Thursday, July 31, 2014

Zombies borne out of new maladies

It was about 3 in the afternoon when I thought to myself, "Just this mail" then a quick smoke and then lunch. It was almost 4 hours straight on my comp without a break.  

As it progressed, a typical day being spent chasing deadlines and managing expectations, suddenly it seemed like a swarm of zombies emerging out of their graves walking straight towards whoever that appeared to be in their senses.   

The zombies, progressing slowly with a one track mind to feed on the mind and spirit of any human still alive, if not already numb by the dead heat and repetitive pointless mundaneness of it all.  

WTF..??   

It just seemed like the pandemic was touching upon every human alive. And it seemed that it was defying any precaution or preventive cure that one might have taken. Everybody knew exactly what the cause of the disease was,  but nobody knew the cure. All you have to is roll your dices and take your chances on  symptomatic cure.   

How did it all begin? Was this disease always there in a dormant state or it is one of those modern lifestyle diseases we have all come to accept the existence of while blaming ourselves and our meaningless lives for it? Well, whatever might be the case, it sure has spawned a lot of zombies.. But surely they are not the ones like you see in the movies bus seem a lot alive, almost like live humans. They talk like them, walk like them, behave and even laugh like them. But make no mistake, you wanna stay away from them. And because they look and move like humans, it is still illegal to hurt them... So lo and behold, they are living, eating and making love with the remaining human beings. Making them one of their own one at a time.   

Well, that brings us to how this pandemic started. How did it all happen? Where did these zombies evolve from? Was it an experiment of some psychologist's criminal ultra toxic experiment gone out of control? Doesn't seem so.. Probably it was the socialism of intellect which was facilitated by somebody who invented press which started to distribute knowledge among everybody who knew how to read. Even then it was restricted by discretion, by the people who had enough individualism to decide whether to live life the way they decided to accumulate information to painstakingly derive a make believe virtual world nothing but faux enlightenment.  

But there is a reason far graver. It started with the civilisation itself. When man learnt to live with nature. When he started fabricating things to save him from the vagaries of nature. However, there was no moral science in whatever schooling system they had, if they had one. Somebody invented religion to instil a fear of god so that they don't screw others and try to live with whatever they got. Be happy. Systematic mind control. Life and its ways just got institutionalized..   

Then, suddenly he got intelligent and philosophy happened.  

He started questioning everything. Why should he submit to the powers that be if he has already invented to enable him to live his life in "convenience"?  

As he had realized early enough that the man is a pack animal.   

Thus began the story of profession. There were three professionals:  

The Gatherer  
The Farmer  
The Hunter  

The gatherer relied on whatever the world offered him. He meandered for the bounty. The farmer was the less moderate one and he grew what he wanted. He could sell his produce to buy stuff that he didn't.   
Finally, the hunter. He stalked his prey for dinner. He relied on his own guts and his weapons.   
And then he evolved.  

He became the ruler, he became the thief and he became the original businessman. Eventually, somewhere down the line, a major cross pollination happened and a shrewd  farmer and a twisted hunter mingled to become a politician.  

Farmers lived the life of convenience. They nurtured and tilled what they already had. Following the same process of tilling the land, sowing, irrigating, maintaining, harvesting and then the same story once again.  It was the same produce year after year in the same quantity and quality albeit with the blessings of natures annual gifts like timely rain and condescending weather  

They also evolved. Some good, some bad. The vehicle of evolution was going in full throttle. If the world was originally Flintstones, it had  already turned into Simpsons going full speed to Southpark.    

One of the great human tendencies have been to expect. That spawned many other vices like ambitions, aspirations, hopes etc which started driving humans to develop greed and aspirations. The gurus started chanting "Live the Dream" and the followers followed on!  

Futures which held promise to take care of the meek and decimate the string. The hunters were soon being derided and punished. The gatherers and farmers were ganging up. So were the hunters but this all was not making sense! Democracy was being discovered in a totally different light.  

At that point in time, probably in the dark ages, these professionals began to cross pollinate. And thus began the downward journey of human evolution. He started forsaking the innate nature and fast adopting the fruits of prosperity and general civility. History was fast being (re)written by the winners and make believe futures being created.   

Then one day, someone decided that why should the great means of living the good life lie with people who have figured out how to.. It should be commoditized and sold over the counter. Moreover, it should be affordable enough for the dumbest gatherers to wallow in the luxury.   

