Images that changed the world.

Got this link to someone else's blog from a friend.

The images are really thought provoking. Follow this link to view the image - http://pinguy.infogami.com/blog/vwm6

As MJ said in his heydays,

Heal the world,
Make it a better place
For you and for me
and the entire human race...

Amen.

1 more reason I love being a guy.

I love being a guy. Gals - Boo boo :P.

Reasons:
This article shares some relatively unimportant, but very practical and potent ones. - Niki's blog -
What the...
One more reason - Men don't ever get Orkut scraps like "Hi...Wazzup...u know u are so pretty, I have never met someone nice like u. Wanna frendship with me. Plz, plz dont ignore my message, I write my tru feelingz."
(just for the record, this piece of genius isn't mine. It's from a female friend's scrap book, left by some wannabe Romeo ;) ).

Lolssssssssssssss.....Rotfilmao. Guy world roxx!!

The CMK meaning of Idiot proof!

I often think that we CMKers have taken our motto of "making things simple" to another level. We like to make things idiot proof. But somewhere along the line, unconsciously & unintentionally it manifests itself as "other function proof".

With all the "simplicity", Marketing'ers must definitely feel like 2 year olds learning Ba-Ba Black Sheep in school in our presentations. (No snide remarks about Marketing, even though restrain is tough!!).
When asked questions that are uncomfortable or something we can't put our buck on, we say "Oh! That's technical in nature (you won't understand it?). I can take you thru it separately later (later when? later never?)".

I mean c'mon. Who are we trying to kid? For Christ's sake, both CMKers and Marketing'ers hail from the same echelons of excellence - the IIMs.

I finally quelled my embers thinking that it must be that CMKers are from 'Indian' Institute of Management whereas Marketingers are from 'Idiots' Institute of Management! See, so simple again :).

How vanities come by - even with an honest intent and whole-hearted commitment.

A need for awareness of the world

My take on how my world today has such different needs of awareness from my campus days. But I present my opinions in third person, for the sake of generality and applicability to perhaps a much wider audience.

Today's scenario
There is an accentuated need for awareness of the environment around you. However, no one's going to knock on your door and tell you the world is changing. You have to observe things for yourself - read emails, track news n developments, watch conversations, pick up cues for yourself. You need to take that effort yourself to keep yourself aware n connected. No one's going to spoon feed you.

From these observations, you need to make your own conclusions and judgements. It then comes down to how much you can rely on your instinct. Some plunge in and test the waters for themselves, others wait for the comfort of group think and dive in when the currents aren't as turbulent.

Campus days
A far throw from these days. Firstly, campus was a microcosmic, almost self-contained world in itself. Which meant that the need in question itself became dormant - you could get by just fine without a care of the bigger, real world outside those hallowed grounds.
Secondly, the gazillion people around, the bombardment of cases, etc. ensured you kept hearing snippets of almost every topic under the son. This ensured you kept getting your periodic infusement of news.

Also, there was always a sense (and need) of belonging to a close-knit community of 300 similar intellects. This meant that group think or mass opinion was more the norm rather than a choice.

How things have changed with time!!

Blog-o-miles = 50 :)

Yippee, have clocked 50 posts. And it's 11 months since I set off on my journey.

i.e. Speed = 54 ppa (posts per annum) or 1 ppw.

Could be better, but what the heck!!

Now that I stand at a self-proclaimed milestone of sorts, have to say that I have become quite fond of blogging. I am quietly passionate about my blog. Nowadays, actively keep parking thoughts/ideas in my mind that I wanna write about.

All-in-all, the journey on blog road's been great fun so far. The road's been silken at times, slow going at others. Have had to sojourn away in my mind-motels to allay my weariness from time to time. But a great adventure it's been all along - never drab, never uninsightful! Have discovered aspects to me that I never knew existed!!

So, for the moment - Time to refuel, pat myself and bask in the self-cast limelight. Hehe.

P.S. - And, yes, I do love it when people read my ramblings and leave comments. Always nice to get feedback :).

My trammels of inarticulateness

It’s that feeling again. And I dread it!

