Conflict of Desires

(Monday Dusk, 6:00pm)….. Alaya and her mother are walking down the streets of St.Thomas. It's Christmas Eve, roadside shops are filled with colorful toys, X-mas trees, Bells... Alaya is usually not very fond of toys but this evening is different for her. Her eyes stopped over a very attractive Toy. It's on the display shelf of “Gifts n Packs”. Alaya is too young to understand the numbers on price tag... She stopped her mother and asked her to buy that attractive toy. Mother could not resist her first request to buy her a toy. Sales person of “Gifts n Packs” welcomed them with a fake smile as they dropped into the nook center.

Sales Person: “How can I help you ma’am?”
Mother: Aaa.. that one..in the right Shelf, th…

Even before Mother could complete her sentence, Sales Person got what they wanted when Alaya pointed her finger at her heart throb. Sales person asked his assistant to get that Toy. The sales person was noticing that Alaya could not stop looking at that Toy until it reached his hands. Even before billing it, Sales person placed the toy in the tender hands of Alaya. Alaya’s excitement had no limits.. she was overwhelmed with Joy. This is the first time she ever asked for something from her mother and now she has it in her hands. Mother asked for the bill, Sales person whispered that the toy costs Rs.3,890 and there is no discount on it. Alaya's mother tried to bargain but the salesperson did not agree to the quoted price. The price is pretty shocking and mother decides not to buy it for two reasons.. First, she didn’t have that huge a cash, second, she didn’t want to spend so much on that little toy. Alaya could understand all of this and simply handed over the Toy back to the sales person. Alaya actually didn’t want to do that but she some how managed to suppress her feelings and walked silently along side her mother.

Mother did not have enough courage to console her as she is confronted with the world’s strongest weapon, silence. Although Alaya is pretty young, she is good in understanding situations and act accordingly without hurting anyone. She rarely speaks her mind or exhibits her desires. When things don’t work, she wouldn’t cry like most of us, but keep it to herself. They have just walked half the distance down the street. Mother decides to take her to another famous Toy shop which is just few shops away from them. It’s called “Toys Kemp”. Mother did not speak a single word but simply took Alaya to Toys Kemp and let Alaya move around to choose a Toy. Alaya was disinterested in it but was just doing it to oblige her mother’s efforts in keeping her happy. As she walked along the stand, she could find umpteen Toys of various colors, sizes, designs. Alaya didn’t find any of them attractive as she was still thinking of the other Toy. She finished her first round of glance and reached back to her mom. She could not tell her mom that she will not be interested in any of these Toys So, She kept walking to take a second glance.. This time her eyes stopped over a Descent but very attractive Toy. She had seen this in her last stroll but didn’t pay much attention to it. Now, she is a bit reluctant.. she is not sure if she should choose something and get emotionally attached to it for obvious reasons. But she could not stop her eyes getting hooked on to it. She walked back to that Toy and was starring at it for some time. Toys Kemp like Gifts n Packs did have sales persons but they wouldn’t intrude the freedom of walking and choosing what you want on your own. A sales person kept watching all of this silently from a distance.

Alaya is still confused whether to pick it up or not. She knows that her mother will buy her this time no matter how much it costs. The toy has all that she thinks a toy should have. Above all of that she likes it.. even more than the first one. Besides slight traces of fear of loosing it again like the first one, its irresistible for her to fall in love with it. There is no reason for her to leave the place without the toy. After fighting the battle of dilemma, she finally decides to choose it for her. The beauty of second Toy has almost made her forget the first one. She walked up to her mom and said “I would like to have this for me”. Her mom whole heartedly accepted and looked for the sales person to bill it. The sales person replied her with a smile as if he knew everything that happened in Gifts n Packs and whispered to the guy at the counter to give them a discount of 60% (which is really unusual at Toys Kemp). After the billing he walked up to Alaya, bent a little and asked Alaya to take it. Alaya in all her happiness stretched her arms and was about to take it…

“…. excuse me ma’am, sorry to bother you”

It's the sales person from “Gifts n Packs” who came running all the way holding the same Toy that Alaya and her mother did not buy last time. The sales person said..

“… ma’am, our proprietor thinks that you can buy this for the same price you had asked for”

Mother, is with money in her hands to pay it to the sales person at Toys Kemp..
Alaya, is with her stretched arms ready to receive the Toy she just chose for herself..
The sales person (of Toys Kemp) is about to hand over the Toy..
And the sales person (from Gifts n Packs) is also with stretched arms in front of Alaya and about to hand over the Toy she chose sometime back…

Readers, what do you think Alaya should do now??

