Normal: A postmortem

I love celebrating New Year’s. Who wouldn’t? This puts me in the same category as everybody else.

I hate celebrating my birthday. This puts me in the category of borderline nutcases.

Is that okay? Is that normal?

We spend our lives contemplating about ourselves vis-vis a perceived normal behavior. 

I am having weird dreams about falling off a cliff lately, is that normal?

I don’t like going to noisy parties like my friends do. Is that normal?

We can find all sorts of such questions on various forums. TV shows offering relationship advice, newspaper “Ask the expert” columns, Quora, chat rooms and what not.

Many times not just ourselves; we don’t spare anyone at all. 

Uncle so and so sold off everything he had and went on a world tour, normal people don’t do that.

That guy is in a committed relationship and is flirting with somebody else while his girlfriend looks on, is that a normal relationship?

Shahid Kapoor married a college kid! Is that a normal thing to do for a film star? 

Don’t we? What does normal even mean? According to Merriam-Webster, in the context of this discussion, normal could mean the following:

1. according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle; conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern
2. occurring naturally
3. of, relating to, or characterized by average intelligence or development; free from mental disorder :  sane

In other words, not abnormal. Not insane. Or, average. In a mathematical sense, something that fits the bell curve:

If you do something which more than 68% of the people in the world do, then it’s normal or conformant or standard or regular. Otherwise not.

Most of the people don't rob a bank. That’s normal. I guess it is okay to fit the bell curve here.

Most of the people don’t exercise regularly. That’s normal. But it is not really okay to fit this bell curve.

Would you go on making imaginary bell curves for everything under the sun? Now, is that  normal?! What kind of normal is acceptable?

But you know what, the real question here is: do you even want to be the same as 68% people? The answer is: no; and yes. It’s not about being a conformist or a non-conformist. If the majority of people on the world can swim, even a staunch non-conformist would want to be in the majority. Simply because it’s a good skill to possess.  Same for a conformist wanting to do something different, such as deciding to keep the car in the right lane, or following traffic rules!

  
So, in a nutshell, it’s okay to be a nutcase sometimes. It is also all right if you follow the rules. After all, life is too short to be spent thinking so much or trying so hard to be normal. In fact, lets just scratch this word from our vocabulary. 

The Equality of Democracy - An experience at a PSK

A country of a billion people. A democracy that baffles with its diversity. Everywhere you go, you can get a glimpse of this difference. A difference that exists sometimes subtlely, sometimes right there staring at you in your face.

One such glimpse stared at me one day at the passport office. People from all walks of life, no matter what socio-economic-cultural-ethnic background they come from, get merged here, in a sea of passport applications. Nowhere else is the power of the state more visible than here. Maybe a police station would be another such place. But that is another topic. 

Power, concentrated in raw form, in the hands of a few people. In their hands the power of substantiating you as a passport worthy citizen. The bourgeois and the ordinary vying for their attention, a few minutes of their time. Equally. The aspirational ordinary looking at the better dressed thinking the world is for people like these. They get to go places. The well heeled thinking this is no place for themselves, standing in a queue waiting for their turn, thinking the world is for the masses.

Classes and masses. Classes cursing in English, masses in Hindi - both under their breath of course. No one wants The Government to hear their thoughts (Government being the people at the other side of the counter). The smell in the office a mixture of perfumes, deodorants and sweat. More sweat than deodorant. More Hindi than English. More casuals than formals. More with families than alone. More young than old. Rules the same, roof the same. Discipline - or lack thereof - the same. 

As a lone woman standing in one of such queues, I think where do I belong? Who do I sympathize with? And my turn comes.

I lay my life bare in front of His Almighty. In all original documents. He opens my old passport, looks at the photo and says, is this really your passport? I am shell-shocked. If the Almighty decides it’s not me in person, who would validate my identity? I manage to blabber out that it has been ten years….Sir (I almost said Prabhu at this point but checked myself in time. Yes Prabhu, I cut my hair short, stopped wearing glasses and have aged. Spite me).

