Monday, March 26, 2007

blast from the past..

Sometimes, somethings remind you of past, the one that you buried under your pillow while sleeping. So while you can still dream, when you open your eyes, it will be gone.

Palkon ke kinare humne bhigoye hi nahi,

Wo samajhte hain hum roye hi nahi,
Wo poochhte hain khwaab mein kisko dekha,
Aur hum hain ki arsey se soye hi nahi

Well time and tide wait for none, and so all we can do is just flow on.....

To end with - "Life takes its toll, please keep the change handy" :-)

-n

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

And yet another higher order .... whatever..

It takes time to realize that the world is not ideal, nothing is perfect and so one should not pursue this dream of utopia. So what are mores? Why have rules? What is wrong with chaos, if chaos is the destined way?

Monday, March 19, 2007

notes..

There was a naughty boy in London,
And a naughty boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland,
The people there to see,

There he found,
That the ground,
Was as hard,
That a yard,
Was as long,
That a song,
Was as merry,
That a cherry,
Was as red,
That lead,
Was as weighty,
That fourscore,
Was as eighty,
As in England.

So he stood on his shoes,
And he wondered.
He stood on his shoes, and he wondered.
---------------------------------------XXXX------------------------------------

This was my 6th class poem, and if I remember it till date is because of my teacher, and how in a very simple manner it explains the truth - humans are same wherever they are! Though the poem talks about all inanimate things, they are all human inventions, and therefore are same.

On a different note, over discussion today at tea time, I discovered that the best takeaway from ISB for me was given by Prof BC.
- Its important to sleep well in the night
- One should be Generous, Enthusiastic and Optimistic all the time

I think ISB has taught me a lot of things. More later though...

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Indian Cricket team

This will not be a rational debate on what is going wrong with Indian cricket team. This will be just an outburst.

We Indians have traditionally been fooled by a lot of people, Brits, Moghuls included. So why not people who already are Indians and know the kind of passion Indians have for cricket? Yes, you guessed it, the Indian cricket team is keeping all of us in a matrix. They show us the carrot and themselves eat Chicken Tandoori.

I am not proposing a conspiracy theory, but look at the facts -
1. Indian team does not have performance based incentive.
2. If they win, Pepsi comes up with an ad. If they lose, Pepsi comes up with an ad. Who is benefited?
3. In spite of non-performance on field (statistically proven) Sachin still manages to get endorsement contracts. Talk about perceptions!
4. Any MNC coming in exploits this!

Bottomline: We are a great nation, with foolish ideals!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

What's important? - 2

Empathy

Empathy is essential to understand the underlying emotions of any human being. In the world where there are people with all kinds of Dharma, you are bound to be felt gratified and cheated at the same time, in case your sense of empathy is strong. Though, it is important to note that these 2 feelings are just manifestation of that person's own Karma or deeds of past, and are not his Dharma. To correct the Karma, one needs to see the underlying motive and seek a way to appeal to that motive. This is also a property of one's sense of empathy. For example, if you see someone failing an exam, instead of finding out where he went wrong, try to find the motive which lead to this result. Ultimately, even laziness is something born out of one single incident happened somewhere in the childhood. Appeal to that motive, single it out, and then present the case to the person. The results will be astounding and you will have solved your purpose,

Where does this take you?
While it is totally selfish of me to write about this, it is of importance too. Ultimately we are all here for a purpose and that purpose needs to be satisfied one way or the other.
Your Karma is very basic step to solve this purpose. It makes you aware of what you can do. Being aware of the repurcussions of your Karma to your surroundings makes you aware of your impact. Both of these in tandem help you to achieve your purpose. But to enable your mind to achieve that purpose, empathy is key. Why?
For example, you know you are good at solving mathematical problems and you have an accounting job. Now you are working for a MNC which is committing frauds. You know you are good at it, but you know you are accountable too. Now its a matter of choice whether you do it or not. If everyone else is doing similar frauds, and its a norm but you cannot do it, you fail the system. But if you KNOW that your way is right, and understand why others are doing it to show them how they can correct the entire thing requires you to be empathic. This way you either beat the system or change it.

Your purpose can be as small as this, or bigger depending upon when you realize it. People end up spending entire life not realizing the purpose too. I have no authority to write about what happens to such people.

