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.

Life @ 33% Discount

As a kid, I always used to fancy eating cookies and “ham”burgers without knowing its ingredients.
Thanks to my comic reading addiction, the craving got stronger with each book. Then I realized that the craving was not because I was reading comics all the time. But because it was not available at that time – let alone easily.

Then I noticed a correlation. During exams, I would be refrained from watching TV and would be asked to concentrate on my syllabus for the upcoming exam. The more the refrain, the more I would feel like rebelling and watching TV while as such I never gave a damn.

Then when I started to work, in various companies, I noticed a difference in culture.
Some would provide coffee and tea to employees but only twice a day or some would let the employees pay. A few would have vending machines for people to have “as much” tea/coffee as possible free of cost. That was the first time I heard this debate that the ease of access will increase the demand in the initial stages while in the long run, it will actually bring it down. And that was indeed the case.

In the pretext of enjoying the privilege of a free tea/coffee, I did not realize two things. I got sucked into work so much that I did not measure the time spent at work. I also never bothered the amount of tax that I was actually paying. I’m not careless to ignore the direct taxes. It’s the indirect taxes that I never paid attention to, let alone understand it. Come to think of it, I still don’t.

Recently, I read a survey that says vis-à-vis the standard 33% direct tax; we actually end up paying more than 55% of our income as taxes in various forms and shapes.
If we apply the coffee vending machine logic, the very first time someone found out loopholes in our taxation structure and evaded tax, instead of making it any complex, had they simplified it, we would have ended up paying 55% direct taxes. At least we would not have felt cheated with a fake 33%.
Must say, this 33% is an elusive number.

Another interesting correlation is that we are supposed to sleep for 8 hours of a day. We are supposed to work for 8-9 hours. Technically we have the remaining 7-8 (33%) hours to enjoy LIFE.
Do we?

We spend more number of hours in the office for this elusive 33% of LIFE. Eventually, it boils down to 10 days of vacation with effortless interruptions by mails on our smartphone and intermittent calls.
10 days out of 365 days is a mere 2.7%.
Some smarty pants have declared the 52 weekends (28%) as a part of our holiday or enjoying LIFE.
We still don’t have the 33% life for which we literally slog our butts off.
So what are we running for?



Maybe to sit on a comfortable chair and tap such silly thoughts on a fancy laptop… Hmmm!

Words

Words are not mere words
They're wings of the fantasy birds
Weighing emotions, shaken or stirred
Of a simpleton, poet, geek or a nerd

Sometimes clear, sometimes blurred
They emote the tears well captured
A story that can't be ignored
Or a song that pulls you toward

A glaring jab, that can't be unheard
Or a taunt hurled towards the undeterred
Words are not just words
They can be sharper than the swords

Healing relations that are soured
After attempts first, second or third
The power to have faith restored
To inspire, woo or to be floored

An imagination yet to be explored
For all the situations on board
Initial ideas on the drawing board
Idioms and phrases that can be adored

Words are not just mere words
They are wings of the fantasy birds
Cutting through the shackles and the girds
After all, they are sharper than the swords

Ego – Ew! Go...

There’s a lesson in everything
As a student, if you are carefully observing
There’s a hidden message in gravity
In success, urging one to stay grounded and display humility

Great icons have demonstrated through their way of life
It is one’s thoughts and actions that rise above the strife
Wise men hardly bothered the way they were clad
They emphasized to stretch a helping hand and make someone glad

Expectations binges one’s self-esteem into obesity
Thrusts actions that can jeopardize one’s dignity
There may be a reason it is called ‘ego’
I can hear myself cry “Ew!” “GO’

Gratitude, in itself, is an attitude
Be unique and establish your own latitude
There’s a lesson in everything you see
There’s so much to learn without a fee

Let's "Know" the "No"

As kids, When we visit someone and the hosts offer us something to eat/drink, we're taught to say "No" even when we don't really mean it. The hosts are supposed to coax us into accepting it. The host's act has different words in different languages. "Aagrah" in marathi or "upachara" in kannada,
THIS is the real root cause of a chronic problem we have today.
The sad part is, if the host does not coax well, they are also termed as rude and hostile.

Traditionally, we don't know to say a Firm "NO" and also accept and understand a "NO".
There are no variations in a NO.
NO usually means NO - simple.
But we are trained to complicate these things. (What's new?)

This behavioral trait unfortunately manifests itself in all situations as we age.

Add to this the numerous jokes that our family makes during all weddings and/or related functions where they dramatize the way bride and groom meet. This obviously is also glorified enough in our films. Regional and mainstream.

Yet again, the bottom-line is - when a girl says no, we hear success stories encouraging one to go ahead and coax her into saying a yes. The supposed pure intent in the attempt is what matters.

OK, let's look at something else.
The other misunderstood concept we have is the 'sense of humor'.
Most don't know the difference between humor, satire and ridicule.
In the name of humor, many wisecracks say stuff that puts a lot of pressure on the ones that it is directed at. This again happens in schools, colleges, hostels and also at workplaces.

Here too, if someone feels offended and says a NO, who's to understand that?

It's time, as responsible citizens, we try and correct this situation for the coming generations.
At least amongst ourselves. It'll solve a lot of issues on hand. I'm sure I don't need to detail them out here.

Let's know a "No" - Say it, mean it and Zip it!