Riding the wave into a digital world

One of the most important measures of success of an innovation is in its adoption. This transition happens, when the consumer need not understand how the technology behind the innovation functions but can still use it effortlessly.  Take for instance the internet and how it has seamlessly integrated with our lives. This is probably the single most influential technological innovation that has re shaped the world in the last 30 years or so. But how many of us really know what happens behind the screen, after we click the send button.

Internet Protocol (IP) is the method by which data is transferred from one computer to another on the internet. So every computer and device needs to have an IP address to be able to function in the internet. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) which is widely used today allows for 4.3 billion IP addresses. That’s a lot of addresses. Or is it?

Smart phones, tablets, social media combined with a growing population of younger generation started turning the world digital. Once again, it is not just these innovations but the ease of adoption that is doing the trick.  There is nothing that can stop this juggernaut. Or so we thought.

Today there are close to 7 billion humans in this planet and over 5.5 billion devices that can potentially be connected to each other. But then there is a small problem of demand and supply. We didn’t have enough IP addresses to make this happen. (Only 4.3 billion addresses). The projected rate of growth in the devices meant we had to do something quick. Real quick.

In came the upgraded version IPv6. This was the elixir to solve the conundrum that the digital world was facing. Without getting too technical, IPv6 can support 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. Yes you heard it right. To give you a perspective of the scale, if all the addresses of IPV4 could be fitted in a 1.6 inch square box then all the addresses of IPv6 requires a space equivalent to our entire solar system. In other words, even if we assign a billion IP address per second for 4.5 billion years (the age of earth) we would have consumed only a trillion addresses.

This mind boggling advent happened 2 years back. Thanks to IPV6, we can now connect an astronomical number of devices to each other and to the internet. Brace yourself to the ‘Third Wave’ of technology innovation called the ‘Internet of Things’. The use case of IoT is limitless. The world as we know it, is expected to change from here on.

Newer technologies will emerge tomorrow.  Internet of Things will enable the world to go beyond Nokia’s tag line of ‘Connecting People’. Along with people we would be able to connect to anything, anywhere and anytime. All these connected devices will churn out data so huge that we might come up with something bigger than big data analytics.  Data security compromise would be a real threat and of course answers to those fears will also be found.

Consumers will not fear the technology that they don’t understand. But will embrace the one that can seamlessly become a part of their life and help them too.

Technology service providers are naturally excited at the prospects and opportunities but their success will depend on how well they play their new role as digital transformation partners.

 We rode the first 2 waves successfully and have reached where we are. There is no reason why we won’t enjoy riding this third wave that would take us in to a near complete digital world.   

Emojinally Speaking

We are proud to live in a digital world where our ability to communicate trumps everything else.  This easy access to information and proximity to a smart device to communicate with, have  resulted in a race to be the first to share. This has resulted in information over kill with its natural its side effects too. According to Google, our attention span has reduced to just 8 seconds. Look who’s complaining. The need of the hour is quicker, faster and crispier. That 90’s boy band Boy Zone, may not be writing their famous song ‘It’s only words, words are all I have, to take your heart away’ if they were to be around today. No girl would wait for them to complete all their words. Some dude with few emoticons would have done the trick.

But wait. Is it the genius of the modern man that has led to our ability to communicate crisply and quickly? Or as always, did we just reinvent the wheel? Maybe a look at the history and evolution of communication could help. Let’s go back in time. I meant way back – about 30000 years back.

What might have prompted our ancestors, the Homo sapiens to do those cave paintings? Was it a natural urge or the sheer need to communicate? Or who knows, it could have been plain boredom that made them express themselves on those pre-historic rocks. Whatever be the reason, I bet they would not have known then, that those vague looking art form would pave the way to more complex and advanced forms of communications that would eventually help humans becoming the most dominant species in this planet. 

These symbols then became words.

With newer words emerged newer languages. With this plethora of options we figured out different reasons to communicate - Partly because we had to, but mostly because we simply could.  

As with most things, we evolve to a point of achieving the ultimate efficiency only to realize that the better way of doing anything is how it was done several thousand years ago. Our ability to communicate evolved to a point where we ran out of the right words to express our admiration. Talk about irony. 

So what if words failed us. Creativity and efficiency didn't.  Several emotions and expressions were condensed into a simple 4 letter word. Yes, Facebook took efficiency and effectiveness of communication to a whole new level that you can't help but 'Like' it.  

Today we are in the age of Emoji's and emoticons. While the Like button helped us say it in a word where we used to use a sentence earlier, then emoji's took communication to its crispiest best. Why say even a word when you can communicate without one. Texting without a text. As annoying as it may be, these little emoticons and emoji's have often bailed us out when our vocabulary failed us. 

Modern humans have evolved to a point where we don’t need words to communicate. Pictures and images that we call emojis do it just as well. Just as it did 30000 years ago.

Somewhere far away, i could hear the wonderful voice of Ronan Keating singing the chart buster song from the movie Noting Hill, You say it best, when you say nothing at all.

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One Without Tea

A conversation I recently witnessed in a coffee shop at the airport. An old frail man walked up to the counter and asked for 

“One without tea”

The boy across the counter who was taking this order wanted to double-check. “One, what?”

