An Open Letter to Pamela Anderson : Blog # 214

An Open Letter to Pamela Anderson

I have always fancied writing an open letter to someone the world knows. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be addressed to the lady mentioned above J. More strange is the topic which I am going to write to her about.

Recently, there was a controversy about Thrissur Pooram and Pamela Anderson. Thrissur Pooram is a 200 year old temple festival which attracts viewers from around the world. It is celebrated during summer (April – May) in the small city of Thrissur in Kerala. The controversy is about the usage of Elephants in this festival. Elephants are an integral part of pooram like many other festivals in Kerala. There was a petition that was filed though a society that prevents cruelty against animals requesting the elephants to be replaced with imitations (cardboard cut-outs or such) for the festival. I found this petition to be a tad bit misguided. The representation of facts is also questionable. The picture below is the one which featured on that society’s India page on Facebook. 

An elephant which is made to participate in the festival need to be certified by a veterinary doctor that it is in the pink of health. It is also reviewed by a committee comprising of high level officials of the state administration including the District collector who is an IAS officer. When the elephants stand on the roads during day time, thick sacks are laid on the road on which water is poured continually so that their feet doesn’t get hurt by the heat. Elephants are periodically fed water melons so that they are not thirsty. Also, elephants are transported using trucks so that they don’t have to walk long distances. There is an elephant owners association who are well aware of the repercussions if they do not follow the above guidelines. Also, most of them are genuinely interested in the animal’s welfare.

Now, there is this issue of chaining up the elephants. Their legs are chained so that they don’t run and hurt people. This is only during the peak hours of the festival and this is not done for all the elephants. I have a dog at home. Do I love him? Absolutely! Do I go out and play with him during my morning tea? Yes I do. Do I pet him before I go to sleep? I do. But if a guest comes home, do I chain him up till they leave? I do that too. It is only this precaution which the organizers of the festival are also taking.

Why can’t they use cardboard cut outs of elephants for the festival? Why do you have to cook Turkey for thanksgiving? Won’t mashed potato do? It is tradition! In this case, it is a 200 year old tradition! I consider people who treat animals well to be more intelligent and sensible than a layman. In my opinion, what a society pursuing as noble a cause as animal welfare should do is to suggest alternatives which results in the comfort of the animals and not take simplistic approaches like attempting to do away with a practice altogether.

This picture shown here is an elephant which participated in this year’s festival. This is the true picture of the state of elephants used in the pooram.

It also raises questions about the credibility of information that is being circulated in social media. For a person who sees only the first picture, it is very easy to be mislead and get worried about these poor animals. Am I saying there is nothing to be changed about the way elephants are treated? Absolutely not. There is always room for improvement. But it needs to be done through thorough understanding of the context and ensuring that there is no misrepresentation of facts.

I am from Thrissur. But I have taken care to not get carried away. The above mentioned guidelines are factual.

p.s. Including this disclaimer - I wrote a blog on Jallikattu opposing it. If that is the case, why do I support usage of elephants in festival then? I don't .Not any more. When I wrote the above blog, I felt it was justified. Now I feel it is wrong. We should stop using elephants for festivals. Why am I not deleting the above blog post? It is to show that when it comes to things close to our heart, most of us lose objectivity. 

Link to the Jallikattu blog: Jallikattu must stop!

Sheldon & Gutthi : Blog # 213

Sheldon & Gutthi

        I was watching an episode of the series, ‘The Big Bang Theory’. The episode was one where the character, ‘Sheldon’ is doing a show on flags. It suddenly struck me as to how similar the mannerisms and expressions of Sheldon Cooper is to ‘Gutthi’, a character in the much loved Indian show, ‘Comedy nights with Kapil’. Both the shows are immensely popular for their comic appeal and the characters are much loved by the audience.

            As I thought further, there were other similarities too. Both of them have quirks which make us fall in love with them. Sheldon knocks on a door thrice, calling out the person’s name, ALWAYS. Gutthi introduces herself in a peculiar way where she calls out every one’s name who are around in a kind of a forever loop. How much ever times they repeat this, it is equally funny every single time.

