Entangled - Thought Stuck

Why is it that every decision I make is only almost perfect, but never perfect. The feeling that I could have or deserved a bit better. But then, if that is the case, would there be any cut off for this feeling until you are on the very top? What would be better than to be at the top. But then, a question arises - how do you define the top? Is it about earning more than your friends or relatives? Is it about getting the hottest girl in town? Is it about working with the best company? Is it about having the best environment? Because believe me, no two of these things can be achieved at the same time. And even if you do manage to get to one of the peaks, your definition of fulfillment changes. By all this I intend to support the point that there are no good or bad decisions, it's a matter of what we stick to. Bu then, talking about decisions, everybody feels that they could have got a better school, a better college or a better work place. How would they have got it? They don't know. But the feeling of having slightly missed it always remains. One good way of correcting this is that we should stick to our decisions and believe in them? But what if it is actually true? What if we didn't try enough? What if we could have achieved that little bit as well? Relate it to that one decision is life, no matter however small it may have been, which you cherish even today. That one decision you feel was the best that could have happened to you in that situation (as little as choosing Economics over Biology in class 11). If such a thing happened then, why can't it happen again?

I feel the biggest problem one has is the 'What if ' syndrome. What if I would have done this or that? What if I would have been here or there? These are rhetoric questions which we will never have answers to ! Because admit it - you couldn't do that and you are definitely NOT there. So it's better to stick to what you have and think about what you can do with it. In my blog you will always find that I take both the stands - never stick to east or west. Well that's how it is. That's because I believe there is no right or wrong, or probably I just fail to comprehend it. Whatever it is, my aim is always only to deliver the package and not open it.

A complex set of Balanced equations.

I have started to believe that the well known adages have a lot of truth in them. Let's try to put all them together. It is said, according to the yin yang philosophy, that the universe works in balance. Every action has an equal an opposite reaction. What goes around comes back around. If we take a cue from the movie matrix, the fact that Neo was to become so powerful was to control its negative counter part smith. If we look at the latest news, at one part of the work we have negative 40 degree temperature in Eastern Russia while bush fires in Australia. The heat waves in Australia brought a maximum temperature of as high as 42 degrees Celsius  The environmental explanation for this is termed as 'Global Warming' which also, essentially explains the same thing - extreme surge of temperatures in either side of the equilibrium. I believe everything in the world is driven by an algorithm ( which also proves the cause and effect relationship).

The ideas that I try to put forth here may be haphazard, but my job is done even if you get the feel of it. Jackie Chan in one of the movies quoted - "Too much of good thing is bad thing". This goes well with another popular saying - "Excess of everything is bad". We have all been advised not to be dependent on something, as dependence leads to helplessness  But then, at the same time, are we not growing more and more dependent on one thing - Technology? Can we, as prospering people of generation Y, imagine a world without technology? Have we ever wondered how complex data was calculated, for example, the GDP of an economy, when there were no computers? The world did go on before computers were invented. On the one hand, where we have had break through technologies such as the Internet and similar upcoming technologies such as Cloud Computing, which will/have completely revolutionize/d the way we behave, live and act. Bu then at the same time, technology has silently made us so dependent on itself that we cannot even dare to think otherwise. This may sound a bit related to all "Man vs Machines" movies, but it is actually not. And if you realize the difference, then you will clearly understand what I am trying to say here.

Why are the obesity percentages in the world rising? Because there was a time when people used to walk and cycle for miles whereas that has now been replaced by Automatic vehicles. The general argument in this case is that Time is more important than money. But then again, where is the balance? And how fast do we consider something really fast. If we were to say that we are fast as we can now save 40 min by travelling through car instead of walking, it is just another way of saying that you can now do more in your lifespan than generations earlier than yours did. But then, at the same time, there is a decrease in average lifespan across the globe over the years. I think if we were to calculate the net achievements of the world in totem while giving equal normalized weights to the essence of the innovations, I think we would arrive at a constant number. Scientifically, we can say that in a closed system, whatever happens inside is irrelevant to the overall entropy of the system as seen from outside. Consider someone who is large enough to see all the worlds at the same time and who is millions of centuries old, he would see no change in the million years in which we humans have existed. Religiously we term such a being as God ( And I purposely did not include the word 'Human' here).

Coming back to the topic we started with, I guess technology has played a major role in causing the major global issues we face today, and not only global warming. The environment has deteriorated ever since we have started exploiting it, and technology has only accelerated the rate. Species are getting extinct, water bodies are polluted, land areas are becoming intoxicated all this at the cost of the time that we save by choosing to drive over walking for 40 minutes.

