Open Letter to Barack Obama (I am bored sitting looking over Boston Harbor):

I am not a registered voter in the U.S. But, I spent a majority of the last year in the U.S and like many, followed the elections closely.
Here is my message to you (because, there is no button or option on your website saying "send a message to Barack" Sic.)

1. You are losing. I like your campaign and the message, but you are losing steam Hillary is at a tipping point. You are totally on the defensive, not your strong point.
2. Your campaign is slacking. Looks like your campaign strategists think they have already won. Not a good idea.
3. Get down to basics. Go back and use speeches that Barack used at the beginning of the campaign. Fresh, centered around his message not rebutting Hillary's message
4. Ignoring Hillary (by not debating) wont work, nor will going on the offensive. You have to upset her rhythm (and yes, she is onto something)
5. "I will unite people" sounds like a cool message. BUT, it doesnt mean anything. People that I meet dont feel that "unity" is a problem that needs solving. Unity sounds cool for the admen but you cant do squat with it.
6. You have no competitive advantage: You are boringly similar on: Healthcare, war in Iraq, economy, immigration, gas prices, boring shit on TV, little David getting bullied at school. What is this "change" that you keep talking about? Unless you make it perceptible, tangible, fungible, and other gibles. (eligible, exigible and most interesting: Erigible (capable of being erected!). Jokes apart. your core message (or lack of it) is taking a hit.

If I think of you, Obama, these are the terms which come to my head: New, fresh, black, smooth talker, anti-politician, empathetic, courageous and seemingly "above it all". In one word: Messiah!!

Terms which did not come to my mind: "Problem solver", Leader, strategic thinker, fearless, understands my issues. In one word: President!!

Sadly, Messiahs dont need to be voted in.

Claps are not votes. Voice votes work only after you get elected.

Think. Act. Don't just talk

Post from the past: Definition: Clueless Control Freak: Who has a habit of explaning everything with a kind of fatalistic necessity when he'she doesnt know what to say. -- Tolstoy

Familiar? Doesn't that sound very much like a new consultant??? No, that is an under-prepared consultant always.

Man! It has been a long time. Once in a few years somebody asks, "why dont you blog anymore?". My standard response was I was bored blogging and I moved on to other forms of expression.
I have a knack of coming up with an innocuous response and tagging it with a very hopeful "deep statement".
So, does this mean that one (new english usage for you) should come back to check this space often?
I don't know!!
So, to get back in touch, let us do a quick interview:
A (Who is dat? Nobody, just that it is the first letter in the alphabet): So, how has life been in the last few years?
B (Who dat? Me): As usual, nothing new. Blissfully bored.
A: So, what are the high level changes?
B: Hmm... (A few minutes later). Hmm...
A: Do I take that as not too many or as you have grown more pensive or you dont understand the question?
B: :-)
A: Silence
B: Silence

Scratch, scratch.
(End of interview, I need to go shave now.)

See you soon. Hopefully, we will count the hiatus in days or weeks and not in years.

Hutch: S, M and L. Choose your talk size.

Strong ad and everybody loves the ad. The Brand manager is a king. He picks up a few addie awards and he makes more money.

Cut to Dhruv Sagar, subscriber of Hutch. He enjoyed the ad, saw the ad on his billing envelope, read it. It said the same: Hutch: S, M and L. Choose your talk size. It never told him what the heck is it. He read it and moved on.

So Hutch spent tons of money, paid more to the brand manager and result: no more subscriptions, which it realizes a year later.

Cut to the brand manager, working on a different concept, a different idea and more money down the drain.

Think about it, how common is it to remember the ad and not the product?

Moral of the story: Dont make interesting ads. Sell products.

"We are starting a party because the king has ordered us."TSHERING TOBGAY, a former civil servant in Bhutan.

Funny? No. I met a few people from Bhutan and to say the least they are happy. Not ecstatic. Just happy. They need less. They are happy with what they have. They are less ambitious. They trust their rulers. Happy.

People like me (and most of you), living in one of the fastest growing economies, where ambition and drive and initiative and having an unlimited set of desires coupled with the 'right attitude', will never want less and will never be satisfied with anything. We live by a baldies word who said, "Only paranoid survive".

So we love to live unfulfilled, just gives us another avenue to crib. Happy? Never.

May be we should have a sabbatical in Bhutan.




And then, we will screw up Bhutan as well.

"We are starting a party because the king has ordered us."TSHERING TOBGAY, a former civil servant in Bhutan.

Funny? No. I met a few people from Bhutan and to say the least they are happy. Not ecstatic. Just happy. They need less. They are happy with what they have. They are less ambitious. They trust their rulers. Happy.
People like me, living in one of the fastest growing economies, where ambition and drive and initiative and having an unlimited set of desires coupled with the 'right attitude' will never want less and will never be satisfied with anything. We live by a baldies word who said, "Only paranoid survive". So we love to live unfulfilled, just gives us another avenue to crib. Happy? Never.

May be we should have a sabbatical in Bhutan.



And then, we will screw up Bhutan as well.

Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard

Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard: "Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard

Shriya Bubna / Mumbai April 17, 2007

Banks are considering setting up a domestic card payment settlement company, called India Pay, that would rival global payment systems Visa and MasterCard. "

Interesting, I wonder why we paid Visa and Master for domestic transactions.

Another product crib:
Whats with the head rest on the drivers seat?
Have you ever seen anybody driving with his/ her rested on the head rest? The head is always hanging with more than a few inches to spare. And this is not small car or big car specific, everybody is guilty of this.
I am sure if it had been in use, it would be the dhobi's (laundry) most often washed textile, with all the oil that we use. (not me, me ran from oil sometime after I started making money and living on my own, which is by 2050)
I am surprised after millions of cars, the auto manufacturers haven't really made any attempt to either make that little "jutting out thing" useful or take it out completely. I am sure the origin of the head rest is some funky racing car design or a extremely high end bucket seat car, where you actually sink into the bucket and seat almost eats your butt and gets the head rest close enough in the leanable range for your head.

All you automakers, can you please do something about it? Or take the damn thing off?
Actually wanted to take some pics and post em, but the thought of shooting people driving away to spot the gap with the head and rest was a little funny!

Addendum,
(This blog will start looking more like a product innovation focused crib blog in the near term) (Till I get bored of that issue).

Pulpy Orange should seriously consider giving some air space in the bottle, instead of filling it till the brim, the fun of the juice is the pulp and it is usually settled down and I cant shake it up as it filled till the brim, some space would allow a good shake up and the 'pulpy' orange juice from sip 1.

If you are having trouble coming up with the intent to blog interesting thoughts or in general not having ay interesting thoughts, you should consider piggy backing.

Here goes another attempt:
One of my favorite quotes of all time, no clue where I heard it first:
Your eyes cannot see what your mind cannot imagine.

Another one in the same direction:

"Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788 - 1860

I always wonder the innovation glut that we see in consumer products as opposed to the breakthroughs that we see in technology products. The key difference is that Technology companies sell what the consumers never really missed but post introduction and adoption, you look back and say how the hell did I live without all these years. Ex: Wireless networks in the office.
Compared to that the consumer products that we are sold, leaves much to be desired, companies are keen on jumping on competitor products and making minor changes and using stupis ads in hope that people might buy it, very few products really create their own demand. One of the recent products is Pulpy Orange introduced in India by Pepsi?/Coke? (cant even differentiate them, same values, same colors, same products, same models, same brand ambassadors and same controversies). I would absolutely go to a supermarket and go straight to that shelf and feel like opening the cap and drinking it up right then and there. Now, that is creating demand. I never knew I had a need for that product. The Real or Tropicana based orange juices tasted like medicines and tonics. Pulpy orange in contrast is extremely tasty. You dont even need significant ad spends for this one, just ensure that it is available everywhere and you will see a billion dollars flowing in just out of India.

I was at my uncle's place yest night and inevitably there was a power cut, my uncle brandishes a gadget looking thing and gets starts winding it, i thought, what the heck is he doing in the dark!
He turns on a switch and voila, we have a radio and a torch light, which only works on a few cranks of the dynamo. Nice? Yes. Sad part, these were made in the U.S. and sold for camping. Imagine.
Think about the utility of mass marketing these little things in villages with little or erratic power supply.

So, finally, imagine.

Wow! I dont even remember the last post on this blog!

Did I miss it? Nah.

Will this be Balaji's return to the active world of blogging and continuoulsy looking for bloggable thoughts?

May be not. But lets see, there is no dearth of bloggable thoughts and situations and issues these days!

Here is one:
Researchers develop biotech mosquito to fight malariaU.S. scientists developed a species of mosquito resistant to malaria, and its infection-blocking ability could make it the dominant species if released into the wild. Scientists believe that interbreeding would allow malaria resistance to spread through the mosquito population over several generations so fewer insects carry the disease. The Times (London) (3/20)

Imagine if this new strain of mosquies can carry AIDS or worse can impregnate women (as you can imagine, my sense of humor has gone to the dogs!

Innocence

Innocence, originally uploaded by Atheistbishop.

A little girl who was curious to get her picture taken on Impact Day. Her eyes and the expression had incredible depth.

Honking in hyderabad, and I am sure in many places, has a taxonomy of its own.
Its funny that you never realise that you can honk different honks as well.

Honk 1: Bep (a short burst of the horn) almost like a positioning system, saying I am here, usually used when the car in front you is rolling back on you on an incline

Honk 2: Bep Bep Bep A string of shirt bursts: I am over taking you slowly, so if you have plans to change lanes, chill for a few seconds, till the beps stop

Honk 3: Beeeeeeeep: Get the fuck out of my way. Else, I am going to beep the hell out of you.

Honk 4: Beep Beep Beep Beep: No reason, I just like honking kinda like a preemptive strike

Honk 5: Beep Beep: I know that we are stuck in traffic, let me just release some angst

Honk 6: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......: Sorry, fell asleep on the steering

Beep Beep: That was just the Road Runner.

Can I take a movie from my memory? Can I atleast take a picture and make it last?
I can only hold on to the details so long before memory blurs and imagination takes over.

- -

Need to borrow a 'time machine' for a moment.
Can you help me find one?

I hope...

God bless you.

Is this blog dead?
Nah, its author is either too busy to blog or blogging has temporarily left the circle of reference. Not pushed out but just left.
Somebody asked the author, why dont you blog any more?
"But, I do", the author says.
"Well, we haven't seen an update on that site for a few months!"
"True enough, but there is a fine difference between: I did not blog and I do not blog!"
"Semantic pendantic"
"But, what is this circle of reference? You have a penchant for jargon and complicating things. It is apt that you are in Consulting!"
Before defending myself about my penchant, circle of reference is an imaginary bubble that yo live in. As life goes on: various people, activities, memories, hobbies, idiocyncrasies, problems, challenges, hopes... enter and exit this imaginary circle.
A new set of colleagues crowd this circle today and have pushed the older lot out. This is not an active process but just a mirror to the past. Friends that you instinctively are reminded of when you want to share something either due to physical proximity or just because you have spending a lot of time with them lately, these are the people in your current circle of reference.
Activities are the same, I rarely think of writing these days, not because I dont have bloggable thoughts, its just that I dint associate those thoughts with the blog. May be my thoughts are mostly about the work I do and it will be drag to post about re-imbursement issues for providers due to a faulty DRGs.
So did that make sense?" asks the author.
"You wish", says the friend who will remain in the circle of reference till I convince her of its existence in it.