            Both of them mostly believe only one person or confide in only with a single character. For Sheldon, it is Leonard and for Gutthi, it is her sister, Palak. Both the characters have a punching bag each. Sheldon is always dismissive about Penni and  for Gutthi, it is Palak who is always a butt of her jokes. Both the characters are narcissistic in their own ways and have a bit of an inflated self image about themself.

            If you stretch your imagination a bit, Bazingaa and Babaji ka thullu are also similar, isn’t it? ;) These are similarities in words. If you want to look at gestures, Gutthi shows Babaji ka thullu time and again and Sheldon’s favourite is Live Long & Prosper J

To my eyes, somewhere, both of them kind of look a bit similar too, the actors who play the characters I mean. Sunil Grover plays Gutthi and Sheldon Copper is played by Jim Parsons. In more ways than one, both of them have similar facial features. Both of them have awkward smiles and quirky expressions too.

Keywords : The big bang theory, Sheldon Cooper, Gutthi, Comedy nights with Kapil, Sunil Grover, Jim Parsons

748 Million : Jal Shakti Abhiyan : Blog # 209

748 Million ~ Jal Shakti Abhiyan

The title of the blog is not the number of wells in the world. Neither is it the count of springs which emerge from the bosom of earth. Sadly, it is an indication of the lack of these fountain heads of Life. That is the magnitude of our water woes! It is the number of people around the world who do not have access to drinking water.

Whenever you get an opportunity, talk to a person who takes care of the administration of an organization which has more than a few 100 people. Concern about providing water will top his/her priority. This is true for an academic institution, a business organization and even for a health care centre. The mayor of a city and a head of state will be equally worried about our fast disappearing water bodies.

Imagine coming home from a long tiring day and not having a handful of water to bring your face back from the dead. On a hot summer afternoon, how will you feel when you open the tap and all you get is an erratic symphony of the left behind wind? Can you fathom how much of a frustration it will be when we will need to ration and account for the last drop of water we use on a daily basis? What should make all of us scared is that all these things can happen in more near a future than when we expect it to happen.

If you look at this issue from a broader perspective, it has the potential to disrupt whatever little peace is left in the world. I am sure all of us are at a loss of words when states fight among themselves for want of water – which side to take, who is right and more importantly, what the solution is. Now imagine these conflicts on a world scale. Nations being at war and unleashing destruction over each other, all for a mouthful of water for its people.

I have always wondered since when did we start being so insensitive towards our own kind. We come across a number like this, feel sad till the next ping on our phone and we move on. I think Darwin is partially to blame for this. His ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the best branding ‘Selfishness’ could have ever asked for. A person, exhausted and worn out sitting underneath a tap waiting for a drop of water should prick our conscience. A picture of a child sitting under blazing sun with not even a blade of grass in the vicinity for whom tears are the only drops of water available should grow a lump in our throat.

We shouldn’t stop at just that. Each time we let a tap run, a tank over flow, a bottle spill those pictures should come haunting back to our minds. We all should in our small ways try and fill up earth’s eyes. A rain water harvesting plan for each household can be a good beginning. Of the umpteen things being banned around us, a house construction plan without a water harvesting provision can be a welcome one.

Signs of severe water shortage is all around us. Many cities in India are realing under water scarcity. Globally, it is Capetown that went down first. In our own country, the  latest being Chennai. Next will be Bangalore and then the others. We must take the Jal Shakti Abhiyan seriously and give it all that we have got.

Keywords : 748 Million,water scarcity, water, water woes. water issues , charity water, Jal Shakti Abhiyan 

Arun Babu

The first drops from Heaven : Blog # 208

The first drops from Heaven

Years before, when life was much simpler, when my dreams were not bound by the fences of reality, when I was a child, I remember asking my Grandmother on a Sunday evening as to what that wonderful scent was. She told me it is the scent of the earth. It is the heavenly smell of the first rain. She told me that for one to experience the rain and its scent, one needs to be a bit far from the madness. Then, I thought she was referring to only the hustle and bustle of the city where I lived.