With a deadpan face, the customer answered “One without tea”

I was next in the queue and immediately knew that this would take a while. It was promising to be fun as well. 

“We have masala tea and ginger tea. Which one would you want?”

“No Sada (ordinary) tea. But without tea” came the reply from the customer. 

The confused assistant realized that his feeble attempts to sidestep a tricky request weren't working. So he reached out to his supervisor for help.

The busy looking supervisor asked the customer if he wanted coffee !!

“No coffee. Only Without Tea”. Now our man was losing it. Apparently coffee is not his cup of tea.

“Tell him we don’t have it” – The irate supervisor shooed away the counter boy who was by now becoming more of a pest than the customer himself.

The poor boy was more than happy to follow his boss’s orders and told the old man that they don't have that 'Without tea'. Whatever it might be. 

The customer was bemused and said something in a language that none of us understood. I am pretty sure he was not thanking the coffee shop, guys.

He walked out angry and disappointed. But hey, he got what he wanted. He asked for 'One Without tea', and walked away without tea. What was he fussing about?

As I reached the counter and asked for a cup of coffee, the counter boy was thrilled to bits and beamed a very happy smile. He was so happy to hear something he could understand.

As my coffee was getting ready I turned back and looked at the old man and thought about his strange request. What could he have wanted? Should I have stepped in and tried to help him rather than just enjoy the fun? 

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the coffee cup and the fresh brew.

"Sir, your coffee," said the helpful assistant and pointed me to a corner where sugar packets were kept. 

Without Sugar

Instinctively I looked back to see if that tea-loving customer was still around. How could we not understand this simple request? 

I never met that old man again and probably never will. But I sincerely hope that the next time he has a smarter and sweeter fellow customer who not just enjoys his plight but also helps him get his 'One without (sugar) tea',

May i have your kind tension please

“Goood evening lads and gentmen,

The inflight announcement crackled through the speakers. Apparently they don’t like ladies and gentlemen inside the flight anymore and prefer to greet only the ‘lads and gent men ’.Whoever they are

May I have your kind tension please?”

I wasn’t sure if I fitted the category of a ‘lad’ or a ‘gentmen’ but I sure had lots of stress and tension with me that I was more than willing to give away to that pretty inflight attendant who made this strange request. Why would she request others for their kind tension? Or was it kind attention?

Mr. Nara…aa..ya..n…

Even in deep sleep I could sense that someone was having a fight with my name. I woke up in time to save the struggling flight attendant and more importantly my name (actually that’s my father’s name) by helping her with my rather easy to pronounce …Bhaskar

Sir you have a pre booked Veg meal. May I have your boarding pass please?

As I pick my boarding pass and hand it over to her, she poses a tough question

Would you prefer vegetarian or non - vegetarian, Sir

If I prefer a non-vegetarian meal, why would I pre book a veg meal? I chose to show my annoyance by showing a V symbol (for veg) with my fingers. I was too sleepy to answer anyway. Can I have a sandwich please? Not because I like it but because that’s the first option I could think of.

Cucumber tomato or spinach lettuce or paneer sandwich?

Another multiple choice question. After a quick inky-pinky-ponky in the head I took that tough decision – “cucumber tomato please”

Sorry sir we don’t have it.

Annoyed as I was my ego did not permit me to go back to the poor spinach and panneer that I said no to in the first place. So I asked for a fruit cake

Sorry Sir, it’s out of stock

I felt like screaming out loud. I was in row 3 for God’s sake. How can something go out of stock when the food service had barely started, But I held back my frustration and politely asked the girl, “What else do you have”

Sir, please go through our menu in the inflight magazine kept in your seat pocket

Now that strange request made by the flight attendant as soon as we boarded the flight - “May I have your kind tension please” made sense to me. She probably wanted to collect as much tension as she could from the others so that she could pass them all on to me. Unfortunately for me, she succeeded

I didn’t know if I was more hungry or angry staring at the small box of chilli pepper cashew in front of me. Apparently that’s all the vegetarian choice they had for me.

By the way, I had asked for a box of salted cashew.

"I Understand" - Please don't bother

Guilt - That sinking feeling which makes you cringe with embarrassment and makes you want to kick yourself. Don’t we find ourselves in this not so pleasant feeling almost every day?  Guilty as charged – not necessarily for a big crime but a simple act of forgetting someone’s birthday or forgetting to return a call from a friend who was desperate to reach you etc. In short, being too busy for a friend.  How do you wriggle out of it? Own it up, swallow your pride and apologise. Nothing is more right and more awkward at the same time.

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying the guilty pang when I remembered a friend’s birthday two days too late. Before I could complete my well-rehearsed dumb excuse and apology I was interrupted with those magical words by my friend – “No worries, I UNDERSTAND”. Who does not like to be understood? Not to mention that I was as relieved as I was happy that she was not mad at me.

Bad habits die hard. Couple of days later I didn’t meet a friend as I had promised him and promptly apologized. Yet again those magical words “I UNDERSTAND” came out faster than I could finish my excuses. This made me think. How is it that friends understand us better than a wife or a girlfriend? Try missing the wife’s birthday and you will understand what I mean. You will be made to travel back and forth in time and reminded of every single mistake you had made, regretted and punished for. But friends, they understand. How sweet. Or are they?

