Conversations vs Road Traffic

After spending a lot of time thinking about the complexities and intricacies of social enterprise, helping teams use sophisticated platforms for collaboration and community building and the like, one tends to forget about the most basic of things - Conversations. Plain and simple.

How many of us are actually good at having conversations? Are they as simple as they seem to be? What happens when our conversations are not clear, focused, adaptive and result-oriented? What is the difference between written conversations vs spoken? How many of our conversations lead somewhere? How many of them bring up optimal solutions to challenges? How many of us walk away from conversations with the satisfaction of having learned something or accomplished something?

Here are some things that came to my mind in the form of a metaphor (favorite thinking tool). Road Traffic vs Conversations! ;-) I am just going to touch upon the different dimensions without putting too many things in here.

1. Pace - Speed of thought and speech. How do we manage having conversations with people who think faster or slower? How do we manage having conversations with people who also talk faster or slower? (Think about how you deal with drivers who overtake you or prevent you from speeding ;-))

2. Direction - What are we expecting from the conversation? Where do we want to go? What shortcuts are we willing to take? What rules are we ready to break? (Think about what you would do to get to your destination based on the traffic. Change roads? Break rules? Take a U-turn and go back home? ;-))

3. Vehicle - What is the context that the other person is in? How does it impact her thinking? What would she be able to understand or relate to based on the context she is in? How can you understand that context as well as communicate your own and arrive at a mutual understanding? (Do you what it feels like to drive a small electric vehicle if you are in a BMW or vice versa? ;-))

4. Left-Hand Drive vs Right-Hand Drive - What are the principles and rules that the person operates from? How well does it match with your own? What are the glaring differences and how does it impact the outcome of the conversation? (How easy is it to drive a car with the steering wheel on the right hand side in a country that mandates you have to be on the right hand side of the road or face its wrath?)

5. Self-Driven vs Chauffeur-Driven - Do we have our own goals and thoughts that we chase or are we more focused on goals and ambitions related to the collective or bigger entity (team/organization)? How do we balance the two whilst having our conversations and what do we look for? What is the other person looking for? (Do you sit back and relax while someone else drives the car for you while at the same time looking out for challenges and things that will have an impact on you? Do you drive the car yourself and decide which route to take and what not to do?)

6. Diversions - How good are we at handling diversions in the topic and finding a new route back to our destination or how do we enjoy the new route and let serendipity take over? (Do you curse and swear when you need to take a sudden diversion in your regular route or does it have almost zero impact on you because you have the time and the space to experience something new?)

7. Honkers - How do you handle disturbances and interruptions in the conversation? Do you honk (threaten) your way through or do you patiently wait for things to be sorted out or do you yourself tackle the disturbance head to head? (Is honking at the risk of annoying everyone else on the road a good approach to resolving the disturbance. Does it lead to accidents?)

So, what do you think? :-)

PS: Input from a reader: What about Traffic Cops and Signals? - Moderated conversations!?

Leadership and the Gita

When we focus on the fruits of our effort, we are anxious and eager to see things happening and we want our ideas to materialize sooner than later. When we want things to happen quickly, we may be forced to preserve the status quo (instead of changing things or transforming things) because that is what meets with quick acceptance and approval. 

Leaders are those who do anything but preserve the status quo. "Leaders are NOT those who achieve within or despite the system but those who transform the system" (HT: Steve Denning). 

Krishna wants us to be Leaders....no wonder He asks us not to focus on the fruits of our effort but just do our duty! :-)

Collective Learning

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to change the way children learn into a more collaborative experience. At the end of the decade, for them to grow up and be good members of the society and achieve something meaningful, they must learn to listen deeply, appreciate others' views and let each person express himself while still arriving at independent conclusions. Eventually, though, it is about posing the right questions as a collective, putting everything together and filtering the noise. 


Update: So, why do you think this is funny? :-P Because it sounds contradictory and paradoxical? However, I do think I have not articulated what's in my head well enough.... 

I am not saying we must not think independently. Just saying we must learn the art of arriving at independent conclusions and at the same time learn to appreciate that others may have different views due to their own perceptions, experiences and background. We need to be able to see why they think the way they think! 

