Hope.....Dangerous or Good ?

Today, I Just happened to talk with an old good friend after a long gap...Randomly "Hope" came up and passed away in discussion :) 

I believe biggest damage one can cause to other person is by smashing his hope , self respect , freedom and aspirations ... So, no doubt, I consider hope is very important .. Hope is one of the core requirements of an individual.

Hope is a double edged sword. It can make and destroy a person.

People who go for hope as bad thing say different arguments like - “One should concentrate on services rather than on hoping for results  ... Leave results on Supreme Power "  Or  "Hope opens up the risk of getting down in case hope does not full fill  " Or give examples where people had baseless hopes or screwed up their life on failing or people falling on trap of person giving false hopes.

People who go for hope as good put arguments like "It's worth to take a risk of hoping and working on it rather than doing nothing " or " Hope is guiding light for a goal " or give examples where hope acted as life-saver like in concentration camp, apart from gas chamber deaths, all those people who left hope either succumbed to death or committed suicide.

Shawshank's Redemption has beautifully shown this dilemma in some beautiful dialogue like: 

 Morgan Freeman: "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside. You'd better get used to that idea. "

Tim Robbins: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"

In my life , I achieved couple of significant goals when I did not care about results and hope nothing ...  Gone through pain when hope got shattered Buuut, there are couple of instances when hope inspired me to took an extra step, putting me back on the track and at end, making me a better person .. 

It is not an easy choice to make a blank statement that hope is always good or dangerous... It depends on person's attitude, situation and the moment.......

To end up this entry, I suggest, if you know your strengths and weaknesses, have the ability to read the signs, correctly and rapidly, from every direction in pursuing a hope , mature enough to accept the irony of fate, flexible enough for modification if needed, learnt not to be a gullible personality, believe the fact that failure is not the end of world and know the commitments that are needed for any hope , then you could save the trouble and the heartburn caused by shattered hopes and will set more feasible hopes . Hope will certainly act as inspiration not as blocker. 

Top 50 CEO

HBR just released Top 50 CEO

http://hbr.org/2010/01/the-best-performing-ceos-in-the-world/sb1

Interestingly , 70% has no MBA degree .. Could not figure out Why ??? 

May be couple of companies are IT , which are still run by their college drop out founders   OR couple of companies  run by family OR some companies are quite old when MBA may not be very important and CEO grew with in the company OR ????  .. .... Do drop your comments if you got some other reason.

BTW , I am happy Steve Jobs is number 1  ..  Mukesh Ambani is also at @5

Relearnt the old trick

Most of us may have listened Steve Jobs's famous Standford speech about "connect the dots "  . In this speech, Steve Jobs took a look back in his life  and beautifully  connected the dots ... No doubt , we all see back about our past events at regular intervals and this looking back brings lot of  emotions . These emotions may vary lot  .....They can be pride or shame , winning or loosing  , encouraging or frustrating , forgiveness or vengeance ,  happy or painful , innocence or guilt  etc etc ...

So , when you are confused about some situation .. Just make a small story  in 1-2 line and sit in the time machine for free ride to couple of years ahead . Repeat the story and observe what emotion this story creates ..Come back and try to choose a path ... It really helps in dealing with those situation when there is NO clear consequence or things are not absolute .......Moreover , one  get inspiration to stick with decision as there is commitment to a person who is no other but oneself  only ( little bit older though :(  )  .....

My ex- mentor told me this recently  .. For clear consequence type situation , we apply this trick implicitly  ( Like studying for exams , working for promo etc ) ..... For hazy situation , we may like to apply this trick explicitly... I did it for a recent situation and it helped me lot .. Thought to share with you guys .... I think most of you may already knowing this ....:) .. It seems that I forgot it :)

Tablet : My wishlist

Apple is launching iTablet on this 26 Jan ... There are big rumors about this tablet but Apple is keeping secret for big show :) .. Steve Jobs has claimed that iSlate will bring similar revolution in ebook  and information industry as  iPod did for music industry ....
Not sure whether this iTablet is another e-reader ??

My wish list for tablet laptop

Better Stylus support :
Tablet should recognize my stylus inputs much better. It should be like the way a person write on paper with pen .....current stylus recognizability software are not very great...
It should come with multi touch support feature ..
It should have better note keeping software ( described below ) which can help in accessing my old and new sketched notes.

At the end , I should be able to replace my sketch book with tablet.