ArigatoGozaimasu.

Most frequently asked question in the consulting world:

What does it mean?

After extensive research, the concept of work-life balance has been renamed to work-sleep balance for those lives where snooze button beats the flat belly button in beauty and utility.

Switch.

It is never easy.

Has to be done sometimes.

Hobbies are careers that I am too scared dive into,
Hobbies are careers that I get bored of every month,

Hobbies are careers which give me respite from my career.

Prixars2005web

prixars2005web, originally uploaded by zigzackly.

I worked on it for a few frenetic days

Can you spot the eclipse?

Unimpressed.

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/

Read him up.

Thanks, Robert.

It is incredible how much I am going to vent about Katrina in the next few days.

It is incredible to read about the lack of co-ordination and the gusto with which things are being done.

There are no heroes emerging.
Nobody is co-ordinating things
FEMA actually says that first responders from adjoining counties of other states CANNOT come and help out their neighbours a few miles away as they have to follow interstate sharing protocols??

Things will fall into place in a few days,
We will look back and see a few numbers of dead people,
A few people who could have been saved

A few law suits later,
A few press releases later.

Life moves on.
Dead remain dead.

Richest country in the world,
You can send thousands of troops thousands of miles away in hours and you cant rescue 20,000 people stuck in a stadium?
One-third of the men and women of the Louisiana National Guard, and an even higher percentage of the Mississippi National Guard, were 7,000 miles away, fighting in Iraq, these are not just soldiers, these are cops and paramedics who could have been critical "first responders".

But can't take care of 25000 people stuck in a stadium?
Why?

Richest country in the world,
Cannot stop a hurricane which can flood 80% of New Orleans,
But it should bloody well be able to reach people after 3 days?

Why spend hundreds of billions on National Security, when you cant stop mobs controlling a city after a disaster?
The point is not to link everything to Bush's Iraq policy but the point is does he have anything else at all?

How can they be naive enough to expect that the only disasters in the US are Osama-made?? Who the hell are you going to attack now?

Higher Death Toll Seen; Police Ordered to Stop Looters - New York Times: "He called for a 'total evacuation,' adding: 'We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months.'"

Shoban and Suman, hope you guys are doing ok.

Tumult
Live in the reality
Reality that is yours

Switch
dogma is but a figment of thought
Switch
Reorient
Start afresh

Si le viol, le poison, le poignard, l'incendie,
N'ont pas encore brodé de leurs plaisants dessins
Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins,
C'est que notre âme, hélas! n'est pas assez hardie.

C'est l'Ennui!—l'oeil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
—Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!

Je m'en fous ce qu'elle veux dire,
Je m'en fous qui l'a ecrit
Je ne me rappelle pas la francais
Mais, Je m'en fous tout de meme

Je t'aime,
Je l'aime,
Je aime la excentricité
Je m'en fous d'ennui.

Intellectual masturbation apart, it is tough to think rationally when you have been dealt with irrationally.
It is tough to think irrationally when you are blissfully bored.

Your eyes cannnot see what your mind cannot imagine.

Oracle in Matrix-reloaded.

Report: "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations
Published by: Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress. U.S. Government

Says that:
Over the last four years, China has purchased more weapons than any other nation in the developing world, signing $10.4 billion in deals from 2001 to 2004. Such statistics could be used by those in the United States government who have argued against any decision by the European Union to lift its arms embargo against China.

For that same four-year period, India ranked second, with $7.9 billion in arms purchases, and Egypt was third, with $6.5 billion in deals.

But India surpassed China in total purchases in 2004, agreeing to buy $5.7 billion in arms.

$5.7 billion is the total revenues of the top 10 IT providers which worked their ass off for 10-15 years to get that big.

The world has changed. Warfare has changed. But countries continue to but like idiots.
When was the last time that India used a fighter plane in a war against another country?
When was the last time India used a submarine in a war situation?
When was the last time India used ICBM's?

The power in the world is shifting away from "owning lands" and calling it a nation. It has moved towards people being more bothered about either finding a job or fbuying a Merc.
I am glad they moved on.

As a % of GDP contibution, the public sector had a huge share in the 60's and 70's. Now, its the private (If you are a Kurta-wearing communist read as greedy, blood sucking, anti-socialist, selfish) sector which provides the most jobs. Just becuase we chose these guys to administer 'services' to us, doesnt mean that they have the power to rule and over-rule us.

It is so stupid for a government to spend $5.7 billion on arms when they crib about lack of money for laying roads and primary education? How can you ever choose a gun over a primary school?

Wars for land are things of the past.
Learn and move on.

A few of my recent pics. A hobby revisited. Lets see how long this fad sustains itself.

www.flickr.com/photos/atheistbishop

Collage a bleu (comme elle a commence) et orange (why couldnt they have a different word in French for collage and orange?!!)

Collage a rouge!

I was just reading an article about big an impact United Airlines impending bankruptcy would have on Denver. A biggish city on any parameter. 5,500 employees of Denver contribute millions to the Denver economy.
5,500 citizens and a city seems to be concerned about their jobs and the revenues to the city.

Cut to the chase in Mumbai...

Lets look at some facts:
The BMC (Briham Mumbai Corp, city council managing civic amenities in Mumbai) has a budget of Rs. 6,756 crores ($3.2 billion) for 2004-2005 supporting 18 million inhabitants. Bangalore Mahanagar Palika has a budget of about Rs. 1000 crores (half a billion $) supporting 58 million inhabitants (and may be a million expats).

Mumbai supports some of the richest blokes in India and a lot of the poorest (34% of the 18 million live in slums)

One fine day, it rained a little bit, TV channels show people dancing in the street, frolicking in the rain. The Met Dept tells the government that there is a huge cloud burst on the way. The government plans city-wide rain dance parties.

Then the deluge. 90mm of rain in 2 hours.

Kids who went to school, people working in offices, commuters on trains, buses and cars are stranded where they are.

Sitting far away in Hyderabad, I think... shouldnt the drains just ...drain the water into the sea in an hour or so? Nope, the richest city in India has infrastructure meant for 2 million people.
Of course, not employed in BMC, I ask, Why the fuck? Hmmm... because they kept postponing the new drainage system, apparently since 1990.

Dint the famed Mumbaikars say anything? They got used to wading in knee deep water every monsoon so they thought it was 'natural'.... till the water got neck deep.

Just imagine the plight of a 5 year old school kid who cant get back home for 2 days, where the adults have no clue what to do. I would agree that the government could do little for the 2 hours when it was pouring cats and dogs. But what were they doing for 2 days after the deluge?

Why cant somebody think enough to communicate to people? Why couldnt they use the ubiquitous FM radios in every car and home? Why couldnt they tell them to get to safer areas?

Where were the boats? Where were the choppers? It is understandable the city admin dint have access to these but why dint they ask the army to help out in full force?

It was evident that they never had a disaster management plan in place which should specify in digestible steps to each entity concerned what they should do in case of a disaster. Incessant rains and water logging are not new to Mumbai.

What ensued what nothing less than apathy. 20 people died because of rumours of dam bursts and incoming tsunami. Rumours spread like wild fires but they are not discering as to who gets them, they would reached the authorities as well. But they knew the facts, they dint bother.

The government says that its employees were busy taking care of their families. They are the insiders, they know very well that the government cant and wouldnt do jack shit to take care of his family. Of course they would tend to their families. It is the worst and self implicating excuse that a civic authority can ever provide.

I read an article by Govindaraj Ethitraj, the CNBC dude, who spoke of Mumbai's reaction to the inaction by the government. He warned against callousness. y

The Mumbai spirit lived through serial bomb blasts and communcal violence. I hope the Mumbai spirit refuses to live with lack of organization from the government. I hope that Mumbai works, lives and rebels against this stupidity.

If City of Denver can be concerned about 5,500 people, then BMC should shudder at the thought a 58 million strong exodus.

Insight/ shock oriented writing and the aha oriented logic can only be stretched so far before the marks start showing.
Blogging/ writing/ talk shows/ self help books are becoming so different yet following the same formula that shocking is getting to be boring.

Hyderabad airport!

Some lady puring through a magazine on our return flight

Random image in Dubai.

The dune safari. Was kick ass fun!

Me: 2007, I will be a law student
Wife: 2007, I would need to search for a lawyer

Every indian kid has drawn this picture. Did you do it as well? Is this an indian phenomenon? or does this happen the world over?

Did you draw this image? What were the other elements???

It was interesting that EVERY member of my team has made a similar image and surprisingly from imagination not recreating another picture.

Strange!

Decisions are a pain.

Every decision that you made in your life has shaped what you are and what you have the option to do today.

As Sartre says "Man is but a sum total of all his actions. Not intentions".

I have 3 options. Each with pros and cons (I heard that, Of course!!).

I know each decision will entail a minor regret and a major change in the way I live and work and look at the world.

I have few regrets in life. I dont take myself very seriously.

I love decisions which need but a split second to make.

Decisions with a few months of prep time are the killers.

Equation:
Post decision dissonance is directly proportional to the time available for decision making.

Studies which decipher how the space between the ears works are the most engrossing.
Its incredible when you can relate to the experiments and the outcomes. The aha moment is when you reflect back to your decisions and understand the rationale better than what you convinced yourself of.
This particular study talks about how inconsequential, unrelated, peripheral events can cloud your decision making about important things. We always knew the reverse to be true.
I have to confess that I started reading the article after I saw the magic word starting with P in the headline of the article!
Maurice, Thanks.
Read on:
Looking to Make a Sale or Get Promoted? Emotions Will Help Determine the Outcome - Knowledge@Wharton

Dubai is a country/ emirate of contrasts.
You have guys dressed robin blue white kaftan looking things, trotting around like penguins, with buttoned up chinese collars covered till the toe, trotting hand in hand with a babe in a bikini with cleavage going down till her six pack.
It goes against all the typecasted ideas we ever had about an arabic islamic state.
You can be pardoned to think that you are driving across texas. After a 3 and a half hour flight, you arrive at a left hand drive city, full of land cruisers and hot lanes. A city which never sleeps and is at the mall half the time. Other than trading and oil, there seems to be little business activity but the little city supports more malls than the whole of south india, sports more luxury brands than Vijay Mallya.
And after all this, you still feel as though you are in a famous tourist place in.... India.
All the chatter that you hear in a mall is from Panju's, gults and tams. The locals are the arabs and malayalis.
The famous wildebeast migration in Serengeti looking like a pedestrian crossing after midnight compared to the influx of mallus into Dubai. Every cab driver is a mallu, every sales person is a mallu, every gold seller in the famed gold souk is a mallu.
If there was a better example of offshoring than the hitech city, this would be it.

But Dubai was fun like hell. Walking in and out of air conditioned malls, hotels, restaurants, land cruisers into searing 40 degree desert radiation was kinda fun. The moment I walked out of any mall, my glasses were completely foggy for a few seconds, luckily, I bumped into a few nice russian women leveraging on my temporary blindness!

Review:
War of the Worlds

It was a 200 seater movie theatre in Dubai's famed City Center.
I was one of the three people scattered around the largish hall.

