Explaining does't always work

Two campers see a bear, and one immediately puts on his running shoes.
“You can’t outrun the bear,” the other says.
“I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you,” responds the other.

Living in now

Saw the movie Peaceful Warrior, one major thing to remember/aspire towards after emptying the trash in ones mind:

•  Where are you? Here
• What time is it? Now
• Who are you? The moment
  

Distant shores, Silent thunder.

Who you are today is essential to the realization of your life's purpose - Dustin Wax

Stole from a friends SM's: The size of the forest fire often has little to do with the spark that started it and lots to do with the state of the forest. This again I found on http://business.twoday.net/static/foehrenbergkreis/files/20070216HBR_Accidental.pdf which is a nice two page article to read(Accidental Influentials - Harvard Business Review).

You never know where you will end up learning something so important and surprising, that it zaps you. I guess one should always keep ones options open. Its been a long time since I wrote anything, feels like words would burst out and lay themselves on their own. But random thoughts rarely make sense to anyone except to whom they occur so might as well spare you the agony and pain.

One of the things to come to terms with, in life, is to deal with separation. To manage attachments. However much one might try and be objective and know the eternal truth's, unless you have given up everything voluntarily, theres no making peace with the pain. I guess thats why Siddharta had to do it to become Gautam Buddha. I sometimes envy the westerners, with their independence comes the ability to manage attachments more effectively. Though I am pretty sure they have to give up on some other niceties in life on the same account as well.

Change is another thing which is hard to deal with, possibly on the same account. Attachment to the existing realities., better known as comfort zones.

Things are going to happen anyways and life isn't asking if you want to learn. The only question is if you want to learn it the easy or the hard way. And who knows in that learning may lie the purpose of a particular life itself?

Some inspiring pics relating to the Indian Army a few colleagues took at the Eastern border

The carpenter story

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer- contractor of his plans to leave the house- building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter.

“This is your house”, he said, “my gift to you”. The carpenter was shocked! What a shame!

If he had only known he was building his own, he would have done it all so differently. We do the most of the things having such thoughts in our mind. But we only realize when it comes back to us. So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then with a shock we realize we have to live in the house that we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently. But we cannot go back.

You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Life is a do-it-yourself project, someone has said. Your attitudes and the choices you make today, build the house you live in tomorrow. Build wisely!

Swami Rama

You really do not need to know many things, but you definitely need to practice what you know. It is a sad thing to tell you, but I have not really learned anything new since I grew up. That which I learned in my childhood is what I have been practicing. 

After visiting hundreds of countries I have discovered that all over the world there is one great problem, and that problem is that the human being has not yet understood himself or herself, and tries, instead, to understand God and others.

--

(Book: Living with the Himalayan Masters)

...

Came across this today: You can't communicate complexity, only an awareness of it.


So., where does creativity come from? If its a constant work in progress with due diligence and asking questions, its not spontaneous. If its arising out of the subconscious out of the blue, what can you do to make it happen more frequently? Is it a trained mind perfected to repetitively ask basic questions which delivers more of this creativity? A few seconds pass by and it appears that thats what it must be. After all, if one isn't looking for anything in particular, why would you find anything which should be suitably particular? What does it mean to find something? For real.. if a cave man stumbles upon a diamond trove, how much of a consequent importance would he attach to it as opposed to finding a meal? Now say he finds a haystack and figures out its a better place to sleep on than a rock.


Even if these three situations arise out of finding something, they differ distinctly in terms of the outcome. They do so because they are associated with the needs and wants of the caveman. Creativity may not be something which one stumbles upon, though its very plausible for it to appear that way. If there is a need, desperate enough, it will happen. Which probably explains one side of why when a situation demands, a calm mind given some time, can come up with things. What it does not explain is how something is created out of nothing. But then again, as a wise friend once said, theres nothing called an invention, its discoveries all the way.
--
No body can convince you against your own will.

Come together - Right now - Over me

If you listen long enough, everybody makes sense.

Not necessarily because they are right or wrong, but because you understand them.

