Hello. You can die today. Buy Insurance

"Beta, tum bade ho kar kya banego? Engineer ya Doctor? "
"Call Centre join karoonga!"

I had never thought that I would hear such an answer to the eternal question and that too from a 15-year old. One of my neighbours, currently in the 9th standard responded to the above question with alarming ease and the depressing thing was that his parents just accepted the answer and let him be.

Now I do not have any objections to the rampant spread of the BPO industry in our country. In fact, it has been this industry in tandem with the other Service sector ones that have actually put India on the world map. It is thanks to them that India is today recognised as a haven for world-class, cheap, skilled labour rather than just for its Spices and Snake Charmers. My objection stems from the fact that I am seeing it corrode the zeal to pursue professional courses, in part. The ambition to be an engineer or a doctor seems to be fading. I do not claim that I did my engineering for reasons other than parental or peer pressure. I had a decent score in my 12th so this was the logical choice. But it was a logical choice because all concerned believed that if I had to get a decent wage job, this was the path. Today, any Tom, Dick or Harry can get a job in a good call centre, just on the basis of his language skills. My objection stems from the fact that my neighbour's son who is brilliant enough to pursue research wants to take the easy way out. My objection is that his parents let him do so.

This is not an isolated case. I can cite tons of such cases where my friends are taking this easy way out. The problem is that this path actually is more lucrative and offers better working conditions than anything else that these friends of mine would have done on their own.

I am well aware of the benefits that we are accustomed to now, thanks to this Industry. That is not the point. This industry has provided decent jobs with a respectable income, probably more than their parents were used to. I am in fact a great proponent of this sector. However, I strongly feel that the pressure to do well academically has decreased because this safety net has been added.

According to a recent survey, Tele Marketers are the most hated breed in all of America (Yup, they beat George Bush & everyone's favourite whipping boy, if I can call him a boy, Michael Jackson). Not sure if such a survey exists for India, but the manner in which they go from call to call, dealing with difficult and at time abusive customers is commendable. It does not matter whether they are selling you membership to some new Club, informing you about the latest scheme from their company or even selling you Life insurance.

I got a call from one such female the other morning. I had just about woken up and I get this call to sell me Life Insurance. (Will mention the name of the Insurer as soon as their advertising cheque clears ;-)) She was new to the job I think, cause in explicit detail, she started telling me about how much would my named beneficiaries stand to gain if I die after taking their policy. She then started describing the ways in which I could die, that too in graphic detail, and how much my dependants would get in each case. I never knew this but it turns out that my beneficiaries stand to gain a lot more if I die in a violent accident rather than painlessly in my sleep. (I better not tell them this detail) What unnerved me was that she kept repeating about my death like it was scheduled for the next hour or she was talking about some glorious event that has to be celebrated by all.

Now I know that she was probably only doing her job but this was ridiculous. I do not want to wake up in the morning discussing with a stranger, how I can die today. I do not want to know that my named beneficiaries stand to gain the maximum if I go in pain. I do not want to wake up with a sermon on my mortality. This is just not in my list of ideal starts for the day.

I am normally rude to those who call me so, but I had to draw the line here. But what amazes me is that that female is probably well trained to deal in rejection and she would just call the next person on her list to discuss their death. Quite a depressing job, I am sure. I can now understand the results of the survey. Job or no job, I can imagine the kind of response these people would face, day in and day out. All when they may have been capable enough to land a better job somewhere, maybe for a few less thousands. That has to be better that facing customers like me everyday, customers who refuse to listen to how they can die today. I only dread the day when my kid turns to me and says “"Call Centre join karoonga!"

The Invincibles take a bow

The world loves to see the mighty fall. The bigger they are, more the number of people who are waiting for them to stumble. And if they happens to be the Giants of mordern day cricket, even more so. It is a different thrill to watch such a match. One, where the result is considered a foregone conclusion. One where the number of players on the field outnumber the fans in the stand. One which is expected to be a walkover. One where the World Champions are up against the minnows of the cricket world. One where Bangladesh challenges the might of the mighty, Invincible Australians.

Somehow, I have always suuported the underdogs(unless ofcourse, the underdogs are a team like England playing against India), be it cricket or any other sport(I was rooting for Kenya to meet India in the Finals of the last Cricket World Cup, maybe next time). Somehow, I have always liked watching matches which have Australia challenged. Matches where the unbeatable Australians look as vunerable as a new born. It may be due to the fact that the Australians have dominated this game for so long. Or it may be due to a variety of other reasons that I may not be aware of but it gives me sadistic pleasure to watch the Australians fall. It'sa different high. Its a different experience to watch such a match which was akin to sending the goats, voluntarily to the slaughterhouse; but the goats refused to be diced up quietly.

I donot care if Bangladesh loses it from here on. I am going to remember this match for the simple fact that the lowly Bangladesh had the mighty Australians on the mat. They piled on in excess of 400 runs in the first innings and had Australia in danger of following on. If it were not for Adam Gilchrist, a follow on could not have been avoided. Some may argue that the Australians have never been in the same spirits after their historic Ashes defeat. But Bangladesh is no England.

