remember your mortality....

Life seems like a obstacle - as we desperately try to assimilate and re-organize the pieces of the puzzle together. Sometimes I have seen people foundling away fantastic opportunities because they were so "caught up" at the moment in their lives. Judging from personal experience there are limitless possibilities when we look towards the horizon - but I wonder if we Indians collectively ever look up. I find solace in the fact that like me, many of my generation and later are gradually waking up to the fact that happiness, family, money or social life or the tiny lil things that matter in life - contribute in a way towards nirvana but their sum collectively is never equal to true happiness.

I always believed that I am going to become the person that I desire to be - I will make the changes that I must, in order to do that. And I will describe my struggles here - right here. There were so many mistakes I could have not committed - there is always a learning there.

I always believed that it is today that we make our lives, and shape our destiny - our past is what has brought us here, future is what we shape today. After all we are all mortals - lets make each day of our lives count.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be freely translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," or "Remember your death". It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind people of their own mortality.

PS: memento mori and carpe diem - learn more from wikipedia (link here)

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to be or not to be....

Are we truly happy? Do we even know what it means to be happy and what it takes to achieve happiness? I realized that these are important questions for anyone who is seeking happiness to ask themselves. I have and will continue to live my life to maintain my own happiness while trying my best to not cause unhappiness to anyone else. I realized that as Indians we often thanked or cursed external agencies for usual happenings in life – like an accident, success, wealth etc etc.

We often fail to realize that if one wants to be happy, he/she must ensure his/her own happiness and not judge the happiness through media hyped happiness quotient. I have met numerous people especially woman who make the mistake of believing that they don’t deserve happiness and accept their unhappy state as their destiny. The truth of the matter is that happiness, like anything else in life, needs to be nurtured – everyone has his own definition of happiness.

Never fall prey trying to measure up your happiness through someone else’s scale. The end result mostly will be utter failure. I have seen people switch jobs, girlfriends/boyfriends, cities, and houses – all in a journey to be happy – and when I asked them if they were happy then, the glum look or a smirk on their faces said it all.

I realized hence everyone is unique and so are their aspirations, choices and hence the outcome. Aping can take one some distance not the whole way. So my advise to all who switched/are switching stuff in their lives is to step back and think – what is it they are running for. Is it a plum job, is it a certain sum of money, a house in the countryside, family maybe a sports car – general aspirations of the Indian middle class. Maybe in a pursuit of all those, we miss out on life – and at the end it’s usually too late.

Then again am I any different?

Sometimes a sudden yank can change your life considerably I realized – maybe for a moment we bask in our happiness and glory. But after all the mind is hardwired to find happiness in mostly all things we humans do. After all we Indians all are in “the pursuit of happiness”, together.

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aim for one cause....

yesterday I was in conversation with one of my dearest friends who made me an excellent offer to switch industries, return back to my hometown and settle down permanently – well sort of it. Somehow in the bottom of my heart I was sure that I was not destined (and I do believe we make our own destiny) to work for an MNC, draw in a fat pay slip every month, meet targets and at the end be completely oblivious to what value I am adding to the organization as a whole or society on a broader perspective for that matter.

Spending some time in services marketing & sales in the life sciences & healthcare industry I was of the opinion that I was slowly picking up the various facets of business, however, I was little prepared for the loss of a very dear one recently.

After a lot of soul-searching the realization dawned on me and led me to some serious revelations about myself, what I truly care about and cherish, and perhaps most importantly, what I would like to devote the rest of my life to.

I came to the conclusion that my life would be best devoted to the "greater good" of humanity - enabling technology to enhance the quality of human life. It would be great enabling the greater players in the life sciences & healthcare industry help conceive innovative & low-cost solutions not only for the US but the rest of the world, where nearly 90% of the population don’t have access to basic healthcare. Would it be a dream that a common man will have access to a basic 256 slice CT or low cost bio-markers at a nominal cost or people from the 3^rd world countries having access to low cost yet effective solutions from companies like Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Merck, Pfizer, GSK, Philips, GE Healthcare and other biggies of the world – that will help save lives of millions across the globe who are afflicted by a wave of AIDS, Cancer, or save thousand of lives of infants or mothers who perish due to lack of basic healthcare around.

Can’t we do our bit to save these lives?

The realization had dawned sometime back that this is what I am passionate about. The dream to help others conceive, deploy and service the world population with innovative life-saving solutions, where somewhere in the background I play my role, silently hoping and praying that somewhere somehow, my act today - helped save a person’s life somewhere round the globe.

Is it too much to ask for??

To quote Mother Teresa,

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin............"

“Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy..........”

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deny yourself........

coffee..................

