"Stupid is as stupid does"

last year we had an accounting case on profitability of Forrest Gump and i didnt have the guts to admit in class that i had never watched this movie. when i did finally watch it 2 days ago, it couldn't have been a better time, i was pulling myself up - stress, lack of iron in my body, managing team mates, getting work done.. it is a story that transforms stupidity into simplicity, how you can be stupid, simple and yet be successful and that too in the true meaning of success.

It confirmed my belief in that things happen for a reason. there is a story that i always remember and have told Wiss and now Jo - the king's story. There was a king whose minister always told him, what happens, happens for the best. once the king accidentally cut his thumb. the minister repeated his mantra and this upset the king so much that he was put in jail. then the king went hunting and got separated from his guards. a tribal group kidnapped him and decided to sacrifice him in order of their goddess. then they noticed his missing thumb and released him because he was not fit for the offering. the king came back and went to talk to his minister. he said, " you were right, my missing thumb saved my life. but how was putting you in jail good for you?" the minister said, "if not, I would have gone hunting with you, and got sacrificed in your places instead."

"I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both."

sometimes you need to let things happen and wait for the outcome. you do what you gotta do. and it helps you believe in the outcome, and have a positive approach to dealing with any circumstances. i do believe in destiny but i also believe that we have an equally important role in forming our destiny. just like forrest gump says. also like the lines on our palms, they do tell the story of our life, but the lines change, and so does our destiny based on our actions. thats why i like the way Alice's character has been explained in the Twilight series. She only sees the future when a decision has been made by the person, or the vampire in this case.

"I am tired. I am going home now."

sometime i cut things down to the bare truth and decide what to do next. simple and short term. and then at other times, i make a choice to venture into the unknown. i would like to believe that i am careful, but many people think i am reckless. like my couch surfing experience. i believed that something good will come out of it, and if not then it is a learning i am destined to get. i still got a learning and i still believe i would do it again. if my daughter asks my permission, i would have to let her decide, coz it is her choice. take the barcelona family, for example. first time out of my country, i went with this family that i didnt know, to their home, gave them my personal information, ate with them and let them instruct the bus driver to take me to my place. i believed in them, and in their goodness. then in srinagar, that guy who took us from the outskirts of the city on a rainy night to his brother's houseboat, gave us the best of food and travel options, and took care of us.

i am not saying i dont take precautions, but i am also saying that i let things take their course. i am an instrument for letting things happen, and i am here to learn. thats my motto.

theek hai

i met a german friend's german friend last night who has worked in india this year from feb to sep. i asked him if he had picked up any hindi and he said he has learnt "theek hai". silly as it might sound, theek hai is right up there on the top of the list when it comes to typical indian things. my brazilian flatmate gui brought it to my notice first of all. there are some soap operas featured in brazil where they demonstrate indianness. his most vivid memory is theek hai and arranged marriages and he asked me what was the significance of this term. so i tried to think by saying it myself and he immediately reacted, "you did the indian head wiggle!" so apparently when we say theek hai, we automatically nod our head sideways. non-indians dont understand why these two go together, why a sideways nod is supposed to mean what a nod means and they can never do it both together. with one exception. elie, a mexican lebanese classmate - started with teasing us and now even in class he says yes with a sideways nod.

another classmate - mexican - gonzalo was in india for the first time this summer for a wedding and he pointed out theek hai, beedi, awesome food and crazy traffic. tariq - saudi arabian - who makes fund of everything, likes to feature an educational video about how and why indians use our left hand in the cafeteria. arranged marriage one of the biggest puzzles that people are fascinated with. how can you spend your life with someone whom you have only met for a few hours? how can your parents be so involved in who you are going to spend your life with? how do you search? what about caste system? what about matrimonial websites? how about the meeting between prospects? and then the celebrations itself. why do indian weddings take 7 days? why are there so many people, colours, ceremonies, hours, dresses, sweets, decorations, blah blah blah. i have had intense discussions with ana and melih trying to tell them why its not so different than finding someone yourself and why we trust our parents to do as good a job as ourselves. we made a spoof of the whole concept for our diwali night celebration. complete with dialogues like: "beta sari zinadagi padi hai usko janne ke liye", "US mein naukri karta hai, intelligent hai, chess khelta hai, sporty hai" etc etc. and we didnt miss the every 5 min breaking into a dance ala bollywood movies. the crowd of 170 people couldnt stop laughing.