I begin to think maybe the Almighty is a bit chauvinistic. His boss comes to my rescue then and does the needful. I thank my stars. The Government poses a second question: your husband’s and your surnames are different? I say yes; I didn’t change mine after marriage. In my head I say, is that a crime? Definitely a chauvinist. The third question proves it. Address change. Where is your wife/of address proof? I go….huh…what does that even mean? Stumped.

Turns out, daughter/of address proof doesn’t work after marriage. I wonder if son/of still does? I take a 180 degree turn then and don’t look back, fearing the Almighty might decide to call in security to throw an aberration out.

I take a look around. Feel people’s eyes on me. The well-heeled and the not-so-chic, the smelly and the scented, the Hindi-type and the English-type. Everyone is looking at me. And suddenly it dawns. I don’t belong. Masses, classes, anywhere.

To hell with them all I think. I shall come back. Maybe with no proof of having married? Then maybe the surname and daughter/of address proof would be acceptable? To The Government, that is.

Coming back to equality. Well, we’ll get there. Someday.

P.S. I did get my passport renewed in spite of everything - surname, appearance - in my second visit. Apparently, a joint bank account statement suffices as the ‘wife/of’ address proof, which The Government aptly forgot to tell me the other day. Google to the rescue! After all, it is the new savior now (till the day it turns the way all All-Mighties are supposed to turn: sour).

P.P.S. In case your are wondering what a PSK means...it stands for Passport Seva Kendra.

The heart and soul of a speech – an (un)scientific derivation

"What is the most important aspect of a speech?" When asked this question, some are often perplexed and don’t have a ready answer, some even more so because they are Toastmasters! Ah….the irony of it….who else knows the innards and anatomy of a speech better than them? Starting from the beginning of a Toastmaster’s journey, the Competent Communicator manual projects guide them through the process of writing and delivering a speech – how to write an organized speech, how to make it apt and to the point, how to add shine and sparkle to it; what is body language, voice modulation, visual aids and how these can add value to a speech; how a speech should always be backed up by extensive research; and how to persuade or inspire an audience combining all the aforementioned attributes together.

With all that background knowledge, to single out the most important facet is indeed difficult. Being an engineer expert at drawing a graph first and noting the readings later, I decided to apply similar logic to this burning question and arrive at an answer. Reverse engineering is the second best solution to the most challenging issues, ask anyone working in the IT industry! (The best one is of course a machine reboot, but that’s sadly not applicable here.)

So for any given speech, if we take out the body language and expressions, would it still be a reasonably good speech? This one is easy; sometimes just listening to a speech and not watching the delivery arouses such emotions that hundreds of people are moved and motivated to take some action. Who can forget Pandit Nehru’s iconic ‘At the stroke of the midnight hour’ speech once they have listened to its audio clip? This conjuncture rules out two major factors and makes the choice that much easier for us, even Cassandra would agree. In other words, this ‘Listening can sometimes be as good as watching’ theory leaves us with the confidence that visual aspects can definitely be forgotten for now.

Does that mean voice modulation takes the cake? Again applying the same theory, let’s try removing that too - we are not watching a speaker, not listening to his/her speech delivery, but we are, wait for it…reading (yes! Genius thought, wasn’t it!)…reading the speech transcript. Now if anyone says that reading a speech has not made them laugh or cry at times, is definitely lying. We know that any speech worth its while would deal with an appealing subject, and would have an introduction that would immediately grab your attention, a body which doesn’t bore you and a conclusion summarizing and reinforcing the thought. Wouldn’t reading such a speech still have some degree of effect on you and serve its core purpose? There you have it – the heart of any great speech has to be its content. A syntactically and semantically correct artistic prose, laced with rich vocabulary, impeccable and relevant facts, aptly placed quotes, text that flows from one paragraph to another flawlessly and makes you think, feel, or understand: even reading such a speech material would have a profound impact. Q.E.D.

The next step in our logical analysis should be a corollary of the theorem we not just constructed, but even proved. For this, let us consider a speech that was delivered with the required conviction, with appropriate hand and body movements, expressions defying a mime artist, voice graph more rhythmic than an  ECG report, but with such grammar that made you flinch. Or some statistic that you know for sure is made up. Or with such a vocabulary that even your kid could manage better. Or a hasty introduction and abrupt conclusion. Could the immaculate delivery save such a speech? Surely not. Q.E.D.

