Back again...

I told my wife sometime back that I am going to start blogging again...when I read this line today, I thought to myself that if I don't put this on the blog, I would have missed a golden opportunity to restart. So here it is, continuing the 'on-liner' series. This line (there are more lines worthy of mention, maybe in a later post) from Warren Buffet's letter to Berkshire's shareholders in Feb 2009:

The First Law of Corporate Survival: Modest incompetence simply won't do; it's mindboggling screw-ups that are required

(Warren's way to potray the utter helplessness of the federal government in letting huge financial institutions fail, unfortunately)

Finally.....

.....I manage to get some free moments to write this. Its been a few long, eventful, busy, fast flying months. Many things happened, met many people, done a lot of work, still more pending. But in the past weeks whenever the thought came of writing something, the voice within me gave me the same answer every time....to write about this thought that has stuck to my mind.

On a business trip I met this person who has a disease for which there is no cure. The disease shortens the lifespan of the person it afflicts. I can't describe the feeling I went through when the person stated this fact to me. He said it is a strange experience to live when you know you have a terminal illness. That reminded me of a line which I read somewhere....WE ALL HAVE A TERMINAL ILLNESS - ITS CALLED LIFE!!

Ever since then this phrase has stuck to my mind. I find myself saying it time and again to myself. I observe people around me, critically look at the way they behave, and I see that most of the times people live as if they are going to live forever. Often times when I analyze my own behavior I find myself doing the same thing. I wonder what it would be like to live with the realization that you are for sure not going to be around after a certain period of time. I wonder what it would be like to live if you know for sure that you are going to live for eternity. I wonder where the beginning is, and where the end, and what's the purpose, or if there is even one!

Identity theft!!

Since a few weeks we all have witnessed the commercials of Lifelock where the CEO Todd Davis announces in public that his social security number is 457-55-5462, and then confidently says that their customers' identity is absolutely safe under their watch. They also mention that every 3 seconds somebody's identity is stolen and used for malicious purpose. Although interesting, what I want to talk about here is not the theft of one's identity defined in terms of alpha-numeric characters, but rather the loss of one's identity as defined in terms of aspirations and dreams.

We all have numerous identities given to us with reference to the people around us, and each of these identities require us to do things in order for us to do 'justice' to that identity. As a good son I am expected to behave in a manner that keeps my parents happy. As a good son-in-law I have to fulfill the social obligations that come along with that role. The day I deviate slightly, I stand a chance to lose that identity, or at least face the trial for not having given 'justice' to that identity of mine. I am also a husband, an employee, a manager, a nephew, a brother, a brother-in-law, a friend, etc. etc. etc.

All too often I ponder that does not all this end up stealing my true identity? The individual within me has some aspirations, some expectations from my own self that need to be satisfied. But in the process of doing 'justice' to my other identities, I sometimes seem to lose the identity of my own self. Though I have never explicitly spoken to them, when I look at all the people around me, I feel they are all the victims of that same identity theft to a lesser or greater extent than me. I also do sometimes curse my own self for using this excuse to cover up my own laziness, cowardice (or dutifulness, however way you might look at it), and non-action. Many times I console myself by saying that we ought to be practical, or we have to accept the reality, or may be some day....., or we have to keep the right balance.

In the end, the fact remains that almost every human being is a victim of this identity theft. And considering that there are approximately 3 births every second on earth, the rate of this crime is 9 times as much as that advertised by Lifelock. Unfortunately, I don't think there ever will be a corporation that can save us from the identity theft that I am talking about. I only wish that some day human civilization will evolve enough to notice this gruesome crime and prevent it from happening. In my lifetime, I only wish that I always live with the consciousness of this crime, and not myself afflict anyone around me with it.

Death

I am scared of discussing this. Not because I am scared of the phenomenon called death, but because almost every person I know is very sensitive about this topic. Nevertheless, after a lot of holding myself back, I decided to face it once and for all.

In the past few weeks I got the news of deaths of people that a couple my acquaintances were very close to. I felt very uncomfortable facing those acquaintances because the way I perceive death is so not normal. I will attempt here to put down in words how I feel about death (especially when it comes to the death of somebody very close to you), and would welcome views that are in agreement or otherwise.

As for death in general, I simply see it is an end of existence. I look at the human body in the same light as the body of any other creature including animals, plants, insects, microbes, etc., and hence don't find any difference between the death of the latter or former. There are many related topics that I would like to write on at some point of time, like analyzing human beings and their actions after accepting the fact that all humans are but members of a species called homo sapien sapien, just like tommy next doors is a member of the species canine familiaris. For now, bluntly, death is an end of existence.