User Experience (UX) : 
Microsoft had done big mistake of not changing the user experience for its tablet version .. Microsoft did not change the UX for tablet users...... Microsoft just added stylus and handwriting support ( which sucks big time :( ) and keep the same UX ... I think Microsoft had done the same mistake of not changing the UX with windows mobile 5.0 but this blog is talking about tablet ... So I should better stick to Tablet only :)
Tablet Laptop should have great user experience and should cater to tablet users ... . Apple is far ahead in terms of user exp. It has shown the world in Mach , iPhone and iPod ... I am expecting some great UX in tablet.... I would not surprise if there are some 3D effects :)

Convertible ( With Physical Keyboard )  Vs Sleek Tablets :
I will prefer Sleek tablets as they are much lighter and smaller in width with better virtual keyboard.

Virtual Keyboards :
No doubt a person can type much faster than write .. So i would like to have great virtual keyboard with gravity effect . For sleek tablets , Virtual keyboard is on screen . Apart from limiting Virtual keyboard on screen ,  I would like that tablet should make image of virtual keyboard on any surface near to tablet and there is a camera to pick up the user inputs.

Better E-book Reader software:
I wish it there are some better free ebook reader software which can help in reading ebook , making notes , bookmarks , browsing the book and comments... Safari Online books has done great for ebook reading ..
I would also like that tablet should be bundled with  some free note making type software . OneNote is great  but it is Microsoft paid software.

Movie Support : 
Tablet should support all type of codecs . It should come with remote control or voice control so that one can rewind or fastforward the movie sitting far away from tablet . I wish tablet can stick it to any kind of wall or incline to any angle with any surface..

USB and 802.11 : 
Tablet should have USB and wireless support.

Application compability : 
I will prefer to have a tablet which supports application comp ability ...

Misc:
It should be cheap :) . Better battery and supports domain connection

Anyway , Apple did not consult me for their tablet but it will be fun to see how will be Apple's new table will be ....Whole world is waiting for iTable / iSlate to see whether Steve Jobs stick to his promise or not...

Take slow steps ....

Everyone sometimes in their life lands up in a phase when one doesn't have any goals .. May be one has just achieved a goal or going through the pain of some loss or has not figured out passion yet ... There could be many other reasons , which is all together a different story...... But , Essence is  ... life without goal seems pointless and sometimes painful .....

If one don't know what to do  next ... If next steps are sooo unclear .. If road ahead seems so darkkk... It is better to go to the things one knows .. Look for things one might have missed . Take slow steps and finish things one by one ..Neither just sit by doing nothing  Nor jump across and pick up many things  ..... Fastest way to get out of this stage is take slow steps :)

Just finished Ayan Rand's "The Fountainhead " ... One of  the two advice by Ellsworth Toohey was " Don't be too serious about youself " .. Same as Dark Knight's Joker "Why so serious "  ... Leaving the tough part of interpretation on reader ... of course :)

I always love Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen .. One of the line is " Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t."

So take slow steps and don't be too serious about yourself !!!

" Follow your passion " - Is it so straight forward advice ?

I love watching movies in theaters.... I love to go for movies after office's hours on week days ... For a change, I took 3 week break and visited here and there and thus missed couple of movies...  Yet to see "Avatar”... (Yup .. I know it is directed by my favorite director :-().. Any way.. , I managed to see " 3 idiots" last week with all 6 tickets and dinner sponsored by me.... 

I liked the movie ...Can see it one more time (Specially for Ladakh pics and songs ) .. It is good movie but it is hard to imagine that it has done such a grand business of 350 crore till now and is on its way for becoming all time Bollywood hit  . Movie has no special effects and shot entirely in India :)…My friend gave an analogy ..."What ever Apple launches, it shakes the world  ... Similarly, whichever movie has association with Aamir , it shakes the India... People some time become crazy for Apple and Aamir"  ...Nice analogy… Good Job Zach !! .. 

Movie has a dialogue  in which Aamir suggests his friends to "FOLLOW YOUR  PASSION"  ...   I have heard this advice many time and given to couple of people ... I guess  same case with most of readers ...( This guess work reminds me to see latest movie Sherlock Holmes also :-) ) .. Giving this advice to someone who is struggling to find what to do with his life is easy... However, this advice is too simplistic and misleading... ......Hey ... Wait ... I am huge fan of passion and believe passion is internal force to drive one... But Passion is certainly not enough to start a career. 

Passions are just a starting point ... One must also know about one’s talent and how external world values them.....  One may have passion for something but one may not be good at it. So it may turn out a bad decision to choose that passion as profession.... e.g. Big B may sing in couple of movies but he will never take singing as profession and leave out acting...