I usually brood for a few minutes and try and come with a few smart comments about the movie.
I was left numb at the end of it. Not because it overwhelmed me. I dont think I was ever involved in the movie. I was just an engrossed by-stander.
Did I like the movie when I was in the theater. Yes.
Did I think about it the moment Steven Speilberg's name flashed at the end? No.

The movie did have its positives (Here we go for the smart ones after the brooding):
Tom Cruise was not a Hero. Tom cruise was a just a charactor who keeps getting lucky all the frigging time. Either the tripod aliens shoot very badly or Tommy boy just keeps missing all the shrapnel and the flying bebris by a whisker.

The babe who acted as his daughter did an awesome job though.
This seems to be a new trend, where inspite of kicking the alien asses, the truimph is only when the protagonist succeeds in personal relationships. Should augur well for the insurance companies.

Me is off for a walk in the old Dubai town.

Review: Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

If Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie were adam and eve, there wouldn't be any brothers, sisters and friends in the world.

Review:
She is unfair.

Text of Commencement address by Steve Jobs: " I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. "

Not a bad idea Steve.

Chetan,
You da dude.

Third Umpire

"As we know, there are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
the ones we don't know we don't know."

- Donald. H. Rumsfeld (U.S. Secretary of Defense)

Geek speak to say,
We know we screwed up because what we thought we knew, we actually dint know.
Now we know that we were cocksure without facts.
Unknown is how we could convince a country that we screwed up but its all for your good!

“Patriots Oath”

I am only one
But I am one
I cannot do everything
But I can do something.
And what I can do;
That I ought to do
And what I ought to do
By the grace of God
I will do.

I am non-nationalist so dont read too much into the 'patriot' part of the post.

“Leadership is helping the Right People, Do the Right Thing, at the Right Time, and for the Right Reason” - Some smart guy in a Peoplesoft pitch to state governments.

Life aint blissfully bored anymore.
And I love it!

There is a little black spot on Sun today,
It was the same old thing as yesterday.

"Reading widely outside of one's discipline has been probably the biggest source of ideas."
- Lawrence Baxter, Wachovia

I like exaggerated people.
Not people who exxagerate.

'Why didn't you invite me earlier?':

Excerpt from an interview with Mark Knopfler:
[...]
...."Do you believe honest plug-in-and-play music can survive technological advancements, software, DJs?
Yes, because creativity will always outpace technology."

Couldn't agree with him more.

My comp tries it often but can never get quirky enough to find creative reasons not to work like I do.

Stevie- Thanks for getting the job in Mumbai dude, I always needed free accomodation at a posh place in Bandra.
I already have a Stan Chart card so don't try to pitch one to me, you can of course try and get my balance cancelled!

Congratulations, hope you have a lot of fun in Standard Chartered.

Oddity

Hope you have a lot of fun at Ranbaxy, I dont know enough of my interactions with the company to crack some sad jokes.

Have fun in Dilli.

A recurring fantasy
To just quit everything
To quit everything that I am ever comfortable with
To quit the job, the relationships, the ambitions, the passion for work

Just quit everything.

Make a little hut on top of a snow capped mountains, with higher peaks around it.
Be happy serving hot tea to the trekkers from world over
Live with small little farm behind the house

I say: What else do I need?
She says: Not much I guess.
I say: Then why the hell is it so tough to do?
She says: How many of your fantasies have you ever lived?
I say: hmm... not many... a few mini-fantasies, I guess
She says: There you have the answer.
I say: So, I am condemened to live the life of the "blissfully bored"
She says: You are condemned to live the life that you chose for yourself.

Vish Kanya

I love the way this babe speaks and rhymes and chimes.

Dreams vs ambitions
Love vs passion
Adventure vs comfort

I am the happiest when the twain meet.

He says: I am not in a good frame of mind.
She says: May be you should change the picture.

She says: I wonder sometimes if it is ok to read someones blog without telling them - it is like infringing thieir personal space.
He says: It is is not my personal space
It is a public facade of my personal space
I will only post stuff which either I dont mind your seeing it or when I want you to see it.
Stuff which I dont want people to hear will be said in a closed room of an empty house at the top of my voice, shouting, with music playing at its highest
A vain attempt to not make me hear what I am saying
A refusal to to accept that I need the release.

So a blog is nothing but an to impress myself.

She says: Do you always talk so much?
He says: You dont like it?
She says: Oh come of it!!

It is unfair.

Polyglut, get well soon.

The New York Times> Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: How Wall Street Learns to Look the Other Way: "Consider financial theory, the cornerstone of modern business education. The mathematical theory that has developed over the decades has proved extremely valuable in general. But when it comes to individuals, the theory runs into some problems. In effect, it portrays people as nothing more than 'maximizers' of their own 'expected utility.' This means that people are expected to be totally selfish, constantly calculating their own advantage, with no thought of others. If the premise is that everyone would steal the silverware if he knew he could get away with it, and if we spend the entire semester developing the implications of this assumption, then it is hard to know where to begin to talk about ethics. "

-----------------------------------------
True. We are taught or we wanted to learn to become maximizers of expected utility to self. When ensure that the utility increases for the company so that the company maximizes the reward to me.
Is that really bad?
The fact that I am asking the question speaks volumes about how I have been willing co-opted by the maximize-unto-self theory.
I still dont think it is bad.
I need another MBA.
A different one.

Let's say I get a more idealistic MBA. Would it change the fact that when I go to buy a home theatre, I hope I made more than what I make now? I guess not.

Idealism sounds good, Bose sounds better.

A new day
A new week
A new role
Kinda new house
A new car
A new team

And there was...
A good yesterday
A busy week
A role that I enjoyed very much
A 4 month old car
An awesome and interesting team.

She says: How are you doing?
I say: Never been better, having a lot of fun.
I say: Was it ever any different?
She says: ... And you think that is good?

On a sabbatical at www.tsunamihelp.blogspot.com

brb

As we try to find ways in which we can help people in those areas, this is a place where we picked up a lot of directions.

These guys are doing an awesome job:

Please use this resource and get in touch with them:
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

Asia quake toll tops 23,000

26th December 2004
1. I had a heavy dinner yesterday, I need to get my tummy tucked-in for the New Year party, lemme go for a walk in the morning. Marina beach is a kewl place for a long and vigorous walk. I still haven't decided where to party on the New Year's. Should I go to Shomu's party or should I just go pub hopping?
2. I love X'mas holidays. I get to come back home from Love dale, I get to play cricket with my school friends on the beach. I want to hit a sixer today, God please help me do this. I have never asked you anything. This is really important to me.
3. It will be so much fun to bunk IIT tuitions and walk on the beach in the morning with my boyfriend.
4. So what is it is Sunday, at this age, you have to walk everyday to keep fit. Get up. Don't you miss the breezy beach?
5. It is a good thing that I stay right on the beach, my plastic sheet thatch seems to be holding for now. I have to find that guy who paid me 25p less yesterday for the tea, I will keep looking for him till 10 in the morning, he has to come here to watch his son play cricket.
6. I hope this works out. This girl is cute and all but I dint know jack about her and now I HAVE to live with her for the rest of my life. But at least spending a few days with her in Phuket might help us get to know each other better.
7. Fuck man, I have to stop thinking about the RFP's, I have to stop thinking about my bitch of a boss and how she is ruining my career. I spend 2000 quid on this vacation and let me feel the sand on the beach even if I cant feel any bums as yet! Hey! the sea seems to be receding, strange! almost like my hairline!
8. I had to use up the LTA for this year, I had to use it by the end of the year and what better place to ger Rama and the kids than to the Andamans. Kiran is 14 now and he takes so many more risks than I ever could, jet skiing, canoeing and what not. We are off, back home tomorrow. The morning after Christmas is so beautful. Let me savour my last morning in Andamans. The sea seems a little rough today. What the hell is that? Was that an Earthquake? Good that I am on the beach and not in a building. I am safe.
9. 200 Rupiah yesterday. If I can get to that school of fish that I missed, I could make a lot more and not fish for a few more days. I left home at 4.00 am, my children were sleeping. I hope to buy them something in the evening.
10. There is a silver lining to every cloud. Retirement is not that bad! Pretty women all around, peaceful and serene sea in front of me.
11. 3000 miles done with another 700 miles to go before we can see some dry land during the day. Thailand has been a revelation for Kayaking, awesome little islands, awesome little lagoons, I dont care if I couldnt see Brooke Shields or that Leornado's little island. Once we are done by the 1st, the 6 of us will down enough beer to fill a mini-sea.
12.
13.
14.

3000 "people" died in India
12000 "people" in Sri Lanka
10000 "people" in Indonesia

Statistics! :-(
Don't think of disputing the numbers. That is not the point.

Mocha- 3 months, getting ready for his bath and hating it.



Mocha- 15 months
We are still waiting for him to grow up!

According to Kasparov "What separates a winner from a loser at the grand-master level is the willingness to do the unthinkable. A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough. Given the opportunity, I must have the guts to explode the game, to upend my opponent's thinking and, in so doing, unnerve him.

So it is in business: One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized. So, yes, a sort of courage is paramount. But that courage must be tempered by other less-glamorous qualities.

Me likes.

Am like a horse in a stable
feeling all fit and able
get my meals on time
Can sleep when I want to.

Then I dream about
the horses in the wild
can feel the breeze on my mane
and the tingle on my hide
dream about the absence of shackles
wild grass everywhere
snorting and galloping breezong through the days.

I wake up to see
the fence in my stable
know it can be crosseded being physically able
I think of the security
the meals on time and luxury life
and how I need to be more mentally able...

Anup and I, a few years back in a Linear programming session.

Anoop and Jasmine- Honey mooning in Colombo.
Hope you guys are doing well.

Amen.

Bomb blasts in bali, 9/11, riots in Aceh, riots in gujrat, war in iraq, fatal accidents every minute, tsunami in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Either I have been lucky to have escaped such cataclysmic events or...
One is waiting for me round the corner.
Hope I din't tap the wrong door.

Englishman with his pipe and a stiff upper lip.

Dinka Man, Sudan

The worst kind of fatigue is the fatigue of boredom.

How do I create an early warning system for the last situation?

.

Silence.
Confusion.
Decision.
Peace.
Silence.

It is strange and interesting how our pseudonyms get stuck to us.
I started using "atheistbishop", when I was looking to create a kewl screen name to play chess, something related to chess.
Atheistbishop got stuck to me since that evening.
It was easy to see how he got perpetuated. I din't have to check if anybody else was already using the id on any site and it was a neat name to have on chat!
Atheistbishop starting having a life of his own when I started blogging, thanks to foolie who co-opted me.
Atheistbishop's blog seemed to have a life of its own. Two avid bloggers meeting in the evening for a coffee, in most cases, don't discuss the content of their blogs. It is almost as though the blog has a life of its own in the cyberspace and interactions with the being called blog should be restricted to that world.
I blog for myself. But, I also play to the galleries. (Even though they are mostly empty :-))
It is this dichotomy between personal content of the blog and it's availabilty to everybody in the world, which makes the content and the thought process of the bloggers interesting.
It is an argument between being true to one's thoughts and Not being comfortable saying "all" that one want's to say.
May be this is when the identity of the pseudonym asserts him/herself, creating somekind of a distinction between the tangible world and the cyberspace.

There would be times when I am measured in what I say, But there would be times when the blog is release for Atheistbishop. Where, he doesn't care about what the gallery might think.

