Things we learn...

A man remains student for his entire life. And it’s very very true. Almost every moment in our life we learn one thing or other. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have learnt a moment before but some amount of learning goes into our brains. With plenty of free time in hand and mind working at the optimum speed I’m trying to revisit some of these learning moments.
It must have happened with you all too. When you badly want something to happen, it may not just happen that way. It often happens with me. And I say that God must have turned on the inverter circuit before accepting input from me.

What I have learnt: Be careful while asking for something to happen. You never know when the inverter is on. So play safe.

Sometimes you just wish something and you may not expect it to happen…but it happens. (Inverter is off. Or the wish is as minute as noise signal to go unprocessed through inverter.)
What I have learnt: wishes may come true. So no harm in expecting something. If you are too confused whether to expect something to happen or not then leave it to god. He has designed the circuit. He knows it better which signal to process at what time.

We come across a trivial problem in life. It can be anything ranging from mistake in a mark sheet, boss taking credit for our work to not receiving calls/mails from friends. We may react in loud manner. Coz the problem is too small to look at and we link it to many different things and make it big and confusing. So we waste a lot of energy in understanding the problem, reacting over it and then leaving it unsolved.
What I have learnt: no need to put on the analytical thinking caps for trivial issues. Some things happen for no or negligible reasons. Why waste energy in finding the cause which seldom exists. Sometimes its better to ‘Let go’ and ‘Move on’.

Now comes the big problem. These are the problems to which we have seen people around us reacting in different normal manners. But when it takes place in our life we tend to react differently. This problem is too big to have standardized solution. It can be anything ranging from failures in studies, loss in business to failed relationship. When all others react to these problems in expected manner you may simply chose to react differently. Why? For no reason. Big problems may not move you as much as small problems. You remain calm and quiet, think about how to deal with it and start implementing the solution. It demands u to be more practical else you may end up being affected way too much with it.
What I have learnt: That’s the key to success. Be practical while solving big problems. Think wisely. If the problem is too big to have impact on your life you just can’t handle it carelessly. Being calm and composed is the demand of the situation. These are the situations where we learn maximum from our mistakes. If we don’t then we keep repeating the mistakes and landing in trouble. So take a deep breath and conquer the problem.

At the end of the day we know that we keep asking for something or other to God which may not get fulfilled. We wish for something and it may just come true. We make fuss of small problems. And we may remain unperturbed in a big problem. But what matters is what we learn from all these situations.

It’s human to do mistakes. You learn a lot from them. And if you don’t then you keep committing them again and again.

India Vs America

We had this interesting thread on our reply-all chain mails regarding industry oriented research and where does India stand wrt that. And I ended up writing all this in response to mails by my friends kauti, viju and amol. After finishing it I thought I should put it on the blog and discuss it with other friends too. So here I'am...

"I agree with u Amol when u say every research in industry oriented. and if its not then it can not survive. So ultimately its industry which shud initiate this research thing.

Now cut to India...

Yes we are service oriented. Services form a considerable chunk in our GDP. And there is nothing wrong in being a services oriented nation. As far as R&D is concerened that can still happen...provided there is a suitable environment for it. By environment i mean political, social, economincal and technological...to add few dimensions let there be ecological and legal too. Something which we call PESTEL … we say that Indian corporates are not putting money in R&D. Their R&D budgets are low and they are not filing for patents. But why? There has to be some reason behind it.

Look at it this way. Indian financial markets are still not matured enough. We do have dependency on global capital markets and to be specific on dollars. Yes we are an emerging market but with scarce capital. And R&D seems a distant dream till the time we become capital rich nation. R&D expenses do not form a major chunk in balance sheets of our corporates because there is no guarantee that the results will be fruitful. All the big companies like intel, apple n so an can indulge in R&D activities because they themselves are capital rich companies and belong to the capital richest nation USA. Our Indian companies are still finding it hard to remain unaffected from global cues. Then research is certainly not on their list as research is not going to solve their current problems of capital scarcity.

Moving on to chandrayan and other such missions…yes it’s a show-off but a much needed one. It’s a way to demonstrate our knowledge, our strength and our competency. As an Indian even I feel that why to fund such huge projects from our pockets. How is it going to help a poor to earn bread & butter anyway? But when such projects happen it attracts a lot of attention. This gives rise to synergy extension and knowledge sharing. We are no more dependent on other countries to launch our satellites. That has cut down the cost of communications considerably. And we can say it’s a result of competency gained from our so many other projects which may not have impacted common man’s life directly. Yes there has to be some cap on the amount of money we spend on it. That’s why we have budgets and elections.

Research does improve our standard of living and more importantly our standard of technology. It provides competitive advantage to a country. But what’s the use if we cant sustain it. We are a country of 1.15 billion and our per capita income is still not attractive enough. So before moving on to industry oriented research we have to build a strong base. Our industries should become more powerful to dispense money from their pockets towards research. For that they should have strong balance sheets with huge capitals and profits. They will earn profit if there is demand for their products and services. The demand will be there if there is more disposable income with the customer. There will be a higher amount of disposable income if salaries are high. Salaries will be high if the skills demonstrated are good. Skills will be good if proper education and training facilities are available. So we come to basic need of high quality education and learning facilities. GOI is putting money in ambitious infrastructure projects which will help in facilitating flow of know-hows and in turn strengthening industries.

