Time to move on…

It’s amazing how simple events, if observed carefully, teach us so much in life. And this observation comes with experience and situations that you face. Especially when you are lonely, have excess time to kill, you pick up on observation.

I grew up with the belief that relationships are complicated. My observation revealed that people’s feelings get hurt more often than not. And by relationships, I don’t imply those romantic relations. Try it out yourself. Break your life in the intervals of 5 years, starting from 0 to 5, 5 to 10 and so on. Now count the people whom you have added to your life and those whom you have deleted from your life in these intervals. Seems like a lot of faces have changed… right? Only a handful of them may have remained constant. That being the case getting involved too seriously in any sort of relation may seem counter intuitive.

A week ago, my phone stopped working for some reason. I have had this phone for nearly 5 years now and as you can guess I had many names in my contact list. To be specific, 108 names, some with multiple phone numbers. Though I got it fixed I lost all the contacts it had. So, I started recollecting the phone numbers of those people who mattered to me. Yes, only 23 of them, I could. Does it mean the rest whom I knew in the past five years or so, no longer mattered to me? Probably yes. It didn’t hurt to be frank in this matter. What would hurt is letting someone go, whose phone number is still on the tip of my tongue yet situations were forcing me to keep off from that person. I reassessed this simple incident quite a few times. The only message which my mind echoed was, “Veej, life has changed and it’s the best time to move on…”

The Problems faced by my Generation

Before I write any further let me explain the term ‘my generation’. It would have been great to be born in the 70’s when the hippie movement was at its peak, music all over the world was at its best and a new wave of hope sweeping a newly formed nation. Alas that didn’t happen and I belong to that generation which lost its innocence around mid-to-late-90’s.Like every generation, my generation too can be identified with some of the peculiarities. Of course I do not wish to stereotype every individual with the ongoing trends.

Looking back I feel we got exposure a little later than what we should ideally have. Probably most people feel this way, looking back. I was hinting at cell phones and internet. Whether that’s good or bad is left to an individual to decide. The two main issues I would like to write on are seen in dime-a-dozen.

1) Failed Relationships

2) Excessive use of Social Networking sites

Failed relationships cannot be classified as a problem with my generation alone. This problem has existed perpetually and would continue to exist. The reason I opted to highlight this was because of the current age group of people in my generation. Hell, those heartbreaks, arguments, negotiations and compromises. Most of us are overboard with these bitter facts of life. Not too long ago, did we imagine undergoing such experiences. The current teenagers would probably be better off at facing such situations. They simply have more exposure at the right age and better understanding as well. Times and situations change so quickly in developing countries that a decade’s gap brings in the whole element of generation gap.

If you have seen the movie ‘The Social Network’ you would realize the basis on which facebook was found. My generation loves to document every emotion in their life, every action they took and every wish they have, at that moment. This has only made it worse to build and sustain new relationships as people are realizing the six degrees of separation theory isn’t a fragment of imagination. In that case it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to predict your nature, your past and your present just by spying on your social networking presence. To make situations less embarrassing, deleting a particular post, deleting a particular person from your list of friends, and other clean up measures, is what the pundits recommend. Is it all really worth or is avoiding social networking sites a silver bullet?

As they say, there exists a problem, only if there exists a solution. Though I’m not a master in this topic and can be counted among those struggling ones, I feel that being responsible would help us make things more resolved. If you already know that your deeds are going to be visible to the world, wouldn’t it make more sense to be cautious. Prevent and prepare would be a bigger guru-mantra than repent and repair.

Stereotypes: Causes & Effect

I’m back after a long break and guess my next article will be after a long break too. I have been working on few things and till they are done, I will be irregular here.

It’s been a while since I got back home and thought it would be good to post an article, based on some of my observations and experiences. Of course I don’t intend to advocate drinking bottled water, wear shades and a pollution mask to beat the Indian heat and polluted environment. I sense a fair amount of discomfort when hear stereotypes like these.

To begin with, a TV commercial, from country’s leading car maker, which goes by the base line, “Hindustani hai hum” (meaning “We are Indians”). There are three or four ads which go with this line, each of them portraying a less remarkable deed. If you do need to understand, what I’m talking about, check out the series of latest Maruti Suzuki ads on youtube. What are the effects of such ads? Firstly, semi-educated Indians, who leave India, befriend a couple of foreigners, proudly show them these ads and ensure our image is tarnished. Already the stereotype that exists is consolidated. I’ve lived almost all my life in India and have never asked to pack the leftover bits of food, from a restaurant. I bet you will find a whole lot of people like me. Is it an ‘unlike Indian’ practice that I’m following? Or aren’t there foreigners who asked to pack the leftover food at a restaurant? In such a case, why badmouth our culture and give a chance to build a stereotype.

I know Bangalore traffic sucks, sucks big time. I returned to the city after a while and was expecting the traffic to be lot worse than what it really is. I have been surprised more often than not by the congested traffic, which is better compared to many large cities around the world. The thing with us is that we channelize our energies to condemn our city, state, country, culture et al. Our media too seems to capitalize on this mindset.