Black Yamaha RX 100, 1989 model.
I bought the bike in December of 1994. 10 years till date.
It was my lifeline till 2002.
It still gets my heart racing. I always feel 18 when racing it, I am on it :-).
There is some kind of visceral bond between me and the bike.
It tends to get a smile whenever I get on it and give it a rev and hear that awesome growl.
It kinda understood that I was a pauper as a student, it dint need service for years together.
I loved it but treated it badly. In all these 10 years, it never stopped once.
Dad asked me to sell it to buy a "different" bike. He din't want to face the ire had he said "better".

Today, I drove it after a few months.
It was fun ripping on the roads leaving saftey to the dogs.

I had such awesome memories on it, of all the friends who loved the bike as much as I did.
It is always parked next to my car.
I get into the car and drive away everyday.
But it is the Black, Yamaha RX 100, which is and will always be my first love.

Do you want to ride mah baby?

gairon ko kab fursat hai dukh dene ki
jab hota hai koi humdum hota hai

sach yeh hai bekaar hume gham hota hai
jo chaha tha duniya mein kam hota hai

hum hongey khud sey ghair
humdum, chahat aur dard key baghair

"OK," She said. She watched him go out of the door, saw him wave before he stepped into the elevator. She had never felt so close to him, never so much in love and if someone told her she would not see Michael again until three years passed, she would not have been able to bear the anguish of it.
- Mario Puzo in The Godfather, just before Michael Corleone goes to the hospital to check on Don Corleone, setting off the series of events culminating into Michael's killing Sollozzo and McCluskey.

Kay doesn't see Michael for another three years. She lives, and does pretty well for herself.

How well we exaggerate the importance of what is in front of us...

gairon jo kab furst hai dukh dene ki
jab hota hai joi hum dum hota hai.

Not plagiarized, a straight lift off.
- Foolie quoting Jagjit Singh.

The Schizophrenic Mind

Why does the mind vacillate so often?
Why can't it stick to a stance?
Why does have to present itself with extremely convincing arguments for and against a situation?

Never mind.

Confessions of an Atheistbishop:

"I analyze every second I exist
Beating on my mind every second with my fist"
-- Limp Bizkit

Revisted.
As true as ever.

Mind has a great ability to exaggerate the importance and the indispensability of the people in front of you.
So much so that the people start exaggerating their importance in your life.
As time passes, the mind moves on.
People don't.

How do citizens communicate their expectations to the governments?
Necessities are easier to communicate as they double up as campaign speeches and vote bank pleasers.
How would the government understand citizen's expectations for developmental needs?
How does the government get to know that the citizens need an better system to pay income tax?
What is the interface?
The elected representatives are too few and far between.
Again, a middle class, 20 something, educated, working in a Consulting company is not a "typical" Indian.
So, if I haven't ever been reached out to by the Government to understand what I "think" rather than what I "need", then it be just that I am not important enough or we aren't sizeable enough.
Every long-term decision made by the government needs to have an implicit understanding that "this is what the people want". How does the government get this idea?
One school of thought says that, "initiating new programs or massive changes to the governance structure is only possible through visionary leadership, by a leader who can think far enough, farther than the citizens. By that logic, citizen's expectations are limiting and short-sighted."
May be it is the size of the population in India, which makes, an outreach to gather public opionion, extremely difficult.
In a few European countries, citizen's participation in decision making is more organized. For example, Switzerland follows a system called "direct democracy", where it is possible to insist, by collecting a modest number of signatures, that any law proposed by the government must be submitted to a vote by the electorate.

The delays in decision-making in this progress would be debilitating in a democracy of India size with highly opinionated populace.

The question still remains, how can an educated, working citizen participate/ contribute to decision making in a democracy after electing a representative or a party to power?
When elected representatives are lambasted about the murkiness of politics, the usual refuge is that not enough educated, working citizens join politics.
They needn't.
Governance system should have points of interface where citizens can contribute to decision-making at various levels.
Other than experiments with electronic voting and using survey tools, the governance structures haven't evolved to incorporate the tools created from the Internet revolution to let citizens reach out to the Government.
How different is the communication
Citizen's expectations, can be looked at from 2 sides of the mirror.
1. How can the government fulfill my expectations of service delivery?
2. How can I communicate my expectations about decisions that the country makes? How can I contribute my knowledge and understanding in providing better service delivery for every body?
Other than the election, what is the other means by which a citizen can communicate with the Government? The Government of course, has the complete media machinery at its disposal to speak to its populace.
Citizens need more avenues and tools to communicate with the government not just once in 5 years but as frequently as possible.
Citizen groups and councils are doing a good job in their limited means. But more needs to be done.

I enjoy uncertainity.
But not when I am staring right into it.
I love to have options.
But not when I want all of them

I guess, I am just being hypocritical.

Korli recently told me that I have a tendency to get very comfy with where I am.
I agree.
I love my thoughts and the way they meander.
I get excited by my thoughts and get impressed by them.

I have to minimize these orgasms out of intellectual masturbation.

Things have to get out of "hand", its more fun the other way!

Don't you agree?

Ohayo Gozaimasu!
I am re-starting Japanese classes from tomorrow morning.
From 6.30 to 8.00 in the morning.
I miss trying to get a hang of that tough script, its like going back to the slate.
Write and repeat.
Write and repeat.
Write and repeat.

Sayonara

Let me get as good at Nihongo as I was at Francais.

IBM-Lenovo deal creates new global PC player - Computer Business Review: "IBM will take an 18.9% stake in Beijing-based Lenovo under the terms of the agreement, which also sees Lenovo become the preferred supplier of PCs to IBM, and IBM becoming the preferred services and customer-financing provider to Lenovo"

Quid pro quo (Without any quid)? You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

I was under the impression that we moved on from "Barter system" of doing business towards a more "Currency" based economy.

Je m'en fous.

I loved to use this phrase when I was learning French a long time back.
It slipped out of my vocabulary.
"I don't care" or "I couldnt care less" or " I don't bother much" didn't replace the term.

Je m'en fous is leading the rally back.
Welcome home.

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how's it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what?d you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn't
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn?t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I?d do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what?d you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying


- Tim Mcgraw

The most complicated word in english dictionary: Expectations. Dickens wasnt stupid.

Thanks!

November 6th: Arrive at Philadelphia
November 29th: Leave Houston for London.

23 days.
Revelation.
Bliss.
I.

Rowing

Japanese course

Salsa

Cross country running

Violin

Watch movies at home, the old ones

Get back to listening to music

Darkness aint only for sleeping

Silence is aint only for praying

Solitude aint only when nobody is around

Change in attititude, brings about a change in life.
I used to to see the "if" in Life.
I see the "I" in it a lot more clearly.

There was this beautiful and intelligent bird,
Everybody loved her.
There was this boy, who loved the bird.
He loved to see the bird chirping, flying around, doing exactly as it wants,
The boy wanted to spend more time with the bird and wanted the bird to spend more time with him,
The boy thought the bird needed the love that he could give her,
But, the boy knew that the bird wanted to fly around and do exactly as it wanted without being in any cage with any name.
The bird liked the boy as well, but loved the freedom a lot more,
The boy smiles to the bird and says "Live your life, whenever we meet, lets fly together for that little bit of time"
The bird says "Live your life, the way you want to." "Fly as much as you can, run as much as you can". "Dont expect others to fly with you, dont care when others ask you not to fly." "Life is too short, the journeys too many".
The boy understands that he needs to help himself run or fly. Not to be with the bird, but for himself.
Now, whenever their paths cross, they smile and fly together. The bird in the sky, the boy on the earth.
Split and then fly some more.
The boy thanks the bird and says "I will tell you about my journeys."
Will you tell me yours?

I.

Wait.
Wait till it happens
Wait, keep looking at it to see if it happens
That niggling thing which keeps tugging at your mind every few minutes
...did it?
There is a point in time, where the wait crosses a line...
It is no longer an expectant wait with a heart full of hope
It turns to desperate pacing around
...did it?
A little later...
The wait loses to more mundane and more important things in life.
...did it?
Yes.
Now, it just doesnt matter.

From a Yippeee!!! it goes to a "yea, whatever".
The faster I get to whatever the better it is for me.

"Tipping Point" Defined as a moment in time where minimal increments reach a level where things got to change. Minimal increments become unacceptable.

Each of us have tipping points at many stages in life, the time that you decided you going to propose, you decide you going to quit a job, the point that you said enough is enough.
Its different from a huge cataclysmic event which forces you to react.

This is a moment where small, seemingly important yet inconsequential events suddenly transform into a point of inflection.

I might be at that stage.
The advantage of a tipping point is that you can take time decide the best way in which you can change things.

Balaji, May the force be with you.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
I miss these.

A normal life.
At 60:
I was an analyst, a consultant, a manager, a director, a VP and a CEO for a long time.
I know I can get there.

But is that all I want to do?
How do I also learn how to do carpentry, run a marathon in a decent time, live in 10 countries, create a tandem bungee jumping record, live as a scuba diving instructor in Lakshadweep, learn astronomy, be a high altitude trekker.

Live life as there was no tomorrow, balance the finances with a neat job.

Can I do all of this by being blissfully bored?

When do I get out of the BOX? When will I do what "I" want to do?

When?

Brimming with life. I am waiting to catch the overflow.
Waiting.
Should I make a run for it?
Should I stand on the beach to catch the surf?

300 miles on I-95 in a Porsche boxster and bliss. Chilled in more ways than one.

Election and its impact on security, election and its impact on health care, election and freedom, election and impact on tunisisan hat makers, election an its impact on afghanistan, iraq, iran, syria, israel, pakistan, UAE, election and media freedom, will the new president stop outsourcing, will the new president speak better english, will the new president be environmental friendly, election and its impact on fasion and golf. global impact on economy. how will the new president affect my marital relations?
Am i exxxagerating the importance of the tumultuous tuesday's election?

October surprise (ok-TOH-buhr suhr-PRYZ) noun

A last minute surprise, especially one orchestrated by a candidate
to influence an election.

"On tuesday night, in one of the rarest sight as yet in the 2004 Presidential election campaign one of the candidates shocked the audience with an "October surprise" displaying a double whammy of intelligence and likeability. Two qualities which have been absent since Bill Clinton left office. These two qualities made Clinton extremely "Broad- minded in International affairs" and also made him "Broads" minded in issue of the... cigar.

Please note the "products in focus" of International Information programs of U.S. state departnment.

Every once in a while, people invent something which kinda masks how stupid, forgetful and diorganized you are with information.

Its their ilk which helps our ilk to put a brave face to the world and march on...

One such thing is the Google Desktop search: http://desktop.google.com/



So will you...?

Two debates old and getting the hang of it now. You can check factcheck.org if I misstate anything and then mail meback the error and you can score 10 brownie points.

Kerry: I have a better plan
Bush: World is a better place now.
Kerry: There are no WMD's in Iraq
Bush: World is a better place now.
Kerry: We lost jobs
Bush: We are safer now with 75% of the Al Qaeda back in Prison
Kerry: Health care cost went up, no child left behind was underfunded... little puppy dint get his bone...
Bush: Saddam was a danger to the world, he had intentions of making a WMD
Kerry: I voted for the war and I voted against funding it after a halo appeared around my head
Bush: Kerry flip flops in his flip flops. Ammmerica needs a strong leader who sticks to his guns and is ready to pull the trigger even if gun is pointed towards thy ass. Consistency is what we require, ass is expendable (Like stallone in Rambo....