So with all this we can say that yes, we are on right track. So what if our industries are not putting money in research now. They will do it once they get enriched with capital and get the suitable environment. We are the 2nd largest growing economy and we are capable of turning the table around. With n-deal on cards its interesting to see how we will be using it to the best in our interest. "

Yaari Dosti...

Watching ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ and thinking about my FRIENDS. Looking back at the journey of life I am recollecting some moments when I met my friends. And thinking how my perception for friendship has changed over the time.

In kindergarten I used to think that everyone who cries when I start crying is my friend. Then as years passed, I started thinking that my classmates with whom I go to school, play and spend most of my time with are my friends. I still remember I was in 2nd standard when I first called my friend on her landline number. And I told my mom “look even I have a friend whom I can call on her number.” Later as days passed I started looking at my friends as safe lockers in which I can keep ‘secrets’. And with this came the expectations… Expectations of guarding the secrets… Expectations of keeping the trust. In school days when competition started becoming stiffer, friends gave some lighter moments. With them I started sharing my success and failures. With this came the emotional attachment. I lost touch with many of my schoolmates later. And few of them I am still in touch are my dear friends now.

Later in college days, I met people having similar goals, objectives and I realized that it is easier to get the comfort level with people if we have something in common with them. It may be the hobbies, interests or lifestyle. So I started looking at my friends as people who look at life in somewhat similar way as I do. Over the period of time I realized that friendship sans expectations has a long way to go. Now whether it is possible to keep this relation away from expectations is still a doubtful question. But one can definitely decrease the burden by removing some expectations.

I know my perception about the friendship will undergo some more changes in upcoming times. And I hope it will change for better. This one relation has taught me a lot. I have learnt to adjust. I have learnt to accept people around me as they are. So now I look at my friends as people with whom I can be myself… These are the people who are there for me in my good n bad times and who let me be with them in their good/bad times… Even though we are close to each other we never enter each other’s private space beyond certain limit.

I must say…having such wonderful people in life makes life worthwhile.

विरोधाभास

दिवसानंतर रात्र येणे हा तर जगाचा नियम आहे

सुखदु:खाच्या खेळातही हा नियम कायम आहे

काही वाईट होत असेल तर आपण चांगल्याची वाट पाहतो

आणि चांगले होत असताना उगाचच वाईट शंका घेत रहातो

जे आपले नाही त्याचीच ओढ जास्त असते

आणि ते कधीतरी मिळेल ही अपेक्षाही रास्त असते

म्हणूनच माणूस मृगाजळाच्या कल्पनेत रमतो

आणि मग विरोधाभासाचा हा खेळ त्याला हळूहळू जमतो

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पाऊलखुणा

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Does it actually matter what people think of you?

Does it actually matter what people think of you? If yes then to whom does it matter and to whom it does not? How does it affect your life? Reading ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey. And it gave rise to the above mentioned questions.

Human mind has this ability to make a convenient choice from the available options. That’s why multiple choice questions seem easier to solve. The point here is that we have this tendency to perceive the behavior of a person in every possible manner. These perceptions become options. And then we conveniently chose one of those options as the behavior of the other person. We label the person as smart, intelligent, sincere, mature, preacher, sentimental, bold, shy, introvert, outgoing etc. The list is non-exhaustive. But are we supposed to do so? You would say what’s the harm in perceiving or interpreting the behavior of a person? No harm. But then keep some space to accommodate the unknown side too. As I mentioned in my blog ‘Faces’ there is always an unknown side of the person. May be good may be bad. But it surely completes the picture of a person in our mind. And that forms the whole perception. Whatever we perceive of a person doesn’t form the true picture always. But we seldom keep that in mind. We trust our judgments and feel that our reasoning skills are strong enough to read the most complex creation of the God. We impose that judgment on our relations and the result is as expected: a strained relationship. Remedy on the problem: Don’t be judgmental especially when you don’t like others to be judgmental about you.

Now the question is ‘does it actually matter what judgments people draw about you?’ It depends upon person and to what stage he belongs. Our journey of life goes through three phases i.e. dependence, independence and interdependence*.Those who are emotionally dependent get affected by what people think about them. They see themselves from other’s point of view. So if the other person thinks they are immature they feel they are immature. They seldom fight with the opinion formed about them by others. On the other hand emotionally independent people don’t get affected by what others think of them. These are the people who know themselves well and don’t require others to certify their behavior. In interdependence stage, independent people accomodate the opinions of others to go ahead with ‘we’ attitude.

So, the moral of the story is if you are dependent then start your journey towards becoming independent and eventually becoming interdependent. People come in our lives and part their ways after some time. The one who is there with you from start to end is ‘you’. Only you can form judgments about you and nobody else. So think twice before forming judgments about others. Or else you may simply lose the opportunity to see the real person.

*-The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen