INFORMATION IS NOT KNOWLEDGE

                    21st January 2011, when I ended my speech, for which I had thoroughly prepared for 15 days, thunderous audience gave me a lukewarm applause! That too it was not for my speech, but for ending it. The same audience, consisting 250 people, had given a long standing ovation to the previous speaker, who had spoken impromptu!   

That day as I was entering Hotel Bangalore International, I was set to become a celebrity. In an hour I had to address members of Lions Clubs in Bangalore, Lions we are called, on ‘Global Warming: What Lions can do’. I remembered how the speech had come my way.

“Sharath, we want you give a 20 minute speech at our Regional Meet.” asked Lion Suresh Jain, the event coordinator, with wrinkles forming a question mark on his tanned face. 

“Prof B.M. Hegde will be the Guest Speaker. Kannada film actress Hansika Poonacha will be there too.”

I had heard neither of their names. But I agreed, after all I was a Toastmaster.

“Around 350 people will attend the event. I suppose that’s not a problem for you.” asked Suresh Jain. 

I replied “I never have problem with any audience. But they often do!”. He had not got the pun.

I had spent next 15 days thoroughly researching the topic. I searched and downloaded every picture of Hansika that was available on internet! She had done just one movie in Tamil and had a Kannada movie to be released soon. Prof Hegde was a Padma Bhushan awardee. I decided to focus my speech on what Lions, as an NGO, could do to tackle Global warming. Google gave plethora of points and I noted important ones, without concerning myself with basics. I would end my persuasive speech saying: “When we Lions act, things change. Let us be the leader the world needs so badly today." You all know what an amazing persuasive word, ‘leader’ is. 



When I reached the hall, I noticed that stage was huge. I could unleash all body language tricks I had learnt. The huge event poster, which included every speaker’s picture, except mine, brought a certain aura to the hall! 



Though I was disappointed, I told myself “Every dog has its day!”



The poster picture looked very familiar. That day I learnt one important lesson: Never ‘research’ from page 1 of Google result. 



When Hansika arrived people eagerly rushed to take picture with her. I did not meet her. I told myself “Her time will come….after my speech.”  

Prof Hegde, short, bald headed, when requested to address, asked the MC, what he should be speaking on. The MC told “Sir, theme of the event is Global warming.” 



He started by saying “I am surprised that Lions are now interested in Global warming”. I instantly realized we had something in common: we both spoke in ‘Kannada accent English’.  



What followed was a miracle. He never moved from lectern. His body language was limited to bare hand gestures. But his words had magic. He was not a speaker. He was a hypnotist who entangled the audience to his thoughts. He quoted several scientists, research papers, formulas. He explained chemistry, biology, economics and politics of Global warming. He recalled humorous incidents and audience did not know they were laughing and even I did not know those jokes were available on internet! He quoted Upanishads and explained its relevance to Earth and Global warming. He connected them all beautifully.
 

I had learnt another lesson the hard way: Never bring your girl friend where your reputation may be at stake!



In between the Mr. Hegde’s speech my friend, Vignesh, whom I had got to move my slides, signaled: ….  It didn’t mean “Sharath, You too can rock the floor” but meant “Let’s quit”.

Prof Hegde, in his 50 minutes impromptu address, had argued that Global Warming was a hoax. As people rose to give him a standing ovation, they were convinced that need of the hour was not any action on Global Warming but a peg of whiskey!



Then MC called out: “Welcome Lion Sharath Pandeshwar to speak on Global Warming: What Lions can do!”



Though I had points of action for Global Warming, I did not have knowledge behind that information  or wisdom to apply that knowledge to refute Prof Hegde. I learnt the lesson: Information is not knowledge. We have more information today, than any point of time in the history. Only if we can deliberate and reflect to understand their patterns and their implications, that information becomes knowledge. Only if you understand the principles behind knowledge, it turns into wisdom.

My first Kiss that went to a Wrong Lady!

(Note: names and dates have been changed)

July 5th 2007 I joined this team. From next day "recession" started. And it is still on.

When I joined I had a dream. I had a dream that I would quit XYX Corporation at least before this Somanna Palya flyover opened up!(Context: Somanna palya flyover comes just before the tech park where XYX is situated.) That flyover is almost complete and they have long since opened up from one direction. Its a close call who is more lousy? I or BBMP. I think my friends here will vote for me because they are tired of hearing me say: "I will quit ..... soon".  3 months ago someone was saying: 'Sachin Tendulkar's 100th century! It's like Sharath leaving XYX. Both just don't happen'. Many are eagerly waiting for my last working day. You know there is queue of people waiting for a seat to be allotted. Sandeep has been counting days ever since I stopped counting!

Yes, I was a bit late, just 15 - 20 months late. I must say everyday here was an incredible experience. Somedays ago, a short tempered friend of mine, who works for a struggling startup said: 'Today I felt like hitting my manager again man'. 
'Again?' I asked.
'Ya. Last month I punched him because he delayed my salary'
I replied 'Today, I felt like hitting my manager, again'. 
'again?' he asked.
'ya. I feel like hitting him everyday!'

Keeping aside managers, XYX has given me a great platform. I cannot imagine another company, being part of which I could have performed one full year of Secretary and Treasurer of an NGO, Full two terms in Toastmasters Club as VP and President while being a freelance aptitude trainer. More than that I have tried running a business, rather unsuccessfully, for one year.  

Thanks to XYX. Sorry in fact thanks should go to unfortunate friends. 

A manager was once asked how many people worked under him. He told 'half of them!'. If the same question was asked to my managers they would have told 'everyone except one'. I never worked here as much as others did which is diplomatic way of saying 'I did not work enough!' I have a proof for it.

