Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Lets do business

Top line: for a business it is the revenue earned through selling a product. If we observe our body closely we may call our brain as our top line. The areas in which our brain ventures may be called the revenue which it earns from the external environment. This is the cumulative exposure we get by keeping our senses operational. Though most of the times it is not by choice but we somehow gain exposure to different areas.

Bottom line: for a business it is the amount of profit it earned after paying all its dues. All the dues include operational cost, selling and general expenses, cost of investment (interest), tax and income through other resources, if any. For human bottom line can be the legs. More elaborately it can be the actual feet you achieve in different walks of life. The actual learning we inculcate in our behaviour, thinking, habits can be more accurate representative of whatever we have learned.

Cost incurred to achieve the bottom line: in case of a business one has to incur some
cost to get the revenue and hence profits. This is basically the energy (in form of money) which runs the business. As expressed in the paragraph above operational, general expenses, overheads and cost of raw material can be different cost to a business. In case of our body it could simply be the energy to run our body. Energy gained from breathing, eating, sleeping (resting); all contributes towards safe running of our body. Our body processes these form (air, food, water etc) so that we can earn some profit i.e. learn things in life. And inefficient process may lead to a disease, fat accumulation, inefficiencies, unrest, anxiety etc.

So now if we closely observe ourselves then our existence has a purpose like all business and that is to earn maximum profits means maximize our learning as we move ahead in life. The average age of this company is around 65 years and in these 65 years whatever we learn will be more or less whatever we have earned as profits. But as it happens with most of the companies we can not control our processes and costs and end up being a bad company. Though we still survive but not in a way in which we should be surviving. May be we do not set sufficient process for ourselves so that we can control the whole growth. And when we intentionally do not set these systems a default system is being set in place which finally runs our company without our control. So lets not let this default system of chasing money rather than learning stuff, accumulating fat rather than being controlled, putting too much on stakes than to be content (for a change) control our self.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

मॅन>>>><<<<<सपने

वक़्त के सिरहाने पे करवट बदल रहे थे हम,
पाँव अभी मिट्टी में ही थे,
तन थोड़ा सा गीला,
मॅन जैसे बंद हो गया है
इच्छाओं के इस भुलावे में,
आँखों के इस बहकावे में,
कहीं खो गया है, चित्तियों के इस ढेर में,

भूल कर मत जाना तुम अपना मॅन मेरे पास,
मैं बहुत दूर जाओंगा आज सपने में,

डोरी पकड़ कर पतंग की तुम भी उड़ना मेरे साथ,
आज फिर कट कर लहराएँगे हम, गीरेंगे दूर कहीं जाकर,

संभल कर सोना मेरे पास,
वक़्त के इस तकिये पर करवट बदल रहे हैं हम...

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Let’s Unlearn..

I am halfway through the canal. It is very unlike a canal. Things are not dark here; at least that is how things have been projected. Flashy and bright! So I am half way through it without any confusion of where to go.
I am a good follower I must say.
Somebody just needs to show me the direction, never mind even the wrong ones.
I like to walk, never mind where I am heading to.
This time a lot of learning has been done. Lots of different conscious experience I have gone through. Conscious because it has been emphasised so many times that we should and must revisit the stuff. Otherwise also I think we will learn. It goes back to your mind where you don’t realise that you have learned.
Now you have disturbed me in the middle of the write up and hence the deviation of the chain of thoughts.
Let’s be back.
Let’s start unlearning the stuff fast so to have a steady life ahead. I did not want to create bumps for myself and then ride on to it and prove myself to be a good rider. Damn a good walker I am. I know that. My fat tummy is the proof of it. Yesterday I went so ahead in my dreams that I forgot the way to come back. And I disappeared in the vagueness of my mind and thoughts. In the absolute of vagueness!
Cool so many things to unlearn now.
But why this unlearning? So that I can write all the meaningless stuff once again. I hate meaningfulness. In the sense and in the attitude also! Let me be the way I am without a damn reason. Without a choice; helpless to the core. Let’s be amusing to others. Let’s talk less this time. “Let’s not do it” this time for a change. Let’s die all over again to live a new life. Let’s unlearn..

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Status Update

It has been three months since I got married and so early my philosophical brain is out of its shell. The simple reason of saying so is that I am writing a blog on my status. Though there are numerous sites which help you in knowing your day to day status as you can update your status in those sites but I guess that is not enough when it comes to your real status. So here is my attempt to understand my status. Status as in mental status only, as writing about physical and situational is either very simple or very complex! So it is like an exam where questions seem difficult just to please the students.

