Balls of Steel

The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but that they know so much that ain't so. ~Josh Billings

When I started a blog, I vowed that it would never refer to anything related to current affairs. This was how I aspired to be 'different' or how I wanted my blog to be percieved.

It is not to earn money, neither fame nor to attract attention. At best it allows me to peer deeply into my life, connect dots and be a moving repository of my life. More importantly it allow me to write. Life takes us to strange places and mine is no different. In an ideal world I would be a writer and I'd be perfectly happy just getting by with whatever meager earning potential I might have.
But it is not an ideal world and but the good thing I can still do what I want to. Also being in a profession might force me to write on a specific set of subjects which are 'commercial' in nature and can be monetized. World is replete with examples when the best works have been produced with carefree and uncluttered minds. So the situation here is not that all bad.

Or so I console myself.

Sometimes this dreary world throws up individuals who jolt your thinking. The ones who move out of the herd and 'THINK'. They jolt your consciousness and shake your beliefs. You wonder at their recklessness, their brashness, free spirit and the strength of their beliefs. Their is a strong tendency of people to follow such people. They are called 'Leaders'.

Julian Assange


You have made me break one of my vows. I am mentioning you.

This calls for clearing up certain facts.

I do not necessarily agree with his beliefs. Nor do I believe that releasing some sleazy diplomatic backdoor Page 3 masala necessarily defines truth.

OK so a few army guys fucked up. They killed wrong guys. They sometimes had racial intones in their acts. The world is full of such psychos and I am not shocked. Tell me one war in the history of mankind which was 'clean'. Releasing such videos did no one good other than causing grief to their already bereaved families. Sometimes things are left best unexplained.

I have encountered more instances of regionalism and professional fuck ups my life to believe otherwise that it is rampant. So why expect Army to be any clean or be better? People get all worked up because it involve lives and futures of people, especially the near and dear ones of the affected.

..so is the case when you deny the rightful opportunity to the most deserving based on your prejudices for anything in this world, a job, an accomodation, insurance or an business opportunity.

Then what makes me a fan of this man? Here's is what his mom says:

Ms Assange, who bought Julian his first computer at age 13, said her son had been a curious child, raised to believe evil flourished when good men did nothing.

"Whether you agree with what Julian does or not, living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing," she said.

"He sees what he's doing as doing a good thing in the world, fighting baddies, if you like."

Living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing

No Mr Assange you deserve a mention because of your guts. You became a father at 18. You left college to take care of your son at 18 when his mother left him. You were mature beyond your years. Not many people at 18 have that kind maturity or balls to take that kind of decisions in life. It would have been easy to panic or think you've been done for. I get a shiver when I imagine myself in your shoes.

You and your son studied in the same college. It's hard to study at that age and to cope with all those young turks and all the advances that education has made. And now you have caught the most co-ordinated and savvy nation in the history of mankind with it's pants down.

Living by what you believe in and standing up for something is a good thing

Not everyone is right or right all time. But this world be a far more better place if everybody did that. See most of the most evil things we have been responsible for as a species or culture got on unchecked because collectively we did not do what we should have. Nazis, eugenics, Hiroshima, Dark ages or the recent financial meltdown are good examples.

It took some very brave and enterprising individuals to turn the tide. They frequently had to part with their lives because their were not enough people standing up with them. For Julian Assange this is a real threat right now. Most of the shameful things wouldn't have grown bigger if somebody had called their bluff earlier. For the examples I quoted the German proletariat, the literati, Oppenheimer, and the general populace are to be blamed.

US has unwittingly involved itself in the biggest war after the Cold war era. It is still in infancy but I reckon it would get bigger. You could argue the effect is not direct on the economies or day to day life. But that is only because it still hasn't grown bigger.

There are probably thousands of computer nerds and kids with misguided or no sense of purpose in life waiting for this. Suddenly Assange is the leader they have been waiting for. Suddenly now they have a purpose in life. Purportedly millions of dollars have already been spent or wasted thru hacking or financial and political machinations in the past few weeks depending on whether you are US govt or the anonymous group of hackers who have taken it on themselves to represent Assange.

I doubt if Assange would approve that. If he's got his priorities right, he wouldn't.

Every dollar could have been better utilized to reduce hunger or provide schooling or any of the million good things you could do in the world.

All of this for a bunch of Diplomatic Page 3 cables.

The stupidity of us as a culture continues to stump me. Rightly Einstein said once that Human stupidity is infinite.

