Thought Of Inflexion

[While listening to "Better Man" by Oasis, exam answers at school, "Better Man" by Oasis again, a long bus ride, missing my blog, knowing that life gets you no where unless you do something, trying to make a mark in the world by writing something new, knowing you might suck at it but old enough to know that you'd suck more if you didn't try.. yea, you get the picture...]

Imagine your life to be a function.

Yes, a function, those f(x) thingys. What you do is mostly f(x). What you say or feel is mostly f'(x) (or even f'(-x) considering the fact that we sometimes so the exact opposite of what we say or feel). And its our thought which is f''(x).

Now the point of inflexion is the point where f''(x) changes signs.

-x-x-

Now imagine that you're gonna do something real bad. You know it as being bad of course, yet you get some (which you know is sick/bad) pleasure out of it .... and you do it anyway.

(You're know angel, c'mon think of SOMETHING! Got it? Good lets proceed)

Now just forget everything and think of something where you did something you had never done before... and loved it!

(C'mon, you must have plenty of memories!)

What really happened here? How did YOU do it? Sure there may have been cheering, memories jeering or even a gun or two pointed at your back, but really, what happened?

I want to take an example of someone trying to reduce weight(Thats a 'politically correct' example :) )

Lets assume that he/she has fixed a new exercise regime which starts at 6 AM and they are all gung ho about it the night before, while lying in their bed about to sleep.

Its 6 AM the next day and the alarm rings when ....

Scenario 1

----------

f(x)=what you do = hit the snooze button

f'(x) = what you say or feel = i know i suck.. i'll stop sucking from tomorrow though. i'll pass for today. The sky isn't going to fall on my head is it?

f''(x)= what you think= zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Scenario 2

----------

f(x)=what you do=jump out of bed and do ten push ups!

f'(x) = what you say or feel =today I'm gonna make a change and be awesome!!

f''(x)= what you think=Get up at any cost, now!!!

(Yay! so many exclamation marks!!!! f'''(x) = n00b)

f''(x) here is the Thought Of Inflexion

To me here, the most interesting thing is f''(x). Our whole lives are governed by thoughts which drive our everyday lives[f''(x) affects f(x) and f'(x). Its the inner drive for f(x) and f'(x)]

Every little choice that we make throws our life this way or that. But if only we could control a thought, the thoughts that follow from it can all be useful and awesome.

Hope that wasn't preachy, f'''(x) = zzzzzz

The Silence Thereafter

[n00b poem :D]

We could hear a crack, followed by a scream.

A triumphal joy, a winner's dream

One was fat, while the other was lean

The thing they had in common, they both were in jeans

Me? I was playing pool

With meager skills, we sure looked like fools,

And then there were some trying to act cool

Smacking balls in, the cue as a tool

And then suddenly the noise there stopped,

The bubble of joy had but popped

With every ball down, all egos cropped

The silence thereafter, like a teardrop

"Yo!"

My Broker Dilemma

It so happened that me and a couple of buddies were out on the streets hunting for a house, stubbornly determined to make it on our own and NOT take the help of a broker when a question arose in my mind. It was as simple as this:

"Must the broker pay you or you the broker for getting you a house"

The larger question here is whether the broker is selling you the house, or is he selling you to the house owner.

Lets consider the former where the broker is selling you the house in which case you obviously owe him his fees for finding you a house.

But how about when you look it from the point of view of him selling the house to you on behalf of the owner. You're literally doing him a favour by taking up the agreement of living in the house! If nothing, he should be paying you for generating business for him!!

I'm sure some economist has figured out a solution for this question. Do let me know if you know about it.

Note: Ah well, in the non-hypothetical world the broker would probably take a cut from both you AND the house owner as he is really only selling "information" to both the parties and hence deserves his dues. Smart chaps they always are!!

Akbar The Great, Dara Shikoh and The Meeting Of The Two Oceans

On watching the BBC Documentary "The Story Of India" by Michael Wood, I was reminded of a little line I remember reading in my history text book about something known as Din-i-illahi - a "religion" that Akbar was said to have started. On pondering a bit about it, the freedom movement and the problems that India is facing now it seemed extremely important to me to look into this a bit more.