Now, things get complicated when you bring into picture the emotional aspect. The person who is no longer alive would have been somebody's spouse, somebody's parent, somebody's sibling, etc., and all those "somebodys" have emotional ties with that person that are difficult to let loose. All those "somebodys" are going to miss that person. All those "somebodys" are deeply hurt by the absence of that person. I do fully understand, accept, and respect these emotions. What I don't understand is that was it the intention of that person to give so much pain to all those "somebodys"? Or more importantly, will seeing all the "somebodys" in grief make that person happy at all? The conclusion that I come to personally is that if one really, and objectively, cares about the opinions of the dead person, he/she will start leading the normal life immediately. He/she will celebrate the life of the person, cherish the fond memories with that person, try to imbibe the qualities of the person that he/she appreciated, do everything that had the person been alive, would have made the person happy. Most people behave in the exactly opposite manner (except the imbibing of good qualities part). This is not because they don't care about the opinions of the dead person, but because they are not objective in the process. The shock and sorrow takes over the objective sensibilities, only for them to come back with time, sooner or later. The question I always ask in my head when facing such circumstances is: why not sooner?

The one thing that I don't like at all about such situations is my loved ones insisting that I talk to the person who has lost a dear family member. The fact that I have never called that person in my life tends to exacerbate this dislike. Just think about it, I have never, I repeat emphatically, never, called a person in my life. I only meet this person on social events, maybe once a year or less. Today I hear that the person's father passed away. I do sympathize with the person, I understand that he is in grief. I know that that is all I can do. There is no possible way in which I can help the person, nor can I be a shoulder to cry on because I am not very close with the person (or the other way round). So what should I do? My loved ones are of the opinion that I should at least once call the person up and say words like "I am sorry to hear about your loss" or "Let me know if I can help in any way" or "Everything will be OK" or "It happens, what can we do". I say to myself, the person already knows all this. I am sure the person is trying to cope up with the situation, let us give him room to himself to do it. Is the constant reminding that he has lost his father going to be of any help to him? It is like a person who is repenting on a mistake and trying to correct it, while everybody else just keeps reminding the person of how bad he/she is, or what a terrible mistake it was, or if nothing else point a finger and say "you are a sinner!". I have never found myself at home when I see the way the majority of people behave when there is a death, and everytime I have come across as a insensitive stone hearted person to most of that majority.

Maybe with time I will learn how to perform my 'duty' of talking to people in such circumstances. Or maybe I will not. The one thing I know is that whenever I become a victim of such times, I would like to accept the fact, move on with life as I will have to sooner or later, and pay homage to the person no more by trying to live in a way that would have made him/her happy. If a couple of week later I have to attend a wedding, birthday or baby shower, I will gladly go there and enjoy, because I know that if the person would have been alive, he/she would have expected me to to exactly that. All the people who do call me, though I don't believe in that, I am glad you feel about me. All the people who don't call me, I know precisely why you didn't!!

Truly Intriguing!!

The headlines for today: Exxonmobil posts the largest profit in corporate history. According to this report on CNN, this translates into a profit of $1300 per SECOND!! I thought of putting this into a different perspective - how does this per second 'profit' compare to the per capita income of India? This world bank statistic puts the real per capita income of India in the year 2006 to be $820. WOW!! It means Exxonmobil makes more profit every second than what an average Indian makes in an entire year!! Also do note that we are talking about the 'profit', the comparison will be even more shocking if we take into account the 'revenue'.

Take this a step further. Convert this profit and per capita income to find out how many people of India can Exxonmobil support if it were to donate its profit away. Do the math and then look at this table that shows the population of the states of India. Imagine this, if Exxonmobil were to donate away its profit, it would be enough to support the population of Gujarat!!

When I hear such stories, I find myself torn between two thoughts - Is this fair or such profits are crossing the threshold towards being called criminal? On the other hand, how wonderful is the business model than can generate such profits? Is this capitalism at its worst or at its best? Intrigued I am :-).

Taare Zameen Par

It is exactly 3 months since my last post. Looking back, I can't think of a reason convincing enough for myself to have not written for such a long time. The only thing I can do it try and not be the same for the coming 3 months. On the flip side though, there cannot be a more apt reason to come back than Taare Zameen Par!!!

