None of us is perfect. We all have flaws and some are more amusing than others.
I often face this predicament: In the middle of a serious meeting where a client is articulating his thoughts around the dwindling market share, I tend to go back-packing onto the terrain of a mountain in an amazon forest. This is a pure and simple case of day dreaming and is one of my consistent flaws.
Well, as Plato might have agreed, boredom is one of the key causes of day dreaming. So, I write to keep myself amused and interested.
How often do you have this urge to explore new hinterlands? If the answer is "a lot of times", did you ever ponder why you have that urge? My sense is that what we really crave for is not new post-card locations but newer and broader horizons. The ability to understand the beyond.
Marcel Proust famously said,
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eye"
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Up Close and Personal.
When you hear those three words, the last thing you might think about is an MBA.
But, if you are aware of the Josh Kaufmann's brain-child "The Personal MBA", you won't be disappointed at the word association.
http://personalmba.com/
A personal project which evolved into a pioneering solution to bridge the gap between advanced business knowledge and ever increasing number of aspiring students.
The tools used are surprisingly simple. A recommended list of business readings - that is all! Ofcourse there are discussion forums for members to enable discourse and intellectual exchange. The really strong chord though is that there is no $ 150,000 fee and a grand saving of more than a year's worth of time.
The course doesn't promise to offer a complete experience which is the hallmark of Harvard and Stanford. However, it may still be a better choice than the experience than most of the other schools have to offer.
On a slightly different note, Oscar Wild had a wise thing to say many decades ago:
“If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself - a rare type in our time … you rise from table richer, and conscious that a high ideal has for a moment touched and sanctified your days. But Oh! my dear Ernest, to sit next to a man who has spent his life in trying to educate others! What a dreadful experience that is!”
But, if you are aware of the Josh Kaufmann's brain-child "The Personal MBA", you won't be disappointed at the word association.
http://personalmba.com/
A personal project which evolved into a pioneering solution to bridge the gap between advanced business knowledge and ever increasing number of aspiring students.
The tools used are surprisingly simple. A recommended list of business readings - that is all! Ofcourse there are discussion forums for members to enable discourse and intellectual exchange. The really strong chord though is that there is no $ 150,000 fee and a grand saving of more than a year's worth of time.
The course doesn't promise to offer a complete experience which is the hallmark of Harvard and Stanford. However, it may still be a better choice than the experience than most of the other schools have to offer.
On a slightly different note, Oscar Wild had a wise thing to say many decades ago:
“If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself - a rare type in our time … you rise from table richer, and conscious that a high ideal has for a moment touched and sanctified your days. But Oh! my dear Ernest, to sit next to a man who has spent his life in trying to educate others! What a dreadful experience that is!”
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Take Or Give
Should we as humans rejoice the gifts we have or constantly flex our muscles to concentrate only on giving?
I hear "give and take". Never hear "give or take". But, it looks like that is a constant choice we make. How can we give AND take? Isn't it self-contradictory?
If we watch TV for sixteen minutes, should we be guilty that we didn't spend those minutes trying to solve the hunger of the kids in somalia? Did the globe warm up by a tenth of a degree before you finish watching Joe stick his head into a turkey? Did the carbon release from that TV help the ordeal?
Should you be worried or should you not.
Choice is constant. And, it is anything but binary. The third and most common form is not to choose.
Collective subconcious of the humankind may be the single most potent force available to mankind. If we can alter it, we can possibly achieve anything we need.
I hear "give and take". Never hear "give or take". But, it looks like that is a constant choice we make. How can we give AND take? Isn't it self-contradictory?
If we watch TV for sixteen minutes, should we be guilty that we didn't spend those minutes trying to solve the hunger of the kids in somalia? Did the globe warm up by a tenth of a degree before you finish watching Joe stick his head into a turkey? Did the carbon release from that TV help the ordeal?
Should you be worried or should you not.
Choice is constant. And, it is anything but binary. The third and most common form is not to choose.
Collective subconcious of the humankind may be the single most potent force available to mankind. If we can alter it, we can possibly achieve anything we need.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Joe the Plumber
A good replacement for the palin if she decides to undergo a long term rehabilitation to cure the severe lack of intelligence.
Monday, October 13, 2008
World in a book shelf
Lately, my favourite bookstore has been a small shop called 'Raven' in harvard square.
It deals only in used scholarly books. The quite and dark non-confronting landscape of the store makes you feel immediatly at home. Unlike the other large commercial stores I mostly make my purchases at, this is a very small 'mom & pop' store with freshness and novelty.
They play interesting non-conventional music and everytime I have been in the store, I got delightfully introduced to an interesting new artist. Try 'Manu Chao' and you won't be disappointed. However, please be informed that it is all french and spanish.
I can't think of a place other than Harvard where such a store can survive.
The bookshelves are diverse and yet, structured at the core. As you browse through the sections of India, China and other parts of the world, you can't help but notice the distinct difference among the varieties of books.
Books on India mostly deal with the wounds of the age-old civilization and the challenges related to economic liberation. The narratives are often deep and critical of the government and the elite alike. The books are a testimony to the democratic values of the country.