For me, to see the Headline, "Bangladesh Tigers have the Australian Kangaos Floored" was the perfect way to start the day.

Farida-Bad...Very Very Bad

Venue - Faridabad, India
Occassion - 2nd ODI between India & England in the 7 match series
Result - 2 battling for life

Yes, you heard that right. The Indian cricket team may have eventually won today's encounter but a 9 year old girl had lost even before she entered the stadium. Victim of a Police Lathi Charge at Gate number 7 of the stadium, she has been admitted to the ICU. Her fault- she had come with her family(mother, father & sister) to enjoy a day's worth of cricket and that too, with a valid ticket. And till late evening, not a single official or the police came to see her. No one as much as helped her to get to the hospital but let her lie on the road without any medical attention.

But hers is not the only family to have borne the brunt of the police's lathi. Scores of valid ticket holders were turned away as over 30,000 passes had been issued for a stadium with a capacity of 22,00. Add to that, there were charges aplenty that the police were openly letting in only people they either knew or who were ready to pay the requiste bribes. The Lathi weilding cops made good use of their batons as they set about dispersing the crowd of cricket lovers who had the audacity to demand admission into the ground as they were holding valid tickets.

Many were angry that the police were ''treating cricket-lovers like animals'': Theywere chased away when they went to the gate to demand entry.A foreigner who had bought a Rs. 250 ticket for Rs 4,000 was turned away from Gate No. 13. How often have we seen such scenes outside cricket stadiums, irrespective of the location of the match in the country. Makes me wonder.

We are a cricket loving nation where cricket is almost a religion. And the condition of the cricketing temples i.e. the stadiums is pitiful. We are not allowed to carry in our mobiles, food or even water. .Who can truly enjoy a entire day in the Indian heat without basic amenities which are lacking or over burdened But the spirit of the game takes over and the fan, dutifully is present at every venue the Indian team may play in. And the irony is that this is the condition in the backyard of the sports richest board, the BCCI.

Being a cricket crazy nation where cricketers are revered as gods, it is unfortunate to see the treatement metted out to their bhakts. Someone has to start asking questions like why were so many extra passes issued in the first place? Why was the high handedness of the police posted at bthe gates allowed to go unpunished? Where was the stadium security when the crowd was getting unruly outside that the police had to resort to lathi charge? And who ordered the lathi charge on bonafide ticket holders? Unless someone is held accountable here and brought to book, I fear that such instances would be repeated over the next one days also played in the country. So where's the next match?

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

Joel(played by Jim Carrey): Random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.
Me (played by Me) : Random thoughts for a Random Day. This movie is crap.

I saw "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" yesterday. Why? you ask. I am wondering about the same. Actually the star cast did me in. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood. Sounds impressive right? So why was it so bad? Let me tell you.

This is the story of a guy, Joel (Jim Carrey),who discovers that his long-time girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet),has undergone a psychiatrist's (Tom Wilkinson) experimental procedure in which all of her memory of Joel is removed, after the couple has tried for some time to get their relationship working fluidly. Frustrated by the idea of still being in love with a woman who doesn't remember their time together, Joel decides to undergo the procedure as well, to erase his memories of Clementine. The film, which takes place mostly within Joel's mind, follows his memories of Clementine backwards in time as each recent memory is replaced, and the procedure then goes on to the previous one, which is likewise seen, and then erased. Once the process starts, however, Joel realizes he doesn't really want to forget Clementine, so he starts smuggling her away into parts of his memory where she doesn't belong which alters other things about his memories as well. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew ( Kirsten Dunst,Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood) chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that Joel just can't get her out of his head.

Basically, boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. They grow apart. Girl erases boy from memory. Boy disillusioned. Does the same. But during the procedure, changes his mind. Tries hiding girl in some other memory. Fails. Memory deleted. Boy meets girl again. Boy falls in love with girl again. To make this lame plot more sellable, you also have Kirsten Dunst dancing around drunk, in her underwear. The only interesting and enjoyable portion of the movie.

My take on the movie? I WANT A REFUND !!!

I had promised myself that I would write a review of this movie and not be overtly critical of it. Mission accomplished.(Yes..I haven't written all that I felt about this movie. If I did this blog would need to be given an 'A' certificate for the language used)

But I did not start writing this piece for an ordinary movie review. I do not write reviews of movies I don't like. I crib, complain, trash and comment a lot on them but I do not write a review.

Watching this got me thinking. (Yea, that also happens sometime.) What if we could also just erase the part of our memory which were filled with sorrow? What if we had a Shift + Delete function in our brains too? All our pain, hatred, sorrow, whatever emotion we did not care for could be erased. Would that be good? Or would we be destroying the very essence of our humanity? Would we be removing the biggest differentiator between man and beast; the ability to feel? Or would it be hailed as just another scientific breakthrough? Is this just a manifestation of our inherent escapist tendency or the opportunity to start afresh by making a clean break from the past ? You decide.

