Deadline for personal goals

Back in 2004, Dad bought a new home and we decided to have some custom furniture built on-site for it. The work completed a little late, and the carpenters gave us a bill, which was well above the market quotes we had received. In India, it is very common to haggle on prices of almost all the commodities and services a consumer may use. Dad, having lived in a metropolitan city for more than 25 years, was very well aware of the fair price to pay for the work done by the carpenters. He made a payment, and the carpenters accepted it after negotiating for a bit.

Here's where the story starts...

Source: Google Images

At ~ 10pm, we received a call from one of the carpenters. The person on the other side of the call was quite (obviously) drunk, and sounded very dejected. All I could hear was that he was sad because he had not met his goal. When I think of that incident, I phase out in a completely different level of thoughts.

The carpenter had a family in his village with 4 kids, whom he visited once every 6-8 months. He worked hard in the city, saved some money, and went back to his village with all the wealth he had amassed, including gifts for the wife and kids. A couple days spent with family, and he is back to business.

The part I want to highlight here is -- He had set a goal with a deadline. The goal of saving some amount of money and buying gifts.. all within 6 months. Unfortunately, this time around, he couldn't make it. This had led to disappointment.

I tried comparing his situation with the case of more than 90% people having jobs in this modern world. There are far too many similarities in the set-up than you can imagine. The only thing that is different in the two cases, is the "deadline" for personal goals and ambitions.

Forget the aspect of money for a while. Lets talk about goals.

Can the carpenter afford to not return to his village after 6 months? Could he `take it easy' for a couple months? Can he afford to loose track of his goal even for a single day? Will he be happy living in the city without honoring his responsibilities towards his family in the village? I keep going back to Chetan Bhagat's speech, where he said :

"Life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble.."

More info. here.

In some ways, although the carpenter's race was long, he was lucky. He had a deadline to meet; Every 6 months! In the case of most people working from 9-5 daily, however, there are no strict deadlines (not for daily tasks, but for personal goals). "Stable income" is what people coin the term as.

Are people fooled to believe that they have ample time to do what they want to do? Do we, at some point along the way, forget what we are here for and loose track of our goals? Do we let the comforts of day-to-day life in the modern world lure us into believing that we have all the time in the world to realize our personal goals? 

The Least You Could Do..

Birthdays are always special. All the more so when a family member has one. On one such recent occasion, I decided to send some gifts back home (thanks floraindia.com). I was then talking on the phone and heard the following ..."Gifts are very good, but hey, you didn't come! (?)".

It was a perfectly valid comment. It really got me thinking. I had a realization about how all things we do are relative. In other words, the definition of "the least you could do" changes based on many external factors. People wish their loved ones by personally visiting them on their birthday. It is probably the least, one can hope, you can do for them. Today, however, I am thousands of miles away from my loved ones. The expectation of the "least I can do" to have a smile on their face -- has changed. What's bad is that instead of rising, expectations generally go down over time. Not meeting your family on such special occasions has become the norm of the 21st century.

I've always heard the funny jokes about how NRIs regularly send gifts/flowers, but come home just once an year, in the best case. It is only now that I realize what this means. It takes time for such things to sink in. And when they do sink in, you start questioning yourself; Why are you doing this?; About the career goals you have, versus the things you have been, and will be missing out on. All you can say at that moment is "Never mind" and move on, with the hope that one day you'll know the answers to all these questions.

Fall Colors

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale

Computing @ Margins

How often do you get a chance to shake hands with the IT, tourism, technology minister of a country? Luckily, I just did. The Margins Symposium was a gathering of intellectuals for tackling some of the complex questions that the world faces today. You build cool iphones. Nice mash-up APIs, Cool Desktop Gadgets... and so on. Can these solve the problems of a less privileged sector of the society? The answer is an obvious - "No".
The question is.... how much of the technology that we churn out every single day is really relevant at the grass-roots level. How much of this can be applied and be useful in the far ends of the world where sustainable technology and business models are the need of the hour?
The Conference was really a gathering of people with vested interests in solving the problems of the Margins...or to put in politically correct words.."solving the problems of the people who are marginalised (due to circumstances)"
Some beautiful insights were made during the Q & A sessions....and i will "(TRY)" to quote one .."While attending a lecture as a student in a University, we scribble things in our notebooks. Sometimes, we hear about something important and write something in the Margins of the notebook. Whatever we write in the Margins emphasises/clarifies/reinforces the main content written on that page."
I was wondering about how can someone even think of such an amazing analogy between the "margins of a notebook page" and "THE Margins"- referring to people or a strata of society.
What's implied is that... when you build solutions for solving the problems of the poor/developing nations, the technology that you use is put to test. If it succeeds there too, it's definitely sustainable. That reinforces its strength. However, if it fails, one needs to re-think its use even in more advanced set-ups.