Once I was walking back home. It was summer at its peak and all of us had been hoping for the clouds to shed some kindness. Out of the blue, when we least expected it, started the first rain. Big drops of water emerged which momentarily disappeared in the dried up brown soil in spite of their pearl like heaviness. Many of us took shelter in the road side shops. There was a person waiting with us and he started walking out of the shop. He did not have an umbrella.  He just walked getting drenched in that rain. He looked back at all of us standing at the door step of the shop and smiled. There wasn't even one face in that little crowd which did not reciprocate the smile. At that moment, I realized my grandmother was referring to the madness within too.

I think there is more to this smell than just a pleasant assault on the nose. It is a culmination of various emotions. On the surface of it, it indicates the beginning of an end – of the tiring, sultry summer. It is the harbinger of more pleasant days in the offing. It indicates lesser lines of worry on our foreheads when we look at the sun. This scent is apparently called ‘Petrichor’.

If you think a bit deeper, we realize it is metaphorical to life in more ways than one. Look at the nature around you during the first rain. It is as if the lives around us wake up from a long exhausted slumber. The trees, the animals are all rejuvenated. The energy this rain brings along with it spreads almost like a majestic wave of river washing across a dried up forest. Don’t you think certain people or certain moments in our lives are also like this? People just walk in or moments of gravitas just manifest in our lives as a whiff of fresh air. It may be by design or by serendipity. But they are indeed among Life’s little surprises which we all wait for to come by.

At times in Life, we come across long spells of summer. They try to hallucinate us in to believing that our lives are destined to have only that single lone season - of a sultry summer. We try hard to find a respite.  It is then that we should think of the first rain. Drive down the life’s lane a bit farther and we will see the clouds of hope patiently waiting for us to pass by them to shed their kindness on to us... 

Keywords : Rain, First rain, petrichor, scent of earth, smell after first rain

Last day...or is it? : Blog # 207

 Last day...or is it?

And the farewell is over. I can’t believe school has come to an end. Twelve long years! This place is home to me now, if not more. The corridors are as familiar to me as the by lanes I have grown up in. Am I excited to go to college? Of course I am. But will it be as fond a memory as school days? Will I make as good friends? Will the teachers care as much?

Graduation day! Time does fly. It seems like yesterday when I came with dad to buy the application form. I will be eternally grateful to this place for giving me treasured friends and such dear professors. It was real fun. Don’t know if I will miss the canteen more or the courtyard. And how I will miss the hostel days! It will be hard to sleep without hearing all the howling and shouting.

And the day has finally come where I move from a state of zero accountability to complete accountability. What bothers me is that all of it is directed towards one person ;)  Being a bachelor was bliss. But yes, it is great to have someone to go home to. Bachelor party is such a paradox for the word, party! One doesn't know if one should be happy or sad!

And today, I lost my childhood. All my grandparents have embarked on the journey towards eternity. Is it a coincidence that my daughter decided to step in to our world the same day? Is my wife right when she says it is an indication of the fact that it is time I gift a memorable childhood to someone else? Is it that my Grandmother decided to leave a part of her spirit with me?

I had always longed for retirement. Never did I think the last day in office will be so moving. The fact that I will wake up to a stress less morning has a sense of lasting serenity about it. But having lived for so long chasing deadlines and pushing mails, will I be able to enjoy the serenity?

You just know when it is time to leave. Having sailed through many a last day in this lifetime, there is a reassurance of sorts that it is just a prelude to another beginning. But today has a sense of fatality to it or so they say. Should I believe them? If I do, won’t that  mean I haven’t learned anything at all from all the last days I have been through? 

Keywords : Life, Last day, Live, Enjoy Life,Last days of Life,Sunset years, Short story 

A memoir of memories : Blog # 206

A memoir of memories

What is your earliest memory of yourself? Most of us will take a while to recollect it. If I had asked, what is your earliest memory of your family or friends, you would have recollected it faster. But when it is regarding oneself, it takes us some time. Here begins the idiosyncrasies of our memory. My earliest memory is something about first day at school and me crying my lungs out tugging at my mother’s saree.

