What we forgot about Gandhi: Being Minimalistic

It's a strange day. It's a day when you are not supposed to work because it is the Birthday of the Father of the Nation-Mahatma Gandhi. Ironic I say. A compulsory holiday for a man who never ceased to work? But that is just the beginning of the strange.

I step out on the road expecting less traffic. But the roads are jammed worse than ever. Everyone is out shopping or visiting. I wonder, would Bapu really want us to stay at home, laze around or to go visit the mall on his birthday? I wonder. The shops are doing brisk business. One of the shopkeepers tells me, "Business is better today than ever. Thanks to Bapu." He winks. And I wonder. Is this how we want to celebrate the birthday of a man who survived on minimalistic needs? Is this really the free India he imagined? Is this the Freedom that he struggled for?

There's magic everywhere:

There came a time in my life when I was totally done with the job that I was doing. I was done as in DONE. There was nothing more to learn, there was nothing more to teach. Life was becoming more of a morass of monocrity and there was nothing left. But there was one decision I had stood with. I wanted to be with technology and not move on management. And there was a personal reason to it. I was a reporting specialist and I loved the representation of data. It was weird.

It was wonderful how data could be visualized and displayed in so many different forms. And every bit of data, is like a child waiting to get dressed, waiting to play. I have always missed art in my life and here I was with every opportunity to paint, create and build. But here the canvas was data. Some of the representations of data has been nothing less than breathtaking. And I....I have been enjoying all the painting. I have been honing my skills with the latest version of Business Objects (4.0). I have been trying my hand with Xcelsius and Qlikview. It has been an interesting ride so far.

Why you should never pad up your CV:

It was my morning newspaper run and I remember reading something about Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson having to resign over some row over his fudged up CV. Now that isn’t so bad that a CEO has to resign, I thought. There was more important news to read. The stock market was headed nowhere and the government was coming up with more taxes. And I did not even own stock in Yahoo!

After a gruelling day at work, just as I was about to leave, I was asked to interview a candidate on an emergency basis. Armed with a very impressive CV, he had started a scuffle among project managers as to which of them would win him over. The CV covered almost everything anyone could ever mention about SAP. Something was wrong here, I wondered. Years of experience and the amount of knowledge seemed to be disproportional. As I opened the call, I realised the truth in the first couple of minutes. Just knowing about terms you mention in the CV does not justify you have knowledge of it. The interviewer knows. He knows.

And I could suddenly find a link between the CEO and this entry level guy. Though the two cases cannot be compared, the effect was still the same. Different causes, different reactions but the same end.... Rejection.

It's all about selling, isn't it??

If you are a musician, you have to market your music. If you are an artist, you have to market your art. If you are a politician, you have to market yourself and if you are an employee, you have to market your efficiency. How ironic, isn't it? People are even marketing their blogs!!!

Is the desire to be well known so overwhelming that it makes us sell ourselves? I have seen people continuously  blowing their trumpet about how hard they have worked. The world would be such a fantastic place if we stopped this indiscriminate selling and started concentrating on the job at hand. In a desperate attempt to show off, most of us forget what exactly needs to be done. For a solution that costs a dime, we end up showing how we managed to spend a pound.

That thing called Jealousy:

"I don't care. I am just happy with whatever I have." This is perhaps the most eloquent statement I have heard from the most eloquent people. People who do not seem to care but always seem to bother. People who always seem to be nonchalant but always concerned about everything and everyone. People who are in simple terms....jealous.

Its been a long time since I gave up the rat race. I live like Rambo in the corporate world. I live invisible, seldom talk, do what is expected of me and never complain. But still, I have people who are jealous of me. For God's sake, gentlemen, I don't earn half as much you do, I am not as successful as you are and I don't even own a car. So what is it that makes you keep a tab on my life.Let me live my life in peace, in anonymity. But even my anonymity seems to have made me famous. 

People are concerned about my rating, my investments, my buying habits, my love life and even my personal hygiene habits. None of which I have. Is it so difficult to know that a guy is invisible?

Many years ago, when MJ sang, "you just leave me alone", I was a kid and could not understand what the problem with MJ was. I wished, I could get all that attention. I wished, people would love me, go crazy after me like they did for MJ. I wondered why Princess Diana was so hyper to the paparazzi. After all she was famous. But me? I am not even famous, I don't even matter. But people.....they just think otherwise.

My advise to all of you jealous guys out there - Let us unknown souls be!!! We do not want to be famous like you. We do not want to be ultra successful like you. We do not want to bitch about others like you. All we need is anonymity, peace, a routine and a contract of deep understanding with life.