I started with Testing where my team lead was Sumathi. Seeing my work she decided to leave technical field to take up MBA. I think she felt she needed an MBA to handle someone like me. Then when I was put onto maintenance where PTK was my team lead. After just one month he made his own team started calling it '180nm development' though our team was doing same work: more or less! But hats off to Sumana who took really long time but finally threw the towel and shifted to AIX team. I am really indebted to Sumana for bearing me so long. She doesn need an MBA! Even my last manager entirely abandoned the technical management. But my current manager does not want to take a chance. So he always stays in meeting rooms.

I have learnt a lot in last 4 years. I am not sure how much I can retain. I should have made an LLD(lessons learnt document) before my LWD(last working day) as I will be OOO(out of office) from today and there won't be GRs (ground rules) for life. 

(What is S-H-I-T? Sorry honey it's Thursday)

Talking of lessons, I feel like sharing 2nd and 3rd most important lesson I learnt here.

Third lesson is the story of power of words:

In my last appraisal, my manager asked  'Bharath... What is your biggest contribution this year? what is that thing which you are most proud of?'
 
I thought for a while and honestly replied 'I happily saw 8 people out of the team this year itself! And people fondly call me welfare manager!' 

What I had meant was 'I oversaw 8 people going out happily'. (Context: Bharath was organizing farewell meetings)

During the results time he demonstrated back the power of words: 'Bharath ... You have done an outstanding average work.' He did not say that directly. But he said 'Bharath ... You have done an outstanding work and your rating is 2'. I guess you will agree with me both are same.

These words have amazing power.. They make difference. There is a difference in saying 'I did the work' and saying 'I did THE work'. Abraham Lincoln became America's president just by recognizing the power of words and working on it. If not to that extent, I think we can get better appraisal rating at least.

Second is the story of Power of addiction.

There was a person, who was addicted to visit prostitutes. He got married one day. After his first night he went straight to His Best Friend And Started Crying. 
"Man you just had your 'first night'. Why are you crying?' asked his friend.
'You know yaar, as per my habit, I woke her up in the morning and gave a five-hundred-rupee note'.
His Friend exclaimed, 'So what! Plead her to forget your past andlead a happy married life'.
'That's not the problem' he said angrily. 'My Wife returned two hundred rupees back!'

I was getting addicted to easy paychecks without doing something that counted to me. So I decided to quit,though I am not very sure of way ahead. My honeymoon period is over. Everything should work out fine. Else I will try for some manager role in XYX.

Any one interested to know what's the most valuable lesson? 'Never do Today what will be someone else's work Tomorrow!'

We have come a long way. There was a time when team outing ended in planning discussions itself. We have progressed and now outing starts as a treat but then becomes a Dutch outing. But at least it happens.
Now we can proudly say to our new joinees and say 'you know what? We used to get even envelopes for free'. I am sure we will move on, like how we moved on from free tea and coffee! (Context: In XYX, envelopes, Tea/Coffee was no longer free)

I will always remember XYX as 'my first kiss that went to a wrong lady!'. It might have gone wrong but it will still be the first kiss. 

Random Thoughts

It is better to have materialistic desires propelling you than not being propelled at all....

Don't declare War until it is won!

You are a leader or not a leader depending on where you set the bar for yourself.

These big networking organizations have made at least one contribution: Making celebrities out of people who would otherwise be just common people.

'Management through Meetings' is probably the biggest problem with Corporate Management today.

It's wrong to assume that 'the great people' who made rules and processes knew better than you.

Losing face in the first time should only make you desperate for doing it the best next  time.

What the World currently needs is not great Leaders, but great Characters. In this Western led world, nobody emphasizes the latter.

Which man is Happy: The story of Croesus retold

Which man can be termed happy?

This deeply profound question has baffled philosophers over the ages. I think even some of us would have pondered about it: Who can be called happy? Today, I want to tell a story which sheds some light on this question.

Once upon a time, long before Christ was born, lived a King by name Croesus. He was short and stout. Croesus ruled the Kingdom of Lydia, which corresponds to modern-day Turkey, between 560BC to 547BC. He was an extremely wealthy King, which he showed off by adorning himself with gold. His palace, at his capital Sardis, was made of Gold. The old expression "as rich as Croesus" originates in reference to him.

When Croesus was ruling, there was a famous Athenian traveler by name Solon the Wise. He was lean, had a long beard and lived simple. Solon had traveled extensively throughout Asia, Egypt and Lydia. After years of travel, Solon arrived at the palace of Croesus. Croesus was overjoyed to host such an illustrious visitor and proudly showed off his wealth to Solon the wise.

He finally asked “Oh Solon the wise, you may have met umpteen number of people in your travel. Who do you think the happiest of them all?”

“Tellus of Athens.” solemnly replied Solon.

Croesus was upset that he was not named and asked 'why Tellus'?

“Tellus had lived ordinary but peaceful life, had a beautiful family, and had died gloriously in a battle.” answered Solon.

Conceding this was a good life, and hoping he would at least be named second, Croesus then asked Solon who else he would consider the happiest of men he had met.

“The brothers Cleobis and Bito because they lived a good life and good death.” replied Solon.

Croesus was infuriated. He yelled: “You ordinary man of Athens, am I not the happiest man in the world? You count my happiness as nothing?”

Solon replied calmly: “Your Majesty, in truth, I count no man happy until his death, for no man can know what the gods may have in store for him. Often God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin. He who unites his strengths, and retaining them till his last day, dies peacefully, that man alone, is entitled to bear the name of 'happy.'"

Croesus sent Solon away, thinking his reputation for wisdom overrated.