It turned out that Akbar never did start a "religion"per say, but rather built a great hall called the Ibadat Khana where he invited the leading thinkers of all major religions to sort out their differences and reach a common ground. As it turns out in most such cases, these debates turned ugly and bitter and lead to so much animosity amongst the parties that Akbar was forced to cancel these discussions. But Akbar did manage to gauge that there did exist a common thread amongst these various religions and bring out a "syncrectic" doctrine which eventually became known as Din-I-Illahi. But all this is probably something you already knew as it was one of the reasons that Akbar was titled "The Great".

But a lesser known attempt at something of the same nature was by Akbar's grandson Dara Shikoh (Shiekh?). An intellectual at heart, among other things he was instrumental in bringing out the Majma-Ul-Bahrain (The meeting of the two oceans) which according to wikipedia was "devoted to the revelation of the mystical and pluralistic affinities between Sufic and Vedantic speculation".

This to seems like a very bold step to foster the growth of a unified India by him and is probably one of the rather first attempts at truly searching for a global faith. A far greater feat of significance and grandeur than what is father had accomplished if you ask me.

However, as many times in history, human fears and ego got the better of the Mughal family. The war of succession that ensued after Shah Janah fell ill lead to the defeat of Dara Shikoh and his younger brother Aurangzeb became the emperor who was not as forward thinking as his older brother or his grandfather. And with ended the great open-mindedness of the Muslim rulers in India.

What I wonder at this point is what might have happened if Aurangzeb had not become the ruler of India. What might have happened if Akbar's and Dara Shikoh's ideas were further promulgated into the Indian psyche?

Would the British have ever succeeded in their policy of "Divide & Rule"? Would there be a state called Pakistan? Would terrorism be a problem in India today?

But all I can do is wonder....

2 Degrees Of Knowledge

[Note 1: Hello]

[Note 2: A picture less post :( ]

So, I am with a bunch of friends having a random discussion outside a mall when suddenly the talk turned towards the movie "Paa" for some reason. Now, all of us being good Chennai boys had just barely heard about the movie somewhere and had not ventured to ascertain any more information about it. But then one of us had somehow been dragged along for the movie (yes, there were individuals of the fairer sex in his group) which was why the topic came up in the first place. Then here's how the conversation went....

Guy who went for Paa (GWWFP): Macha, the movie's not so bad da (in a defending manner)

Everyone Else (EE): Oh

GWWFP: Dai, really da...

EE: Oh, Ok

(silence)

EE (Laughter): yedo solla varan paiyan (poor chap is trying to tell something)

GWWFP: It had Paresh Rawal in the movie!

Me(completely out of the blue and for no apparent reason): Oh! Paresh Rawal nice da.. he's an amazing actor!!!!

(This is when EE started to stare at me, obviously with no clue. However for me being from a college that had students from all across the country I was forced to watch a couple of movies such as Golmaal and Garam Masala and to the best of my recollection so were most of the other chaps from Chennai. But unfortunately for me not one of these movies came to my mind at that time or into anyone else's for that matter)

EE(after a slightly longer than required pause) : Yenna UC, xxxxxx ku support ah? Avane kuti ku aga daane poyirkuran hahaha.... (What da UC, why are you supporting xxxxxx? He went just cuz some chicks called him hahaha)

and the conversation continued onto other things

So, what I learnt from this little incident is to always have 2 degrees of knowledge about ANYTHING. One for conversations sake and one for justification. You see, somehow the human mind seems to be programmed to think that having 2 pieces of information about anything in a conversation is enough to make something true! Do test it out!!

Come To The Edge

Come to the edge.

We might fall.

Come to the edge.

It’s too high!

COME TO THE EDGE!

And they

came,

and he pushed,

and they flew.

-Christopher LOGUE

English poet (1926- )

The Thoughts To Success

We all compete regularly in life, sometimes forcibly and sometime willingly. From my own experience, these are the sort of thoughts that go on in my mind during different stages of 'succeeding'. On noticing that they usually form a pattern, I thought it might be a good idea to put them down here..

"Oh Crap! everyone here is so fu***** good at it. Compared to them, I 'm pathetic! Damn, this is bad I got to do something... and fast!!! Ok ok, calm down. Firstly, I got nothing to lose. Might as well just throw myself in the deep end and try my best. If I do well then well and good, else at least I'll know I tried hard. And If they don't like my best then its just too bad..."

"Eh? What just happened?? I was congratulated for doing a good job!! Wooohoo!!! I actually can do something. Hahaha! Awesomeness!!"