Should she stop buying the second one and go with the first one?
Should she buy the second one?
Should she stop looking for Toys at all?

(for all of those wondering why such a boring story by Kbhbejti..)

Well, this is just a small thought on human behavior when confronted with conflict of desires made over a time in the form of a story.. In the story, If we can envisage ourselves in the shoes of Alaya, then we can easily relate toys to what we wish to "achieve/own/commit into a relationship with someone" in our lives... salespersons are like the external force (to us) driving those achievables/relationships, influencing them.. (could be a person's attitude in case of a relationship or a process in case of an examination). Alaya's mother is like everything else other than you and your dream.. say your friends, family, relatives, society..etc who may stop you or help you from getting what you want.

I will conclude the story in my next post after I receive a couple of comments on this. Let’s see what others think that Alaya should do about it.

Tonsured and now trying to find a reason!

I Went to Tirupati last Saturday and got tonsured for no known reason. Now when people are asking me, am trying to find one ;)

Warning: No Hair Care Ad this!


Before





After



A couple of reasons I could think of...


* I wanted to give rest to my Comb.
* My scalp wanted some light and fresh air.
* I wanted to see how I look after some 40-50 years from now.. (high hopes).
* I am doing a course in Trichology, so wanted to measure my hair growth from the roots for a statistical report !!
* Will Smith and I had a bet to check whose hair grows faster (and the winner.... is obvious!) lol

I will have to just pick one best from these or you people can suggest a few more... ;)

ATM: Azhagiya Tamil Magan or ARR The Mozart

Definitely not a music review post but could not resist speaking the magic of (ARR) AR.Rahman's work. (As it happens with every fan of ARR after his music release). I first heard the music of ATM (Azhagiya Tamil Magan, a new tamil movie) when Hari (My Roommate) got the tracks on his mobile. It was not bad but not very impressive then. The first one which caught my attention was the remix song "Muthukal Siri..". This is the first time our ARR has ever made a remix (For those of you who think "Tottal Poo Malarum.." from the movie "New" is a remix by ARR, please be informed that it was a RE-TUNED song and NOT a remix!!). Then the track "Saturday Night.." follows. This song is with least lyrics but cooool music. Though it takes time but will slowly catch your attention, no wonder I ended up listening to it one complete day, continuously. The title track is absolutely meant for Vijay (The Hero of the movie Azhgiya Tamil Magan) with all typical hailing verses in Tamil. However this song still has got the flavor of ARR and is enjoyable. "Madhuraikku pogadaDi.." is a folk song which proves that ARR is a King of all genre. It has happened a plenty of times with me that I would dislike ARR's music in the first iteration, but end up loving them each time i listen to them and they finally become a part of my evergreen collections. Well, that's the Charisma of the Genius-ARR

Amar Rahe Rahman - Azhagiya India Magan!

link for downloading the tracks, if you haven't heard the songs yet.
http://sriunity.com/songs/index.php?q=f&f=%2FLatest%2FAlagiya+Tamil+Magan
Note: please don't support piracy, use this link as a demo only

A telegram to my maker

Stifling breathe, haunting memories, missing warmth.
Stuck at crossroads. Situation out of control, do
something immediately.

To: #7, cloud 9,
Heaven Street,
Sky - 000000

The MLCP experience

Wondering what is MLCP? Ask any mall frequenter or an IT park visitor/employee, you will get more than its expansion. MLCP stands for Multi Level Car Parking. I know its not new to any of you (nor to me), but for some reason I am so excited to use a newly built MLCP near my office. Perhaps the peculiar design of traversing path makes the journey really unique one. Its got short length, high angled slopes and curves of small radii. Two such scary curves constitutes a segment to raise by a 'Level'. Our office is located in the 4th floor of a 8 storeyed building (SSZ as called by my colleagues). All these days we were allowed to park in the basement. I guess this was due to the fact that not all floors were occupied. Now that SSZ is gaining popularity for its obvious looks and facilities, we are asked to use level 6 MLCP space (even the bikers). Level 6 MLCP is attached to 8th floor of this building. Oops we didn't realise this on the first day and ended up parking at some other company's parking space. Round-and-Round-and-Round-and-Round..... what a spiral extravaganza? A convoy of subexians driving uphill (sorry, the ramp!!), experiencing the velodrome of Oz in Bangalore, looking like the black rats of Israel feeding on a pine cone.

