Mysorean

I am sure you have come across this comparison in your email forwards. Some brilliant person compared the hurricane that hit New Orleans and the rains that lashed Mumbai. Here’s how it looks:

Inches of rain in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina … 18
Inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th)… 37.1

Population of New Orleans … 484,674
Population of Mumbai …12,622,500

Deaths in New Orleans within 48Hours of Katrina… 100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48Hours of Katrina… 37

Number of People to be evacuated in New orleans… Entire City… Wohhh
Number of People to be evacuated in Mumbai… 10,000

Cases of Shooting & Violence in New Orleans… Countless
Cases of Shooting & Violence in Mumbai… NONE

Time taken for US army to reach New Orleans… 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach Mumbai… 12hours

Status 48Hours later… New Orleans is still waiting for relief, army & electricity
Status 48Hours later… Mumbai is back on its feet and is business as usual

USA… World’s most developed nation
India… Third world country

Oopsss…Did I get the last fact wrong???

Someone wanted to make a comparison. Good thought. Go ahead. But getting the “India” perspective into the situation is out-of-context.

There’s so much of destruction in USA. If there’s nothing that we can do, we can atleast refrain from using the situation to mock at USA. I love India. I don’t particularly have any positive feelings about the USA, but still, it was insensitive.

As a person, I make the option of being sensitive or insensitive. I wouldn’t like to run down a country when there’s no case for doing so. It was in bad taste. We should pray for the well-being of those affected by the hurricane at this point of time. And not resort to forwarding such dumb emails.

The Hindu quotes in an article:

This time it’s not just the police; academicians too have joined the brigade and launched a campaign against tight clothes, jeans, skirts and T-shirts.

Banning cell-phones is one thing but asking students what to wear is another issue. It does seem fair to ask students to switch off their mobile phones during class hours as it does indeed disturb academics. Not many students seem to have an objection to this.

But enforcing a dress code on students is moral policing, students say.

“The ban on sleeveless tops, tight-fit outfits and jeans clearly seems to target girls,” says a postgraduate journalism student. “It is not only sexist but a completely old-fashioned male chauvinistic attitude resurfacing,” she adds, almost enraged.

During engineering, the dress code used to be a T-shirt, One pair of Blue jeans [Yes! Only blue! Why? Because sky is blue! I don't know yar!] & bathroom slippers. Only during the first year [that too because of ragging], would we ever wear formals [Yeah! With those open cuffs and slippers].

I absolutely cannot relate to this rule from Anna University. Considered to be one of the top 10 colleges in India (according to one the recent surveys by India Today) , and one of the top 30 in Asia.

Why can’t students be made to learn that they should not wear ‘indecent’ dresses? Why does the University feel that the students it has selected after so many entrance barriers don’t have the basic dressing etiquette? [Getting into Anna University is the toughest through TNPCEE]

In this age of MMSes coming out of schools, this move is a reverse gear. Instead of educating people on the right and wrong[What else are educational institutes for?], we are trying to implement more unimplementable rules. There’s an age-old saying, “Don’t judge the book by its cover”. By wearing formal clothes, you are not going to make students study and concentrate better. You ought to teach better. Somebody needs to give this funda to those authorities at Anna University.

Students, as a group, never bother anyone unless they are needled like this. Let them be the way they are. Help them realise what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. Don’t teach them by force. There are other methods too. Try them first. Students are the future of this country. Their energy must be harnessed towards positive things than distracting them with such dumb rules. [As if there weren't enough distractions already!]

Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Guru Devo Maheswara;
Gurur Sakshat Para Brahma Thasmai Sri Gurave Namaha

Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Maheswara. Consider Guru as your everything. In this world, everything is a manifestation of Divinity. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma (verily all this is Brahman). All are the embodiments of Divinity. In fact, all that you see is nothing but the Divine Cosmic Form (Viswa Virat Swarupa). [From divine discourse]

Today is “Teachers’ Day”. Whatever is good in me, is because of my teachers. I have been privileged to have some great teachers teach me.

My teachers were remarkable simply because I was so unremarkable. Teaching me is not an easy job. I can ask so many stupid and arrogant questions that it would put off any self-respecting individual. But my teachers were not ordinary individuals. They had the ability to transform personalities.