other things for which i have had the pleasure to note a non-indian's reaction, there is the rangoli, dandiya, diya dance, colourful glittering clothes, spicy food, high intake of milk and yogurt and limited capacity for beer. can you imagine how happy one feels to listen to a hindi song in a european bar, or club? or to just sit back and listen to classic hit songs - jagjit singh, ghulam ali, nusrat fateh ali khan and so on.. then the hindi language itself. once manhar and i had a discussion of why its difficult to teach the script. for example, take the range of nasal sounds - anusvar, chandra bindu, - and the rules regarding where to use what. was fun and i even had the pleasure witnessing his literary genius. leaving you to enjoy it here - thanks to manhar's friend who works in a telecom company in afghanistan and at some point of time took the effort record photonic ramblings..

http://www.cypherpunk.blogspot.com/2003_01_26_cypherpunk_archive.html

Guilty Pleasures

I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror

And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer

But my breath fogged up the glass

And so i drew a new face and i laughed

it made me laugh too. this is one of the verses from the song "I'm yours" by Jason Mraz. Its a very catchy and happy tune, played on the guitar.. you listen to it and suddenly your heading is bobbing one side to the other, you are humming it yourself and you have a smile on your face. the song stayed in my head after a night's sleep and since i am very bad at understanding the accent i didn't know the words only the tune. and then when i started feeling guilty about not even knowing the lyrics, i spent the afternoon with this song on repeat mode till i am sure my housemates had had enough of it.

that reminds me. they gave me this song. so the scene plays out like this. i walk in from my sweaty exhausting Bikram Yoga workout ready to gobble down any food i can lay my eyes / hands on. the guys are watching fight-club on tv (not the movie) where the participants are enticing people to come and watch them, with this tune playing in the background. sweet happy tune not at all like the kicks they were landing on their opponents necks. i know i have heard it somewhere, i wonder aloud. and one of my housemates admits its his guilty pleasure. that led to a night of guilty pleasure songs being queued up on youtube. but that came later. i was curious about this concept of guilty pleasure. so they say coz its a cheesy song. now i am curious whats cheesy. so urbandictionary.com told us Celine Dion is cheesy. why because she has a fake emotions in her song, the lyrics don't evoke a softness in your heart, they make you go urgh with too much mellowness that doesn't seem genuine. fair enough. i didn't admit i only know 2 of her songs, both of which i like a lot. (aah - now i have my guilty pleasure too - i have been trying since then to find mine!)

so anyway. guilty pleasure is in this case a song that you like, coz it makes you feel happy, you find the tune very hummable, and yet admitting this would be embarrassing. i wonder since when did it become embarrassing to admit i am happy. oh no, its because you are not supposed to feel happy about that particular song, coz no one else does. oh! now i get it. so a supposedly cheesy song, which makes you feel happy but not everyone else is guilty pleasure. forget it - too complicated. we like something or we don't like something. but more than that we care about what people perceive us as based on our likes or dislikes. and didn't i just admit that i was embarrassed to admit i like Celine's songs?

its a pity we live our lives choosing our likes and dislikes based on others approval. what if each one of us is doing that? what if this song is a guilty pleasure of a lot of us? at least there are some people in amsterdam who dare to attend Jason's live concert and sing this song aloud with him. keep making those songs dude! way to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnMs4_e06DY&NR=1

means of communication

sometimes i wonder which one i use more - a smile or a smiley. a hug or a ping. handwriting or typewriting.

living in the age that we are in, means of communication are probably the biggest change we have seen. radio, tv, internet, i-gadgets, blackberry and even electronic books. in my personal life, too i communicate more on the internet than in person. blogging, skyping, chatting, emailing, researching and then the various means of staying connected - facebooking, watching online tv shows and movies, picasa which is safekeeping memories - travelling, my niece's various growing up expressions.

