Neurolimit

The earth is round and not flat. There is something called as nature. There is a vast universe above (as if it’s somewhere in the sky). Sun is the heart of our solar system and one and only source of energy which we have. We grew up hearing such things from our elders from time to time. I was not an exception here.

Every since I have wondered about the unknown variables that are hidden in the complex environment we are in. Everything, ranging from life, our blue planet, solar system, to galaxies and conceptual universe (which we have never seen) baffles me at times with me unable to comprehend the rationale why we are here, and what if we were not here. What would have happened if say, the earth did not subsist at all? We would have not seen any life. What is it that we all would be thinking in such a setting, with no one around us? You would have not met yours parents, your family, your friends, and all other inhabitants you know so far. You can envisage a scenario in which you are looking at the earth from a distant cold space, and suddenly it vanishes into nowhere. You’ll just see some celestial bodies which will be revolving for millions and billions of years, and will continue to do so till the time another ‘probability miracle’ happens and crafts another earth like body which caters to fresh life somewhere billions of light years away. How big can the entire so called universe be? Billions of light years big? Who the hell created it? Who are we, what is matter, from where did it come. What is the perimeter? And if there is a limit, what is beyond that boundary? How many worlds we have? This is the type of mystification I go through many a times and at one stage get so scared with these unanswered questions that I stop thinking about all of this. It seems this is beyond human thinking.

This is the limit of human thinking, where all of our intelligence fails. I term it as human neurolimit.

Somewhere in this confusion I realize that with such important questions to answer, we still get time to clash among ourselves on mundane issues and complicate simple things which happen in our social lives. Life is precious, and we need to ensure we make the best use of it, since we have our own limitations on what we can do and what we can’t. No matter how much we invest in understanding the above questions, there will always be a limit for each of us individually. This is the bitter truth of life, and nature.

…but still the question that what if we were not here ponders me. Probably, the answer lies in how we used to feel when we were not born!

Think about it.

Theory of relativity

Remember those days when you scored 8 out of 10 in Mathematics, and still got a mocking look from your fellow class mate who scored a 10? Back home, the comparison never stopped with your dad’s best friend’s children. Why did they always score higher, and you always had to settle with a little less? You used to ride a bicycle, and got really envious when the bad guys got their new, screeching Yamahas and grunting Splendors. Eating in school canteen was largely dependent on pocket money. Having a bun-samosa was not a big deal, unless you had a bottle of coke in the other hand. And yes, a can of coke would put you in elite category. Certainly!

You matured soon with ever increasing demands, ranging from more sessional marks during engineering days, to a nice gaudy cell phone. You always wanted a better girl/boy friend. You became brand conscious too! Nikes and Adidas were the only good brands that made comfortable shoes; all others were ruled out. Then were jobs, which largely focused on salaries and type of profiles, of course. When it came to vehicles, a four wheeler was a must, preferably a sedan with a nice music system. Alloy wheels would garnish the ride. Cell phones would mean either corporate hyped Blackberries or fun-centric Apple iPhones. Sipping a coffee at Barista became a daily activity. Sneaking in others lives became easy through Facebook. They should have named it Sneakbook actually. Well, it never stopped!!

The unexplained word here is ‘it’. But what is this ‘it’?

Here, ‘it’ refers to relativity, which drives our egos. This drive helps us create magic. This magic is commonly known as happiness. And with happiness comes life!!

Right from our early childhood days, to our friend circle, to working in multinationals, and to what not, relativity plays an vital role in our survival. It is the key to a better life. Be it school, college, work, or anything else; relativity always finds a place somewhere.

Now, let’s try to give this another outlook. Imagine a day when you wake up with a certain set of qualities, talking in all aspects. Let’s map it with another fictional person whom you know well; can be anyone. Both of you have same set of qualifications, jobs, money in accounts, salaries, etc. Also to add, the people you know have exactly the same opinion/feeling for you both. You have exactly the same belongings, including the level of sadness (if any), and even same potential for a task. In short, happiness parameter is same in both of you individuals. With this scenario, how will life look like?

Confused? You shouldn’t be. Life will look exactly the same, till the point one of you decides to better something in your life. It may be your earning capacity, your relations with another person you know, maybe even changing your car and making it look better than the other one, etc. It is there where you will realize the pinch of added happiness. So, what was it that created this little bit of disparity? It is relativity. This example should not be confused with jealousy, which may force an individual to harm the other person’s hard earned happiness by unethical/unacceptable means.

