Perfection - A Myth

We see more and more people joining the band wagon, trumpeting about perfection or the lack of it.
The real question is , why do we have imperfect systems? Is it deviation or norm ?

I believe that it's the latter. Let me build my case.

Imperfections have helped people to develope tolerance and tolerance is a VIRTUE.

Imperfections bring the element of uncertainity that makes life interesting..

Imperfections NEVER cripple us.
They just build up frustration towards the system that are easily relieved from time to time, through power cycling..


Power cycling/reset is the act of turning a piece of equipment/system and then turning it on again. Mostly, the reason for reset is to recover from an unresponsive state of its mission critical functionality.

In the past , reset was always used as the last step recover from a failure and there was a stigma attached to it. Thanks to Microsoft, people were generously encouraged to take this route.The convenience of power reset caught on the other platforms, devices, equipments.

Nowadays, anything run by software (which is pretty much everything) are subjected to reset. It has become the first step to recover from any crash. This has played into the hands of developers  & creators, for they keep building imperfect systems.

I started cursing Microsoft for standardising "reset culture" and destroying mankind's movement towards perfection (How Naive??).  Then I realized that even the most amazing creator had got the hang of it... :)

Every life created in this universe comes with the creator's gaurantee of vitality. But quite so often it ends up malfunctioning. In the event of non-recovery , the plug is pulled and the life is created again with a bright new set of hardware.

I should have seen the god's hand in imperfections.

Paradigm has shifted.

Now, I started reading "Imperfect" as "I'm Perfect" and I feel great about it!!
 
Embrace Imperfection and you will be at peace with the world and self.

Sacrifice = Love ???

A friend of mine questioned about the importance given to the act of sacrifice towards the manifestation of love.
Is Sacrifice a measure of love? Greater the sacrifice, deeper is the person's love?
His question is not baseless. He quoted many popular love stories in history , "Romeo and Juliet" , "Laila Majnu" have tragic endings.

Normally I ready myself to contradict his statements for the sake of argument. But for once, I was not able to quote a powerful love story that did not involve sacrifice.
Agreed that my knowledge is limited on this subject, but the very fact that I knew about many tragic love stories & not one with a happy ending was in fact troubling me.

Is it how our human brain is built, increasing the longevity of painful memories when compared to happy thoughts?
Is it because we have raised the bar for happiness?
We no longer recognize simple pleasures like reading a good book, enjoying a fine meal as happiness. We expect happiness to storm in and sweep us of our feet.

I still can't shake his question...What is it with Sacrifice & Love?

I can understand "Passion & Love" ,even "immaturity , inexperience and Love", but sacrifice & love looks like a paradox, but literature seems to glorify it.

This topic was a bit touchy to argue about as it was close to my friend's heart. :)
My friend is lucky in love and he is a happier person. It should be THAT simple. You fall in love because you are happier that way.

Some say that there is also enjoyable pain ( seriously??).
They say longing in love is painful, but they enjoy the pain as they know or they believe in its fullfilment.
In that case, I say pain is bearable not enjoyable. People seem to confuse emotions.

No one happily sacrifices, not even for love. It will result in pain.
For me , pain is unwanted and undesirable feeling. The mere mentioning of the word "pain" so many times in this passage will make some readers squirm.

If someone says he has sacrificed for his love and is happy, he is a liar of the worst kind. He lies to himself !!!

Love is to enjoy, not to endure. You don't enjoy sacrifice, you endure it.
Love is to live,  not to exist. You don't live in pain, you exist with it.

Sacrifice = Pain ≠ Love.

Hence proved.

Have I? :)

Lets go for Tea Saapti !

I was making some changes to my blog settings, Ratna Balaji walked across and saw that I was fiddling with a blog. He seemed interested and I obliged by showing my posts. Out of nowhere he suggested that i should blog about tea breaks in our team and walked away.

I dismissed his suggestion right away, but on second thoughts IT WAS something I always wanted to share.

The mere thought of our tea breaks brings fond memories. It might sound silly, but the feeling is justified.
If I have to look back at my stay in Australia, the memories of our tea breaks will always stay fresh.

