Monday, April 25, 2011

walking in circles

Excerpt from the book - Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Dr. Jan Souman, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, studied what happens to us when we have no map, no compass, no way to determine landmarks. I'm not talking about a metaphor - he researched what happens to people to people lost in the woods or stumbling around the Sahara, with no north star, no setting sun to guide them. 

It turns out we walk in circles. Try as we might to walk in a straight line, to get out of the forest or the desert, we end up back where we started. Our instincts aren't enough. In the words of Dr. Souman, "Don't trust your senses because even though you might think you are walking in a straight line when you're not." 

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Absolutely interesting!

Ok, so the point is to be brave, draw one and make people follow . Human nature always is to need a map. 

Srik

Saturday, April 23, 2011

the seventh

Excerpt from the book - Poke the Box by Seth Godin

... be aware
of who you are

... be educated
of what's around you

... be connected
as you engage

... be consistent
on what to expect

... build an asset
something to sell

... be productive
be well-priced

well, the point is the seventh imperative, that is

'you are on your own'!

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So well said. Almost all the B Schools and all the management books only focus on the six imperatives. Even I feel they are taught all the time and given more importance. But the seventh imperative is so critical that without which there cannot be any outcome.  It is to initiate. It is to have guts and the heart and the passion to ship. 

Srik

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Failing Logic of Money


Here is my latest review of an excellent book that I wrote for the BookRack. 

I received this book couple of weeks back from Duane Mullin. And I was pleased to see the note by him saying ‘Thanks for your time’ with his autograph. Actually now I need to thank him for all the time he has taken to write such a brilliant book. Sometimes I felt he spoke my mind. Absolutely!

Please read the detailed review to understand the summary of the book. It answers some of the critical questions like why poor becoming poor and the rich becoming richer?, why do we experience recession when the money is not disappeared anywhere? and explains the failed logic of money very well. The book is also power packed with a lot of radical ideas to make ourselves shift from the current money based economy to the 'Earth' based economy. Duane Mullin has done a brilliant job in presenting his radical ideas through this book. 

Please feel free to give your feedback about my review either at my original post or here.

Link to the review here: The Failing Logic of Money 

Thank you
Srik

midnight

the rain has stopped
ground is still damp
flowers fallen on the street
the trees, deep in sleep

the street is lonely
and the night, is dark
wind chill blowing hard
street light, on and off

my steps are noisy
neighbors are silent
dog is staring at me
and stars are smiling

shadow is following me
not behind, but next to me
and I touched it quietly
laughing in the midnight!

Srik

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

gainful employment

Excerpt from the book - The failing logic of money by Duane Mullin

We exchange our time for money at a task we may or may not enjoy; this is called gainful employment. The money received is never enough because it is as little as the employer can get away with to pay taxes (usually paid first), accommodation and food. We often work 40 years at the end of which we are only tired, broke, not always with a guaranteed adequate pension and the money we are able to save is subject to tax and inflation. We are now discarded to feed for ourselves just as any slave was hundreds of years ago, uncertain that we will have access to the bounty that surrounds us and meet our needs. 

Because we don't think there's any other way, and have nowhere to run, we content ourselves with a bit of time off now and then and polite treatment from our employers. We stick at the task, whilst the corporation prospers, because we don't recognise our options. 

--

I absolutely agree to the above. And at times I do think in the same way that we are not choosing our options right. The same questions linger in me - Why does this continue? Why is it that intelligent humankind has been unable to solve the simple matter of caring for our own and our environment? And it is true that our current system is clearly failing us, yet no-one does anything to change it. 

Srik

failing logic

Excerpt from the book- The failing logic of money by Duane Mullin

It is simply more profitable to kill, destroy and maim than it is to re-think and restructure the energy needs of the aggressor nation peacefully. It remains the principal of slave and slave master played out on an international stage; it remains the lazy but aggressive neighbor. Another clear benefit of war to the establishment is that each missile, each tank, plane, gun and bullet, body armour and body bag represents an item of profit for a corporation somewhere. While people are dying and civilian lives disrupted there is an elite group of people growing fat from the financial profits of suffering. They are remote and distant from the smell of death, living fantastic lifestyles whilst the profits they make but respect that they don't deserve and acceptance when they should be vilified and exposed as the inhuman beasts they are. But of course these people can buy us and are even seen as role-models of success, so we try to please them for an opportunity to earn some of their money. 
--

The more I think about how it all works, the more I am convinced that there is nothing good in the whole process. It is because of our engineered dependence on money that we compromise on our basic good nature and accept a role killing people we don't know. And because we are in need for money we accept terrible things that happen around us; in fact, the dependence on money causes people to feel helpless, stop thinking and close down their humanity.

Srik

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A rustic story


It was one of those days when my mind was not functioning in sync with my senses. All my actions were driven by only one message. All I wanted to do was reach my village as early as possible without letting my ears listen to more on the message. It was during the late winter but I was fuming with the sun rays piercing into my helmet. I was riding my bike, not less than, perhaps the speed of an arrow shot in anger. I noticed it was almost thirty-minutes-past-three in the afternoon and the road was absolutely empty. Like a desert. Like a night without moon.

Although I had a very long distance to cover, the destination looked very near to me; as if I was there already. Thinking about how it was in those days and how past had influenced me to remember those frames in my mind without missing any single scene. It was as if a long history written in the book of my mind and I was going through each page of it; One after the other.