A proper mix of all above factors shapes up your life. Whatever you want in life can be achieved with a proper proportion of all these three interdependent parameters, namely relativity, ego and happiness. And any misbalance here can lead to little less happiness! If it’s too low, we call it being sad!

The need to grow, the need to be better, the need to be more powerful and successful defines life. Life always thrives to grow. It may come in many forms. And we chose these forms. The day life becomes non-relative, it will die! You can’t be content with what you have! That’s the thumb rule of life. Bitter, but true.

Happy reading.

So you think you can drive? Think again.

It dates back to late 80’s. My uncle bought a Fiat Padmini; which was adored like a queen. It was a white elephant (though I guess bought in black) that used to take away most of our playing space in the verandah. Nonetheless, I made it a point to get into it at times and play with various light/blinker buttons, which were objects of appeal in a car in those times. Not to forget the black colour fan installed inside the vehicle, which was considered as a marvelous cool gadget! 

Our first family-car was a Maruti 800. It was considered as a muscle machine and often showcased as a vehicle with an amazing ‘tough to control’ pick up. I started learning driving at the age of 16. My normal driving route was about a kilometer from my house, where I used to drive only on gear 1 and 2. By the time I turned 17; I was pretty ok with driving but was more comfortable with a navigator. Driving alone was still a nightmare for me, until the day when I had to force myself to drive without someone sitting next to me. I still get goose bumps when I recall that night when my grandfather got seriously ill, and I had to rush home to get my dad’s car, alone at 9pm! I was a kid that time, without a valid license. But thankfully all went well, and we reached the hospital on time! 

Aaah.. that was nostalgic. So, coming back to the point, what really is fine driving? If you have attended a driving school for a month, and now are already on road, you still may not be an expert. One thing that people usually miss out here is relevant road experience. It is just like a Mario game, in which you know how to make the dude move forward, but need to learn several tricks to evade oncoming turtles. Of course, you don’t get gold coins here,  

Following are some simple tests, which will determine your driving skills. Please see how many you can clear, and basis that you can decide your level:-

 

1)      If asked to drive at a constant speed on a free road, are you able to uphold that speed? This should be an easy one; and if you fail, get off the wheel ;)

2)      Can you reverse the vehicle without actually turning your head to look back? Tip: This just comes with practice.

3)      Can you stop just 1 inch before an empty can/bottle kept in your path? Tip: Go slow initially. If you master this, you can pass speed breakers very easily stopping when needed, and thus ensuring greater economy for the car. You car will be away from potholes too!! 

4)      Single speed breaker test: can you pass a gigantic speed breaker, without letting your car touch it from below? Tip: Whether the car will touch the speed breaker or not depends on BOTH ground clearance and car length! Most of us think it is just dependent on ground clearance; while in reality ground clearance figures are misleading. E.g. GM’s Optra ground clearance is more than that of Maruti ZEN!! It’s still tough to handle Optra on nasty speed breakers because of its length.  

5)      Multiple series speed breaker test: can you cross the speed breakers without slowing down completely and at the same time not making your car look like a camel? Tip: Depending on the gaps in between, you can speed up the vehicle in such a way that the tyres sync with the humps. 

6)      At any point while driving, are you aware about vehicles around your car (all 4 sides)? Tip: No tip really; just use all mirrors.

7)      Can you easily judge the distance between your vehicle and objects towards the left? The answer should be yes. Tip: If you think that the top left edge of the windscreen can pass clear of the object, in all probabilities the entire car will pass unscratched!  

8)      Do you keep your vehicle on extreme left while turning on hilly roads? Answer should be yes! Tip: Most people think that the vehicle should be in the center of the road while turning. This is a myth. The vehicle should be always towards the left (unconditionally). It is to make way for huge vehicles (bus, truckers, etc).

9)      Are you comfortable using hand brake on a hilly terrain or on a spiral road as we often encounter during parking in malls, etc. Tip: To learn the skill, just use hand brakes and accelerator initially while on such terrain. You will automatically learn how to use hand brakes; and then later can use a combination of both hand and leg brakes.

10)  Can you reverse park your vehicle, ensuring center position in the parking space? Tip: Just judge the right side of the car using right side view mirror. Left side will be in place automatically!!

11)  Are you able to drive, without realizing you are driving? That is to say, your driving comes from the subconscious. Your brain knows where to slow down, when to accelerate, and when to put on what gear. Tip: This will mostly happen on your daily driving routing. Comes with experience. No tip really!