JUST LET ME BE!!!!

Day1:The lone ranger:

As I mustered up the courage to step into this unknown territory, I realised that it was very different that what I had imagined. There were people looking at me as a stranger, an intruder in the forbidden kingdom. There were the intimidating glances, there were the shameful nods and the super replusive vibes. But still I lingred on, found the master of the lands, the Instructor and told him I would be beginning today.

The changing room had more shame for me. I couldnt get myself to expose my loose flabby body to the masses. After an effort to hide as much as I could, tactfully managing the view with my extracted clothes, I was able to emerge. It was time to begin. I had a purpose, I had to run. I had a purpose, I had to stay in-breath while climbing.

After a light warm up, I decided that this was the moment. I approached the dragon, I had to conquer, The Threadmill. After soem struggle with the various buttons and some help from the instructor, my battle had begun. I had to walk...for twenty minutes. 

The first five minutes seemed like fun. But soon fatigue overtook the fun and I was fighting a losing battle against breath. The belt was spinning and I just wasnt walking fast enough. Holding on to the support bar did help a bit but it was a race, a race against time...or rather..with time.

Soon the battle had been won. Slowly but steadily I had survived the first twenty minutes on the treadmill. I was a survivor. It was time to get ready and leave. It was time to live today..to die another day.

The Nerd runner:

For years, I was proud to be part of the ever bludgeoning workforce of India's IT workforce. Computers, software, smart phones made my day seem to have meaning to it. Artificial lights seemed better than the sun, conditioned air was a given and bottled juice supposed to make up for nutrients. I was healthy..at least..I thought so.

It was a recent transfer to a newly opened office in Powai that opened my eyes. Barely able to navigate the steep slope at the entrance, I would need to take breaks to huff and puff before continuing my journey to the office gate. It was then that I noticed what technology addition had done to my health. I had an immune system was in doldrums, lungs seemed to have holes and the body was all more of fat than tissue. It was the day I decided to break away from my belief that the body heals itself. It was the day I realized that God, would help me only if I helped myself. It would be a long journey to get to the top without the huffing and the puffing. But a battle that could be won.

It was time to check out that unknown entity on the floor above. The Gym:

Beware: Kids at work

Over the years, I have come to realize how childish people are when they are actually at work. People take the workspace rather personally and forget that they were are just employees and the organization doesn't owe or own them. That the manager is not their mother and the workplace is not their home. That they are only professionally related to their colleagues and not through relationships.

I have noted how people take everything and everyone personally and ruin the office decorum which is supposed be the office environment free of all the emotions. With the tactical team of HR professionals trying their best to make the employees feel at home, the poor workers do take their word for it. Home is where you can be free, home is where you can move around unhampered, home is where you can be naked.

The dog gets his due

In persuasion to my last discussion about how women can very magically turn men into dogs, I realized that they can again turn them back into humans, emotions et all. Men and emotions? you ask but yes. Ask a man who has been ditched and you will realize how full of emotions men are.

And so did our man. Who had recently been transformed into a dog by his loyalty to a particular lady. When he finally decided to express his feelings for her, he was expectedly turned down. But the dog in him won. And though visibly hurt he still managed to play doggie for another day.

Of women and dogs

Its wonderful to see how a woman can have as many dogs as she pleases. There is no dearth of men always wanting to be wrapped around the little finger of a pretty lady. As long as the lady knows how to play. All she has to do is throw a ball and the dog will be only too eager to fetch it for her.

One such recent example has been that of a colleague completely enamored by a fresh joinee. He will wait for her for lunch, he will have a late breakfast if she is late for office and even wait for her outside the women's rest room. Once the star performer in the project, he is now the laughing matter of the entire team. His performance is below par and he has gone from being a 'like' to a 'dislike' among the team. And why wouldn't it be. All he has time for is his 'good friend'.

A-men: Birth of the corporate mutants:

The mutants always win. We have seen them in the comic books, we have seen them in the movies and we have heard stories about them from our peers. Wolverine never dies. He is angry and he is destructive. Ditto Magneto. The urge to rule is so intense that it does not matter who stands in your way. It is the utter hatred for the lower beings (read humans) that has been a driving force for the Magneto clones. And literary culture directly or indirectly always affects human life. We have heard of children jumping over walls, we have heard about people hallucinating about superheroes and now we have among our midst, the corporate mutants. Beings so superior that they cannot be compared to ordinary beings. Beings so perfect that they loathe the losers. There is only one way in life, the winning way. Or so they think!