Taking this it one step further, one may have passion for something and also has developed skill set for that passion ...but that passion does not have returns. This return could be in terms of money, recognizability or keeping one and loved one happy ....Pursing career in that passion with no returns can be frustrating in long run...

I have an example ... In my school; I got a class mate whose father was skillful painter. I used to visit my friend's home and his father used to give me sketching tips. My friend's father had a passion for his work but I could feel tension in his home for economic reasons and later he started becoming uninterested ... Certainly, market for paintings was small and he was paying price for choosing wrong career …

So, one need to decide whether one should pursue one’s passion as CAREER or as HOBBY..... 

One need to look for intersection point where one’s passion, talent and market meets..... If one is able to found that sweet point then one will not believe that people pay one for  job :) ..  Job will not be only a financial resource but also a place where one like to go next day  ...All hard work in job will be internally driven rather than externally driven .......  Finding this intersection point is not easy and requires keep experimenting....  trying lot of different alternatives and ready to read the messages from the world and inner self.........

Flashback

Flashback :
a : interruption of chronological sequence (as in a film or literary work) by interjection of events of earlier occurrence; also : an instance of flashback
b : a past incident recurring vividly in the mind (Merriam - Webster Dictionary)

I was looking my favorite movies in orkut and found most of them have kind of flash back sequence .. Say for example : Rocky series , Titanic , Lakshaya , Forrest Gump , Kill Bill , Terminator - 2 and Hang Over .. I am sure there are thousands of hit movies which are flash back based ... Dude : Does any of your fav movie has flash back :) ?

Even there are popular TV series which use Flashback technique like " How I met your mother " ( my fav :) ) , Lost and PrisonBreak ..

Many Top Best sellers authors use Flashback in their novels ...

Even our academicians has put a subject called "History" in our curriculum which is a nice subject provided that taught well and no need to cram those dates :) . History should be taught as story book ...Grrrr... Changing the topic:)

All above are examples of flasback used in art .. Art is mirror which shows what society want to see.... So , most of us like flashback ..

Everyone of us possess mental VCR ( Blu Ray Player ..Latest gizmo:) )that we use to analyze past events . Analyzing the past events are good to take further actions on whatever happened or resolving to act different in the future or to have some sweet / sour feeling of nostalgia for couple of minutes and then close the VCR. Flashback is good but problem comes when we plugged in this VCR for 24*7 :) . We keep looking our past success or failures , We rewind the tape and replay the scenes from different angles , either back patting ourself or kicking ourself on our past success or failure ... In 24*7 flashback , for success , we think those were the days and for failures , we think what we would have done that way and now it is too late .. For both ways ,We somehow lament :) Ha Ha Ha .. I just remember famous Baz Luhrmann 's sunscreen famous advice - Neither congratulate nor Berate yourself too much as all of them were our half choice ..

Dude .. You can only see movie or see a picture or read a book for a certain time .. not 24*7 :) Give some work for news channels dude :) Any way .. If Hindu philosphy is correct .. we all are going to have a big life flasback on death bed .. So wait for final show :)

Loyalty

Last week , I was in my home city for vacations . I met my old secondary school friends after 13 years ( courtesy Orkut :) ) . Group was quite diverse . It has captain in Indian Army , bouncer in Taj hotel , Delhi business man , Call center manager , Software Eng and Sales Manager. Somehow , loyalty came up in discussion .. For every one loyalty brings different examples .. For one it was loyalty to country , duty and seniors /peers / subordinates OR how less you change your partner on dance floor OR loyal to customer / distributors OR loyal to Adidas and Pizzahut OR loyal to promises and friends OR loyal to targets and anything else doesn't matter.

One term "loyalty" brings "different" picture to different people .. Opinions were looking influenced by profession and environment .. I found it quite interesting ..

We ended this filler discussion in few mins with rapid conclusion that loyalty is always good . Why ? Look we managed to remember each other and had a good time in this get together.. :)

Is loyalty ALWAYS good ?

Loyalty is a quality which every one should strive to develop .. Loyalty brings trust and stability in relationship . Loyalty builds up the character . Loyalty to ideas helps in decision making . Loyalty to nation brings security . Loyalty to institution gives direction , faith and motivation to work effectively. Loyalty to words earns respect . No doubt , Loyalty is virtue to have .