12)  Most importantly, while driving, can you sense your car engine? If you do, you actually know the beast very well and hence can control it very easily.  Tip: When you accelerate, try to listen to the vehicle. It is just like your heart beat. We know when it increases, by sensing it automatically. Same principle applies to your car. Knowing the heartbeat will ensure you slow it down when needed. In fact, your car pulse syncs with your own pulse while driving. It’s important to keep both in sync, and under control!!

  

Below are some car maintenance tips:

 

1)      Avoid lending your car to friends. It impacts the performance, if it gets a bad driver!

2)      Some service stations recommend Nitrogen as air for tyres. Never go for it. Scientifically, Nitrogen is no good for tyres. So why spend extra?

3)      Ensure your car is balanced. If your car goes sideways on a highway when the steering is let free, it needs a balancing check. Not doing this can severely damage your new tyres.

4)      Heard of extra mile/premium fuel? Never go for it. Doesn’t matter if you use normal or extra premium fuel. It’s been tested and proven that both give almost same performance.

  

Above is just a summary of my experience with driving so far. I still consider myself in learning phase, as I am sure there’s much more to come. 

Drive safe; and don’t use high beam unless really needed!

New media formula: Sell emotions, make money.

I am sure all of us are aware how media sells ‘emotions’ these days. I just happened to see a music talent competition on one of the television channels (can’t recall the name though) where admired music industry tycoons Shaan and Mika get into arguments and then later sort their differences, again on the same screen. It was also bizarre to see a video of one of the contestants’ parent who cried on the penury they have gone through to get their son to that stage. No offense to the parents at all, but I am sure that this is the modus operandi which media has learnt in the past couple of years. Worst thing: it sells in India! I am sure I don’t even need to quote any more examples here, as it is quite evident in all reality shows.

But we won’t stop there. Now it will be the animals. 1411 tigers left is what they say. But they also say that it is an Aircel initiative. It is weird to see what goes behind in the making of such campaigns. It is easy to spread the message in urban India. And who is not aware of ever diminishing tiger population? Try asking a class 7 kid, and you will get the answer. Is this what we need to do to save tigers? I am sure crores are going down the drain by means of such campaigns. The questions to ask here are:
1. What are we doing to spread this awareness in rural areas where tigers are actually killed by the villagers? Hope we all recall a video broadcast which happened on one of the news channels few months back where a big cat was mercilessly slaughtered by about 20-30 villagers, as it had entered their territory. Bigger question: Did the cat enter human territory, or it was vice versa?
2. What are we doing to stop merciless killings of tigers? Writing blogs? Sending SMS? Is all that we need to do to save the bid cat? I mean, how ignorant we can be here? Do we really think that spreading awareness will help? By the time we spread awareness, 1411 will become 411.


‘Idea’ for instance in trying hard to save trees now, with the recently launched save paper campaign. I am really not sure what is Idea trying to prove here by asking people to stop using paper and use their cell phones instead. Does anyone here realize the amount of paper we use in offices, despite of almost all organizations having computers these days? Again, crores going down the drain. It is not hard to realize these new age publicity tactics.

Simple marketing strategy: Pick out one problem, link it with the brand, and market it. We have enough of problems, and sentiments which make up for these scavengers.


I can go on and on with more examples, but want to put a full stop here. Its money game everywhere, no matter how organizations try to link real life problems with their brands.


Views invited… if you come across this page…

Robbery @ my house in HSR Layout...

This happened sometime back in our rented house in Bangalore, where I even stay currently. My sister and her husband are now based out of UK, but way back in 2007 we used to stay together in this house here.

It was 7a.m., Monday morning when we opened the main gate, just as we usually did every other day. Minutes after we opened the gate, my sister realized that her hand purse went missing from the main room, the place where she kept it the evening before. Sunday was full of fun, wherein we visited couple of places in Bangalore and came home late in the evening. My sister kept her hand purse in our main living room, which is also the entrance room. It was gone in the morning. Someone came in the house just after 7a.m., while we were all in the house, and took the bag quietly. Hundreds of pounds, along with lot of gold which included their wedding rings were all gone. Total damage of about Rs.90000. We were supposed to keep all the stuff in the bank the very next day, but it seems the timing went really wrong…...of course not for the thief!