In a nutshell, content is the lifeblood of a speech, its basis, its foundation. You add other aspects to it to make it stronger, more impactful and attention-grabbing; whereas content is what you use to even build up and utilize the other parameters effectively. Without good content, a speech is spineless. It’s like eating the cherry on top, without having tasted the dessert. Like tearing out the glittering gift wrapper to find an utterly disappointing gift within. A river sans water. A body sans soul.

Being a blogger myself, I admit that I am not totally impartial in this derivation, but hey….I did present a valid argument (thanks to reverse engineering!).

The Real Beauty of Ladakh

You get there and try to take in the snow capped mountains and the pink-blue-green-brown-grey and other technicolor rocks. The wondrous white sand and the crystal clear waters of the sangam of rivers Indus and Zanskar make you want to stay there forever. The mesmerizing monasteries and their fascinating frescos are also one of a kind. The varying shades of blue of the Pangong Lake make you thankful for being alive to witness such a wonder. The zigzag roads seemingly at odds with each other but ultimately reaching the same destination, shake you to the core, making you reach depths of thought you never consciously fathomed. The oasis town of Alchi and the bacterian camels of Nubra Valley are bedazzling. Momos and maggi at the highest motorable road at Khardungla, and the hot green tea at K-Top during snowfall is otherworldly. The pashmina shawls and the exotic jewelry at the Leh market redefine luxury for us city folks.

But, all this, taken together, does not equate the real beauty of Ladakh.

The real and absolutely ravishing beauty of Ladakh is its people. Their unmatched innocence and simplicity. Their kindness of heart. Their zest for life in the hardest of circumstances. Their positivity and optimism. Their Julley – one word meaning hello, good bye and thank you – a unique way by which they mandate expressing gratitude at meetings and partings.

United by cricket, bollywood, music and the national language, these people can blend in with anyone and yet maintain their own characteristic naivety. They own their cars but prefer to work as drivers with the customary Dalai Lama picture above the steering wheel; we ask them incredulously, and they say, “This is a great job! Why would I do anything else?” There are blind turns and dangerous alley-roads but they refuse to honk, when asked they say, “But I did honk, didn’t I?”, and the real reason after probing a bit turns out to be, “That poor guy will get scared.” Again in disbelief we can only stare agape. When an accident does happen, we expect a fight and are somehow sadistically pleased that now we’ll see the human side. But, no sir, they just get down, smile at each other sheepishly; the offending driver admits his mistake and pays for the damages, monks who are hurt put on bandages the tourists provide, and everyone moves on. Unbelievable. There is no need for locks because there is no scope for theft. You lose some belongings in one hotel, they aptly reach you at another one – yes, staff from the very hotel from which you moved do that for you. You can only try to smile and say Julley. Walking down a road looking for some transport, a godsend car would invariably stop and offer you a ride for a hundred bucks. Struggling with lack of oxygen and the bitter cold, you could get hot tea at a monastery in the middle of nowhere. Honesty and integrity really mean something here.

The place also sprinkles some of its magic on people just passing through. From the soldiers of the army to the engineers of Border Roads Organization, everybody is happy to help, or even exchange a few words. Tourists, both foreign and domestic, some in search of spirituality, some adventure, some pure old fun, and some a few good clicks, forget language and cultural barriers and whole heartedly discuss just one thing – Ladakh: with all its glories and all its difficulties.

And the icing on the cake is the locals’ easygoing manner of talking and their willingness to go to lengths to please others. Excerpts:

From an apparel shop at Leh market –

Seller: Madam, why don’t you try our pashmina stole!

Madam: Ok. <Tries to put it on clumsily>

Seller: 1 min madam, let me show you how. <Ties it properly>

Madam: Hmm…looks good this way.

Seller: Yes madam, but you will have to learn to tie different types of knots. Videos are available on you tube.

Madam: <totally stumped>Really?

After river rafting –

Barely out of teens Kayaker: Madam, aapka umr kitna hoga?

Madam: Tum batao kitna hoga?

