant groups as a problem of livelihood and health amongst vulnerable groups has a potential to impact entire societies across the globe in a massive that too way all of sudden. With sincere efforts by many agencies across the globe through all the possible channels, the message is reaching loud and clear to all sections of the society. Therefore, there is an awareness about Climate Change and its possible impact in the sub-conscious minds of significantly large population (beyond the critical mass). But this is not translating into collective concern within societal groups to present a dominant political agenda significant enough to become universal political consensus transcending all other prevailing issues (many may be less significant to a rational analysis).

Eventually, such a socio-political scenario presents institutional fragmentation rather than convergence towards matters pertaining to Climate Change (ultimately impacting public spending patterns).

In the end, it can be concluded that promising future for human being can be achieved by avoiding losing in translation in above cases with following considerations: -

1.    Continuous Policy Support by appropriately funding Climate Change

2.    Cooperation at Country Level on the issue of Climate Change

3.    Consensus within societies for prioritization on Climate Change

The above conclusion can be summed up as 4Cs: -

Coexistence (for Promising Future) = Continuous (Policy Support) + Cooperation (Country Level) + Consensus (Inter-Societal)

 


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Definitions:

 

Budget - Budget is a plan to show how much money a person or organization will earn and how much they will need or be able to spend. Public budget or government budget is the forecast by a government of its expenditures and revenues for a specific period of time.

(Ref- https://www.britannica.com/money/government-budget),

(Ref- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/budget).

Public Budgeting - Public budgeting is defined as the study of the allocation of government resources, which involves the development, structure, and dynamics of political institutions as well as the formation of comparative fiscal and macroeconomic policies (Ref - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-and-finance/public-budgeting).

Climate Finance - Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change. The Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable. This recognizes that the contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent it and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions. Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate. (Ref - https://unfccc.int/topics/introduction-to-climate-finance)

Carbon Budget - The term Carbon-Budget refers to the total net amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can still be emitted by human activities while limiting global warming to a specified level (e.g.,1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels).

Carbon budgets are part of long term emission reduction targets which are broken down into annual limits. A climate budget then integrates these carbon budgets into routine operations and policies.

Climate budgeting enables the identification, classification, and categorisation of expenditures that are pertinent to climate change within the scope of a government's budgetary structure. This mechanism allows precise estimation, diligent monitoring, and methodical tracking of such expenses.

(Ref  - https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/faqs/IPCC_AR6_WGI_FAQ_Chapter_05.pdf)

(Ref - https://budgit.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Climate-Budgeting-for-Green-Accountability-1.pdf)

(Ref - https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/climate-budgeting#:~:text=The%20recently%20released%20Union%20Budget%20for%20the,of%20the%20energy%20transition%20and%20sustainable%20development.).

Climate Change - Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. (https://unfccc.int/resource/ccsites/zimbab/conven/text/art01.htm)

 

 

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Wednesday, August 6, 2025

DPDP Act 2023 in Brief

 

(Image generated using ChatGPT)


In this blogpost I have tried to summarize the DPDP Act 2023 (The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Government of India) in a PPT. The details can be accessed as under: -

Summary of DPDP Act 2023, Government of India in PPT

DPDP Act 2023 can be accessed at following link: -

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Government of India

However, I am not a legal expert and may request readers to refer the actual act for making any decision, inference or taking an action. This summary is only an attempt to develop a broad understanding of the act for general purpose. Accurate meaning of such a legal document can only be deduced from the original act from official website.


- Santosh Behar


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Thursday, July 24, 2025

6C Model for Building a Cohesive Team

 


(Figure – 1: The 6C Model for Building a Cohesive Team)


Cohesive team consistently performs execution to perfection. Therefore, building a cohesive team is a fundamental but often complex challenge for any organization. A cohesive team is one where members work collaboratively, trust one another, communicate effectively, and share a common vision.

This blogpost is an attempt to suggest a way to achieve cohesion within a team. In doing this attempt, it may be good to identify critical attributes for achievement of cohesion in a team. In my opinion, the following characteristic attributes of cohesion can be considered deterministic attributes for cohesion. This is also shown in the attached figure.  

1.      Commitment - Commitment in a team refers to the shared dedication of all members to the team’s goals, values, and mutual success. It is a psychological bond that motivates individuals to act in the interest of the group, even when challenges arise (within the team or in the external environment).  

2.      Collaboration - Collaboration in a team is the process by which team members actively work together, sharing ideas, responsibilities, and resources to achieve common goals. It involves open communication, mutual respect, shared decision-making, and coordinated efforts.

3.      Communication - Communication within a team refers to the exchange of information, ideas, feedback, and emotions among team members that facilitates understanding, coordination, trust, and effective collaboration toward shared goals. Within a team, all voices are valued, regardless of role or status. Thus, communication in teams is not just about talking—it’s about creating shared understanding that enables coordinated action, trust, and high performance. Strong communication practices are foundational to team success.

4.      Clarity - Clarity within a team refers to the explicit understanding of critical aspects of the work, dynamics of the work at hand, goals, roles, responsibilities, expectations, and processes among all team members. It ensures everyone knows what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how their work fits into the team’s broader objectives.

5.      Convergence - Convergence in a team refers to the process by which team members align their diverse perspectives, ideas, and inputs into a shared understanding, decision, or direction. It involves moving from initial divergence (idea generation or differing viewpoints) toward unity in purpose, priorities, or action.

6.      Consensus - Consensus in a team refers to a collective agreement reached by all team members where each person supports the final decision—even if it wasn’t their first choice—because they believe the process was fair, their voice was heard, and the decision serves the team’s best interest. Inclusive participation and shared responsibilities hold key to consensus building in a team.

Keeping an eye on the above attributes (the 6 Cs) and ensuring that they are adhered to by the team both in letter and (more importantly) in the spirit (not necessarily is the same order as illustrated in the above point) could help in building and maintaining a cohesive team.


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Saturday, July 12, 2025

On a Mission




(Image Source ChtGPT (non-copyright) - Image Name - Village Encounter in Golden Light)


On a Mission - The Poem

 

For a Mission

Enrich the Knowledge

Hone the Skills

Expand the Capacity

Strengthen the Capabilities

 

On a Mission

Adapt to New Surroundings

Adjust to New Norms

Position to Express 

Expect to Enhance Experiences

 

Move Swiftly

with the Strength of Character

with the Conviction to Succeed

with the Focus to Perform

with the Passion to make a Mark

 

On Way to Accomplishment

may an Association

Spontaneous, Sudden, Unexpected

with a Place, an Object

or with a Person

 

Catches the Attention

just for a Moment

may you feel the Touch of Yourself

within, at the Deepest

as if, the Tenderness of The Divine

 

No NOT an Unnecessary Distraction

was the Missing Link

in the Articulation

of the Meaning of Life

in Your Thoughts

 

But, Move On...

the Essence of Touch

was not the Place

was not the Object

was not the Person

was an Abstraction

You Crafted for Yourself



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APPENDIX - A - Title Image Re-Created using ChatGPT

Presently I am posted in Meghalaya, so put up a request with ChatGPT to redraw the Title Image for the Poem in context of Meghalaya and it honoured my request by recreating the image in the following way: -


(Image Source ChtGPT (non-copyright) - Image Name - Historic Walk Through the Village)


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