Another strange thing about memory is that we tend to forget memories of bad instances in life faster. May be that is the way of our mind’s coping with harsh realities. Try doing this. Think about a time in your life when you were really disturbed/hurt about something. Now when you look back, you will be able to remember the situation. But you will not be able to remember the intensity of that negative feeling and thank God for that!

Don’t you think it is important that we take an effort to create memories? For instance, with people close to us? Those memories will help us tide through the crests and troughs in relationships. Many a time, the reason why we are forgiven or we forgive others is because of the fond memories that we have of each other. I think the same applies to oneself. People with a bunch of happy memories will be better equipped to sail through a rough patch in life. May be that is why it is important that everyone deserves a happy childhood. Childhood is a happy excuse for all the quagmires that life throws at us later on, don’t you think?

There is yet another important twist to the conundrum that is memory. If you look at it, most of today’s conflicts in the world are based on an incident or some incidents that occurred in the past, which is a memory. This means that some of the people who are fighting today are doing so solely based on a handed down memory. So if you as a person strive to avoid conflict today, you are creating a pleasant tomorrow. To contribute to world peace, all you need to do is create some pleasant memories for the people around you.

If you are able to become a happy memory for at least a handful of people, you would have lived a life worthwhile.

Keywords: Memory,Happy memory,Life,Experience,Remember

Who are ‘They’? : Blog # 203

Who are ‘They’?

Quite often we here this phrase:“As they say..”. The implied meaning is that whatever you are saying after that is an accepted practice or well known way of life. For instance, “As they say, you can’t have the cake and eat it too”.

But I think these days, there are a couple of more dimensions to this usage. Thanks to the internet, information has become much more accessible. The flip side is that as much easy it is to access information, it has become equally or much more difficult to verify its authenticity. All you need to do is skim thorough some Face book posts attributed to great leaders like A.P.J Abdul Kalam and Ratan Tata. Some of them are so bad that the moment they see a poster with such worthless words attributed to them, they will want to give up their Life! So coming back to the point of discussion, we do not know the sources of many beautiful quotes that we have begun to use “As they say..” much more often. The other day, I heard someone saying “As they say, there is no advantage for one who won’t read over one who can read”. This is told by Mark Twain, the American author and humorist.

Another situation where we use this harmless term is when we want to pass the buck. We use it in situations where we want to shift the responsibility. For instance, how many times have you heard this? “I want to give you a better rating. But their policies won’t agree”. Here ‘they’ refer to leadership of an organization or the HR. The manager here is also part of the system is something that he/she conveniently forgets. This also happens when two teams are involved in a particular project. Being fully aware that there are constraints from both sides, one team will say “We are ok with all your suggestions, but ‘they’ might not be in agreement.

Many a time, we use this pronoun to represent ominous forces. You might have seen in films where a vicious multinational corporation or a group of evil minds will be referred to as ‘they’. It is like J K Rowling’s “He who must not be named”.  Haven’t you heard the protagonist saying “They are coming!” with a frozen face? And then there is this well known award speech " They said I won't make it! I dedicate this award to them!".  There is another situation in at least Indian societies.Whenever a family makes a choice or a decision, there is this omnipresent question of "What will they think?"! Again who in the world are you referring to???

These days, ‘they’ is used as a gender neutral reference too apparently. By nature, it is a gender neutral pronoun. You don’t get to know if someone says “They will be going for a movie tomorrow” if it is a group of ladies or gentlemen. Gender neutrality in this context refers to those people who do not want to be confined by the conventional addressing of Ms. Or Mr. But addressing a single person with ‘they’ sounds a bit odd. Don’t you think?

We also use the poor 'they' to refer to a set of people who do not conform to our way of thinking or being. Be it someone from a different religion, who speaks a different language or who is from a different country. Here, the sad truth is with this one pronoun, we are separating others from ourselves in a way where there isn't much love left.