Kayaker: 22-23

Madam: <pleased beyond words>Thanks! Khush kar diya tumne aaj!

Kayakar: Why?

Madam: Arey, young samjha tumne mujhe, isliye.

Kayakar: Oh. Achha. Boyfriend hai?

Madam: !

(And now you know why I really wrote this post..ha!)

My Toastmaster's speech 8 - "Maharashtrian Thali"

Its called "Get Comfortable With Visual Aids" and focus is on supporting your points with visual aids and handling them with ease and confidence. Also, lessons from previous projects should be kept in mind. The visual aids i used were - a thali and a single slide ppt. Plus, i was dressed in a maharashtrian style sari.

Namaskar Fellow Toastmasters.

Our country, India is an amalgamation of cultures and habits so diverse that it is said “kos kos par pani badle teen kos par bani”, meaning mile after mile even water changes and every three miles you get to hear a different language, or at least a new dialect. And every region or culture has its own traditions and rites and rituals and sometimes they are so different from each other that we could literally get cultural shocks going from, lets say Gujarat to Rajasthan or Poushchimbanga to Orissa.

The topic of my speech today is one such tradition from the Maharshtrian way of life which has baffled many a people not born into it, and that is the typical meal and its arrangement around the plate, or thali. Yes, you heard it right, I said the arrangement of the meal around the thali. Surprised? Well, we don’t do this as a regular practice, but only on special occasions, which are usually festive ones, like Navaratri, or Holi – the days differ from family to family and are actually passed on via generations as a legacy. In my family, such a meal as I am going to describe is prepared thrice a year.

On such a day, the plates are set on the ground in a line or square formation and are surrounded by a rangoli. The meal is eaten sitting cross legged and is prepared and served by the ladies of the household. This is a sample plate which is normally used, <at this point i brought out the plate> though there is no formal guideline about the shape but usually circular is preferred. A bowl or katori is placed at the center and at the top so as to divide the plate into two sections. The glass of water is placed at the left side outside the plate.

Let me tell you now about the various food items and their order. The very first item on the left is salt, but since it is considered inauspicious to serve salt in an empty thali, we start with serving a slice of lemon, and then place salt in between the lemon and the katori. Next comes the chutney, and pickles can also be included at this spot. After that any sort of salad can be served, this can be anything from a sprouted one to mashed grains or daal; followed by a cucumber or banana based raita. At the right side, there can be any number of cooked vegetables in line one after the other. Then comes something called 'pattalbhaji' in Marathi, which is essentially a leafy vegetable cooked as to form a semi solid dish to be eaten with the chapatti.

Coming to the center, the katori is filled with hot kadhi, and below it can be bhajiye and papad, etc. Then you have the sweet dish, which is often laddu, along with sweet chapatti called pooran poli. Rice is served just below this in a neat mound and is topped by yellow daal and ghee.

This is what a sample thali looks like after the first serving. <at this point the ppt with the below picture was shown> 

People are then invited to sit and as soon as everybody gets seated, the second round of serving starts and this goes on till the meal is over.

To someone who is coming across this method for the first time, it seems too much work to do, but believe me, once you get the hang of it, it’s not such a big deal. If you look at the ergonomic aspect of this arrangement, its almost perfect for a right handed person, and we Indians as a rule, eat using our right hands. Hence the placement of the glass of water on the left side so that it is more approachable and doesn’t get spoiled. The left part contains all the raw uncooked items usually eaten in lesser quantities. The right is for cooked portions served hot and the middle is for items eaten in major quantities and are more reachable. This also benefits the one who is serving since she knows beforehand which dish is to be served where.

But for me, this is not the real brilliance of this tradition or any other tradition from any other region for that matter. That there is a scientific explanation for everything or that our ancestors were so intelligent as to bring in such ingenious ideas in seemingly simple things – that too is not the real brilliance of it. The real brilliance, my dear friends, is the fact that there is no documentation of rituals like these. There are no scriptures, no guide, no rulebook where you can find this written. It is passed on by word of mouth from generations since centuries and it is has stood the test of time, and that is because there is something deeply rooted within each of us which keeps stuff like this alive.

