Cribbers over Career..

Most folks around me (and others also I believe) bleat a lot about how their work is making their life miserable. They just love to create the illusion that it’s their “villainous firm” who’s responsible for the sad work they do. But most of the time they fail to ask a very fundamental question to themselves “Do I have the ability to do a “better” work in a “better place”?”

If your answer for the question is YES then LEAVE!!!! No matter what they say about “how critical a resource you are”, just leave. The corporations are big enough to forget you the minute you leave their gates. They all lie. They don’t really care.

If your answer for the question is NO then its time to realize the fact, “Just because you got a puffed up ego doesn’t mean you deserve something better.” You deserve to be here for your past failures and you will be here unless you do something about it. So stop whining and better use the time to be capable enough to something better that you can also enjoy. I see people realize the hard fact and then work to change it and the satisfaction on their face while leaving for other places is too good.

Trust me!! It’s always better to have the choice of leaving than the realization of the fact that you are doomed to be somewhere you believe you should not belong.

Motivated??

Motivation is a funny thing. Once you start something new it’s brimming out of the pot. Wait for a moment and “POOF” it vanishes leaving behind fading smudges of alibis. The problem is not with finding motivation. It is readily available in every other roadside shop. The problem is finding motivation which sustains itself till the target is achieved.

Motivation is hugely influenced by the reasons behind our aspirations. One can’t be Chopin if he plays the piano for a “standing ovation”. To have the motivation to go ahead and be a pianist as great as Chopin one needs to be as passionate about the piano as he was. When one takes a lesson his dream should be of playing the piano alone for hours just to himself. The motivation from the desire to master every stage of learning sustains till the end. Learning the piano for any other motives will lead to the futile attempt to speed up to the end which will lead to the disappearance of the motivation. If one is passionate about what he does, then finding motivation will never be an issue.

So think before you do something just for the sake of applauses. I am sure there are quite a few things which you will actually enjoy doing and also fetch you approval from others.

Bugs and pleasures...

Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing can be compared to the ecstatic pleasure one gets after finishing an exceptionally difficult task. Particularly those, for whom all the usual solutions don’t seem to work and you have to “push the limit of your proficiency really far” as the usual jargon goes.
It always starts with a request to resolve a very weird “never heard” bug. The first few minutes go by pondering over the question, “Why me??” Then few hours goes trying to make sense out of it. After which one starts a hopeful search for solutions from his “more enlightened” peers. Sometimes this tactic leads to wasting more time but there’s no harm in being a bit optimistic and lazy, is there?? Then, starts the grueling part of actually trying to figuring it out ourselves. The usual fun filled days get filled with innumerable googling, reading up on obscure concepts, rants from one’s boss and meeting dead ends in what seemed to be the most feasible(and brilliant) ideas. After days of dragging it around all avenues, shows up the shy glint of the most apparent solution. Anticipation and fear fill the bay (figuratively) as one tries it and hits the return key the final time.

Thundering Typhoons! It works!! That’s when the pure pleasure of victory and realization of the fact that one is not yet completely worthless rushes in. While others around give a cynical “So what, doofus!” look one just stares at the screen for a whole bunch of minutes. Seriously, nothing compares to it.

Imperfections...

A major victim of “time passing by” is the appreciation of one’s own work. A few days back I was going through the poems I had written during my college days. It was mostly about the usual stuffs like the frustrations, failure, crushes and things I somewhat find too clichéd to write about now a days. Its funny how we and the things around us change and we are the last one to notice it. We don’t even notice the significant contribution we ourselves put to change these things. Coming back to the poems, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to make any changes (and improve) any of those poems. I wanted to make them more cheerful. I wanted to change the metaphors I used to describe things. I wanted to frame the verses in a better way. But then poems just do not pop out of nothing. They are the testimony of how one feels for different encounters which transpires in his life. They are the best way to tell who you actually were on that specific day. So even if you try to change the poem you wrote, all you will get is a new one which will show who you are today. You just can’t change something you had written in the past.

Maybe it’s better (and easier) to acknowledge them just as they are and accept that it’s because of what we felt and wrote earlier, we feel and write much better today.

Anyways, just for old times sake here’s the first poem I wrote:


Starry Nights…

Glint of the city fades away,
I flee from glaring heights,
From jeering dark lanes
From the betraying paths.

I head for the woods,
Befriended by the sultry night,
Stars wink excited..
As if meeting an old’ friend.

Sneaking through the clouds,
The moonlight hugs me.
Breeze swims across like angels,
Disappearing the last traces of sadness.

Deaf to the calling city.
Know I have to go back...
Face the glaring sun...
Trying to bring me to my knees.

But for the night I am trapped
I wrap myself by the shadows...
Under the aegis of sleepy trees...
Lying on the grass I just drift away.

Yet Again...

Why do I always get an urge to write about this city whenever I am here?

I have no friends here nor have I stayed here long enough for the nostalgia to hit me hard enough. Yet I am always the "little wide eyed boy" when I arrive here and the "Lonely old man" when I depart.  Maybe I long for the sheer determination of the city to have a good time no matter how grand and impractical it is. I mean in which other city can one do the following things in a single weekend:

• Go to a live gig in a happening pub.
• Watch a Anupam Kher play.
• Watch people show off their Ferraris, Lambos, Porshes in Kala Ghoda.

Its not even these extravagances which excites me. Its the fact that these  things are just a part of every other day which really amazes me. There is no concept of "moderation" here. Everything has to reach its limits and beyond. Have a close look at any passer-by's face. You will find a tinge of arrogance. As if being able to live here certifies that they have the audacity to be the first one to break all norms and then show the entire country how it's done. 