Predictably Irrational

Lazy.

Impractical.

Irrational.

Things of passion? Really?

What is it that makes us think? What is it that tickles our minds? What is it that inspires us?

Lack of regard for the healthy ineptitude of society? Lack of concern for the likes of an indelible mind? Or the spur of temporary imagination which provides an answer to a temporary issue amongst the things of passing tide? Can you dare to make the same choices again if you had the chance?

Is it really an answer we are actually looking for? Or is it a solution for life itself? What is it that we seek? World peace seems a joke at this juncture in an individualistic point of view.

Speaking of individualistic approach in life, somehow every learned person seems to have taken it. So appears that what defines a specific deed isn't really what an individual appreciates. Like these big words with complex meanings to what we define to be a life, you eventually ask 'does it matter?' If so, for whom? I had a pretty normal existence before I knew your complexities of life and how you defined them. So how do I care about my motherland without existential evidence ruining my thoughts of prosperity for her?

What will entertain me enough that a recession will not affect? How long will I keep doing things I find temporary solace in? Is it death I should look forward to? How do I find permanent completion?

Where is permanence in what I do?

Banter

Came across this today
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Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the production and consumption of insults tends to balance out. That observation was made by Raoul Vaneigem, Belgian Situationist philosopher. I wonder what Cioran would say about that.

There is an old Indian proverb that says that the wound inflicted by the swrod heals better than that
inflicted by toungue. There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it is probably deserved. However, understanding and reading the motives and intentions of the adversary is important and we can do that by keeping our cool.

Brat of a brain

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" ~ Epicurus

Well - The obscure takes time to see, but the obvious takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow

Labels are for soup cans

“Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day.” - Billy Graham.

I protest.

You see, what will happen is, one will think of not wasting time, try and come up with ideas, work up the creative muscle, get into something one likes, will then hopefully succeed. It will/will not go into ones head but one will surely be "into" it. Immerse oneself doing what it is to be done and before you know it it will turn into deviousness which one "has to" do. One will go to a shrink as one does not have time for oneself, one is sick of listening to complaints and issues from everywhere. Then one will listen to someone advising one to make time, will have to listen to things like its not the be all/end all of everything and suddenly one realizes.. I need to sleep and waste a little time, be by myself, do a few things without consequence maybe.. Just be and flow maybe..

Because you see, wasting time does not really mean anything at all. Everyone has a journey they have to make through. On different levels, different paths, different mediums..

Success is just like being pregnant: Everybody congratulates you, but nobody knows how many times you were f***ed.

Time itself means only a certain thing on this planet and in this life form. Atbest it's something of a convenience to meet up in future! Time is when the stomach growls for an animal, when the eyes see for an owl, when the season to sleep for six months comes for a polar bear. Somehow it turned out to be a watch dictating things to man.

Excitement - where are you?

There is more to life than simply increasing its speed - Mohandas Gandhi

Someone said theres always a first time and a second chance. Thing is, is there an adequate amount of patience available in this world of NOW? Are there moments of reflection except when mistakes have been committed and guilt has over powered? It is obvious that when tomorrow is uncertain, attachments mean nothing. They mean nothing even when today is certain. Yet there always are attachments. There always is a sense of ownership. There always is a sense of misguided belief and a longing to have things last for ever.

There is nothing which is ever lasting in this world or domain. Yet there remains an increasing amount of struggle and strife. A plan for unexpected-turns-of-life seems outrageous when plans-per-se do not even work for expected events!

The upper and lower end of understanding

Inner peace

I "had to" post this on the blog, came across this in an internal mail at work..
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I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me today, and we all could probably use more calm in our lives.

Some doctor on telly this morning said that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started.

So I looked around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished and, before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of shhhardonay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of vocka, a pockage of Prunglies, tha mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, the res of the Chesescke an a box a chocolets.

Yu haf no idr who fkin gud I fel.

Peas sen dis orn to dem yu fee ar in ned ov inr pece

Excruciating feeling of untapped liberation

I thought someone said, empty mind is a devil's workshop. Well, its empty, its definitely not a workshop and neither is the devil in sight.