He's been branded as a twisted person, a loner, rapist (by a bunch of females who can't seem decided on whether they want it done with or without a condom). Recently some hacker released a video showing one of the rape victims applauding and generally appearing moonstruck at one of the hotels where Assange delivered a press conference right after the night of purported rape incident. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't proud of being labeled so and derided generally. To put an entire country shivering and purporting to such feeble intimidatory PR tactics is commendable. I mean you have loads of shit faced PR and spin doctors on your payroll. They love opportunities when they can earn their salaries.

"I'm concerned it's gotten too big and the forces that he's challenging are too big."

You are right Mrs Assange. Now that US has gotten into a tangle and it will pull back and do the right thing, which it should have done earlier had it been smart. They will lock Assange and wait for the all the cables to pour out and wait and wait till the media gets bored and then wait some more.

They will imprison him or keep him locked up till he loses his mind, influence and public interest. Then they will destroy his beautiful and free mind.

I just hope Assange has something really shitty and important in those bloody cables. Something so embarrassing and dirty that it may have ramifications beyond reckoning for US and the world. Something which will help him avoid the destiny he seem to be destined hurtling into. That will be the only thing he can trade in order for his freedom.

If he has a trump card I do not want to know it. The world does not need to know it. That is the only way this man can ensure his freedom and not rot away in some cell in some non descript high security prison. He has done enough. A lot of governments have been shaken from their comfortable perches. I hope he ensures his freedom and trades his last hand.

The world will miss out on the knowledge and it may never come to light. But then we never deserved it, have we?

The Professional

"A bad boss is a disease of the soul"

Jack welch

How true is this? Very...

And if you are interested in the movie by the same name, I would recommend it. it's a beautifully scripted movie coupled by splendid acting.

You spend 1/3rd of your adult life in a job. So all those poseurs saying that their job is just a means for subsistence are actually frittering away their a third of life. I'd be alarmed and I'd stay away.

Equally important is the role of a 'Boss' in your life. Anybody who has achieved anything in this life in a sustainable and long term manner would attest to that fact. We do need a role model, don't we?
I spent an afternoon getting my ears traumatized hearing the travails of my friend.
He went on and on about how fucked up his job was, how painful his life and on and on...

I normally hate spending my time like this. But he is a friend and I had to help, but sadly I couldn't. The fact he is my friend doesn't mean he' got his priorities right. I know his tendency to shrink from work, and be on the lookout for the next big opportunity. He lacks focus and doesn't love anything in this world at all.

The fact I wrote that doesn't absolve / indict his boss or make my friend a lesser person in my eyes. He daily drove freaking 20 KM to pick me up for tutions which normally he'd have bunked during my college days. I love him to bits.

However this bit is for people who don't quite get the meaning of 'the job'. Since it is nearly 1/3rd of your adult life this piece is also a bit about 'The Life'. People don't quite get it. The ones who get it don't spread it. It is a world's best kept secret that you reward behavior not talent in case you had to pick one of the two. In a ideal case you'd expect both from a person.

Look at Steve Jobs if you don't believe me. He got thrown out of his own company.

People don't realise that they THEY and only THEY are responsible for the up and downs of their life, including their professional life.

So if you feel your boss is bad and the job sucks its because you chose to be within this mess. If you are not smart enough to bail out or if you have not managed to build a productive environment with your boss it's your fault. It would be worthwhile to look inside yourselves too!

The world' a tough tough place. At every level there are people stuck in their jobs, unable to figure the 'what next' and 'how' of life. You need to be able to deal with these types and if you can help them. Be sure they will help you too.

'Professionalism'. People take ages to learn it's meaning. This is something which people or your boss would never teach you. You have to figure out yourself. And once you do, you have to see if the environment where you work, promotes it and rewards it. I didn't write 'The company' or 'the HR' simply because they really don't matter. it 'The Enivorment' meaning your boss or whoever you feel is the stakeholder.

I love what I do, whatever it is. If I don't, I usually bail out quickly (even in the matters of the heart!). Often I am derided when I feel frustrated with it. For me the entire point is stupid.

There are people I love. How many time have I not been cross at the same people? Does that mean I start hating them now? Similarly my job frustrates me, challenges me and sometimes drives me mad. It definitely doesn't mean I don't love doing it. In fact it simply make it more humane for me.

Very often people don't get this.

This brings me to the topic of the day: The Boss. Being a boss is very much akin to being an entrepreneur. It involves having vision, taking risks, growing people, getting performance, ability to put your own ideas into place and being responsible for your own people.

The last one is a tricky one.

