SUN IN THE CLOUDS

Sun and the clouds playing with each other on the top of Corcovado in Rio. Loved the way sun acts as an halo to the hazily visible Cristo.

RIVER OF JANUARY

Currently, tens of thousands of miles away from near and dear ones, in a city whose English translation is River of January, I rediscover the magic India has...

BUDDHA

Difficult to believe a rock taking such an articulate pose of the meditating Buddha. That too on the top of Swiss Alps.

(Top of Mt. Titlis, Swiss Alps)

ALEPH

“…..letting himself be guided by signs, he travelled to various continents – Europe, Africa and Asia – on a journey through time and space, through past and present, in search of himself.”

I have developed a new fascination about this topic of time and space converging and surprisingly the books I am picking up randomly to read these days are also based on this theme. First the “Power of Now” and now “Aleph”.

In the beginning, Paulo Coelho reveals his frustration due to a crisis of faith he finds himself in. Typical Paulo Coelho, he once again uses extensive travel for the purpose of self discovery and in the process of reconnection with the universe. The medium of transport, this time, is the Trans Siberian rail across Europe and Asia from Moscow to Vladivostok. The book is about the author’s experiences during Trans Siberian train journey he took with his publishers and a girl whom he meets in the journey. This girl had shared a mysterical and mystical relationship with the author in one of their previous lives and the whole theme of the book revolved around Paulo Coelho and this girl.

This book uses the concept of reincarnation as the guiding philosophy. Like every other Paulo Coelho book, this is also about signs, omens, love and forgiveness with a sense of beauty of expression.

THE POWER OF NOW

A few months ago, I completed reading “The Power of Now” by Echarte Tolle. I spent almost a couple of months with this book trying my best to grasp the essence of the book. I am not the best person to comment on books of such genre.

Even though I am not successful in practicing what is presented in this book, yet it is intriguing to think about these concepts and practices. Extensive words like self, ego, deeper presence, separation, resistance, inner body, acceptance, surrender, infinity, eternity etc. might give the book an esoteric look. But as far as I understood, it’s a book on meditation techniques and meditation by its very nature stresses on the concept of “now”. The techniques are way beyond my levels of understanding. But one thing I can safely claim is that I am better off reading this book.

A line from the book:
"am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the 'I' and the 'self' that 'I' cannot live with”
One more:
"Feel (your body) from within. Is it alive? Is there life in your hands, arms, legs, and feet? … Keep focusing on the feeling … Do not start to think about it. Feel it … Perhaps there is just a slight tingling in your hands or feet … the more attention you give it, the clearer and stronger it will become”.

If you think such lines and concepts appeal to you, then you will love this book. Even if it doesnot, no harm in trying to learn something new for good.

WORKPLACE

Was wondering how the employees of the office (in the photograph) must be feeling to walk into the office through the clouds.

(Swarovski Office under the Austrian, Alps)

AGE

There were times in the past when I had neglected my blog. But never before had I reached a situation wherein I have to search the links for a while to post a mail. With just one post this year, I realise that the most important reason in plain, simple laziness.

After a long time, I was reading my blog, especially the early posts penned down in 2006. Was wondering if it was I who wrote the posts. Age is a tricky stuff. An individual can always be defined as a function of his age. I remember in mathematics we define functions as f(x) where f(x) is a function of x and is dependent on x for its nature.

Similarly Sabya(x) is a variable function where x is the possible age. May be its not that easy to define Sabya as a function of x. It can be a function of many other things. But as in mathematics, simplicity is used to ellucidate facts.

Sabya(31) is so different now (while writing this post currently)....from Sabya (26)(when the blog commenced). I am myself surprised.

ONCE AGAIN

Last Saturday, I spent a day on a ship introducing her to one of her potential clients.

There was a time when I used to spend more time shuttling from one ship to another trying to understand her technicalities…. Trying to understand the giant machines, the beautiful hull forms, the frothy wake, enjoying the gentle roll of a beautiful day and tolerating the harshness during rough weather…

These days I visit ships occasionally and even when I do it’s for different reasons. Now, my first priority is my job is to ensure if the ship is employed….if the client is happy with the vessel…and if the revenues are good enough to beat the budgets.I moved out of the ship in a few hours…the client was happy…

As I watched the vessel distancing her on my way back from the anchorage to the jetty, I once again realised how life has changed after MBA. Once again, I realized the very purpose of business.

ABOUT MARKETING ???

I thought (and still think) that “Dabaang” has all the necessary ingredients that goes to the making of a B grade Indian movie. Yet it is one of the biggest all time hits of the country. Keeps me thinking….is it all about marketing???

…Or am I not able to appreciate stuff which others perceive “interesting”.

HOPE

With due respect to the sentiments of the people who were busy celebrating the Ganesh immersion celebrations on the already choked roads of Mumbai, I keep thinking about the patient who was inside the screeching ambulance. The ambulance searched for avenues to beat the choked roads already blocked by the celebrating devotees and the mighty Ganesh idols, but met with little success. The blowing siren and the flickering light on the top of the ambulance turned out to be absolutely helpless.

I keep thinking about the unknown patient who was inside that ambulance on the day of Ganesh immersion. Did the Lord ensure that he survived? I hope so…

EVIL MONEY

Why do we earn money? Is it to make our life more comfortable? If that were the case, then people won’t be striving hard in their offices working late into the night neglecting their own lives, their own health, their own families….

Whats the point in earning excess money if this doesnot translate to personal happiness and professional satifaction?

