Communicate

Picture Source: First Friday Book Synopsis
To misquote the late legendary Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke,

What we had was a failure to communicate.
Some women you just can't reach,
so we ended with what we had then.
Which is the way it would finish in the end.
Well, you get it.
And I don't like it any more than you...

Socialism and its perils

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class insisted that socialism [eschewed for long by India and made famous recently by Barack Obama] worked. It said that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the Socialist plan". All grades were to be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade. Ergo, no one would fail and no one would receive an A. At the end of the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone received a B. The students who had studied hard were upset. The students who had hardly studied were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who had studied little studied even lesser. The ones who had studied hard decided that they too wanted a free ride and ergo, they too studied little. The second test average was a D. No one was happy.
When the third test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one wanted to study for the benefit of others. To their great surprise, all of them failed.

The professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great. However, when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

-via random email fwd

A nobel joke

WSJ Article
Time Article

Fritz Henderson a more deserving candidate? This very mockery probably hits the nail on the head in trying to explain how the politically savvy, marketing guru with good sense of the pulse of the people got it horribly wrong by accepting the Nobel peace prize award for 2009.

In office for a grand total of twelve days when nominated, eight months into the presidency today, he is still working on his promises and his vision for the US and the world at large. Kudos to him for a job well done thus far, for attempting to create a new world order and for taking the US away from the cowboy diplomacy that it had come to be identified with off late.

Nevertheless, a lot needs to be done before being declared Nobel enough, or maybe not. Well at least more that rhetoric and propaganda. It would have been astute and humble to not have accepted the award, saying in effect, I will be back in three years to accept this award. Only, it may not have been there because the people who are on the committee have proved that they too are human and could have taken his 'no' as a snub and a question of their judgment.

Obama, on his part, showed he is human. He agrees that he is humbled and undeserving, that he is human [read: greedy] enough and is fallible. As for the Nobel, it lost a bit of its charm today. Just like when Sadat, Begin, Kissinger got it. Just like when Mahatma Gandhi didn't. Great guy that Obama, will probably be deserving in 3 years. Flatpacked on twitter put it aptly when he said that it would appear there is a Nobel "looks like you might do something for peace in the rest of your term in office" peace prize.

Be Yourself

'Be true, Be yourself if that doesn't work, be someone else'

Sight

"I like what I see for I see what I like"
-max

Scenario Analysis

Best case
Dance like people are not watching
Love like it does not hurt
Work like you do not need money

Base case
Dance like people are watching
Love like it hurts
Work like you need money

Bear case
Dance like it hurts
Love like you need money
Work like people are watching

Worst case
Dance like you need the money
love like people are watching
work like it hurts

Crazy enuf for Courage

Time and again, people have encouraged me to jump off the fast track to take the road less traveled. Not to live their own dreams. Not to live their hopes for me. But for me to live up to what they believe is my potential. When I say 'what they believe', I use that reference as I believe in the testimonial of others around oneself as a barometer rather than your own.

While people may admire the limited talents that I may possess, I for one believe that its not talent that gets a person to his goals. If there is a single thing that makes a difference between a prodigy [without calling myself one] and a success: its COURAGE. The courage to jump across that crevice to traverse a seemingly deep abyss to land on the side of self fulfillment and ecstatic joy. The real question is: Do I have the courage to leap? Aah well... not right now. Tomorrow? Only time can tell. As for me, I sure hope so. Then again, the Tower Bridge was not built in a day. All I can hope for is that I am crazy enough to jump.

Locus Standi

As the Sri Lankan Army closes in on the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsula, there is a huge call for a ceasefire. This obviously makes sense on humanitarian grounds as innocent civilians may be [and probably are] killed in the melee. There has been a call for Indian intervention of some sort, especially from the Tamilians in the country.

Without trying to make ANY sort of political statement and in all my naivete, I ask the following: If Kashmir is an integral part of the Republic of India and Pakistan, UNSC and the US have no locus standi on Kashmir, an internal and sovereign issue, what locus standi does India have on the happenings in the internal matters of the Republic of Sri Lanka?

I have heard certain people say that LTTE are not terrorists. If so, the Mujaheedeen are not considered terrorists by many, nor are the Lashkar or the Jaish. We cannot apply two different yardsticks. A terrorist is a terrorist.