I am sure there will be tonnes of raving reviews about the movie all over the place, and I am only adding a drop to the ocean. But if I don't do it, I will feel that I did not give vent to the numerous emotions that the film aroused in me.

Not very often do you come across a piece of art that touches your core to an extent of leaving a permanent mark on it. Not very often do you see people standing spellbound to watch the ending credits till the screen is switched of. Not very often do I have to throw my handkerchief (I still use one in the US!!) in the washing basket after coming home from the movie theater. It rarely happens that you don't want to discuss or write about the specifics of a film because you feel that your limited writing ability will not do justice to it. How many times has it happened that a movie makes you feel that your existence is so shallow and meaningless, and your aspirations so animal-like - devoid of any purpose. How many times do you like a 'movie' so much that if somebody tries to make a mockery of it you for once want to forget all arguments about open mindedness and freedom of speech, and smack the person on the nose. How many times.....not very often!!

Do yourself a big favor please, don't miss out on this one.

One Liners

For many years now, I have observed that random one-liners from people I come across in daily life tend to stick to my memory and keep coming back in my conscious thought process periodically. Yesterday while thinking about this I decided that I should keep a log of these one-liners. So here it is, a new section dedicated to one-line (or maybe sometimes more than one!) quotes from some well known and some not known at all people.

I met this cousin of a friend of mine a couple of weeks back. We were going over various business opportunities and how one should look at entrepreneurship in general. He said this one line that I can't forget:

"What is the enemy of GOOD.....
......BETTER!!!!"

Are you still complaining?

A few days back I bumped into this post on a blog that I found very interesting and motivating. Then today I got an email (one of those forwards) from a friend on the same topic. I almost hit the forward button to send it to everyone on my contact list, but then remembered how I always comment about people increasing the traffic on the Internet, and clog the servers with useless forwards. Since the intent of this forward is very noble, I dare not call it useless. So I am using a more efficient mode of communication - put all the pictures from the forwarded email on the blog.

Blogging and the wonders of the world

The real wonders of the world, the numerous people out there who take life to be a step above the mere circle of existence. Back in the old days you would have to be a party hopper or a pathological socialite to know enough people to find the ones who can satisfy your craving for some genuinely intellectual fulfillment. I believe blogging has opened up the playing field for those less privileged souls who would have otherwise perished in anonymity just because they were not born in a family that would put them on the center stage of the society.
I do repent on not having jumped on to the blogging bandwagon earlier on. In fact having a background in communication technologies, it is rather shameful that I kept myself away from it for such a long time. Lately however, while spending some leisure time on blog-hopping, I have come across some wonderful brains to whom I would like to meet in person if given an opportunity. Many remind you of the person you are, or the person you always wanted to be, many remind you of the things you once held as most important but lost track of them running after things that you don't really deem important at all, many of them bring you face to face with the most hurtful facts, many of them give you that moral uplifting just when you need it the most, many of them give you perspectives that you instantaneously find acceptance for, many of them....the list goes on. The bottom line however, is that blogging has given me access to some real wonders of the world who are not popular enough to get a billion votes, but at the same time don't need those votes to solidify their place amongst the best wonders. Thank you blogging.

My experiments with Integrity

Integrity - I first got introduced to the real life meaning of this word in The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, when back in college one of the teachers I admire a lot recommended that I read it. I was always considered to be a hard-headed idealistic person, often to the extent of being dogmatic. Then gradually I discovered the true me, or rather I should say the me that I would want to be - a person with integrity. I found out the difference between being dogmatic and having high levels of integrity. Over the years, I have tried my best to remain true to that image of myself. That is the singular most important thing that gives me satisfaction when I look straight into my eyes in the mirror and see the person behind them. There were times when I really questioned the worth in maintaining integrity as opposed to being retaliatory. There have been times when I ended up hurting those who care for me in the process of making sure that my integrity is not hurt. Whether this was right or wrong, is yet unknown to me and hence I call them my experiments with integrity (though I would be lying if I say that before I die I will be able to get some conclusions out of this experiment).
These are the days of extreme turbulence for my experiment. I like the little snippet on the cover page of the book titled integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. It says "the courage to meet the demands of reality". The way I apply this to the context of my current situation is that no matter how ugly the reality becomes, no matter how bitter the world around me is, if I have the courage to face the facts and give real world sacrifices to preserve my integrity, only then will I have successfully completed one more phase of this experiment. Let us see.

P.S.: The reason I wrote this post is to use it as a place to get myself back on my feet when they are shaken off the ground by the turbulences I see approaching in the coming days.