Book Review: 9 to 5 Cubicle Tales

'9 to 5 Cubicle Tales' is a chronological account of a boy who endures some testing times in his childhood, then graduates, gets into an Information Technology firm and his life experiences with colleagues & friends, frequent challenges faced and how he copes with each in this tech field. The author, Harish Rijhwani, has 20+ years’ experience in IT and it goes without saying that this book could be inspired by his own IT projects, colleagues and experiences. But you know, if I get a chance to ask him, he will admit the characters are fictitious and any resemblance to someone is purely coincidental.

Judging a book by its cover - The book cover is exquisite and very detailed albeit appearing simple and clean! The reader will understand the nuances only after reading the book. A lot of what is mentioned in the book is shown here. From the various locations that matter to IT professionals, travel, to the currency, the deadlines, errors in the code, Uno cards, the ladder of success (or failure, whichever way we look at it), love, savings, home, coffee, books and many more are depicted. Each of this aspect of an IT professionals’ life finds a place in the book!

Who should read this book - IT professionals, if it wasn’t that obvious from the title! Students planning to pursue and IT career will also find this insightful.

What's the story like – The book follows the life of a boy-turned-man, Hridaan Rajdev, who experiences a tumultuous childhood of loss of a family member, then moving to a different city with relatively less relatives (see what I did there?). The story, said from Hridaan’s first-person account, moves quickly from his childhood to his college life to starting his professional life. This is where the story opens up and expands on the numerous work-related experiences, some of which are hidden right on the cover page. How Hridaan grows from a talented newcomer to a seasoned professional in an industry that gives you a lot but also takes a lot from you making you wonder if the journey’s worth it (personal opinion: it is).

How's the writing - The book is divided into 51 chapters, each covering a specific aspect of the life of Hridaan. The author has used simple and easy to understand words to narrate the story, the surroundings, the character traits of people involved and the protagonist's notions and feelings. This makes it a breeze for a casual reader (by that, I refer to someone who's not always seeking a book to read every day). The life-arc from a student to a fresher in IT to an experienced pro to onsite opportunities is also linear and we, as readers, aren't required to 'read-between-the-lines', which is a breath of fresh air in today's convoluted and non-linear storytelling era. Description of locations, unique personalities in Mumbai and the words used to describe sounds are also well done. 'League of extraordinary gentlemen' as auto-rickshaw drivers and BEST bus-driver as someone who aspired to be a pilot took the cake!

So, what do I think – It’s a breezy read from start to finish. If you are IT professional, you will relate to mini-stories in the book and enjoy the overall premise for sure. If you are looking for a book with writing that's easy to understand and one that doesn't force you to reach out for the dictionary app, this is it. It’s been quite a while since I have gotten hold of a book that doesn't have sub-plots, characters with varying shades of gray, twists, thrills in the plot and a story that takes the reader on a socially relevant roller-coaster ride. However, there was one aspect of the writing that I couldn’t quite get used to. When a scene is being played out in your mind while you are reading the book, that scene somewhat abruptly ends and a new scene begins without a proper segway - as in a journal. I am not sure if this was a conscious decision made by the author. It took me some time to get used to this writing technique. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me though, just an observation. Personally, I enjoyed the bits where Hridaan had to sit through aptitude tests & more importantly, group discussions as it was identical to what I went through during my time. Group discussions being a 'fish market' is exactly how I would categorize the experience (with all due respect to fish markets). 

My Rating: 4/5

PS: Is it just me or did you also feel that you were 'literally' part of this story? If you know, you know.

A walk to ponder upon..

The other day, a typical weekday, I was walking back home from work. Here in US, pedestrian crossing is regulated and is followed by people too. After getting off a train station or a bus stand, if you observe, you walk alongside so many people some of whom move away from the crowd to walk towards their destination but there are some who tread a common path as you, and in some cases, till the very end of your destination.

I had the same experience recently. I was walking alongside a lot of people till it reached a stage that only one guy was left from the crowd of people. Oblivious to each other, we continued walking on the side of the road. Till we reached a pedestrian signal. The signal was red. I, trying to be a law-abiding citizen, stopped and waited for the signal to turn white (white means you can cross the road and red means to stop). There were no vehicles around but the signal was still red. My "walking partner of the day" decided to take the plunge and walked along without waiting for the signal to turn white. He crossed the road and moved ahead. After he was about 50-100 feet in front, the signal turned white. I started walking. We maintained the distance between us till the next signal where he continued walking and I stopped again. You now get the drift, don't you? He was proverbially miles ahead and I was behind and reached my destination later than that guy.

This got me thinking. I didn't make any mistake. I followed the law of the land. I made the decision that the authorities expect a citizen to make. Still I 'lost' and reached my 'destination' relatively late. As against the guy who was walking alongside me. He, technically, made a mistake by crossing the road when he was not supposed to. He bypassed the law. He made a decision that the authorities don't expect a citizen to make. Still he 'won'. Not that I lost anything in the process, but you tend to compare your situation with your peers and judge whether you are on the right track within the right timeline.

Here's the big picture: I think this is what usually happens for bigger priorities in life too. Take career for example - there are some who still share an honest resume. By honest, I mean truth and nothing but the truth. Now-a-days, resumes are hardly honest. If, metaphorically, your actual job was to add that extra grip to Sachin Tendulkar's Cricket bat, you resume should say, "provided extra support and grip to Sachin Tendulkar's bat". In today's times, it will change to "advised, directly and supported Sachin Tendulkar to achieve 100 centuries". You see how a play upon words changed the entire job profile of an individual? Ironically it may seem, these are the same people who then go on to add extra grip to Virat Kohli's bat and say they are now "Unearthing fresh opportunities to achieve the next 100 centuries".  They move on to bigger things just by over-emphasizing their importance to the larger scheme of things. And the people who mention the truth - they take their time to reach the top of the ladder.

So who is wrong here? I guess no one. One way of looking at it is to say the guy who circumvented the law of the land did this with an appetite of accepting the damage / loss, if anything goes wrong. And this world welcomes people who have a higher risk appetite knowing that those are the people who go the extra mile to achieve success. Another way of looking at this would be to accept that everyone will eventually reach the destination in the end. Some just happen to reach there earlier. Maybe it depends on how we define success  - achieving our goals or achieving our goals within constraints like time / strength or money. Maybe it's all situational.

So, where do you stand on this?

Satire: What not to do on your first US trip?