I have set two rules for myself to overcome such situations. One, never focus only on negatives when there is fair amount of positives present around us. Two, unless in a position to suggest a solution and put it in practice, why bother commenting on the shortcomings.

Regarding stereotype, I too have my own. People are more or less the same, round the world, with more or less similar aspirations.

A Lesson from Our Scriptures

Just a few days ago, the Supreme Court of India termed Dronacharya’s act as shameful. Now this gave rise to many questions in my mind. I felt it was essential to answer these questions and here goes this article.

The times today we live in, it would be likely that a child would have mastered how to use facebook or twitter, but may still fail to recognize who Dronacharya was. For those, he was the guru of the Pandavas in Mahabharata. His acumen in archery was such that if he taught this art, his pupils were guaranteed to excel. So in today’s terms, if he was to be made of the Indian Archery team in Olympics, it would assure us a gold medal in all the relevant events.

Which act of his, did our SC condemn? If you have not read the Mahabharata, I strongly recommend you to read it. Of course if you have no time, I will cut the long story short for you. Dronacharya’s favorite pupil was Arjuna. His bias towards Arjuna was such that he could barely stand any archer better than him. In the backdrop of this, Ekalavya, who didn’t have the royal blood like Arjuna did, mastered this art. That being the reason, Dronacharya wouldn’t teach him. But for his reputation as a master, Ekalavya worshipped his statue and practiced rigorously to enhance his skills. And when Dronacharya came across such a self proclaimed student, who was from a lower caste, had never taken a lesson but was probably way better an archer then the great Arjuna was, he just couldn’t digest these facts. And when such a student offered him any gift of his choice, he demanded for his thumb, which would leave him with no further ability as an archer. But being a devoted student, Ekalavya did this with pleasure. This act which displayed egoistic nature of the guru, bigotry, and a weird degree of injustice is certainly condemnable.

Is it relevant in today’s context? Certainly, if you ask me. A teacher is one, who imparts his / her knowledge on us and guides us in the right direction. Regardless of times, it’s very essential for a teacher to set highest standards of ethics. We always look up to our teachers, be it whatever. If a student makes mistakes, that’s correctable. But if a teacher makes it, there is hardly any authority that could control the damage it does. Being a teacher is not just about how sharp you are in your area, but also important to play it fair and set a right example.

This was one of many such timeless lessons from the epic, I felt like sharing with my readers. So, I hope if you ever get an opportunity to be a teacher, please do your duties in all fairness. I dedicate this article to my parents and all those wonderful teachers I have had in life.

Happiness: Explained

True happiness is not attained through self gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose

– Helen Keller

I love to kick start my writing with a catchy line. And since I was running short of one of those, I decided to borrow one from Helen Keller. Well, here I’m writing about a simple question, whose answer is not-so-simple. The question, what is true happiness? Think for a couple of moments and if you have a satisfactory explanation, don’t bother reading any further. Else…

Scientifically speaking, happiness is a state of mind in which the chemical composition of brain changes, making the person experiencing this change, feel good. Alright, then what triggers this? This question is highly individualistic in nature. Because different people think differently. And as per me, different people should think differently. To some happiness could be writing a poem, to some, listening to a particular genre of music, while to some others it could be sitting with friends sipping some whiskey.

This highly personal nature of the phenomenon of happiness has brought in a fair amount of confusion amongst people. So, our society constantly tries to define the boundaries for being happy. These could range anywhere from having a dinner at the fanciest hotel with your family to owning a luxury car. To my observation, the capitalist society tries to brainwash people by linking happiness to materialistic possessions. Essentially there is no relation in between being happy and possessing tons of wealth. Quite often than not, confused souls fall prey to this trick and then starts their pursuit of accumulating wealth. People get so much overboard with this idea that they forget what they really wanted, when they started this blind folded run.

What amuses me is that when few (very few, indeed) show no interests in the pattern set by society, people make no hesitation in concluding their being abnormal. On the other hand if you crave for all the luxuries in life, it is considered perfectly normal. I find this just hard to digest. Probably many succumb to this sort of pressure and alter their thinking in life. By the time they realize their mistakes, their grand children would be about to make the same mistake. Life… happens.

It is possible to happy sans having any wealth but seldom without being able to share your feelings. I will leave you with this thought. Amongst all your happy moments so far, how many times do you remember yourself happy because of "things" and "not people"?

Where is Innovation taking us?

In the past couple of decades, technology has revolutionized our lives. Along with technological advances, innovation has probably been overdone. Its effects haven’t gone down too well with people. So, where is this ‘over-innovation’ taking us? To answer this question, I would like to quote few articles, which I have read in past several days.

iPhone defined what a smart phone is. When it was introduced people were awestruck with its touch-screen, sleek looks and variety of apps it provided with. Then came the various flavors of iPhone with more and more improvements. As of 2010, it also made video calling possible. Awesome! In this process of innovation, what was forgotten is that the main (NOT the sole) purpose of a phone is to make and take calls. Oh yes, smart people realized this before I did and recently a new phone called “anti-iPhone” was launched. What are its features? One can make and take a call, that’s it. It comes with a regular diary and pen to note down phone numbers instead of a phonebook feature. My parent’s generation had only such phones. Wow!