Lets start with my school teachers: (We used to call them “aunty” and “uncle” as a mark of respect and intimacy. I consider CFTRI as my school because I remember very less of my earlier school “Srividya”. )

• Aunty Saramma was my first science teacher. If I ever managed to even familiarise myself with Biology it was because of her.
• Aunty Vijaya was my first kannada teacher. She had predicted, at a time when I had just started learning kannada, that I would be very good at it. It was her confidence that today the only language I am most comfortable with is “Kannada”.
• Aunty Rukmini was my Hindi teacher. That she did a splendid job of teaching me the fundamentals is evident in the way I am able to change dialects within our National language.
• Aunty Prabha was my most prominent Social studies teacher. Well, she excellently taught us Geography, History and Civics. But I loved her most for the way in which she treated us like her own kids.
• Aunty Raina was my first mathematics teacher. Today Mathematics is my favourite subject. Need I say more?
• Aunty Sujaya was the headmistress of the School for the entire length of my school-life. She was this exceptionally strong person who had the ability to spot talent in a person. And also, by far, I haven’t seen a better English teacher! [An interesting incident about Aunty Sujaya. When I had applied for admission into CFTRI school for my fourth standard, she had refused on certain grounds that we shall discuss later. And on the day when I went to receive my TC (Transfer Certificate), I clearly remember Aunty Sujaya telling my dad, "Aditya was among our best students. We will be losing a bright student". I never knew she thought so well of me till then.]
• Aunty Rajni Mary Mathew was my Mathematics teacher during my high school. She was an intelligent lady and knew how to get the right things into the student’s head! As a result, my scores in mathematics during high-school was always above 90%.
• Aunty Atmajyoti was my first sanskrit teacher. She was one person who had infinite patience. We tested it to the extent that she had shed tears one day in class. Today, when I feel the need to learn sanskrit from the roots, I miss her a lot!
• Aunty Veena Murthy was my tenth standard class teacher and I liked her a lot. She was very frank and to the point. I have always liked such people. She used to teach us Biology and English.

And last but not the least:

• Uncle Ranga was our Physical Education teacher. He is the “Grand Old Man of CFTRI School”. He could coach you on any game. And is a person of rare character and spirit. He has practically moulded generations of CFTRI students into the good human beings that we are today. He was loved by one and all. And you are sorely missed Sir!

I used to go for tuitons for mathematics and science (to get that state rank!) to one Mr. Pradeep. Great man! He used to teach with so much of patience and focussed so much on hardwork that I picked up the habit of revising mathematics by way of working out the exercises given in the text book over and over again. He had presented me with a “Hero Pen” with which I used to write my engineering exams. I passed my inter exam with the same Hero Pen Sir!

There were so many great teachers during my intermediate stint at Hyderabad. They were just so perfect with their subject that you would at times sit and wonder,”How on earth does he solve these problems in 5 lines of work?”. Physics problems from Irodov, Halliday & Resnick were all solved in a matter of minutes.

There was one Mr. Suryanarayan who was a Don in the World of Calculus. His style of teaching was so simple and clear that I became a fan of Calculus. He used to be called M1 at college. [It was a system to label teachers as M1, M2, so on in SRM Junior college/ Special Coaching Centre]

There are so many teachers who influenced me and my way of being during my engineering and MBA days. Here’s a snapshot of a few of them:

• Dr. T. R. Seetharam [TRS] taught us Thermodynamics for a single semester and I could sense the control he had over the subject. It was complete. [If I passed the subject effortlessly scoring 65, it was all his 'anugraha'] His control over students was much more. He commanded respect naturally. So much that one of my seniors annd close friend, went and fell at his feet before he left for the US to do his MS. That was something even I wanted to do, but never got a chance because TRS retired during my pre-final year.
• Mr. R. Dattakumar is our friend, philosopher and guide. Placement officer of NIE. Extremely cordial with the students. Demands respect when he enters class. A quality guru! Teaches with innovative methods. Doesn’t give grace marks [Like other lecturers, but still ranks among the favourite lecturers at NIE]. His internal tests are the toughest because they are practically oriented. He tests your understanding and not your ability to recall! That’s why I probably never scored well in his tests! ;-)
• Dr. T. V. Subramaniam [TVS] was our professor during MBA days. He was a king of subjects that were related to Supply Chain Management and Production! He was an expert on business strategy and was a consultant to various bigwigs of the corporate world. He once told us a story of how he was invited by Manpreet Brar to deliver a talk during Ranbaxy’s supplier meet. He had apparently introduced himself as a “student” of management in his letter to him. TVS is approx 80 years old and I am yet to meet a more learned man than him in the field of SCM. If he considers himself as a student, then the others can only claim to be teachers by designation!
• Mr. Ramanujam Sridhar was our professor for Advertising and Public Relations. His knowledge of the subject came from his tremendous experience of being in the industry for a long time. He runs a successful agency now. His concepts were clear. And without any doubt the best in the business. He maintains excellent relationships with his students and is still in touch with me! I like him for that!
• Mr. Tarun Kochhar taught me performance management in a way that, though it seems as if I cannot remember most of it, I am confident I can easily design the PMS of an organization based on his inputs. His fundas, as they call it in the B-school, were clear. And he made sure we enjoyed throughout the length of his session. He would sense when we were getting tired and would give us a break. An ability to switch professions is something that’s rarely found, but Tarun (as he prefers to be called) has switched from HR to Sales to Marketing to Brand Consulting with equal ease.