Ok, first things first. This is a satire. Please do not take this post seriously. Or should I say, take it with a pinch of salt. No wait, that's too much BP. Take it with a scoop of yogurt instead!

This is my first US trip. It's been 10 weeks in US now. I am not sure for how long will it last. But I am taking my time to experience it all in my own little way. And hey, life keeps on teaching you lessons every single day and I have learnt a lot of unwanted (and some wanted) lessons in the past few weeks. Thanks to these lessons and their repercussions, it took me time to (re)start the blogging part of my life in US. 

Image courtesy - http://gfx9.com/

What should I do with these lessons? Share, of course. So here are some of the unwanted lessons. Read and let me know if you have experienced some of these or if you think a lot more can be added here -

1. Delete the song "Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera" (movie Swades) from your playlist - No seriously, delete it. Personally, I loved the song a lot. I still do. It is one of AR Rahman's classic. The lyrics, the music and the voice - they elevate you to a totally different level. I have it as part of my playlist. Just days after reaching US, I was listening to songs on my smartphone. I had kept the song selection as random, which means any song will be selected at random. As luck would have it, this song played. The bad part is, I started listening to this song from a different perspective now. But then I realized, Javed Akhtar is a genius. He left a loophole in the song. You see, the song goes on to say - "sab toh pa liya, ab hai kya kami". That's the loophole we need to exploit. After all, when did we achieve everything? There's still more to achieve right? Still, to be on the safer side, delete this song for now. You won't regret it. Also, for some reason not known to me, I had "Kiska hai yeh tumko intezaar, main hoon na" song from the movie "Main Hoon Na". It has a sad version too, which is very sad. Delete that song too. Trust me.
2. Do not bring too much Indian stuff. They already have it here! Especially, if you have a project in NY / NJ, you will not only meet a lot of Indians every day, you will also end up buying groceries and other stuff (Indian) from Indian stores. Some of these grocery stores also play Indian music (talk of ambiance!). I brought a lot of stuff (including pressure cooker, frying pan, plates etc) assuming I needed these the most since I will be able to buy other stuff from US. It turns out, my hotel was in a street unofficially named as the "Indian Street". Ohh don't laugh, there's more - the closest shop to my hotel was a "pan-wala" shop! I must admit, I had my doubts about reaching US especially after having a 16 hour long flight. But the hotel selection and the location was just my luck (Good / Bad - you decide). The bottom-line is - bring only those stuff that you need. Rest all are available here.
3. While in US, left is not right - right is right. Adjusting to this rule will take a lot of your time. Even while walking. Suppose you are walking down the road and someone is walking in the opposite direction. In India, as per norm, you are supposed to 'keep left' so that you don't collide with the other person. In US, it's all right. Keep right is the norm here. While driving, right side of the road is your lane (unless it's one-way). I have had moments where, when you walk, you inadvertently keep left and the other person coming towards you keep right. If not for the last second corrections we Mumbaikars learnt from Mumbai's own education system, I would have invited trouble.
4. You can stand on escalators. You can walk on escalators at the same time - Yes, that's true. In India, especially in the metros, we are always busy and it shows in the way we walk / brisk walk / run. When you are overtaking someone on the stairs, you unknowingly (most of the times) bump your shoulder onto your fellow traveller. This incident is irritating for both. Some of us apologize and move on. Most just move on. Many countries, including US, have a solution for this. They have a clear path for people always on the hurry (left side of the escalator) while people who want to enjoy their moment in the escalator, can stay on the right side.  Philosophically, everyone reaches their destination; some just decide to rush.

Well, these are some of the lessons I learnt while in US. I am learning more with every passing day. Will share them too in due course of time. By the way, did I miss out on anything?

The Nawab of Najafgarh steps down

Any sport has to have some basics and some instincts that go along with the basics of the game. And these are unique for a particular game. Batting in Cricket needs different set of technique than batting in Baseball. Skills needed in Tennis is different from those needed in Badminton. Hockey on an artificial green turf is different from Ice Hockey, although the skill set is fairly the same. Even within a game, different players have different style and they are all effective. But you still need the basic technique upon which you will inculcate your own style of play. 

Take Batting in Cricket for instance. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are legends of the game. They have both been successful in their game. Yet they have different styles. Sachin Tendulkar is relatively more charismatic while batting and is a treat to watch when in full flow. Rahul Dravid relies relatively more on technique and is a live example of how to bat in a manner desired of a batsman. You may have a different perspective, but I believe both these legends are at the same level in terms of success. One is not greater than the other. However, I am sure you will agree with me when I say both these players had their roots in technique and developed a niche for themselves. 

Every once in a while comes a player who deviates from the routine and relies completely on a different set of skills and still succeeds. A player who has his own basics to follow, his own techniques yet highly effective. Indian Cricket had one such player. And his batting was like eye-candy especially for those who are more goal-oriented than the journey one takes to achieve the goal.

I am talking about none other than Virender Sehwag. 

He completely defied the most basic tenet of batting - footwork! Instead, he trusted his eye, his hand and his confidence on the pitch. And he succeeded. He made a name for himself even when Indian Cricket had other batting stalwarts who were breaking records with ease. It's easy to be a top player when you are surrounded by average ones, but Sehwag made it count when he was playing with Sachin, Saurav, Rahul and VVS. Sachin had charisma, Saurav flamboyant, Rahul with his rock-solid technique and VVS with style. Among them came Sehwag who simply went after the bowling with little to no respect for the bowlers (on the pitch, that is).

I have seen the best of Indian cricket play together - Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath etc. The current crop is exciting, no doubt but they have time to attain legendary status in Indian Cricket. With Sehwag retiring, that 2000's era is now well and truly over.

If you want to bat the "Virender Sehwag" way, mug up the following steps - 

• Completely trust you hand-eye co-ordination
• Do NOT look at the scorecard. Scoreboards contain some numbers pertaining to the game. There are other team members who will do the math
• Let your instincts talk on the pitch
• That's it! No kidding, that's seriously how simple it is to learn about Sehwag. The only challenge is to effectively utilize them on the pitch.

Virender Sehwag started by being a Sachin Tendulkar look-alike, then a batsman who has similar batting  effectiveness of Sachin Tendulkar but ended being the original Sehwag! Thank you for the wonderful memories Viru-paaji. Your triple centuries was amazing to watch, so were your double century and innumerable centuries in ODIs. The way you went after bowling especially during pressure situations made you unique in this group of Indian Cricketing legends. 