Once upon a time, in organizations there used to be a role available called the telephone operator. With the automated voice responses becoming popular, the next generation will probably not know that such a role existed. Recently, cognitive-psychologists understood that if a human answers a call instead of digitally recorded voice, the customer satisfaction goes up. No wonder organizations are switching back to the traditional telephone operators, to give a boost to their business. In US many companies have already started giving ads about how ‘true-humans’ answer our calls instead of recorded voices.

So, the trend is clear… It is invention, innovation, over-innovation followed by switching back to the good old idea. Did I get it right?

I or M?

This article has been due and I felt just needed that extra time and extra motivation to compile it, which I ultimately found today. If you are wondering, what the hell this guy is trying to convey, by such a weird title, let me throw some light on it. I or M, here are abbreviations for Intelligence or Money. Now probably some of you might be interested in reading further. Most of us are raised with this logic that more intelligence means better grades, better grades means better schools and better schools directly translate into higher salary. And when I try to argue countering this logic, this probably amuses people. I fervently believe that there is no logic to determine the relation between intelligence and money. However people often deduce a mechanism, the more money you have, the more intelligent you are. Oh yes, the rich man is handsome, makes incredibly funny jokes and sings well too.

What trend I have observed is that people are just fascinated with wealth and pay least attention to the intelligence that goes behind earning it. To prove my observation, I did a small experiment (which you may do it in under 2mins).I googled names of four people who are either wealthy or extremely intelligent. For Richard Feynman google gave 3,140,000 pages while for Richard Branson, there staggering 4,250,000 pages. Another two people I tried were John Nash at 2,070,000 pages lagged behind Warren Buffet with 3,500,000 pages. I bet most of my readers wouldn’t have ever heard of Richard Feynman or John Nash. To me, focusing on money and trying to somehow relate it to or ignore it for money, is in a way bankruptcy of thought. One needs to evolve beyond materialistic world, in order to realize the complete advancement in the society.

Of course these are my personal thoughts. When you ask me this question I or M, I would go with I, simply because I find I factor more appealing. To many it’s M. But secret is, without I, M seldom stays! Ah… am I pimping for people to focus on I. You decide.

Enacting Movies In Real Life

Do movies inspire people to do something, which they wouldn’t have done had they not seen it in a movie? As a 16 years old, my answer to this question would have been, “No, but I’m a special person who would do so” More than a decade later, there is a change in my answer and it is, “Of course yes. Had movies not portrayed a particular location or situation, no one would have ever paid attention to it”

Movies don’t only serve as a way of recreation, but also play an important role in setting a trend. Most certainly, they leave their strong impression on people who seriously get involved with the characters. Eventually you see the same styles, clothes et al which the leads opted for, on screen, becoming a trend.

Out of curiosity, I was searching the web for information on some locations, which were covered in a movie that I saw recently, of course with the intention to visit them. What this search revealed was something interesting. I was no exception. Though this movie was not that popular, there were more than six people I came across, in my shallow searching itself, had gone to the very same locations, after they saw the same movie. More interesting was some of them had even visited those places in the same order which they were shown in the movie. Ha, crazy, isn’t it?

A few days back, when I had read a study published in a leading news paper that “Romantic Comedies Could Damage Your Relationship” I said to myself, how silly. Now, I re-read the same article and agree with that study. After all rom-coms are targeted at that age group and that sort of people who think more from heart and less from brains. Probably if someone wants to set a good trend or make a positive impact on the society, it would be worthwhile to consider making a good movie. Of course, only if you have that talent!

The Strabucks Way

I have been longing to write this article for a long time now, but have been giving it a miss, just because it doesn’t seem to fit into the category of my previous articles. Then I thought why shouldn’t I try something different? So, here comes this article.

If you have known me well, you would know that my flair for a cup of coffee is eternal. Obviously, I have been a Starbucks addict, ever since I landed in the US. Phrases like, “When in US, you are never too far from Strabucks”, “Don’t know where Starbucks is located, just peep out of your window and you should find one” are often cited to make you understand the brand power of this coffee chain giant.

Why I love Starbucks is because the way in which they do their business. Firstly, I feel that each item on the menu is great and reasonably priced. It is genuine role model for corporate ethics. Be it recycling or offering free Wi-Fi to their customers, they would always set a fine example. And another thing I really like about Starbucks is, each time you buy something they would ask if we need a receipt. And only if you need, they would print it out and thereby reducing a lot of paper waste (It is estimated that more than 80% of receipts are not needed by the customers) Applying common sense, coupled with good intentions make them a class apart. Of course other coffee chains can emulate these methods, can’t they?

If you ever get an opportunity to visit Starbucks, please don’t miss it. Since I’m an old school, my choice would be a cup of brewed coffee, with little sugar and cream. Of course, you may try out many more flavors. Good news is that Starbucks will be soon seen in India.