To hug or not ??

Why do we hug each other so much..?? For me it doesn’t mean much, as long as the intentions are clean; Read this extract -

When Ravan kidnapped Sita, Ram was inconsolable in his grief. All the trees and the animals and the men and women of the forest tried to hug him. But he rejected their embrace. “Only Sita can touch me with such affection,” he said. Then he saw the disappointed faces of everyone around who was reaching out to comfort him and said, “In my next life, when I am Krishna, all of you shall be gopis and we shall dance together in Madhuvan.”

Now u decide if you are Ram or Krishna - I have both in me. Period.

God in Small things..

It was morning 9:45, and I was as usually struck in the traffic jam.  I was again upset with the traffic though the old songs CD kept me going, and gave me a feel good factor. In one of the traffic signals, I incidentally came across this message behind an auto - "Herigege Uchita", meaning - "Free for passenger going for a delivery".  This message made me restless till I found my mobile to take a pic of the auto. Later, I was constantly thinking about the importance of this message - I was literally blown away by the contribution that this auto guy would be doing.

I am sure, that the auto driver would have known how critical it is to take the mother to the hospital at the right time for delivery.  The first thought one would get when they see such a message, is that he is actually helping the poor. What many of us fail to recognize is the uncertainty we carry everyday when we leave our house. I can see lot many cases where affordability is not the problem, but availability of cash that would be the issue. Imagine a lady who is carrying, just forgot to take her purse to the office, and she suddenly gets delivery pain - she would know the value of the service this auto guy would be doing.

To keep it short, this auto guy, whoever it is, made my day. I actually feel so privileged to leave amongst such people. I am sure they would find GOD in Small things.. 

Expérimentation de vie

It has always been thrilling for me to experiment and learn, especially in the game of life. Science and fiction have always fascinated me, and the most interesting or may be embarrassing, is the way people relate each other. However, this time, I am sharing something similarly weird.

Driving is one thing that has always hooked me in. Now if I say I am passionate about driving and I am crazy about cars, you would start asking about the prices, engine stuff or may be about F1, which I am not so informative at. For me passion is mostly in experiencing stuff, than just mere knowledge.

Coming to the point, I travel about 15kms one way from my home to office, and there are more than one ways to go. If you are new to Bangalore, let me tell you that it is heaven but for pathetic traffic. There are 2 major routes through which I can come to my office. The first one is through the main roads, and there are around 13 traffic signals. The alternative route is having around 9 signals, but the roads are narrow, and around a kilometer more than the former one. Every time I travelled the second route, I used to feel it was a long one, and consumed more time, because I never stopped, but I was also slow (due to narrow roads). So now I did an experiment, to see which route worked out better for me – and surprisingly found out that with respect to both mileage and my total cost of travelling, the latter route worked out to be beneficial. In-fact my mileage increased nearly by 25%, and my total cost of travelling decreased by 20%.

So if this was the experiment, the analysis started later. What is it in the second route that it benefitted me? This was the road which was narrow, but the biggest advantage was the number of signals was less by approx 20%. On the contrary, the main roads (of the 1st route) were broad, and it was easier to overtake (comparatively) and speed up too. There was one significant thing that came out this exercise (after some introspection), in the first route, I used to halt and proceed, continuously; where as in the second one, there wasn’t much halting, and I used to proceed at almost a constant pace (though that pace was slower than the first one). So zero speed was the major culprit.

This is so relevant to human body and mind too. I am sure for most of them who start some new activities, like jogging, have this starting problem – it is so difficult to get out of the bed and go for jogging. Again getting out of zero is the problem. Similarly once you start jogging, and mid way (may be after 10-15 days) you are not able to continue for a few days, again we are struck. On the other hand, just in-case you can’t go for a full fledged jog, due to lack of time, try going for a smaller jog rather than stopping fully; it would be a lot easier to go for a full jog from a lesser one, than starting all over from zero.

It is such a co-incidence, that the power of zero is exhibited in physics too – The force required to get a body from rest to motion is more than the force required to keep the same body in motion. (To put it in a geekier manner - Force to overcome Static friction is more than the force to overcome kinetic friction).

Anyone interested to read more about the power of zero, I suggest read “Predictably Irrational”.

The more I experiment, the more I realize there are few major forces (I don’t know what those are) on which things work. Now I may be wrong!!!

"No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."

-  Albert Einstein 

Job-less Apple

Steve Jobs has reportedly taken medical leave, and Tim Cook, the COO, would be taking over the control of day-to-day operations. Jobs, being a pancreatic cancer survivor, had a liver transplant last year. It is so surprising that media is filled with news of "Apple without Jobs", more than Job’s health.

The news reports speculate about the successor for Jobs, and indicate that the formation of a succession plan is in the top of mind agenda for the Apple’s stakeholders (primarily BOD).  I have been a huge fan of Steve Jobs, from almost the time I have known about his dramatic come-back to Apple and its subsequent transformation process into a 300 billion $ worth majestic empire.

Here comes the bigger question. What’s the role to a leader? Is it to generate more leaders? If one generates more leaders, how can one substantiate his own existence, after sometime?

I would consider Jobs, as a leader par excellence, because of the following -

• Apple didn’t stop when Jobs wasn’t around. In-fact, most of 2009, Jobs wasn’t on work. But Apple still did come out with upgrades, version revisions of its products.
• Last time, Cook and his colleagues did a commendable job of managing the company. This has put Cook in the good books of Apple and specifically Jobs.

The culture of creating blockbusters is imbibed into the nerves of Apple. With the few readings that I have  done on Jobs, and as some of the anecdotes about Jobs indicate - the most salient feature of Jobs is his negotiation skills. Steve Jobs is said to have formidable negotiation skills. This can also been seen in the way he changed the whole music industry and the print media. When Apple came out with iPhones, AT&T had to pay for every iPhone sold, unlike previously, where the equations were reversed.