The Nawab of Najafgarh has stepped down. All hail the Nawab!

Confessions of a small(ish) fish

Resting himself inside a 'cocoon', eating his way to happiness and knowing exactly how to handle stuff on any regular day, this little fish had everything what he wished for. He knew exactly how to handle things, was comfortable when any irregularity used to happen in his life and was always safe in the support of family, siblings and friends. Anything that you could possibly imagine regarding a secured life, he had it all!

But that's the thing about comfort right? You are comfortable because you develop a safety zone and would like to reside in that zone for possibly the rest of your life. You are probably best at what you do, within that zone. You seldom explore, try out new things and make mistakes. You just love to do the same things day in and day out. And as long as your requirements are being met, you hardly care. 

As a legendary movie character (Joker from The Dark Knight) once said, "Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos". Should we stir the pot, or pond in this case? How, you may ask.

Let's move this little fish out of his familiar small pond and placed into a big endless sea.

What do you think will be the emotion expressed by this little fish? Fear? Nervous? Anxiety? Excited? 

The answer will depend on how exactly you will feel when you are placed in a similar position. I, for one, will be anxious. Fear and Excitement are two extremes who only a small section of the population will go through. Nervous and Anxious are the middle line.

Now, our little fish will have to swim "with the proverbial sharks". This little fish will find many others swimming around who have made this big sea their home. Any intruder in one's home will be treated with anger, caution but not happiness. This little fish will now have to co-exist with the others and on occasions, will have to compete for common areas. Areas could be finding a place called home, eating stuff that's common across all similar sized neighbors and avoid being eaten by bigger neighbors. It's almost as if his world is now upside down!

Everybody goes through such a phase at least once in their lives. Some are fortunate enough to experience it early while some find this later. I am going through this phase. Early / later - I leave it to reader interpretation. The faster you adapt, the stronger you will grow and thrive. It's like a race with a small difference - winning the race is not mandatory; not losing is critical. 

The race has begun. 

My Mom and I

*************** Start of Conversation ***************

Dad: It’s a Saturday. What’s your plan for today?

Daughter: Mom’s gone to work. I think we can go to the garden and you can help me enjoy the rides. Wish Mom was also free on Saturdays.

Dad: People have different timings dear. I work from Monday to Friday. Mom works from Monday to Saturday. I don’t have month-long vacations. Mom has month-long vacations. I have different problems at work, mom has her own problems.

Daughter: I know about your problems, dad. But mom also has work related problems? I have never seen her under stress.

Dad: Yes she has. She travels for more than an hour to reach her workplace. She travels in Mumbai local trains. She has to prepare a lot prior to reaching her workplace. 

Daughter: I didn’t know all this. Dad, I think we should talk about it today. We’ll go to garden in the evening once mom comes back. Let’s discuss this now.

Dad: Ok. But tell me one thing. Why do you feel mom doesn’t have work pressure?

Daughter: She never shows it. She gets up in the morning and wakes me up in the sweetest way possible. I know I am a little fussy when I get up, I seek attention. But all I am yearning for is moms love and affection when I wake up. Then she takes care of my morning chores. While you play with me in the morning, she prepares breakfast for both of us and happily places it on the table. While we are busy eating / drinking, she gets ready for work. She sees you off and then plays with me for a while. She keeps me busy with something and quietly leaves for work, so that I don't notice and cry about it.

Dad: Wow. Interesting observation, I must say.

Daughter: Even when she comes back home in the evening, she shows no sign of tiredness. She brings lollipop for me, plays with me and we happily watch television for a while. In sharp contrast, when you return home, you seem tired. You play with me for a while and then go back to the room to change and rest. Then you and mom switch roles and you play with me while mom relaxes. But all through this, she never appears tired. This made me feel that you have work pressures but mom doesn’t.

Dad: Moms are wonderful, dear. Your Grand-mom sacrificed a lot to see me doing well in life. You mom is doing the same with you.

Daughter: I agree.

Dad: I look stressed or tired probably because I feel my primary role is to protect the family – financially and otherwise, today and tomorrow. That’s what is always present in my mind. And maybe, guys are made this way. It’s difficult for a man to look happy when there’s pressure from various avenues. Maybe we are hard-wired.

Daughter: Dad, but I think you take a lot of tension. You work hard every day and the money you earn goes into the investments you have made for me, which is great. But by doing so, you are always under stress. For instance, look at all the grey hair you have. I think you need to do what I do when I have a problem.

Dad: And what’s that?

Daughter: Go to a specialist! Like when I need something, food to eat or to apply lipstick / makeup or if I hurt myself while playing, I go to mom. I don’t know how she does it, but her presence makes me forget the pain. Football makes you forget your stress, so football is a specialist for you. Grey hair is now a problem for you, I suggest you blacken your hair. Why even make it black? Try some different shades, why not go to a specialist in this field to solve it?

Dad: OK. I take your point. 

Daughter: OK. But today’s discussion is about mom. I want to know how she hides her stress from me.

Dad: That’s because moms are selfless human-beings. In a world where every person you meet outside is selfish, here’s a lady who will go out of her way to ensure you are content and happy. You will surely realize the secret when you reach that stage.

Daughter: Now, we are taking this discussion out of scope. Its about my mom, not me being a mom some day! Let’s give it 2-3 decades from now. Garden, shall we?

Dad: Yeah sure, my princess!

*************** End of Conversation ***************

This is what I think my daughter (who is 2 years and 6 months old) will say when she starts understanding the sacrifices every mom goes through, to raise a child. These are exactly the same thoughts I have of my mom too. And I am sure many of the readers will agree. Moms are special. I don’t think there will be one special instance that stands out. Every single instance with my mom stands out, like it does for my daughter. 

They say God is omnipresent. I agree. But I also feel Mothers have a huge part to play in this.

Goodbye Loop (BPL) Mobile

All good things come to an end, for greater things to happen. And then there are some, who just have to end. Loop Mobile (erstwhile BPL Mobile) is one such example.

If you are not living in Mumbai or never heard of Loop Mobile, I can understand. But if you have been living in Mumbai for a year at least and still never heard of Loop Mobile, then please tell me you don’t have a mobile phone! That is how synonymous Loop Mobile has been with Mumbai. One of the oldest network providers in Mumbai, Loop Mobile once boasted of 3.5 million users in Mumbai. And these are users with a higher ARPU (Average Revenue Per User – a term used by mobile network providers to access the revenue generation capacity of their users).