Being an agnostic, I have always believed in putting a question mark to things, rules specially, written or otherwise, but I cannot for the life of me, put that salt on the right side or that laddu way below, because, that something inside me, which is also a little obsessive compulsive, cannot think up of a better way to accomplish this.

Thank You.

This speech took 8:17 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the visuals used, however, the thali could have been used in a better way, and choice of words could have brought out more culinary feelings about the described dishes.

My Toastmaster's speech 7 - "Superstitions in the West"

Its called "Research Your Topic" and focus is on supporting your points with specific facts, examples and illustrations. Also, lessons from previous projects should be kept in mind.

It took me a long time to do this, but finally I am here for my seventh speech; I went back to my own blog to dig out some topic of my long forgotten interest and came across the one had written 2 years ago, called Rationality, Religion and India where I had argued that people in the West are as superstitious as people are in our country and therefore it’s not true that somehow we are less rational than them. But it was just my opinion and analysis not supported by any facts or stats. This project has now given me the chance to delve into this topic further and present before you some superstitions not only believed but put in practice in the “developed” world and to prove that superstition is a global phenomenon.

Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13

Many people in North America and in some European countries believe that 13 is an unlucky number. There is a custom not to have a 13th floor in a building. Now a sane person would obviously ask, “How is it possible?” Well, there are many answers. For one, completely omit calling the 13th floor a 13th floor in a building. You have 12th and then you go to 14th – resolved! No 13th at all. A widely known example is the “One Canada Square”, a skyscraper in London, containing 50 stories, and my dear friends; this was built quite recently, in 1991 and has had the privilege of being the tallest building in the UK till last month. People have seen its fire escape stairs that go straight from the 12th floor to the one called the 14th floor.

One Canada Square

Another way is to call it 12A instead, like Santa Anita Park's horse stalls. Believe me, it really exists, it’s a racetrack in Arcadia, California. Yes, in the United States.

Santa Anita Park

Other buildings often use names for certain floors to avoid the number 13 designation. Like the Radisson in Manitoba, Canada calls it the “Pool Floor”. The Sheraton in Niagara has a restaurant on the entire 13th floor. The Monroe Park Towers in Richmond, Virginia uses it for mechanical equipment only and the floor is accessible only from the freight elevators or stairs.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia - fear of Friday the 13th

According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, about 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by this dread, so much that some avoid their normal routines, like driving or scheduling travel that day, or even getting out of bed! Kind of reminds me of the fear of total eclipse in our country. It has been estimated by statistical analysis that $800 to 900 million is lost in business on any Friday the 13th. True story. But at least this is a good example of a self-confuting theory. According to a study there are lower than average accidents on any given Friday the 13th as fewer people drive owing to their fear of meeting an accident this day.

Superstitions in Sports

There are many such superstitions in the field of sports as well in western countries. For example, the Terrible Curse refers to a sports superstition that holds that desecration of the Terrible Towel, a fan symbol associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers (an American football team) causes misfortune to befall the offending team.

Terrible Towel

Curse of the Bambino - cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004. The curse is said to have started when the Red Sox team sold their player Babe Ruth, the Bambino to New York Yankees in 1919. Before this, the Red Sox was one of the most successful baseball teams, having won 5 World Series titles, but they were able to reclaim their title only in 2004, after decades of hiatus. This curse was so much a part of the Boston culture that when someone spray-painted a road sign saying “Reverse Curve” to “Reverse the Curse” the officials left it as is till 2004, when the supposed curse was actually reversed. Not only this, some fans hired professional exorcists to purify the stadium. Some placed a team Boston cap on top of Mt Everest and burned a Yankees cap at its base camp. Yes, true story.

Babe Ruth, the Bambino in 1918

My point in enumerating all these examples is not to say that western people are more irrational or superstitious; rather, that masses everywhere are the same. So its not about east or west or their religion or our religion or their beliefs or our beliefs. Superstition in itself is irrational, not that ‘we’ or ‘they’ are ‘more’ or ‘less’ irrational. It has to be got rid of. Everywhere.

Note: All references are from Wikipedia.

This speech took 7:10 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the choice of topic and confidence level, the research could have been more thorough.