Conclusion
We all live one life, and in the entire gamut of things its too short. Its paramount for us to find our purpose, for the lack of it can lead to total disorientation too.
I am not telling you to be unhappy if you have not found it, but have an open outlook towards life. Be receptive!

-n

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Sab bolo sare bolo sare bolo rangaa...

There were 2 critical events in the life of a typical moti-ke-lal (**technocrats** from MNREC aka MNNIT aka NIT Allahabad aka my alma mater). One Techno and Two Culrav. If you missed any of these, you either were not supposed to be a part of any discussion, or be ready to given a title that would give you pain worse than damnation in hell for eternity - MAGGU.

Techno fever started in Jan as soon as the even sem started. A good analogy can be European League Soccer. Two kinds of people competed in this, one who were sure they could reach the semi-finals and ones who played for fun. (now whether the latter category used this as excuse is anyone's guess, but hey, no offence meant). Hostels used to be resonating with names like "BT (Basanti Tangewali)", "MPJ (Maaro Peeto Jeeto)" etc. I dont remember the genesis of Techno, but I dont like history anyway, and it was much more fun to watch it than remember the great heroes who sacrificed their engineering lives to make this a success. Anyway, the clashes used to start in the evening, at arnd 6. Junta returning after a light snack from numerous tapris would gather around the good stuff. Hooting used to begin shortly, and so did the competition. Umpires were revered, heroes were built and a plethora of emotions used to churn out in just an hour of the play. No one knows when the excitement used to kick in, when the sem started, when the planning began at the end of odd term, or when the teams were getting formed, but when those floodlights in the BBC (BasketBall court, hehe) used to light, all that mattered was victory. Eliminations and then the rounds - quarter, semi and then the day of Finals. Entire, and I mean all the 1200 ppl of the college used to be there or at least it used to feel that way. That day, Ladies and Gentlemen, the real guts used to be spilt on that court. You have heard of nail biting finishes but nothing, believe me nothing matches the excitement that Techno trophy final would bring.

As if that was not enough, within a week another big bang used to bombard the campus. Yes, Culrav. The event when everyone used to love late nights for some event or the other. The time when you were officially allowed to flirt with the girl you liked (of course, with permissions from seniors). The time when, under the name of sponsorship, you could eat drink and make merry for rest of the semester. (Ok Arts commitee, I am not leaking any extra info). And when the day 1 of Culrav hit, it was like a fever. Formals, Informals, Request stall, Disc, Controls, skating rink, BBC, MP hall everything used to come alive with colors. And so did our lives! For a brief time we were in different world. You were allowed to tie a bandana that showed "Pepsi Culrav 1998" in front of Profs strolling. You were allowed to take a small peg of whiskey hidden on tennis courts so that you can come back quickly to the informals for a dance. And you were definitely allowed to listen to or give gyaan to anyone in a totally inebriated stage about life..

"Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end"

-n

Thursday, March 08, 2007

What's important?

What is "ultimately" important in life - to be happy or to be "happy" knowing that happiness is just a nerve tingling a certain part of the brain?

In simple words, as GT would fondly like to put it, to be a part of this web that entangles you into sensual delicacies or to be a master of your mind and beat this matrix?

So Where do we go?
That is the choice we make, and that is what separates the chaff from the grain. At one time or the other, the truth stares right at our face, and the truth is, the more dependent we become on these outside attractions for our "happiness", the more hopelessly we lose the internal motivation to live. The earlier this truth dawns, that our happiness lies within us, and it does not depend on anything other than us, the happier we are for the rest of our lives.

That was simple? Or was it?
There is always a danger though, and that is the one of being outside the "system". On that front, only one rule applies - Beat the system. If you cannot, the system has a self-correction mechanism and it can get you back or worse, terminated.

Beating the system
Beating the system is not that easy. First of all, a lot of us would find it difficult to be honest to themselves. Because that's almost necessary, so the disclaimer. But once you are honest to yourself about what you are, your abilities and inabilities, vice, virtues etc, making choices is a simpler process. Once that is achieved, the choices come by themselves and it almost becomes intuitive.
This entire process shapes up the Dharma, your nature. Once your nature is known to you, you realize that other people's nature actually is your nature given their circumstances. This realization leads to empathy.

to be contd...

-n