After losing the opportunity for 2G license extension, Loop Mobile has decided to end their operations. And this will be effective 29th November 2014, after 20 largely lucrative years of service.

Loop Mobile started off as BPL Mobile communications in the year 1994. Mobile phones in those times used to be a luxury and were owned mainly by the elite folks in Mumbai and BPL Mobile provided them network coverage. BPL used their first (private) mover advantage to the fullest by acquiring the elite class in Mumbai who were ready to pay premium rates to connect with their closed ones. When market became competitive with new private players coming in, cost of mobiles started dipping along with the calling rates. More people started buying mobile phones and the new players targeted these folks to increase their market share. BPL Mobile largely retained their loyal customer base. And these loyal customers were retained right till the very end. 

I have had a wonderful relationship with BPL mobile. I got my first phone (Nokia 3310) in 2001 and my first connection was BPL mobile. My dad used BPL mobile then and I found no reason to opt for anything otherwise. And this relationship went right till October 2012. That’s 11 long years of loyalty in a highly competitive market! I witnessed Vodafone and Airtel moving up the market share in Mumbai by compromising on lower ARPUs with many of my friends having these connections. Despite this popularity, I felt BPL Mobile fulfilled everything I expected from a network provider. The call rates were also competitive. BPL Mobile also acknowledged my loyalty by providing me with freebies like free calls and offers that were better than others. 

Few experiences proved with BPL mobile was more reliable. They stood for quality. Now, is that because of genuinely high quality network or “subscribers are inversely proportional to quality” factor, I don’t know. But it sufficed my need for a quality experience. Even during testing times in Mumbai (bomb blasts, floods etc.), BPL mobile was active when others failed. I remember my friends calling their family members informing them of their safety using my mobile because they had lost their connection!

From 2009 onwards, India started changing for the better. 3G happened. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) happened. Most of the providers bought 3G licenses and were ready for a new war. For reasons unknown to me, Loop Mobile (BPL was renamed to Loop in 2009) decided not to opt for 3G. In 2012, I bought Samsung Galaxy S3. To use my smartphone to the fullest, I had to opt for 3G. Ironically for me, my need for 3G overtook my loyalty. And then I switched to Vodafone. But on the loyalty bit, I retained my BPL number and that’s how it will remain for the foreseeable future. 

Thank you for everything BPL / Loop Mobile. Adios amigo.

Adios Orkut!

Life was going good. I got my first phone - Nokia 3310 (still epic!). I got my first computer (with a simple P3 processor and 20GB hard disk). College was awesome. Friends were great - all wonderful characters whom I still miss. Those were the days when Super Mario / PacMan / Sonic / Minesweeper ruled the gaming industry. I used to play Cricket and Lawn Tennis (on 8-bit video games) with my friends all day long. None of my friends in college had a girlfriend, so all of us were always free and devoid of any commitments. None of us had a need to show how many friends we had, what we thought of the other person in the same group, no one wanted to rate how cool the other person was. Life went on in a "real" social environment… 

…till Orkut happened!

Not that we cared. But it forcefully entered our lives. I used to get repeated reminders of people in my address book that s/he has joined Orkut and is waiting for me! That's right, waiting for me to join them. I just met them a couple of hours back and now they were waiting for me on a strangely named website known as "Orkut". These are the same friends who didn’t wait for me in the bus stand so that we can catch the bus together, but were waiting "endlessly" on social media. That time, we didn’t know anything about social media. Orkut was just a website where you need to register ourselves and share some information in public domain. 

Now that Orkut is nearing its scheduled end on 30th September 2014, I am experiencing a strange sense of loss. I don’t use Orkut now. In fact I haven't used Orkut for the past 5 years. But it was part of my early 20's and hence it matters. Those were the days without smartphones. There were no apps. Internet Explorer was the most reliable way to explore an enchanting new world of Internet. Orkut became one of the most critical parts of the puzzle that partly made us who we are.

Some things in Orkut that I will cherish all my life – 

1. Testimonials: We all like to show-off, don’t we? Even the most introverted type has an innate desire to be known by those around him. And what better way than testimonials! Orkut took this concept to an all new level and introduced this feature as part of their offering. This allows friends to write testimonials for someone and it appears as part of the profile, once approved by the recipient of the testimonial. Writing and receiving testimonials were a craze during those times. One usually used to reciprocate the gesture. And we used to cherish the “kind” and in most cases “flattering” feelings our friends had towards us. I, for one, will surely miss this feature. It baffles me why Facebook did not opt for this feature!
2. Who viewed your profile: In other words, intrusion! But we didn’t mind. Orkut had an interesting module where you used to know who just viewed your profile. It perfectly targeted the human curiosity factor. That’s also one of the ways you can find friends. They view your profile and you add them, in case they didn’t initiate. If you opt out of this, no one will come to know you viewed their profile and in turn, you will never come to know who viewed your profile. Now that I think of it, I am glad Facebook didn’t opt for this feature. Its more of a bane than boon.
3. Scrapbook: Exactly what the name suggests. Write what you want on your friends’ scrapbook. Your popularity used to depend on the number of scraps you had vis-à-vis your friends. Some smart ones (me included) used to delete our scraps once the purpose is served. Deleting the scraps also used to shield me in the scrapbook popularity index! C’mon, I don’t want people to know I am less popular than them. They say, “try try till you succeed; else remove all evidence that you even tried”.

In more ways than one, Orkut made the first step towards social media till Facebook took it to a totally different level. And now, as we speak, there will soon be a new social media platform being made in some college project somewhere around the world. Personally, I wanted to continue on Orkut, but all the friends I had on Orkut were moving to Facebook and I was left with only two options - either to stay on Orkut without updates and interaction from friends / move on to Facebook. Like most, I chose the latter. 

When majority followed the new leader, Google eventually decided to post this message to signal the end of an era - 

Nevertheless, a big thank you to Orkut for all the wonderful memories. And as you move towards the fag end of your product life-cycle, may your URL rest in peace.

Rarest of Rare Outcomes

I was completely fascinated when I first read about a concept known as "Stochastic Probability Theory of Life". I still am. Fascinated enough to know the result and eventuality; realistic enough to know it hardly happens in real life.

I am sure you might have heard of it. This has been shared umpteen times in Facebook and other social networking sites. It is also known as the "Pregnant Deer Scenario". A situation with no favorable outcome is explained and the reader / user is asked about a possible and practical solution. In case you are unaware of the theory -

The scenario and the image are not my creations and are reproduced from the net. The other day I was wondering what if all the problems are solved with a single unlikely sequence of events. And that's when I recollected this scenario.