Arun Babu

Keywords: Gender neutrality,Ominous forces,Pronoun,They,Pass the buck

Lessons from nature : Blog # 199

Lessons from nature

        The other day, I happened to watch Animal Planet. It brought back fond memories of watching it as a child. This channel says beautiful stories from the wild – some intriguing, some heart breaking and some which can serve as life lessons even. Half asleep, I was watching this episode of a peculiar kind of parrot called ‘Kakapo’ in the dense forests of Newzealand. The body type of this parrot is hefty. Its wings are not designed to fly. I was wondering, what a cruel joke of nature! A fat parrot which cannot fly! Then came the explanation. These parrots have ancestors dating back to ice age. Before ice age set in,these parrots could fly. During ice age, for survival, they evolved. The need to stay alive was more than the need to fly. So nature discounted the need for weightlessness and bartered it with a body with generous layers of fat so that it could survive the cold wave.

            There was another episode on wild buffaloes and zebras. Always, the wild buffaloes follow zebras to water bodies. The reason? It is their tactic for survival. Zebras apparently need more water than the wild bulls. Hence they approach water bodies more frequently and are better aware of the dangers lurking inside those vast water bodies. They are better equipped to be alert and thus avert danger. So if zebras go in to a water body, the bulls assume that it is safe to drink water there.

            More than Nature’s immense intelligence, what amazed me is another fact. How does this kind of intelligent street smartness emerge? In both the above cases, there should have been many generations of those species which went through many experiences and from these experiences, learning occurs. But how do these lessons get handed over to further generations? One might say it is taught down the generations and thus information is passed on. But same species are spread across continents and they all act in similar ways. It is not that the experiences that they go through are exactly similar. A more interesting explanation seems to be the line of thought which says that there should be some sort of collective memory for each species. All of the living beings go back to that collective memory and tap in to that to successfully find one’s way through the labyrinth of universe. This would mean that our future generations would function based on the experiences that we go through and the collective memory that we create for them. Doesn’t that put an enormous responsibility on us, the people of today? It will be based on the way we react to the life experiences today which will show light for the generations to come as to how they should live their lives. So we better be careful!

Why aren’t we happy? : Blog # 198

Why aren’t we happy?

        I have come to learn that many of our generation aren’t really happy. It is not that we don’t have enough reasons to be happy about. Most of our basic needs are already addressed, thanks to the hard work put in by our parents. Almost all of us have a house; many of us have a car or a two wheeler. Many of us have completed the education that we wanted and have landed a decently paying job. If one were to step back a generation and look at this situation of ours, there is absolutely nothing to be not happy about.

            It is not that we are unhappy. It is just that this current situation in life really doesn’t excite us to a level that we expect it to be. In Human resources, there is a theory called Herzberg’s two factor theory. In a nutshell, it says that absence of dissatisfaction doesn’t mean a person is satisfied. Same is the case with many of us. Absence of unhappiness doesn’t mean contentment.

            I recently read a book on Saudi Arabia. The kind of wealth that country has amassed in such a short time is unbelievable. An unexpected side effect of this enormous wealth is that the youth there aren’t quite happy. One of the reasons attributed is lack of a sense of purpose in their lives. Once the basic needs for a person is fulfilled, there is nothing much to strive for. Then, the things one has to work towards aren’t as tangible and direct as food, clothing and shelter. The reason why our previous generation found happiness much more easily may be due to this. They had to work towards building an infrastructure – getting a job, a house and a vehicle were all compulsions of their times. They worked towards achieving these and when they did so eventually, they found happiness in that. For many of us too, these needs do exist. But there is no sense of urgency attached to it. There is a certain degree of choice about it. Unless one is driven, one can afford to lead a life free of much pressure. But again, this leaves one with a sense of void. We start wondering what exactly our purpose in this world is.