RD's gotten quite a bit into the mind and there's excitement in the heart but no outlet to let it fly. The thought of all that can be done occurs but doesn't inspire. Its a good thing its not cloudy and windy outside. That would have been too bad for a guy writing his blog in office hours wishing he was with a YAK in Tibet sipping a drink looking into the brazen nothingness of the golden landscape over-looking a mountain lake. Ahh now, thats a beautiful thought. Add to that a night, a smoke, bon fire.. something to eat and a clear blue sky with a million stars and I'd be willing to never wake up again.

Hopefully, I wouldn't think what to do then! eh?

Statisticians are sexy - Hal Varian

Every major company in the world has installed data warehouses that store huge amounts of data. The data is widely available, what's scarce is the real talent to sift through it, find actionable items, and communicate what the data is telling you. That's where you need statisticians and data analysts -- I think those are really important jobs in the next decade.

Google's Hal Varian recently quoted in the New York Times

Warren Buffet quote: "You don't know who is wearing a bathing suit until the tide goes out."

Thoughts on Leadership - Mike Mears

Competence. Integrity. The ability to see the big picture. There are undoubtedly many qualities that make a leader great. And a lot of these traits have been identified and documented through years of research on the topic.

But what good is knowledge when you don't have a way to implement it?
After all, CLOs can't exactly go around handing out a list of 100 desirable traits and telling leaders to get busy. This was a problem that Mike Mears, former chief of human capital for the CIA and current learning consultant and author, struggled with for years.

"I started gathering data on about 8,000 bosses in the CIA and in other places over a 16-year period," he explained. "I would have employees rate them so I could get a handle on what the 'leadership coefficient' was. I collected about 60 attributes for great leaders and 60 attributes of horrible leaders, but then I kept thinking, 'This is a completely useless list..' So I kept thinking about it and I found that I could align every one of those leadership attributes just under two things."

The "two things" were actually just two sides of the same coin: trust. A great leader is trustworthy himself and can trust others.

"So, for example, being trustworthy: Obviously that involves integrity, that's competence. To trust others includes things like delegating: When you delegate to me, you're showing you trust me," Mears said.

On the flip side, bosses typically are labeled ineffective when they are perceived as autocrats or micromanagers - both of which would imply that they have a hard time trusting others - or when they're believed to be "buddy bosses" - those who are smiley and talkative but provide little oversight and often don't challenge employees, ultimately resulting in them being considered untrustworthy.

"Think about the worst boss you ever had and the best boss, jot down those traits under those two categories, add some, and, by golly, you've captured 90 percent of what leadership's all about," Mears said.

With these qualities boiled down into two main categories, Mears offered a few tips for becoming a better leader:

1. Be aware of yourself and others.
"I guess the first rule is: Do no harm as a boss," Mears said. "Make sure that you're not inadvertently inflicting social pain on people. It really does require setting up some feedback systems to make sure you know what the troops are really thinking, how you're coming across, where you should pull back."

2. Create an inclusive work environment.
"Another part is simply to establish safety with people. As long as they don't feel safe in your presence, you can't move to the next step and establish trust," Mears said. "And if you can't establish trust, you'll never get to the next step, which is establishing clarity about expectations, rules of the road, how much risk they can take and so forth. All the great things we do in adult education and training apply to leadership: Get the cold class warmed up!"

3. Encourage participation in meetings and presentations.
"Don't lecture," Mears said. "Get employees to participate so they have insight that they gain about the subject matter."

God or Father or God-father

Some random thoughts I came across..

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• Um, if you don't want me to crash and kill us both, don't talk to me too much - Heard at work.
• Fate doesn't involve the forcing of your will, but the allowance of the flow of everyday events - Came across in some blog.
• People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election - Otto Von Bismarck.
• A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough - An epitaph for Alexander the Great by unknown.

Meanwhile, I was about to delete another mind-numbing forward when I found this in it: Maybe life is not the party that we were expecting, but in the mean time, we're here and we can still make the most of it..