As I sit to post something on my blog, I find myself fumbling ever so often to pick out that exact word. I know that I know the word, it gnaws at the annals of my memory and just when I reach out for it - vanishes with a poof!!

English & vocabulary have been cherished passions, ever since I can recall now. Have dreaded ineloquence - it makes me feel that my brain's stagnating and decaying.

I had this exact feeling about 5 years ago while in engineering. The internet and computer science were happening (yes, continuous tense as it was a 4-year course). Which meant that the books got renounced :(. Slowly, I found the depths of my language were silting into shallows. Yet I couldn't do anything to stay the atrophy. Felt helpless, felt miserable...

Then the GRE and the infamous Barrons' word-lists happened. Peers cursed 'em, I loved 'em. Felt a sense of pride and accomplishment as I studied them. (I actually made a hand-written book of all the words I had learnt, with meanings, usages et al. Treasured that book above anything else. Misplaced it in the myriad books after L and till date am aggrieved about its loss :( ).

In retrospect, I feel that that test was a landmark event in my life in many ways. It brought me my passion back. I expanded my vocabulary manifold. It almost felt like graduating to the adult world of English. Started feeling good about myself :). After this episode, I decided I wouldn't let my language stagnate again and would keep polishing it every now n again.

The succeeding 2 years at L passed like a whiff. I don't recall reading too voraciously there. But, the stint at Placecom there, with its million mails and articles, fed enough fodder to my left brain and didn't let it hibernate. It's amazing how when we look back at our pasts, most events end up playing a larger role than you earlier accredited them for!!

Then P&G happened and the relocation to Singapore reacquainted me with the forgotten joys of reading :). Thanx to the NLB, have taken back to reading like a fish to water. Now, while all the reading has ensured I have a solid rearguard in place and don’t slip further, writing is critical to keep the blade sharp. It’s the good old theory n book knowledge vs. practical n wisdom duality.

This duality was one of my inspirations then (there are more than one – an individual + this + my practical obsession with writing A1 docs in office, in that order) to enlist myself on blogosphere. Blogging is my first notable, consistent and serious effort in a long time, at penning down the swirls in my head. And as was Karna's curse, so is mine - cometh the hour, not cometh the required skill - words… :|.

Obviously, the solution to my pangs is to keep writing more n more. But, with the million worldly needs & expectations & commitments that one necessarily has to devote time to, a desire or passion has to cede priority. However, that is but an excuse at the end of the day.

Hence, I have decided to apply my project management lessons to this as well – have put a goal for myself of x posts per week and am tracking myself to it. Status so far = Okay, nothing pathbreaking.

So there it is, I think I have evolved a solution to deal with my hallucinations of a wordless hollow creeping up on me. Simple n pragmatic. The classic engineering approach, my ever loyal refuge, bastion and liberator…

Amazing what fear (even if irrational) of affliction to a cherished haven can drive men to!

Happy Birthday to you...

A birthday celebration in office today reminded me of this particular rendition of the Happy Birthday song :).
This is how it goes

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you...
.....
(more verses)
.....
You were born in the zoo

You look like a monkey
And smell like one tooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Lolssssssssss....Rotflmao :D.

I think it's too cool improvisation. Goal is to sing it in office on a close friend's birthday ;).

Thoughts on a quiet Sunday

Another quiet Sunday goes by. Spent the day listening to some good music and completing my reading of the Silmarillion.

Posting the lyrics of a song which I love. Alone by the Bee Gees. I love it as I can identify with it and find that it is very true of life. In music, I find a steadfast aide everytime my soul needs a draw of strength. (These lyrics aren't mine. Claim no IP rights whatsoever.)