In my quest to understand my status I first thought about what expectations I have from my life. For that matter, I never had any expectations from my life and in continuation with that I never had any expectations from my married life also. So whatever I gain is net profit because there is no cost involved. And even if there is cost at least it is not visible to me. So if I write about my status in few words then it will be something like ’merrily married without too much of expenditure’.

When it comes to my beer drinking status, the data is very depressing and I humbly request the beer lovers not to read beyond this point. As the huge loss to the beer drinking society may lead to very disappointing consequences to the beer loving reader. These days very humbly I take permission from my wife to have a couple of beer. This couple of beer does not extend to more than a couple like old times. It strictly limits to two. But still I thank god because my wife insists me to have a couple of breezer. And having just a couple of breezer is like a punishment, so no punishments please. And as far as status in terms of few words is concern, it should be “come beer, come breezer, come all, come fast”.

The biggest influencer in the status deciding process are like books, movies, a hearty talk etc. its like when I watched shawshank redemption for the nth time, my status changed to “Hope is a good thing, the best of things”. When I finished reading notes to myself my status changed to “the heart loves but moods have no loyalty, moods should be heard but never danced to.” If you had a good talk with your friend your status will be like “life screws us all, it’s only a matter of time.”

And finally when you are not doing anything, which is the case 99 % of the times, then you try to change your status without any purpose and then come the status like “I am bad at deciding what haircut to take”, “busy and available at the same time”, “god, give me some purpose”.

There is a joy in having a good status message I must say, never mind the actual status we are going through but a status message we project should be worth while…

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Gita Shibir

I do not know the expectation of a B-school from me. First there were Learning Management classes and then PG Lab and now Gita Shibir. From objectivity to subjectivity to a mix of both! That is what I have been oscillating around. I must have an objective goal in life and then do everything to achieve it and now I have a subjective goal of attaining the happiness which is somewhere hidden in my self. This goal is subjective because it is related to my understanding of the whole matter. Actually it is about understanding only. Once I understand and confirm the way this particular concept of achieving happiness works, I suppose I become successful in life, at least for that particular instant (considering life means integration of all such small events). Like I enjoyed a good meal or a good walk, I feel content about it, satisfied about it. That is what I need to practise in my life, to have these walks more and more. But the whole concept of happiness keeps changing as you evolve yourself. And that is why I call it as subjectivity.
So the problem is not like which way to take. As far as my understanding goes what we as b-school students or more active corporate individuals needs to make sure of this subjectivity in the attainment of objectivity. And if we do that successfully I think we have done our part.
I suppose I do not need to stop and first attain the happiness and then go about being a CEO of my dream company but in the process of becoming a CEO I should attain the happiness level required to have personal harmony. This way I will be successful and happy and probably more effective.
Do you see any problem in the above given context or you think that you will be able to do it. I don’t know whether I will be able to do it or not but my problem is I tend to get involved in one side of it. Once I feed myself with the dreams and ambitions I tend to become more objective and tend to loose the balance on being happy. And if I think about being happy then I tend to become more easy going and less ambitious towards my aim of owning a Ferrari one day.
Is that a correct understanding of the thoughts we have been exposed to. I would say no.
Let me consider a situation where I am content with my life as in whatever I have, I think is enough and does not need anything to add materially to my life. Now if I need to serve the purpose of serving to the society I need to have few personality traits which will make me realise that I should do something for the society. Personality traits like kindness, compassionate, non-violence, truth honesty. I am talking about a very ideal situation where I am content with whatever I have and now because I am very kind and generous, and when I see people in grief I try to help them. These personality traits will be my motivation to work for the society. For keep doing work for the society it becomes imperative on my part to be always content otherwise I will never be able to work for the larger cause. An easy understanding of the situation is if I am thirsty it is less likely to share the water I have. So the point is to quench your thirst first and then go about helping others in quenching their thirst.
So now I hope it is clear to have your thirst quenched first (because only then you will be able to offer yourself totally for the sake of society at a large) and then do something for others (because of your inherent personality traits like generosity, compassion etc).
How does it fit in the roles which I will be doing in my future? This is generally a mistaken thought that who is self happy will not and will not be able to change the society at large. But can you change the society if you are not a part of the system. So those who are working for the society are at that level. The more at a higher rank I am in the corporate ladder the more effective I will be in bringing about these changes. And if I posses the required personality traits then the effect on the society will be immense. Few example Ratan Tata. Ratan Tata is most effective when he has the natural personality traits (dominated in his personality) and then he achieves a rank of CEO and then brings about changes. Had he been just a happy man and not doing anything for the society would not have served the purpose of his attaining the happiness.
So objectives are few
• First and foremost to keep self happy and content with the life (subjective part of this objectivity)
• Understand that I can bring about changes in society at large only if I have the required natural values assimilated in my personality.
• Understand that I need to be a part of the system to work wonders for my goal towards the society.
• And then keep achieving objective goals by being objective at large and keeping my content quotient intact with me.
This I had put in these words but I don’t know how I will follow my own words. Probably I don’t need to follow. What I need to do is to just chill and just keep a check on my value system and make it a rule to not violate my value system whatever may come. I think rest all will fall in place automatically.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

I can make stars...

I can make stars. Stars not as in bollywood star or a cricketing star but the stars on the paper with the help of a pen. Simple! That is what I do. Keep things simple. But for this also first I have to complicate things. So its like first complicate things and then emerge as a winner after achieving it.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Personal Growth "Lab"

The sheer positivism flowing around the PG lab exercise somehow made me wonder, can it really help? We face such transforming experiences in life and that certainly doesn’t come out of the class rooms. The more you have cuts and bruise the better are the chances that you will learn the lesson. Very unlikely in the classroom setting. Still the class worked wonder and people felt happy that they are a part of it.
Is PG Lab a business preposition or a real tool to create the required change in the person. It is certainly creating value for the participants as it will throw the lights on the territories undiscovered till the time. And this revelation gives a feeling that you have conquered the monkey and from now on you will be the slave of your planned approach. How many of you did not know before, that you tend to talk a lot even when it is not required (A bull in the china shop), or for that matter you don’t take feedback even when you know that the change will work wonders for you (A tortoise). The terms are assigned to the already known things. Now you know what type of a person is that called, or maybe the better use is to criticize somebody comfortably in a larger group where people will understand your wit equipped with the jargons.

Now it is creating value for the participants as the participants are the customers or the main objective of all the exercise. Few other important aspects which stand out in the full exercise are as follows
• The place where the classes will be conducted, close to the nature. As if otherwise we have not seen trees and grass and mosquitoes and sunrise and sunsets and we are living in most unnatural of all the places (some kind of different unnatural galaxy).
• Trekking, which is always fun. Learn or not learn it is fun to trek. Few quick advantages are no classes, you can take lots of pictures for facebooks and orkuts to show the world that you are learning in a superhuman way, feel that you have conquered something which by now was hidden under the golden natural reserves, think that you did a great team building exercise even when you did not bother who has finished the trek and who doesn’t.
• Games, now this is really exciting. It is a mess to finalize a strategy. More than the strategy people think their perspective or analysis is the thing to crack the game. Well there is no right strategy for that matter, the one which worked wonder for you is the right one for you. I should write a full blog on how the politics of finalising the strategy for the game is not a matter of the innovation but more a matter of team players sticking to whatever stupid thing has been finalised.
• I guess 99 percent of Indians (I do not know much about the other nationals, and hence can not comment) love to play ‘antakshari’ and you give them a chance to play this game or let them sing under a cosy setup of bonfire and evenings and you have their happiness quotient shoot up like anything. It’s like you make them sing for some time and then ask about whether India should attack Pakistan or not and there will be philosophies raining. You know, because people are happy and their take on life is different from what it is under stress and lots of assignments.
• Thank to SPJIMR admission process that the ratio of male to female participants is something which I should not even mention (to escape from the wrath of my batch mates as it will not be a good thing to reflect), otherwise the happiness quotient of few more participants would have increased dramatically and we would have had great life changing experiences from the PG Lab.

Without going further into details of everything, the one thing which stands out in everything that has been done there is that the participants were made to believe that they are happy, they are achieving, they are rediscovering and then the effect of the lab is what you can observe. From where this sense of happiness or achievement or rediscovering has come? This sense has been injected into us without even using an injection, and that is the power of a human brain (now please don’t imagine an injection which works with your mental strength). And when you think that you are emerging as a winner you tend to accept the outcome.

This is where the crux of it lies, make life a PG Lab. Don’t wait for somebody to take you to garudmaachi and then do a locus of control of belief test and then come to a conclusion that you are a self believer. Make the surroundings natural (grow more trees for that matter, or have small plants in the so called GAMLA). Achieve one thing daily, the point is to realise the achievement (as simple as you have managed to attend all classes without your brain thinking about anything else). Be happy and don’t ask me to give you a reason to be happy. Otherwise I will ask you make a team of your reptile brain and your rat brain with the mammal brain as the referee to play a game of antakshari or to sing a group song with all the three brains, so that you can just be simply happy without any complications. PG Lab is a wonderful thing not because it discovers the territories not explored till now but because it proves that life is just about the happiness, achievements, antakshari, music, nature, sun rise and sun sets, laughter, team building, losing happily, johari window and all the wonderful drawings everybody had made.

Don’t come back, stay there at PG Lab.