If we can then put various ideas together and filter out what the collective thinks is noise, it may lead to a good decision in corporate environments. Lone artists or innovators can still go ahead and do their own thing without checking with anyone ;-)

Cafeteria Hilaria

I rush off the Cafeteria as usual so I can avoid all the queues at the counters and crowds at the table and be quickly done with my share of carbohydrates and vegetables. 

I find five men standing near the cash counter in a haphazard manner. Not knowing whether it is meant to be a queue or one person paying for the remaining four people (who probably want to give him moral support while he pays for everyone), I patiently wait at the periphery of the, err, unusually shaped human formation. 

Finally, after a lot of careful mental calculations by the cashier and the customer(s), they collect their coupons and make their way to the Food counter and are joined by two other people who just emerge from somewhere.

I get my coupon and join the Food queue. It seems like these men are new to the Cafeteria going by their somewhat lost expressions and funny behavior in the queue. It takes quite a while for them to get their plates filled and I continue to wait while I attempt to clean my plate which looks like it is nearing the end of its association with mortals. 

Meanwhile, to my utter joy, I discover that three of the men have come out of the queue with their plates filled. But they realize that they have forgotten the spoons and need to disrupt the queue in order to get them.

They approach the spoons with outstretched hands and I take a step backward, impulsively, to give them enough space (the spoons are on my right). As I take a step backward, I discover that I have stepped on something soft. The lady who was standing behind me did not apparently feel the need to stand more than a few inches away. Unable to bear the pain, she gestures with her hands and hits me in the process. I apologize, the last man who came to pick up the spoon apologizes and the lady pretends to be fine. 

Google Images

I move on to get some food whilst shaking my stupid head and notice that the last person in front of me is almost done. Suddenly he starts gesturing wildly with his hands, in my direction - I am saved only by a narrow distance. He has apparently paid for another new entrant and wants him to come over to the Food counter. This new bloke who enters the scene comes rushing and gets in between me and the guy at the front and stretches out in various directions to get a plate and a bowl and starts demanding that he be served some food. I am surprised that he never thought about all of us already waiting in the queue but I decide it is OK as he might get lost in the Cafeteria otherwise. 

While I wait again for my turn, this guy gets his rice and then realizes he does not have a spoon. He quickly looks around, sees my plate and spoons next to his and picks up one of my spoons. I stare at him open-mouthed and then loudly declare "That's my spoon!". He hesitantly puts it back while avoiding looking at me. After a few seconds, I start laughing and feel embarrassed at the same time. I continue laughing for a while and then realize I need to say something to make the guy feel better. "Sorry, I did not mean to scare you, but I was a bit shocked". To which he says "I am new to this place...." 

I laugh all the way to the table, all the way through lunch and all the way back to my desk. Here I am now, ready to face the rest of the day. 

Individual Destiny

The world is full of wonder. There are endless opportunities. There is a lot more we can do if only we don't focus so much on financial safety (or is it mostly greed?) all the time. Parents & teachers must try hard not to narrow their child's vision and lead him/her to where *they* think the treasure is. There's so much yet to be discovered. There's so much yet to be done. There are so many new and unexplored ideas and paths. 


Why create an unnecessarily competitive world that focuses on what everybody else wants to focus on, loses track of true humanity, chases something blindly and knows not what meaning there is to life? Why can't we each choose our own niche areas and complement and collaborate with each other to build a rich, meaningful, creative, cooperative, happy and sustainable world? 


Enough of the 'mass production' of individuals who think and work alike and chase the same things without believing in it. We need to preserve the uniqueness in each of us and celebrate that for life. We need to seek what fits us as individuals and learn to ignore many of the things that the world, for some strange reason, thinks is essential to lead a good life. 


Is the urban man who eats exotic and exquisite food once a week and commutes in an expensive car necessarily happier than the rural man who eats a simple meal of rice and vegetable all through the year and spends time relaxing in the natural breeze from the magnificent trees he has planted? Aren't they both happy as long as they leverage on their skills and ideas, identify and pursue a cause and vision that is important and meaningful to them and continuously expand their capacity to think, learn and act?

Perspective, Perception, Reality

http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_perspective_is_everything.html



Must-watch video. Good businesses and ideas find the sweet spot between technology, economics and psychology. 