"Stochastic Probability Theory of Life":

In a remote forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth to a baby. It finds a remote grass field nearby a river and slowly goes there thinking it would be safe. As she moves slowly, she gets labor pain. At the same moment, dark clouds gather around that area and lightning starts a forest fire. Turning left she sees a hunter who is aiming an arrow from a distance. As she tries to move towards right, she spots a hungry lion approaching towards her. 

Query - What can the pregnant deer do, as she is already under labor pain? 

What do you think will happen?

Will the deer survive?

Will it give birth to a fawn?

Will the fawn survive? or

Will everything be burnt by the forest fire? 

That particular moment?

Can the deer go left? – Hunter’s arrow is pointing

Can she go right? – Hungry male lion approaching

Can she move up? – Forest fire

Can she move down? – Fierce river 

Outcome - She does nothing. She just focuses on giving birth to a new LIFE. The sequence of events that happens at that fraction of a second (moment) are as follows: In a spur of MOMENT, a lightning strikes (already it is cloudy) and blinds the eyes of the Hunter. At that MOMENT, he releases the arrow missing and zipping past the deer. At that MOMENT, the arrow hits and injures the lion badly. At that MOMENT, it starts to rain heavily and puts out the forest fire. At that next MOMENT, the deer gives birth to a healthy fawn.

I am sure you will have at least 2 things in your mind after reading this. You are happy with the final outcome. At the same time, you are wondering if all the sequence of events will happen at the same time and more importantly, can the same thing happen in our life as well? The statistician will categorize this as a Poisson Distribution. The eternal optimist will feel it can happen. The realist and pessimist will not agree with the outcome. And, quite frankly, who are we to argue?

But, just for a moment, imagine if we have a problem similar to the one mentioned above with no favorable outcomes in front of us. The problem could be anything - a personal one, family problem, extended family issue, property issue running for years, relationship issues, commitment issues, professional issues etc. And then imagine, everything gets solved in the spur of the moment. Exactly. All the trials and tribulations undergone for months / years / decades solved in a single moment! Won't the religious part of you agree? Ain't that great? Isn't that motivation enough to hang on to the situation until a solution emerges?

After all, "Success is largely a matter of hanging on when others have let go"..

Quick take on Husbands..

The other day, we took our little daughter for vaccination. I was carrying my daughter to the doctor and my wife was carrying all the necessary documents and the files. The vaccination went fine. Jiana didn't cry and we tried our level best by diverting her attention during the vaccination process.

While coming back home, I told my wife about how I am willingly helping her by taking care of Jiana. You see, husbands need to get some brownie points in a discussion so that we can use it later during an argument. If you didn't understand my previous statement, think of a game where you need to collect as many gold coins as possible so that you can trade them to become more powerful. Simple, isn't it? If you still didn't understand, get married..

Me: Did you notice that I am helping you taking our baby to the doctor. Did you see that no husbands came in the clinic apart from 1-2 of them. Most husbands shy away from such stuff. But I came!

Wife: But all husbands are supposed to help not only in financial stuff but household stuffs too..

Me: (being slightly confident) But where can you find such an husband? We are a rare breed!

Wife: That's not true at all. I have heard husbands help in cooking, cleaning, shopping etc.. Didn't you see how many husbands were helping their respective wives in that shopping mall. Wives were doing the shopping and husbands were carrying the trolley.

Me: But that's because they were shopping for themselves too. And most of them were fiddling with their mobiles.

Wife: Just like you..

Me: But I am different, you see.. It was my decision to accompany you.. You could have gone on any day during the week, but it was my suggestion that we go during the weekend..

On one of those rarest of rare occasions, I felt I was winning.. That's when this happened..

We saw a couple with 2 children walking towards a rickshaw stand. The husband was walking in the front - yeah, male dominated society indeed! The guy was with a 1-2 yrs old child on his right side and had 7-8 yr old child walking on his left. And the wife, who was walking behind him, was more concerned about her sari, her hair and her make-up..

My wife looked at me with pride and an understanding which said - "Need I say more?"

Damn ít! I lost again..

C'mon husbands, we were winning - for once, in this generation! Think of our fore-fore fathers. They will be embarrassed about it! They toiled hard to ensure we remain a male dominated society. They were united in their pursuit.. And were successful too! They left hoping we will carry on the legacy. What have we made it into? :D

Moral - Males dominate the society till they get married!

Image courtesy - MyIndiaPictures.com

PS: This post is intended to be a humorous one and should not interpreted otherwise. 

Book Review: Romi and Gang

"Romi and Gang", as the name suggests is about a group of friends and their life and situations they face together. It's a story about their school and everything that's a part of school - including Cricket. The books starts with the prestigious season ball is hit out of the park and argument over who will compensate for it! If you had anything to do with Cricket in your childhood, you will know what I am talking about. Even the book cover shows a group of boys with their bags on their shoulders running towards what can definitely not be termed as a School. Its a life after school that matters!

Target Audience:

1. Cricket crazy fans as there are umpteen cricketing terms you can relate to

2. Readers whose life revolved around cricket especially during childhood

Plot: During your childhood, have you ever hit a cricket ball so hard that it flew out of the ground and your own team-mates, instead of applauding you, start criticizing you because you lost the only ball the team had! Have you ever enrolled a new member in your cricket team by asking him to buy a ball as a "goodwill" gesture? Have you ever got up in the morning just to run towards the 'maidan' to play cricket? Have you ever got up late in the night (say at 02:00am) just to see India - West Indies test match? You will find all this and more in this book! The story is about 4 friends (Romi, Sunny, Sukhi and Golu) and their life in school, on the cricket ground and around each other. Life moves around cricket for them. This book is about how they react to things changing in the school, how to win the next match and the likes.

Writing: The book is a series of events happening - some related and some not so related. A memoir of sorts. It can be classified as a diary written by a young boy about four friends and their childhood. For this, I must commend the author who has described feelings that only a child will go through. I personally went back to my childhood while reading this book and co-related those cricketing days and days of friendship that revolved around Cricket! This is the main reason why it took me long to read this book which, based on the size, should have been completed within 3-4 hours. Also, the cricket commentary in the book is nicely written. You can feel that you are actually present and watching the match. The things that I would think while batting were almost identical to what the protagonists went through. So much for co-relations! Special mention about the sketches in the book - awesome.