You never know what you gonna find, even in things you presume as trash!

Why husbands avoid answers and direct confrontation!

Women folk, please take this as nothing but some passing humor instead of banking on it to harass men.


  WIFE: 'What would you do if I died? Would you get married again?
  HUSBAND: 'Definitely not!
  WIFE: 'Why not? Don't you like being married?'
  HUSBAND: 'Of course I do.
  WIFE: 'Then why wouldn't you remarry?
  HUSBAND: 'Okay, okay, I'd get married again.'
  WIFE: 'You would?'
  HUSBAND: .......?
  WIFE: 'Would you live in our house?'
  HUSBAND: 'Sure, it's a great house.'
  WIFE: 'Would you let her drive my car?'
  HUSBAND: 'Probably, it is almost new.'
  WIFE: 'Would you replace my pictures with hers?'
  HUSBAND: 'That would seem like the proper thing to do.'
  WIFE: 'Would you give her my jewelry?'
  HUSBAND: 'No, I'm sure she'd want her own.'
  WIFE: 'Would she wear my shoes'
  HUSBAND: 'No, her size is 6.'
  WIFE: -- silence -
  HUSBAND: 'shit

How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one’s senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality - Norman Douglas

As usual, a friend sent me this story, very revealing..
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This guy had been on a long flight. The first warning of the approaching problems came when the sign on the airplane flashed on: "Fasten your seat belts."

Then, after a while, a calm voice said, "We shall not be serving the beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please be sure your seat belt is fastened."

As he looked around the aircraft, it became obvious that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive… Later, the voice of the announcer said, "We are so sorry that we are unable to serve the meal at this time.

The turbulence is still ahead of us." And then the storm broke. The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines.

Lightening lit up the darkening skies and within moments that great plane was like a cork tossed around on a celestial ocean. One moment the airplane was lifted on terrific currents of air; the next, it dropped as if it were about to crash.

The man confessed that he shared the discomfort and fear of those around him. He said, "As I looked around the plane, I could see that nearly all the passengers were upset and alarmed. Some were praying.

The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they would make it through the storm. And then, I suddenly saw a girl to whom the storm meant nothing. She had tucked her feet beneath her as she sat on her seat and was reading a book. Everything within her small world was calm and orderly.

Sometimes she closed her eyes, then she would read again; then she would straighten her legs, but worry and fear were not in her world. When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm, when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity, when all the adults were scared half to death, that marvelous child was completely composed and unafraid."

The man could hardly believe his eyes. It was not surprising therefore, that when the plane finally reached its destination and all the passengers were hurrying to disembark, he lingered to speak to the girl whom he had watched for such a long time.

Having commented about the storm and behaviour of the plane, he asked why she had not been afraid.

The sweet child replied,

"Sir, my Dad is the pilot and he is taking me home."

Tribute to Pancham da

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uaI1cID9Y

Atleast "one of" the better renditions by a symphony.

Learnings from an article by Robert Kaplan

1. Fullfilment doesn't come from clearing hurdles others have set for you, it comes from clearing the ones you set for yourself.
   
   
2. I have seen many people stall their careers by playing it safe.
   
   
3. One measure of character is the degree to which you put your colleagues' and companies interest before your own.
   
   
4. Being a leader also means expressing unpopular views and speaking up.
   
   
5. Doing the right thing is a reward in itself, psychologically in the short term and professionally in the long run.
   
   
6. Managing your career is 100% your responsibility and no-one else is going to do it for you.
   
   
7. It is very difficult to succeed if you do not excel at the central task which is central to your chosen enterprise.
   
   
8. Many people don't know what their passions are or are so focused on the views of their peers that they drift into the wrong career.
   
   
9. Identifying critical tasks helps you determine how to spend your time and develop your skills.
   
   
10. Spending most of the time fighting fires becomes an easy habit instead of finding out the most important things and working on them. (Comment-Prioritizing the right things with a clear definition of what is important to succeed is very important).
    