It was a very strange story of my granny, and how she carried the characters around her for such a long time. It is a very strange phenomenon to relate each person surrounding me to the same person I am so close with. As in, my granny used to carry all her friends, helpers, neighbors in the village who were so close with her everywhere; mentally.  And those characters used to interact with my granny all the time; both when in the village and when not in the village. I used to wonder in awe and think how lucky those people are; that they are remembered almost 24 hours in some way or the other; in some form or the other. Perhaps, the bonding between them was much stronger than what they even realized in their relationship. And those five or six people became very critical part of my granny’s life in all possible ways.  She used to come to Bangalore, to my house, and she used to call me by some other name (random pick out of those 5-6 people). She used to talk to me about something that she wanted to talk to the other person. And she used to repeat this wherever she goes and whoever she meets. And I was helpless but to watch this interesting phenomenon. Dumbstruck!

My granny’s world was those people who were with her all the time. Nothing else! She was in her late eighties and the only possible worst thing one would expect was the obvious. And when the message reached my ears, l could not do any good but to try reaching the village as soon as possible. The empty road, the noise of the engine, the constant fluttering of my bag’s strap, once-in-a-while the cars speeding towards the divine Puttaparthi, were all giving me the same feeling that I wanted to avoid. The entry to the village looked absolutely deserted with the rows of thorny shrubs either side of the road.  Raptors were making enough noise above my head to make sure that the message was heard. Village roads looked very unwelcomed to me for the first time. People never connected to my eyes for the first time. They did not ask me any question to my surprise for the first time. They did not look at my bag, they did not check if I am wearing my sunglasses or not. It was as if they hated me to go there that particular day. But they had no options but to ignore me.  I helplessly entered the village and moved towards my granny’s house.

The street was empty; there were no signs of any human presence. I entered the house and I saw my dad coming out of the room. His eyes were filled with tears. He was looking as if he had controlled his tears for a big event ahead. I got to know that my granny’s corpse had not arrived yet. She was at her daughter’s place two hours away from the village when she passed her last breath. People started walking in to the house and some gathered outside. I could see people waiting to pay their respects. All those characters who were part of my granny’s life were also present. Waiting. Crying.

Finally my granny’s corpse arrived. She was made to sleep on a wooden bench outside. People started crying. They started lighting the agarbattis and one by one started paying their respects. It took a bit longer than I expected for the crowd to get clear. And finally there were a few left out other than my relatives. And those were these soul mates of my granny. They were worried and crying for some reason. I was surprised to see no actions from their end. They were holding their breath to touch my granny and hug her and say good bye. But they were very reluctant to do that. I could not understand their problem. I tried asking them, they did not open their mouth to answer. They just stood staring at my granny. After sometime, one person made an attempt to touch my granny to which somebody objected. Then I got to know that they were not supposed to touch. It was the same old village untouchability problem. They were scared to touch even the body. I was shocked for a while and could not control my tears that I had controlled till then. It took too much of a courage for me to digest the fact before I made them touch her and pay their respects.

Those great souls that were part of my granny’s life were not even eligible to touch her? More than any of us, it was them who accompanied my granny throughout her life. More than anyone else they were remembered all the time. Yet, they were the ones who were untouchables.  All their lives they served a person with so much love and they would’ve missed out on even touching her in the end. I still have a tough time believing what happened on that day and still not able to come out of that.

Srik

Monday, April 4, 2011

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮತ್ತೆ...

ಮತ್ತೆ ಅರಳಿತು ಹೂವು
ಸೂರ್ಯನ ನಗುವಿಗೆ ಒಲಿದು
ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಾರಿತು ಹಕ್ಕಿ 
ಹೊಸ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದ ಕಡೆಗೆ 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಹೊಸದೊಂದು ಕನಸು
ಬೇರೆ ನೆಪವ ಹೇಳಿ 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೇಳಿತು ರಾಗ
ಹಾಡಿನ ಪದವ ಮೀರಿ 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಾಣಿಸಿತು ನಗುವು
ಮನದ ಮಾತ ಕೇಳಿ  
ಮತ್ತೆ ಹಗುರಾಯಿತು ಮನವು 
ನಗುವ ಮುಖವ ನೋಡಿ 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿತು ಆಸೆ
ಆ ತುಂಟತನಕೆ ಸೋತು 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಬಯಸಿತು ಹೃದಯ
ಕಣ್ಣಿನ ಸನ್ಹೆಯ ತಿಳಿದು
ಮತ್ತೆ ಮೂಡಿತು ಪ್ರೀತಿ 
ನಿನ್ನ ದನಿಗೆ ಕುಣಿದು 
ಮತ್ತೆ ಕಾಯುತಿದೆ ಜೀವ
ನಿನ್ನ ಕೂಗಿನ ಕರೆಗೆ... 

ಶ್ರೀ 

Friday, April 1, 2011

chere

and it begins...
like an oasis amidst desert
like a rain in summer
like a new leaf on a old tree
like a new life on a new planet
like a flower blooming out of thorns
like completely new and unknown
like a road to heaven
like love

this year... for many more years!



Photographs by Manjunath Thimmapura.


for more details click here.


Srik

Let's unleash India

Here is my latest book review I wrote for the Bookrack. Bookrack facilitated this book to me from Sanjeev couple of weeks back and I tried to give my best feed back about the same. One can read the review on the Bookrack site at the below link. This book is all about unleashing India and bringing the real 'freedom' for India. It is also a good handy guide for all the citizens of India in overcoming a lot of problems that we are facing everyday. Unfortunately, after all his great efforts in changing the system, accepting his failure (perhaps, due to lack of support) the author has left India and now is an Australian citizen. Nevertheless, he is still a game to free India from many of the systemic failures that are caused due to the early Nehruvian socialist policies. Please read my detailed review to know more about the book.

Please feel free to give your feedback about my review either at my original post or here.

Link to the review here: Breaking Free of Nehru

Thank you
Srik