(With reference to life of an investment banker)

GRATITUDE

I have rarely seen gratitude to the extent I saw that night when I handed over a 100 rupees note to a taxi driver who dropped me home. The meter showed around 30 rupees less and the driver searched his pocket to pay me back the change. I said him to keep the change and moved out.

The driver looked as if he had never been happy in his life. He had a face which probably never experienced the happiness to smile.

But as he was steering his taxi back, he waved at me and thanked me. I could feel it in his voice…the sense of thankfulness. Difficult to believe the worth of thirty rupees sometimes.

EARNINGS AND HAPPINESS

Read something interesting today:

There is an optimal salary level where people are the happiest. Earning lower than the optimal earnings make people unhappy. Earnings if more than the optimal range can also wipe out the happiness that is experienced by the people who are in the optimal salary level.

Just wondering how far this is true…

RISK RETURN

In a busy morning during office hours cool down and relax on our seat…and…listen to the myriad of voices humming around. Hear the finance people talking about the investments, hear the legal people talking about the liabilities….hear the HR team discussing employee motivation programs and hear the business development people discussing how to win over the hearts of the clients….
It’s amazing to catch all the voices together from a distance….some underlining how to increase returns and others emphasizing on how to reduce risks.

The risk – return balance game is probably the most important enabler of corporate feel.

BULLOCK CART

Mumbai has this unique ability to provide you views which if captured can win the best of competitions. In one of those busy lower parel streets, a bullock cart halted the flow of the traffic during the peak hours…

Treated myself with a hearty laugh with what followed.

Imagine….a bullock cart leading the way…a Mercedes following it….a Honda trying to overtake the Mercedes….a BEST bus trying to take a slanted route to overtake all the three but landing up in a situation where movement is not possible. In the single lane streets of Lower Parel, the heroics of the bus driver managed to block the flow of the opposite traffic. Complete commotion everywhere…and the traffic cops jumping around like mad men...and the show is taking place with the Mumbai rains in the background.

And the bullock cart moved ahead…as if nothing has happened.

ADULTHOOD

When I was a little kid, I used to watch other kids fight for chocolates and toys.

Now, almost two and a half decades later, I see grown-ups fight….this time, not for chocolates or any goodies….but for power, position, ego and money.

How does the desire for chocolates transform into hunger for power? Why does the satisfaction of egos of adulthood taste sweeter than the chocolates of childhood? Does money act as toys for the adults?

May be every adult is a child sans the innocence…

AMBITION OR GREED???

In this city….you can feel it….difficult to define it precisely…but you can definitely feel it. It’s probably a mix of ambition and greed…greed being the dominant ingredient. The city provides ample opportunities to further nurture this mix…

Today I met X. X owns an apartment in this locality. He had bought the apartment 4 years back. He was ambitious and prudent and knows that investing in real estate is definitely a good bet, and more so in this city. Today X is facing a big dilemma in life….His property is worth five times it’s original value. X wants to sell it and realize the net profits and make a killing out of it….But, at the same time he wants to retain the property….he feels he will be a loser if he sells it as property prices can rise further.

Nobody can accurately predict the course the real estate market is likely to chart from here…..and this further creates problem in X’s decision making process. He cannot sell his property peacefully….nor can he retain it with content….Ambition is there…but it tends more towards greed. Greed rules this city…through every person who has the potential to be greedy.

CHOICES

We always have the choice to take a different path and move away from the difficulties of the current state. In the event, we don’t exercise this choice, does that mean that our net subconscious satisfaction level in our current state is positive? Somewhere within, we are satisfied…happy with the ways things are moving? Probably yes….

(With reference to living a life in Mumbai…..)

CHAPTERS

Inadvertently, the cursor key of my laptop got clicked on the “latest” icon of my gmail account... 2005….it was…when I had migrated to the user friendly gmail. I saw some mails which were more than five years old. Interesting fragments from my past….each one of them easily fitting into their respective chapters of my past.

One chapter of life ends so quickly and unnoticeably that you never know you are in the next chapter without realizing that you will never experience the bygone chapter. And every chapter, in itself is happening enough to preclude any deliberate efforts to read some pages from the lost chapters.

How systematically these chapters seem to have arranged themselves….one experience after another…a subtler look allows one to appreciate the fact of how bits and pieces merge together to create the perfect smoothness that is visible only in hindsight. This smoothness has evolved out of the effects of a series of few connecting and almost coincidental events, which are instrumental in defining the linkage between the chapters and in guiding the chapters towards exchanging borderlines.

COMMUNICATION

What is the most sought after skill in life?

My views on this have been changing with time. When I was a student I was given to the understanding that being academically brilliant is the most important skill in life. When I joined job, industry veterans informed me that academic brilliance has very little to do with industry. According to them (not sure how many of them really mean it), infinite capacity to work hard is the most sought after skill in life. A closer look convinced me that while hard work is important, it need not be a skill. Now, as I am 29 years into life, I realize the importance of one particular skill i.e.“being able to communicate”.

Be it workplace or be it home, be it with family or be it with clients and colleagues, one skill stands out and that is ability to communicate. By communication, I don’t mean garrulousness or talkativeness. Communication is more into conveying our thoughts and understanding of an issue to another person. It can be as silent as a nod, it can be as warm as a hug, it can be as sweet as a smile. It can be anything which gives us a genuine chance to connect with another person and vice versa. Communication is not a unidirectional flow. It’s about understanding and being understood.

It’s not easy to communicate effectively. It demands patience, experience, mutual respect and more importantly regular self training.