Who? Me??

When I was a toddler I spent my days in Parel, my grandfather(god bless his soul) who was the dean of the only veterinary college in Mumbai was given a huge facility for his family to stay in. This included a research lab, a bungalow, a sprawling estate and staff to support. Life was good, the estate boasted of many trees and plants … as a kid I used to think that there was a jungle in my grandfather’s complex. I had my favorite tree in that jungle, it was one huge neem tree, with its branch grown like a low overhang. My sister and I used to hang out (literally and figuratively) on that tree. To me that tree was the epitome of strength.

We grew up, I  became “healthy”. When I was ten, my grandfather was set to retire from his post … Arati and me decided to bid our last farewell to our tree. We sat on the heavy trunk … and started jumping up and down on that tree … the trunk was swaying!! That added to our excitement and we jumped some more … the poor tree could not take that much strain, and the trunk eventually broke!! Both of us were aghast … to see our ideal in such a shape, and we being the cause of it; all that was too much to bear for us. I think that was the first time I took a life (I am not counting all the chickens and goats I had eaten before that, since I had not cut off their necks – I just ate – so gimme a break, I was a kid ok?).

We moved to Vile Parle, where we had bought our own place – a small 1BHK. My mother LOVES plants, so our entire window grill was filled with different flowering plants. I remember my childhood specifically for this nurturing atmosphere. Soon, we moved into a larger place, which had a terrace – we promptly decided to make a terrace garden. I adopted my first plant – I used to water it, and care for it, enjoy the flowers that came … I saw the seed grow into a full blown vine. We also planted saplings around our building and watered them. Now almost two decades later, the peepal and the jambhun tree that we had planted are giving shade to the entire area within that colony.

If we get so much happiness out of taking care of plants and if it benefits us so, then why do we indiscriminately keep on cutting trees down?

This is not an epiphany that I had. It’s not a structured plan that I have been working towards for the past 20 years of my life either. It’s a thought that I have chosen to take up.

I am fascinated with God. Obsessed even. That’s precisely why I have jumped out of bed at midnight and started writing this post. This post came to me as an epiphany (yes, even I have those  every now and then).

God is a concept people made to turn internalists into externalists. The concept turns them from someone who believes that his outcome/success is in his own hands to someone who believes that there is a supernatural force who is acting in his/her divine wisdom. It’s a concept which turns lions to lambs.

This to a confirmed pro-theist, is kind of an eye opener. An atheist friend of mine will be more than happy to say, “Gee, Kida, I told you so. I was right.”

But I still have faith. I still believe in god, not as an excuse to turn into an externalist, but simply for the purpose of having and nurturing faith. Believe in god, but not for the sake of that exam/interview/proposal, etc. All those things are purely in your own hands, and if you don’t move your lazy arse on the hard work required, then trust me, no god will be able to help. Chance, perhaps, god … no.

Parenthood brings in its own slew of experiences, I won’t talk about the often cited ones like holding your child in your arms and the realization experiences . My mama (the marathi kind), gave us a pram for Anasuya. Everyone was excited … the baby was bringing her own entourage.

Today, we sat for assembling the infernal thing. With a single pager for a manual, and two guys (that’s my father and I) … it was obvious that we had no need for instructions! So came the exercise of figuring out what goes where … in that process of figuring things out, we made discoveries … the oohs! and the a-has!! were multifold. As with almost all D-I-Y assemblies, we finished it and still had some parts to spare (wonder where they go!!?!).

I wonder if they purposely make it confounding, so that the parents get realizations in the process of assembling it?

I graduated in 2006, one of the last subjects I took was IT Enabled Marketing (ITEM). Another was Business Models for E-Commerce (BMEComm). The subjects were easy to crack, and were a breeze. We call these mickey subjects, since the subjects are easy to cruise and you get along by putting half the effort required.

After graduating, I was (and am) involved in 2-3 web start-ups. Great ideas, good people … but none of them know exactly what is it thats to be done. Everyone explores. They finally get it right, and so did we. The thing that gets to me, is that we have been taught all this … in theory. But then we never appreciated that theory then. Theory is useless without practice, and practice without proper theory is a blind struggle.

Today, I am tempted to open by texts and see if the models that we have been taught make sense. I am sure that they.

As I stand on a platform to make the jump, I would like to have some sound theory with me as well.

It amazes me to what extent technology can amaze people. The sheer amount of possibilities it opens up for them … the happiness and surprise that you can see on their faces, it’s a treat to watch. It’s almost akin to the expression of when aborigines first discovered fire … the expression of … “ohh!! aisa bhi hota hain?“. Makes my day every time.

This is going to be a philosophical post, don’t say that I did not warn you at the beginning. But, I have came across an a-ha! for myself at work. This just does not apply simply to Good v/s Evil, but it can be applied to life itself.

Good and Evil are two sides of the same coin, that means, if I were to have an axis (similar to say X-axis), then Evil will be on the left hand side of the Y-axis and Good will be on the right hand side. Thus, Good and Evil are opposites. Now, my friend, what do you do to eliminate Evil? Think. Don’t move ahead and read the answer, please think. Think Co-ordinate Geometry.

You delete the origin (0,0), you take out the Y-axis. You take out the definition point at which Good starts being Evil. You take out that Evil-defining-perspective (Y-axis). I am defining each axes as a perspective on life, and thus, a way of defining (aka constraining) your perspective. Take out the Y-axis and now you have only a degree of Goodness left.

Now, ask yourself – what happens when you take away the X-axis? That translates into a change in your perspective. A shift which fundamentally changes the way you look at things, look at the world. How much more of the co-ordinate geometry concepts can I apply on this? Does this make sense to you? Would appreciate some feedback on this.

My first job was in IRIS, in the year 2002. I loved my job. I had joined with seven other software engineers. We bonded really well together. We used to work on different projects, but lunched together … discussed problems, solved them … and generally helped each other out. Life was good, life was beautiful. I loved my life of a programmer. Our batch was one of the best the organization had, in fact some of us were awarded as the most valuable programmer, et al. No, I am not being modest , but we loved helping each other out … contributing to the organization.

My last job was in I2I. It was a simple transaction for me. I went to work, I stayed there till 6.30pm everyday, I came back – the company paid me for it. The very transactional nature of this perspective made me shudder … I had to leave the organization in search of greener pastures.

My new job is with Illumine, where the culture of the organization is to actualize the paradigm shift from transactional thinking of a job to contribution thinking. Will post more on this later, but at the moment think about it. Is your job a transaction for you?

On this occasion of Ram Navmi, my family and I ended up discussing Lord Ram. My sister made this funny remark about Ram being the perfect politician, and then proceeded to compare him to Hillary Clinton.

I won’t explain further, what are your thoughts on this?

• There is a 30% quota on all engineering seats in Mumbai, reserved for girls
• Women have a higher tax bracket of 1.8 L.p.a
• Free education for girls in all public schools
• Have you tried getting a facial? Or your limbs waxed? A bikini wax?
• Or delivering a child?
• Or handling cooking and other chores alongside your job?

I sometimes wonder why they don’t call men the weaker sex?