People often (esp newbies or fachhhas) often mistake their bosses for their parents. So if there's an issue with their cab, or if they have issues with finance, or if they want a nappy change they run to him.

You must realize that the only thing a boss is expected to take care of is your career and mentoring. For the rest HR is specifically created for such things.

Being a boss also means being a leader. His job is also to groom people, recognize your aptitude and to mentor his wards appropriately. Most of the conflict arise when your Boss fails in the above mentioned aspects...
or...
you dont have grip on your own capabilities and temper your expectations. A majority of people do not have an idea of the path they wish to tread. Mostly they do things because the rest of the world is doing the same and they are mainly driven by herd mentality.

If you don't trust your Boss with the career path he elects for you then it is time for change. If you find yourselves changing job every other year, then stand on your head till you figure whats wrong.

No matter how unpleasant a person is, I have found that if you make his life easier he is bound to reward you. Lots of people are shit at reading people. Personally nothing' more fascinating to me. It comes with practice, experience and some falls.

I am bored now and hence (thankfully!) I am going to summarize.

If in general you can't understand or trust your boss or have any inclination to do so, stop working. You are not going to make it far. Note: Trust does not mean 'Not challenge' or 'Don't Ask'.

If you don't have an idea and do not care about where you want to head professionally stop working.

If you in general hate being in a job and the monotonous (it' only monotonous because you are not brilliant) routine, stop working.

If you are not proud of what you've done (Of course you dont have to shove whatever you've done under people's noses) stop working

I have theory. Anybody who's not good at having good relationships in office must also suck in his personal life. Because the main pillars for any professional life is being patient, being selfless and understanding people. I can't believe you could be good at one and not at another.

Of course that how you make your bonus.

"It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute..."
Aung Sang Suu Kyi

C and H

Love the perspective and 'Worldly Gyaan' that Watterson sometimes squeezed into his strips...

Up the steps of the church, through the fields in the dirt
In the dark, I have seen that the sun still shines for the one who believe

So far away, so full of doubt you needed proof
Just close your eyes and hear the sound inside of you

Ring the bells, ring 'em loud, let them ring here and now
Just reach out and ring the bells of freedom
When your world comes crashing down, like you've lost every round
Stand the ground and ring the bells of freedom

Bon Jovi

Silence of the Lambs and the temptress called luck..

For a long time I have wondered what makes people successful. People talk of luck being a major factor. When I was in college I scoffed at that. But since then I have modified my views. Luck plays its part but it still is not the determining differentiator.

I have discovered along the way that tenacity, discipline and quick and structured thinking play a very important part. I have met many successful people who wont confess to being 'thinkers', but their is nothing in their approach to problem solving that suggests otherwise. What I have realized is that they have not consciously trained themselves to do it and are plain gifted that way.

Even the maniacally aggressive 'Viru Sehwag' thinks. It's pretty sad to live in a cricket mad country where only a small percentage understand the game as such. In a brief and illuminating interview Akash Chopra (Viru's opening partner for many years) laid out Viru's thinking and lot many friends of mine were shocked. Sure he has a radically different approach to batting, but yes he had one and he was not a wham-bam guy they thought him to be.

Next can we mere mortals learn to develop this? The answer is yes. The trick to this to be conscientious about yourself and be fearless about your own inabilities. What you can't face, you can't defeat! People in general are ashamed of 'admitting' their weakness or judge a person who is frank about his frailties as weak. But then successful people or people with fire in their belly are not dime-a-dozen, are they?

It's very difficult to do this. I am not in a Philosophical mood to dish this. I speak from the experience of trying to implement this for last 6 years. :D

Maybe thats for another post...

Just a short passage I found in 'Silence of the Lambs' from Thomas Harris. I liked it maybe because it agrees with my experiences...
Oh God! I am psychoanalyzing again. Novel hangover I guess...

The part refers on how to deal with situations in life particularly when you are stressed or are affected by emotions, Anger, disappointment, Betrayal, frustration, when you are cheated, When you are robbed etc etc. Its far important to understand the person or situation or in psychology terms the 'causal agent'. Because ultimately its your balance of 'id-ego-super ego' which determines your long term mental make up and ultimately probability of achieving success.

The conversation takes between Clarence Stirling, a trainee FBI agent (a.k.a Jodie Foster) and Jack Crawford (Special agent and Head of Behavioral Science) when Clarence is agitated. Hope you enjoy!

...

Crawford, ever wary of desire, knew how badly he wanted to be wise. He knew that a middle-aged man can be so desperate for wisdom he may try to make some up, and how deadly that can be to a youngster who believes him. So he spoke carefully, and only of things he knew.