Years passed. Everything was going fine for Croesus until one fateful day, when his son Atys was killed while hunting a boar at Olympus. Croesus was grief stricken and grieved for his son for two years until he was alerted that Persians under the King Cyrus the great were gaining power. Cyrus was tall, dark and well built man. Croesus decided that he should check them sooner than later. He sent his emissaries to the great Oracle at Delphi to know whether he should go to war against the Persian Empire. An oracle was a person who acted as wise counsel or prophetic predictions of the future, inspired by the gods. The Oracle answered that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire. Pleased by this answer, Croesus went out to fight against the Persian army at the Halys river.

A terrific battle ensued for days. Halys river, now filled with blood and floating dead corps, looked red. But it was a draw and Croesus marched his force back to Sardis where the army was disbanded for the winter. Croesus expected Cyrus to do the same, as this was the custom. But Cyrus instead pressed the attack, massacred Croesus’ remaining cavalry and captured Croesus. For daring to raise an army against the Persian Empire, Cyrus ordered Croesus to be burned alive. When Croesus saw the orange flames of the pyre lapping towards him, he remembered Solon’s words and cried out, "O Solon! Solon! Solon!"

Cyrus was startled by this. He asked his interpreters to find out why he said these words with such resignation and agony. Croesus told the story of Solon’s visit and told “Now I know how no man can be counted happy until after his death. O great King, I was misled by the Oracle at Delphi. When she said 'he would destroy a great empire' it was my empire that would be destroyed and not yours. Kindly pardon me and grant me lease of life.”

Cyrus was so moved by this story that he ordered Croesus to be released and kept him as his wise counselor.

Often God gives a gleam of happiness, and then plunges us into ruin. Challenge is to combine our strengths, live a meaningful life and aim a peaceful death!

Life of Guilt

"Raj... He spoke.... He spoke for the first time. Come fast... Your son called out 'Mummy'.." joyously shouted Rajshekar's wife from the bed room.

For Rajshekhar, a BPO professional, it was a life of struggle. From the time he had landed in Bangalore, barefooted, without a penny in his pocket, without a spare dress, he was fighting against odds. But he was a survivor. He had a happy marriage and his son was now almost a year old.

His son uttering first word 'mummy' did not make him ecstatic. It should have. He tried to feel elated. He failed. Instead he felt numb. He wanted to run to the bedroom taking his camcorder. Instead he was slowly slipping to a corner of the balcony. He remembered what had happened one fateful evening 25 years ago, when he was 8 years old.

It was a small village in Bidar. Though everybody could see him walking on the road, nobody could see him sobbing and weeping. The heavy rain had dripped him wet. He continued to walk, mindlessly, without knowing where he was going. Just one thought was in his mind: "Why did my mother stop loving me?"

He had been recently shifted to a convent school from his old Kannada medium school. Like usual he had rushed back from his school, with his arms wide open to hug his widow mother, shouting.... "ammmaaaaa", Kannada word for mother. Her hug that day was cold.

"Raja.... From today you will call me Mummy and not Amma.."

"No Amma..why .... I don want to..."

"Raja, from now you will call me Mummy. All your friends call their mothers' so. "

"No Amma.. Please.... I will do anything else you ask."

His mother had remained silent.

"No Amma.. I can't"

"Go.. Your mother will not love you."

His mother had not replied to his sobs. He had not realized that it was raining for long time after he had walked out of his house. Some stranger shouted out "Hey boy, get under a roof. Else you will catch fever". He had not answered.

Rajshekhar could not remember what had made him get onto the bus. He was tired, had caught cold, fell asleep. When he got up, he was in a city, which he found out to be Bangalore, much later.

When Rajshekhar came back to present, his wife was beside him, with the baby. He could neither hear what she asked, nor hear what he answered. His past was haunting him now. It had always haunted him. Was the reason for leaving his mother serious enough? In the hindsight it had always looked trifle. He could never justify himself. He knew his mother would have been breathing grief every breath. Somedays when he was alone, the world would shout deep in his ears that he was the cruel most son ever born on earth. But he had never muttered enough resolve to go back to see his mother. He thought he did not deserve to see his mother again. He thought he deserved a life of guilt.

But today he felt as though someone had squeezed his lungs from within. He decided to go to his village and meet his mother. If she forgave him, he would see to it that she is happy for rest of her life.

The next day Rajshekhar located his old house after great trouble. It was dilapidated and seemed forsaken for years. He feared if his mother was dead. He enquired the neighbor who told: "oh the woman, whose son had fled her? She was never happy with her middle class status. She got married to a filthy rich old man within a year of her son leaving. See .... we never came to know why her son left or where he went. That woman never seemed to care, you know, because she was only his stepmother. She shifted to a new place with her new husband, who I heard passed away long time back and she is living a luxurious life. By the way who are you?"

A cold wave of resentment engulfed Rajshekhar, as he headed back, and then began a life long search.

Renounce the thoughts of Fruits

Once upon a time lived a very ambitious young man. 'One day I shall rule the world' he had owed. He was brought up by his poor widow mother who had always told him stories during his childhood. One story always remained in his mind. The story of how their kingdom was rescued by a powerful Yogi, from the verge of defeat in a war, using his yogic power. So the young man decided to practice yoga to aquire special powers using which he could conquer the world. He travelled to a distant forest where he meditated, worshipped and practiced Yoga rigorously. He ceased to eat, tenuously controlled mind and material desires, did not even look at women and reduced breathing to bare minimum. As his 'tapasya' or penance became more severe over the years, so did his thirst for power.

Meanwhile in the country it was third consecutive year without rain. All the stock of food and grains were empty. The land looked dry and sky held no promise. The legend had it that, if the King made paada pooja to a sacred Yogi, in an auspicious place at an auspicious hour, it would rain immediately and end the drought. Paada pooja ritual involved washing legs with sacred water. The King heard about this young sannyasin and requested him to see the country out of drought. The young man was mightily pleased and accepted the invite.