Extract: I think it's because there's an imbalance, an asymmetry, in the way we treat creative, emotionally-driven psychological ideas versus the way we treat rational, numerical, spreadsheet-driven ideas. If you're a creative person, I think quite rightly, you have to share all your ideas for approval with people much more rational than you. You have to go in and you have to have a cost-benefit analysis, a feasibility study, an ROI study and so forth. And I think that's probably right. But this does not apply the other way around. People who have an existing framework, an economic framework, an engineering framework, feel that actually logic is its own answer. What they don't say is, "Well the numbers all seem to add up, but before I present this idea, I'll go and show it to some really crazy people to see if they can come up with something better." And so we, artificially I think, prioritize what I'd call mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas.




Extract: One of the great mistakes, I think, of economics is it fails to understand that what something is, whether it's retirement, unemployment, cost, is a function, not only of its amount, but also its meaning.


Extract: Now von Mises said that modern economists make exactly the same mistake with regard to advertising and marketing. He says, if you run a restaurant, there is no healthy distinction to be made between the value you create by cooking the food and the value you create by sweeping the floor. One of them creates, perhaps, the primary product -- the thing we think we're paying for -- the other one creates a context within which we can enjoy and appreciate that product. And the idea that one of them should actually have priority over the other is fundamentally wrong.

Yet another year passes by

*Click* When it is so easy to lose sense of your own direction because of constant external influences (people who are not necessarily aware of or focused on what's important for you), it is critical to spend time on soul searching. It is critical to discover what you really are inspired by and believe in and remind yourself to do that constantly. One of the worst regrets to have is the inability to remain true to the self. At the same time, you need to ensure your mind is not so lost that it does not realize its own flaws and quirks. *Click*

Creative Endeavor?

If one spends most of one's life trying to understand (and manipulate, if one is capable of) complicated, meaningless, selfish & tiresome systems, then where is the space and energy for creative and entrepreneurial ventures? No wonder an entrepreneur must devote her entire life to bring her idea alive. Nothing else works. Period.

If you want to chase an idea till it becomes reality, then you must spend your entire life on it or at least many many years (if it is anything worthwhile). And, you have just one life. So, you must choose the idea very carefully. 

Ponderrrr

Some patterns in human behaviour. 


Some people ponder over their own lives more often than not, some ponder and worry about slightly bigger environments that they have some control over and some ponder over country or world issues (or celebrities) that they may not necessarily be able to change. Finally, some worry about the abstract and un-understood - spiritual or otherwise. 

And, of course, there are those who combine two or three of these categories and those who say nothing about anything. 

Nothing good or bad about it but what makes us ponder about what we ponder about?

How you can win and yet lose...

Wanting to do something that others rarely believe in or are rarely interested in can be draining and upsetting - more so, if you need their support and blessings. Being the odd one out is an awkward experience, to say the least. You must be ready to accept failure despite ^winning^.....

Bliss & Learning

I wonder if there is any other cartoonist on Earth who can say it so well. :-) Three cheers to short-term stupid self-interest. None of us need to be trained on that. 

The Secret

Ok. I think I've found the ultimate secret of life. Please don't get me wrong, dear Kung Fu Panda. If you're able to muster every ounce of the ambidexterity within you to apply perfectly equal control on the two extreme and opposite forces that manifest themselves in each of the million odd dimensions of life, then you're unconquerable. There. Now that you know, just go do it. You're welcome.

Google Images

***

Think Buddha. "Stay in the middle path".

Cloudy Thoughts

Three thought-related tidbits from my timeline


Methinks:


If you're ready to spread the most insecure, vague and ambiguous of your thoughts in front of someone without any fear of being judged, ridiculed or rejected, it is likely that this person will also bring the best out of you.


Some wise people pointed out to me that it could, however, cost the relationship in some cases - if the person listening is not ready to accept your thoughts or the fact that they came from you or if the relationship is still nascent for him/her to understand you fully. The second point made was that there may be a difference in the way the person listening reacts if he/she is a strong stakeholder and thus takes things personally or is afraid of being affected. 

***

True in quite a lot of situations even though we may never agree:


Anthony De Mello - "People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head. It is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it." 