Alone - Bee Gees

I was a midnight rider on a cloud of smoke
I could make a woman hang on every single stroke
I was an iron man
I had a master plan
But I was alone

I could hear you breathing
With a sigh of the wind
I remember how your body started trembling
Oh, whats a night its been
And for the state Im in
Im still alone

And all the wonders made for the earth
And all the hearts in all creation
Somehow I always end up alone
Always end up alone

So I play, Ill wait
cause you know that love takes time
We came so far
Just the beat of a lonely heart
And its mine
I dont want to be alone

Well, since I got no message on your answer phone
And since youre busy every minute.
I just stay at home
I make believe you care
I feel you everywhere
But Im still alone

Im on a wheel of fortune with a twist of fate
cause I know it isnt heaven, is it love or hate
Am I the subject of the pain
An I the stranger in the rain
I am alone

And if there glory there to behold
Maybe its my imagination
Another story there to be told

So I play, Ill wait
And I pray its not too late
We came so far
Just a beat of a lonely heart
And its mine
I dont want to be alone

And all the wonders made for the earth
And all the hearts in all creation
Another story there to be told

So I play, Ill wait
And I pray its not too late
We came so far
Just a beat of a lonely heart
And its mine
I dont want to be alone

Gone, but not out of sight
Im caught in the rain and theres no one home
Face the heat of the night
The one that you loves got a heart thats made of stone

Shine and search for the light
And sooner or later youll be cruising on your ocean

And clean out of sight
Im caught in the rain and theres no one home

O blue ocean...why are thee...oh so... SALTY????

Had gone to East Coast Park yesterday. To cycle and to just chill by the waterside. Had a mixed morning as was having trouble breathing while cycling and hence couldn't build or maintain any speed which would get my veins tingling.

So, to catch my breath for a while, I cycled on to the pier at ECP. It is a jetty that extends out into the ocean from the walkway. There is usually a good breeze blowing there and makes the pier an ideal point to refresh yourself. So, I cycled to the farthest point on the pier and perched myself on the balustrade.

Now, here is the interesting part and the reason why I called it a mixed morning. Outlined below are the thoughts playing catch me if you can in my junk-box as I sat perched on my high throne.

1. I have been in sea water close to the shore. It tastes horrible and salty. Is the sea water as salty and yucky even in the interiors? Hmm...I should ask a sailor man when I meet one next.
2. The Oceans hold almost 69% of the earth's water. What dizzying quantity of salt must it take to maintain the salinity of the sea?
3. Fishes must have taste buds as sensitive as bamboos to be able to live thru a life's intake of salty water.

Well, I was hoping the ocean could have inspired some poetic instinct in me. Poetry somehow seems so classy and the hallmark of a writer who has arrived.

And the ocean just so perfectly fits the bill for inspiration. The mighty seas epitomize romance, adventure n discovery, power, humility, pain n triumph, the vibrancy of life - everything basically!! Its got the perfect mix of all the right ingredients to cause one to weave words into verse.

But no. Try as I might, my engineer-brain could only think up arbit, utterly uninspiring thoughts about the formula for concentration, methods to measure the salinity of the sea and the mechanism of how taste buds work! Just plain defiance to transgress over from geek land to mojo land.

I even tried doing a Leonardo di Caprio, standing with my arms stretched out, facing the sea, trying to take in the so called smell of the seas. I finally gave up and got back to plain, old cycling when the only smell that my olfactory senses could discern was of my deodorant overworking to suppress the sweat!!

No wonder Harika keeps asking me - Are belligerence and ire the only effects I can have on women! Damn.

The purging of Tennis of the Williams era

I loathe the Williams sisters. In my eyes, they have spoiled Women's Tennis - taken it from its suave, violinesque charisma of the Graf era to the brusque, inharmonious, heavy-metalesque current state of affairs.

The earlier game was so much more fun to watch. It was about elegance, ball placement and skill. One could almost sense why tennis was called the game of the nobility seeing Women's matches.
Then came along these two grunters! (whose grunts were almost as bullyish as their ground strokes). Suddenly we started seeing 120 MPH serves and a bombardment of aces in the female game. The game morphed into yelling and whacking as many balls back with as much brute possible :(. The eye-candy index obliteration also did not help ;).