Eventhough finding a sense of purpose is difficult; there are certain ways through which we can move towards that destination. One such is to have a job that makes us feel that we are doing something which will make the world remember us for posterity and thus the yearning to do something which requires a bit of creativity. That gives a sense of fulfilment. Pursuing an active hobby also gives one a feeling of doing something worthwhile. An easier option might be to engage oneself in something that is selfless. It can be contributing to a noble cause – in cash or in kind. This should satiate our appetite for contentment even if it is for a while.

!=Emotional Exhaustion : Blog # 196

!=Emotional Exhaustion

            There are certain jobs where in people get emotionally exhausted yet the profession demands that they don’t show it. A very notable one being that of airline cabin crews. One long flight for people itself is tiring. Imagine being on a flight like that for a whole day and working too. Add to this, the need to appear presentable and pleasant. On top of it, there are snooty, demanding customers who become snobs the moment they come aboard an aircraft for no apparent reason.

            This might be the reason why they become so very mechanical. If you have paid attention, the way they give out instructions is more mechanical than reading out the catalogue for a washing machine. The way they greet you when you enter the flight, you can see that they are preoccupied about the work that they need to do or something they have to rush to before the flight takes off. Many a time, they get over trained to the extent that they remember the method but forget the purpose. Once my flight got delayed and I was about to miss the connecting flight which was of the same airline. When I approached the cabin crew, the lady told me “Sir, the inconvenience caused is regretted”. I said “Thank you for empathising, but what do I do now?” She said again “The inconvenience caused is regretted” I said “I love that line. But please give me a solution”. Then she realized what needs to be done and offered me a refund.

            Another such job will be that of a doctor. Here, apart from one being not able to be emotionally exhausted, there is a certain nobility attached to the profession. Imagine you going to a doctor and he tells you “You know what, there is no work-life balance in this profession. At times I feel I should just write some random medicines and get the queue of patients done and over with!” A doctor cannot afford to do that even though he/she is also human and is susceptible to such emotions.

            Similar is the case with professors. How will you perceive a professor who tells you that he/she doesn’t feel like taking class or he/she is feeling sleepy. Worse, what will you think of a professor who complains to one’s student about not getting enough hike from the management? Henry Adams says “A teacher affects eternity; he/she can never tell where his/her influence stops”.

Let’s hope that only those people take up these professions who have the ability to be selfless at least to the extent that they are able to do justice to their profession.

Arun  Babu

Just another “How to" write up! : Blog # 195

Just another “How to" write up!

        I am sick and tired of the “How to..” and “To do list for..” and “7 Successful…” and the likes. All through our lives, we have been told how to attain greatness in Life be it in terms of money, work or life in itself! No one ever told us (at least me) to how to be a spectacular failure! There should be a way around to attain the destiny of failure also, isn't it? I could think of these pointers. Please feel free to add if you  can come up with more of these. 
 

 Do not take risks: People always say that one should take risks in life to succeed. Some of them say that we have to take calculated risks! But my concern is who will calculate?? If at all someone is willing to do that work for you, ask them to take that risk. They seem to be really interested for they did all the homework J. You go on the path you are in currently, be it by choice or by chance.
  

Whine & Complain: Our lives aren’t perfect. But why? We all are entitled to perfect lives. Find out the imperfections, fret about them and indulge yourself with a lot of self-pity. Play this on a forever loop. Also, complain to other about your problems and spread negativity. Suck out the last ounce of optimism from people around you and kill that last ray of hope.

 

 Do not listen: When people talk, especially those who are rational and sensible; phase out. If you even as much start to believe that they are speaking sense, start thinking of counter arguments. Be it about work or life, do not lend an ear to people who are successful. Be a Mr/Ms. Know-it-all. 

Procrastinate: I think this is the ultimate method. Nothing beats this one. Whatever you plan to do in life, postpone it. You may begin by doing this for a day. Eventually you can scale this up to a week, month and then years together. The only thing that cannot be pushed away is failure J.