For Love or Money

"Marrying for Money is the most expensive way to get it."

I don't quite recall where exactly I had heard this line or whom do I attribute this to. But I was reminded of the above when I read a particular article in Today's Pune Times edition.
Actress Reema Sen, when asked whether she believes in the cliche of marrying the one she loves, irrespective of the financial status of the individual, she refreshingly spoke out what other models and actresses are only thinking when a similar question is posed to them. She frankly proclaimed that Money was important, no doubt about it; she had worked long and hard for her money and she was looking for a guy who works as hard for his. So honestly, the financial security that comes from marrying a well-off guy was non compromisable. Fair enough, right?

There also was an article sometime back stating that women prefer marrying for Financial security rather than love. The author had supported his views by stating examples and survey results. Given a choice, a huge majority of the women opt for the financial security, irrespective of whatever they may claim in their public life. Even Victoria Beckham, when speaking to her friends regards the option of splitting up with David Beckham was discussing the Financial implications of it all. What does this mean? It simply means that since ages, women have been OK with the concept of being trapped in a loveless marriage if enough Financial security is attached therewith. But now they are claiming so without pretending otherwise.

Many people, espcially the so-called moral guardians of our age, claim that this is a fallout of crass commercialisation and Westernisations or our ideologies. I, on the other hand, feel that is just the beginning of the end of hypocrisy.

There was a huge uproar from several corners of the media when southern siren Khushboo claimed that our society places too much premium on virginity and that a huge number of teenagers today are indulging in pre marital sex. What she claimed was a commonly accepted truth. But because someone came out so openly and said it, more so a woman, there were bound to be problems. Hypocrisy is deep rooted in our society. People who proclaim being thorough Jains, are known to consume non-veg and alcohol outside(saying this coz I know such people). People who are self proclaimed drunks(even known to consume country liqour if the need arises) donot touch the bottle on Tuesdays(they visit their temples that day you see). And I am not even going to mention our politicians (couldn't resist taking a potshot here ;-) even though I guess this kind of hypocisy is not restricted to our land but is prevalent worldwide)

Money is very important. Anyone who claims otherwise, im my opinion, is lying. For me as well, it signifies more than security. It is knowing that I can eat in the finest restaurants, visit the most expensive multiplexes, and wear the latest brands, If I choose to do so. It signifies that the 'finer' things in life are within my reach. I can go abroad for my holidays, if I wish so, or I can shower my loved ones, the choicest of gifts. So this coming from Reema Sen just signifies the ending of hypocisy in our society, one of many small steps. Everyone is thinking it, few now have the courage to speak it.

I had heard this story about a conversation between a father and son which went something like this-
Son: Dad, how much does it cost to get marreid?
Dad: I don't know son, I am still paying!

Guess now we now how true that really is!

Tell me I am good

"Tell me what will it take for this company to retain you!" Those were the exact words that my Project Director said to me during my Appraisal cycle this year. He was reacting to the news of me having put in my papers having secured admission for a MBA programme. How did I feel after hearing this? What can I say, pure magic!!!

It got me thinking. (stop snickering) The high I was on after this meeting was more than I could have achieved with a snort of coke or some esctacy(not that I have ever tried it though, just to set the record straight). Why was it so? Why did the words of my superviosr mean so much to me when I knew that I would be in the organization for only about 2 additional months, and that too because my contract required it. I knew that the monetary benefits or the perks I may recieve would be valid only from the next payroll cycle. Then it came to me. We as humans need constant revalidation.

Sounds funny, right? A grown man asking to be told that he is right, wanting to know that he has done a good job. I thought all that should really matter is that you yourself feel that you have done a good job. But alas, it is not to be. Actually this habit is drilled into our heads right from childhood. Our education system is not based on how much a child can understand but by how much can he remember. The report card doing the job of validation. And if not exam season, then the Parent-Teacher meetings are there to take its place. Your teacher's words would basically dictate whether you have to sit in all evening and study or whether your parents will lwet you out of the house to play for a while.

And it doesn't stop there, you get through your education and there is a boss standing over you who basically controls your fate in the company. This I believe led to the origin of the word 'sycophany'. I am sure no Indian needs to be told of the cause & effect of sycophany.(Just have a look at the political situation and yo will know what I am talking about)

Now don't get me wrong. Competition is a great thing that brings out the best in many. But unfortunately, also brings out the worst in an equal number. Many companies are reducing the ill effects of this by reducing the number of verticals and ging for a horizontal matrix structure. But this is seen only in the new age and IT companies wich are only a small portion of the total workforce.

I had read somewhere that a person gives his best, only if he is competing with noone but himself. So till that happens, tell me you agree with what I have written, won't you?

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

For those of you who still havent read it...

The Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.
After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.My second story is about love and loss.I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much."

Among the most brilliant words I have ever seen being credited to a man. Me not worried about staying foolish, now to just figure out the hunger part