Economy ignominy

Off late, whole world seems to have awakened against the rampant (read: improper, illogical, blasphemous, corrupt) practices. While Africa had its fair share of awakenings, Wall street is having more than visitors albeit in other ways, India has seen an unprecedented movement of course led against an unprecedented era of bold & corrupt governance and if signs are something to read by, European Union’s stuck with a catch 22 between the survival of union & survival of Euro.

Now that I’ve splashed sufficient water around, let me take a dip to main point. While societies of the world have realized that they can make a change as there’s more to world than going to office, coming back & cursing the government; Economies of the world are still getting the reality bite in a slow manner  and are yet to realize that there’s much more to economics than printing money, and preaching global brotherhood. Its time every country takes a look inside and does a litmus test of its policies, expenditures and production. Did I miss agriculture here, well this is where the key lies for most of the nations to make them self dependent or lead the world in this; atleast for India this is true. On the verge of becoming the largest producer, I guess it would already be in the list of one of the largest wasters of food grains. It pains, moreso when there are states/nations that are dying of food shortage.

Here’s to the people of world who have finally taken over the task of setting things right and who have made it loud & clear that 99% will not continue to bear the expense of 1%. Hoping media plays the role here to what it is supposed to do i.e critically evaluate the scenario & doesn’t do the usual belle dance pleasing the who’s whos.

Gardens of your mind.....

“Can you allow a person to put garbage in your garden”, a very valid question raised in ‘Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin Sharma, and the reasoning that follows is a hard fact “then why is that you allow other person’s act to affect your mind”. I believe this is one of the hardest lines that separate a run-off-the-mill existence to a more sedate one; we can call it run-off-the-rocking chair existence.

The question is can a person’s misdeeds influence people around him so much so that the other person stops living his own line of thoughts but starts towing a negatively biased line. Yes sir, we have it in us, we always did, I guess that’s what separates Socrates from us right.

So what’s the point in writing this mumbo jumbo that we all know? Well two reasons.

One is that irrespective of you avoiding negative influences, you cannot help meeting scum bags, or people who want earth to be rotated the way that they want to & who miss no opportunity in hitting you with boulders of their personal (un-educated at times) opinions every time. At times you might ignore, but at times it sinks into your head and every time your brain makes a decision influenced by that, it’s like sinking your vampire teeth further into your own flesh, you do drink blood, but buddy.. its your own blood, you suck your own energy out.

Second is that how to rebound & stay composed when you are hit by a boulder like this, you get dizzy at first & your action doesn’t listen to your brain but then, the key lies in realizing that boulder was just a figment of your mind. You can take it as a breeze & pass it or you take it as a boulder & sit in pain. Perspectives are hard to change and so is idiotic attitude, but hell, why do you want to change it; the problem lies when we try to change things and fit into grooves that we think are better, but again, does it help? No. it hasn’t to any sensible person I know.  But every sane person has tried one thing that has worked for all, a small five letter word, i-g-n-o-r-e.  

Try it. It works wonders.

You only live once...

I grew up hearing this from my English teacher, “You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough.” I was thrilled by the phrase & used it invariably in essays & debates. Couldn’t comprehend what ‘living right’ meant but years of study, by the TV, assured me that this is something cool.

Long time I took to understand what ‘right’ means here.

During school it was studies that was ‘right’. During college it was having a blast that was ‘right’. At job I realized getting a promotion and good hike is ‘right’. And what hell, I’m still to follow what is right for me. But the good thing is I now know what is ‘wrong’ for me. Believe me, knowing what is wrong and doing what is ‘right’ are poles apart; as far apart as six-pack abs & a chocolate pudding. And by the time you reach the other end, there are chances your hair has outgrown your heart.

It takes more than two legs to follow what is ‘right’, it takes spine & it takes heart (ofcourse money too if you want to drive rather than walk towards ‘right’). And icing part is that ‘doing right’ has got nothing to do with ‘what you do?’ but in fact it is the ‘how’ part of it.

How you live your day. How you take up a new task. How you react when things suck. How you live when situations beat you down on your knees and how you still get up & get going each day. This ‘How’ is the attitude part. Indeed long time it took me to realize that attitude needs to be right.

That’s it. Life is short, it really is, ‘living it to the fullest’ is again more than a metaphor.  Follow your dreams (I’m trying to follow mine too), after all we know fairly well Zindagi milegi na dobara

Lemon shot for your soul....

I read this poem 'Victory' by Herbert Kauffman sometime back and without doubt, it's one of the finest I've read. Leaves an impact, like a lemon shot on a sunday morning.

A pleasant kick to start your day with......