There has got to be a logical answer to the violent reaction of the one who loves you and a more understanding reaction from a friend or acquaintance. It dawned on me then that the real meaning of I Understand is probably “I DON’T CARE”. It is a polite way of telling someone that it’s alright if you didn’t remember my birthday because you really don’t matter much to me.  Suddenly, the comforting “I Understand” did not seem to make me as comfortable. As discomforting and absurd this logic may sound, It makes sense to me.

I know some of you would disagree with me but that's fine by me because, “I UNDERSTAND”.

How can we not love the like?

Have you ‘like’ watched the latest movie. It is ‘like’ awesome. I am ‘like’ planning to watch it again, ‘like’ the fourth time, in ‘like’ five days. 

The usage of this vocalized pause in spoken English is undoubtedly the most annoying style contributed by us to the language. This excessive use of Like is a definite hair puller for many. What was considered to be one of those North American teenage girls ‘thingy’ has now become the lingo of many in this part of the world as well.

If ‘like’ is more irritating than the conventional fillers like ‘um’ or ‘er’ in spoken English, then it certainly has to be the most versatile. Ask those compulsive ‘Like’ clickers of Facebook who convey everything from “I agree with you” to a more basic acknowledgment to say “I saw this post”. 

'Like' gives us the flexibility to interpret its meaning. While the reader might have clicked ‘like’ more out of reflex the one who posted might imagine that their work is truly loved.

The trouble with this flexibility to interpret is that, sometimes, it looks plain silly when ‘Like’ is used to convey sympathy. Sample this post I once saw, 

“I did not check FB for the past 3 weeks. I lost someone”. 

This sad post had 50+ Like. Were these people happy that our man did not come on FB for 3 weeks? I certainly hope they didn’t ‘Like’ the fact that he lost someone. 

In the digital marketing world ‘Like’ is an ‘Opt-in’ option.  By clicking ‘like’ to a page you are opting in to be fed automatically by all the updates to that page or site.

Though some of us might be voting for the other more frequently used 4 letter word for its versatility, 'Like' should rank right up there.  You can love it or you can hate it but the fact is, ‘Like’ is here to stay.

So, the next time when you struggle to express your emotion towards something, simply 'Like' it and leave the world to interpret the meaning.  

Do I see a ‘thumbs-up’ from you to this idea?

That annoying status update

"Tired of waiting. Feeling so sleepy". 

Where have you seen this type of status update before? The typical responses that follow this all-important 'Breaking News' might give you a hint.

"Why don't you sleep? Where are you?" 

Why don't you sleep? A simple yet profound question that not only shows care but gives an intelligent solution to a friend's odd hour predicament. What a genius. 

"International airport. Flight delayed". 

This guy apparently likes to keep his cards close to his chest. He wants to keep the world intrigued a little longer. 

"Where are you off to?"

Our 'tired' friend heaves a sigh of relief. Finally, someone popped the question that he was hoping to be asked all along.

Nothing annoys me more than such status updates. I wonder why people do that. Why can't they tell their friends that they are off to some international city? When was the last time you saw an update that read  "waiting for the bus? Tired" Or "Long queue at the ration shop." Something about the International airports that tire those with a smartphone.

We as humans have always been suckers for the needless and the unnecessary. And these attention seekers play on our voyeuristic nature. The experiences that we go through gives us a million reasons to whine about something or the other, every day. Every moment is a potential 'Status update' or even worse a rubbish blog post material (such as this one). 

One of my recent airport experience gave me enough frustrations to last a lifetime. With some writing skills, I could have written a few novels out of these experiences. But then, i don't like to complain about air travel. I have too much respect for what the Wright brothers did and what if they had got not got it right. Not too long back, we were traveling by bullock carts, if you could afford to use one, that is. 

So no blog against air travel experience. But then, I was getting too annoying for myself with all that wait and hunger. I wanted a distraction. A let out. 

So I took my phone and started typing the words, convincing myself that the world is waiting to read them.  And I posted my status update

"Tired of waiting. Feeling hungry"

The Elections of India

It is one of the most difficult organized events put together by humans and certainly one of the greatest ironies of our lives. The process leading up to Election Day or the chaos that follows does not remotely fit the word ‘organized’ but we know it is one of the better systems in the world. There is no better place to use the term ‘method to madness’ than while referring to ‘Election’ in India

Indian election is all about the numbers and chemistry of some unlikely and strange bed fellows. Parties with polarized views (read no views) cite some nonexistent chemistry to align with the others both before and after elections. Who cares about logic as long as the numbers add up. Isn’t that the logic of an election, in the first place, to get that magical number of seats? 

We usually have an opinion or two about everything that does not concern us so why let go off this opportunity to speak our mind (while most politicians speak out of it) – especially when this event is all about us. If you are already scratching your head about who to vote for, then all those free flowing opinions in the media (social and otherwise) won’t help much either. The important thing to note is that, one way or the other, every one becomes patriotic and urge each other to vote for your ‘rights’ – for their preferred party of course.

All that we hope for is for the new government to be a little different. When we say things can’t get any worse, we hope that the new government does not take it as a challenge statement. We are realistic enough to understand that the new winners won’t ‘sweep’ the state of all its ills or stop ‘con’ing people with new scams. We don’t care if it’s going to be Mandir’s or toilets. All we hope for is not a repeat of the bad movie that we sat through for 10 years.

