Made in China

Theres one too many lessons that life teaches us. In the past 6 months , a lot has changed. I have changed and circumstances have changed. I have at-least 20 unfinished blog entries rotting in my drafts. Have I been so busy not to accomplish my entries ? The answer is NO. Have i been lazy ? thats a No too. I lost the motivation to round off a thought. I have experienced far more life's lessons in these 6 months than ever before and most of which are here to stay. Its only stupid not to jot them down and become a puppet of time. Instead make time your puppet and lead. 

The Chinese have given not just the gift of dumplings and mouth watering dimsums, but also a great concept of mindset that is known as mu- shin. Its a paradox that means as simple as "Look at everything, see nothing".  Or to put it another way, absorb the world in all its messy details, but keep your mind free, uncluttered.  This acute mental clarity created by mu-shin is a pre requisite for flawless execution in short - victory. Masters of Karate spend decades achieving this mind set. But even with years of practice, mu-shin is unspeakably heard to achieve. Look at everything , see nothing ? Just try it.

In our everyday life  we do have to take in a lot of shit. If you are an executive, you do this everyday. You look at everything , you have to : the little hurdles of your employes, change in trend, erratic movement of the stock market ,the unexpected changes in key peoples behavior, the aggressive gambit of your competitors.  To be blind as it were to the distractions of hundreds of little questions so that one or two big answers become blindingly clear. In that moment of simultaneous dark and light , competitive victories are indeed won.

all you need is ..

LOVE... nah uh.. PHONE

Maps , Restaurant Menus to relationship advice.. today what does a phone not give you ? 

I am hooked on to this new app called Quora. Downloaded this cool app a couple days back on my phone and its been my companion ever since.  A wide variety of topics to choose from People , Places, Stock markets , travel , polictics , recipes. You pick what you like to read about.  Intelligent questions find quite intelligent responses here.

"You cant make good deals with bad people" - this is what i learnt from Quora today..

Captain of a ship (wreck)

This dates back to the year of 2009. Every time a Professor announced that this semester's coursework is a group one , instantly one could hear murmurs in the class. Friends , peers and rival teams devising a perfect plan for a winning team. One could hear in silent whispers, "Let’s take her, she has the experience in Pharmaceuticals" and another gesturing a classmate sitting in the opposite corner, “we will be in one team". I would dread the 'work in progress' stage.  Judging from the experience of two group coursework in the past , there is always peculiar traits in one or the other of the team members.

• a person who is lazy and procrastinates
• a person who dominates / alpha male
• A person just incapable of comprehending the basics.
• the wise crack who loves to criticize others ideas and isn't talented enough to produce his own

As my luck would have it, i worked with team mates with all of the above traits in one person or weird permutation and combinations in one or the other. This made me cringe to the idea of group work. I would never understand , what coursework one could do brilliantly solo, turned out to be a average piece of work when working collectively.

I understood this after working for 3 years in the business.

Manpower Management , you get this right and you have nailed it.  Business schools insist on  group works because in the real world we do not work in isolation. There is no appointed leader in university coursework and hence there is trouble.

As you grow the business, you have to ready the second in line to your business. In our company , we have so many things that are going wrong. Seniority comes with experience and knowledge from growing in the same working environment. The staff is unskilled, our products are not well designed , there is no delegation of authority , the real masters are missing. The list goes on and on.

I am at my demotivated best.  I keep telling myself , this is not i was born to do .. this is no use of my full potential.

A friend responded . " I just want to be the captain of the ship and sail with my crew".   I responded, " Same here !! its just that i am looking for human beings worthy being my crew ".    As on today , I got none.

You know its love when you..

• Take two cute names and put them together to get a cuter name , and start calling them just that and other variations of the same word. [and none of the names make any sense]
• When they speak highly about a film,with great excitement its a movie date night.. Half way through the film your eyes shut. Disappointed , they let you lie down in their lap and watch their favorite film all alone.
• When you sulk being at your favorite place / destination / restaurant / movie , hating ever minute being away from them
• When you watch Iron man 3 in 3D  to watch the smile on their faces throughout the movie
• When you hummm idiotic HINDI Bollywood songs and shamelessly and type them on sms
• When you visit the mecca of paan , Varanasi , and don't have one because they were missing 

The best bunch of Idiots ever

Barely a week from celebrating Independence Day  , what news does one wake up to ? 

Gang Rapes , Murder , Extortion , Govt Scams , Child Molestation , Buildings crumbling like a pack of cards & children dying to Malnutrition. A week ago, close to 15th August, a majority of us changed your profile pictures on Facebook , BBM etc with the Indian Flag , soldiers fighting in Kargil , Mahatma Gandhi with his spinning wheel. Patriotic films being played on television. All of us gung- ho about the pride to be a citizen of this great country. I did that too.