Give unsolicited advice: Whether you are aware of the subject or situation shouldn’t concern you. Preach others to death! This especially helps if you haven’t done those deeds which you are asking others to do. Take special care to advise those who are more successful than you are. This really helps in keeping people interested in meeting you.

Pass the buck: Do not ever take responsibility. The attitude we are looking for here is “Responsibility who?” Be it about changing a light bulb or something that has a grave impact on one’s life, do not lift a finger. Just focus on who is available to pass on the blame to or to delegate.

Take things easy: We should think differently, shouldn’t we? These days, everyone’s working hard. So why should we also join the rat race? At the slightest indication of your work making you tire or worse bearing some fruit, drop it! Get some fast food, plunge in to a bean bag and doze off.

p.s. Doing all of the above in the blinding lime light of social media will add to the assurance of attaining a spectacularly stupid persona and achieving failure of the magnitude of a mammoth!

Arun Babu

A Kart emptied? : Blog # 194

A Kart emptied?

        The first time I heard about the ‘Big Billion’ day was when I opened the newspaper and saw Snap deal’s advertisement in Times of India. Yes you read it right. The reason why I saw Snap deal’s Ad first was because it was on the inner front page. Flip Kart’s Ad was on the left side. I guess getting the wrong side of the first page of the paper in itself was an indication of the things to come.

            What could have become a poster day for Indian e-tailing’s booming growth turned out to be a lack luster event marred with technical glitches and stock outs. The same thing happened way back in 2006 when Big bazaar did a live version of this kind of a sale. The next day, they announced that they were keeping the sale open for 3 more days which was quite an astute saving grace.

Flipkart said a sorry and I think they mean it. They could have followed up the sorry with some too sweet-to-refuse offers in the following days. But I think they might have thought that such an offer would again result in the servers getting overloaded and/or a stock out situation. The reason why I think Flipkart meant it when they said sorry is because they really do not need to make money through such shortcuts. If you have been following the news, any layman would understand that they are flush with cash. Add to this, a startup (yes, they still are quite young an organization in that sense which was started only in 2007) would never want to lose their reputation especially when the founders are from a premier institute (the idea is they wouldn’t resort to such simpleton measures if at all they were trying to dupe us all).

What is interesting is that the episode spoke volumes about us as a society. We were just waiting for something to go wrong and pounce up on them and say “I told ya!” Twitter was flush with messages and taunts against Flipkart. What we forgot was how much we were in love with this brand until the day before. We couldn’t stop singing praises of how good their supply chain is! How fast and efficient they are with their delivery process! How wonderful a business model! It is quite worry some to see that very few of us thought of looking at it as a mistake. Of course, it could have been avoided. But they are a team which doesn’t have a sea of experience to learn from. If at all they had people who are experienced in the business, e-tailing is relatively new. This was the first time something like this was attempted on such a large scale. It might have been attempted in other countries. But we all know how unique India as a country is and how diverse customers from different state are with regard to preferences and choices. And lastly, let us not forget, we are a customer base of about 1/6^th of the entire mankind!

If not for anything else, being the world’s most vibrant democracy have taught us to gain forgiveness as a virtue. What else would explain some of our political laeaders coming to power time and again in spite of their not-so-saintly pasts? So let us give the Bansals one more chance, shall we? J

Arun Babu

Paradox of a generation, Us! : Blog # 191

Paradox of a generation, Us!

            Having celebrated a birthday at work from early morning till late night, my mind put to me some questions that have been dying for answers over the last year or two. These were questions that I did not listen to or rather did not want to listen to. And happened, the conversation that I had with my friend from work on the way back to guesthouse.

            The conversation we had, gifted me with some relief only to be replaced by the absence of it a while later. I was relieved because I understood the concerns, the doubts and the questions were resonated in his mind as well. The absence of solace came when I realized both of us were aware of what was going right and wrong but we did not want to address them.

            It is with some pride that I say our generation takes work quite seriously. Am I saying the generation before us were not serious about their work? Definitely not! It is because they did, that we have the opportunities we have today. But they were living in a simpler time as far as intrusion of work is concerned. A cell phone wasn’t there which will wake you up from sleep and put you to sleep with a call. An e-mail wasn’t there which will knock on your inbox at will till you answer it. This poses our generation with a challenge as to when and how to switch off the work button.