These are some of the teachers of mine who have touched my life in a way that it has changed for the better since then. I am grateful to each of them and also to those who I have not mentioned here for helping me learn. More important is the fact that all of you taught me “how to learn”. This thanksgiving note is long overdue and is written with every word meaning what is said. Thank you!

This incident happened in the summer of 1997.

I was doing my Senior Intermediate in Hyderabad. My closest friend Vamshee and I were as usual roaming the streets and generally doing whatever helped us away from the study table! We were coming out of a shop called “Lorven” on Shivam Road near Osmania University campus. We used to go around on a chetak at Hyderabad. Chetak is the best vehicle! So, I was taking my chetak out from the parking lot. Vamshee was waiting for me to take it out.

By then there was somebody whom Vamshee was talking to. Vamshee looks like this nice kid next door whom you can ask anything. So I thought this was one such conversation of Vamshee with yet another stranger! Little did I know that this was going to be an incident that will come to our mind time and again to remind us of what resolve is all about! I also joined in the conversation. It was a short conversation!

The person was barefoot. His face was expressionless.

His question was, “Which way do I go to Patancheru?” That’s like asking someone in Bangalore, which way to Hyderabad?!
Vamshee and I (I don’t remember who) just replied, “It’s atleast 40 kms from here. From where are you coming?”

He answered with no change in his expressions, “Vanasthalipuram”. That’s another 20 kms in the opposite direction.

“How did you come?”

“By walk” What?!

“How do you plan to go to Patancheru?”

“I will walk all the way” This guy is either mad or he is in extreme difficulty.

“Go straight on this road and ask someone at the next main road to your right”

As soon as we said that the man began walking with great focus in the direction we pointed. He never thanked us. Weird still is the fact that the thought of expecting a thanks never occurred to us.

We were just staring at each other in part disbelief over what had just happened and part contemplation of whether we could do something more for this person. The person was walking towards Patancheru from Shivam Road with quick small steps unmindful of what he had done to us. In the peak of summer, this barefooted man was just concentrating on going to Patancheru. Even the heat didn’t matter to him. Such was his sense of mission.

We went behind the man on our chetak stopped him in his way. Gave him Ten rupees and showed him where the nearest bus stop was. And told him the numbers of the buses that would take him to Patancheru. From there we went home with a satisfaction of having made a small difference.

More than having made a difference, the man showed us that if you have the resolve to achieve your goal you only need pointers at the relevant places to tell you whether you are going the right way or not. You can go without anyone’s help. It was we who volunteered to help him. He never expected any help out of anyone. It was a 40kms (Actually, the distance didn’t matter to him) walk for him.

That day we learnt that if we were serious about achieving a goal then we needed a steely resolve. The kind of resolve the man had shown on that hot summer day. It was his sense of mission that really brings us back to reality whenever we start thinking that we have achieved something great. We still have a lot to achieve.

We don’t know if he reached Patancheru or not. But we are sure that with his kind of resolve, he would have easily reached there. He taught us how to focus on our goals. We have all the comforts in Life, yet we keep cribbing about one thing or the other. Look at this man, barefooted in the peak of summer at Hyderabad he was ready to walk to Patancheru and he didn’t have one word to say against anything!

That’s sense of mission!

Tomorrow: Part One of Sunday’s discourse at Ramakrishna Math on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Gautamananda

Got this extremely good forward on email.