What does being an Indian mean to any of us ?  We are the guinea pigs of various politicians vote bank dramas. We are so susceptible and vulnerable to everything these days.  Why should i be proud to be a citizen of this Country ? Rather what should i be proud about ?

- the poor state of public services - pot-holed roads injustice -ever increasing  prices of bare necessities, -poverty - crimes -  inflation - horrible value of Indian rupee . The list is never ending.

So on big days like Independence Day and Republic day , please can someone tell me what are we celebrating here.

A self respecting, moral Indian is ashamed every morning reading in the daily newspaper. I often read newspaper in the evening , avoiding news in the mornings because who wants to start a day with feeling miserable about living in this world. Today was an exception. The morning news runs a story of a 22 year old girl gang raped in Mahalakshmi , an affluent neighborhood in South Bombay. She was raped whilst she was at a run down mill in the area. She was accompanied by a male friend who was beaten up.  The police asks the girl whether did she acquire proper permissions to take photographs at the abandoned mill.  I ask, why ? If there were not permissions taken then is it permissible to be gang raped ?  What a ridiculous question! And the newspaper prints it too.

Rape has, of late, become an acute disease in the Indian society.  This is a problem arising out of a mental disorder, but there is also a larger cultural context that, to an extent, explains how the Indian male became so brutal.

Our cultural upbringing conditions male minds to behave in a cruel fashion with women. Family upbringing, societal conditioning, religious sagas and political animus, all construct our men and women into being what they are — men as aggressive and women as submissive. Which is why men here, in India, are different from men in other countries. 

Every time a gruesome rape gets reported, we all are ashamed and angry. That’s one thing; but working out ways and means to eradicate such evil is another thing. We cannot leave it entirely to the police or the judiciary to tackle such heinous acts. For, rape is also a cultural problem; and it is a more serious problem because of the extermination of the victim. We need to treat the malaise from its very roots.

Mumbai legislation bans night clubs , dance bars ,prostitution, couples canoodling in public , PDA etc.  They dont want the youth to have a life here in the city. There is restriction to express love openly to the other. And this is where the suppression leads to heinous acts like these. Radicals are known to arrest brave-hearts expressing their views on social networking sites.  Our authorities are busy shooing couples from Marine Drive , while gang rapes are taking place in stone throw distance.

As a travel professional , how do i give assurance to my clients , who btw are very worried about these crimes before visiting our country.  Our nation's tourism is suffering, our businesses are suffering.

Jungles have more order than this city.   

Mumbai MOTTO :  Crib - Suffer - Bribe - Attack - Suffocate

Right Place , Wrong Time

Rant Alert:

I am so out of my head these days. I am hating work. Lack of motivation , irresponsible staff and low benefits have put me down. I rather be sitting on a bench by the muddy seafront and read a book. Notice , how i didn't suggest being home. Because being home is no delight too.  People I know are behaving oblivious to their insanity.  why a total disregard to their existence ? I feel a victim of their bizarre behavior. Feels like i am at the right place at the wrong time. 

What comprises of a good holiday ? A good hotel, scenic beauty , fun activities , right company ?  I cannot help but wonder , that being in just the right place  but at a wrong time make a trip memorable ?

Three years ago , I visited Alton Towers with a bunch of idiots. After a lot of planning and who is coming , who is not ? we don't care lets just go, this short trip was planned. We were a group of 5 -6 people, a rather odd bunch. Alton Towers is Britain's largest and most visited theme park. Its UK's answer to Disney Land. I was very excited about visiting whilst all the planning. Getting there required a bus journey in the wee hours of the morning ,shuttle bus and a train ride. It was such a boring day ! I hated every second on being there. I realized it doesn't matter where you are, the right time and right company is essential to enjoy. even if the right company is just the one of yours alone.

I seek peace of mind.

Trust thy self

July has brought in some eye opening events into light. To be honest nothing that shocks me.

A distanced family member confessed tampering with our land ownership papers. Now this person was the trusted one by our family to manage our properties. And he turned out be be a crook. It has all come out in the open now. There is no hiding place.  Now sorting out this mess is a task. 

What a sheer waste of  my time and energy !

I have been told that i m a 'closed' person. Let me explain. Friends say that i dont share my problems easily. I have this guard around me that a handful of people can peek through.  I would say that could be true. I have trust issues. I confess that i do not trust people easily. In way I believe thats a good thing.

" For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth."