A forward on Excellence...

A forward on Excellence...

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A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage." The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the idol?"

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. "Excellence" is a drive from inside, not outside. Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficiency...

Thoughts?

Prime Minister's Debate!

Watching the adopted method of putting the Prime Ministerial Candidates on Live TV debate actually was a mixed feeling. It was rather gloomy because all of them suggested that the world around them was in a complete mess and they needed like a lifetime to sort things out.

If all of us put actions where our mouths are, the world will be a better place and quieter too. It all looked like a very well rehearsed show with carefully selected audience and questions. It might have well been the most anticipated and watched TV program in the recent past and the Channel would have made its investments. That's all it boils down to isn't it, ROI (Return On Investment). I'm cleaner than him. Is politics always supposed to be so?

Depressing

Long time.. No see

Moving...

Truth
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Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of "non-violence in parenting":

"I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father ask me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, ' I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together. '

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00.

He anxiously asked me, ' Why were you late? 'I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, ' The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait, not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: 'There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it. '

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday.

That is the power of non-violence."

"Forgiveness is giving up my right to hate anyone for hurting me."

feeling more resposible

What frantic weeks. What memorable occasions. What great fun. Wouldn't even attempt at penning down the crazy busy schedules. Amongst the near and dear ones after a long time. Lot of dancing, music and paranoia.

Photographic evidence and memorabilia - Sneak Preview, Individuals & More Individuals.

Unforgettable

approaching a year in the blogosphere

As that day of the year approaches , a year has whizzed by since the first post. Chetan’s comment on it “Just go on man!!! All the best for future blogs...” is still fresh in the head. Life moves on, with a few changes nevertheless, but it sure does move on. The old adage of time and tide not waiting for anyone is so true. Technology and the web have moved on as well. Twitter's come along which have taken away a lot of micro thoughts away.

Everyone seems to be joining the twittering band-wagon. The blue birdie is flying high. I’d be rather interested on looking at a chart which classifies any post, be it twitter or facebook status, by subject types. I can largely put them into mood updates, food/meal updates, weather updates, sports updates, a few sensible ones followed by silly gaming updates (mafia wars and farmville are especially loathed). I’m following the (then) top 5 Indian twitterers . I find Vir Sanghvi, the most sensible of all. Chetan Bhagat uses it well for marketing his fresh profession and gathering public opinion on his thoughts. Shashi Tharoor adds a diplomatic multi cultural colour. Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai and likes are usually promoting TV Journalism and raising questions on current affairs. What’s really good to see is the transparency that it’s brought and a different mix of network. A few intelligent friends that I follow as well, always make sure they answer every question that the above ask. I can’t understand why Gul Panag is in this list. Discovered a little add-in to post my tweets here on the blog as well, so which hopefully will keep it alive.

The goods always are chased closely by the bads, aren’t they? I can’t figure out why people think the world would be interested in knowing when they got up or had a bath or like the tea that they just made. Cat-fights, bitching about, personal slurs and similar things are un-called for in any medium of communication. You have to be very judicious about who you follow, because otherwise you gather a lot of personalised versions of trivia - as if the new sites and magazines aren't giving you enough. The funny thing is because there are so many places where you have registered, you tend to have an intersection of common friends in your list. You can see the same message via so many different channels.

As the holidays draw closer, companies get ready to flash their holiday marketing. Red colour will over-whelm the streets. You know it when you see the red Starbucks cup with stars. Winter is slowly pushing autumn out and you see people playing with their visible breath while waiting for their bus/train.

Chilling

Pune Mumbai Weekend

Busy evenings follow busy days, busy weekends follow busy weeks. I’m sure every one feels the need of relaxation. Emotional seismograph is at its happy highs and lousy lows, during such busy times. On my way from work, to a family friends house for dinner on an auspicious day of Dhanteras, get a call from a very good friend Sanchit, inviting me for his wedding in January. Funny enough that I couldn’t make those dates because I’ve got my own, this December, but nevertheless shared many laughs of old days.

One particular trip with this particular guy and other common friends was weekend at Pune/Mumbai when I used to work in Hyderabad. I went up from Hyderabad, they’d driven down from Ahmedabad, to meet a common friend, Chinmaya, working in Pune. Timeline goes like... Saturday morning arrival at Pune... typical VVNagar type breakfast at “chai-tapri”... conceiving ideas of Radiance... Osho ashram visit in Koregaon Park... Osho chappal shopping... don’t know how those footwear brand got its popular name... lying around in a pool in some remote club resort... playing cricket, volleyball and a bit of alcohol... Chinmaya’s splash in the pool hitting the rock-bottom... drive down to Mumbai in a awesome weather via the hills of Lonavala... stopping over for a famous vada-pau at a popular joint... finally managed to reach a sea view flat to visit Sanchit’s awesome Bhai/Bhabhi... card games begin with meagre bets of a rupee each... in climax the last round was 4K!!... there was a lot of Vodka Apple + Edge flowing in the blood to realize what we were doing... Sanchit was busy making his apple flavoured vodka hookkas... all wasted to the core in the end... hit the bed and got up straight next afternoon... flight back to Hyderabad and the taxi ride back home still in hangover...

As all these nostalgic thought-waves flow through the brain, Gandhiji’s quote stares at me with his ever smiling photograph “there is more to life than increasing its speed”. Art on the London underground

Waves

let the festivities begin

This week kicked off the festive season, starting with coinciding First Navaratri Day and Eid on the same day. The colours and celebrations would carry almost all the way up to Diwali and New Year, when Kites await their turn. Its amazing how each of the festival has its own food linked to it. Naming them here would be injustice to the ones that I forget, so I better not try. Even more amazing to me is the fact that schools and colleges remain closed on each of the major festivals. So if you ask a school kid, he’d like all festivals because he gets holidays. They know more about the festival schedules than elders. What a way to push for universal brotherhood!

I wonder why different families have different pet festivals. A few of my friends would make sure they are home for Diwali, some for Kite flying, some for Holi and some for Navaratri. I think it would be the elders psyche which permeates into the behaviour of the members of the clan. If I like something, I’m sure people around me would try and make it special (well maybe not if its outrageous). Like the Bachchans’ Holi is now well known, as Big B likes it. The funnier parts when the *stars* and wannabes addresses in the plethora of TV channels and now websites - "Hi, I’m so n so and wish you a very happy XXX."

The heads of the governments for the states and the centre would address the nation on the National Channel – Doordarshan, which again is such an amazement. Austerity and simplicity of DD will remain un-matched, forever. I’ve come across a parody celebrating its 50 years here. However jokes apart, what they achieved then, at that scale, was by no means a simple task and ridiculing it, I couldn't laugh at. At the risk of sounding to protective towards the civil or nationalized services, I would consider spectacularly managed channel networks less challenging today than a single channel in those times. I’m sure DD has lot of loyalists even now. Technology enables them with better ways of managing their services, if only they could manage their content better. The debates of what the state should or shouldn't regulate or control, but that's another story.

In today’s times, with many new ways of doing things, the way people communicate will evolve with time. But things don’t abate to amaze us do they? Like the Tharoor Tweetorama, a simple funny statement creates a furore, MPs squabble on TV shows like they’ve nothing better to worry about. I’m sure there’s more to come..

:)