I would strongly recommend this book to those cricket fanatics to relive their childhood days again and maybe think of how life changed with responsibilities. However, if you don't fall in the target audience I mentioned above, you can give this book a miss as you will not be able to understand the nuances of cricketing terms.

My Rating: 3.5 / 5 (considering the broader reading audience)

One Google Doodle only you can see..

When I logged in to Google on 19th Jan 2013, I saw a different Google logo. And it was a Birthday doodle. Now, I thought some big personality who invented, lets say - air or water or nuclear energy or the likes, was being remembered on his / her birthday. Since it was a Saturday and I had lots of time at my disposal, I decided to check out who's birthday was it. And this is what I found. Check the message on the doodle - 

Thank you Google! What a nice gesture and a nice way to start surfing the net on my birthday!

In case you are wondering how it works: I have shared my birthday details on my Google+ page. Here's the pseudocode: 

If Login = "Binu Thomas",
      If Current date = Profile Birthdate,
            Show "Birthday Doodle"
      Else
            Show the doodle for the day
      End-If
End-If.

And, needless to say, this is a doodle only you can see when you logon to Google on your birthday. Watch out for your birthday!

Some funny status messages (Part 2)

And I have finally found the 'mega file' of status messages I collected / prepared. I won't utilize more of your time explaining anything. This is the 2nd and the last part of the series. The first part can be found here.

Kind courtesy: Me

• I frankly felt that the reception we received on the way in from the airport was very warm and hospitable. And I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave -- with all five fingers -- for their hospitality. - George W. Bush
• How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on
• What a "Phelps"ating and "Nadal"icious Olympics we are having !!! (during the Olympics)
• An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be
• The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.
• Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue. (This is my favorite one-liner)
• 80% of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and the one book you didn’t read. (Apt one-liner during exams)
• One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. If she tells that, she’ll tell anything.
• Do you still love nature, despite what it did to you?
• I dont drive fast.... I fly slowly
• The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late. 
• If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? 
• Ever notice that the people who are late are often much jollier than the people who have to wait for them? 
• If you tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe, he'll believe you. But if you tell him a park bench has just been painted, he has to touch it to be sure.
• A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.
• Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW! 
• Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.
• A diplomatic husband said to his wife, "How do you expect me to remember your birthday when you never look any older?"
• Mankind faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to extinction. Let us pray we choose correctly.
• According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
• It's a recession when you neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
• I never apologize. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am.
• A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, 'Wish you were here.'
• People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first.
• If I save time, when do I get it back? 
• War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who is left.
• My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
• I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.
• If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as "candle making industry threatened".
• Sometimes, trust is similar to touching fire and hoping that your hand won't burn...
• Conversation is when three women are standing in the corner and talking. Gossip is when one has left.
• A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to philosophers to be obviously progress -- though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known..
• Modesty is the only good quality I don't have
• Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
• You can't be late until you show up.
• Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
• Sarcasm helps keep you from telling people what you really think of them. 
• You learn a lot in your teenage years, for instance I learned that if you're ever being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a little tunnel, then onto a mini seesaw and then jump through a ring of fire, they've trained for that you see. 
• The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship "I apologize" and "You are right." 
• A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
• Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for those people who can't remember where they leave things..
• Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage
• Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn't there the first time you need him, chances are you won't be needing him again 
• If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain
• Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. - John F. Kennedy
• How to make God laugh: Tell him your future plans. 
• Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.. 

Disclaimer: As I had mentioned before, some are inspirations (Read: copied from the net many years back), some are genuinely mine (I don't remember which ones) and some are mixed.

Some funny status messages..

Once in a while, you get the notion that you don't have anything to do at a given point of time. I have it too. In such scenario's, I prefer to watch some sports video that I have saved on my hard disk. Else, I play FIFA 12 (yes, waiting to buy FIFA 13). Else, sleep. Else (rarest of rare condition for any guy), try searching for old stuffs in your folders. Now I have been using a PC / Laptop since 2001. 11 years have gone by. I will be having something worth revisiting again. Maybe, that's why I haven't deleted it. So, that rarest of rare condition happened to me the other day. And apart from some old pics, I found a notepad with the title "Status messages". Wow!

Brief backdrop: Back in those days (college days), I used to chat a lot. Yahoo, MSN and Google messengers were always signed on when the net is connected. Addiction, maybe. Google had a status message option. This is where I used to insert the below mentioned messages. It started with one or two messages based on my mood. After I started getting positive feedback from friends, I took inspiration from some websites with funny status messages (read: copied) and sometimes prepared my own. Now I hardly come online to chat. My friends realized their mistake to motivate me, I think!

Kind courtesy: ehow.com

I intend to share some of the status messages. Some of them are genuine (or atleast I think I haven't copied it from some site). Some are inspirations from other sites. Some are extensions of popular messages. Here we go:

• Change is inevitable. Either you change yourself voluntarily, or this world will change you
• Smile. Coz tomorrow might be worse
• Whenever man comes up with a better mousetrap, nature immediately comes up with a better mouse
• I can see light at the end of the tunnel. But...
• People who say "Till death do us apart" should never say "Give me my personal space"
• If time and tide waits for no one, then why is there always next time?
• Take your pick - You 'fall' in Love, or you 'rise' in Love...
• If you are successful in Marketing, Kotler will include your strategy as an example. If you Fail, Matt Haig will include your failure as a chapter in his book "Brand Failures". Either ways, you become popular in Marketing!

I will have to dig deep to find more. I am sure I had more one-liners. In fact, one of my all time favorite is not mentioned above. Hopefully, I will find them soon. Until then, let me know your thoughts..

PS: I had written this post few weeks back anticipating the welcome changes happening in my family. Am publishing it now to keep my blog active. If you like what you read, just let me know. I have some more status messages. Will share them too.

New Phase in my life..

This is easily my most special pic. That's me bonding with my new born daughter! 

She was born on 18th October, 2012. Time for me and my wife to enter a new phase in our lives - Parenthood!

Cricket and Car owners: A love-hate relationship

Those were the days:

We (me and my friends) used to complete our homework, tuition classes and used to rush outside our homes. One / two guys will bring a bat along and we all will contribute (emptying our dad's pockets of course) and buy a Rs. 10/- rubber ball. On occasions, we used to make some bold decisions and buy a tennis ball worth Rs. 25/- (those days, I tell you). Reasoning: Rubber ball can burst anytime, tennis balls usually stay longer. We didn't have a ground near our building so we used to play in the empty places inside the compound.