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about Grandfather,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor”. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed their dinners together.

Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?” Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when you get old.” The four year old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

I’ve learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I’ve learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.

I’ve learned that children’s eyes observe more than there ears ever hear and the example we set for them determines their actions.

I’ve learned that make a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life”. I’ve learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch — holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

It’s so nice. Having a Father’s day is not going to help this change come across. If you value your father, then you will take care of him every moment of your existence. It’s such gift to have a father. And appa amma, to have parents like you is enough. I can’t think of anything to better to ask from God anytime.

Over the last few days Mumbai – the city of dreams, has turned into a city of (d)rains! My friend who studies in IITB said the network was down since the router room was filled with water. He had no other great problems. Well, their hostel didn’t collapse. There was no power shutdown except for an hour or two on the evening it started raining. Except for regular food supplies, their mess was open and they had food to eat 24/7. What else do the cream of the country need?! Obviously, they had everything that would allow them to lead a normal life. A few luxuries had to wait for a while. That’s all. Good for them. But that’s not the case elsewhere in the city.

There were people who went home from office after two and half days! I am told by a few regular Mumbaikars that such situations are common during the rainy season. NDTV was interviewing people stuck on the railway station platforms. They were there for one full day! Seeing the photos made my heart sink. 94 cms of rain. Cherapunji used to recieve 91 cms annually and it was the district with the highest rainfall for years together. I don’t remember any other district featuring in our text books. (Aunty Prabha, my geography teacher at school will be very happy at this memory of mine!). Later on, due to large-scale deforestation (we shall take up this issue some other time), Cherapunji lost out to Mawsynram. As things stand today, both these districts lost out to a city which received all this and much more rainfall in just a day! Are we playing around with nature so much that it punishes us like this?

During a phone call between Sam ( Sameer, my friend who’s studying in IIT and am proud of him) we were discussing and trying to pin down someone for this disaster. I mean how can everybody go scot free when we there is such large-scale suffering?! Someone ought to be blamed right? I ain’t wrong. I never did any wrong. It’s that someone who is to be blamed for all this. So, we started blaming the following people:

1. The Met department: They did not forecast this. It’s so simple to forecast yar. Our country cannot even do this much. How does one forecast? Collect all the historical data over the last 100, or take even the last 1000 years data and apply your theory of probability to it and extrapolate the future from it. Future, we clearly understand, is not entirely a result of the past. On such extrapolations, the department would have concluded that Mumbai will have 25mm of rainfall this monsoon. A slight mathematical error or factor of safety as the design engineers would call it, we could stretch it upto 50mm. But, where the $%#^ is 94 cms? This was not predictable.
2. The Government: Our houses are flooded for 3 days and nothing’s done to help us out of it. Did I even think where the Government officials work or live before expecting help from them? That’s not my concern. I have put them where they are by voting for them. They need to help me out. That’s it. So what if it’s my house thats inundated with water? They should drain it!
3. The Police department: Commissioner Roy very rightly pointed out that 21 Police Stations were under water because of the rains. Despite that, there were officials from his department on boats and on foot (maybe he meant swimming) on the roads helping people to safety. He claims to have saved 1000 people on that fateful day. There were 10,000 other people who were stranded. NDTV promptly interview a sample of 5 from the 10k people who naturally complained against the police. These people could only complain, but a certain section of people in Kurla actually got hold of Mr. Roy’s neck. It was Live on NDTV again!
4. The Military Services: That ONGC offshore at Bombay High was on fire with danger to almost 500 people on-board and the Navy was concentrating on getting that situation under control. The Army and Air Force were of no use since the city was flooded. Still the Army did their duty to a great extent. And the Navy sprung into action by providing boats to pull people to safety.

Still, 900+ people died. Many more missing. Almost the entire city of Mumbai was worried about someone or the other not turning up home.

Thousands were stuck in the airport. Air India was being abused on National TV Networks. Indian Airlines earned some flak too. But did anyone realise that the worst affected area in Mumbai was Vakola. That is the area where the airlines staff stays. The pilot of your plane might be more worried about his wife and children back home than you passengers!

Thus ended our phone call. With both of us pondering over why we should blame someone at all?