                                                                                   ***

Sad but true:


Recently witnessed how a person with great intentions & high result-orientation can still commit blunders because of getting carried away


                                                                                  ***

Fluttering Within

Fluttering Within

Act 1: Square one

Unknown purpose, a random & empty life, uncertainty was the king

The bird knew not what the next day would bring

Nothing unique or special to hum, tweet or sing

Nothing to hang on to and yet happy not to cling

Stuck in a bare cage, she almost had no idea she had wings 

Act 2: Change of scene

Wonderful dreams of many soothing colours

Soft and fluffy clouds that beckoned the bird to rest 

Rows and rows of bright and happy flowers

Everything seemed to be safe and right in its nest 

The bird had been finally let out of her dreaded cage

She flew with her wings stretched in freedom and joy

Only to suddenly find herself being chased back in a rage

Destiny had worn a deceptive mask and dropped it as if only a toy   

There came a sudden storm that swept everything away 

And left nothing but destruction, dust and dirt for miles 

The clouds had turned dark and night had replaced day

The sky had lost its splendid colours and twinkling smiles  

Act 3: Back to Square one

The bird crawled back into the cage in sheer disbelief

The dream had been so cruelly tempting and painfully brief 

It was all short-lived, the so-called freedom and relief

It would forever be a confusing memory tinged with grief

But the bird shook herself yet again, mustered strength and turned a new leaf 

Google Images.

The Bird Shall Fly Again

Thought Patterns

This is a must-read. 
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/the_thought-patterns_of_succes.html  


Author: Elizabeth Grace Saunders


Extracts I'd like to revisit often.

Happy-Busy-Ask

Courtesy: FB Share

Why Life can be hell

The biggest mistake by most human beings: 'Listening half, understanding quarter, telling double'. 


Hat-Tip: Pravs World

The Nonsense of Laughter

Calvin and Hobbes - (C) by Bill Watterson 

There's something profound about this cartoon strip (like many others by the brilliant Watterson). 

One Truth

I'd never disagree with this, even if my life depended on it. :-) (And, if the person being subjected to such a phenomena also has a categorical view on what is right/wrong, nothing on Earth can possibly save the people associated with him/her!). 


When I looked up Born on Wikipedia, I found something amusing and interesting. He is supposed to have contributed significantly to the field of quantum mechanics. Now, whether he was able to discover the secrets of quantum mechanics because he did not believe in one single truth or vice versa is something we may never find out. ;-)


A supplementary caveat to this quote may, arguably, be that it should not matter as long as people keep their beliefs to themselves and do not try to manipulate others (directly or indirectly) to tow their line. So, if, for example, I believed that there is no God but made no attempts to brainwash or ridicule others (who believed that there is a God), I should not be considered an evil entity in society. But does my belief remain within me, in reality?


Not necessarily. Even if I made no conscious effort to change the mental make-up of others, if my belief is strong enough, it is likely to be reflected in my actions (if not via words of advice) and that may in turn influence someone to suddenly become a skeptic (sticking to the example above). Am I an evil entity in such a situation? 


I think not. After all, my genuine and embedded thoughts will naturally emerge via my actions, choices, behavior etc. What others are influenced by because of their self-motivated observations and introspective conclusions cannot be attributed to me. (A charismatic and inward looking leader or author may easily influence hundreds of people without even intending to)


What is, however, a deciding factor in concluding whether I am potentially an evil entity or not is whether, in spite of my strong convictions, I have the attitude and the ability to be open to listening to people who have opposite views and consider their views sincerely. The key point here is to not be casually dismissive of opinions different from one's own. The need is to be mature enough to understand that a different view is a result of different and deeply embedded experiences, contexts, mental abilities and so forth. I may not be convinced by an opposite view, ultimately, because of being married to my own thoughts or because of being unable to relate to foreign examples or values of the other party. But that is fine as long as I continue to be ready to listen to the same or a variation of the view in future and untiringly reconsider my views, inspect it from unexplored angles and see it from various distances. (Unfortunately, it is also, apparently, important to retain one's sanity during such situations ;-). While the nicer lot have to focus on not losing their own sanity, the, er, rowdy lot will have to focus on not driving the other person up the wall). 

In certain cases, it may be slightly simpler and involve letting go of a situation (by avoiding the exploration of alternative views till a more conducive situation comes up in the future) because you clearly see that the other person may never understand your point of view and accept the simultaneous existence of two views because of not having gone through an essential experience (that you, however, went through). 