"I rule, I rule, I rule!! Muhahahahahha. This has all become to easy now.. how stupid was I in thinking that this was all some hugely complex thing..."

"Damn, such simple tasks. This is getting boring........"

"WTF just happened? I screwed up. Big time :( This is such a huge loss to everyone. Shit, they weren't so simple after all. Why did I get so careless and over confident. Stupid me, stupid me.. hope I get another chance...."

"Ok, now I DEFINITELY can't f*** this up. If I do, I'm screwed.. badly...."

"Hmmmm, hard work but rewarding work. Now I see how to improve. This might take a while. Hmmmm, at least I won't get bored! Now I realize how difficult all this really is and the real level at which these people are. I was so shortsighted initially. Stupid me again, but guess I'm learning"

"Wow, folks are actually asking ME for help now. I must be doing SOMETHING right"

"WHAT!!!!!!! Something New!!?? Noooooooooo, not when I was really getting good at it! Hmmm, but then again maybe this an opportunity to learn new things. Hope I don't make my previous mistakes again!"

... and hopefully its a happy story hereafter :D

Image courtesy- Anita's Blog

The End Of The World Poll

So, there was some talk going on about the world ending in 2012 and all that and everyone around started discussing the apocalypse and all that and then people started discussing the last few days of the world and all that when I innocently asked..

"Dude, what would you do if you knew the world was going to end"

.. and the answer to this question was overwhelmingly similar across so many groups...

Friend 1:"Ob, lose my virginity"

Friend 2:"F*** as much as possible"

Friend 3:"Get laid, what else?"

K-Sama:"Adu ellam nadakadu da, naan iruken ille?"

[Translation: "That N all won't happen, I am there no?]

Yea right, you promised India wouldn't lose yesterday's match, but see what happened? Sachin's 175 all for nothing :|

Friend 4:"I'll build an underground shelter complete with lead

lining to protect me from the radiation that will be caused due to all the unguarded nukes that would go off ....."

Finally! Someone with something moderately sensible to say

"...and then I will invite all the supermodels in the world to come stay with me if they want to be saved from the holocaust!!"

[I hit my head, dumbfounded]

Well, so I guess Sigmund Freud was right after all. Theres no stopping the natural impetus. This last pic says it all :D

[Note:This was asked to a predominantly male group, wonder what the fairer sex would have to say about it.. hmmmm....]

Image courtesy for end of the world image

Image courtesy for the Sigmund Freud image

Dark Circle

Hey All!

What few song's I've made finally found their way to the net

You can listen to them here

Thanks!!

Flattening of the Retail Market

[Note 1: Suck it, I don't mean flattening as Thomas Friedman meant.. I mean Flattening as in 'Flat Anna' as in 'Thassal Gone' as in 'Slept Of' or in extreme cases .. 'Died']

[Note 2: I'm sure many would disagree with this post :) ]

One thing I cannot fully understand is why 'Retail' is becoming such buzz word in India. I feel it'll only undergo one or two boom and bust cycles. Why? .. The Internet...

Internet penetration in India is on the rise. Yes, in the villages too largely thanks to mobile phones, open source software and companies such as FINO and ITC's E-Choupal which are largely bringing the informal and 'undefined' market into the organized sector. Conventional models of internet connectivity and growth based on developed countries won't prove efficient here as the growth in these areas is largely due to the stupendous growth of new technology.

Even in the urban areas not many of us would want to visit the groceries or the Kirana stores for our daily needs when one can simply place an order from work using an online portal and the goods are being delivered right to your doorstep. This might even be possible in the villages due to mobile phone penetration where companies can deliver goods to villages on a bi-weekly basis with almost zero inventory cost thanks to pre orders made by the village dwellers.

Of course it will be a while before companies can achieve economies of scale and this practice becomes widespread, but personally these options are going to become available way before Wall - Mart conquers every street corner. But then again there will always be shops who provide further value to the customer by enhancing the shopping 'experience' making shopping a leisure activity rather than a necessity. Probably a trend that Malls should pay more attention to before they start construction!

So, lets consider that this does happen. Internet enabled services does destroy the retail sector (even the unorganized ones!) . The amount of prime real estate that gets freed up due to this would be major change everywhere!! With shops closing all that area can be put to more productive use.

Ah, well .. but I guess I am but idealizing. I'm sure there will always be unions, communists and probably even local goondas who might stop all this from happening....

Image Courtsey www.indiaretailbiz.com