Let’s Cell-ibrate

When fathers of biology made the statement that “Life is made up of cell”, they would not have realized that this statement would hold true is some other form in future as well. Yes the tiny mighty cell phone (mobile phone) has become integral part of lifestyle, despite initial skepticism.

A decade back the object which was mere an idea or limited to privileged few, has become a reality now. For many, it’s a tough idea to imagine a life without a mobile phone. It has become a life, attitude & fashion statement now-a-days. As per a popular maxim “The best way to judge a person is to look at his shoes”. Now one need not have to look that down to a person, just look at his cell phone and judge what kind of person he is. A person with black & white cell phone with bare minimum function is highly objective oriented person. A person using chat messenger, with music in background and talking to his friend loves multitasking in life. Some talks minimum (I am fine, how are you over & out), others talk Short, long and too long. That’s why there are million handset types and zillion mobile service packs are available in market. Jodi packs, CUG, night calls, etc.

But “as every silver lining has a dark cloud (pun intended)” there is a flip side to I-can’t-live-without-this-thing as well. Cell phone addiction is new age peril. Some people just want to talk to others all the time over the phone. Max time per day talking over phone reported to be 18 hours. Kids are taking that as positive challenge and want to raise bars everyday. Some people just keep on reading same SMS’s, check call registry or play games if no one else is on other side, just to devote some mandatory hours to their micro god called mobile phone. There are few ones who also feel lonely and depresses when no body calls them or they try to reach someone who is either busy or not reachable. Also extent of its usage has grown so much that new riders are added to existing list of To-Do’s at office, school and public. Keep phone at silent, no SMS in lecture, talk gently at lower decibels, etc.

As per one of the study this small wonder has made 34 (and counting) products and services obsolete. Some examples of affected ones are…….
• Pager
• Calculator
• Land Line Phone
• Audio Devices
• Video Devices
• Radio
• Voice Recorder
• Alarm Clock
• Camcorder
• Digital Camera
• Gaming gadgets
• Daily Planner / Digital Diary
• Telegram
• Internet browsing PC

The list is not exhaustive as technically it can do any work today which can be expected out of a soft technology. It won’t be an exaggeration to call it a micro world with endless possibilities.

So who are the next ones ready to get thrashed by this Digit-All-Mighty; a printer, scanner or even your close friend because cell phones will now automatically play songs to revive your mood, send you SMS to make you happy and even chat with you on the topic of your interest.

Endnote:



Lord of the Rings

Life is calling, where are you?

We all are often confused between ‘means’ & ‘meaning’ of life. Of course work provides us ‘means’ (food, clothing, shelter, health, education & communication) of life but there is a greater ‘meaning’ to life beyond all these.

There are some high involvement careers (extensive long hours in office) which pay fortune but don’t give time to spend that. Some gives chance to travel or meet interesting people but that become monotonous after some time. Just for a salesman who walks 5 kilometers everyday to sell his products can’t be regarded as good substitute to morning walk; similarly the repetitive fun at workplace can’t be looked upon as good life. So what the heck LIFE is all about….

People have left their high paid careers, sold everything they had, abandoned their families in search of this greater meaning. But one need not have to become Monk and sell his Ferrari and go to Himalayas to do that. We are social, material-loving, simple human things where both people and products around us are our necessities. So we can still be a God wearing a Gucci outfit.

Majority of people believe that their boss is not letting them enjoy their life. He treats them like they are lifeless robots who are around just for working. But is it a right idea to expect boss to plan our life schedule juts like he prepares our work schedule. Majority of people stay late because they don’t know what to do with life. Given the break of one week they might go blank on what to do for themselves. To avoid all above situation we need to have short, medium and long term recreation plan for ourselves.

• Short term: Read book, watch a play, meet old friend, go for bowling, etc.
• Medium Term: Learn Guitar (its cliché but better options are also there), jungle hiking, join NGO, etc.
• Long Term: Bag pack to Africa, 15 days on island, one month teaching in village school, etc.

Life is all about Body, Mind & Soul. Each one has to be dealt in its particular way to balance it.

• Body: Exercise Daily, Yoga, Eat Healthy, etc.
• Mind: Read Books, Listen Music, Solve Puzzles, etc.
• Soul: Meditation, Selfless Serving, etc

In short we have to keep doing things which will bring us closer to life. We feel satisfied when we will be healthy, happy & successful.

Illegal trading might give success but doesn’t make one feel happy doing that. Similarly those who work in night shifts might feel happy & successful but they don’t feel healthy doing that. That’s the example of unsustainable lifestyles. We have to deal life in the order of health, happiness and success only.

Stop believing in Work-Life balance think of Life-Work Balance because LIFE comes first. Stop existing, Start living.

Endnote:
Interesting Abbreviations-
GOLF: Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden
TIP: To Insure Promptness

Catch them live

On the final match of Twenty20 World at South Africa stadium was full with Indian spectators. Even the captain of opponent team said, I am feeling as if we are playing in India. Although the initially excitement for such new type of low but it caught up the heat as the success kept pouring in. No denial of the fact that it bolstered the motivation of playing team too.

It’s a human tendency that we perform better when somebody is watching us or just be there while we perform. That’s why we wanted our parents to attend Sports day or Annual Days in school days. Sportsmen are no different than us. How many sports other than cricket are attended by audience while playing on ground? So how can we expect them to perform like World’s best team when they bring so much of fan following.

Watching a sport or game live will have following advantages:

1) It will increase the motivation of the performing team.

2) Money earned by selling tickets will fund the particular sport which is ‘must have’ for any activity to survive.

3) It will also give advertising revenue to the performing sport stars & in turn a kick to other team mates to perform better.

4) We as a nation can have one more pastime activity rather than just sitting at home and watching Sob Operas (Saas Bahu). It is a great fun to go to a match with friends. It gives all of them a great time. We cry and smile with their performance.

5) As per one of the study when we shout watching sports at stadium, it helps in fighting depression and frustration. (Try that, it works)

6) When the match is in critical state I gives a kind of adrenaline rush in the body. It is very good for health. It happens otherwise when we engage in some adventurous activity. Just like without having engaged in Adventure sports one can experience such nirvana.

In short, it has got more benefits than we ever thought consciously. In many countries people tent in front of stadium 1-2 days before the match day and have a good picnic with their family and friends. They worship their team and wear their colors while watching them on stadium. They talk love to talk about them and feel proud of them. Next time when we see that Indian football team, basketball team or for that matter any other non popular sports team is not in spotlight, just think what more you can do. Success and Happiness are plural word, that’s why both end with alphabet ‘s’. “Check them” India…

Endnote: Mum-Bai: Treat her like your Mum not like your Bai.

Surrogate Addiction

Other day I was sitting with my friend at Mocha. Air in the room was already filled with smoke. My friend ordered Hookah. She offered me as well but I didn’t feel the need as I was already doing great deal of passive smoking sitting there. She championed the idea of having hookah, as she felt there is no tobacco in that and its just a kind of flavored air which goes in and comes out without causing any damage to you. She nicely put it this way “See it’s like trying death without actually dying”. I remember similar response was given by one of my junior at some party while sipping Bacardi Breezer.

As a matter of fact, there is no tobacco in flavored hookah but it is consumed in same way cigarette or cigar is done. Also, how-so-ever little it may be but there is some content of alcohol in Breezer as well. As per one of the study, people who keep guns for their personal protection are likely to use them for murdering others or suicidal purposes. Isn’t it like people who don’t know how to inhale flavored smoke or never knew a little bit taste of alcohol less likely to consume it in great quantity when they will feel low or in abnormal conditions?

It is just like they are preparing themselves for all such addictions when they consciously don’t want to be addicted by anything of that sort. Think twice next time.

Endnote: Price of anything is the amount of life we exchange for it.

Human Fuel

How do you feel that some pedal rickshaw or cyclist come in front of your vehicle while driving or work of road construction or building of your new house is delayed by few weeks just because labors are working at their slow human pace? I am sure it’s irritating in the time when we are taking about non-stop flights from Mumbai to New York in 12 hours or saving 20-25 minutes travel time between Pune-Mumbai by building expressway till Sion.