More food for thought: 

RT @freedomsway: "Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

***************************************

No idea where I went with this post. :-) Whew. Let me know if I drove you up the wall, but for reasons different from those mentioned above. ;-)

Croak....croak....croak.....R.O.A.R

Time for some inspiration

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you‘re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit— 

Rest if you must, but don‘t you quit.

Life is odd with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a person turns about

When they might have won had they stuck it out.

Don ‘t give up though the pace seems slow— 

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor's cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—

So stick to the fight when you‘re hardest hit,— 

It's when things seem worst that you mustn‘t quit.


Note: Source: Internet. No idea who wrote this poem.

Children can Fly

Excellent quotes on parenting:


Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. -Chinese Proverb


There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings - Goethe

Watterson on TV

C&H by Bill Watterson

Close on the heels of my previous post on Kids addicted to TV....

Time to Change

I'd be lying if I said I was never ever addicted to TV. I recall being addicted to humorous serials, cartoons, adventure stories, and the weekly movie watch etc. Actually, I suspect I was more addicted to advertisements than the TV programs themselves, while I was in school. I have no reliable data on approximately how many hours of TV I got to watch every day but I think it was rationed and regulated to a large extent. Even otherwise, there weren't as many channels or even 24-hour channels, those days (Gasp! I must be older than I'd care to admit). 

Ask me what I think of TV now and my expression might be a honest and funny blend of disgust, irritation, sarcasm, exhaustion, anger and what not. I am truly the happiest when the TV is switched off (which normally means the house is silent and serene). I'd rather sit and read a nice book whilst eavesdropping on chirpy conversations between the neighborhood's birds or listening to the music of the breeze on the trees. I might watch an occasional cartoon or a nature/science program during the weekend, a nicely done low-drama musical contest or show and a rare good movie (if I happen to somehow know it is being aired or accidentally discover it). But my intention is to not watch more than a few hours of TV every week (let's say 7-8 hours a week). 


Intuitively, I am irrevocably convinced that watching a lot of TV is a miserable and dangerous habit for one's mental, spiritual and physical well-being. It distracts us from so many good and important things in life, reduces us to mute (or excited) spectators of many events, encourages us to be lazy, slows down our mental processes in many ways and fires our negative imagination more often than not (going by the types of serials and reality shows that are aired).  Even though the previous sentence may sound like I put the blame on TV and not ourselves, the undeniable truth is that it is up to us to not let TV dictate to our lives.


My biggest worry though is not so much the TV-watching habits of adults but the early onset of the habit in children. We're obviously robbing them of their wonderful lives by introducing them to the Idiot box and then "leading" by example. Think of families where there is minimum interaction between the adults and the children and all they do together is watch TV. Think of families which only have a debate or discussion when they need to decide which channel or program to watch. Think of families which know little about the real world around them but believe that the sensationalized and dramatically presented programs they watch on TV is what is real. Think of families that quite often collectively sacrifice silence, reading, music, playing a sport or game, pursuing an art, exercise and intimacy with nature and animals for their favorite TV programs. Think of what the children in such families are missing because of their biggest attraction and focus being TV. 


It's been discovered by many researchers that children who watch a lot of TV are more susceptible to attention deficit disorders. Children who lose their ability to concentrate and ability to think on their own because of being fed to the teeth with commercially motivated and deliberately packaged opinions in the form of advertisements and TV serials have obviously lost many things in their lives. Children who are unable to turn away from what is being fed to them and introspect in order to find their own version of truth and come to their own conclusions on how they want to lead their lives are, of course, not getting it right. If that's not a sad thing, I don't know a sad thing when I come across one. 

Source: Internet. (No copyrights were attached to the image)

This picture above winds (pun intended) it up for me quite well. It is time to change. It is time to stop watching so much TV. It is time to stop leading children into the mucky and deceptive whirlpool called TV. It is time to intelligently choose what to watch and not let our children's creative and energetic brains die a sad and early death. It is time to shape the future of our children, country and world by introducing them to different dimensions of the real world.


Note: This post has been written and submitted to the "Time to Change" contest on IndiBlogger - http://facebook.com/sftimetochange

Decision Making

We all arrive at conclusions, take decisions and judge situations and people based on information that we have access to. Some of us settle for the raw information that comes to us. Some analyze it and discard what does not seem useful or 'right' and add their own perspective (based on past experiences, insights, intuition) to the rest and then conclude/decide/judge. Some embark on a journey to collect more information from other sources that they think are reliable, objective etc before they take the next step. 