Why are we always wanting to blame someone for these problems? Why don’t we make sure that the candidates for election have these issues as one of the prime issues that they will solve during their tenure if they get elected? We know that our system is not built to take a simple breakdown. Natural disasters of this scale are out-of-question to be handled in the idealistic way we expect them to happen. Atleast, we see some DMCs (Disaster Management Committee) and NGOs here and there which are trying their best to do something about it. They are still in the nascent stage. Let’s give them some time to grow up and completely support us. Till then what are we to do in such cases?

Learn from Mumbaikars. Mumbaikars being what they are helped each other to safety and normalcy is slowly being restored to proceedings not because of anybody else. They knew they had to help themselves out of this situation. They have seen worse situations than these. In 1992, there were six serial blasts in key locations in the city. The next day the city was back to work as if nothing had happened. No, it was not apathy to the victims. It was the attitude that “Come what may, Life goes on”. And it’s because of this attitude that Mumbai is what it is today. People come to the city with the intention of making it big. Be it movies or business. But I have a question.. with all these devastation happening on one side of the city. The BSE Sensex as if unconnected to these happenings continued to rise and breached the 7600 mark. How does this happen? Are we so disconnected from the ground realities that such things are allowed to happen? Or is it just a glorification of “Come what may, Life must go on”?!

My final thought on this. It has all happened. 900+ people have died. Every Mumbaite cried that day, atleast in his heart, seeing his city submerged in water. 94 cms is not natural rainfall at all. It’s an indication from Mother Nature that we are doing something really nasty with her and so this backlash. What are we doing all this for? Is it all worth it?

Tomorrow: Song of Youth – Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

An Old couple lose their son. They fight to get justice and end up taking Law into their own hands. They try to win by staying in the system, but they ought to take the system on since it’s keeping them out of it how much ever they belong to it. (viruddh)

A conscientious young lad wants people of this country to follow the rules that are there. He wants everybody to do their duty properly and in the spirit in which it ought to be done. He goes about killing the people who don’t follow the system. (anniyan)

The system is the problem.

System is a word that as soon as I hear I realize that it ain’t related to me. I somehow don’t own the word. Can we say the same about words like ‘family’, ‘brother’, etc. ? Why? Why don’t I want to own the word? Simply because there is a responsibility that I openly take up to answer millions of people who have thousands of questions against the system. I don’t want to take up the responsibility and probably I am also guilty of having corrupted the system somewhere.

The system is built up of people whom I have voted for. It’s not always possible that whoever I voted for, lost. So, the people up there are my representatives. If I don’t believe in them, then I have two options:

1. Make them more accountable. Go to them and demand solutions. (I still trust them)
2. Ask them to step down, and get a more effective person instead or I stand up instead of them. (I have lost my trust in them)

This is an approach where we are trying to propose a change from the top. There are many more options. Lets look at a few of them.

Everybody in this country wants to do something. There’s this attitude of “Mujhe kuch karna hai” in each and everyone. How do we make use of it? Well, if there is a doubt whether that basic feeling exists in everybody begin by asking yourself. I am sure you will find the answer. How do we harness this energy in the direction all of us want but are not sure whether we will reach the destination? We need to start doing it to know. Prediction of the future is not as useful as exploring and moulding our way through it.

It’s not all that tough you know. The problem is in the fact that each of us wants to do something in the area of our concern. Fine. Let’s do it. We always ask this highly responsibility-shrugging kind of question,”How does it matter if I alone do my duty?”. We need to start from somewhere and we shall start from ourselves. No, not because it’s the right point to start with, just that it’s the easiest point to start from. Come to think of it, I don’t know which is the right starting point! If you know, let me know.

When I was a kid, my parents taught me “Vishnu Sahasranamam” – the
thousand names of Lord Vishnu. I would never take up the initiative to
start the recitation of those 108 slokas. It was a regular feature during our
evenings after dinner, before going to sleep. I would hate
my father for pestering me to sit through the recitation. But you know
one thing, I learnt the entire sloka by heart. I can today just reel out the
entire sloka from my memory. Today I realise the value of the sloka. It can
bring so much of calmness to your personality and keep out certain unwanted things from your mind. That apart, if I had started to learn the sloka after realising that it can bring me peace of mind, then it would have been very tough. But since I had already learnt it, I started saying it daily and today it’s again a regular feature in my day. This time, no outside pressure. And I can feel the enhancement in my daily being. Thanks to my parents!