This twice a day ritual is very important part of my work life. I dare not call it a ritual, at it is an event that is anything but dull. Our tea breaks is actually a ceremony, a celebration.

Vibhor, an eternally super charged soul, invites us for tea break with his trademark "Let's go for Tea Saapti".

I don't know why the mere invitation always brings joy to me as street-side ice cream vendor's bell would sound to a kid.

It is mostly boys club during tea break, where we discuss everything, including work.
It is a stage for us to discuss cricket, mostly about our saturday game. Whether we revel in our victories or sulk in our defeats, the comments that fly across are more eccentric that Sidhu, more cynical than Geoff Boycott and more clinical than Harsha Bogle.

Tea break is the ingenious way we devised to bring weekend into the scheme of weekdays. It ensures that a part of Saturday lives in us everyday till the next Saturday morning.

As far as topics other than cricket goes, I'll leave it up to your imagination. ;)

At the end of the break, I have always left smiling.  The much elusive happiness meets us in our break.
So,I wanted to coin "15 minutes of magic" as title of the post..

But, "Lets go for Tea Saapti " is more fitting..Don't you agree? :)

I am a spinner now !

My mates and I religiously play cricket on every Saturday. Nothing that nature could cook up has been able to dampen our spirits on Saturdays. I am from Christian faith and Saturday has truly become the day of Sabbath. :)

Initially, I found a place in our team as a medium pace bowler. Since then, I have improved my bowling a lot and have been moderately successful at it.

Now I am gradually into wicket keeping. I enjoy keeping the wickets as I am engaged throughout the innings. When chances present themselves, I have to pouch the catches.

So far the difficult catches that I had taken had been important ones. It feels good to be appreciated for the catches. As far as THOSE catches go, it all comes to instinct and being alert.

But I take a lot pride when I anticipate the ball's trajectory or the bowlers guile. I need to be spot on to avert additional runs leaking behind the wicket. A good stumping means more to me than the most ridiculous of catches.

Now that I understand what makes me really happy, I was searching for avenues of increasing my satisfaction level from the game I play. I stopped to look again at my bowling...With my limitations as a medium fast bowler & our playing conditions , I found that fast bowling disciple is very dull for me.

More often, I am reduced to containing role, bowling with tight line and length. That is when I was inspired by my coach who is the lead spinner.

Being a keeper, I am full of admiration for his bowling craft.. The way he lures the batsmen in playing wrong shots and deceives the batsmen with pace and flight , is so pleasing to watch.

When it comes to learning a trade, I am the most dedicated of students.. Ishwar, my coach, my friend,  is a good teacher as well. :)  Maybe I will post a blog sometime as a tribute to my coach.

I have to learn from scratch as a spinner. It will be fun and challenging. I will strive to better myself in the art of spin bowling.

Most importantly , I will be immensely satisfied with my effort as a bowler , irrespective of whether I am successful or not.

At the end of  the day, it is only thing that matters to me! :) 

My Cluttered Mind

MY thoughts are like monkey jumping from one branch to another. I am for once, don't want to rationalise them, edit them any order. I am penning down as I feel. It is a good experience to do so... Hope order emerge out of Chaotic thoughts. Hope is a strong word..Infact, it is a Virtue that I strive to possess.

What is life ?

What keeps two people in a relationship?
I have been brooding on this question for quite some time now. The answer still eludes me.
If it is the basic need to be cared and loved for, then when does it get manifested?
If the sharing & caring happens during good times, do we regard the gesture with value?
If the support is provided during the hardship, do we even recognise such an act among other issues that we perceive to have?

When i seek an answer to a question, all i do is end up with dozen more.

Won't it be nice that options in life present themselves as objective types questions with decisive options to choose from?

I have always heard people grumble how complicated their lives are  or how complicated the choices are.. Will I even meet someone who says that life is so simple and uncomplicated?


Couple of days back , I was brought to standstill by the magnitude of issues before me. Now, everything looks manageable. I would go to the extend of saying that I believe I can handle them on piece meal basis. The issues are still the same as it was couple of days back. Something changed in me that helped me look at things differently.

I have always been a daydreamer, solving issues in minutes in my dreams , where my will is absolute. When will I ever lead my dreams to  the path of reality?