Thousands of villagers had gathered in the place where miracle was set to happen. In an auspicious timing the King made paada pooja to the young man and let the water flow. People anxiously waited for rain. But there was no trace of Varuna, the rain God. Everyone was dejected because their last hope was shattered. Just when King was about to leave, he slipped and fell at a woman's feet knocking down her bindige, a traditional water container, full of water, she had carried from distant place for her household chores. There was a miracle and it was raining in no time. The villagers and King fell at women's feet and declared her a true Yogi. The young sannyasin felt insulted and was wondering how the women could have more power than him. Just then the women answered to him 'Boy I do not know your yoga or your practices. I am a common everyday woman. I was carrying water to nurse my ill husband. All my life I have struggled to do my duty. Before marriage I did my duty to my parents and after marriage I do my duty to my husband. I do not expect anything in return. That is all Yoga is for me." He was surprised that women could read his mind too.

He wandered in the country not able to fathom how an ordinary woman could have more power than him inspite if his austere yoga. Finally a wise man explained him what had gone wrong. He said "look my boy, the woman gained power because she did her duties very faithfully without expecting any return, and thus was a true yogi. Though your chosen path was also correct, you were more intent on results. No one can gain power without renouncing the thoughts of fruits. Even a fool can rule the world, if he waits and works restraining the idea of ruling the world. Ma karma-phala-hetur bhur buddhau saranam anviccha krpanah. Let not fruit of action be your motive. Pitiful are they whose motive is fruit."

As Dark as My Heart: Story of a Date

"One day she will be a big sexy bomb macha". 

As I rode my bike, these words of Arun, my schoolmate, mixed with evening breeze of BTM layout and kissed my face. I thought why did I always choose to monitor class 6th when I was in 10th? Would that mean she will be 3 years younger to me? How were I and Arun so sure that she would be sexy when she matured? The initial contours had said it all. Didn't it?

"Man.. what is making you this desperate this time? This won't be your first relationship"

"Far from the first" said the speedometer of my bike which seemed stuck at 12 Km/h. "I want to enjoy the  Saturday evening weather, so I am riding slowly" I told myself but I knew it was not true. It was not I riding the bike, but it was the bike mercilessly dragging me towards Jaynagar though I wanted to take Koramanagala's route.

I had a faint hope that she would relent to meet. On the very last night she had denied saying 'it is too soon'.

Like pale orange pre mansoon sun rays were being sucked by my black ray ban glass, Anusha's thoughts again sucked me into fathomless oblivion.

"Unknown people used to send me friend requests on Orkut. So I did not join Facebook" I could never explain that delightful jealousy her SMS reply had ignited in me. I had asked her 'Why linked-in and not Facebook'. Did that inexplicable jealousy meant I was falling in love? "ganta" I had replied to my roommate. "Who wants to marry a babe man. I want a simple homely girl". 

"drrrrr" "drrrr" vibrated my mobile in approval. She finally agreed to meet me at Jaynagar 4th Block CCD.
 
My heart started pounding intensely. Never had it worked so fast. Never. It had only been 4 days since I had accepted her linked in request. Her profile had not carried her picture but had mentioned our school name. Only after I had immediately sent a message "you were my junior right?" had I realized that it would have been difficult for me to recollect all my teachers names.

The place around 4th block CCD was spiritual. 3 huge trees had successfully fought the sun and rendered such a serenity to the place that I only grew more tensed. I had reached the place early.

Only in my work place it could have happened. Using up all 200 free messages in a day was tough, not because I had work in office, but because I had a qwerty keyboard mobile then. But the hope on the other side had promised to be voluptuous enough to take the pain. But it was only after two days of google chatting and texting I had got her upload her picture on gtalk profile. The picture, though too small to be discernible, had said that two days of hard work was worth it.

"Who is the other girl with you in the picture?" I was pondering why she had to put picture of her with a rather unkempt, grotesque girl.

"That's my besssteeest, cuteeee friend :)"

In the next two days messages had became more intimate, intimate to the level of skin. Was she falling in love? "She better not be. Love is like a paste" and I slipped when a sweet voice called out "hey white T shirt and black ray ban!"

I turned back and met with a shock.

That night as I lay on my bed trying desperately to recollect what had happened, I remembered the meeting, or should I say the date, had lasted full 30 minutes, thanks to te waitress who seemed to avenge me by taking ad infinitum to serve two coffees. I was trying my best to be my usual even when I knew it was her fault to put her picture with that "cuteee" friend of hers. But her face, her body and everything had repeatedly needled me that I hadn't noticed that this Anusha had matriculated a year later than the Anusha who had clogged my mind, my brain and moreover my work.

As I was trying to hard to fall asleep, a sweet voice repeatedly kept whispering to my ears "I did not know one had to look like Aishwarya Rai to be someone's friend". It was dark all around, as Dark as my Heart.

The only rule that works in life

If I have learnt something from my experiences over the years, from books I read, from people I met and spoke to, it is this.

Only rule that works in life: there is no single rule that always works. There is no right or wrong. There is no correct way and wrong way. There is so single mantra for success.

Have your own principles. Follow your own heart. Beat your own path.

Two Inspirational Stories that ‘ruined’ my life

There is so much buzz around the word passion these days. ‘Do what you love; love what you do.’ Today I want to write about my affair with the word passion.

My goals and ambitions were always crystal clear. Firstly I wanted to become an Engineer and I became one. Then I wanted to become an MBA. Everything was going fine for me to become an MBA. But today I stand at the center of vicious circles of dilemma knowing not, what to do in my life. How did all this happen? It was 2 years ago when I read those two autobiographies which changed direction of my life forever.