Emcee-ing @Office

An article i wrote for my company's internal magazine, probably no one read it there - so trying it out here

:-) anyways, this seems like a good place for keepsakes.

About 200 pairs of eyes staring. Almost all of them way too eager for the show to start - actually roaring at the two emcees present on the stage. This is the point at which I had to enter. As the co-host. For the first time ever in my life, I was compering a live event. Whew.

Scary, right?? No way…scary doesn’t even begin to cover what I was feeling at that moment. I was horrified. Mortified. Dumbfounded. It took every ounce of self control I had to not tremble or collapse there, and every iota of confidence (which my friends wrongly believe I have in plenty) I could muster to deliver the two lines I had been practicing since the past two days. I took a deep breath, looked at my co-anchors, felt the weight of the faith that Team Samskruthi had shown in me, braced myself (I could also have taken lord’s name, but I am not much of a believer, or did I? can’t remember) and lunged forward. All in the span of a second or two. Funny what an adrenalin rush can do to you - moving things in slow motion is just a side effect. After that, it wasn’t exactly piece of cake, but I still managed to control the butterflies in my stomach reasonably well, if not completely :)

I am talking about Fashion Fiesta - the launch of Samskruthi’09 on 28th August in Indore. The rumor that a fashion show is going to be held (for the first time in my office in Indore) was in the air for quite a while and became news when nominations were invited about a fortnight before the event. Like everybody else, I was also thrilled at the idea of watching friends and co-workers walk the ramp from some sheltered corner amongst the audience. But that was not to be. After a week or so, I was asked, or rather, informed that I would be the emcee for the show. And the preparations began. Thinking of a good introduction was a major challenge. Not that the rest was easy….it took a hell of a creative brainstorming for the three of us anchors to come up with each and every concept (which was of course already tried and tested in various national events) - the na-real awards, questions for the contestants, brain teasers for the audience, and what not. That was fun, real fun…thanks guys…I owe you one!!

The show was a great success, thanks to Team Samskuthi @Indore, amazing music arrangement, hilarious skits by the Musketeers group and most importantly, the wonderful participants and senior managers for their special "tapori" walk. Not to forget the enthusiastic audience who kept the momentum on from the word go. I can’t help but feel a bit proud that I too in some way was a tiny part of this magnificent evening. Thanks everyone for letting me be!!!

Rationality, Religion and India

This is actually a comment written on E=mc^2 as response to the author's "Rejection of Rationality" Series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). Since I took such a long time writting the stuff, I thought I might as well include it on my blog.

It is really sad that majority of our population has been blind to rationality from many centuries. But yes, we do have our Vedas that are said to be based on scientific observations (I haven’t read them myself, but many intellectuals have who say they are indeed scientific - and I have taken their word; including Carl Sagan, who in his Cosmos has beautifully summed up the astronomical history of mankind and includes ancient Indian scriptures as evidences along with many other civilization's texts – I mention Carl Sagan’s opinion as worthy not because he is from the "west" but because he was a noted scientist famous for his science books).

I think the issue is, where and how in history was this kind of thinking or the Vedic legacy lost?

One reason could be its inapproachability to common man due to the complicated language (Sanskrit was spoken and read by only some elite few) and complexity of thought. Some of the elite few would have tried to preach and spread the message but knowingly or unknowingly misinterpreted/skewed facts vs. opinions during the process. Some could have deliberately attached religious tags with practices to make masses understand and follow the point. The rulers could have observed that people are generally God-fearing and would do what is told whole heartedly if everything is associated with religion and God – and it got filtered down generations in a completely twisted form – in the form of rites and rituals. Starting of Sati/Johar could have been the act of one fanatic maniac female absolutely in blind love with her man and found suicide a better idea than widowhood; and then was martyrized so much that it became a ritual. This was an unfavorable hypothetical analysis – a favorable one could be about vegetarianism, where some intellectuals found its advantages and coupled it with religion to make it a generally acceptable practice. Just a thought – and I am not at all suggesting that this is what actually happened or the “west” is spiritually imitating or following us. But there is no denying that our ancient culture did have traces of science and rationality.

