The Way We Perceive Life

I read this article in Times of India few days back when it made me think how people perceive life. People are very much familiar with the concept of ‘Rat Race’. Since the time I have finished my graduation and started working, I have felt the race around me. It was almost like people were pushing you into it. It started with campus placements where everyone was interested in the salary package that their friends were offered. No one was interested in the role that they were offered. Everyone assumed that it will be ‘software engineer’ role. In my current company I take lot of interviews and none of the candidates ask me what their role is. Everyone is interested in the package.  

Comparing yourself with others doesn’t stop at salary package. People compare themselves with their peers, friends, cousins and even family members on numerous factors – car, property, gadgets and much more. We call these things status symbol and these material objects give a meaning to our life. They feed our ego. We feel that we have accomplished something and achieved more than our parents might have in their whole life.

 I am not against material things, but I believe that God doesn’t give man what he wants, he gives him what he needs. We should strive to have everything that is important in our life – like having a home to live, clothes to wear, nice food to eat. But because of the Rat Race, the definition of what is important has changed and people feel that having these objects is important and they work extra hard just to buy these things.

So there are one sect of people who look at life like a race. They want to play the race and win. If they win, they are happy, if they don’t win they are sad. If someone else goes ahead of them they are sad. I think most of us perceive life in this way since childhood.

Other way of looking at life is like a stage. It means that we all have a part or role to play in this life. We do not look at life as a race, but as a stage where everyone is playing their part. People come on stage, play their part and leave. The lead actor has a major part and the supporting actor might have a lesser one. Of course, this would mean that the lead actor might get more remuneration than the supporting actor. But in this case, there is no competition between the actors. Everyone is not trying to out-do each other as they would have in the race. Everyone knows what part they are playing in life and are happy about it. They are happy in their role and in their work. Getting remuneration for what you enjoy doing is just a bonus, like icing on cake.

Hence I suggest that before we start comparing ourselves with others, see what role they are playing and compare that with the role that you are playing. Most of the times you will be happy with your role and will accept the rewards that come with it.  

Finally, I would like to end this with a favourite quote I had heard long time ago. It goes like this - “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat”. And that I think makes all the difference in the way we perceive life.

 

The Social Network - A small review

I am watching The Social Network movie again on HBO. I watch this movie again and again and I feel  that the movie does  not portray Mark Zuckerberg as a negative character. I like movies when it is very difficult to judge a character and the movie leaves it to the audience to decide what is right and what is wrong. Moving on, David Fincher has captured the ambitions of young adults very properly. The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and author Ben Mezrich is the best part of the movie.

A personal observation: While watching the movie, I was thinking about the whole Mark and Eduardo thing. I think that when Mark Zuckerberg started the Facebook with Eduardo Saverin, even he was not sure about the outcome. Both knew the idea was great, but no one knew how successful it will be. Money changes everything, even relationships. And that is what the movie has so beautifully shown on screen. 

Can you really control everything?

I woke up in the morning and was trying to rush to office for a client call. I tried my best to finish my morning schedule on time.  Quickly I left home only to find that some moron had parked his bike outside my home. After leaving the gates, I found additional traffic on road. Finally, I reached office on time for the call only to find that the client couldn't come today due to technical reasons (some problems with his computer).

 

Even after controlling so many things in the morning, I still couldn't have the client call. There are so many things happening outside your control that you cannot predict the outcome. The only thing that you can do is give your best shot at whatever you do. You cannot expect the results of your actions. You cannot guarantee the results of your actions.  Even if I had reached office half an hour early, what was the probability of the meeting taking place? It reminds me of the fact that we can only give our best shot at whatever job or task we are doing and leave the outcome to the universe.

 

 

Why did I switch to Posterous?

Well, I did choose blogger over tumblr, butI hadnt seen Posterous latel After posting few blogs on blogger, I saw the new and improved Posterous and realized that it does all that I wanted.  I can now post from Posterous and it can autopost the same to Blogger, Facebook Wall, Twitter and LinkedIn.

So will be using Posterous for now.

 

Testing Autopost

Hello World!

Pune Railway station

A few weeks back there was almost a stampede on the foot over bridge at Pune railway station. I had gone to the station today evening to pick up my parents from platform no. 3. The situation on the bridge was really shameful. The railways had to pay the salaries of two policemen whose only job was to make sure that people keep moving on the bridge and do not create a traffic jam. My coolie was constantly shouting to keep moving otherwise a traffic jam will occur. 