In the last case, the preferred length of the journey depends on various factors like the significance and complexity of the situation, consequences of taking decisions or judging people, availability and cost of information, distractions and changing priorities etc. No one can say for sure that the person who embarks on a long journey and collects tons of information before concluding on something is more likely to arrive at the right conclusion as compared to someone who settles for raw information. The degree of information consumption varies from person to person and like in everything else, one thinks that the best strategy is moderation. We should neither settle for raw information and jump to uneducated conclusions nor should we reserve our judgment until death or, well, the obsoleteness of the requirement. 

Horse Fodder

You can lead a horse to the water but you can't make him drink it. 


In the context of change management, you need to, in today's complex and chaotic organizations, do all or most of the following once you take the horse to the water (which by itself may be a herculean task of perseverance, creativity, patience and flexibility). You need to arrange for....


1. ...other enthusiastic horses to appear at around the same time and drink the water (whether casually or dramatically is debatable)
2. ...these early-adopter horses to neigh in satisfaction once they drink the water and present their experience 
3. ...some leader horses to hover around and appreciate the horses drinking the water
4. ...some yummy free fodder at the exit of the water source
5. ...a short yet convincing video to be played on how to drink the water 
6. ...a pleasant and low-stress environment and ambiance around the water source
7. ...and, of course, clean, hygienic and healthy water ;-)


Feel free to add to the list from your own change management experiences. 

Observers Anonymous

People who tend to observe a lot, arguably, can't seem to help analyzing (sources being mostly limited to what they notice and what they immediately connect it with) and thereafter judging people and situations. Mostly a sad thing, methinks. Especially if they commit things to their long-term memory and never question their conclusions again. Scientific thinkers, in particular, may find it difficult to avoid applying this to the situations they are in. 

Courage

From Google Images...

She runs towards the place where the light streams from,
She hopes it will get brighter with every step forward.
Meanwhile the clock ticks with its usual freedom,
But its rhythm is not musical only to the poor coward.

It will be pitch dark before it is bright again,
Even if she moves ahead in the same direction.
Come night or day, she has to be sane,
For courage and dignity lie in the journey's completion. 

Doggy Lessons

Noticed how a Pack of Dogs chase boys on fast cycles? Extremely aggressive, focused and 'this-is-the-end-of-world' attitude. But they slow down, stop barking and take a quick U-turn as soon as they reach the end of their territory (end of a road, typically). An invisible line sends them back. Survival strategies.. :-)

Life's Mission?

Introduced to a paradoxical - or at least unconventional - idea yesterday. "God does not want you to change the world. He only wants *you* to evolve. It is delusional to think you're helping the world become better. You do whatever you do for your own sake. If you don't do it, you are the one who will suffer for lack of it. (Not the world))."

Some people accused even Mother Theresa and her intentions and said she "loved poverty" more than "poor people" and that her life was dependent on the existence of poverty. (She took money for her projects from sources that were to be shunned etc). The idea above would work as a significant counter argument to that accusation...

Life, Beauty, Soul, Context

Thought-provoking experiment and some profound observations by Washington Post.


Wonder why it reminds me of KM programs in organizations ;-) Do we always work out of context? How does one play music in such a way that passers-by change their priorities and stop and listen? Ha ha ha!

Quotes:

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

• In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?
• The event had been described to him as a test of whether, in an incongruous context, ordinary people would recognize genius.
• IF A GREAT MUSICIAN PLAYS GREAT MUSIC BUT NO ONE HEARS . . . WAS HE REALLY ANY GOOD?
• What is beauty? Is it a measurable fact (Gottfried Leibniz), or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of each, colored by the immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)?
• At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change." This is from a man whose talents can command $1,000 a minute.
• Context matters

• The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.
• Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.
• What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. -- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies
• This is about having the wrong priorities," Lane said.
• "Yeah, other people just were not getting it. It just wasn't registering. That was baffling to me."

Rabbits and Carrots

Super! Nothing left to say... :-)

A Single Story?