Imagine the extent to which gmail controls our lives today. Imagine suddenly their database getting corrupted - all the emails and data evaporating in thin air. What chaos would it create world wide?

Talking about dependence, would there have been a World wide web had there been no personal computers? And would there be cloud computing today had there been no Internet? The idea here is to make you realize that technology is like an entanglement - no two things are mutually exclusive of each other. If the base bubble bursts, there would be global catastrophe. Quoting another famous dialogue from the movie Matrix - "Another organism follows a similar trend - A Virus".

We are a time when we face crises politically, economically, socially and technologically - Grouping together to what we can call the PEST crisis. The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012, but I guess their only fallacy was not taking into account the effects of technology. I believe we are still on path of destruction and technology has only delayed it. But eventually fate will have the better of us.

Better Said than Done !

The most manipulated word in the history of mankind is "Self Respect". I believe it is just a face saving way of not accepting the fact that we have too big an ego to satisfy. Half of the battles that have been fought in the pretext of self respect were actually satisfying someone's ego, more often than not, directly.

Two people are great friends when they play together, live together, study together or hang out together. But why does it happen that for most of the people relationships, if not end, weaken over time? Why does the frequency of texting or calling diminish over time ? Why is that at one point of time we don't feel like calling someone just because they didn't? Isn't that the big fat ego coming into play.

Consider this - to people are driving on the same road and one of them overtakes - and in seconds there is a virtual race started on the road. Even without the first person's knowledge, he has been dragged into the race and what happens when the second person finally overtakes? His ego is satisfied.

In fact the same is the reason why some people tend to get hurt over petty reasons. Consider a hypothetical world, where there is no ego. To say imagine a world without self respect would instead be hurting self respect's self respect itself, so we leave it aside for the time being. Let's say there was no ego in the world; no one would ever get hurt, angry or even feel bad at what others say. There would be no broken relationships, and no bitter memories to nourish. In such a place there would be no hesitation in talking to a stranger, as the fear of being rejected would not exist, since that hesitation is a direct consequence of one's ego. Even the reciprocator (I made up that word) would not hesitate in replying back, as he too is a part of the ego free world. Wouldn't then there be a lot less burden on people as the barriers to friendship would reduce to zero ? Now if that is the hypothetically perfect world why can't every one follow it in reality. Why can't we just let go of our stupid egos and give weight to the more important things in the world?

Everything at Once !

Singing to the tunes of Lenka - Everything at once, the song made famous by the wildfire advertising campaign of Nokia Lumia, in partnership with windows 8. At a time when the world of Android is somewhat hitting saturation, and the sacred followers feeling a tinge of monotony, Nokia is building the perfect resurrection path. Being a marketing student, I can't help but notice how important it is for a company to attack at the right time at the right place. With android market moving to the premium segment, Nokia is doing what it has always done the best - capture the medium priced segment of the market. ( I think I have started using more technical Jargon after entering MBA :O ! excuse me for that !! )

It is now quite evident that you will find a good smart phone not for less than 20 thousand rupees. In fact the latest smartphones are priced even higher ; crosseing the 30 thousand mark. The question to be asked here is- how many people are ready to shell out 30 thousand for a smartphone? Isn't the rate at which prices are rising a bit too fast? It is now visible to the naked eye that Samsung has willingly left its hold off the 10k-20k ranged phones. The only models that tend to create a tiny wave are the wave itself, or a couple of Galaxy- somethings, which have been launched merely just for the sake of it.

The history of smart phones need not be traced long back. Apple started the wave with the first iPhone and the capacitive touch. This wave turned into a tide with Android coming into picture and tide is now turning into a tsunami with cloud computing. 80% percent of the population is either buying a smart phone now or is planning to buy one. Not to mention the use of Whatsapp that has taken the telecom companies in for a ride. The sweet old short messaging service is counting it's last breath now. They used to earn millions during festive seasons by putting the special tariffs on hold ( and we, poor users had to shell out 1-1.5 rs per SMS ). This revenue has almost suddenly become zero, and there is nothing they can do to compensate for it, as increasing the call rates is again something that they cannot afford to do, considering the amount of competition there is in the market. I wonder what will happen if apps like Viber that allow free calls through the internet come into the big picture; the so-called telecom providers would just be limited to providing the 3G, 4G or then the n-G services.