But as somebody rightly said “Time is money” i.e. for achieving something faster, one has to shell out extra bucks. So, for faster city transport government has banned pedal rickshaws and carts in some commercial city areas allowing only fast running taxis and city buses and also construction companies employ lots of machinery for building apartments in shortest possible time.

As Indian economy is progressing there is not dearth of money which can buy energy and equipments to drive all above fast pace developments. However Fuel or Energy on earth is limited and time will come when no amount of money can buy fossil fuels. So we have to plan our development in such a fashion that it is energy independent. India for that matter is quite blessed and cautious as well.

We don’t experience extreme heat or cold like many parts of the world. Many European American & Middle Eastern economies spend their major chunk in buying fuel for air conditioning. We as a nation are hardworking and patient. We don’t mind walking extra mile to reach the destination. India use lots of pedal rickshaws, bullock carts and cycles for their daily travel. Since the labor is cheap we employ lot of them in infrastructure and agriculture works.

So, what’s great in that, China has most number of cycles and African economies employs more labor (in percentage terms) than us. The answer to all this is kind of Economical development we have earned despite all this. As compared to developed economies we use our labor (human fuel) the most still heading fairly towards world’s standard of economic development.

So don’t feel shy to say that our country has not most number of cars or farm & construction equipments and don’t feel irritated when a cyclist or pedal rickshaw wala is creeping slowly in front of your fuel hungry vehicle. It is his two cents towards the solution of world energy problem.

Endnote: Everybody going die one day, we must die last.

Been there, Done that

Few days back I had a pleasure of attending a conference where CEO of our company was the chief speaker. As expected from any Leadership session there was lots on talks on “what to be done” and “what not to be done” to become a successful leader. But unlike my expectation Mr. CEO spoke on different paradigm, which I felt comes from a true experience. The words he spoke came from the horse’s mouth, as in; he preached what he had practiced in his own life. There were many real life experiences he spoke on, but what moved my soul was following two points:

1) Trading time for memories:
All of us work hard in life to earn money, so that we can enjoy life. We also try to save a part of it for our post retirement days. We also do some exercise so that we can remain healthy in golden phase of our life. Also we abstain ourselves from consuming non healthy stuff just because they should not have their side effects later on. In short we consciously or sub consciously invest in our future.

But just ample bank balance, good physique and sound inner constitution does not ensure a great life. We also need moments to cherish in later part of our life (also much before that as well, when we take some time out of our busy schedule and take account of life in hindsight). But are we taking enough efforts to create Tradable memories in life. When is the last time we took break from routine life and went out with our family on 2-3 days vacation? When is the last time we did something really crazy or something without any selfish motif? When is the last time clicked our own photographs while dancing, while laughing, while crying and framed them in our personal album?

We can’t say that we will start creating tradable memories when we’ll be 40-45 years old. One has to start investing in memories right from adulthood. Clock is ticking but are we creating enough tradable memories.

2) Unintended Consequences:
It starts with an anecdote….

There was a fisherman who was fishing on the bank of a calm, blue water river with peace all around. While fishing he caught the sight of a frog which was also swimming and having a great time in calm waters. Everything was going smooth until came a snake and grabbed the frog in its mouth and disturbed the tranquility of the serene environment. Fisherman saw that the sad frog is struggling for its life. He thought frog will lose its life if he doesn’t take any effort to save it. So he pulled the snake from its tail and took the frog out of its mouth. Now the snake became sad because it lost the prey. Fisherman tried to make that snake happy as well by pouring some scotch in its mouth. Snake tasted the scotch, liked its taste and swam away from there. Now everything became all right once again. But happiness didn’t last for long. To the shock and surprise of the fisherman the snake came again with two frogs in its mouth and showed it to fisherman (that’s why they say keep away from alcohol).

In this story, fisherman tries to make everyone happy by doing something good but he faces harsh implications of it in the later part. Similarly in life, how so ever we may try to behave good with everyone but there are some unintended consequences from every good action we do. In short, keep doing your right job in life and don’t care much about going on pleasing everyone.

Endnote: What connects Kingfisher’s Spirits and Airline business? Both take their customers to a high.