The first is the life of Captain Gopinath, the person who revolutionized low fare fight travel in India through Air Deccan. After his role in liberation of Bangladesh, Gopinath gets posted to Kanchenjunga. He undergoes an emotional-spiritual crisis and no longer wishes to continue in army. His father advices him to continue his job quoting Gita: Niyatam kuru karma twam karma jyayo hyakarmanaha. ”Do thou thy allotted task; for action is superior to inaction”.  I was then in a similar situation. I started to relate myself to Gopinath and started to question purpose of my life. Why did I want to become an MBA? I soon realized it was because of others’ opinions and that I had never sought my own voice. My career plan which once seemed like crystal clear water, now looked like unsettled muck. They were most torturous days of my life. I felt sad for having born the most unfortunate on earth because my heart was not speaking to me when I was searching for my life’s calling. The only consolation was an African proverb which said: “only way out of desert is through it”.

Days later, the biggest lesson of my life dawned upon me: Everyone may not be born fortunate to know his passion. In fact most people do not question at all. But a few, who question, will have to bear the torture of discovering their passion themselves, how Gopinath had done. Let us go back to the story. In such despair Captain roams in interior parts of India and USA hoping to discover something. He finally quits army questioning himself why he should live to impress others. Back in his village, after prolonged soul-searching, a dream of becoming a farmer starts to get shaped in him. His failure in initial years of farming, indebtedness, later innovation and success in farming and sericulture, success in motor business, humiliating defeat in assembly election, rise and fall of Air Deccan makes his story a must read. But read it at your own risk.

Coming back, I decided to explore myself too. I got into teaching. Gopinath says God helps them who help themselves. I explored opportunities in many sectors, ideating and researching. I was not able to zero in on one idea for one or other reason. Then I learnt an important lesson from life of Sir Richard Branson: Just Do It. Live life to the full. To quote him, “I am prepared to try anything once”.  I want to tell just one story from his life, which is filled with risky businesses, deadly adventures and surmounting loans. 

One day Branson gets call from Per Lindstrand asking him if he would join Per in trip across Atlantic in the world’s largest hot-air balloon flying at 30,000 feet. Whoever had tried that stunt before had died. By then Branson’s net worth was already a billion pound. Per explains his plans in detail. Branson finally says “I’ll never understand the theory. I will join you if you answer me this question. Do you have any children?” “Yes, I’ve got two”. Branson says “That’s enough for me. I will take the challenge”. That attitude stuck in mind. We Indians think and plan so much. But when it comes to execution, we back out. I decided to just do one thing. The story continues with that balloon trip where Branson comes so close to death that he writes his last letter to his daughter and wife. But he survives because he does not give up. 

My next one year went working tirelessly, round the clock in building a business from an idea. There were moments when I had to beg someone, for over a month for an appointment, got blasted from tax officials for no mistake, shoed away by watch men, roamed in unthinkable places, lost argument with senior managers. But market did not accept my idea. I learnt the difference between what is maverick and what is marketable, the hard way.   

Now I am back to square-1 where I had begun. What do I do in my life? I remember lines Branson had written to his parents when he had decided to drop out from college. “I see a danger of falling between two stools. Of being failure in everything and having to search for priorities again.” Though it did not come true in Branson’s life, it came true in mine.

Am I sounding like I am going to give up? Definitely no. I remember the lines read from these books. It is not the destination but it is the journey that is the real reward. Do not let sorrow and self-pity bring down your energy. I know that I have been ruined for good. I will soon be onto something new. Finally I would like to rename title of this article to “Two Inspirational Stories that changed my life for good.”  I would like to leave you with lines by Rudyard Kipling: “If you can lose and start again at your beginnings; If you can treat triumph and disasters just the same; yours’ will be the earth my son.”

The hyperbole

Why so much importance to 'extinction of tiger' alone? Why not crows? I think they, along with many other species like sparrows, are also on the verge of extinction.

Over million years on this earth, thousands of species have gone extinct. 'Survival of the fittest' is the name of the game. If earth can survive some more million years, even humans may go extinct. If so, why so much fuss about extinction of tiger alone. Save tigers and 1399.5 of them left and so on?

We are making a drama out of this without looking inwards the overall behavioral changes needed. All this hyperbole of 'save tiger' is being enacted by shameless publicity mongers trying to advertise themselves to become celebrities. Let us not give attention to just one species(We anyway have many pictures of them already). So many have become extinct so far and many others will. Let us stop acting 'humane' towards tigers because we need to learn to be humane towards fellow humans first.

Happiness and misunderstood Pursuit of Happiness

I was startled to know that many dictionaries define pursuit as to “chase with hostility”.  Do we pursue happiness with hostility? I was amused by this. This led me to do a small research on happiness and pursuit of happiness. No credit has to be given to me for this article. I only aggregated the relevant data so that readers would be benefitted by the content.

The Father of psychology Sigmund Freud said “Pursuit of happiness is a doomed quest. The intention that man should be happy was not included in the plan of creation.”  J

Come on it can’t be like that. We all want happiness. We do not want to be like some French intellectuals who think that happiness is not at all interesting. J It seems they raised a controversy over an essay on happiness written by Matthie Ricard, a Buddhist Monk, sometimes called ‘happiest man in the world”. They asked him not to impose dirty work of happiness. They said, “We don’t care about being happy. We like ups and downs of life. We like suffering because it’s so good when it ceases for a while” J

I hope none of us think that way. I am sure none of us here wakes up in the morning thinking, “I want to suffer the whole day”. Consciously or not, whatever we do somehow is related to a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness. Every man wants to be happy, but in order to be so he needs first to understand what happiness is.

If you look at literature, you will find different definitions of happiness. Some people say happiness is right now; it’s the quality of the freshness of present moment. Some say happiness is state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment. And all this led someone to say that scholars intentionally left the definition of happiness vague so that each individual could interpret it in his own way. It could be right and we all define happiness the way we find happiness.