This feelings becomes more sharp as you look at the section on China. The books about China all have a mystic title. As if the authors are trying to explore the unknown and the content always falls short of comprehensiveness. This speaks a lot about the role of individual and the freedom of expression in this famously oppresive state.
The section of Asia is also dense with books about the darkness of Afghanistan. The pain is described in poetic eloquence by intense american authors. How ironic that much of that pain is caused by their own country men.
As you move to the books on Germany, you can't miss the sub-section of Holocaust.
The imagery becomes to too heavy by this moment and if you are still man enough to be in the section, you can give me an advice or two about how to control emotions.
The other shelf I found is of great value is the one on 'media and society'. I ended up purchasing a book from this section titled 'Self-Help, Inc'. The book deals with many doubts you always harbor about Stephen Covey and other authors who sell the idea that it is possible to shift to an alternate reality. The author does a fine job of dislodging the claims of all the semi-bogus authors.It may be the one book I want to gift to my cousins in teenage if they should ever ask me any questions related with "before and after".
An other interesting book I found was titled 'Forbidden Knowledge'. A philiosphical exploration of the dark side of human ingenuity and imagination.
I quote from an analytical passage of the book:
"SARA: Axel! [He is pensive]. Axel, are you forgetting me already? The world is out there. Let's go live!
AXEL: No. Our existence is already fulfilled. Our cup runneth over. All the realities, what will they be tomorrow compared to the mirages we have just lived?"
It deals only in used scholarly books. The quite and dark non-confronting landscape of the store makes you feel immediatly at home. Unlike the other large commercial stores I mostly make my purchases at, this is a very small 'mom & pop' store with freshness and novelty.
They play interesting non-conventional music and everytime I have been in the store, I got delightfully introduced to an interesting new artist. Try 'Manu Chao' and you won't be disappointed. However, please be informed that it is all french and spanish.
I can't think of a place other than Harvard where such a store can survive.
The bookshelves are diverse and yet, structured at the core. As you browse through the sections of India, China and other parts of the world, you can't help but notice the distinct difference among the varieties of books.
Books on India mostly deal with the wounds of the age-old civilization and the challenges related to economic liberation. The narratives are often deep and critical of the government and the elite alike. The books are a testimony to the democratic values of the country.
This feelings becomes more sharp as you look at the section on China. The books about China all have a mystic title. As if the authors are trying to explore the unknown and the content always falls short of comprehensiveness. This speaks a lot about the role of individual and the freedom of expression in this famously oppresive state.
The section of Asia is also dense with books about the darkness of Afghanistan. The pain is described in poetic eloquence by intense american authors. How ironic that much of that pain is caused by their own country men.
As you move to the books on Germany, you can't miss the sub-section of Holocaust.
The imagery becomes to too heavy by this moment and if you are still man enough to be in the section, you can give me an advice or two about how to control emotions.
The other shelf I found is of great value is the one on 'media and society'. I ended up purchasing a book from this section titled 'Self-Help, Inc'. The book deals with many doubts you always harbor about Stephen Covey and other authors who sell the idea that it is possible to shift to an alternate reality. The author does a fine job of dislodging the claims of all the semi-bogus authors.It may be the one book I want to gift to my cousins in teenage if they should ever ask me any questions related with "before and after".
An other interesting book I found was titled 'Forbidden Knowledge'. A philiosphical exploration of the dark side of human ingenuity and imagination.
I quote from an analytical passage of the book:
"SARA: Axel! [He is pensive]. Axel, are you forgetting me already? The world is out there. Let's go live!
AXEL: No. Our existence is already fulfilled. Our cup runneth over. All the realities, what will they be tomorrow compared to the mirages we have just lived?"
Banyan tree
Slight twinge in the ribs reminds me of the afternoon many years ago
When I lay down in the grass waiting for the rainbow
Sparkle in the eyes and spring in the knees
Waiting to jump ahead and run.
As the dry page flutters at the turn of the decade
The banyan tree doesn't have the same shade any more.
When I lay down in the grass waiting for the rainbow
Sparkle in the eyes and spring in the knees
Waiting to jump ahead and run.
As the dry page flutters at the turn of the decade
The banyan tree doesn't have the same shade any more.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Singular Drift
It is a striking thing to note that the primary goals of humankind are profoundly misplaced. Capitalism may have given us great gifts to savour but it robbed us of our basic identity as humans.
Everything is Hollywood now. If something is not, it will soon be.
Fast-food consumerism and late-night drudgery are fashionable and considered the traits of the intelligent segment of the society which is going to lead us into the future.
The drift appears so natural that anything which contradicts the stream of mass flow is visualized as an aberrant and soon weeded out by a cohesive effort of all moving parts of the system.
We live for our culture and inspite of it, we don't.
Everything is Hollywood now. If something is not, it will soon be.
Fast-food consumerism and late-night drudgery are fashionable and considered the traits of the intelligent segment of the society which is going to lead us into the future.
The drift appears so natural that anything which contradicts the stream of mass flow is visualized as an aberrant and soon weeded out by a cohesive effort of all moving parts of the system.
We live for our culture and inspite of it, we don't.
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