So all you first timers please vote. Don’t bother understanding the politics. Just do what Bhagadwad Gita preaches you – Do your duty. Don’t bother about the results. If the Gita is too preachy just follow what Nike says – Just do it. If you prefer the more polite modern English – Vote, damn it.

MH 370 - The flight that never landed

‘Spare a thought for the man who told his wife that he is going to Beijing by MH 370 and now not able to come out of his girlfriend’s flat’

While I found this ‘joke’ to be funny at first and very funny a little later I also was a little hesitant sharing it with the others. Maybe because a part of me took the moral high ground and asked the other half of my conscience “will you still find it funny if someone close to you were to be on that plane?”

Like most others, I too have been following the news or should I say speculations surrounding the Malaysian airline MH370. I do feel for the family members of the passengers and crew in that plane but I must admit that it is not just sympathy that has kept me glued to this mystery.  The science and logic leading to various speculations combined with some wild and whacko theories make this an engrossing drama. The news channels (with back ground music et al) and the numerous expert opinions make it more fascinating and gripping than a well-conceived screen play of a thriller Hollywood movie.  Half an hour of CNN or BBC make us sound like an aviation expert. 5 Minutes of watching any Indian news channels make us believe that the news reader is an aviation expert or maybe even the super intelligent terrorist who reprogrammed the flight path of the plane. Somewhere along the way, we tend to forget the human tragedy and focus a little more on feeding our information seeking part of the brain and get caught up in the drama unfolding in front of our eyes.

Be it a Tsunami sweeping the shores of several nations or a bunch of poor miners trapped deep inside the earth we tend to follow these developments by the minute. With the electronic and print media more than thrilled to sensationalize these sad realities as ‘breaking news’ we desperately fish for that extra bit of information that could give us our 2 minutes of fame while discussing with friends. It could be the names of the tectonic plates that shifted to cause a Tsunami or abbreviation of ACARS system or the name a gas that affects a miner trapped deep inside. It can even be a name of the guy who found the debris of an earlier lost and found aircraft. Any unknown information that you can add to your lunch hour discussion can elevate you to the alpha dog status in that group.

Is learning about Tsunami or a hurricane wrong even as thousands of our fellow humans are swept or blown away by these very same natural disasters? Is learning about some of the aviation jargons and protocols wrong even as the fate of the passengers is unknown? Are we disrespecting the victims and their families by following such events like we would a well written novel? Are speculations more interesting than the reality?

I don’t think so. Maybe, it is just one of those unnecessary dilemmas that I somehow manage to manufacture in my head at every situation. While I sincerely hope for a miracle and a logical closure to this mystery I will continue to thank my stars for being able to follow this story and not be the story itself. I hope against all logic and wish that the passengers and crew of MH 370 are safe and alive, somehow, somewhere.

As for our friend hiding in his girlfriend’s flat. Sorry buddy. All we can do is spare a thought for you and maybe even laugh at your 'funny' predicament

B2H - From the ATM

I recently chanced upon two articles on two different mediums on two completely different subjects. One was by some marketing experts on how the businesses are no more about B2C or B2B but about B2H. The other was a radical proposal by the new boss of Reserve Bank of India to let people withdraw cash from ATM without a bank account. Surprisingly, both these articles triggered some of my memories from the past and also got me thinking. The more I thought about them, the more I saw that amazing connection between these seemingly different articles.

“Soon, you can withdraw cash from ATM even without bank a/c

I read this on paper today. I neither see an immediate personal need for this facility in the near future to feel thrilled about it nor do I have any reservations against this proposal. But, weirdly though, it took me back to a distant memory from the late 1990s or early 2000s.

As was customary and fashionable in those days (read compulsory) I was shopping for a greeting card to wish a friend. I don’t mean the online version of the card but the conventional paper version by Archie’s. Trust me; gifting a greeting card to a girl was not as easy as just picking one of the shelves. Too mushy and you will be branded a wimp. Too funny and you will never be able to trigger that emotion that you hope to trigger. The trick is to pick a funny card and personalize the emotions by scribbling something on it or pick a mushy card and add something funny to make it look cool. To hell with modesty, this was one of those rare few things I was good at. Too bad, that culture is dead. On one such ‘compulsory’ customary visit to a greeting cards shop, I saw this funny one that had a man standing in front of an ATM, scratching his head with a caption “I didn’t know you needed an account to withdraw from ATM”. I almost felt bad for that poor little cartoon guy that day. I guess, not anymore. What was once meant to be a funny joke on a birthday card is becoming a reality today. No wonder, I don’t find that card anymore. Or maybe the RBI governor saw that card too and decided to do something more than just feel sorry as I did that day.

It’s no more B2B or B2C. It’s all about B2H

For the uninitiated, B2B is business to business, and B2C is business to consumers. An electronic chip manufacturing company selling their product to a mobile manufacturing company is B2B whereas Pepsi selling their watery sweet drink to you is B2C. So what then is B2H? According to the marketing gurus, it’s ‘business to humans’. Their collective wisdom makes them believe that the business world is actually moving to an era where businesses happen with humans. Wow. That’s profound.