Today the agenda/manifesto of our political parties also includes religion and related stuff. Our leaders want us to remain blind about facts and glamorize religion. This could have begun centuries ago and since we did not embrace the "Age of Enlightenment", we have remained ignorant on the whole.

My point is - it is not about "west" or "east" or their religion or our religion or their science or our science. Yes, there are cultural differences which are bound to come and have evolved as huge rifts because of different geographies, climates and historical circumstances.

Masses everywhere are the same. Its not that people of the "west" are not superstitious - the number 13 is a prime example – there is no 13th floor in some hotels in the "west" – where is their rationality now? Isn’t the floor numbered 14th actually 13th then? Or is this their shedding of "excess rationality"? Its not that they don’t use phrases like "Fingers crossed" or "Touch wood" or "Thank God" or words like jinx, voodoo, taboo – they do, sometimes more than we do. Superstition in itself is irrational, not that ‘we’ or ‘they’ are ‘more’ or ‘less’ irrational. It has to be got rid of. Everywhere. In our country specially because it’s our country and we want it to improve.

Rulers and the way of they rule is different. It’s a shame that ours are still using religion and "ritualistic Hinduism" is being promoted. I think the "west" learnt this the hard way during holocaust and American civil war (racism should also not be the basis of any rule). And have moved on to other ways of uniting people and making them pay taxes, like promoting and advertising science (NASA and its missions); their role as international policemen, etc. It’s high time we learnt it too.

Hard Working or Smart Working

This posting is the result of my presently ongoing utter lack of ideas and phlegmatic lethargy of what to write. Please dont read, its an article for my company magazine and is really boring.

The combination. What’s the point in always toiling hard day and night to rediscover things when you could have spent a little time to look for better available solutions and reused them? And what’s the point in always trying to work smart and evade the real implementation of the fertile resource you have been gifted with - called brains - and getting no self satisfaction at all? What the point actually is - like all things in life, there is a trade off here as well, and one needs to strike the right balance between hard and smart working – because ultimately we are working to live a certain standard of life we have chosen for ourselves, and to derive a sense of achievement and contentment from our work.

Let us consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to comprehend this further. According to this theory, human needs can be arranged in a pyramid as shown in the picture below.

The first four layers of the pyramid represent basic human needs and are called "deficiency needs" - an individual does not feel anything if they are met, but feels anxious if they are not. Needs beyond these four are "growth needs" - when fulfilled, they do not go away; rather, they motivate further. As and when a person keeps fulfilling the deficiency needs, starting with the physiological needs like food and shelter, (s)he keeps progressing to the upper tiers, ultimate goal being transcendence, at which people become aware of not only their own fullest potential, but the fullest potential of human beings at large.

The theory when applied to work indicates that smart working can help us achieve the deficiency needs speedily (to satisfy our anxiety). However, if one keeps working smart without putting much sweat and toil, his/her personal-professional growth would remain limited to the lower tiers. As far as the upper tiers of the growth needs are concerned, hard working is the only option (to understand and appreciate our true potential and caliber).

Hence, it is clearly evident that the optimal mix of these two working techniques can surely lead us to achieve success, and also help understand the meaning and significance of life. In media mogul Ted Tuner’s words, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."

City buses in Indore

Got a chance to ride in the city bus last week (at long last - they had started operating in 2005 or 6). What an experience! i never knew an international standard service was being run right here in my own city. From outside the buses looked pretty cool, but it never crossed my mind that the service could be any cooler. The condition of the bus was impeccable - good comfortable seats, enough space to stand (and breathe), even the windows were intact (now thats a real luxury). It halted for just a few seconds on each bus stop (which was fixed and not random!) and didnt wait for more passengers to come. Wow.

i was standing in the bus marvelling the seating arrangement inside and the efficiency of the driver when the conductor came to hand me my ticket...i nearly had a stroke..he had a fully computerized hi-tech ticket system with him and gave me a printed ticket!! i vow to check out the bus system in US the next time i visit...i am sure it wouldnt be better than this. They even have their website detailing the buses' route, fares, schedules and other information. What more, they have stamped their presence on wikipedia as well.