CORPORATE BLUES

This post is inspired by an article in TOI, Times Business section.

People speak volumes about the success stories of great corporates like Google, Infy, but the experiences of its successors is not all that great. With the corporate life cycle span coming down at an alarming pace, the perception of invincibility towards these giants doesn't seem to be true any more.

No doubt it takes great efforts and distinguished qualities for a team to establish themselves as a successful corporate. And to become a company like Google, Cisco, Microsoft, IBM..etc it requires to take more prudent but bold moves at the right time. Its always exciting to talk about and cherish the success stories of these good companies, to know what it takes to reach there, in the achieving what IBM did, what Microsoft is doing and what Google will do.

Here comes the twist in the tale, the game is not all about how you get there but how you sustain your position. The article by Neelima Mahajan called "When success breeds failure", discloses some of the bitter and hard facts to digest about corporate life expectancy. The article is the perception of Jagdish Sheth, a well known academic who has been closely watching a clutch of hugely successful companies. According to him these successful companies have unintentionally acquired certain wrong habits which could be actually drawing dead-ends for themselves.

"Jagdish 'Jag' Sheth is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta School of business. An acclaimed expert in Marketing, Sheth has also penned books like 'The Rule of Three' and 'Tectonic Shift'."

His explanation stands contradicting to the ideas put forth by some of the profound business gurus like Jim Collins and Tom Peters through bestsellers like 'In search of Excellence' and 'Built to Last'. We have this notion that good companies are invincible. This idea, perpetuated by popular business literatures is good only till a company lasts. Sheth has been toiling a bit in doing his bit of research, scouting answers to the questions which even creme de la creme of the corporate world (companies which are/were part of the Fortune500, S&S 500 and the FTSE) is not aware of. The result is a book titled 'The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies'. Today, companies, which are financially better off, transparent and doing well in the market from an investment point of view, are the very same companies that have shorter life cycles. What is happening? The findings from Sheth's research has helped answering such questions reasonably and can be considered as an ultimatum for today's corporates.

All these days, like most of you reading this, i was under the impression that competition destroys good companies. Strangely, (if Sheth is right? ;-) ) its not competition but its the companies who destroy themselves. Sheth has Six strong points that helps him prove his speculations by facts.

ARROGANCE FROM ACCIDENTAL SUCCESS

"The vast majority of companies succeed by accident –being at the right time at the right place. And then they begin to take more credit for themselves and that leads to arrogance." says Sheth. At General Motors, Alfred Sloan (hearing this name for the first time!!) created a culture of arrogance (really??). These lines are excerpts from the article, if i am hurting anyone's sentiments, then am really sorry because i cannot stop going further. Same in the case of Wal-mart and Microsoft. "Wal-mart grew up from a small company to a large and successful company, beating its competitors like Sears and K-Mart, by nurturing everyone properly - for instance, they offered consumers better brands at lower price. Later they became abusive with success," says Sheth. About Microsoft, most of you know how it grew up to this stature. "Now it has begun to dictate terms to trade partners and end customers. Then it became abusive of suppliers - the application software guys." Its universal truth that once arrogance sets in, you tend to abuse people around you. What happens if a company does that with its customers, suppliers, employees and community at large? Thats intuitively detrimental. There starts the downfall of the company, it has chosen to destroy itself.

THE NO-ONE-CAN-BEAT ME SYNDROME

Not just in case of individuals but its true in case of companies also that success breeds complacency. Sheth points out a classic example of Air India of the 1970s. On any measure you can imagine (be it financial performance, capacity or customer service), it was easily one of the best in the world. Once it was nationalized, it became complacent and started to collapse. According to Sheth, complacency usually comes when you are a monopoly- because you have no competition. It comes in public enterprises too.

SIDE EFFECTS OF GROWTH

When you grow into a large company by size and responsibilities, need for organizing things also grows. "Its essentially how you create a culture of failure over long term by being a culture of success. These are habits you acquire as a side effect of being successful," says Sheth. Turf wars, as Sheth calls it, engineering doesn't work well with sales and marketing, which in turn doesn't work well with functional support people. Then there are turf wars between geography heads or country managers versus functional heads or country managers against product managers. Consider some of the companies which have grown through acquisitions. Most of the companies acquired would be founder driven and the acquiring company would have had tough time managing all the accusations and integration activities.