What Crawford told her on that mean street in Baltimore he had learned in a succession of freezing dawns in Korea, in a war before she was born. He left the Korea part out, since he didn't need it for authority.

"This is the hardest time, Starling. Use this time and it'll temper you. Now's the hardest test--- not letting rage and frustration keep you from thinking. It's the core of whether you can command or not. Waste and stupidity get you the worst. Chilton's a God damned fool and he may have cost Catherine Martin her life. But maybe not. We're her chance. Starling, how cold is liquid nitrogen in the lab?"

"What? Ah, liquid nitrogen... minus two hundred degrees Centigrade, about. It boils at a little more than that."

"Did you ever freeze stuff with it?"

"Sure."

"I want you to freeze something now. Freeze the business with Chilton. Keep the information you got from Lecter and freeze the feelings. I want you to keep your eyes on the prize, Starling. That's all that matters. You worked for some information, paid for it, got it, now we'll use it. It's just as good--- or as worthless--- as it was before Chilton messed in this. We just won't get any more from Lecter, probably. Take the knowledge of Buffalo Bill you got from Lecter and keep it. Freeze the rest. The waste, the loss, your anger, Chilton. Freeze it. When we have time, we'll kick Chilton's butt up between his shoulder blades. Freeze it now and slide it aside. So you can see past it to the prize, Starling. Catherine Martin's life. And Buffalo Bill's hide on the barn door. Keep your eyes on the prize. If you can do that, I need you."

.....

"I want you to keep your eyes on the prize"---I like it :) Gotta sleep now. Got Cricket practice at 6.

Been a long time since any author hit me. Particularly after Crichton passed away losing his battle with cancer. Onto 'Hannibal' now Mr Harris.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore... Dream... Discover...

-- Mark Twain

Jo na jaane haqq ki Taaqat
Rab na debe usko Himmat


Hum mann ke dariya mein doobe...
Kaisi naiyya, kya mazdaar...

Bas Kari ho yaar...

Coke Studio

Freedom of Thought

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Sometimes you need to go alone... I've figured that out pretty early.

There are people in this world who hate to be pushed out of their comfort zones. In fact a majority of them couldn't care much. Most of them would gladly follow a written word ..Unquestioningly

They will crush a spark if they see it. Because they are scared of it. Because they have killed their own a long time ago. They have stopped feeling how it is to be alive or in Job's words 'Foolish'...

From our childhood we are conditioned to think that mistakes are fatal...We are constantly in a rat race... Who gets the most in the maths test? Who gets to stand in the podium? IITs, Engg, Medical, The best salary, the best package, the biggest car, the biggest house, the prettiest wife, the smartest kids...

And so we tread the trusted path, the price of a mistake is too much! And we ridicule the ones who dare think otherwise... There is a certain stigma associated with people who take risks...We almost want them to fail and at the same time are scared of them... What if they bloody succeed?
So we wait for them to fail... "See I bloody told 'ya!"

That's not the worst piece of the story. The worst piece is when people beat or subdue others who dare think differently. This is really easy when the oppressor is on a higher pedestal of influence by virtue of his professional or personal position.

And slowly we kill the spark in individuals...And make them into social clones..Really the world has never figured out the phrase 'Performance management', else why would there be discontent in this world?

I am dissapointed today. But yes I know what to do. I won't tie a band around my eyes and blindly follow the line. Maybe I'll fail and maybe this is all foolish. But yes, I will do the right thing...And I never had a great track record of following orders and so far this has not failed me...Why change now? Its more fun this way!

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits...

T. A. Edison

At the stroke of the midnight hour.........

This speech always manages to tingle me and inspire me in the today's cliched world... Enjoy!

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.

The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!

We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

15th Aug 1947

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
W Shakespeare

For I dipped into the Future, far as the human eye could see; saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.....
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1842

“Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Clause. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will?”

Jon Bonjiovi a.k.a. Bon Jovi

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts...."

--Richard Feynman

God is infinite, so His universe must be too. Thus is the excellence of God magnified and the greatness of His kingdom made manifest; He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns; not in a single earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of worlds.......

----Giordana Bruno, 1584, Last words before being Executed by the Inquisition.

Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth.......

-------- Ptolemy,c.150 AD

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.....

---George Bernard Shaw

"The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of traditions, whose yesterday's bear date with the modering antiquities for the rest of nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined....."

--------------Mark Twain

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments,
by narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way,
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee,
into the ever widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.....


Rabindra Nath Tagore