Berry: World is a better place with my new plan
Kush: 75% of the Al Qaeda is in prison and we lost jobs
Berry: Saddam is a danger to the world and the health care costs went up
Kush: I voted for war and voted against funding it. My ass is expendable.

This the debate that I have been looking forward to the most. The importance of how much one these "guys" can change the world in the next 5 years. How we live and what we worry about in 2009. Am I exxxagerating? May be...

This the debate that I have been looking forward to the most. The importance of how much one these "guys" can change the world in the next 5 years. How we live and what we worry about in 2009. Am I exxxagerating? May be...

"I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor, and there is no one more qualified than Conan. Plus, I promised my wife, Mavis, I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60."
JAY LENO, after NBC announced Conan O'Brien would succeed him as host of the "Tonight" show.

Supposedly surveys show that majority of the teenagers get their news from the daily show and the tonight show.

I might just miss the turkey double chin.

The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some

This is kind of like me.

A few excerpts from the article so that I dont gloat about myself.
"If I didn't feel like I was part of something important, I wouldn't be able to do this,"
..."They find themselves more involved in their work when it gets tougher and more complicated. They tend to think of stress as a normal part of life, rather than as something that's unfair.''
...Mr. Kuchuck has also seen the opposite: people who crave a frenzied career because they feel their childhoods were not stimulating at all.
"When you feel that you're accomplishing something, it's akin to a sense of control,"

Exclusive! The George Bush Interview: "I am absolutely committed to building an enhanced, comprehensive relationship with the Government of India. The United States and India have common interests and we need to pursue a healthy, long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. I believe there is broad agreement with that point of view in India and the United States"

I can replace "India" with any other "country" and it sounds perfect. So much for platitudes...

The Ladder of Inference, a metaphorical tool developed by Chris Argyris, is a reflective aid that helps us uncover the thinking that led to a conclusion. When we reach a conclusion, we gradually move up this Ladder:
We select from the available pool of data and information.
We interpret and add our own meaning to the data.
We finally reach our conclusion—and the top of the Ladder.

Global Shared Services and Internet Technology: "PeopleSoft CFO Kevin Parker no longer loses sleep wondering how sales forecasts are going in Europe and Asia. But he is still regularly awakened by the nocturnal cries of a toddler." A pleasant comment at the end of a heavy lecture.

Just a nice picture that I flicked from another site.

Kovac's Law - When you dial a wrong number,you never get an engaged one.

O'brien's Variation Law: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now

Lorenz's Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

Anthony's Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner

Chandu's law: The forward that you ignored would have better jokes than all the dumb ones you opened and cursed the sender.

One of the many smiles that we helped scuplt. Felt good...
Posted by Hello

Tension, complexity, convoluted, intricacy, detail, web, turf wars, self-preservation, labyrinth, fatigue...

Let me kill this Hello! tool to death, I actually went searching for some pics that I can blog.
Posted by Hello

Google has become almost indispensable and when find Google says there is an "Server error", it is kind of a momentous event :-)
Posted by Hello

These days whenever there is no signal on TV or when there is an extended power cut or when the phone lines are down, I quickly try to see if there is anything wrong, has there been a terrorist attack.

It is not fear psychosis or anything but just an apprehension after being glued to the T.V for 2 days non-stop after 9/11. Does that strike a chord with anybody?

World's biggest punching bag, the United States of America, its suprising as to the number of people, including me at times, find it so fashionable to go on  US bashing binge. It hasn't done much towards endearing itself in the last few years.
The last few weeks provided a glimpse to why the "institution" called America is so strong. I haven't heard of many countries setting up a commission to find out if they screwed up.
I was pleased to see the commission report going deep into the actions taken by CIA, FBI and the state department to avert 9/11. Before that there was the commission which question why (I almost said "we") Americans were in Iraq even there dint seem to be any evidence of complicity of the Iraqi government in 9/11.
We got a glimpse of counteracting buoys which keep it floating and keep it respectable. If a movie even remotely close to Fahrenheit 9/11, it would have been banned as it would incite "violence" in our greatest democracy in the world.

Long live the punching bag.

Dear Bond: I'd b glad to be of help,
A professional is a person who does his best, most when (s)he's not upto it :D (exaggeration).

A colleagues gyan on work.

Amen.

Stupid joke cooked up over a nice conversation:
Make hay while sun shines... make babies when it doesn't.

As part of its de-risking strategy Infosys has put a ceiling on the size of individual deals. The company has drafted a policy stating that no client of the company can account for more than 10 percent of its revenues. Smart move after looking at EDS' problems.

philodox (FIL-uh-doks) noun
Someone who loves his or her own opinion; a dogmatic person.

A common trait, an uncommon word.

ING.com / CFO Cees Maas at Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference: "Vice-chairman and CFO Cees Maas recently shared his vision on the growth potential of different life insurance markets around the world. "

I thought it was some kind of an acronym. Cees Maas.

In 1973, the average US citizen needed 17.5 weeks of annual family earnings to buy an average-priced car, a figure that rose to 24.0 weeks by 1994. By 2003, the figure had declined to 20.7 weeks.
20.7 weeks is about 4-5 months of salary. U.S. per capita Purchasing Power Parity= $37,800.
Indian per capita purchasing power parity $2,900.

U.S. price= $15000= 6 months of income based on PPP
Indian Price= $15,000= 6 years of income based on PPP

Where are we heading with this economic system?

Australia has one of the biggest gambling industries in the world. Some 330,000 Australians are classified as problem gamblers, losing an average of about A$12,000 ( £5,000) a year each and suffering social difficulties including family break-ups, suicidal tendencies and involvement in crime.

Gambling has been legal since the beginning of European settlement and is more firmly entrenched than in many other societies, says Jan McMillen, head of the Centre for Gambling Research at the Australian National University in Canberra. Australia in 1916 became one of the first countries in the world to institute state lotteries; without them Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge would never have been built. About 85 per cent of people bet at least once a year, half of that number regularly.

Sounds incredulous, never thought of Australia as a gambling haven, but if 330000 are "problem gamblers" then somebody has to make all the money, other than the Casino's. Inanest post of the year. Dint think enough as to why I found it so interesting.

Wistful Goran welcomes the end: "'Never stop believing,' he grins when reminded of those delirious days."

Goran Ivanisevic (I had to copy paste his surname, you never knwo if you got it right). Hero of the underdogs. Even after he won the event, he still remains the underdog. Such single minded objective drives you to acheive your dream but then thats the only thing you end up acheiving ever again.

"If you think getting your teenager out of the mall will keep money in your pocket, think again: dELiA*s has her covered -- or almost covered -- with bare-midriff peasant tops, short shorts, and barely-there sandals, not to mention Feng Shui necklaces and iridescent lipgloss. The company sells trendy clothing and accessories to girls and young women between the ages of 10 to 24 "

What does this sound like?
A copy from an ad campaign about a to-be launched pret line?
A warning about teenage spending habits and the root culprit?
A company description on Hoovers, a financial information provider, touting to be "The Business Information Authority"TM.

But all the same, its make a heavy research job fun sometimes.

Chandu Anniya, there you go :-)

I was just discussing with a colleague in the US about the importance of the issue of offshoring in the U.S and how it might play out in Presidential race, he had this to say "Americans are fickle - they want cheap prices, but when given a choice over supporting a job here, or say one is Hyderabad, they'll say "USA!" but then buy the service offered cheaper thru an outsourced operation. E-Loans is doing that now - gives customers a choice of US loan underwriting or India-based. If you pick India it's either faster or cheaper, and guess what - most pick India. Ah politics and religion -without them we'd have peace :)"

“A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.”

-- T. H. Huxley, English biologist, was born on May 4, 1825.

From the U.S. Visa application form:
Do you seek to enter the United States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, or any other unlawful purpose? Choose: YES NO
Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization as currently designated by the U.S. Secretary of State? Choose: YES NO
Have you ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany; Choose: YES NO
or have you ever participated in genocide? Choose: YES NO
Have you ever violated the terms of a U.S. visa, or been unlawfully present in, or deported from, the United States? Choose: YES NO
Have you ever withheld custody of a U.S. citizen child outside the United States from a person granted legal custody by a U.S. court, voted in the United States in violation of any law or regulation, or renounced U.S. citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation?Choose: YES NO

Hmm, Osama Bin laden with intelligence reports would say... May be?
A terrorist who knows his code of conduct and who was taught "Honesty is the best city" and "Truth is the virtue of all terrorists" and "Dont lie even if you face being gagged and blind folded for a few years in Guantanamo Bay, where all the camera's can see you walking around but you can only see a cloth made in Indosesia"

I guess these were asked to be included by CIA as a part of its renewed vigor at intelligence collection and analysis.

Piece de resistance: At the bottom of these questions the document says "While a YES answer does not automatically signify ineligibility for a visa, if you answered YES you may be required to personally appear before consular officer." So if I am terrorist, I would say yes coz my teacher taught me to say yes and then I go to the Consulate so that I can get a free ticket to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 2 birds (read countries) in one shot (read yes).

"European aircraft manufacturer Airbus SAS has offered to give business worth almost $630 million to Indian firms if the company bags the $2.1 billion order to supply 43 aircraft to Indian Airlines."

You scratch my back, I scratch your neices' and nephews'.

One of the most emotive and expressive words in English dictionary: Glee! Makes you feel childish, doesnt it? Its ok, accept it, just say it a few times and tell me if it doesnt make you smile.

Level 1: 9/11- nobody wants to shop, nobody wants to fly- economic depression- Bush wants to pump money into economy- war on afghanistan, war on iraq- money flows into ecomony from defense purchases worth $74 billion in one year- time passes- people buy, people fly- america tightens screws on ports, airlines- strip search if they suspect you going to fart methane, every container ships searched, every truck coming into US searched- longer lines at the borders- companies cannot predict when the material could come to the shop floor- Just In Time out of the window- piling inventories- greater spend on hiring security guards- somewhere in between terrorists keep attacking randomly- introduce biometrics, look at the passenger and decide whether he is trouble maker- learn from El-Al airlines of Israel- greater stigmatiztion of immigrants- US becomes a slightly tougher place to do business- Dollar falls against Euro- companies offshore and create redundancy in India and china- companies chicken out to India- avoid paying payroll taxes- US fiscal deficit increases- Kerry blames it all on Bush and Bangalore- people continue to lose jobs- CEO's keep saying "wait it will all come back"- CEO loses his job for an accounting scandal- accounting companies become endangered species- consulting companies prosper giving advice to companies and governments-...

This train of thoughts can keep going on- the train has a continuous supply of interesting factual fuel.

Corporate Security Management: Organization and Spending Since 9/11: "1 MB file is ten times as large as a 100 KB file. "

Atlast... the beacon of knowledge has shined (also accepted: shone) on me.

In 2001, the nation's civil litigation system cost every U.S. citizen $722. A year later, the amount was up by $87. In 2002, the system cost all of us $233 billion, up by $27.4 billion over 2001 and representing 2.23 percent of the gross domestic product.