            Now, coming to the paradox bit! All of us are at our argumentative best when it comes to work-life balance. Our generation wants to live life to its fullest. Having said that, there would have been some instances in all of our lives where our family or friends would have asked us – “Are you the only one in your office?, Why do you bring work home?, When will you stop checking mails/sms-es?”. This shows our inability to keep work at bay. Don’t get me wrong. One should deliver on all of one’s responsibilities at work. But doing that at the cost of one’s life isn’t really worth it.

            Think about this situation. Your phones (official and personal) start ringing. The official call isn’t really critical. But more often than not, you choose to answer the office phone. Since when did we start thinking family/friends can wait? If one continues doing this, we will soon end up not having friends to confide in.One should also realize that success and happiness loses much of its charm if one doesn't have the right people to share it with.

            If one were to compare life to a walk on the beach, work is akin to the waves that keep on washing on to your feet. If you try to dry off the water every single time a wave comes on, you will miss out on the beautiful sunrise of youth, the soothing zephyr of relationships in life, the sand that caresses your feet which is life’s opportunities, the little shells of life’s happenstances that the mighty ocean paves on your path  and the magnificent sunset of life's twilight years too.

Arun Babu

Worth a 1000 words! : Blog # 189

Worth a 1000 words!

        We are a species which astonishes ourselves time and again by the lack of sensitivity that we show towards each other. I often wonder why do we not feel a kinship with our own kind from a different part of the world. One reason might be the lack of awareness about the severity of their suffering. Being away from the place and being detached from that situation takes away the much needed empathy from our minds.

            Steal a few moments from your busy to breathe lives and look at this picture. I want you to think of a baby that you know of. I want you to think of all that you will do to prevent any harm being caused to that little kid. I want you to think of how you will rush towards the kid at the first instance when the baby cries for food.

This picture taken by the Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Kevin cater stands in contradiction to all that we do to protect our little ones. The vulture at the distance is waiting for the baby to breathe his last. The little one has suffered without an ounce of food or a drop of water. Can you fathom what this kid is enduring? At an age when the child should be showered with love and blessings, she is made to struggle for life. What in the world would justify such a situation! We all wallow in self pity at the smallest of life’s difficulties. I cannot stop my eyes from welling up when I attempt to understand the physical pain and mental agony the kid is made to go through. More so,just because we as a race in spite of all our advancements and capabilities cannot find a way to feed our own kind in a different part of our world. We all have little ones at our own or at extended families and that kid in the picture is someone’s baby. That kid also deserves to run around, laugh aloud, be fed, be loved, go to school, realize his dreams and live through his destiny.

Now, war is something which almost all of us would say ‘No’ to. But apart from the few who are part of the armed forces, we do not get to witness the hurricane of destruction that a war unleashes. We do not realize the pain it spreads. We are blinded to the loss of lives, the suffering that families are made to go through.  A few of you might find it hard to look at this picture taken by Kenneth Jarecke, the American photojournalist. It shows a man who was incinerated when he was trying to escape from his vehicle. This photograph is from a war zone in a country that was devastated by war. If you can’t bring yourself to look at this picture, imagine the plight of this person who went through hell! He is burned from head to toe and pain would have traversed through every cell of his body! That person there is a son, may be a husband, he has a family like you and me. Sufferings like this which are beyond our worst nightmares happen during a war. Whichever side of the imaginary line of a ‘border’ one is, a loss of life is a loss to the humanity. At every war waged across the world, it is humanity that dies a slow painful death.

I believe creative endeavors should be aimed at spreading happiness and should attempt to inspire people. But these two pictures deserve to be seen and talked about. The next time we think of a war or sanctions on the third world, these pictures must bring tears to our eyes. I pray and hope those tears will clear our vision which often gets blurred by the wall of region, religion and race!

Arun Babu