Another interesting point was made regarding the "contextualisation". I think that contextualisation is a universal concept and must be applied in several scenarios. We cannot imagine any business to succeed without adapting to the local trends and demands. As an illustration, there's a running joke ...a funny e-mail actually... about how a soft-drink company failed miserably in some Arabian country. The reason was that they had put on advertisement which when read from left to right sounded perfect. But it had a completely opposite meaning when it was read the other way round (Like Urdu is printed and supposed to be read right-to-left). This is a perfect example of what contextualisation means. Indeed the failure to contextualise can have major impact on most businesses.

Some more (nice) points:
"If you don't have enough clarity or cannot understand the complete problem, make an effort. But be flexible."
"Just because a solution does not scale-up well, does not mean its a complete waste. Who says that systems must always be huge, centralised and uniform. Sometimes 10 small and different solutions solve a complex problem more effectively."
"People who have problems do not want someone else to design a complete solution. After-all, who can design a better solution than the ones who know the problem. The important thing to do is to empower people to solve their own problems. Technology plays a vital role in this empowerment."

Buckhead Church & a Brazilian brunch ! :)

What an awesome start to a Sunday! Thanks to Adria and Shafi, we visited a Church in the morning to attend a (Palm Sunday) Service. It was amazing. Buckhead Church is not quite like a traditional church. No idols at all. The architecture of the building is more like a Software Company. It has a huge auditorium with 6k+ seating capacity, pool tables, kids' games, discussion rooms and separate auditoriums according to age groups.
I was amazed to find out that they have adapted so well to the 21st century culture. It's more about giving knowledge in a way that can be easily understood and assimilated by the current generation.
If you look at it in a more elaborate manner, there is a great deal of unconventional effort to be extremely flexible about how one can share the message of God. After all, the Message is important! ...regardless of the way it's been delivered. I liked that !
So, we had a "rock band" opening the Service. It was hilarious. A perfect way to energise everybody.
I had never seen something like that in my life! I had the perception of a church as being a peaceful, sacred place of worship. But today, that has changed. It's modern, but its just beautiful. Not just the Music.. but the lyrics played an important part, too.
Some of the lines from the (kinda rock) song are...and i quote >>
"show your light. let the whole world see." and so on ... it was great !
..
..
some pics: does it look like a Church ? :-P
..

..

.......pic : @The Band at the Church
..

Later, we went to a Brazilian Cafeteria to have breakfast. I loved the cheese balls and the Brazilian Coffee. We couldn't have asked for a better place. It was just too good :-D

:)

First snow!

Okay, this happened about 2-3 weeks ago. I admit that i m too late in posting this. However, I need to capture this moment on my blog... even though it's late to do so!

..



..

..

..

Something different...

I recently had an opportunity to attend a Humanitarian Logistics Conference, here in the US.
Just as I had envisaged, it was an amazing experience. With more than 10 presentations by biggies like Red Cross, US-AID, C.A.R.E., W.F.P.(World Food Programme), Waffles....it had to be great !

It was good to see so many people gathered at one place for a "good" reason ... surprisingly, not just for themselves... but for the entire world. For the needy. For the poor. For the victims of disasters. For improving preparedness towards disasters. For a better future.

It was great to hear people talk about the global factors...right from the developed countries to the far ends of Zambia, Ethiopia and the Asian subcontinent.
For me the most eye-opening quote from the conference was.... And I quote,
"Every 5 seconds that we spend here.... a child is loosing its life somewhere in this world due to hunger. Whats frustrating is that there's enough food in this world. But its not reaching the right place at the right time. Thats why we should work ....work harder ...and be quick!"
....this was said by someone from the W.F.P..

Some Interesting Videos:

1) A Time for Action?

2) Another very good take-away from the Conference was this splendid video (again from the W.F.P.)

3) Info about the W.F.P

All good things.......

........come to an end. n so do Vacations. Can't help. :-|

....because I think it's funny ;-)

int rand(void);

Watched a random set of movies in the December break and I am trying to write a Random post to list this random set of movies so that random people can read it randomly :-P

basss.... faar pakaav joke hota...