Initially the psychologists thought happiness and unhappiness were end points of a single continuum. That made Freud say that, as one becomes less miserable, one gets happier. Only recent developments of science of happiness in the west deduce that Happiness and unhappiness are not the end points of a single continuum. When you get less miserable, you get less miserable. And that happiness is a whole other end of equation.

Our Indian spiritual definition of happiness always accommodated this fact. Just consider one definition: ‘happiness is deep sense of serenity and fulfillment, a state actually pervades and underlies all emotional states and all the joys and sorrows that come one’s way.’

Is it surprising? Can we have this kind of well-being feeling even in the midst of misery? If we give deep thought to his definition of happiness, we will realize that it is not about finding happiness but it is about feeling happiness. And that we can feel happiness in any state of mind if we change the ways we ‘pursue happiness’. 

The issue at the heart of misconception about ‘pursuit of happiness’ is that, we often focus on the pursuit of happiness as if happiness is something that we have to go out and get, an object we are supposed to get. We think that if we could gather this and that we will be happy. We say ‘everything to be happy – to have everything to be happy’. That very sentence already reveals the doom of destruction of happiness. If we miss something, it collapses. And also, when things go wrong we try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often illusory.

We can think of our pursuit of happiness to be following 'if-then model'. If I can get 40 % hike, I will be happy.  If my Boss gets heart attack, I will be happy. The ‘If’ we were focusing 10 years ago might have got fulfilled. But now we will have another set of ‘If’s for us to postpone feeling happiness.

If you call happiness equation as Happiness = (wanting what you have) divided by (having what you want) most of us here spend more of our time in the bottom half of this equation.

So what could be the right way to pursue happiness? I must admit that I do not have authority to prescribe how exactly one should go about finding happiness. I am just putting forward what I think could possibly be the right way. May be some of us would have experienced deep happiness when we relaxed beside a wonderful, serene lake. Had we thought if the color of water was bluish, we would never have experienced the same happiness. So key to happiness lies in discarding our ‘if-then’ model and accepting and enjoying the present. I am not advocating that one must not dream and have ambitions. All I am saying is that one need not postpone happiness waiting for their fulfillment.

Rabbi Hyman Schachtel in his book “The real enjoyment of Living” suggested that Happiness is not about having what you want. Instead it is about wanting what you have. I shall not speak more on this line for two reasons. 1. I have already given clue as to what could be more appropriate way. 2.  May be it is better left vague so that people find their own way to find happiness, equipped with right basics. I will leave you all with a story I came across in this pursuit of mine, which made a deep impression on me.

It is said when Dalai Lama was once in Portugal and got amused by all the big construction of buildings that was going everywhere. One evening he said “Look, you are doing all these things, but isn’t it nice, also, to build something within? “. And he said, “unless that you even if you get high-tech flat on the 100^th floor of a super-modern and comfortable building, if you are deeply unhappy within, all you are going to look for is a window from which you can jump out.”  

A critical look at Indian Value system

This article is HIGHLY borrowed from a speech of NRN. My role here is only 'information/knowledge' dissemination. 

I am ready to be born a thousand times over if only, said a chauvinistically patriotic friend of mine, beating his chest, if only I am born an Indian every time. If not to that extent, I am sure all of us are proud Indians. Of course we should be. David Abraham in his The Rough Guide to India says “It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere else on Earth does humanity present itself in such a creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues.”  We all have umpteen reasons why we are proud to be an Indian. It could be our rich culture, history, variety and Indian Value system or Indian philosophy.

We all know how rich and unique is Indian value system and how it makes us different. But today let us take a critical look at our Value system.

What is a value system? It is the protocol for behavior that enhances the trust, confidence and commitment of the members of a community. It goes beyond the domain of legality. It translates to putting the community’s interest ahead of your own. Even Vedas say ‘Man can live individually but can survive collectively.’

Two pillars of the value system are loyalty to the family and loyalty to the community. One should not be in isolation of the other and successful societies are those which combine both harmoniously. However, Indian society has, for over a thousand years put loyalty to the family ahead of loyalty to society. We can see thousand examples of behavioral manifestations of this nature. Let us consider a few.

We Indians have tremendous loyalty to the family. Parents make sacrifices for children. At the same time children consider it their duty to take care of aged parents. We believe in ‘matru devo bhava’, ‘pitru devo bhava’. We believe in making sacrifices for our siblings. Marriage is regarded to be a sacred union. And the examples go on. And of course I am proud to be part of such a culture.

Unfortunately, our attitude towards family is not reflected in our attitude towards community. We do not think twice before littering streets and parks, though we are very fastidious in our house. Bribing is considered an art and has become a part of ‘jugaad’.  We are apathetic to community good.  We have very bad traffic sense. This list too goes on.

Apathy in addressing community matters is also very abundant. We see serious problem around us behave as if the problems do not exist or as if they belong to someone else. What could be the reason for our apathy? We were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years. So, we have always believed that public or societal issues belong to some foreign ruler and that we have no responsibility to solve them. ‘We are what we repeatedly do’ said Aristotle. Having waited for some foreigner tell us what to do, over thousand  years, our decision makers still look to somebody else  to make their decision when there is nobody to look up to.

Intellectual arrogance is also very evident in us. We boast so much about our past though our current accomplishment is less. This does not seem to be a new phenomenon anyway.  In ‘Alberuni’s India, where the author Alberuni, a middle Eastern Traveller in India in 8^th century makes an interesting remark. He says, during his visit, most Indian pundits considered it below their dignity to even hold arguments with him. And on a few occasions when he did get a chance to discuss and made a lot of sound arguments, they asked him which Indian pundit had taught him these smart things!