Talking of shares of Apple, time is evidence that it fell 4% as soon as the news of Jobs taking leave was announced, but bounced back 2% after the quarterly results were announced. The next year seems more glorious than the past, starting with the Verizon subscribed iPhone sales.

Though Jobs absence would be felt, it should not shake Apple fundamentally. So lets stop speculating about Apple, and rather pray for Jobs.

Past 3 weeks…

The last 3 weeks, I must say has been pretty exciting - Exciting because it was a period of confusion, of serious thought indulgence, lots of human insights, emotions crossing all paths.  Not that all these are seldom for me, but this time - there was clarity after all the chaos that had happened.

2 major incidences, which literally took me by a shock -

• Diagnosis of cancer for my very close associate. There has been much noise about cancer cure, but ideally there isn't any till now (atleast for those in the later stage).  Though my association with this friend of mine is around 7 yrs old, we had developed a lot of closeness, and mutual respect for each other. Infact, it is this association which showed a novice engineering student, the real business world for the first-time.   Today, when I look back, those memories are still so alive - the moments when we fought for all the silly reasons, the time when she took me to a paani-puri shop, and made me understand that I had just lost a few thousands, and the days when she guided me about the various people - how politics play around, and how being selfish is not a crime, but necessity. I did later realize that I wasn’t made for such an environment, and kept myself away. But we never lost touch.  When I first got to hear this news, I mocked at her (just preparing myself to face the unwarranted truth), until she uttered a shrill cry. For the first time, she told - "Shravan, please pray for me".

• 2 weeks back, when I was in Chennai, I got a call from one of my school friends, that her marriage is fixed. I casually congratulated her. First few questions in my mind - So what…?? Why is she telling me..?? Should I dance in her marriage…?? After 2-3 min of senseless chit-chatting, she asked me - "Are you happy with this marriage?" and this would be the last question which I would expect from her.

These 2 incidences brings out one main thing about females - They are damn bold, I must say. Its just amazing they face situations, the way they get things out of everything. I actually didn’t know how to react in both the situations. In the first-one, she knew very clearly, where she was heading, and what best can be done at that stage. In the second one, she was sassy. I could never imagine myself, asking such a question, in such situation. It was sheer silence, for the first 10 seconds after she asked that question. Later, I skirted the question, by asking more about the groom n stuff. She got the answer.

These are the trying times for me. I only hope I don’t lose much in coming weeks. 

Of tears n travel..

2 days back, my friend from my previous company, called me up and told that he had finally received the UK visa, and he would be travelling next week. He asked to me to accompany me for shopping, as he was not familiar with the stuff to carry and other overseas travel  nuances. I met him on the next evening and took him for some shoes, and casuals shopping (though I, myself hardly shop).

During dinner, he shared how his parents almost instantly had tears in their eyes, when they heard that he was going abroad. Apparently, he was the first person to go abroad in this whole family. His father being a police head-constable, and mother being a house-wife, I could realize the hardship they would have gone though. With the death of other two children, there couldn’t have been better news  for those parents. Isn't it amazing that there is so much happiness in every thing, it is just relative to what you have and what you aspire to have?

Lets stop being emotional, for sometime.  Now what is so special in my friend, that he is travelling abroad? What is his achievement that he is going abroad? Is he really worth all these comforts and travel? These questions were continuously ringing in my head, all through the night.

Eventually, if we go few decades back to our parent's generation, foreign travel was primarily considered for esoteric people, and for a handful of wealthy guys. But today, foreign travel has been eased out so much, that almost anyone and every one in IT industry goes out.  That’s the magic which this industry has created. It made a common man, an extraordinary one.  This is probably, the biggest contribution, which IT industry has provided to our Indian community.

Today, I also found that only 3% of the world's outsourcing comes to Indian players. I cant imagine the impact, if outsourcing to Indian players increases by even 1 more percent. Not far away, that we would not be exporting HR, but importing them.. !!!

Of Thank you's and Sorry's

If there is one significant observation that I need to make in my MBA is this - The number of times I might have told Thank you and Sorry would exceed more than what I would have uttered those pre-MBA. I haven't been so comfortable in uttering these words as frequently as people usually do.

Recently, I had been to Davangere, a small but considerably developed town in the central part of Karnataka. There, I got an opportunity to meet this watchman who was taking care of our car for almost a fortnight . He might be around 70 yrs of age. I was so impressed by the way he had covered the car and the way he had cared for that vehicle ( I am sure, if it was Bangalore - people would even smell, unless u motivate them with money). After removing the car from the garage, I stopped so that I could pay him some money for taking care - he came running to me and I said Tumba Thanks (Thanks a lot). I pulled out my purse to give him some cash, instantly, he joined his hands together, and said - he took care of the car, not because he would get some money, but for the respect he had for my dad. I was literally taken aback by this incidence.  All through my journey from Davangere to Bangalore, I have been thinking, that something different happened here. I later realized that we both had mutually thanked each other.

Immediately I realized what MBA had done to me - I have been used to saying these works more often than not.  I am not sure, if I need to be happy for that. I have known people in MBA, who utter these words so casually, that they hardly end their conversations without one of these. I also realize that these  developments have been based on the strong influences by the western culture - Nothing wrong unless you are truthful to what you say.

When we say thank you, it means - that I am grateful for whatever you have done, and I would make a honest attempt to respect you for that. When we say sorry, it means - that it actually pains me that I have done this to you, and I promise I would make a sincere attempt not to repeat it.

How many of us have felt pain, when we stamp other's foot??

Good Night!!