Why dont they just divide this amount all the people who come to the court to have a fight which had a monetary intention (read greed) or an ego problem?

Saves a lot of money...

But, I like watching court room scenes. So lets just let them fight and spend all that money on lawyers.

Once in a while a few things happen in this wide world which are beyond Ripley's- Believe it or not or things which shock you beyond the wildest police videos. Even if you have a Parental Guidance certitificate, a few events still traumatize you and leave a mark on your psyche. One of those happened today:
Blair, Bush nominated for Nobel Peace Prize: "US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the architects of the Iraq war, are among the nominees for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize."

eds.com: IT for America's Homeland Defense: "Freedom is not free
I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze
A young sailor he saluted it, and then
He stared at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years,
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many ships now gone?
No freedom, it is not free
I heard the sound of taps one night
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill
I wondered just how many times
The taps had meant 'amen'
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend
I thought of all the children
Of the mothers and the wives
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives
I thought about a graveyard at the
Bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington
No freedom . . . it is not free!!*"

From a Homeland Security document at EDS. If only all corporate documents were interesting...

Human's wont eolve any more.

The basic tenet of evolution is changing to suit the condition, the situation and the nature.
Human evolution's basic tenet: Change the circumstances to suit yourself.
So we are doomed to be just the way we are.

Do I hear sombedy saying, whats wrong with what we are today?
Nothing. May be thats why we wont evolve.
Our evolution will remain restricted to improving from Intel P3 to P4 (When read after a few years, people say, shit! those guys worked on those) or from Microsoft 2000 to XP, or from 25 inch to 29 inch, from clubs to guns to walking to carts to polluting cars to electric vehicles to nature walks.
From meat to cooked meat to stoves to microwaves to vegans. From caves to thatched huts to bricks to concrete.

After all that how much have we changed in the last 2000 years: Not much (I dont really know how we were 2000 years ago and all that bull archeology about looking at bones and where they lie and "guessing" life styles and mating habits of animals sounds absurd to me)

Do I hear somebody exclaim: 2000 years is but a blip on the time scale. Just look around and see how much has changed around us in the blip and look unto yourself as to how much you have changed under veneer of "Civilization"

Vice President-at-Large
Fred Foulkes, D.B.A.
Professor of Organizational Behavior, School of Management
Boston, MA 02215
ffoulkes@acs.bu.edu

vp@large.com?
He teaches OB as well. Hmm interesting.

Korea Closes Shutters on Public Camera Phones - Computer Business Review: "The Korean government has struck a blow for its citizen's privacy - or at least their right not to be embarrassed. The country's Ministry of Information and Communications has ordered camera phone makers to program their devices to emit a 65 decibel beep whenever they snap a picture or record video. The beep must be setup so that users cannot deactivate it. The ministry said the new rule was voluntary, and that it superseded its earlier plan to ban camera phones from public places such as swimming pools."

Think about it, I want to take a picture of little baby (not that I have one) sleeping peacefully holding on to her favorite soft kangaroo and I I take out my camera and point and adjust the lighting, adjust my position to get little arms and the folded fingers around the kangaroo tail and click. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! Followed by BAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Thwaaaaaaaaaack from My my wife (now that one I have). Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccch.
(P.S. I move to Korea sometime in the future)

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Sri Lanka peace talks postponed

Update to a comment on my blog on the Sri Lankan peace process.
Humans have a tendency to make their lives exciting.

"Being president is like a running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people
under you, and nobody’s listening" The source claims that its Bill Clinton.

"How many people are employed within your Division? How many of these are Virgin employees and how many are external suppliers/contractors?"

Hmm, Just wondering about the company in question.
This is what happens if you have generic words as names of companies?
Think about going to Richard Branson and asking him "How many Virgin employees work late nights?

Lafz= Words
Beautiful.
There's a dude called Wordsmith called Anu Garg, he coined the word Linguaphile.
I think there should be a word for "beautiful words' which look good and which have a certain lilt to them.
Any Suggestions?
Mail me

: "Small business to cater to aging population " An article in Vancouver Sun talks about A study by "bank" economists where they speak about the opportunties created by the large aging population in North America.
They say and I quote (Distancing myself from the quote in any which way possible)...
"An aging population offers new opportunities for small businesses -- notably in the home-care and funeral industries"

WOW!!!! Smart people. I am sure they have a Gartner type disclaimer at the bottom saying we are not responsible for deaths due to laughter or disgust after reading this report.

Chief Executive - CEO Watch: October 2003 Issue 192: " What do you say? 132 minutes for a burger? and 1320 hours jogging to get rid of the fat?
"

No more flash mobs, say police: "Gupta said Section 37(1) of the Bombay Police Act said prior police permission was required whenever more than five people gathered at a public place"

What Bull Mr.Gupta?

"U.S. Mobile Screensavers, Icons, and Wallpapers Forecast, 2002-2007: Graphics to Go " - IDC study.

WHY? I know there are a few techie guys who might be interested in this but.... why?
Why dont they conduct a study on the number of ring tones market, casings market, sms jokes market, sms rumours market, sms intensity of vibration market (alternate uses) .....

I sometimes have fun working on MS word.
I was looking to type this word: sectoral, I assume that nothing is wrong with the word. BUT MS word red-underlines it and suggests a spelling: "Scrotal"
Now this is final sentence:
Government is relying on various networks of multi-scrotal participants to guard against cyber threats.
I know you need balls to fight cyber terrorism but never knew that MS word was so insightful!

TABLE Trends in age -adjusted death rates for leading causes of death by sex in Japan (1947-1999): "Trends in age-adjusted death rates for leading causes of death by sex in Japan (1947-1999"

What does one understand by reading the above statement?
1. Hmm interesting statistic, lemme read
2. Gender distribution of causes of death

What did you think?

Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.
- Groucho Marx
Great Men think alike... He did a few decades before and I reflect now...

"We all know that life isn't fair because, if life were fair, we'd have:
The finances of Donald Trump
The wit of Woody Allen
The physique of Sylvester Stallone
And, the selfless devotion of Mother Teresa.

But, we all know life isn't fair because most of us have:
The finances of Mother Teresa
The wit of Sylvester Stallone
The physique of Woody Allen
And, the selfless devotion of Donald Trump."

- some smart alec

"Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper -- Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition. In 1984, I severed all connections with business for a life of isolation and anonymity, convinced I was making a great bargain by trading money for time, position for liberty, and ego for contentment -- that the beasts were securely caged.'"

Not a bad bargain is it. The knack is to get the unit of the trade in as much quantity as possible to buy out the beasts depending on how much each of them is plaguing you.

"'The better an organization is, the less obvious it is,' - Dee Hock

Horror gripped the heart of a World War-I soldier, as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench with continuous gunfire whizzing overhis head, the soldier asked his Lieutenant if he couldgo out into the man's land between the trenches tobring his fallen comrade back. "You can go," said theLieutenant, "but I don't think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw yourlife away." The Lieutenant's words didn't matter, andthe soldier went anyway. Miraculously, he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder and broughthim back to their company's trench. As the two of them tumbled in together to the bottom of the trench, the officer checked the wounded soldier, then lookedkindly at his friend. "I told you it wouldn't beworth it," he said. "Your friend is dead and you aremortally wounded." "It was worth it, Sir," said thesoldier. "What do you mean by worth it?" responded theLieutenant. "Your friend is dead." "Yes Sir,” the privateanswered, "but it was worth it because when I gotto him, he was still alive and I had the satisfactionof hearing him say.... "Jim... I knew you'dcome."

Would I die for anybody else? No. Does that make me insensitive? or a Coward? or a tyrant ...
Me thinks doesnt matter. I still wont.

ESPN-Star deny sacking Sidhu: "'It is only after I left cricket that learnt the true meaning of self-belief. I started meditating for long hours. That is when all my ideas strike me,' Sidhu told rediff.com in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning from his home in Patiala. 'I keep a notebook next to me in which I write all the pure and pristine thoughts that I reflect on while meditating. That is what you hear in the commentary.' "

How can he have a fan following? He has as much grace as an drunk octopus doing Salsa with a porcupine.

My highest rated person professionally was typically one who would fill two conditions: someone I would love to work for and some one I would call first, if I ever got into my own business.

I love that statement and there are few I have in mind.

SI.com - Tennis - Sampras: 'I'm done, 100 percent done' - Monday August 25, 2003 10:15PM: "'I'm done'"

Fast Company | 25 Fast Ideas for Slower Times: "'People don't leave companies -- they leave leaders.'"

Dear %%FIRST NAME%%:

On behalf of the International Who's Who of Professionals, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a potential candidate. We congratulate you. Nomination to Who's Who is an honor in itself. Who's Who has over 20,000 members in 154 countries. It is the most elite professional network in the world. The members assist each other daily with business and career opportunities. It is in times like these that such a network is most valuable and we are seeing members help other members expand their businesses, find new positions, even relocate to another country.

If selected into Who's Who, you will also be listed in the 2003-2004 edition of International Who's Who of Professionals. This is the definitive work on the world's leaders in commerce, economics, policy, and trade.

We do require additional information to complete the selection process and ask that you provide our biographical data by accessing the form on our website at: http://12.146.178.233/fax/E159.htm

Our editorial deadline is quickly approaching. I urge you to act today. If you delay, I cannot guarantee the committee will have ample time to review your submission.

Sincerely,

Brooke O. Filger
Membership Director

Am I eligible?
Please Put me in the list?
Can I put it in my resume that I am in the list?
I have a few friends who are excellent candidates, can you include them as well?
Please Please Pretty Please

"A record 38.1 Celcius (100.58F) was recorded at Gravesend in southern England, while a reading of 37.9C (100.22F) set a record at London's Heathrow Airport."

Hmm!
Hehe

"California follows the 'randomized alphabet' process for all its elections, with the goal of ensuring fairness in the placement of candidates' names.

The procedure was established in 1975 after courts ruled that standard alphabetical order or incumbent-first placement was unconstitutional because undecided voters have a 5 percent positional bias, according to the California secretary of state's Web site. "

Hmm!

I Want To Be A Buffalo
(set to the tune of I Want To Ride My Bicycle)

I want to be a buffalo, I want to be a buffaloooo…
I want to be a buffalo…
Buffalo, buffalo…
Well, you get the picture…

(Picked from the resume of a colleague)

"The test of a first-rate intelligence," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

A study is on the way to identify the numerical dependency between "lovely weather" and productivity in office situations.
Research results awaited... if the office survives.

It's possible to acheive almost anything as long as you are not worried about who will get the credit.- Harry S. Truman.
True.
Very true.

The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange. -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936)
Such seemingly profound BULL!

Me: Everybody has a non-conformist hidden in them.
I: Hmm, I dont think so.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
[Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.]

A major wartime spending bill providing $62 billion for Pentagon operations in Iraq was stalled yesterday by a series of disagreements between House and Senate Republicans over unrelated issues ranging from aid to troubled airlines to food labeling rules for Alaskan salmon.

...

The worst kind of Fatigue is the fatigue of Boredom.

Are we anti-war or Anti-america?
Are we all non-conformists when we come to America and the popular culture?

Are all these state department guys in the Bush administration fools themselves or do they think the whole world and more importantly the American taxpayers, are fools?

Or do these guys have a chuckle in one of the ante rooms of oval office thinking we can fool the whole bloody world that we care for the Iraqi citizens like our own babies.

Brb

Back Married.

Hmm,

How does it feel?
Does it feel any different?

Nope. But its early days...

Back to Blogging?

Nah its too early to say...

But lets hope that Blog remains the way it was nice and free and communist...

first ever google ad that I ever saw outside google.com.
Hmm.

Was just talking to Steve as to reasons why I havent been blogging since a long time, When I used to blog, I used to evaluate incidents and thoughts for their bloggability and attractiveness for a global audience, I think what I do now is more normal, just dont bother about the blog and the question of why dont I think of it when I have a bloggable thought/ event doesnt arise at all.

I saw Meenu Ahuja on TV, in a Star News program, vehemently arguing about keeping sports and politics seperate. And Now I will remember that I saw her. And lets hope that I do get in touch with her sometime.

Its been a long time since i posted, may be this is a good point to restart. Here are a few shots of my trek in sikkim.

Of course they are good! Thats why this effort to get more "nice shots"

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1566480&uid=865438

Got this Poem on my budday for an unknown reason. I like unknown reasons.

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are
crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of
the distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become
undisguised and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath,
Echoes, ripples, and buzz'd whispers, love-root,
silk-thread, crotch and vine,
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my
heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the
shore and dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belch'd words of my voice, words
loos'd to the eddies of the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around
of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple
boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or
along the fields and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song
of me rising from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? Have you
reckon'd the earth much?
Have you practiced so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess
the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun,
(there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third
hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed
on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take
things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

Past life?
I am sure it would be fun to get to know that I was a different person, a different set of relationships, may be I died when I was 1, 10, 100, may I was a serious kinda guy, or this option actually dint occur to me, i could actually have been a girl, I could have been a different species, I could have been a tree, shrub or a cactus. Its good fun to think about a completely different set of thoughts, a different set of values, a different smile, a different sense of humor, a different eye sight and defect, a different way people look at you, a different handwriting, a different image in the mirror, a different skin and hair texture, a different email id, a differnt hieght from which I look at people, a different bike/ car/ flight/ pair of legs, different amount of sugar I like in my capuccino, a different amount of money I take home, a different different taste with food and clothing and women/ men.
And for sure a different blog.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin

There you have it. Some smart statement to fill up the void.

Blog: Who you talking to?
Me: You.

I found a nice name online: Flexistentialist.
Tchah, why dint I think of it?

Balaji, your unconscious mind is driven most by Resistance

You approach the world with your guard intact because unconsciously, and perhaps consciously, you want to maintain an element of control in your relationships with people. You tend to hold your private experiences just out of reach of others. You're not one to immediately show all your cards, to let people into who you really are until you're ready.

Unfortunately, that sometimes means you also hide things from yourself. You may find that your desire to remain guarded backfires, affecting your self-awareness. Why are you like this? It's possible that you act in this manner because of a deeply-rooted fear of being exposed, or of truly expressing yourself. To protect yourself from this fear, you act in the opposite manner — you are guarded.

There is a certain respect that comes with resistance, an unconscious understanding that the human psyche is very vulnerable. We all feel we have a lot to hide, and you are not one to be intrusive or thoughtless about how you approach sensitive topics with others. Therefore you inspire a sense of safety in others when they are around you. Your psyche is very deep, very rich, and the more you can let yourself know (both the good and the bad), the more you will be able to appreciate who you really are.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Resistance, there is much more to who you are at your core.

The Emode Test Results following Foolmaker's august foot steps in November.

The world seems darker when I feel gloomy.
I hope I can switch on a light into what I feel.

I am the kitply among veneers

Work expands to fill time. A concept which has been roaming in my head since a few days. Intelligence expands to fill the difficulty of tasks you face.

Is Rome worth a Good Man's life?
Is anything worth a good Man's life?
Any cause?
Is any person?

No.

image

Such Variety

brb

In some situations, the gap between what you think is memory and what you think is imagination blurs, thats when I start clinging to my memories. My worst fear is that I will in a few years forget what I felt when I was 4 years old, in some vague way I still remember my first day at school, imagination? memory?

may be this blog is a feeble attempt to have repository of thoughts.

Comment: The way I use business terms when I am explaining more subtle issues is the worst way of co-option by the business way of life.

A country called India just invested 27 000,00,00,000 (27,000 crores).
Total/cumulative/aggregate net profits of top 500 Indian companies: 32 223,00,00,000 (32,000 + crores)

The last war, that we were in was 30 years back. Does it mean that nobody touched India, coz she had some planes?
If that amount of money was spent as deterrent, then they will just end up being something which India might never use, and in 10 years they will end up in a park, where children can sit on it and take photos?

This too is life, there's no point in having an imaginary picture of life (an imagination driven by comparison and past and expectations) and compare it to the present, what I do when I get up in the morning, think and act, is life, and imagination does have its place, imagination has its own life, its own charectors, script, logic and repurcussions.

I was just thinking about, just think about it when you are introspecting/ talk to yourself, there are times when you talk to yourself and you use "I shouldnt have done, I kicked ass today" and other times you go "you are one idiot man, you should have just..., when will you learn...., you kicked ass today..." stuff like that, it would be good idea to see why that happens, am I not taking the responsibility for my actions by using "you". Will tell you when I do that next time.

Theres something about raving fans and trampling crowds, crowds sitting in sweltering sun, paparazzi that i couldnt ever relate to.
Being awe enough of a person that you havent seen in person more than a few times, if you are lucky that is. You havent even had a proper conversation with him/her and people covet them, pray for them. people like Sachin tendulkar, Amitabh, Anna kournikova, even smarter people like Scientists (actually couldnt think of any smart scientist) , the first thing which comes to my mind is.. if I need to respect them or if I need to deify them, I need to have at some point of time have a conversation with them and if I think they deserve the respect due to knowledge they possess then I repsct them and deification is next to impossible. I wont even will be in awe in teh presence of very famous people. I keep coming back to deification as I see people killing themselves for Osama Bin Laden or George Bush/ Some idiot sitting and making policies. How the hell can I go gun(g) ho and kill people and be ready to be killed when I am not even sure, why what long term objective they want to serve? or I do my own thought come up with the same conclusion, then I have satisfied my thought and my conscience.

Where are you getting to Balaji? Nowhere. Shud I get to somewhere? nope just blurt out everything you want and let it go.
Why do I keep questioning myself like this?

Coz its bloody good fun, and I can write on the blog that I question myself.
You are one weird bugger, even if I say so myself

I dont have any value for your life and I know that you do and the world does for you as a victim and me as a killer and a cause.

Terrorists in a temple, just jumped in and killed 25 people.
I was just going in an auto the other day, and for some reason, I was just staring out and catching a glipmse of peoples faces and for that second I imagined the life they might be living, their wishes, their relationships... all these people were like statistics... 25 people.

What would be going on in the mind of that person, just when he aims to hit the heart of that person? How can he pull thr trigger after looking at the shock on another persons face? How can he ever justify in the split second of pulling the trigger that this persons life is worth sacrificing for a cause? A cause about which his victim has no idea. Does he feel guilt? Or does he keep replaying the reason for his action in his mind, so as to keep him on his mission.

Once the first bullet is fired, theres no turning back. Self preservation takes over, I killed one and survived the immediate guilt of killing one person. I survived looking at the petirifed eyes of a man that I was about to kill, I survived the guilt of shooting a 9 year old kid in back trying to flee. I know I will be killed, I will end up as a statistic as well, maybe 1 among the 2. So did it make a difference? How does it matter now, my victim is dead and So am I.

Did you notice that you can can give any image, any situation a subtitle called "Life" with a shrug of your shoulders charading to be very deep.

Poem of this blogging Cycle:
I started to pull the door open.
A growl.
A rasping, ominous rumble.
A portent. A promise.
I, frightened, shut the wardrobe door
(and held it, just in case),
Back in the old house.
The walls were new blue,
And still smelled like paint.

A deep breath.
Another.
I gently pulled back the door,
I don't know why I wanted to see the wolf,
But I did.
Another low growl.
Feral. Frightening.

And for that moment
I stood on the brink of bravery
And of death.
I forced myself to open the door and look inside.

As I did so,
An old, scratchy pillow
Slowly toppled out onto the floor.
It was my wolf,
It's rough surface being scraped against the door
Was my growling.

It didn't matter.

I had won.

--- Oddlyaromatic

I Chose a picture, I have no reason why this one. Maybe this is how I feel today, maybe I just like to feel this way, maybe I want people to think that I feel this way, maybe its just a nice picture... the merit of the picture came at the end... hmm.

Some bugger called Adam Lashinsky, I just read a column of his on CNN called bottom line, have a look at it, How the hell can content like this be termed as "editorial"? He just quoted some 3 quarter results and made soem inane comment, either this guy writes like this all the time, or he was in a hurry to drop his daughter to school.

Atlast some sense is prevailing in some corner of the world. and Hope this lasts.
Too many bullshitting dialogs being passed around. These five big brother countries, each of them having some occupied territory are talking as tho they are some little puppies hiding from the big bad wolf. Bullshit.

The Kind of music I like to hear: A babe singing very softly with a lone guitar in the background. just to fill the gaps and to help me listen to what she is trying to tell herself.

i Blog
Blog: hey Long time no see, wassup?
me: Nothing much just chilling
Blog: havent come visiting me in a long time?
me: nah dint feel like
Blog: hmm
Blog: has somebody replaced me?
me: nah, just dint feel like blogging
Blog: Then how did you come here today?
me: hmm, I wanted to write something about why only activity based festivals are surviving in india
Blog: Shoot away
me: me heading home now, I will crystallise my thoughts and come back
Blog: hmm, why cant you crystallise them while blogging?
me: theres an audience that I have to mind
Blog: but isnt all blogging supposed to be for self.
me: nope.
.

She: How are you?
Me: I am cool as cucumber on a summer afternoon on a cricket pitch.
Me: I am relief to myself.

Me (later): What bull!!

Theres a nice peace when you are vindicated by your thoughts

Confessions of a driving instructee:
One of the greatest demons that I need to exorcise is the fear of driving cars.

The saga of my drving lessons started some 3 years back with Rohit trying to teach me how to drive, it was very late around 2 in the morning and there werent a lot of people except the MCH sweepers cleaning the roads. Rohit was trying to teach me how to drive and we started at the foot of Banjara Hills road number one towards the erst while Krishna Oberoi. It all started well with Rohit telling me whats the clutch, brake and accelerator and thata car has 4 wheels and the steeering and everything. In the dead of the night I turned the ignition and the car purred to life (it was a maruti 800), I put into first gear, (left and down) and slowly eased the clutch and maintained a steady pressure on the accelerator and the car inched forward and we picked up some speed, by tthe time we reached the incline I had changed into the second gear and maintaining a good speed, then I switched to 3rd gear without any help from Rohit, I wondered at that time that car driving is so frigging easy... we got over the incline and the road had a slight turn to the left and I was at about 40kmph and I slowed down to take that turn. Then...
For some inexplicable reason, I pressed on the accelerator and Rohit shouted "Hit the brakes!!" and some synapse in my complex brain failed to perform its role and I froze with the steerting turned towards left and my foot planted on the accelerator. The car zoomed towards the foot high pavement and the concrete wall, rohit shouted "hit the brakes", but dint register...
He immediately grabbed the steering and threw it to the right, but even he wasnt sure whether we will miss hitting the pavement and toppling over or crashing into the concrete wall, but he swerved all the same and the synapse reconnected and I eased on the accelerator and the car luckily stopped in the middle of the road, diagonally parked in the middle of the road, we dint talk for a minute and just sat there....

Since then, dint try to drive for various reasons, may be the gap induced the fear of driving or whatever that might be.
I have been bugging Anita to teach me how to drive since the time I met her and she has been steadfast saying she cant. But in the end she succumbed and agreed to try, Darling she is! Today, we started at the same foot of Banjara Hills and drove towards Jubilee Hills this time, Anita actually asked me to take that absolutely crowded road for the first spin in 3 years but I said lets go to some less crowded road, we drove to the back road of KBR and she stopped and I took to the wheel. The moment I got in she asked me, which one controls what of those three pedals and I had no idea and blurted something, she got the sense of what she was getting into at that instant, but she was brave enuf to let me give it a go.
I started the car, put into the first gear and eased into the second gear and was very nervous looking around for people, trees, everything moving and non-moving but not once during the drive did I remember what happened with Rohit on that night.
Anita was telling which gear to change when to press the clutch and that I should use the same foot for the brake and the accelerator and that I shud always put the hand brake and I shud drive on second gear or third gear on an incline and a lot of fundas like that.... which helped and I drove for a about 3 or 4 kms without any incident, other than the fact that even autos and cycle walas were over taking us. I asked Anita a lot of times whether I was doing ok for a learner, she said that as she wasnt shouting her head off, I must be doing ok. Then we reached this very crowded junction not like a railway station but crowded enuf for a greenhorn car driver with people spilling on to the road. I negotiated the first few meters pretty well and then...

There was I just heard a commotion on the left side, ... I had just brushed a scooter and broke his indicator, I dint have any spatial indication of the width of the car so as long as I could see the road clearly in front of me, I thought all was well. and then there was this guy walking along slowly pushing his cycle at his side. Suddenly before I could realise whats going on, I had hit the bicycle. All the while I was happy that I dint hit the accelerator and kill and few people, I thot it was some small scratch and if I can just get out and handle the situation, I can get out in a few minutes max, I got out with these burly people trying to intimidate me and then I see that the front wheel had come to a stop completely crushing the cycle. Then thought I had to pay my out of here, haggled with the cycle wala about how much damage there was and I fibbed to him I have a cycle exactly like that at home so I know how much it will cost to repair, and in the end concluded the whole thing after giving him rs 200 and came back to the car with Anita. I was all sweating and tense as it al struck me like an avalanche of events.

Then comes the sweetest thing. I was ready to get into the passengers seat and have a nice comfy drive and Anita says, "Now if you dont get into the drivers seat right now and start driving, it will be difficult for you to learn how to drive". I was amazed and I protested and in the end she won and I took to the wheel, opened the windows hoping to dry the sweat. I drove for sometime a few 100 meters and stopped. I asked Anita to drive again and sitting in the comfort of the passenger seat I had some pensive moments with Anita telling me that it happens and she will still make me drive tommorow.
I will drive her to a dinner the moment I can do it
Anita, you da coolest... Hope your dad doesnt read this blog... ;-)

Buying books is such fun...
People (includes me) make an effort to show off which books they are buying, will always make an effort to be seen with the poshest or the rarest books in the store, I thin the best people are those who come to street markets looking for porn stuff, the stealth looks and the sleight of hand when they very cursorily pick up "that" book as though it was any other and make sure they put it back if somebody is around and later pick it up along with another bulkier book, take it to the seller dump the bulkier book, but the porn book, insist on a cover. hehe.

People are in some way proud that they are found in the books section, everybody wants to look like scholar, everybody is discerning in a book store...
There are squatters
There are coffee-sippers
There are the esoteric
There are the techies
Then there are the incurable "M and B"ites
Then there are shelf decorators
Then there are Homeless, I will sit and finish this 300 page book, right here, right now
Then there are the Wanderers
Then there are the Hallelujah I found my Linda Goodman.
Then there are "sorry wrong section"
Then there are "lemme show off how much I reads"
Then there are "I will ask you only what you dont have"

Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it
often substitutes for both. -John Andrew Holmes

Some joys are better expressed in silence,
as a smile hold more meaning than laughter,
I was asked if I enjoyed meeting you in life,
I just smiled..........

Me too.........

How would it be when theres no great news report? Is it unimaginable that there can be a day in history where nothing has happened at all.
One day where nobody is killed in Israel and palestine,
One day with no bomb blasts in Kashmir,
One day where no great meetings happen, where no great summits happen, no great foreign visits happen so that all the bureaucrats can take a vacation in some beach resort or some hill station.
One day where no great feats or victories happen in sports, and the ensuing performance enhancement charges,
One day where people just keep to themselves and dont make statements to get onto the front page, like Salman Khan saying, I am a very shy person.
One day where no princess or actress or singer has been caught naked with a compromising position,
One day where the president doesnt eat a pretzel or the prime minister doesnt have a knee operation from playing kabaddi with snails
One day where no elections are announced or no results are annonced no bloody elections in stalemate conitnuing for a few months and producing a dud of a prez.
One day where no tourist is kidnapped for a ransom of Hershey's Kisses
One day where the numbers 9 and 11 are not mentioned, as they make it to the front page by default.

Is news all about extremes?
why cant I see the headlines saying: Mr. Naveen went to office, finished his work and came back home, watched TV and slept.., yeah that will make Naveen a celebrity and he will be co-opted by media and he will look for reports on his ever changing life style.

What all crap I keep posting...

aditi says:
wt is hmm nice???
So What if he says:
hmm nice is when something is hmm nice people say hmm nice which means hmm nice

Am I sane? Lemme think, yeah when I am in a mood to be sane.

A very dear friend asked me this question, when I was telling her about how I interview:
If you were to recruit yourself, which position would you take yourself in and what responsibilities would you give yourself?

I said: I will take myself and say go make yourself useful.
Like Game theory in beautiful mind, go maximise your benefits and maximise benefits for the company?
Convincing or do you think it was a good cop out ;-) Tell me

Train of thot and Cycle of Sorts.
Fake Raybans says:
hi
Fake Raybans says:
balaji
Fake Raybans says:
so what if he
Fake Raybans says:
drunkoctopus
Fake Raybans says:
stuffedsquid
Fake Raybans says:
coltishclam
Fake Raybans says:
muscledmussel
Fake Raybans says:
billions of blistering barnacles
Fake Raybans says:
fascist
Fake Raybans says:
mata hari
Fake Raybans says:
mudwrestleer
Fake Raybans says:
wiley coyote
Fake Raybans says:
road runner
Fake Raybans says:
beepbeep
Fake Raybans says:
holyzillionelectricimpulses
Fake Raybans says:
lost case
Fake Raybans says:
going now
Fake Raybans says:
hi

I am to conforming to my comforts.

This Oddity has just rediscovered blogging and she is getting good at it.
Hmm, seems more like she is rediscovering a herself with a lot of josh more than just blogging.

Havent read the whole thing, when I posted it, started off well so thot its a good thing to have on the dumping ground.

The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Disorder Rating Information
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: Low
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: High
Narcissistic: Moderate Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Low

The Disorder Test

Many live in the ivory tower called reality; they never venture on the open sea of thought.
-Francois Gautier, journalist (1950- )

How can People make ads like that? nd how can people allow ads to be displayed like this? FREE for $5 are people nutttttttttttttsssssssss???? that too for love advice on the phone:
Worst thing is if I start getting referral bonus from this image


Imagine a conversation:
Tom: Hi
Tom: ask me some questions babe? what do you expect me to rattle off everything?
Lisa; Please state your name after the beep.
Tom: Tom
Lisa; Please input your credit card number and expiry date after the beep
Tom: **** **** **** **** **** (Even bloody toms credit card number is safe here)
Lisa: Hi Tom, I am Lisa, I am a system generated virtual entity, who will help you in any way you want.
Tom:Wow, dint that sound cool, which school did you go to?
Lisa: What is your sun sign?
Tom: eh? Ask me soemthing about my love life? Ask me something about my girl? Ask me how it is going?
Lisa: if you have already said your sun sign please press the pound sign?
Tom: You are not listening babe, I have this girlfriend, from work, she is sucha bitch, she never lets me watch TV.
Lisa: if you have already said your sun sign please press the pound sign?
Tom: What the hell is wrong with you? ok have it your way, my sun sign is cancer
Lisa: You are experiecing discord in your love life Tom (Obviously you nut case or else you wouldnt call), but with your good and gracious attitude to life, you will tide over on everything.
Tom: Thats a good start, I like you Lisa, you are the only person who seems to understand me in the world. Can we meet up sometime?
Lisa: Your time for the free $5 phone advice has expired.
Tom: What so fast? But good you helped me have closure with my girl friend, so we were talking about meeting up
Lisa: Please press the pound sign to debit $100 from your credit card.
Tom: $100, what the hell for? Is that like advance for meeting with you/ What is this an escort service? (you have to be politically correct on the phone, cant say prostitution and all that, opps did I just say it? doesnt matter I am not on phone).
Lisa: Tom, please press the pound sign to debit $100 from your credit card to continue talking to me
Tom: So what about meeting up and hangin out, getting a beer....
Lisa: Your call is being disconnected
Tom: Bitch, gimme your home phone number atleast?
Lisa: beep beep beep beep beep

Just did an IQ test and my IQ was 133 and I was thought to be an Visionay philosopher... I never like these tests befroe but now, it all suddenly makes sense :-))

Stagnation is not about stopping, it is about going round and round in circles - and the worst part is that you never realize you've stagnated. Circling gives you the impression of movement...oh hell!
- Babe under the helmet

I think the way I live is interesting, but my life aint... Tell me, hows yours?

.... and I cried
I liked to feel the tears on my cheeks,
I love when the tears flow all the way down my cheeks, my chin, or rest on my lips or fall on my chest...
I never try to stop them in between, never wipe them off,
I love it when after they dry out they burn my skin
I love it when I can feel the loaded drop just tumbling down
I love it when I can see clearer when I cry
I guess theres a push as well,
If the tear is to small, I guess I cry more to let it go on for some more distance down the cheek

Does it seem as though I like crying?
I do love it when I cry, thats one feeling which comes very very rarely to a boringly happy person like me, so I treasure and try to remember how it felt.
When I was an adolescent I cried once and the tears fell on a paper, I preserved that crumpled peice of paper and its one of my treasured possessions, its just not the tears its the reason, my thoughts that the tears represent.

"I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you. And I am I. I do my thing, and you do your thing....and when we meet, it's beautiful" - Fritz Perls

One of the poems that a profilic poet and a friend of mine wrote a few years back during an operations research class while doing problems on Linear programming.

Am like a horse in a stable
feeling all fit and able
get my meals on time
Can sleep when I want to.

Then I dream about
the horses in the wild
can feel the breeze on my mane
and the tingle on my hide
dream about the absence of shackles
wild grass everywhere
snorting and galloping breezong through the days.

I wake up to see
the fence in my stable
know it can be crosseded being physically able
I think of the security
the meals on time and luxury life
and how I need to be more mentally able....