This place doesn't make me realize what I already have. It reminds me of everything I need to achieve somewhere in the future.

If you haven't realized which city I am talking about, then maybe it's time you need to explore a bit...

Gullible Between Names..

A usual conversation when you are slightly gullible…

A friend: “DUDE!! Indrosarena?? Sounds like a Boxing Competition.”
Me: “Dude! Go away!!”
“Its better then your blog name”
Friend: “Its feels like a Mike Tyson popup will come up anytime when I click on your blog link.”
Me: “Ah right!!! What’s next? My blogs sound like Tyson tearing off Holyfield’s ears”
Friend: “I rather not comment on that.”
Me: “Oh shut up!!”
Friend: “Anyways forget it.”


(After some conversation on some other banal topic)

Me: “Dude! Seriously tell me. Is it that funny??”

And the fable continues…

Passion's Fruit..

How passionate are you about the work you do? Ask this question and you might end up getting some extreme answers. Some say, “I just love the challenges and the hurdles I face everyday in my work”. While some lesser fortunate guys would say, “I just switch off my mind when I come to work.”

I went to this local rock concert last Sunday. The bands were mostly local and were being massively criticized for their performance. But what really overwhelmed me was seeing these guys keep on playing their music so single-mindedly. I am sure they had their own doubts on the music they are making. Yet they had the enthusiasm to come on the stage and have a good time. That kind of passion and conviction is something I myself lack in life and obviously crave for.

I must admit the one thing which drew me to places like Barcamp or any local concert is to see these people who are so avidly engrossed in their work of interest. The fact that they are more interested in the process rather than the end results has always amazed me. These people are always enjoying the moment rather than bothering about the future.

It’s funny that while we are wasting our time judging them, these guys got the entire stage for them and are having the most amazing time of their lives.

The Advisory Mishap...

“It’s just not affordable to go by someone’s advice now days”, said a friend few days back.

The guy does have a point. There are some of us around who can’t decide anything on their own and always looking for counselors. But the problem is there are just too many people with too many advices. Whom to follow to and who to disregard has become a chore in itself. What’s more perilous is the fact that people have somehow learnt the art of pretending to be an expert when they actually still are the same old letdowns. A few days back another friend proclaimed himself to be a “genuine” geek. When asked the reason behind his observation he self-assuredly replied, “Because I still read Comics!!!” How can just reading comics make someone a geek I fail to understand? Anyways that’s just a “not damaging” instance of these breed of glory hunters. Then there are some who go around saying “Those who can’t do, teach.” thinking that will get them some credibility. Nice way of glorifying being a jack!@#!!!

Coming back to the point. Staying clear of such people is an important aspect of the eternally confused man’s life. To even hear the ubiquitously wrong advice which, he will definitely follow is a straight road to the gallows. Now what’s worse is the fact that even he wants to learn the art of pretending to be the ever confident man. Here comes the main drawback of being the confused man. When he gets an advice he can do two things. He will reject them to show the world that he’s not gullible. Else he can accept them because, well he always has an unbearable need of the advices. But how does he decide which to take and which to reject.

Does he need to be advised even on that?

Well, Life certainly is full of ugly loop holes.

The Barcamp Experience..

It’s been ages since I met guys who sat together and discussed technology and emerging concepts, passionately. That’s what I used to crib about before I went to Barcamp yesterday. It was the 2nd day of the 8th edition of the “unconference”. The place is a Mecca for geeks to meet up, highlight and exchange ideas with like minded people.

Nice thing about the whole idea is that it is very informally organized, yet amazingly managed. One doesn’t have to fill up long forms and go through tens of other formalities to get their session registered. You just turn up that day and scribe down your session name on any of the available slots and you are ready for the show. You want to cancel your session, just don’t turn up. It’s that simple. The sessions varied from specific concepts like “Natural Language Processing” to entrepreneurial stuffs like personal branding and starting one’s own company to yoga and ancient wisdom in modern times. You can go and attend any session, discuss or even keep quiet. And that doesn’t stop there. It’s not like one has to attend all the sessions and not sit idle. You can just sit around and have your own discussions and no one from the organizing team will stop you.

The main idea behind the format is to ensure that there is a free flow of ideas. People are exposed to new concepts and also get to meet the groups responsible for these ideas. These groups in return For guys like us it’s also a good way to get past a usual banal weekend.

Judge The Book, Always...

It’s funny that to really know one’s colleagues, the first thing one has to do is take them out of the office. It’s a fact I realized on last Saturday’s team excursion to a resort. Well for all lonely travelers out there, it was a kind of a place you would hate to go without a set of good friends. The food was good though. But more of that later.

Anyways, coming back to the surprises of the day. I could hardly imagine the usual reserved and “always sticking their nose on the monitor” colleagues of mine will turn out to be so brilliant and funny. It was fascinating to see that the usually serious Lead is also a nice actor and director when I saw his performance in Mad-ads or to find that this usual coy girl is also an amazing gracious dancer. Oh! Give them beer and see them dance. These guys could give any professional a run for their money with their ground-breaking moves. All through the day, some turned out to be painters, some guitarists, some mimics, some just absolutely crazy and some unusually nice when a bit tipsy.

It’s weird how easily we create an impression of the people around us. We hardly consider fact that not knowing about their lives doesn’t mean they don’t have any. This is true especially for our seniors who have to be more serious and responsible in the office. After seeing them in a more informal occasion, one does tend to see them with more admiration. It just validates an old saying that we all have different facades in our individuality. They just come out in different situations, never at the same time. To bring out these hidden fronts of someone we just to put these people in the right place, among the right people and maybe give them a bit of the right dose of good beer :P.