One other issue is of punctuality. Our Indian Standard time seems to be always running late. Here we take coming late to meeting or gathering is a sign of importance. The higher you are in the hierarchy, the later you are supposed to come to any meeting.

We become intimate even without being friendly.  It won’t take more than 5 minutes of conversation with a new acquaintance before we are ready to ask favors from them. Rudyard Kipling once said, ‘A westerner can be friendly without being intimate while an easterner tends to be intimate without being friendly’.  

So what do we have to do now? We should first remind ourselves that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. ‘It is easy to dodge our responsibilities but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities’. If we have to make progress, we have to change our attitude, learn from people who have performed better than us and perform better than them. With regards this we have a lot to learn from so called ‘the West’.  Some of the things we have learn and improve upon are accountability of our actions, professionalism, punctuality and putting society’s interest at least at the same level as self-interest.  We have to remember that most of our fundamental problems grow out of lack of commitment to the common good. Culture is that which helps us to work for the betterment of all.

I whole heartedly do believe that we are citizens of a great country. But as Winston Churchill said, ‘Responsibility is the price of greatness.’ Let us make our country a great place to live. Let us work towards maximum welfare of maximum people.

‘Samasta jananam sukhino bhavantu’

The Habit of Reading

I was late to catch on the habit of reading. But as the saying goes, ‘Better late than never.’ I have, to some extent, covered up for the lost years, by reading very good books in last couple of years. My intention here is not to share my experiences of reading but to highlight why it is high time for Youth to revive the fading habit of reading.  

It does not take much effort to convince that book reading is no longer a pass-time activity of many. It is grave to learn that today’s children regard book reading as ‘un-cool’. Ever increasing habit of watching TV and playing games in today’s youth and children leave them with no time for reading. Though I am not an advocate of complete abandoning TV and Video Games, and very much appreciate their reach and utility, I believe today’s generation has to make time to read.

I think this problem is partly because people (especially youth and children) have not realized the experience and benefits of reading. At first consider fictions. The best thing about reading fictions is that your imagination is not captivated by any exact characterizations as in case of movies or TV serials. You can simply run wild with your mental imagination and savor the beauty of your imagined world. Who ever watched ‘Twilight’ movie after reading the novel told me that the movie was not up to the mark when compared to the novel. I felt the same when I watched the movie Godfather. Even with modern day technologies including recent 3D movies, the movies cannot have narrations as beautiful as what it can be in well-written novels. Crime plots as complex as my favorite Orhan Pamuk’s ‘My Name is Red’ can’t just be made by movies.  Video games may, to good extent, give more live experience but have their own limitations.

I do not need to much emphasize the importance of reading non-fictions. Any person with sound reasoning power should be able to appreciate it. One of the best ways to learn beyond realms of your own experiences is reading books. That’s how you can learn from other’s experiences and mistakes. One can sharpen one’s reasoning and thinking power by reading books of influential thinkers like Amartya Sen, Thomas Friedman to name only a few. I feel we are lucky to still have treatises like Sun Tzu’s ‘Art Of War’.  Let me stop here because I am sure I cannot make justice to this point.

I think one only needs to just drop into a good book stall, say like Bookworm in Bangalore, pick a random book and complete it. It will not take much time for you to appreciate my point and become ‘addicted’. I think it is my duty here to elaborate on Bookworm because its proprietor Krishna’s recommendations made me read many great books.    

To elaborate, Bookworm is situated in Shringar Complex on M.G.Road; Bangalore has one of the best collections of books in Bangalore. It has great collection of both fictions and non fictions - both used and unused, and you get very good discount unlike most other shops. You will never get disappointed with personal recommendations done to you and will surely cherish their hospitality to customers. I personally regard it to be the best bookstore in Bangalore.

My request for everyone not to buy pirated books. If you are a true fan of reading, you will appreciate my request.

All you need to do now is to visit and buy the book that catches your attention. You will slowly recognize the wonders it does to you.

Happy Reading J

Time to Reflect

So far I was of the opinion that the Mankind was getting smarter generations after generations. But after I read the chapter ‘Reason and Objectivity’ from Amartya Sen's book “The Idea of Justice”, I am no longer sure if that is true.

Here I am producing the text from that book for the benefit of all.

“ … Underlying the point may be the recognition, in some form, that many acts of nastiness are committed by people who are deluded, in one way or another, about the subject. Lack of smartness can certainly be one source of moral failing in good behavior.

……

……

Being smarter can also give us the ability to think more clearly about our goals, objectives and values. If self-interest is, ultimately, a primitive thought, clarity about the more sophisticated priorities and obligations that we would want to cherish and pursue would tend to depend on our power of reasoning. A person may have well-thought-out reasons other than the promotion of personal gain for acting in a socially decent way.

Being smarter may help the understanding not only of one’s self-interest, but also how the lives of others can be strongly affected by one’s own actions. Proponents of so-called ‘Rational Choice Theory’ have tried hard to make us accept the peculiar understanding that rational choice consists only in clever promotion of self-interest. Nevertheless, our heads have not all been colonized by that remarkably alienating belief. There is considerable resistance to that idea that it must be patently irrational – and stupid – to try to do anything for others except to the extent that doing good to others would enhance one’s own well-being.

‘

What we owe to each other’ is an important subject for intelligent reflection. That reflection can take us beyond the pursuit of a very narrow view of self-interest, and we can even find that our own well-reflected goals demand that we cross the narrow boundaries of exclusive self-seeking altogether. There can be cases in which we have reasons to restrain the exclusive pursuit of our own goals, because of following rules of decent behavior that allow room for the pursuit of goals by other people who share the world with us.”