If only our traffic and road conditions complemented these buses....<sigh>....God knows how they manage to drive the monsters through the small, jam-packed, zig-zag, rule-free (in absence of a traffoc cop) connections of cemented-uncemented paths called roads in this city - its beyond me. Advice-advice: If you are driving a vehicle and see a city bus coming along, its best to get out of their way...not only to keep safe, but also to show respect - they really deserve it!

The Mahalakshmi festival

Its a three day Maharashtrian festival (or ritual would be a better description maybe) - actually its a kind of legacy, as in only a few set of families practice it and it gets inherited down generations.

The first day, statue type structures of deities (representing two married women - sister-in-laws to be precise - and a child) are put up, are adorned with jewellery and the place is decorated. On the second day, special food (fixed menu - consisting of majorly pooran poli and laddus) is prepared. Third and final day, the statues are dismantled.

The best thing about this ritual is that very little pooja-related-stuff is involved, and most of that too is fun. Then we also get to exercise (and sharpen) our creative talents - there is no restriction on the amount or kind of decoration to be done. Also its a time when the entire family gets the chance to get together and enjoy - and not to forget - the food - its awesome.

India and Olympics - why cant we?

Kudos Mr. Abhinav Bindra. You showed the world what can be done when a capable individual sets off determinedly to achieve something. But why cant our country of a billion people excel in sports overall? Here's my analysis -

1) Ours is a poor developing nation, so expecting the government to spend loads of money in sports will be thought of as extravagancy (not that corruption or heavy military expenses are justified) - we dont put much funds even in science, technology, r & d, etc - a trend which is slowly changing though - sports would be the last thing they can allocate national funds to. Imagine what would happen if we had our film industry run by public sector.

2) In our country, from early childhood we are fed science and maths textbooks. We have a saying - "padhoge likhoge banoge nawab, kheloge koodoge banoge kharab". This mentality needs to be changed - actually rooted out. Lets hope our generation achieves it.

3) Like they did to cricket this year, privatization can be done in all kind of sports. India can definitely produce champions in all games. Maybe reality TV shows can help here..anyways music/dance/acting talent hunt shows have reached saturation. Maybe we need a Gajendra Singh for sports as well.

4) India can do it. High time it starts...n then i hear they are including chess from 2016 Olympics..we'll be definitely much better off then :-)

Does cross-cultural communication training make better expatriate workforce?

Cross cultural communication training has become a must in today's business environment. The world is fast becoming a global village and to survive in such scenarios requires us to acquire as much knowledge about others as possible. Cross-cultural mistakes can lead to unnecessary hard feelings and may involve huge costs. Moreover, we cannot live in a secluded environment away from other peoples and their practices.

The contact between business people from other countries is becoming more frequent day by day. The more national boundaries a company crosses, the greater the scope for misunderstanding and conflict. To succeed internationally, it is essential to be able to break the barriers of culture and language. The importance of cross cultural communication training becomes more pronounced in the onsite-offshore business model, which is a very common practice not only in our company, but in the entire IT industry today. We have to interact with people from completely different, or rather, diametrically opposite realm of society, almost on daily basis. Their way of expressing themselves formally or in small talks, their gestures, etc may leave us in many an embarrassing situation if we remain ignorant of their background and behavior. People from different countries or even different states have their own idea of sense of humor, of societal norms, of work habits; and being a part of a global team, we need to know, understand and respect them.

Cultural impacts include difference in self, personal and social responsibility, regional politics, religion, manners and etiquette, gift giving protocols and the list goes on. Cross cultural training helps us realize all these diversities which in turn are useful in building our credibility with the clients, and avoiding misunderstandings. One thing that is very much acceptable in one culture may be considered extremely avoidable in the other. Lack of proper training may lead to total chaos if such situations arise. Not only verbal, but physical communication, i.e. body language can be totally different in different cultures. Understanding the exact meanings of such behavior definitely aids in effectively understanding client needs and also in conveying our thoughts to the other party.

So, all in all, in order to understand the norms of designated cultures, build good friendly relationships, communicate effectively with foreign colleagues and to successfully apply cultural protocols in business situations; cross cultural training is a must and indeed helps in making a better expatriate workforce.