If there's only one thing you plan to do this entire week, then please watch this video. :-)


http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Same Choice, Same Results

A quote I'll always remember, though not verbatim, is Paulo Coelho's quote on how if we experience the same challenges and problems again and again in life, it means that we have not learnt our lesson.

Check out this excellent article from Daily OM: http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2012/32081.html 

Repeated bouts of adversity are an unavoidable aspect of human existence. We battle against our inner struggles or outer world forces, and in many cases, we emerge on the opposite side of struggle stronger and better equipped to cope with the challenges yet to come. However, we can occasionally encounter trials that seem utterly hopeless. We strike at them with all of our creativity and perseverance, hoping desperately to bring about change, only to meet with the same results as always. Our first instinct in such situations is often to push harder against the seemingly immovable obstruction before us, assuming that this time we will be met with a different outcome. But staying power and stamina net us little when the same choices consistently garner the same results. A change in perspective, behavior, or response can do so much more to help us move past points where no amount of effort seems sufficient to overcome the difficulties before us. 

Whether our intention is to change ourselves or some element of the world around us, we cannot simply wish for transformation or hope that our lives will be altered through circumstance. If our patterns of thought and behavior remain unchanged, our lives will continue to unfold much as they have previously. Patterns in which fruitless efforts prevail can be overcome with self examination and courage. It is our bravery that allows us to question the choices we have made thus far and to channel our effort into innovation. Asking questions and making small adjustments to your thought processes and behaviors will help you discover what works, so you can leave that which does not work behind you. To break free from those unconscious patterns that have long held sway over your actions and reactions, you will likely have to challenge your assumptions on a most basic level. You must accept once and for all that your beliefs with regard to cause and effect may no longer be in accordance with your needs. 

Stagnation is often a sign that great changes are on the horizon. Courting the change you wish to see in yourself and in the world around you is a matter of acknowledging that only change begets change. The results you so ardently want to realize are well within the realm of possibility, and you need only step away from the well-worn circular path to explore the untried paths that lie beyond it. 

Our long vacation in the Troposphere: A perspective

Our long vacation in the Troposphere: A perspective


To be one with nature, to be friends with a four-legged creature, to read the best of literature, 


To connect with The Creative Power, to seek wisdom and humor, 


To tune into the divinity of music, to do that which makes us feel good and tick. 

Life as it is

Why does it take a lifetime to understand that if one wants to clean a ditch one needs to get used to the stink? If, on the other hand, one realizes that a ditch will always be a ditch, why can't one go away from it or breathe less of its air?

Saturday Stories

This is the story of a Cat, Cow and Horse that were good friends. One day, the Horse who happened to be slightly late in arriving at their regular hang-out found the Cat and Cow quarreling. The Cat was saying "Let's go to the Meow-ies!" and the Cow was saying "No, let's go to the Moo-vies!". The Horse flicked a speck of dust off his collar, snorted, shook his head and said "Let's go to the Ci-neigh-mas!!"


The dog that was sitting at the next table murmured, "Ensure you sit near the Woof-ers".

The Poem of the Phoenix

There are two ways to look at poetry. There are two ways to look at life. It must be a lie because the 'poet' *makes* it rhyme. It can't be anything but the truth because the rhyme somehow falls in place.


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Life is at the peak of confusion
Not when 'up' is followed by a 'down'
But when it blows both hot and cold
When one feels weak as well as bold


When nectar and poison are one
When soft and rough spoil the fun
When the child is both patted and hit
When the lamp is blown out immediately after being lit


When one reaches the mountain peak
And yet there are no traces of what one seeks
When the fire of life is doused out of sight
Just as it begins to burn bright


The words to repeat as always 
are Trust in God and hope of a divine blaze
The picture of a rising phoenix 
Shows silent strength and wipes off the jinx 

Happy New Year - 2012!

Happy New Year - 2012

1. Great message
2. Perfect illustrations 
3. Nice mix of quantitative and qualitative proof

Context Rules

When one doesn't take the complete context into consideration, nothing may make sense. Things may seem contradictory and illogical. Decisions and conclusions under such circumstances can and, most probably, will go wrong. I may enjoy watching a speeding car in a Formula 1 race, but not on a busy road. Logic is a function of the context (if there is such a thing as universal logic). Detectives probably crack the case more because of the clues that the context provides than because of those provided by the content. Right? Wrong?