I remember reading a very wise quote long back (must be early

2000’s again) during my initial days as a Sales executive – “All things being equal, I’d like to do business with a friend”.  I don’t know who said it or when but I decided to attribute it to the Chinese. While you are training the younger lot, quoting a proverb makes you look wise. But quoting an ‘old Chinese’ proverb makes you sound wiser and also adds that extra layer of wisdom to that quote itself. Old or new, Chinese or not, the quote made and still makes so much sense. From groceries to vegetables, from Gold to new dresses people always tends to buy from a particular shop. Not necessarily the nearest one. We always felt comfortable doing business with a friend. Reading about this newfound wisdom of B2H I started wondering. When was it ever not about B2H? Maybe, we live in a world and era of buzz words. Perhaps, B2H sounds a lot more modern than an 'old Chinese proverb'. Or maybe, Google’s new search algorithm identifies with this new buzz word better. So B2H it is for now. Until we come up with something that sounds cooler or buzzier that is.

The unlikely Connection

Like that head-scratching disappointed cartoon guy on that unsold birthday card there would have been millions of real humans who would have wished the same. 'How I wish I could withdraw money from that ATM even if I don’t have an account'. The RBI perhaps heard their secret wish. The use of technology and innovative ideas might be about creating that niche to capture a larger pie of the market share. But somewhere a wise man would be secretly smiling (I still bet it is a Chinese) at this proposal of using mobile technology to transfer money via ATM. because it means that the world still believes that businesses will thrive only as long as they are friendly to humans. It always was, it always will be business to humans - B2H if you like it.    

    

Silted memories

I’m not an environmentalist or a nature conservationist. I’m not an expert on Indian villages and their ways of life. In fact, I have hardly lived in a village to even have a remote understanding of them. 5 or 6 visits to an ancestral village spread over 40 years can hardly qualify as an experience. Short stays (day trips) and such long gaps between visits haven’t given me enough memories about villages that I could feel the emotional connect. 

Or so I thought, until I visited Arumugamangalam, the ancestral village recently.

Arumugamangalam - A small village very close to the shores of Bay of Bengal (6 kms to be precise) and few kilometers off the Tamirabarani river. Of course like every other small village this one too enjoyed the great package deal offered by nature which includes Ancient temples, powerful deities, beautiful green farm lands, poor farmers (Who still treat you like Royalty), silent, peaceful and almost pollution free environment etc. Oh, how can I forget that special extra feature of this miracle package deal – a large water body. To a visitor, this large tank is just a fun place to swim or bird watch. But for the locals, this is the back bone for their very existence. Maybe, it’s this water source that helped it become a village in the first place all those 2500 or so years back. 

Nature with all its power and beauty sometimes could not measure up to the potent combination of changing times and human apathy. Some populist policies by the government like the ‘100 days employment guarantee to the unemployed’ and ‘free cattle to the poor’, meant these villagers could now afford not to work all 365 days. These cattle’s, religiously follow God’s most interesting of commandments –“Go forth and multiply” and all that a man has to do is to sell them every once in a while. Who needs a job when we have such friendly God’s and governments? This coupled with the lure of a city life has led to fewer gen X villagers willing to jump into the dirty and messy farms. 

Nature has written human evolution as an important part of its storyline. Hence, every time humans destroy the gift of nature, nature helps man to evolve and overcome their mistakes. Mechanisation of farm equipment’s, scientific farming techniques etc might have helped us temporarily overcome the lack of manpower. In fact, they might have even improved the overall agricultural process efficiency. But, is nature good enough to keep pace with our apathy? - Apathy, both from the governments and from the ‘son of the soil’ himself towards the very land that has provided them their livelihood for centuries together.

All the modern techniques apart, we still need water for agriculture - This means, care and maintenance of the water bodies that nature has given us. But what we see today in all of its 800 acres are silt and unwanted vegetation. Apparently, the tank has not been de silted in over 35 years. This has resulted in the tanks depth to be reduced to less than half its original depth. If we have the government administrators to blame for this apathy, who do we blame for slowly but steadily deteriorating this beautiful village to a disgusting public toilet? Today, It takes little more than love for the place and nostalgia to help you walk around this village. You need a strong stomach and an ineffective sense of smell. Who will save this village from the Aam Adhmi and the government? 

Will it make a difference if they both become the same entity? That's a debate for another day.

There are still those die hard romantics who are waging a losing (actually lost) war with the deaf and the mute. They have sent millions of petitions and proposals to de-silt the tank that clearly explains the road map and the process of doing it, the merits and de merits associated, the revenue potential etc. Each petition is rejected with an excuse more lame than the one given before. Who knows, the government is thinking long term, may be. “Drain, Dry, and Sell” – I was told that this could be their plan. Residential localities in a dried out lake bed is not a new concept.

An objective outsider glance at this struggle would reveal the futility of the efforts by these aging crusaders. Are they climbing a ladder leaning towards them? – To me it looks like it – impossible and pointless. What drives them to keep battling on are the combination of their deep sense of history of this place, respect and love of their ancestors, the self-imposed moral responsibility to continue the centuries old family traditions and above all a deep sense of gratitude and love for the place that they enjoyed growing up in. May be, they don’t want to let their memories be faded by silt deposits caused by human apathy. I’m sure the story is similar in each of the 5000 plus villages across our country. 