Getting back to Nokia, poor fellow enjoyed the most respectable position for the major part of the century. Pity it had to witness this status twitter away and it fought so hard to retain it - but in vain. But now it is promising a strong comeback. People have finally started accepting the Windows phones as part of the family and the Lumia kids - the 510s and the 610s are now widely famous. WP 8 promises to create a strong foothold. We just have to wait and watch !

Moral of the story - Patience, Perseverance . Always wait for the enemy to make mistakes. 

A HEALTHY CONVERSATION

Me - Dear God.. What is love?

God - Dear human.. love is a myth ! At least now it is.

Me - I don't understand. Why now?

God - Firstly, I didn't create the word. I created the feeling. Much similar to how I created Anger, Lust and Hatred. A feeling is omnipresent. You humans have started describing this feeling through this word. More importantly, love is not always between a boy and a girl.

Me - Even if it is between a boy and a girl, I still don't understand why it is a myth.

Aphrodite - I will tell you. The world that you live in does not adjust. There are no sacrifices. People just don't care. They mistake infatuation for love. Just because someone is good to you doesn't mean you should fall in love with them. That stage is called respect.

Me - What are you talking about? I have friends. I care for them. I can sacrifice a lot for them, and I still do.

Parvati - You do that. How many people around you would do that? We are living in Kalyuga. This is as far the civilization can go. Twenty years ago there used to be big families, people used to stay together, eat together, live together. Do you know what has given way to this disintegration ?

Me - Practicality. Everyone wants freedom. Everybody has their own thinking. It's better to stay away and be in good terms than live together and keep fighting.

Aphrodite -  So that proves that people now don't sacrifice.

Me - Umm... Maybe! But that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about "Love" in a relationship.

Eros - Ok let's talk about relationships. You were in one. At that time you felt she was everything. But then what happened? Things didn't work out. At that time you used to think you are in love and now you are not. This is not the feeling that I created. Love is ephemeral. It does not start or stop. That's why I say that it is a myth.

God - What is your take on friendship ?

Me - Don't ask me. For me it is everything. I am happy when I am with friends. I feel relaxed. You could see my true self then. I would go to any extent to make my friend happy.

God - That is what I call love. The point is, you can love anybody, not just a girl. As long as there is one person in the world who loves you in this sense, you should be happy. But people today are not contempt with anything. They want a partner. This time they mistake lust for love!

Me - Now you have confused me. First you said that love is a myth and now you are saying that you can love your friends. What is going on?

Kamadeva - Complications are in your head my son. I can see everything very clearly from here. Everything in this world is temporary, only feelings are not. People do things that make them happy. You should do things that makes everyone happy. Once everybody realizes this, there will be nothing but love!

Me  - You can see clearly? From where ? Where are you?

ALL - I am in you.

Me - What? Who are you?

ME - I am YOU!

India, Hierarchy, and the North Pole!

It's quite evident that India is rowing through a host of social, economic, political and what not issues today. There are differences with neighboring countries (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh), non-neighboring countries(Italy, Iran, Israel), or for that sake, even within the country. The GDP is diminishing, poverty rates increasing, illiteracy left manhandled and political fiasco. Cricketers are criticized, Cricketing events are criticized, ministers are screwing up. We can pretty well say that we are, if not approaching, surely headed toward the doomsday scheduled at the end of the year. But trust me, all this is absolutely NOT what I am going to put up in this post :D (which you would have been guessing by the title) I think that is better left for the experts and the tabloids.

In fact, it's entirely abstract - based on general observation. Let me start with a line - "It all slows down at the top !" Let's see how I can relate India, hierarchy, and the North Pole to justify it. What makes up for a complete cycle of night and day? I think we can roughly say it's Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night (ignoring other phases if there are , any). Dawn spans usually for 3-4 hours, similar for Dusk and the rest of the time divided between day and night. Thus making up for the complete 24 hr cycle. But all this is where we are, where we live. Have we ever wondered if this cycle is the same everywhere? Or Not? Let's say, perhaps, at the North Pole too?? It will be really interesting to note that a whole day at north pole is actually one calendar year. Which means we have 3 odd months of Dusk, similar for dawn, and roughly 4 months each of daylight and no-light ! All this has something to do with Earth, Sun and Geography. But the point here is, if we start living somewhere at the North Pole , a normal 24 hr day would get extended to 365 days. Would that mean going by the normal standards, we would brush our teeth once a year, probably bathe once in 2 years, or going further, eat just once in 3 months?? I think it would be convenient now to say that life has considerably slowed down as we moved toward the top!