While I am surrounded by problems , I am also surrounded by good hearted people who support me. The degree of support vaires from person to person, but supoort noentheless and I am very grateful for that.

Socialist State of America.

Almost 18 months earlier from today, I was heavily influenced by the vision of a young democrat who seemed to have started a movement in a land, far-away. A movement against status-quo, a movement for change.
Barack Obama was looked at as common man's voice. His journey in life symbolised the sense of optimism & oppotunity , which are very much the integral part of "The American Dream". The younger generation rallied behind him. At that time, the prevailing resentment on previous administration fuelled this movement and he was rising the political ladder rapidly.
Even I was touched by the sense of optimism surrounding his presidential campaign. I celebrated his victory like mine.
In a few days from now, we will be witnessing the first anniversary of Obama's rule. Refelecting on his legacy as president, I found him wanting.
His key achievements are:
1. Sending additional troops on a large scale to fight a war on terror in Afghanistan.
2. Inability to present a pragmatic plan to pull out of Iraq.
3. Inability to close Guantanamo Bay Camp on the promised time frame.
4. Trying to pass resloution on a compromised Healthcare bill that has lost its soul.
5. Increasing state control on businesses under the pretext of stimulus package.
We can attribute part of his failure, to the magnitude of the issues faced during his administration. As if the two costly wars in Iraq & Afghanistan weren't enough, he had to bear the brunt of recession. These are tough problems. Tough problems require people with strong will and tenacity to ask tough questions and act tough.
With all honesty, no one expected the US presidency to be walk in the park either.

All his major decisions can be atrributed to his lack of support from the political system. The US political elite are a bunch of opportunistic scavengers who feast on another's handicap. We cannot expect anything better than this.

So, I am generously willing to pardon all his decisions except the one to indirectly increase state control on businesses.

America is not a country. Infact it is a symbol, one that represents equality and fairness in trade. It is the promised land for free and unregulated market.
Unbridled commerce based on sound priciples is the very fabric of America.

Commerce was the underlying reason for all the famous and infamous wars that were fought in our history. If someone is trying to restraint commerce itself, by prirotising the needs of people over business profitability, then it is not a blunder. It is cardinal sin.

Banks and industries were helped using Tax payers money to revive the economy. The benefits of this monetary assistance are passed on the tax payers indirectly by the improving climate for job opportunities.

The persisting Big-Brother attitude of US government towards industries gives us the sour taste of a socialist regime. It sure looks like we have passed the peak of American glory and dominance in Commerce.

Lost in Haste

I have been associated with a reputed software firm for over 9 years. I have seen it grow 10 folds ( in Man power ).
When a company grows to that size, the only way it can function is through well established quality processes. We seem to have tamed that beast.

With the sudden expansion in business in the last few years, which frankly most did not anticipate, we started moving towards generating more revenue by filling in. Most companies never had the time to reflect on the capability or suitability of their work force.
I would term this act as the exploitation of the business oppurtunity. This is truely the curse of the service industry. When such exploitation continued for long term, it sowed the seeds of discontentment, the sense of not getting enough value out of the deal.

It is only natural that India is no longer considered as low-cost-high-skilled centre for business. More than the increasing cost factor, the "skill" part took the biggest hit. All thanks to the passive encouragement of "shallow knowedge". We no longer seem to have people with vertical ( core ) expertise. "Breadth" is appreciated more than "depth".

Imagine companies operating with excellent processes without necessary skillset. A hopeless combination , I dare to say. It is like a soul without body, never having the vital faculty to bring about a visible change.

Though companies sensed the impending doom, they never got a breather to introspect, always busy in meeting numbers/targets. Recent recession provided the much needed break. It shook most companies awake from their deep slumber.

As I see it, we don't have too many choices ahead. Everything has been made quite simple now. Either we break this inertia of ineptness to move upwards or slowly roll down towards the valley of oblivion.

It doesn't serve well to be overtly pessimistic. All is not lost. But its definitely time for action !
All these juggernauts should wash away the cling-ons. They should go back to their core strengths, skill and process. Like phoenix, we have to rise from ashes. India should once again be regarded as the land of the knowledge workers.

It is always pleasant to look forward to such a future.