Victory

You are the Man who used to boast
that you'd achieve the uttermost,
some day.
You merely wished to show,
to demonstrate how much you know
and prove the distance you can go..

Another year we've just passed through.
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?

Time left twelve fresh months in your care
how many of them did you share
with opportunity and dare
again where you so often missed?

We do not find you on the list of makers good.
explain the fact!
Ah No, 'Twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual - you failed to act! 

Comparing Apples and Oranges....

Last week I thought of writing something on Google wallet, but couldn’t get hold of my legs & mind for the entire week and now when I finally have them attached, there’s a lot more that has changed here. iCloud is here and we all know it is just not another cloud it is THE cloud. So apple slashes rates for music libraries to almost a fourth and does away with the usual MobileMe. Now we can have all the docs, music files, photos, apps & blah blah on this cloud with a free tank of 5GB size.

What we now have here is everything that an android powered device provided + seamless experience across all devices. So you have some music/file on your harddisk, you can play the same through your iPhone or iPad etc etc. The omnipotent Apple is getting to omnipresence now. HAIL!! Yet again Apple continues to set new standards to the thin client technology.

Putting this on a balance against the good old Google cloud. There is a stark difference in both the approaches, while Apple goes app way in handling this, google goes for anyplace-anybrowser thing. iCloud provides a seamless experience across all devices, you work on one & download on other and everywhere its the same format same experience; advantage Apple here. But again as it always was, this still remains inside the beautiful boundaries of Apple mansion, which Google surpasses to provide boundary less, platform less experience; advantage Google here.

Another one, you can access google docs, google cloud through mac but can you access iCloud through an android system….HAAH....apple mansion doesn’t allow that

Who is the first among equals here? Too early to say, but yeah, the fun is in watching two brilliants outdoing each other.

So what next?? Google wallet is creating waves....iOS 5 is on the anvil …

I guess I didn’t hear the bell ring…..round’s not over yet….waiting for the next move now.

Of mind & mouth ...and damn & ouch

If doing was as easy as thinking then we would have had lots of billionaires by now, and on the contrary if thinking was as easy as talking then we would have had lots of Newtons by now.

The point is not that ‘doing’ is the most important part, ‘action’ always is & has been the key thing, neither is the point to prove the importance of thinking, this stuff is too cliché for me. Rather the idea is whether the grey stuff that does thinking & mouth that does talking, are they connected?

Well, for a lot of people I know, they ain’t and hell do they care.

The best part is when your mouth is not connected to your brain, your body takes you to an utopian level where you don’t give a damn to what you do or say (your brain is not connected you see) and equally others don’t give a damn to what you say or do.  You can dig a hole for someone & still believe it’s for his/her good. You can give a dumb acrimonious mouthful to someone & still believe an honest opinion strengthens relationships.

So is it fun ? I bet it is.

Is it sane ?? Who cares when you are having fun.

Disclaimer: My mind & mouth are totally & seamlessly connected….it’s just that they enjoy working solo

And so it begins...

Let me welcome myself to the world of blogging today.

Have always thought that this place is for people whose life is happening and who have things to share, but what the heck, I guess I have better things to share even …or not …but who cares.  So as Hugh Hefner  says(oh yes…I give every respect to what this man says…a lot many owe their teen years to him), it’s never too late to say “I do” so I guess it’s never too late to blog even, after all it requires even lower fitness levels, so here I am.

I’ve loved juggling with words for years now, so much so that it has been my USP since college days, at least I thought so, until I went to MBA and realized everyone around me is the same. But old habits die hard and if it’s for self mental massage, I bet its better if it doesn’t die at all.

So this embarks two things in my life…one I’ve started blogging & pledge to continue it…and two, I need to exercise regularly from tomorrow. Actually I read (rather a long due read) Robin Sharma’s ‘Monk who sold his Ferrari’ today and am must say, got a handful of takeaways from it. Though I don’t agree that the monk needed to sell his Ferrari; wasn’t required actually. You see, you can have all the pleasures of this world and still stay close to God (Thus spoke Swami Nithyanand). Yeah so coming back to my take aways from the book (with my abridged adaptationsJ), among other things:

- Control your mind , if not, I guess it’s a monster in making

- Have a get-up early attitude; have been trying since past many years

- Make every moment count (actually took it from Titanic movie but got refreshed after reading this book)

- a lot of importance on enjoying today, the day that we have at hand, because today is when we set the foundation for the plan to achieve our goals

 and lots of other stuff, which at this point, I need time to digest and to customize as per my scenario, ‘coz the monk said, nothing in extreme everything has to be moderate,  and here lies my alibi J.