Here's a description of our compound. Straight behind the bowler is a building. As per our rules (yes, we followed them) when the ball hits the building directly it is considered OUT! Another building occupies the cover region on the offside for a right handed batsman. Needless to say, hitting it directly is also OUT. Square on the offside is an open area with one run declared. Since our stump is drawn on the wall, we didn't have anything behind the wicket. Leg side is where there was more open space and hence most of my friends (including me) eventually became strong on the leg-side. Fours and sixes can only be scored in the long-on region. Simple? Here's a 'architectural' view of the same:

Everything's great for cricket, right? Wrong.

Did you notice something in the pic that I didn't mention in my description. Observe carefully.

Car parks!

Yes. Those are the virtual fielders for the bowling side. Always there in India. We used to discourage the batsman from hitting the ball directly on the car. When such an incident happens, the batsman is declared out! Makes sense as they are (virtual) fielders and hitting them directly mean they are virtually catching the ball. The cars, more often than not, used to decide the result of the match. We tend to not like (I cannot write HATE as some of the cars belonged to my family friends) the cars and their owners for obvious reasons. 

Fast Forward: 15 - 20 years later:

It was a weekend. I was in my house. Laziness took complete control of me. Then someone called and informed me that some boys were playing cricket inside the society and one of them broke the side mirror of my car. On further speculation, I came to know that a ball hit the side mirror and it's damaged!

Damn you boys! How dare you? Why can't boys play with their playstations or rather study for some exam coming their way! Why always cricket? Why always inside the compound? We pay lakhs to buy a car, lakhs to have a car park here in Mumbai (which is now considered a luxury now-a-days). What were the security guards doing? Don't we pay the maintenance bill so that they get their salaries? The cursing just went on...

Sometimes, just sometimes, life is not always greener on the other side.

That's when my past just hit me! I started missing my childhood a lot. A sense of deja vu, so to speak. And hence the blog. It was a slightly costly deal but it was all worth it! Thank you boys.

Allow me to tweak the Mastercard advert to suit my post: Car - Lakhs, car parks - few lakhs, car damaged - few thousands, the memories - PRICELESS!

This post is dedicated to all my childhood friends. Really loved playing cricket and football with you guys. And to all the society uncles who scolded us day in day out yet allowed us to play and enjoy our childhood.

My Life in Blogging..

A time comes when you have to just stop where you are and introspect. Look back to what you have done, your mistakes, areas where you made the right decisions, phases you wish never occurred. I have reached such a stage. Not in my personal life, but in my blogging life. I have already published 99 posts and this, my friend, is my 100th.

Time for some introspection. And a walk down memory lane. So ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to my life in blogging:

Phase 1: The Beginning

It seems like a long time ago. Year 2007 to be precise - when I wrote my first post. A post about relations. I described friendship, how it starts and where it leads to. I am sure you might have not read that post as I didn't have loyal readers, or for that matter, even disloyal readers to read about it. I shared it with my friends and some of them replied. I somehow felt I have really achieved something. They say its always difficult to start something new. I say they are right!

Phase 2: The End

The initial excitement led me to write another post in December 2007 and 3 more posts in the first half of 2008. Ironically, by that time, the excitement totally faded away! I had a career shift (getting back to studies after 2 years of corporate life). This made me concentrate too much on the task at hand and slowly I lost interest in blogging. Overall, I wrote 2 posts in 2007, 3 in 2008 and 2 in 2009. That's a total of 7 in exactly 24 months.

Phase 3: The Beginning, again

Then came a sudden rush to revisit the blogging days. I don't remember how. All I remember is that I felt I need to write again. Give blogging another try. Also, my academic days came to an end and I started my corporate life again. The thing with corporate life is that you work for 5 days and rest for 2 days. So, I had time to write again. Also, I was never short of topics as I don't have a niche blog (like food blog, sports blog, travel blog, business blog etc). I realize I need to write on something I observed and I write.

Phase 4: Growth

I wrote an open letter to my blog (as weird as it seem) apologizing for my ignorance and promising that I will regularly update my blog. And that's when the journey truly began. I consciously made an effort to write regularly. I wrote 58 posts in 2011. Now I don't have a target or I don't really compare the numbers but it was evident that my interest in blogging reached an all new high. In the same year, I started promoting my posts through various websites (IndiBlogger), some websites highlighted some of my posts as past of their weekly best collection (BlogAdda). I also registered on many blog sharing sites to promote my blog, unfortunately most of them didn't do me any good. I started gaining many readers mostly due to my association with IndiBlogger. Page views also started increasing.

Phase 5: Consolidation

At one point, I realized that numbers shouldn't matter to me. I mean yes, numbers are an important feedback mechanism to show how your posts are performing on search engines. More comments would mean more readers would like to share their opinion on the post. But I was slowly becoming a person who was obsessed with more numbers and my priority changed from "what I want to write" to "what readers want to read and search". You see, the second approach works well if you are planning to monetize your blog. But, my blog is a personal and an ad-free blog. I decided to abide by the first approach. Since then, I write about topics that interest me and seeks to obtain feedback (good and bad alike) from fellow bloggers.

I am currently in this phase and I intend to remain in this phase for ever.

I am personally having a great time writing posts and reading posts from my blogging friends - the same friends who stood by me through this journey. If I haven't got the amount of appreciation (and criticism) I did when I (re)started blogging, I would never have reached this stage. So, a BIG THANK YOU guys!

Here are some of the posts that I really enjoyed writing, in case you haven't read them (order in which I have published):

1. A peek into some relations
2. A Child's perspective on how to tackle Terrorism..
3. Life (and Death) as we know it..
4. The day I met GOD.
5. Termites came, saw, ate and conquered..
6. Guest Post: Its a dog's life, after all !!
7. Guest Post: Grievances of One - Hundred Rupee note.
8. Wish I had lived those two hours differently..

Feeling slightly nostalgic. Damn, what will I write for my 101st post?

And my life continues..

Some people and their selfish priorities

It happened last week.

I was driving with my wife in Mumbai. Somewhere near Chembur (won't reveal the exact location as I don't want to defame anyone). I wanted to take a right turn and the signal was green. So I took the turn. One traffic police whistled (you are required to check if the whistle was intended for you). I saw him through my rear view mirror. It was for me. I slowed down my car. I heard the whistle again, I saw again and the police indicated me to leave. Strange. I assumed there's some misunderstanding and now eveything's fine.