WHEN COMPETENCY BECOMES LIABILITY

Competencies are proven ingredients for the success of a company but it is essential to make sure you change them as you grow, as the market grows and the time changes. Remember, if you have a competency that no one can duplicate, more likely that competency becomes a trap for you. One example that strikes my mind is Kodak, it made a blunder by not moving into digital technology in time.

HOW BIG IS YOUR VIEWFINDER ?

0Consider your self in a marathon race, initially your focus will be on all the people participating in the race. As you progress, the focus shifts to those few in front of you. Analogous to this, the notion is that as more and more companies succeed, they begin to narrow down their peripheral vision of who their competition is. Automobile industries are the best examples for this, car makers only watch each other. "They have the same engineers go from one company to another. So they don't recognize that there could be a fundamental shift in automobile technology from outside," says Sheth. The same holds for memory chips, the then leaders never thought that Koreans would take over, Samsung is the leader. This forces me to think the same about Bangalore as the IT capital.

"NO, THAT CANNOT HURT ME" ATTITUTE!!

Denial is the most dangerous habit. Today Japanese companies are giving US automakers a run for their money. Interestingly, it was the American auto guys themselves who opened the doors for the Japanese "General Motors never believed that small cars would sell well. Their numbers showed that there just wasn't a big enough market," says Sheth. So what they did next was outright silly. They began to allow three automobile dealerships they controlled to carry Honda, Nissan and Toyota. That allowed the Japanese to come into the mainstream market. The irony was that a Pontiac dealer would sell Honda like hot cakes whereas a heavily discounted Pontiac would not sell at all. So the dealer's loyalty would automatically shift to Honda.

The 35 countries of India..

It was only during my college days, that i got a chance to explore the real world. Until then my world was
confined to a small colony where i live. I got to meet a large number of people bearing different opinions with great differences.
Every thing was at a higher magnitude than i had ever witnessed. At my work place i met a person who eventually
become a very good friend of mine. He is a big time devotee of the language KANNADA. For him Kannada is
more than a language. He feels its a way Kannadiggas live. This true lover of Kannada, requites it by calling it his mother.
I dint know a language could be this adorable to the people. Ironically, this person who respects a language so much,
hates all other languages (of INDIA ??). As i have known him, he does a good analysis of things before he comments or makes a
decision about anything. I am wondering "what could be the reason??". What makes him think this way ?

"Unity in Diversity.. Secularity.. Sovereignty..Culture with high degree of syncretism.. A Land of all seasons"
these are some of the adjectives which decorate our INDIA. Wow, what a country is this? One country with so
many languages and culture. You can find people of all variates here.. from rich to poor.. tall to short..
black to white.. fat to thin.. ugly to beautiful.. what a spectrum of humankind on one piece of land? Thats
INDIA for you (really??). This is true at the skin level, but as you start moving a bit closer towards the contour
of those thin lines separating people in the name of states.. the voices become eminent.. you would hear anguish
voices bringing disgrace to the nation's decorum. Yes, its the voices of those people fighting in the name of languages..
Sometimes our dear politicians trigger such conflicts, in an attempt to rediscover the bad formula "Divide and Rule".
People faithfully make it a grand success by not listening to what their conscience is struggling to tell them.
What happened to those precious traits derived from a rich culture that your country gave you? Did your culture preach you to
disrespect other cultures ? Did your language say its the only supreme language on earth ?
Great!! How did you manage to stifle your common sense ?? Language is a mere tool which human beings invented to
communicate with each other. Its a medium to represent your thoughts and ideas in the form of writing or speech.
Why have a race of language and its evolution ? You speak any language that you wish to.. let your friend do which ever he prefers to..
Language lovers try to show you a strong illusive bonding of language to the land where it was born. Which stop people
from using an INDIAN language in INDIA. A Kannadiga is most likely to have the wrath of a Tamilian in Tamil Nadu for speaking in
Kannada and the vice versa is equally true. Kannadiga complaints of domination by Tamil speakers in karnataka
and a Tamil speaker complaints of no water in the state because the kannadigas refused to give. At times this stupid quarrel gets
so violent that it costs many innocent lives. Is Language really thicker than blood ?
How could some one interleave language with lack of water ? Did we forget that language has nothing to do with lack of water?
How many of us accept Hindi as our national language. I have a friend who still doesn't agree to it even after our debate pushed
me to show him the verses of INDIAN CONSTITUTION. Is this a land of 28 states and 7 union territories or 35 countries ?

