Justice??

Did the gods who created this beautiful world also create mankind and his disasters?

Did the gods who created innocence and children also create Nithari and Child Labour?

Did the gods who created Love, Chemistry and Magic also create Jealousy, Sadness and Heartbreaks?

Did the gods who created Motherhood also create the need for a 'Women's day'?

What kind of poetic justice is this?

Send me an angel...

The wise man said just walk this way
To the dawn of the light
The wind will blow into your face
As the years pass you by
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just find your place
In the eye of the storm
Seek the roses along the way
Just beware of the thorns

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just raise your hand
And reach out for the spell
Find the door to the promised land
Just believe in yourself
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star
Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

~ The Scorpions

One Life to Live and Love....

It is fascinating to think how the whole algorithm of life and mannerisms are programmed to change with age.

I happened to observe closely some of the mannerisms of my niece during these holidays. It is indeed an enriching experience. Maybe this was what was meant when they said 'the child is the father of man'.

I am not sure if all adults are like this but I think we all do lose out a lot of the 'child' in us. Anyone who can retain the persona of his/her childhood while gaining the wisdom from experiences will be a happier person.

If you observe a child closely, you will see that they do not think when it comes to articulating affection. There is no holding back...It may be a special hug or just an attempted conversation when they feel affectionate...

What changes as a person grows up? Why do we as adults become hesitant to show affection? What changes in the algorithm and when does this change happen? It could be love for a partner, respect for a parent, affection for a friend. Maybe the articulation is more subtle once you grow up...but i guess it might just help enrich the relationship if you do say it once in a while....

I am not saying all adults stop doing this but it may be worthwhile searching out the child in us…..

Make Something Happen

I am not a big fan of Seth Godin though a lot of people seem to follow his blog and writings. But I like this post of his:

"If I had to pick one piece of marketing advice to give you, that would be it.

Now.

Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you've been holding back from... and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go."

The URL to his post

Extending this a little further, seriously, I think we do tend to overestimate the importance of what we are doing, the report, the meeting, the deliverable that we stop thinking and just keep doing and stop caring about the real things....

Maybe Someday....

Not too many taglines are as in your face as this one from Tata Safari...I guess it is to do with the phase one is in..I am sure a lot of my batchmates are saying...this maybe me... :)

When passing out of the corridors of a premier business school (some years ago), there were hopes, idealism, excitement..now it is just plain being content with smaller successes (which I call 'cheap thrills'). In my work area, I do have an option of interacting with people from different batches and it is interesting to see where each one of them are... it's almost worth an empirical study to see when cynicism sets in and when realization again sets in that it is actually upto you to turn that cynicism into productive energy....

Eternal Souls

....
Jesse: Most people, you know, a lot of people talk about the past lives, and things like that, you know, and even if they don't believe in it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right.

Céline: Yeah.

Jesse: Okay. Well, this is my thought. 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's like 2,000,000 people on the planet. Now, there's between 5 and 6 billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? Are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? Because if they are, that represents a 5,000-to-1 split of each soul in just the last 50,000 years, which is like a blip in the earth's time. You know, so, at best, we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're all so scattered? You know, Is that why we're all so specialized?

Céline: Wait a minute, I'm not sure I ... I don't...

Jesse: Hang on, I know, I know, it's a totally scattered thought, which is kind of why it makes sense. ..

From 'Before Sunrise'...Celine & Jesse...

Interesting thought....

Things Change...

Things Change....

They most definitely do...

The last week has in lot of ways been as anti-climactic as it can get..a lot of things did not happen but things have been set into motion...

The shortest trip I have made abroad...had to go to New York, the big daddy of them all...(may comment on the city in a later post) for a really short trip....Now New York was one of the 43places in my list...so I should have been really excited for the great opportunity career wise and the fact that it is New York...

But then in the end not so much...how do any of these matter when you really are not relishing the moment?

Ever get the feeling that things are all happening around you, seemingly unconnected to you but somehow affecting you....

Maybe it is time to look to the skies for a signal...

....And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

From 'The Sound of Silence' by Simon & Garfunkel....

Probably the most powerful language yet...if you can read those unspoken lines, hear those unspoken words, feel those unspoken emotions....then you are truly the friend I seek....

Thinking Language

Does the language that you think in make a difference in the way you talk/relate to people? You may have grown up thinking in your mother tongue. All your growing years, that is probably the language that you have grown with. That is the language you argued with your friends.

So it is quite possible that when you are emotional about a topic, you might want to shift to the language that you think in if you want to be more effective. Of course, if that language is English or Hindi, you probably can articulate better since the no of ppl around understanding these languages are larger.

As I have been called a misplaced displaced tam more times than I can remember, I have never been natural either in Tamil or Malayalam being a Tam in Kerala. The language I have been most comfortable therefore is English and that has become the language that I think in.

So if I were to argue with someone in anger, I would probably be more effective doing it in English. Lucky me!!

Disclaimer: This is a totally empirical hypothesis backed by no scientific thought what so ever....

Pondering thoughts...

Like any other engineering B-schooler, I also keep saying that I should have listened more in my OB class. The only thing I remember from my OB class is the Johari Window, a pretty neat framework about understanding yourself and others. Today when my work involves managing people, this is becoming more important. However that is not the point of this post....

Last week, a friend of mine made a perceptive comment on my nature. While I always knew that in my mind,it started me off thinking. I mean, there are these snippets of your own nature that you always know deep in your mind, that could be your greatest fear which you hope people wont find.......you tend to find your own 'protection mechanism' to mask those fears...some stay aloof from people when it surfaces...apparently mine is to just talk a lot without conveying anything....

Therefore bringing me back to the Johari window.....it is apparent that each of us have a blind spot....how big that is is the question...when somebody suddenly sheds light on this area which you have been blind or pretending to be blind to,I guess it does shock you a bit....

Have been thinking about all this for quite a bit now...no answers yet...but I guess if life were that simple, then you would not need to attribute the screw-ups in this world to a much larger power....Maybe I AM becoming old....

Really need to get out of Bangalore......

Melancholic

"You know, you realize that most of the people that you meet are trying to get somewhere better,you know, they're trying to make a little bit more cash,trying to get a little more respect, have more people admire them, you know,

It's just exhausting!"

from 'Before Sunset', the movie

.........So very true....

A friend used the word Melancholy...and i couldnt get it out of me since then......it's such a beautiful word yet so tragic sounding....

Everytime you tend to think of your problems as the biggest, something comes along and humbles you....the city that has had 3 different bruises in as many weeks...Mumbai in pictures

It is at times such as these that you feel that the world is a far larger place than you can ever imagine and you are probably much better off than many and therefore be thankful for what you have....

Oh...but can anyone unplug those camera crews for a while....