Serena, against all bets, won the first Slam for the Williams at the U.S. Open '99. Then began the Williams run! Between them, the sisters won 9 of the 16 Grand Slams from 2000 to 2003 - a whopping 56% success rate. Their domination was complete - they blew away opponents like strands of straw. No opponent could put up any notable or consistent resistance to the Williams juggernaut. With no nemesis in sight, Richard Williams' plan of ruling women's tennis and destroying the game stood on the verge of completion.

But thank God for Belgium and Russia. And for more than mere sporting reasons ;).
The arrival of Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, and the Russian babe-army derailed the Williams' orgy and began tennis' seismic shift to Europe. Slowly, but surely, the Williams holocaust began to clear and the game breathed in a new life :).

Come 2007, the Williams brawn-house looks nowhere near its former potency. The aura of invincibility has almost been stripped away to naught. The stats stack up perfectly in parallel - only 3 out of 14 Slams from 2003 to the 2007 French Open - a measly 21% success rate from the pompous 56% of yore.

I, for one, am elated that the much feared Williams hoodoo hasn't really materialize and has afflicted only the loss of Martina Hingis to tennis. Now, even she has made a comeback to the circuit :).

But the sisters have left what seems an indelible mark on the game - power is now deeply embedded in the women's game. I ain't complaining though - the lasses are getting fitter, the legs longer, the skirts shorter ;). A steady in pour of Russians and Europeans to the women's tennis bandwagon has ensured that the racquets n balls remain in good hands on great bods ;).

However, thankfully, grace and skill have also simultaneously made a comeback thru Henin's rise to the throne. It's a delight to watch women's tennis again ;). Looking forward to tonight's French Open Final between Henin-Hardenne and Ana Ivanova!

The Club and Spade of I being me ;)

I can distinctly recall my growing up, engineering days when my Ma-Pa always asked me to temper down. I was always a fractious horse who would call a spade a spade, and pretty much in the face of just about everyone. I was labeled quite a few things - the superset being "opinionated, sarcastic, racist, sexist, skeptic, supremely cynical" - and other wonderful adjectives that I care squat about ;).

So, it was an earnest request to not make a public parade of my politically incorrect and extreme opinions on almost everything!! Surprisingly, I did understand Ma-Pa's stance that they didn't wish for people to build impressions and colorations of me that would tail me forever. So, as the years went by, I tried to confirm and be the "good" boy ;), pushing my true instinct to let my brain n tongue lash into hibernation. With time, even tried at my hand at polity and temperance.
(That's the Club of me. It's complicated. At this time, I = Spade, but, me = Club.)

Failed miserably :). But, the horse remained staid and wouldn't yet come out prancing in full glory.

Now, after a year in Singapore, I sense this compulsion rising inside me to set the fractious horse galloping free. My senior at office, Oli, notes and points out my mavericking and rebellious behavior very often these days. I agree to every single observation of his, and with some glee ;).

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to be imprudent or rude or hurt people. Nay, wanna continue being the nice person people have me believe I am :P. Just that I don't want to masquerade any longer with some sort of a filter or mask on. As Adil says, wanna be what I am.

So, I have decided to let the reins loose a bit and let the horsie have some fun! The temperance will be exercised on the tongue (as it causes more hurt than a sword), though not on the mind at all :).
(That's the Spade of I. I = me = Spade ;) ).

Words I treasure...

Steve Waugh had penned an article in the Times of India around the 9/11 attacks' time and when his Australia was steamrolling everyone in the world. The last paragraph of that article were his thoughts on the 9/11 happenings. Been carrying that cut-out in my wallet(s) since 6 years.

Here are his words:

"The recent happenings in America are a catastrophe and put many things into perspective, namely that you must enjoy the moment right in front of you, value your family and see the good in people. So often it is only the negative we hear and obviously things will get worse before they get better in this current situation. Let's hope we can all learn from this and push for a more united world."

Its a para written in typical Steve Waugh style - simple, to the point, real world founded and profound. That's the reason why I find the words so calming and wise. Just like the man who wrote them. (By that logic, if one's writings convey one's persona, I am sure I must come across as utterly confused :). Which I happen to be!!).

Steven Waugh...an exemplary player, leader and human being!! My idol.