List of movies:

Rock-on -- yeah i know, m quite late in watching this one

Flavors -- its about life in the US, esp. from the POV of parents

The Terminal -- The movie with the mysterious "Republic of Krakozhia"

Cast Away -- too good (i know .... u wont believe that i'd not seen that yet)

Transporter Part I -- got to watch the next parts .... dunno when i 'll do that

Seven Pounds -- My first movie in a US Theatre

Ghajini -- Nice, typical bollywood style Masala movie. Aamir deserves to act in much better movies though. My second movie in a US Theatre.

// Added on 30th Dec.

A Beautiful Mind -- Awesome movie! mind-blowing

Slumdog Millionaire -- A R Rehman Rocks! gr8 music.. nice story-line....its a bit weird to watch Mumbai (as it's shown in the movie)...but its a fact we can't refute.

// END: Added on 30th Dec.

Just to make the post truly random>>
I hate people at the Theatre who do not wait till the Movie ends. How can u watch a movie for 3 hours and just get up and get out when theres just 2 min. of reel left ?
People tend to loose interest once they know how that particular movie would end. Same happened in the case of the movie - Ghajini; at a Theatre in the US (so called sophisticated Desi public in the US). There is a song at the very end of the movie. People just got up and went out of the theater. I consider that synonymous to -- going for a wedding, eating lots of food; and then not meeting the newly wed couple to offer good wishes... its that bad! Now one might argue that skipping the "obvious" end-part is to avoid the rush at the Exit of the Cinema Hall. But guys ! ...if you are so busy ...don't watch a movie !!

Aadhantari

A wonderful composition.... a soothing backdrop of music and a true to the heart voice!
A must-see video; especially for all Indian students in the US.
Hats off to the composer and the narrator! great job..
>>

100 days in the US

So, what did we (me n my roomies) do to celebrate this occasion?. Well, we cooked some Pav Bhaji. As if that wasn't enough, we followed that up with ice-cream.

Its a fact that Life teaches u lessons. Indeed, Very important ones!
What I found interesting is... the observation that it can teach you *many* of them together; that too, in a very small amount of time. This is precisely what has happened with me in the first hundred days here. There have been some wonderful experiences as well as some harsh ones. But going through all that was.. and still is, surely worthwhile!
I have noticed one thing. We all live in some sort of a cocoon. That's where we set up our own world. That's where we feel safe and protected. That's where we think what we are! may-be good.. may-be bad. Many of our skills, our abilities, our behavior are determined by and confined to this cocoon. The real test is whether you are able to be "yourself" outside this cocoon.
Its a matter of time which will really tell you whether you were successful in being "yourself"; but for that.. you need to step out of your world - your self-created, and virtual (non-existent in reality) cocoon. This is really the essence of what I feel being here, as a student. Now whether I succeed being "myself" here or I don't - is a different story. But in just 100 days, I know myself better. Both in terms of my strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, I feel that taking this test is surely one of the best decisions I have made in life.

things that matter....and most of them are now ..far ..far away ...

so here i am ... in the US of A...
just wanted to note down a few things out of the million ones i miss a lot...
this is not the senti types blog where i note down all my friends and family members names....and ..all the "things that matter" ...etc etc ...oh pls.... come on... its obvious that i miss all of them sooo much ...

what i want to note down here ....are a few interesting things that i never thought played such a important role in my day to day life...
car/bike : its just been a couple of days here ... i ve been walking a lot. sometimes i get a feeling... y cant i just take the keys and ride off to the nearest bus stop or grocery or pizza place.
food : its soo damn expensive here ...
i never really cared while ordering a cuppa coffee in CCD/barista back in India ...
but here ... one automatically becomes so conscious even b4 entering a Starbucks. To avoid temptation, we decided not to enter one ;-)
so ...heres what i miss... Vaishali Rupali Amrapali Relax Ambrosia CCD Barista Sujata-Mastani ZKs Mc Donalds CPK Food Court Big Bazzaar Live kitchen and last but not the least Kalyan Bhel ;-) obviously ...how can i forget that ? :-P
some other things : my Guitar ... yeah ...i know that i hardly used to play my guitar when in India ... but just the realization that it was there ...right in my room ....was just great !
my bed...my PC... etc etc ...the list goes on and on ...
now before this post becomes one (of the many) boring post(s) ...(or has it become one already ? :p ) i guess i should post it right away and stop adding things to it.