Time to mull over!

This morning I woke up with a very sordid analogy. I cursed myself for being so cynical and distasteful.
But that thought was persistent and the more I pondered, the more I saw some sense in it.

The thought was, “Is today’s service industry a sophisticated emulation of slavery?”

Disturbing thought, isn’t it? The first few memories that came to my mind were a few quotes I’ve heard in my professional life. Sample these, “If you can go to the doctor, you can come to the office as well”.
“Even if you’re dying, come to the office and die”. “You can’t leave before doing these XYZ things”.
I’m pretty sure; many of you may have heard similar lines with some degrees of variation. The emotion or intent must have been the same. What’s worse? I’ve been guilty too.

The slaves were at least allowed to sleep to be tormented physically all over the next day. When was the last time we slept without worrying about the report that needs to be sent / high-profile presentation / month-end / year-end targets? I’m not even going anywhere near the blackberry culture.

When I started to pen this down, I thought maybe I should sugar coat this and present it as a satire on today’s work-life or induce dark humor. But the starkness stopped me from indulging in literary celebration of a naked fact staring at our faces.

Expecting productivity and accuracy for the salary paid is normal.
But in the quest of lowering the costs, are we pushing it too far?

Found this intriguing quote by Ayn Rand!


It certainly is food for thought.

Equilibrium

When reality is challenged by Imagination
We witness a bold display of optimism
When reality conquers imagination
We’re lurched in the abyss of pessimism

Polarized with two extreme ends of a spectrum
Events and emotions skirmish to strike a balance
Perennially stuck in between, LIFE an unbeatable Drum
Wisdom over knowledge will wade you through imbalance

Strange are our mind-games that boost confidence
When our thoughts defeat a person and not just ego in guise
Making it personal is not really pretense
Conquering negativity instead of the character always springs a surprise

Opportunities promenade around like loud wedding bands
The façade or disguise is really in our eyes
True ability is in our mind; not, as rumored, in our hands
Essential to focus on the goal, struggling on the path would simply be unwise

Imagination does not discriminate
It propels you for the leap
Excuse of practicality is plain unfortunate
Can't really wake up who pretends to sleep

Artificial Intelligence Found!

As science and robotic engineers fight out to create artificial intelligence, there are a few things we humans have learnt from robots and machines.

If we simply detach the emotions (ours and theirs) and record ONLY data points, what would happen?

Would our decision making be better and crisp? Emotions would be nice if it is used the way it is meant to be. We use “Templates” in 90% of our responses. Invariably our responses are limited to a few emoticons. A smiley, a Thumbs up, a Clap, a Kiss, a hug etc. as the situation demands. Sometimes, even that is botched up. Hey after all, to err is human.

What about the rest 10% of situations?

Just like the computers and the internet, we humans have to deal with lots and lots of information. Brain needs to process it and fetch out the most vital data-points when needed.

But darn, that seldom happens. We are usually over-ridden with emotions.

We for sure, as prescribed, most of the times, live in the present but alas, that is ONLY to REACT.

The way our brain (at least most I've seen, sometimes including mine) processes data is in the following manner:

1)      Event occurs (in front of our eyes OR on the other end of the ‘smart’-phone)

2)      We ‘hear’ the first few words and our brain goes on an over-drive to search the database for any such string of words that we first heard. We don’t listen.

3)      Brain comes up with a search result of a few words. Meanwhile, the other person is still talking and the event is still unfolding. Our eyes and ears are recording, but our brain is not catching up.

4)      The search results are associated with a few ‘characters’ and their certain set of ‘emotions’ along with the time-stamp of our ‘frame of mind’.

5)      Our mind already starts reacting and is busy completely ignoring the intent and the completeness of the message of the current deliverer.

6)      All this IF we are not distracted by our buzzing/vibrating electronic devices stitched to us.

This happens inside at a rapid pace at all times viz., while watching a debate on TV, during a pleasant conversation, when playing agony aunt, at work, going through counselling, etc.

Talk about free-flow of information, there is now a “How-To” guide for everything – right from changing baby diapers to methods of safe and silent odor-free farting. (Don’t go and search for it now).

The trigger for this blog however is a message I received about applying triple filter for all our conversations.

1)      Is it true and verified?

2)      Is it good about the subject?

3)      Is it useful to me?

While this triple-filter is just as effective as millions of other life-altering philosophies, the speed at which we are bombarded with such information, our brain is unable to analyze and triple-filter all of this. We are not manufactured by “Kent”, are we?

We simply choose to out-source that to someone else by “Forwarding”. Maybe it gives us a delusion of delegating that data-processing. The result could be another mind-numbing philosophy.

With all the fake concerns and robotic automated responses for almost all situations, our intelligence has after-all become “Artificial”.

Happy 8th Anniversary

O! Thou month of June
When clouds playeth with the moon

Desires resurrect from the scorching sand dune
Armed with a melody and a crooning tune

Leaves dance with the wind, sprinkling flowers a strewn
Eagerly awaiting the impending monsoon

The treacherous heat during the unbearable noon
Like traveling alone in a hot air balloon

Symbolic thou’ art, testing patience, not arriving too soon
Making a grand entry like a bride at the moment opportune

Heralding of a new era with a silver spoon
Thou finally arrived – O! Ninth of June.

Woman - O! Woman

Jumped with joy and one hand holding her father’s finger

A toddler slept well that night with fun-filled dreams to linger

Spring in her step, the lass grew to be a confident young woman

Soon enough, stumbled upon a rather unassuming can

Like the worms endlessly creeping out

“Responsibilities” one after the other wore her out

The ‘daughter’ in her said this is just the beginning

A ‘friend’ in her believed in sharing and caring

A ‘lover’ in her yearned

A ‘grown-up’ in her earned

Soon a ‘Wife’, a new found label

Expected twist but life turned the table

‘Mother’ couldn’t wait long enough

Fast paced events made her person rough and tough

The impish girl in her, now confined

With a sugar-coated life, supposedly well-defined

With many more layers to add on

A voice within said, “The SHOW must go on”

21st Century Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there lived humor. It was here, there and everywhere. Humor would often show up in nibble conversations, a glimpse on some lips and a theatrical performance when friends met up.

It was a great friend of the freedom of expression. There would always be some misunderstandings between the two. Yet they made up and were almost inseparable.

Some decades back, Humor’s friend was attacked and sent to exile.  Since then, humor started living a trembling life, unsure of where and when to show up. He missed his friend terribly. They would often meet but not in public anymore. Only in known and trusted circles. Despite their best efforts, one of them would be caught and tortured.

They only realized that they would have to endure this bashing to stay alive. They both knew they can’t give up. They can’t die. No matter how much they get targeted and tormented. Not yet.

Somewhere amidst all the mayhem, they got a second lease of life. A third friend had come to their rescue. “Freedom of expression” & “Humor” really thanked their stars and their HERO; The Social Media.
Or so they thought, until they met one other contrived mate, The “Physical Social Life”. Before they realized the gravity of the situation, they were trapped.

Humor and Freedom of expression are both only seen in the Social Medial these days.
Any other public appearance is condemned and ridiculed.
Their mate (Social LIFE) is silently suffering and may go into a coma soon.

The three of them have to come together for a Heroic Rescue to resurface and establish themselves back in the society.

The last heard news was that they are looking for volunteers to get them out in the open and release them from the trap to live a life of respect and dignity.

Each one of you is free to volunteer. For any further information, contact your inner self and leave out a smile every now and then.

Once they reunite and are rescued, we will all live Happily Ever After!

Spread the Cheer!

In a country of 1.3 billion, everyone’s an expert in critiquing, providing comments and passing judgments. Yet perfection is an elusive concept. Creating winners looks like an impossible dream.

Every little act including as lame as someone’s dressing style invites all of the above. Comfort and preference completely overruled.

I hear people say that we don’t have a global brand like Starbucks or McDonald's or Wal-Mart etc.

Statistically, anything we do as one nation is easily the 2nd largest in the world – purely by our population status. Our chain of local “baniya” (grocery) stores has to be the largest in the world. It’s just not branded. But is that really the objective? OR catering to the local needs is? With so much diversity, differences in taste, aspirations and lifestyles, why should we yearn for standardization? Why can’t we pride in this localization? As a matter of fact, these so called standard chain stores have localized to Indian tastes. Where else would you get a Vegetarian Rice bowl in KFC?

We are a nation that takes pride in being aware. Our youth maybe ignorant on world economic issues and the depleting ozone layer and its consequences, but our youth is probably most aware of the situation in their immediate environs. The survival instinct is too strong and that’s precisely why we Indians can survive in any country and can adapt to any climate, overcome any language barrier and abide by the local rules and regulations. India may never have been good at documenting and data analytics but we are the best and quickest learners. How many countries can claim that? Introspection is good but instead of continuously looking at our flaws, what would happen if we realize what our strengths are and nurture them to the extent that our flaws are managed within acceptable limits. 

Focus on the positives instead of fretting over the negatives.

In a training session, one of my various “Gurus” mentioned a brilliant example.

A tennis player has to play using both his forehand and backhand. Usually one is stronger than the other. Imagine someone being strong at forehand but loses points each time the ball ends up at backhand. Instead of fretting over improving his backhand to perfection, the player should simply work on his strong forehand so much so that the opponent finds it difficult to return his shots; does not mean that he ignores his weakness completely. The player should ensure he improves to just about manage to return the backhand shot. If passion can drive both to excellence, that’s a whole other story.

The analogy quite hit me.

We instruct more “Don’ts” than “Do’s” while raising a child. When inducting a new employee, in the name of mentoring, we end up critiquing one’s grammar, dressing style and fonts/color choices in a presentation but how often have we appreciated the thought / idea behind it. That’s usually lost (not always). We end up focusing so much on highlighting and improving one’s weaknesses that the strengths are LOST or hidden.

Instead, if we only focus on the positives, what would happen? Just imagining the situation gives me goose-bumps. The amount of positive energy would be immense and possibilities would be endless.

Yet again, it’s not my attempt to solve World Hunger OR change the system or anything silly like that.

Let’s do these OURSELVES first. Try telling someone (your friend, spouse, sibling, colleague) 5 positives about them. And obviously count your own. If it’s difficult, time to do something about it. If it’s easy, keep on increasing the count and spread the cheer.