Its a shame to know that a Language can be a potential source of conflict for the people. There are hundreds of genuine
problems to be addressed, if at all we want to really work for the progress of our country and show some gratitude.
I don't know how much we mean when we say "India is a secular country, rich in culture. We show unity in diversity."
Enough of all these show-off words. Do we really understand the words Secularity, Sovereignty...Culture etc.

We shouldn't forget that Respecting each other is more important than respecting our own inventions.
Its good to remind ourselves that there is just one SUN and one EARTH... there is just one specie called HUMAN BEINGS
who can understand all this!!!

Preaches from the virtual world !!!

...the Guy is chasing me with a brandish sword. I am running with all the energy i have. I am at a speed no less than any athlete running on an Olympic track. I have no clue why is he chasing me. He is swinging the sword.. trying to slaughter me from the back.. i am missing it by few centimeters. I didn't know where am i heading, am just running like that
innocent beggar chased by the stray dogs near my house.. I imagine the whole scene would look like a segment straight out of a movie to the onlookers. I was looking back frequently to make sure that he is not very close to me. But why am i running,
when i don't know if i can escape him? He looks strong enough to chase and get me at some point. The hiss sound made by the sword resonates in my ears, whispering to me "You are finished!!!". Thinking so, should i stop running now and give up? It
will cost my Life. Hundreds of thoughts running on my mind.. i see a collage of umpteen small pictures and film strips running on my mind. I have no time to appreciate them at the moment.

I turned back this time to take a proper look at the Guy's face.. Do i know him ? No, I don't think I have ever met him before. "Who is he?" a question chasing me faster than the guy himself!! "Dhup".. i bruised my foot to the median, that's when i realized i was crossing a main road. I fell on to the median, as if i was falling on my bed after a hard day's work. My face and chest felt the ground.. my head banged to the tree on the median. Its for sure that i would be torn in to pieces by that reckless inhuman. Now its my choice to either turn back and take a look at my own assassination or keep my eyes shut
and say my last prayers. I collected some courage and decided to turn back and take a look at that mercy less wild animal for one last time. There is a cruel smile on his face. Both of us are tired..breathing very hard. He stepped on to my chest with his left leg. There he takes a deep breath, stiffened his fist and lift the sword as high as possible... The sword is now paving through the air between his angry face and my chest..

TiK.. Teek.. Tik.. Teek.. Tik.. Teek !!!! I Stopped the alarm clock besides me... am sitting frozen on my bed, totally blank. My heart is beating faster than usual.. I am hearing voices within me.. One eminent one - "Oops was that a dream ??" That's when my conscious took over and I realized that it was a deadly dream. For a moment i felt that
"Alarm Clock" saved me from some big tragic experience. For the first time i was looking at that "Alarm Clock" with some respect, which would otherwise receive an angry bang on the snooze button. Thirty past six... its getting late for my morning jog, my friends would be waiting for me as usual. Picture of that dreadful ripper is still on my mind, stopping me from my daily chores. For a moment i tried to rehash that virtual incident in thoughts and analyse it for no reason. I am hopping to get rid of it from my memory after that. Well, i was being chased by someone for some reason and i was running to save my
life. But finally could not escape. If i knew that its not easy to escape from him then, why undergo the pain of fear. I should have simply faced him the moment he started chasing me or give up, rather than letting the fear run through me. I am sure that's more painful than the death itself. Honestly speaking, even now if i am chased by someone, i would try to run away from him. Looks like this virtual incident has some thing to teach me.

Let me call the guy chasing me "a big problem" in my life, i have one of the three things to do :

- run away from the problem, just as i did from the ripper.
- get succumbed to it in the very beginning !!
- stand there and face it with courage.

Definitely, running away from the problem will take me no where but just delay the process of getting succumbed to it!! Getting succumbed to a problem is my disability and i cannot help it, but there is no chance of winning here. Standing firmly and facing a problem is the only way to have a chance to win. ( Heroic approach ?? ;-) )
Of course, to win it takes a lot of efforts and many more things but having a chance to win is a prerequisite right ??