There are two bridges at Pune station. The old one is around 10 feet wide which is used  a lot. The railways made a new bridge few years back , but since that bridge is literally outside the station, no one uses. it Hence even though the population of Pune has doubled in past decade we still have one bridge to handle the increase in traffic.

I just don't understand why the railways doesn't increase the price of platform ticket by 1 and make it Rs. 4 or Rs. 5. Also, why cant they just increase the ticket fares if they are short of funds?

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/mar/300311-news-pune-Pune-Railway-Station-FOB-Central-Railway-crowding-at-foot.htm

http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/8075858.cms

Why did I stick to blogger

I mentioned in my previous post that I am using the same blog even though I am blogging after a long time. I meant that I chose Blogger over Tumblr, Facebook, Wordpress to blog. Or I daresay microblog.

My first blog (this one) has been on Blogger since August 2004 (wow, thats old!). After that I have had many blogs on Wordpress devoted to one topic each like Entrepreneurship, Databases etc. Then I also use Wordpress extensively to build my websites. Apart from this, I have played around with Facebook Notes, Posterous and more recently Tumblr too.

So, when I thought of restarting blogging, my first impression was not to use Blogger at all. I was googling on how to migrate my Blogger posts to Tumblr. But I still chose Blogger because:

1. It is still not easy to import your posts into Tumblr. There are some scripts available online but I didn't wan to use those.
2. I tried Facebook Notes, but Notes are available only to Facebook users. Surprisingly, photos are available to everyone, but notes aren't.
3. I believe I still have some loyal readers for my existing blog who have subscribed this blog in their reader.
4. Blogger is the good old blogging platform. I can blog on blogger and import my feeds on facebook which solves my purpose.
5. Blogger is part of Google. I love Google. I love Android till now. Then we have Picasa albums integrated into Blogger. I just want to see how all of these fit together to give an easy blogging/micro-blogging experience.

Here we go again....

The title of my blog has always been 'Got Time to Blog...' I believe that the title of your blog, product, entity, company has a huge bearing on the behaviour in future. Same way that the name of the child has some bearing on his/her behaviour. Hence I have always blogged whenever I got time to blog and I never tried to force myself to write one blog per week or one blog per month (which many people do just to stay connected with the world!)

Anyways, I wanted to start blogging for a long time and finally out of my busy schedule I managed to write this post - to announce that I am starting it again. Same stuff, same belief, just new learning and experiences since the last time I blogged.

But I am going to be micro-blogging rather than blogging. Frankly speaking, I do not have much time to write a full fledged blog though I would love to do so sometime. So expect lot of short articles, quotes, pictures from now on.

Generations Unfold...

Closing voiceover by Mohinder Suresh in Heroes (Season 3 Episode 19) :

Generations unfold — father to son, mother to daughter. Where one leaves off, the other follows, destined to repeat each other's mistakes, each other's triumphs. For how do we see the world if not through their lens? The same fears, the same desires? Do we see them as an example to follow, or as a warning of what to avoid? Choosing to live as they have, simply because it's what we know, or driven to create one's own identity? And what happens when we find them to be a disappointment? Can we replace them? Our mothers, our fathers? Or will destiny find a way to drive us back? Back to the familiar comforts of home?

Know where you are

Knowing your destination or end-point is not enough to reach that place. There is one more thing that you need to know, which is also as important as knowing your destination.

Any guesses?

Your starting-point, your source. Without having a clue about where you currently are, there is no way you can figure out yourself how to reach the destination. The only solution to reach your goal, in that case, would be to ask for directions. You could be very very near to your destination or maybe miles away from it. But you don't know that, because you don't know where you are currently. Hence, you could just blindly follow directions as given by others and hope to reach the end-point.

So, the next time you are lost, instead of asking for directions, you should ask them where you are. Ask them where you are, how far you are from your destination, how much time and efforts will it take to reach there, and then ask them how do you reach that place? Once you know accurately where you stand, where ever you are, you will be able to make better decisions on road to reach your goal.

Random Quotes: Business

Operating a Business doesn't come with a manual

- Rishi Agarwal