Me and my assumptions!

Suddenly another traffic police whistled and stopped me then and there. I asked him the reason politely (as he is just doing his job) and he politely asked me to show my driving licence. I obliged. Politely, I may add. Politely again, he asked me directly for money! Now that was direct to the point!

I asked him, "Paise kyun?" (Why are you asking for money?)

He: "Sahab ke paas chalo, sab batayenge" (My senior will answer your query)

By the way, I must add, the politeness I was referring to earlier on, suddenly left.

He: "PUC dikhaon" (Show me the PUC receipt. PUC is the certificate you get from the authorities when your vehicle's contribution to pollution is minimal and under control)

I obliged again. Thankfully, the PUC was still valid!

He took me to his senior. His senior said there was some confusion and he can let me go. Politeness is back in this world again! And now, finally, eveything's fine.. again!

I am not publishing this incident to defame anyone. I, for one, have the utmost respect for Mumbai police (traffic police included). I feel they are the most under-appreciated group in Mumbai. Anything happens here and we expect them to solve it. And they do, sometimes a little later than we expect. But that's understandable considering how big, multi-cultural and diverse Mumbai is.

There are some though, that spoil every good deed Mumbai police do. Like the one I referred to in this post. People eager for money and will not mince words to ask. Selfish priorities. As they say, it takes just one rotten apple to spoil the whole bunch. But then there are guys, like his senior, who ensured that sanity and justice prevails.

Image: trafficpolicemumbai.org. Deeds that we normally tend to forget

My overall experience - Satisfactory.

Mysterious ways!

It was Friday. I decided to return back home by BEST AC bus (public transport in Mumbai). I reached the main road thinking logically that a bus stop should be nearby. That logical thinking backfired as I had to walk for almost 1/2 an hour to reach the stop. Normally, 1/2 an hour of walking doesn't matter to me. But it was Friday, Friday evening to be precise. It's the day you psychologically feel you have given your everything at work and is about to enter a 2-day break! You don't need an 1/2 hr struggle, now do you?

Anyways, I finally reached the stop. Logically, I knew the bus should be coming soon as I didn't see my bus zooming past me when I was walking. Which means, logically, my bus is due any moment. That moment continued for another 1/2 an hour! I saw people who came after me, happily boarding their buses. I had moments when I was alone in the bus stop! And all this on a damn Friday! Anyone would crib about it - I know I did. In between all the curses in my mind towards anyone I saw and could possibly remember that time (sorry if you were a part of it), my AC bus finally came!

Now you would be thinking, finally this chap will stop cribbing and start dreaming of an ideal weekend (sleep and sports, in my case). Nopes! The bus was crowded. Or at least I thought so when it arrived. I boarded the bus, logically, as I didn't have the patience to wait for another 1/2 an hour hoping for an empty bus! Once inside, I started searching for a seat, illogically, I must admit. But guess what, I found one empty seat! Last row. That makes sense, as sitting in the last row of an AC bus is like sitting in an air-conditioned rick with legs closer to your chest than you think! Literally. As I approached the seat, I felt as if I am the luckiest man alive (for that moment, i.e.). And it has nothing to do with the seat!

Flashback - For the past few months, I was planning with my Engineering friends to have a get-together someday! Albeit unsuccessfully. The idea was to at least plan a lunch together and then move on to bigger things like a weekend trip! Lunch itself seems to be a bigger hurdle to cross.

Guess who I met that day in the bus!

Image: http://www.glitterlive.com/hello_009.html

YES! One of my friends was in the bus. Last seat. And the empty seat I got was right adjacent to his. After a long time, man! What a way to end the week!

God surely works in mysterious ways!

And by the way, we ended our discussion by planning a lunch together - Until next time!

PS: Long time no see guys! Apologies from my end. Lots of things happening at my end. Whats up?

Small moments in life

The below mentioned experience is true to the best of whatever knowledge I have.

One day, in the evening, I was coming back home. There were many man-made barriers that I had to cross / survive to reach home. It happens everyday. You name it - traffic, road bumps, road search, driving on stuffs you feel are terrain-like, random tensions about work, life and many things. Coming back home in Mumbai is a challenge in itself. You feel you have contributed and given your all at work - and then you start your travel completely oblivious of the fact that the worst is yet to come!! That day was on the same lines.

Anyways, after getting down from the bus, I started walking back home, kinda relieved that the day is about to get over. I saw one guy riding a bike with his child (a 1-2 yr old boy). The boy was very happy, and there were valid reasons for that. The boy was holding a balloon and was playing with it. The father seemed happy too. So, we can guess that the boy might have been crying for a balloon and the father got it for him. There was a lot of honking happening (as is always the case in Mumbai - we hardly hear any birds chirping). I hate it when people start honking for no reason! They see a vehicle in front - they honk. They see a guy in front - they honk. Damn, they see a girl who's not even in front - they honk!

Image: www.keyframeonline.com

Amidst all this, the small boy lost control of his balloon and the balloon fell down on the road. And, needless to say, he started crying. His father stopped the bike. He, however, was unable to decide if he should get down and collect the balloon or he should just leave and a buy a new one. He stood there motionless while rickshaw's started piling up behind him. I was nearby. I don't know what happened, I just went right in the middle of the road (yeah right, my heroic moment), took the balloon and gave it to the boy. You should have seen the smile on his face when he got hold of his prized possession!! His father asked him to thank me. He said something - which I still think, resembles a 'Thank You'. Meanwhile, all the rickshaw's, that were behind the bike, didn't honk! YES! They didn't honk. They stood there waiting for the scene to get over! No one honked! Not a single machine moved. It was as if, for that moment, the world around me stood still!!

After all this got over, I continued my journey. The guy started his bike and they continued. The rickshaw-wallah's continued theirs. And the world was back to normal again.

There is a reason why I am writing this. I learnt a very valuable lesson. Maybe this had to happen with me as I was going through some tough times (self made, I guess). God's way of explaining life - I must add. You see, we all go through problems. Some earlier in their life, some later, and some throughout their lives. Some a little more than others. But problems are something no one can avoid. Even the wealthiest and the most powerful king will have his own problems to deal with. All you need is one small moment - just the way I had. The moment may not always come to you. Sometimes, you have to approach the moment yourself!! I was fortunate enough to approach the moment and experience it first-hand. Just look around. I bet something is happening which commands your attention.

Just grab the moment. And you won't regret it.

And here ends my philosophy. Back to life. And in search of that moment again!