[By now you would know why I gave the elaborate text here, even when the subject of discussion is ‘smartness’. I will allow you to ponder over underlined sentences for now. Glad to discuss the same in days to come.]

Now let us come back to the discussion of ‘smartness’. If a truly ‘smart’ person should be able to reason out the need for socially decent behavior, and the need to make room for his countrymen’s pursuit of goals, have we really become smarter compared to earlier generations? If ‘smart’ people should be reflecting on their actions and pursuits, have we become ‘smarter’ or have we become ‘thicker’?

I think, if we take current definition of smartness, we indeed have become smarter. The technological and engineering progress that we have achieved, the rise in standard of living (if not quality of life) are all testimonies for it. But the root of the issue, and a reason for all other problems, I believe, is that we are not just giving enough time to reflect. We are not just involving ourselves enough in reflection and introspective thinking. Henry Ford’s saying “A man who cannot think is not an educated man however many college degrees he may have acquired. Thinking is the hardest work any one can do-- which is probably the reason why we have so few thinkers” is still valid to great extent, when it comes to introspective thinking, even after more than 75 years.

I cannot make justice if I try to explain the importance of thinking and reflection. But it is worth pondering why some of the most influential persons in the world: Buddha, Tagore, Aristotle, Kant to name a few, were prolific thinkers. Tagore even goes onto say, in his Noble acceptance Speech that behind poems of Gitanjali lay years spent in seclusion and meditation on problems of life.

One of the biggest ironies of modern times is that people have become so busy that they do not have time for themselves (I believe a truly busy person will have time for everything). They are busy worrying about their bank balance, appeasing family, society and friends and trying to get ahead in the imaginative race they have defined for themselves. Various amusement tools including TV just take away attention in the name of relaxation. People involve themselves in various activities to such an extent that they leave themselves with no time for reflection.

I believe lot of improvement in quality of our lives can be achieved if people, whose intelligence is no way doubted, make time to reflect on their actions and pursuits. Only through reflection, introspection and reasoning people can realize the place of self-interest and the behavioral and change in outlook that is necessary. It is time to make time for reflection. It is time to reflect.


----


"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." - Confucius

The World where Knowledge is not fully Business

I recently came across Tagore’s thoughts on knowledge and knowledge sharing. 

1. “ ...............

      Where knowledge is free ;

      ...............

      ...............

      Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my Country Awake.”

                       - Taken from a poem in Gitanjali.

2. “You know the traditions of our country are never to accept any ‘material’ fee from the students in return for teaching, because we consider in India that he who has the knowledge has the responsibility to impart it to the students. It is not merely for the students to come and ask it from the master, but it is the master who must fulfill his mission of life by offering the best gift which he has to all who may need it. And thus it was that need of self-expression, of giving what had been stored in India and offering the best thing that she has in herself that made it possible and was the cause and the origin of these universities that were started in the different provinces of India. 

And I feel that what we suffer from in the present day is no other calamity but this calamity of obscurity, of seclusion, that we have missed our opportunity of offering hospitality to Humanity and asking the world to share the best things we have got. We lost our confidence in our own civilization for over a century, when we came in contact with the Western races with their material superiority over Eastern Humanity and Eastern culture, and in the educational establishments no provision was made for our own culture. And for over a century our students have been brought up in utter ignorance of the worth of their own civilization of the past. Thus we did not only lose touch of the great which lay hidden in our inheritance, but also the great honour of being able to contribute to the civilization of Humanity, to have opportunity of giving what we have and not merely begging from others, not merely borrowing culture and living like eternal schoolboys. “

                     Taken from Noble Acceptance Speech of Tagore

                     26 May 1921, Stockholm

[ I will leave it to you to ponder over underlined sentences for now. Glad to discuss them some other occasion.]

     

Though the country where ‘knowledge is free’ may sound too idealistic in this present times, I feel there are many of our practices we need to introspect.

I feel knowledge should be free and free flowing. The process of knowledge transfer, if entails cost, if involves earning a living, may be charged. But this, in no way, is the explanation for over commercialization of education in present times. 

Leaving education aside, what I am seriously concerned is with ‘knowledge holding’. Before actually discussing about it, let us consider some noble work done for easing knowledge transfer in modern times.

Google has done commendable work in its quest to make information organized and accessible. Though I am not certain of their commercial and obscure motives, I seriously like its mission statement - "To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.". Wikipedia, encyclopedia etc are equally great examples. 

Coming to commercialization of knowledge, there are many aspects to it.

I think it is correct to charge for the expertise which definitely would have involved years of labour and hard work. 

What can hamper the progress of Mankind both spiritually and economically is purposeful, parochial ‘knowledge holding’. It is not uncommon to come across the situation where a party holds knowledge or information just because of selfish motives, even when there would be no cost involved in knowledge transfer.

I recently was denied access to what could have been very useful information to me from a person who knew me well from years, and was sure I did not have deceitful intention in requesting the information. Though the information was not of much use to the  person in scenario, it could have saved me a lot of efforts.

(Unfortunate to say, I too had helped the person a bit in same project.)

The root reason for this ‘knowledge holding’ is I believe is lack of clear understanding of life and life’s real purpose. To quote Steve Jobs, “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”. The only thing that remains after your death is the difference you have made to the World, for which free know knowledge transfer is very vital. Even our educated class need to realize that they have to broaden their goals beyond their self-interest. They need to realize that “giving what they have is great honour of being able to contribute to the civilization of Humanity.”

Charity is not the only way to ‘give’. Let us discuss charity, profit the real purpose of a business separately. Knowledge transfer is surely one of the methods of ‘giving’.

Let us pledge not to hold information and knowledge. Let us do our best to impart to others, what we know. It can start with as simple a step as ‘the discussion’. Lets have a World where Knowledge is not fully Business.