Let's talk about Hierarchy now. Something which most of us would readily associate to would be a corporate one. We join as Trainees, become Technical Analysts (or TAs), move on to become Team Leads (TLs) and then finally Project Managers, Senior Project Managers, Group Project Managers (PMs, SPMs, GPMs etc etc). I think all of us would agree that the ones who ploughing the fields are the Graduate Trainees - fresh into the organization (with little salary), and doing most of the laborer's work. They can be made to sit for long hours and do most of the technical stuff. As they become TAs and TLs, life becomes easy - there is more pay, less work, usually involving supervision of the fresh entrants and allotting work to them. Climbing further still, the PMs have to do most of the tracking work, maintaining files, reports etc. The SPMs hold occasional meetings and discuss general agendas. The ones who leave office earliest are the GPMs and other seniors. I think here too we can say that life slows down as we move to the top? In this case, the corporate ladder.

Now let's take another example - concerning India ( as that is what's left now :] ) . This one is solely based on experience and is absolutely open to criticism. Let's talk about Mumbai and Delhi. The latter being above (to the north ) the former. Try going at any important local station in Mumbai on a Sunday even as early as 5 am in the morning, and you will see people flooding from everywhere - in short, the place being completely crowded and everyone in a hurry - to go to god-knows-where ! Now compare this to Delhi, step out at 9am (obviously again on a Sunday ) even at the heart of the city, the Cannaught Place, and you will see it almost deserted. People just don't care to get up. And it's also a well observed fact that people in North take life slowly - they are more of the relaxing type. And this does not in any sense mean that I am condemning the Mumbai lifestyle - in this case its just a comparison between two different ways of life. Coming back to the topic, I think this would also somehow justify the statement that things slow down as we move to the top !

Three different examples, from three completely different spheres, still all coming down to the same conclusion. Makes me feel if everything is somehow bound by a set of universal laws that govern everything. We can see their applications in all subjects related to the Universe. Let me leave you with a commonly known phrase and leave it to you whether you can somehow relate it to what we have already discussed.

"The ladder of success is never crowded at the top!"

So what do you make of it ?

There is always a plan, and there are two things associated with it. Firstly, it is extremely hard to discover it, and secondly, even if you do find that out , you damn sure won't be able to follow it.

The Wor(l)d, Literally ! does not and will never post any of my personal experiences ever. It's all about pragmatism. In life, in everything. Some of those facts are stated below. You are free to ridicule them, although you may find it hard to do so.

1 . I am sure a majority of the people reading this are either students, or working professionals. I myself am one, working in an IT company. Believe me there is hardly ever any time to do all this. But it's all about the choice. I'll come back to that later. So we all have our workplaces. Next time when you go to the cafeteria for the afternoon lunch just strain your eardrums a bit and concentrate on the voices you hear around you. And soon enough you will realize that half the world around you is always complaining. If it's college, then the culprits would be parents, or girlfriends, or appeasing to those who don't have one, girls! It could have been the other gender as well but since I am one of them, I would rather use this one. Anyway, if it's office, then there are salary issues, incompatible flat-mates, room-mates, and yet again, girls! The point is in our daily life we are so bugged by these everyday matters that we forget to live, stay happy, and enjoy. If we have a hundred reasons around us to stay sad, then we do have a couple more to stay happy. You would more likely be complaining about having to wash the clothes than exult over the fact that you atleast know how to. It's always about what we choose to control us. Thus, the choice!

2. The evergreen adage that the grass is always greener on the other side never goes on deaf years. And yes, I do mean years. If you think about it, you probably have what you wanted five years back. But in those five years so many more desires have cropped up that the same accomplishment seems so diluted. When we were five, we wanted a cyle. Sooner or later, we had it. Then there was the desire to sit on the front seat whenever someone got the car out. After that, controlling the stearing or probably the gear box while dad was still driving meant everything. And we never really got satisfied till we got to learn to drive. All these things are inevitable, and part of growing up. And this still does not explain the common phrase. What explains it is that there are so many other things that we associate with this growing up that we realize were never a part of growing up and we never really had to gorge on them. When you're alone, you want friends. When you have them, you want girlfriends. When you have it all, there comes a time when you want some time for yourself. If you're living with parents, you want to live independently. If you do, you want them to be around. The very people who you love being with while meeting once or twice a day become ________ when you start living together. I guess we all would fill the blank with a different word. Two things can be concluded from here. Firstly, the lesser we expect, the happier we are. Secondly, too much familiarity breeds contempt!

And these two points will have the limelight in the next writeup.

PS - Like I said, you may find it ridiculous, but you cannot completely disagree with me!