We had only one suspect. It was Stalin, the guy who used to come to our house to wash Balaji’s car. Balaji and his family used to stay on the first floor in the same house. We began looking out for Stalin in HSR, but all went in vain for about a week. He went absconding from that day onwards, and didn’t even turn up to clean Balaji’s vehicle. Finally, it was almost after 7-8 days when I spotted him working in a nearby house. Stalin was a slim guy, and I knew I could handle him given to understand my physique as compared to him at least. But, this was Bangalore and not Delhi, where one first would have given him a beating and then would have questioned about the incident. I had to restrain from doing that, taking care of any issue I could end up in here. So, I called up my brother in law, and both of us brought Stalin to our house for further enquires. The policeman, with whom we were in touch, was on the way to our house already. He arrived and took the guy to police station. The guy was given a good bashing there but still didn’t utter a single word about the theft. Later in the evening we got a call from the police about the status, and that they would further probe. We somehow did not want this to continue further, so went to the police station and brought him back, just to get a call from an unknown lawyer next day to withdraw our police complain failing which we were threatened about legal action. That was the extent up to which we suffered. Fortunately, we had some relatives as senior advocates who suggested us to not to withdraw/give anything in writing to the police, as we had till that date not given any written complaint. Giving a complain withdrawal even without filing a complaint would have ended us into a big trap!

This was the ordeal through which we went. Certainly a costly lesson for us!

R.I.P Peter Bren Ibarra

Dear Pete,

It was June 20th, 2008 when I first wrote an email to you, unaware of the fact that I would soon form a very good friendship bond with you in the next few months to come. I soon landed in Manila for one of my short but critical projects, Project Pink Panther. By this time we were already in touch for several open items related to the project.

It was exactly 1 year back when I reached Manila (on 20th June, 2008) and met you. You were a charming person, with loads of energy and ‘never say no’ attitude. One would always see you smiling, no matter what the situation would force, be it work issues or personal life matters. It did not take me much time to realize that it were you who could single handedly (and I mean literally) setup technology for an entire center, within no time. Similar kind of setup in India would take me at least a team of 10 resources who would slog to make things happen, somehow. Most amazingly, our center in Manila had only 2 technology resources including you, heading technology operations.

As the project progressed, we worked day and night to fix issues collectively. Resource was always an issue, so we had no option but to work on all aspects, be it small or big. Of course it was you who used to come up with solutions to every problem, no matter what it would take. I remember once entering the office premises along with you on a Thursday afternoon and leaving at around 3p.m. on following Saturday. This is the intensity with which we two worked!

We would often leave office at 7a.m. just to get some rest, return at 4p.m. and continue our endeavors. I used to enjoy the relaxing ride way back to my guest house in your old Mazda, which was a moving house in itself. One could easily find your clothes hanging in the rear, your toothbrush and other cosmetics scattered here and there in the car. You never knew if you would step on brylcreme gel someday while stepping in your own car. This was your dedication towards work, and more importantly, TIME! I still remember that you really liked Suzuki Swift a lot, while I always debated on Mazda RX8 being a better choice for you, because of low cost there. I also remember that you could make out only 1 word in Hindi dictionary, which was ‘Chalo’ which you interpreted really well, always. Not to forget, the freshly baked cheese pizzas which we used to eat almost everyday, along with diet coke to balance the fat intake. I recall you trying hard to find vegetarian dishes in campus food court so that I would at least eat something, rather than eating nothing.

Nonetheless, as a sports enthusiast, you used to dedicate your short weekends to friends. You were fond of battle sports, which your fellow mates used to play with guns that could only fire small rubber/paint bullets. Your other past time included analyzing different cell phones. I recall how much time you took to finally buy Samsung Omnia 3G over Iphone 2G! Pink Panther was a success, with our organization making some good profit. Mine was a short trip in Manila, which ended on 5th Aug, 2008 with my return to Bangalore. I was happy for the project, and also for some good hectic experience which I got out of it.

Time passed by, and everything was fine, until recently when I came to know that you were not keeping well because of some infection. It sounded quite normal to all of us, as we all usually get ill, and then recover. But I guess nature had something else in store for you my friend. It was 16th July 2009 when I got a call from one of my colleagues early morning. The news was sad, and unbelievable. You were no more. You had left us all, abruptly. This was the short 1 year for which I knew you. I last had a chat with you sometime early July this year, when you told me about your bad health. I wished you all the best, but I think it didn’t prove enough.

I would always remember the good times we had. I still cherish all of the text messages/emails that you sent me in the past. I still can’t believe that you are no more. It just seems like a bad dream, and I still hope to come out of it sometime.

My friend, remain happy always, as you were when you were around us. We will always miss you.


Your friend,
Sumit

Out of control!

This recently happened to me. I was surprised to see an escalation from one of my peers marked to me (mistakenly) which was actually meant for the person’s boss! It was fun!

So guys, the tip of the day is: Don’t write in a bad mood, and re-read before pressing SEND!

Wish you are reading this… my dear friend. :) Take care next time you escalate...