Sometimes , we overdo the loyalty which is not correct .. for example ... Over extended Loyalty to partner may lead to silent approval of all abusive treatments and demands by other partner . Misguided loyalty to friends may turn into group ism and may lead to group conflicts. Misguided loyalty to certain ideas and views may bring inflexibility and disrespect to other views and new ideas . Excessive patriotism sometimes cross the fence less border of jingoism . Blinded loyalty to institution may lead to opportunity discrimination and adopting unfair means in favor of institute or its people affecting other people . Institute and people may start taking undue advantage of one's loyalty and start taking for granted..

To summarize , Loyalty is important . It brings TRUST . But loyalty should not be exaggerated too much or misguided . One should be smart enough to understand when unfair advantage is being taken of one loyalty or one's loyalty is crossing the boundary lines and causing injustice to others

Another Chance

We all have close to death experience in our life ... Quoting some of mine close experience in reverse chronological order .....

1. Fell off the bike on way back from Khardung La to base tent : Khardung La is highest mountable road in world .For past few days , I spent most of day time in riding and night time in talking with my travel group ( 2 other people ) .. That day was the sunny day . I reached at top and started moving down immediately as need to start for Srinagar. Before moving down , I froze my fingers as tried some sketching on ice canvas :) ...I hardly rode 10 minutes when a first sharp curve came and I was on valley side of road . As expected , it was a narrow kutcha road.. Bike skidded and fell off . Bike was over me . My hands were rolling down the edge of track . I can feel the dust while breathing . I can feel sweat on my forehead when there was ice lying around .Lovely valley view started looking so dangerous. Tension lines came on foreheads of my Kool friends when they saw me lying . It was cloooose escape .. I guess just because , it was heavy bike , Bike was holding me from falling down . I never had great feeling when I touched the ground after falling off the bike or bike over me .But that day was special .. Smell of sand was never so sweet. Feel of road was never so great :).. (Leh-Sringar journey is another big interesting story )

2. Driving up and down on snowing Snowqualmie with Dodge's Challenger : Challenger is out of proportion Sedan with 2WD . Weather forecast was fine , so I never thought that it will start snowing in Snowqualmie , I put no chains on wheels while starting. As expected , Road was fine initially but it turned into a bad track as we drove up . It started drizzling and later snowing .. We should have start moving back as soon drizzling started . Drizzling in mountains means that it is snowing up ,I did not know that .. As car moved up , it started snowing , car was skidding like hell . It was very narrow track .. Either , we need to turn back or leave the car there only . It was big car and track was narrow and slippery .. As we had drove up high in altitude , there was deep valley down so taking U turn and driving downhill was risky . We decided to drove downhill only . Some how we reached a place where we could take U-turn and drove down .. It was risky ride .. We should not have drove so high and should have called 911 instead of taking U turn and driving down ..

3. Bike came under Truck : Happened in Hyderabad . I was dropping my friend . Streets lights were not working . I hit a dog and fell off . Dog was crushed to death . Worse yet to come :) . A fast truck was coming behind us , ran over my bike .. I was lying on road and could see my bike going up ,down ,up and down as truck;s wheel went over it . I was few feets away from it .. It was also paining . Then i realized blood and meat pieces over me .. I was shocked and confused whose is it ..... I confirmed instantaneous that i am fine and my friend is also fine . Meshed dog was lying there :-( .. Thanks God , we dropped on left hand side , not on right hand side ...

4. Hit by car in college : I stayed in Dwarka for my college days . At that time , it was not densely crowded . People used to test their vehicle's maximum speed on Dwarka roads .. I had a practical exam in morning . I was just crossing a desolate crossroad when a speedy car hit me from back .. I don't remember what happened when I was hit .. I just remember that I woke up after unknown time , struggling with bike over me on a desolate road. But yes , It was most relaxing snap I had for unknown duration. I somehow managed to pull off the bike and went for exam .. I was late and had to sit with other group for practical exam .. I cannot forget this accident as it left an interesting mark over my wrist.

I know there could be more accidents which I never realized.

My point is that .. We get chances either by serendipity or by efforts . outcome of these chances effect us . Opportunities don't come easily and second chances come rarely . Sometimes we screwed off second chance also ..Getting bad feeling is obvious for any failed chance. It is not wrong feeling but don't exaggerate any emotion whatever the result ...

It is always better to consider every new day as another chance and respect it ... Again .. easy to say than to follow

Handle angry people

[Short blog as need to rush for Delhi . Currently in Bombay .. ..No internet access in Delhi -> no new blog entries for next 10 days ]

Try to figure out three things about a person when he/she is angry

1. Intensity of anger
2. Frequency of anger
3. Duration of anger

Generally this is fixed for a person .. Try to analyze a person when angry and tried to find generalization . This will help to handle angry people in much better way ..