So, the point is: Starting point is where we define it to be. Since we are defining the entire process ourselves we can start from where we want to. We want to cleanse the system. And as I said, each of us wants to do it in our own areas. Let’s begin the change. All we need to do is do our duties as a professional, family roles (son, father, brother, uncle, etc.) and citizen to perfection. It’s not possible to attain perfection alone. Perfection is teamwork. All of us can do it if we decide to.

It’s my dream to see this country be a developed country before I go to the next world. And I need your help, each one of you, in making my dream a reality. I am sure we can do it.

Tomorrow: Holistic development of the human personality

An excerpt from a reply [Courtesy: Mr. Adinarayanan. V, Coimbatore] I recieved to my post on the blog:

“Dreams are an integral part to a creative and successful life. By dreams, i mean day-dreaming, as children we dream, but as we grow we forget how it is to dream. We will of course indulge in dreams but sadly they are no longer the liberating dreams of our childhood years. We get bogged down managing within the constraints of our self-imposed day-to-day living.

Yet I dont mean to say that we should indulge in childish dreams. When we have walked this earth for a number of years and become mature, yet we retain a childlike innocent quality about ourselves. Without contracting the bitterness that you find in the world of today. That’s when life becomes a blessing and you just dont dream but start living your dream. Dreaming more dreams. Beautiful dreams!”

The contradiction seems to set in when we talk about maturity and dreams in the same sentence. Everybody has a dream. Dream of the kind of person we want to be. Dream of the society we want to live in. Dream of the sort of life we want to live. Are all these dreams a potrayal of the future that we are going to see? Or are they just some vague thoughts that you remember because they made you feel so damn good while you were thinking of them? If dreams are not achieved, are you sad that you weren’t able to live your dreams?

If we measured success of our lives by the dreams we saw, then the probability of branding ourselves as a failure increases. This is true if we are confident about our potential. There are a few people who are so self-critical (that’s their way of living, so be it!) that they are of the opinion “Dream is a crime”. They first want to assure themselves they can handle the day-to-day things before going in for those “dreams”!

Dreams, if seen in the true spirit of a dream, offer only a direction to life. Seldom do they assure a destination. By trying to follow our dreams, we are stretching ourselves beyond those boundaries that we never thought was possible. This helps in enhancing the quality of day-to-day life. This is the only place I want to connect dreams with day-to-day life. Lot of replies I recieved to my previous post launched into explanations of how they felt dreams made them sadder because they never achieved them. Trying to achieve your dreams is as fulfilling as the final destination. You meet so many wonderful people and get in and out of so many situations that make you a better person. So, instead of concentrating on whether you achieve your destination or not, make the most of the search to get there. As A R Rahman, the Legendary Indian Musician said, “The search is more important than the destination”.

Today, I am working in a company called Novatium. It’s a high-technology start-up. 100+ people. It’s part of an ambitious vision of a person named Mr. Rajesh Jain, ex-IndiaWorld and MD, Netcore Solutions. I am proud to be a part of this company, not because it pays me obscene amounts as salary and has a gym and a superb canteen and all that. (rather, none of this is true). But because of two reasons:

1. Wonderful people. I believe we can achieve our vision with such people around.
2. It is my dream to make India a better place to live in. Novatium’s vision gels completely with mine.

I am certain we can achieve our vision (shall we call it a dream for sake of easier conversation?). But let me tell you one thing, whether or not we achieve our vision, we are all very happy to be working for Novatium. It’s not only an experience of a start-up, it’s an experience of setting up a corporate atmosphere and interacting with great people like Rajesh Jain.

I have grown as a person and as a professional since joining Novatium. The growth has been immense and surely better than what any other company could have offered. I am still searching for the best way to achieve our vision. The relationships that I have built here will last lifelong.

Our Vision is to take technology to the emerging markets. Whether we succeed or not through Novatium, we are confident of making it one day. The coming generations will live a superior quality of life. If Novatium doesn’t succeed then some other idea should. That idea must be a dream again! If not of Rajesh Jain, then maybe of Mr. X. India will be a developed country within the next 25 years!

Finally, we are satisfied we did what we wanted to do. Followed our dream. Rewarded suitably by God either way. I have seen this saying at my school as the thought for the day often, “God helps those who help themselves”. I can’t but appreciate the person who coined this proverb! Looking at it from the Free your dreams and follow it lens I can tell you how true that is! And to all the people who become sad because they dreamt, did and still are nowhere near realising their dreams, lets remember the quote from Bhagwad Gita: “You shall treat victory and defeat, pleasure and pain, loss and gain similarly. Do your duty without having any desire for its reward. No sin can come to you. Do your work with the evenness of mind”.