    
11. Most outstanding CEO's and leaders value emerging executives who assert themselves out of genuine concern for what is best for the company.
    
    
12. Every rewarding career will bring ups and downs, bad days and bad weeks, bad months and setbacks and discouraging situations.
    
    
13. Wound is all the more painful when it is self-inflicted.
    
    
14. Theres nothing anyone can do to prevent you from reaching your true potential. Challenge is to identify your dreams, develop the skills to get there and exhibit charecter and leadership. Then you need to have courage to periodically reassess, make adjustments and pursue a course that reflects who you truly are.

Glass half empty or half full?

The law of flotation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of things, but by contemplating the floating of things which floated naturally and then intelligently asking why they did so. - Thomas Troward

Stop wiggling your tongues

What great learnings lie ahead.. hard to tell, if you think you know it all.

A friend of mine sent this to me:

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The Arizona Republic reported this story (so I'm assuming this story really is true!):

"As Terry Mikel was speeding toward Tucson, he passed a car, an unmarked Arizona Highway Patrol car. The officer pulled Terry over. When Terry explained that he was late for a class he was teaching at the University of Arizona, the officer took pity on him and let him off with a warning. Before he went back to his car he said, `Slow down and drive safe.'

"Terry felt obligated to correct him. `Excuse me, Sir, but it should be "Slow down and drive safely. You said, "Drive safe."'

"The officer walked back to his car and wrote him a $72 speeding ticket."

We can't do it, can we? We just can't seem to keep our mouths shut! Looking back, we know we shouldn't have said a word, but at the time we felt so compelled to speak.

Maybe you didn't get a ticket as a result, but you've done something just as foolish, haven't you? Maybe even this morning, before reading this message. Maybe even before leaving your house!

That's not an excuse, incidentally, to let our tongues run wild. Rather, it's a challenge. As hard as it may be to control our tongues, it is essential that we strive to do just that. We stand to lose more than $72 if we fail to do so.

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"Power can be taken, but not given. The process of taking, is empowerment in itself.”

Learnings in August

While its pretty much a known fact., personal learnings I find are much more powerful and lasting.

You cannot force your will on anyone. Period.

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In the meanwhile, a friend suggests watching the movie Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn. One of the lines, he says, goes like this "The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing the blind, deaf stone alone with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head."

Now thats powerful I say. Looking forward to watching the movie and listening to the OST.

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Also, I can't believe I came across this during the course of my work: "Time and tide waits for no man"

Quiet Riot

Honest contemplation and you find answers(to life's questions). They are just there. Some take longer, others are quick.

Was reading a chapter of the epic Mahabharata yesterday. Fate as it is, prevails over everything - which makes one think, what if the wrongs being committed are also fated? Why does only the end have to be called fate because you did so and so this amount of time ago and are now suffering the consequences? What if you were fated to do those damn wrongs in the first place?

Also there's this catch that while no one can change the fate, one can choose the path which you may take to meet that fate. WTF?

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Was listening to a song I used to listen when I was about 20. It was anger, extreme anger... and then suddenly the mind (or maybe the subconscious one) threw this song in the fore ground. I had to listen to it. Man, music is one thing which works wonders. Of various kind mind you. It soothes the soul and can ignite the fire. It can enslave and it can liberate. It plays with emotions and makes you burn. I wonder who came up with this concept and how it grew so much. Its become almost a need. I was of the opinion that the music has died in me. Well, it keeps popping its head up every now and again. Mostly its what I used to listen to when I was growing up. If I can call myself that - a grown up, not by just age..

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Its amazing how one can feel connected to the world and still feel alone in the myriad scheme of things.

Its a bad thing. Very very bad. Its like Morgan Freeman says "Hope is a dangerous thing" in Shawshank Redemption.

Everyone gets out, though no one gets to live forever. Who would want that anyways?

After a long time - A thought.

Only rebelous attitudes are born out of compulsion.

Suppression of freedom and forcing someone to luv is similar to fulfilling a hunger by not eating. So how do you do it? The answer, at times, lies in time and subtlety. Other times, the answer never exists.