I’m an outsider with no emotional connect to a village and all i wished for was to stare at the vast expanse of water in the majestic tank and maybe smell some fresh air. I said good bye to this village after 2 days, more sad at how the story is unfolding. It is never a pleasant sight watching man destroy Mother Nature one layer of silt after the other. 

Nostalgia

I’m not a big one for posting personal pictures online but some photographs are just too wonderful to be kept too personal. Especially if they are similar photos of the same people shot couple of decades apart.

I was lucky enough to meet some old friends from college recently - A reunion of sorts. Keeping with the tradition of modern reunions, we too decided to click some photographs. Maybe we don’t trust our memories any more or maybe nostalgia is not just something that exists in the mind and touches your heart anymore. No reunion is complete without those lovely pictures of friends showing how happy they are to meet each other. A picture is not just for keeps, but a great way to let the other friends know that 'we had all the fun', while they didn’t. After all, what are true friends and their lovely reunion pictures for?

Looking at these pictures it is obvious that we felt closer than before. With our ever growing frames and bulging tummies, we certainly did feel closer posing for the photo - Hardly any gaps between us. What’s more, the photos also gave us a feeling that we were a lot fitter – how else do you think we fit the entire picture frame. Maybe we should start throwing our weights around a bit - If you know what I mean.

20+ years might have given us a truck load of varied experiences, added few layers of grey added little more than 150+ kgs on us. Some of us even looked wiser. But what fascinated me was the fact, we were just as immature as we were back then. Those silly jokes sounded funny even today. We still felt proud about those childish pranks. All those anecdotes about the embarrassing moments (we had more than plenty to choose from) still made us laugh. Photographs or not, Facebook uploads or not, there is nothing like nostalgia that makes the heart smile.

Smile we did, a lot that day, not just for the photographs that you see on FB but with all our heart that only we could feel.

A Selfie gone wrong

The good part about pencil sketching is the compliments you get from your polite friends who are willing to forgive you for all your bad and very bad sketches.  The bad part though is, your friends eventually run out of their politeness and start sharing their honest views. No honeymoon lasts forever.

With my previous attempts at self-portrait – A ‘Selfie’ if I may call it not clearing my own biased quality standards I was determined to get it right this time. There can only be two possible reactions to a self-portrait. “Your sketch is good” or “You look better than this”. I had nothing to worry about. A Self-Portrait will be a winner either way. So I spent 2 hours learning few last minute tips and techniques to draw that ultimate portrait and put the new learning to use over the next 8 hours. The result was a decent sketch that to my blinkered vision, looked a photo replica of me. I couldn't wait to see the reaction of the others. In fact I was all set to receive the wow’s and brilliants from the world.

The first response I got from a close friend who is known to be generous with the praises was “???”. Yes, three question marks. Not one, not two but three. When I pushed for a more specific response, the reply was “Not even remotely close” - So much for my cockiness and pride.

If the first response crashed me back to the ground, the second one almost buried me under it. “This is a young Bhaskar”. Clearly suggesting that (a) it is a bad sketch (b) I look lot older in reality – So much for my theory of compliments. 

The third response made the first two sound like compliments. A friend who is known to give honest positive feedback responded thus “Is that your final version”. Clearly, this didn’t look like a completed version for this friend – So much for my perfect portrait.

There were some compliments too - "The features look alright just that the face looks as if some one has twisted the two halves in different direction" Not willing to admit defeat, I decided to post it on FB. Couple of hours later I got 3 personal requests. The politest of them read “Please remove your bad profile picture”

I learnt, that when it comes to sketching human faces, your eyes fooling your brain or your brain fooling your mind is not good enough. Anything short of perfect will be considered bad. 

Watch out, my dear friends.  Save all your compliments. I will get there soon one day some day. Going by the feed back for my last attempt, the soon might be take a little longer. A lot longer maybe. 

Nelson Mandela

Have you heard about Apartheid? Do you know what it means? 

Apartheid – One of the filthiest policies that man designed to rule a nation. In Afrikaans it means ‘the state of being apart’ or literally ‘apart –hood’ (Wikipedia). It was a system that segregated people based on their race – white, black, coloured and Indians.  For some strange reason, certain segment of mankind with all its intelligence believed that one race was better than the rest. Shameful and sorry as it may sound today, many parts of the world were forced to follow such misguided notion.

South Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s was ideally set for a hero to step on stage. It had the most important thing a hero required – A villain - A mean and strong villain in the form of a government policy - The Apartheid

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear"

Fortunately, for the downtrodden in South Africa and the world at large, the ‘Lead Man’ (Mandela) was not a macho gun trotting hero but one of the greatest humans to have lived in this world.

27 years in jail did not kill his resolve. The seclusion did not make him bitter. The great man walked out of the prison a greater man. He was as brave as he was noble. "If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal.Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness".

He was not the average vindictive hero like in a Hollywood or Bollywood movies. He was not after any ones blood. He was better than our notion of the best.

So, if you did not know the meaning of apartheid or never heard of racism before, don’t feel bad but feel proud. You are the generation that the great man dreamed about. The least we can do is to spare a moment to thank Nelson Mandela and the many other real life heroes like him who have not just inspired us but have changed the way we live our lives. Who knows, if not for them, we might still be as shamefully barbaric as we once were

"I detest racialism, because i regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man"

When one innings end, another begins....