Blogging enables us to put our thoughts into words for the World to see. I was wondering if our thoughts are born out of a process free of unnecessary constraints. I recognize the fact that we need certain constraints in our thinking or else distance from insanity would decrease.

I was discussing my favourite topic of how to choose a spouse with a good friend of mine. Upto the point I broached the particular topic she was explaining in great detail how things were moving and what she felt with each horoscope and photo being sent. I felt like I had hit a dead-end when I asked, “What kind of a life partner are you looking at?”.

“Adi, I haven’t thought about it”

“What? You are going to get married in a few days from now and you have not even thought of what kind of a life partner you want is it?”

“No Adi, it’s not like that…” Silence.

I am waiting for the remaining part of the response. There’s nothing. It’s just tapered off into nothing.

So I begin my quest again not knowing whether I was making her comfortable or not. My purpose was to find out if she had an idea and was not willing to share with me or was it that she had no idea at all. Very soon, I was to find out that she had no idea at all!

“What happened? Did I ask something wrong? You don’t want to tell me is it?”

“No Adi, I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it”

“Come on! You have completed your engg and are now working for the past one year. You must have seen many guys who must have inspired the thought ‘He-could-be-my-lifepartner’, haven’t you? Hasn’t this occured to you?”

“Adi, what you are saying is right. But when I tell this to my parents, they ask me, “Are you Queen Cleopatra for guys to stand in queue for you?”

Finally, there was atleast a recognition that she underwent what all human beings do. An intuitive way of living life. And according to something I read somewhere, women have better intuition. But this intuition was being killed by people around her.

“That’s okay. What you get may finally not be what you wanted. But you still have the freedom to dream Geeta*. Let your mind free and dream of what you want. When you are dreaming don’t think about whether you will get it or not. That’s not how you dream. For example, I want a girl who looks like Madhuri Dixit, has Rekha’s sensuality, but Nayantara’s homeliness, speaks like Barkha Dutt, exudes the confidence of Kiran Bedi, treats my children like Mother Teresa, cooks like my mom, etc etc. But will I get such a girl? With due regards to my future lifepartner, I don’t know is my answer. But I have a dream. More importantly I made use of my freedom to dream, that’s all!”

(*Name has been changed to protect her identity)

After that, Geeta started explaining what kind of a lifepartner she was looking at. And how nice it would be to have a life with him. She had begun on a journey towards an uncertain destination for the first time in her 21 years of life. She was dreaming.

All of us have the fundamental freedom to dream. If you don’t make use of that freedom you would be living a very one-dimensional life. Taking each day as it comes and not really expecting anything at all out of life. I meet tons of such people with this kind of a predisposition towards life. And they are not even aware they are living life that way. A very sad way, indeed! I cannot go on preaching my theories to everybody, Can I?

But I have been trying to fathom the reason as to why individuals turn out to be this way? Why are their wings of freedom clipped? Who does it? Do we do it ourselves consciously? Or is it the effect of some external force that makes us do this at an unconscious level?

One of the key reasons I found, across a sample of 5 people (all females, please note), is the pressure of getting you married off to somebody as quickly as possible. The idea is to shrug off the burden as soon as possible. “Are you Queen Cleopatra” is a classic example of how big a burden you have become! I was told that to every mother on this planet her kid looks like the moon! But here, the equation changes. We are living in the 21st century folks! Change those old dumb sayings! Don’t teach them to your kids!

The other reasons being, maybe the person is not good looking. For the record, Geeta is decent on those counts! And we are also taught that ‘Beauty is skin deep’! But where are we now? Take my example, I want my lifepartner to look like Madhuri Dixit. I don’t understand that there’s only one Dr. Nene who is there on this earth and I don’t believe in divorce. I don’t know what, but just because a person is not good-looking doesn’t mean “freedom of thought” is thrown out of the window. The person is still eligible to think or in this case, dream.

Dreaming is fundamental to the nature of a human being. Everybody has the freedom to dream. Don’t kill the freedom. You have nothing to lose if somebody has a dream. Dreams enhance the quality of life. You want to achieve your dreams and you strive harder towards living a better life. Dreams don’t have constraints. Dreams are free. Let them be free.