I was drinking too much coffee for my own good. I felt I had not slept for days and I could probably go on for some days more - weird feeling in the head. How did I get to this point,, I wondered. It’s a fact that is a no big deal to not drink coffee for everyday?

I'm healthy. I sleep at least 6.5 hours a night. I'm not overly bored with my job - (well!!!!) most of the time. But I end up drinking coffee every day. It doesn't help that my roomie cooks up the most wonderful coffee at the shortest notice and most importantly its on the house. Or that I enjoy a cup of Assam tea with my newspapers and crossword puzzles.

Like a zombie I was trying to think. Think what? My next move? My business plan? My long term plans? In the end I realized I was hapless sailor caught up in a maelstorm - no point trying to fight the inevitable.

I could not deny myself anymore. Time more one more shot………..this better be a absolute knockout.

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life's not over friends....

what is the first thing that springs to your mind when someone tells you, that you have exactly 7 days to live and you can do whatever you want to do in the next 7 days. Tricky huh?

Since most of the last month was spent by me trying to find my feet in office, I finally got a lot of time for soul searching now that the initial days were over. I was wondering that nearly a third of my life is over and I am actually looking forward to the future. (Believe me a lot many people never want to grow up).

Well if I had exactly 7 days in my hands, I would perhaps be the happiest person in this planet. All eternity slogs away trying to make a life for themselves and their families oblivious of the fact that one rash decision while crossing the street or even slipping in the washroom can mean - l'extrémité.

So if I knew I had seven days then I would:
1. Take out a huge huge term plan and leave the lions share to a old peoples home.
2. Go out on a holiday with family.
3. Buy something nice for all my lil brothers & sisters.
4. Write something to all my good friends letting them know how special they were to me.
5. Let my better half boss me around for an entire day.
6. Gorge on French cuisine and get high on champagne.
7. Thank God truly for the wonderful life & end I would be having.

I guess I could have made the list really really long but as an afterthought, we really don’t need too many things to be happy. Maybe a ride in a Porsche would have made it to my list (almost), at the end it just occurred to me that it wasn't that special.

Life's never over and we are never too old to live or too young to die - its just what you feel. Like Mr. Shahrukh Khan stated in OSO, "..........picture abhi baaki hain mere dost, picture abhi baaki hai............."

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thou shalth quote......

Fridays aren't any fun. Most people are in their colourful best (appearance wise) whcih somewhat brings in some cheer in general in office. But as i watch people making plans for the evening whilst at work and wasting away valuable time I am left in awe. Is this what the Indian IT industry all about. We talk proudly in various forums that India has some of the smartest brains in the world but do we...........

Is this not hero culture - a handful of people leading the way with others blindly following them, writing millions of lines of code a month, with apparently no idea of the actual business value delivered to the client. Is this blind faith or these people around me just like lab mice, in context of the bigger picture. Who knows???

I am left with a smirk on my face. Some quotes resurface from my long list of mails in the outlook mailbox:

"All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent"

- David R. Bower

"More and more I come to value charity and love of one's fellow being above everything else.....All our lauded technological progress--our very civilization--is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal."

- Albert Einstein

"In science as in love, too much concentration on technique can often lead to impotence."

- P.L. Berger

"The best computer is a man, and it's the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor."

- Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun

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re-defining Gandhi.....

Friday afternoon I was gazing into my crystal ball G-O-O-G-L-E and posting random comments on blogs, the teachings of Gandhi struck my mind. To be honest I was never a big fan of Mahatma Gandhi (being a self-confessed go-getter) or his ways of non-violence, but i do appreciate the way he achieved the end result.

We as Indians complain all the time, we speak of problems, the govt, the social evils, education etc etc - the list is long. Its only a handful of people who actually make things happen - are the harbingers of change. Somewhere down suddenly I realized that I was a part of the ever increasing Indian population who vouch that change is essential and its change that can lead Indian into the next big league. But what is it the last 26 years of my life, that I have done - that has actually helped (in the smallest possible way) affect India and its citizens. I was hard pressed for answer. Yes a stint for some time teaching young kids from a slum around IIT, Hauz Khas, Delhi for free - that somewhere gave me a sense of purpose - but that was it. I got lost somewhere - in this maze of making a life easy, facilitating things for me and my near ones - somewhere I lost note of the fact, that as humans we have a bigger purpose.

It’s not who we live as, but how many lives we touch in our lives that ultimately matters. Gandhi redefined himself in my mind. No longer was he a person responsible for India's freedom in a big way, but was a man who transpired to the next level by his thoughts, social responsibility and actions.

I salute Bapu........

PS: These are few of his quotes - hope they strike a cord with peoples minds as they did with mine.

Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.

A weak man is just an accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

A 'NO' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'YES' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.

Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.

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