its good in many ways. my life is being recorded online. and this data is not going to be erased. every event in my life is captured in various tags all over facebook. in the emails i send out everyday. in the conversations i have with my mom. so she notices how i look like her when i don't tie up my hair. or when i can see dad hugging my niece and pampering her just like i have seen him do that to us in our childhood photographs. in the pseudo-intellectual arguments i have with my brother about growing up, about competing, about learning, about girlfriends and boyfriends. and when i criticize my sister's girlish behaviour, even though now she is a mother of a baby girl. or when i am clinical about my boyfriend's confusions. when i keep in touch with my friends who are falling in love, getting married, breaking up, raising children - the whole cycle of life. keeping in touch with whats going on in the world. pictures, articles, news, different countries, all together. on one screen. my housemate has a kindle. so reading books before going to sleep, or preparing case interview preparation guides, its like a little prayer book he always keeps with him. i am also waiting for the next improvised i-pad or its cousin which is less cumbersome and not as expensive.

and then its fast becoming a necessity - as i realised on Friday when i forgot my blackberry at home, 3 hours without access to email made me miss 3 appointments and delayed the progress on 2 assignments. the speed with which i can respond to an email and how long it can go to maintain a working relationship or impress a client. i put everything down as an appointment or a to-do item on my calendar which beeps to remind me where i have to be and when, with sufficient buffer. so much so that first thing i do in the morning when i wakeup is check my phone. first thing i think of when i want to express my thoughts is to put it as a status message. even though i am now struggling with my loyalty to facebook in light of what kind of person Mark Zuckerberg is. but online social network is still an integral part of my life to stay connected.

my family is increasingly getting tech-savvy too. my parents have email, facebook, skype and picasa accounts. and my niece recognizes me on skype more than in a picture. wonder how it will be in the future. for started probably i will have to skype with here first even when i meet her in person. :) i am smiling :)

the summer that was

mba is a choice that i made. and a choice the repercussions of which i could not have imagined. coming out of my egg-shell as mom says. i started with 2 loans and now i have a job with which i can pay it back. and in this story, my summer experience was the turning point.

life is not about what you study. but about the people around you. in an organization, they have coined a new term - Organization quotient - how well you can make and nurture relationships to get things done. no matter how smart your strategy might be, how perfectly fitting into the framework you learnt in your corporate strategy class. but if you cant explain it to your colleagues irrespective of their background, you cant execute any of your smart plans.

and outside organisations its the people you live with. your family, your loved ones, your friends and companions. and then the people you meet in the journey of life. they will teach you a lesson or two out of their experiences, or they might just teach you to trust human beings. again.

the french psychiatrist who wants to lead a fulfilling life after seeing her parents strive after wealth during her growing up years. the italian diabetic patient or bridge consultant whose life revolves around making couch surfing a safe and reliable community. the canadian sicilian who cannot overcome his daughters' will. what you gonna do he would say often. and then the many egyptian, spanish, italian, pakistani, who would try to find a sign of familiarity in your face, seeking someone from their culture, their land.

teaching things like how applying vaseline under your eyes after washing off make-up reduces wrinkles and doesn't let you age. like how career-oriented women struggle with the decision and then the responsibility of motherhood. to what do they owe their life to - justifying the education they have received or justifying that they have the power and hence the responsibility to bring in and nurture life into this world.

or mundane things like how tv is an addiction. and even though now you may not care about or have time for watching tv, there was a time when you would fight with your siblings for control of the remote. but then again, now everything is online, so effectively you have your own personal all night tv. and you can sleep at 4 am and still go to work at 8 am. or the fact that shopping makes you fight off a depressing mood. plus later on, the giant wardrobe which refuses to fit into your luggage is a big eye opener. how one tried to settle down in one place, no matter how fleeting his stay might be. the desire for a tether. what do we seek? the limitations nature of a tether or the discipline of a home? maybe both. those who go across seas looking for new homes, new people - they start with travelling light. replacing something when its not useful anymore, not adding anymore space or any more stuff. but gradually they become one of that place. still different but never the same. not when they stop travelling. life goes on, while we choose to stop. i will find that out too...