The Good & The God

The most remarkable journey of emotion and love known to man is nearing its destination. A little boy had taken us through this magical trip that even the most romantic dreamers could not have envisaged better. He took us all through a journey that inspired us, that gave us reasons to smile, to feel sad and above all to feel proud. We ran out of adjectives to appreciate this little boy who did better than we could fantasize that we chose to revere him as THE GOD.

Sachin has enriched the lives of billions over the last 25 years. He has enriched cricket. He has enriched the virtues of super humans. While we have the right to feel sad at the end of this fantasy ride we will do better to believe in another miracle - If a little boy can make it this far, why not a gifted young man who is already in the same path.

So don’t unbuckle your seat belts yet. Get ready for another magical journey with the man who will be the greatest one day – Virat Kohli. 

Parallels between Life and WWE

Do you enjoy watching a 6’5” man, built like an oak tree, do a 360 degree somersault from atop the ringside rope, reaching nearly 10 feet in the air and landing flat on another man.  Or do you prefer watching two super-sized athlete beat each other with steel chairs, in front of millions of frenzied spectators who don’t think it’s violent enough.

If you think all of these are barbaric and stupid ‘fake’ acts but violence all the same, then you are not alone. There are millions who share your views. On the other hand, if you think all these make it the best sports entertainment shows on earth, you are not alone too. Welcome to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) - A billion dollar industry, a show that is being telecast over the past 25 years making it the longest running program in television history. If it is just a mind numbing dumb act like most people think it is, what explains its success for nearly 3 decades, across the globe, since it started?

It was nearly 20 years ago that I watched a World Wrestling Federation (WWF) match on TV, for the first time. I was fascinated by the freakishly huge wrestlers, who were surprisingly flexible as a rubber, performing some of the most unbelievable acrobatic stunts. The combination of super-size, flexibility, in-ring acting capability, well written story line, promotions, the pyro techniques, music etc. made me love this show instantly. Not many share my taste. The ‘haters’ complain that this is a show of mindless giants who beat each other to pulp only to reach a pre-fixed result. They wonder “How on earth can someone consider this fun? The matches are fixed”. I wonder, would they rather enjoy a real fight?

I don’t know about the millions of others who enjoy it but I enjoy watching this sports entertainment show because of the parallel I am able to draw to real life. I know that, as far as unlikely connections go, this is taking it to the extreme. After all, WWE is all about taking things to the extreme isn’t it?

Balancing the opposites:

Aristotle once said that successful life is a living reconciliation of the opposites. It is the co-existence and the balancing of good and bad, happiness and sadness, success and failure and many more such opposites. A WWE reflects this important philosophy of real life. A success of a wrestler and hence the episode lies in the display of his skills in a perfect balance - Strength and flexibility, speed and patience, Athleticism and ability to emote, Flair and Consistency etc. - Balancing of the opposites, Aristotle spoke about.

Knowledge of death does not stop us from living:

We know that death is an eventual reality but yet, we wake up each morning believing we will live for an eternity. We focus on the life and its process. Not so much on the end, A WWE match is much the same for a fan. Result might be a foregone conclusion and the least important part of a show. The real fun is in the fight itself and the surprise twists and turns during its course. Like real life, not just the end but most part of the journey is scripted too and yet makes us believe that every action is instinctive.

What you experience may not always be what you like:

The story line in WWE usually lulls you into believing that you got a hang of it before taking an unexpected turn. Like in real life not all these unexpected turns work for us. We like some. We don’t like some. But we are better off learning to enjoy this twist and hope for a better one at the next bend, which is always round the corner.

Good does not always triumph over the evil:

Real life almost never fits the romantic notion of the triumph of Good over Evil. Sometimes, a WWE story line follows this uncomfortable truth. The ‘Heel’ (a bad guy wrestler) torments a ‘Baby Face’ (a good guy wrestler) right through to the main event and when you believe and hope for a payback the Heel wins again.

Good and Bad are not always what they are:

The most important and interesting part of a WWE story line is the Heel turn by a Face. (when a good guy turns bad all of a sudden). We might feel bad that our favourite wrestler has become a bad guy and wonder why this change had to happen. But then, we will also realize over the next few episodes that this change has made the storyline so much better. Just as how it happens often in life. We see people, situations that were in our favour for so long take a turn for the worse making us feel hurt. But then over time we will be thanking our stars for that change when we realize that this actually helped us get better.

Enemies to our help when friends turn foe:

The drama of life sometimes demands that you partner with an enemy to take on a friend, who chose to work against you. WWE storylines do not have any permanent friend or foe. Wrestlers are made to pair up randomly sometimes pitting close friends and tag team partners against each other. Often we see bitter enemies teaming up to take on a common enemy - All part of a story line that is well scripted, just as in real life.

End of a chapter is not end of the book:

In real life, we go through several experiences which last for a while before they come to an end - Sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly. They are simply the end of a chapter and only helps begin the next one. They don’t mean that the book has come to an end. These changes make us grow stronger and help us become who we are. Much like the changing storylines of a WWE match that constantly keeps changing to help grow the show.