Unke Jaane Ki Chubhhan

saal bhar ho aaya hai
dil mein abhi bhi hai aggan
janaaza toh kab ka hai nikla
hai abhi unke jaane ki chubhhan

nazron se gire hai woh sabke
unke jaane ka phir bhi hai gamm
saal bhar ho aaya hai ab
ye dard na hua hai kuchh kamm

nakhre unhone humaare jo uthaaye
dekha unhone jo humaara bachchpana
kabhi woh unka hona gussa
kabhi humaare baalon ko sehlaana

woh toh thhe do sunehre saal
dil mein kitni yaadein hai bharee
unka woh lamba sa kadd
unki woh kameez haree

har raat dil ye hai mujhse poonchche
hai kahaan woh samaa apna
kya hai ye iss din ki haqueqatt
hai kya ye ek buraa sa sapna

saal bhar ho aaya hai
dil mein abhi hai aggan
janaaza toh kab ka hai nikla
hai abhi bhi jaane ki chubhan

-max

Upto you

There are no magical fixes. It is ALL upto you. Get up off your ass, get out and start doing your work. And if you are scared of it being hard, realize that nothing in this world that is worth having comes easy.

Fooled by Randomness

25 random things about me...

1. My name means ‘without boundaries’ in Sanskrit. It means ‘friend’ in Hebrew.

2. My name is often misspelled, something that irritates the hell out of me.

3. My brother gifted me a box of pencils at the hospital when I was born.

4. I wanted to be a pilot, eyesight killed that dream. I wanted to be a doctor, my aunt [a doc] knocked sense into me. I want to be a banker, is that dream killed already?

5. I once sported a haircut like the Brazilian soccer player Dida

6. My friends call me MAX

7. I hate jewelry. Unlikely to wear an ‘engaged’ ring

8. As a kid, I was an avid philatelist and had over 7000 stamps from 60 odd countries

9. I often street raced on my Kawasaki in India. Top speeds, weaving through traffic and straight-lining curves were not uncommon. I have had 5 accidents.

10. I write poems and short stories. I tend to dramatize a mountain out of a molehill when I write

11. My friends and I once watched ‘Friends’ for 18 straight hours.

12. I have never puked due to alcohol consumption. I feel nauseated in the back seat of a car though.

13. To celebrate India’s famous victory over Australia in cricket, I lit firecrackers on the college campus, causing a huge commotion.

14. I am allergic to tea. I have had tea four times in my life.

15. I almost drowned in a white water rafting expedition in the Ganges when our raft overturned in a grade 4 and I was stuck underneath the raft

16. I have gone through three days without any sleep. I sleep 4 hours on average

17. The love of my life is Rex, my German Shepherd in India

18. I have two blogs, but never had the discipline to update them regularly

19. I have never read a Harry Potter or watched any of the movies. Something about it just does not appeal to me.

20. my poison is Jameson’s 12 aged Irish Whiskey when had neat. For a cocktail, I love a vodka with lime cordial, tonic water, pepper, tinge of Tabasco sauce and lots of ice.

21. The head trader at work once asked me if I was British because of my accent.

22. As a dare, I once had 12 raw green chilies.

23. I was to swim across a river in India, but my dad never gave me the permission

24. I broke my leg as a kid jumping off the 2nd floor of my house, attempting to be superman

25. I am attempting to live my dream of writing a book

- max

Flip Over

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title:--Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
Juliet in Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare

What's in a name is something people ask me when I correct them on the pronounciation of my name. Maybe not much. But then again, maybe a lot. The point is, what do you have to lose? Nothing I would reckon. My given name has a very similar sounding and more common twin. More often that not, it leads to people choosing the mundane over the exotic. One then has to correct people in the hope that they would get it right. Sometimes it is right. Sometimes it is not. Only time will ever tell.

The year has changed. What's in a number dare you ask? You may most certainly NOT. The world flipped when the century was about to turn into a new leaf. As did the fortunes of any and probably every Indian in the space of Information Technology. The time you missed your train because someone read out the time to you wrong. And most importantly because I like those numbers when I see them.

The flip is important. The year has changed. A year will soon add in my life. A challenge will soon appear. The one that I currently have, will refuse to go away. That bend in the road will look ever too closer. That shining star in the sky will look just as far away out of reach.

And yet, nothing will have changed. Resolutions will have come. Some would have briefly lasted. Some not at all. Some a lot longer. New people will have come and others will have left. And yet, the world will mostly be the same. What will have changed is merely the version. It would now show 2009. Lets see what it has in store.