The whole mankind started to reap the benefits of modernity. Content went up, Creativity went down. Inventions stopped, gadgets started evolving. Every thing was marketing. People lined up to pay to be different. Other people lined up just to belong. People paid more to be visible. Needs were grounded but desires were high. However, dreams could not rise above needs, and desires could never go beyond dreams.  

Justification of existence has suddenly become infinitely more important than the existence itself. They want to prove, they want to belong. Going literally by the core definition of  civilization as the basic premise of social approval and hence coexistence. The unending clamor to live which basically translates into approval. Concurrence.   

This manifests itself into a lot of implications which have gradually become a part of our daily lives. Everyone has a role but roles keep on overlapping because of dependencies and hence the there is a monkey fight on two things: Who to blame and where to claim glory. That's where the individual qualities of the Farmer, Gatherer and Hunter start to come up. Not to rise as a team, but find reason in chaos. Find a foothold in the bus which is just about to leave since, like, forever. Frantically trying to get the last ticket to Noah's ark which is already lifting the anchor..  

Coming back to present. Phew! 10 slides more and I am done! Yet another campaign for yet another convoluted need infested dream of a cross pollinated professional. 

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

FMS BHU

The life in BHU(Banaras Hindu University) is really beautiful.. The scenery is awsome.. you can just wake up in the morning and stroll in the fields or the roads where you will find peacocks perched here and there.. more than half of the students study there just for the heck of staying there... Life is really so beautiful in BHU...

The only problem is that it is owned by the Indian Government.... and really, the Government Babus who adorn all the offices of the BHU Suck...!!! It is one of the largest universities in the world in terms of area and it only has an engineering and a medical college to boast.. it has a history but now everything is plain be it humanities or science, commerce ... money is being poured in but i think it is landibng into the pockets of some people..

I think the fault lies in the place... and the people make the place... they are used to a laid back life with so called moral values(although all the moral crimes are committed there too). The mentality of the teachers cannot evolve and they impart knowledge that is too restraining for the learning and creativity of the students... The Faculty of management studies provides two courses - Masters in Business Administration and Masters in international business administration and they are considered to be professional courses... but is the teachers who don't take the course professionally..

Benchmarks

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 
― Albert Einstein

Just wondering about how different are Personal benchmarks from General Benchmarks...

One major difference: personal benchmarks arise out of self motivation whereas general benchmarks are a part of a larger system which we are over eager to be a part of... however, they can both apply to the same domain... be it work or leisure.. but then, the second question arises, whether the personal benchmarks can be forced..?

So, personal benchmarks might play a crucial role in the personal productivity and hence the overall personal growth, still it does affect the personal perception of everything that is "Good".

Start comparing these two and you will just fall between the horns of dilemma.

How do you perceive happiness? What is happiness?  Or sadness? or success? How is it defined? Are you successful because you have crossed the general respective benchmarks? Or is it something that one decides to be achieved? One might have a family, great household appliances, gadgets, doting Wife, Son, own house etc etc, is he a successful person? Most will think he is but is he really?

Let's take another example: A CEO of a multinational organisation working in an exotic location.. Or a movie star with a heavy pocket and a worshiping nation but still a bachelor at 48. They are successful to me but they are the best judge about their own success/happiness metric.

So are you successful or happy? Are you going to look at the world and take that as a benchmark or would you look inside and really judge basis the real thing?

So, personal benchmarks might play a crucial role in the personal productivity and hence the overall growth, but if they are not adding value to the general "benchmarking system" or the general productivity parameters, then these personal benchmarks run the risk of becoming a black hole which confines the individual into a never ending pursuit of something which is there but will never add to anything tangible... well, something maybe, but that something is very negligible in nature... atleast in a practical sense.. although it might satisfy the individual upto a certain limit, but when that is done long enough, then one starts to think about the necessity of the whole thing..

Friday, January 14, 2011

Life and memories


I do some things, but I do lot at a time,
iWrite, iPlan, iDraw, iShoot, iSurf, iPlay
Speed of time reduces my activities to a mime
Time forces one to creativity... And I'm..

I do some things, 'cause i try to do a lot,
And whatever things we do, satisfy us not,
What we already had with us could never be sought,
time ran so fast, could never give a thought..

Sometimes I do rummage my memory bag
And try to reach that nook,
which I always overlook,
Polish a piece of moment,
still wet with some wine and dews of mirth,
With some real good friends, a moment well spent
keep it back to save it for what it's worth,
close my eyes and savor the aftertaste it brought.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Online Branding Woes

Apparantly, the so "hyped" digital media or 'new' media is not so new new anymore(Not so cheap as well)... Many people in my country tend to name this medium as the new media anyways...

There are so many magical possibilities in the digital mediums that "sky" is the limit and the funny part is, that this new medium is sold to the clients with over hyped promises of those magic. Funnier part is, that advertisers actually expect magical things to happen on those mediums. Be it Internet, Mobile or even Digital OOH.

Let me dig deeper and fish out some buzzwords which I have heard so many times (that has started to make me nauseated) from people who wouldn't know an impression from an insertion.

ROI
Engagement
Web 2.0
Community
Eyeballs
Podcasting

People working for very large corporations do not even have a feedback system in place so that they can even find out whether a lead is valid or invalid and they talk about Conversion Ratio... People who do not have anything to sell, talk about consumer experience happening online. People who want to do branding talk about clicks and hence people coming to their site. What are these people doing on their site? What do they expect those people to do on their site? You don't ask these questions in open forums.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Religion

Like we cannot change our parents, we cannot change our religion. there are somethings we are born with and there are somethings we create for which we stand for the rest of our lives and which form a 'join the dots' scenario which shapes our lives. The things we are born with is Family, society, religion and what we create is a character and principles.

Religion is nothing but a set of rules according to which we conduct our lives and the definition of which might vary from country to country and society to society. By this I mean that all the religions are equally relevant to each individual. Just because one person thinks that his religion is better than that of other one is totally defying and denouncing his own religion.

Religion should be personal. We should not wear our religion on your sleeve but try to understand and after you do, it can give us a sense of identity and security.

The greatest enemy of us is the kind of mob behavior among the people of today as a society who are impressionable, easily duped and begging to be a pawn in some other's hands but still independent to choose a representative who has a despotic power to run a country as they like.

We think about religion as we think is just because of some politicians and religious leaders who have not done their jobs but to feed our minds with baseless propaganda which has made OUR thinking a slave of their personal gain.

Evolution or not, it happened millions of years ago.. so to me, it is of no consequence. whats important is the fact that the way of living, culture, tradition comes from religion. We should be proud of the religion while not hating the other religions because that is the other person's choice. And thats what a modern society is all about. Live and let live.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

मुराद

कल लश्कारों में रहगुज़र, किस मुराद पे जिए,
आज तन्हा दिल बेचारा, किस मुराद पे जिए,
कल था एक कारवाँ पैर मंज़िल एक ख्वाब,
आज मंज़िल है रूबरू पर किस मुराद को जियें ...

Sunday, September 10, 2006

वंदे मातरम

वंदे मातरम् ॥

सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम्
बहुबलधारीणीं नमामी तारीणीम्
रीपुदलवारीणीं मातरम्॥
सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम्
शस्य श्यामलां मातरंम् .
शुभ्र ज्योत्सनाम् पुलकीत यामीनीम
फुल्ल कुसुमित द्रुमदलशोभीनीम्,
सुहासीनीं सुमधुर भाषीणीम् .
सुखदां वरदां मातरम् ॥

सप्त कोटीकन्ठ कलकल नीनाद कराले
द्वीसप्त कोटी भुजैर्ध्रत खरकरवाले
के बोले मा तुमी अबले
बहुबल धारीणीम् नमामी तारीणीम्
रीपुदलवारीणीम् मातरम् ॥

तुमी वीद्या तुमी धर्म, तुमी ह्रदी तुमी मर्म
त्वं ही प्राणाः शरीरे
बाहुते तुमी मा शक्ती
हृदये तुमी मा भक्ती,
तोमारै प्रतीमा गडीमन्दीरे-मन्दीरे ॥

त्वं ही दुर्गा दशप्रहरणधारीणी
कमला कमलदल वीहारीणी
वाणी वीद्यादायीनी, नमामी त्वाम्
नमामी कमलां अमलां अतुलाम्
सुजलां सुफलां मातरम् ॥

श्यामलां सरलां सुस्मीतां भूषीताम्
धरणीं भरणीं मातरम् ॥

वंदे मातरम् ॥