There are many more parallels we can draw between our life and this ‘dumb’ sport. But then, all these analysis would eventually defeat the purpose that this show is intended for – Entertain. Then, Now and Forever. So, sit back, relax. Let the child in you come out while you admire and respect these hard working super athletes perform their incredible act of balancing the opposites. You might enjoy it, you might analyze it, and you might hate it but please learn to respect it. But whatever is your choice, PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Zen and Quantum Physics

Sometimes the best way to feel intelligent is to assume that the others don’t know what you know and to assume the position of teaching them. So what if nobody wants to learn from you. So I picked a few of the coolest sounding topics that I wasn’t too familiar with but knew just enough about to put into a blog and pretend that I actually knew them. Afterall, blogs are never about impressing the other, are they? :)

Placebo Effect of Management:
Placebo is usually a term used by Physicians in the medical world and is defined as the ‘medically ineffective treatment intended to deceive patients’. In plain English, this is usually what a family doctor does mostly to cure an over anxious patient by prescribing a simple paracetamol to make the patient believe he/she is cured. Or, what an astrologer does to your psyche by suggesting a ritual like visiting a temple in the wee hours of morning on cold winter days for some specific period of time (usually long enough for the problem to die it’s natural death) and make you believe in your head that the ritual actually helped solve the problem. Some of you would have understood Placebo by now, vaguely enough at least, to relate it with your corporate existence. “Didn’t my boss and the HR give me something actually worthless (Onsite opportunity, Promotion, ESOP) but left me feeling I was hugely benefitted, all these years?”.

If you relate to this pain and yet smile while reading this line, you have experienced the Placebo effect. After all, we feel good when belief replaces the fact to make us believe “I feel better. Therefore I am better”.

Searching the ‘Nothing’
The reason I find this topic more interesting is the fact, billions of dollars are spent by countries in the hope of finding the ‘Nothing’. Yes, mankind (I mean the types with little more grey matter on their head) is actually searching for the evidence of presence of this ‘Dark Matter’. This all important particle is presumed to add mass to everything in this universe and is believed to be responsible for all laws of physics to be true - much like the radio waves or the Wi-Fi, you can’t see them. You don’t ‘see’ the Wi-Fi connection but if you see this post on the internet, you can be sure it exists. The best part is, Scientists and Physicists are not even sure if the dark matter exists in the first place. No wonder they call it the ‘God particle’.

In simple English, every object in this universe has mass. Galaxies and Planets are objects too, so they too have mass. They spin on their axis to produce a centrifugal force but their respective gravitational forces give them the counterbalance force which keeps them in the universe. But wait. Physics requires each of these objects to be of a certain mass for the laws to be applicable. But their sizes don’t give them this critical mass and yet they don’t fly off the universe. So they apparently have some extra mass that we don’t see. And that is what they call the ‘Dark Matter’ which apparently constitutes 90% of objects mass. The dude who admitted that we don’t know the 90% and claimed that there might exist the dark matter and actually did a great job of branding this idea so well by calling it the God Particle got the Nobel Prize this year. Not sure if it’s for the discovery he is yet to make or for the brilliant branding to attract huge funding for the project.

As intriguing as this subject may be, I have this one big doubt. How do they know that they haven’t found it yet? After all, we know we can’t see it. But, that’s not why I decided not to write more on this subject. The search for this God particle or Dark Matter is apparently happening in labs built a mile under the earth. What on earth are they doing there? Aren’t they supposed to be searching in the space?


Quantum Physics taught us to express our Love

“If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This Zen like thought/question is the basis for one of the key theories in Quantum Physics. (I’m hoping that this blog is beginning to sound intelligent enough to some of you by now, just for using quantum physics and Zen philosophy in the same sentence – for those of you who have braved this far). Superposition is that very theoretical theory proposed by Niels Bohr which talks about the existence of multiple truths (Multiple World theory) until we choose to check (measure) them. Who cares, right?. An Austrian scientist by name Schrodinger did. He actually proved this ‘bohring’ theory with an experiment that was made famous by Dr Sheldon Cooper from the television comedy, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (Those who watched this serial would admit that Sheldon taught us more physics than Dr Stephen Hawkins or Einstein did). Shrodinger’s Cat is a simple experiment where he puts a cat (I’m sure it was his neighbor’s) inside a box (not an out of the box idea for sure) along with an alarm that triggers cynic gas (poison). With the box closed, all possibilities are true. The cat is alive, the cat is dead and the cat is dead and alive – The multiple world. But a simple act of opening the box would reveal that singular truth – The truth is altered by measurement (act of checking). Apparently, poor guys didn’t have much to do those days. We don’t care if the cat was dead or alive or care to understand quantum physics but what this experiment ultimately did was to teach the most important lessons in our lives. The tree does make a sound when it falls down, it’s up to us to check and eliminate the other truth that it did not make the sound. Well, actually we don’t care about that too. What then do ordinary folks like you and me learn from quantum physics – If you love a girl but are hesitant to express your emotions, unsure if the truth would be a yes or a no, remember the ‘Schrodinger’s Cat. The truth would be known only when you open the box.

So go ahead, open all the unopened boxes that you have been hesitant to look into. Who knows you might just find the ‘Dark Matter’ that could make you feel better with a Placebo Effect.