Observations at ISB and on Life | itheabsolute

Chance Everywhere!

2011-09-24T23:06:00.000+05:30

Those who have read this blog know that I am a big fan of chance theory. It is our innate need to feel important and live till eternity that makes us see patterns and rationalize things and events.

My wife is a cousin of one of my - erstwhile - friends. This friend happened to accost me at a study circle, introduced himself and much later ended up introducing me to her. Such an important aspect of my life was caused by a random event.

Now one could say, if we go back to its origin, every thing or event will have such random, chance beginning. That is the point. There is no purpose behind many of such things or events. That does not rule out planning and free will. Sciences and Philosophies have been built on planning, control, organization, free will and such. It is important that Man controls the course of events lest life and world should become completely randomized.

I would yet say chance is everywhere!

Who will LokPal the LokPal?

2011-08-22T05:34:00.001+05:30

Sure. What after LokPal?

What is a policeman earning a paltry salary going to tell his son when he asks for a cricket kit?

Corruption has different shades. A politician who already is worth say Rs 1000 crore signing a deal which will make him/her worth Rs 2000 crore is a serious issue. We surely need a redressal mechanism. A corrupt clerk, paid poorly by the government, and totally driven by needs which operate within his family, cannot be done away with by LokPal. We have individual incentives to be addressed.

Anyone for treating the cause also and not just curing the symptoms?

PS: And who will LokPal the LokPal?

Life, Choices, et al

2011-06-13T21:28:00.001+05:30

Children want to grow fast as they want to be able make choices. Grown-ups want to go back to being young so they can reverse wrong choices they made.
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There is nothing wrong with the world. It is how I have been engaging with it that needs correction.
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It is perhaps easier to choose 10 things that we want or want to do before we say bye. If there was only one thing to have or do, how easy or hard would it be to choose. And what would that one thing be. Is it the same thing for which you have worked / working hard your life.
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The purpose of life is death!
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sex and Instinct

2011-03-23T22:22:00.001+05:30

Tautological. But then how else would I break writers's block.

Unlike for other animals (almost all), based on reading and observation, it appears that for human beings sex is not an instinct. It is learned. We are capable of resisting the urge even when an opportunity throws up. We can choose not to reproduce. Surprisingly, there are couples who haven't consummated marriage. There are some who don't 'like' sex. There are some who want more and perhaps do more.

It is not that our content does not matter. It is that when it comes to human beings context matters much more.

PS:
-This is not intended to question sexual orientation. Everyone is entitled to his/her choice.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Out of action

2010-11-26T21:44:00.001+05:30

For a reason. We relocated to Mumbai on Nov 01st. Still living out of a hotel. Should move into flat in 3-4 days. Thankfully 10 minutes away from office. Blogging will resume in another week. Those who missed new posts, please excuse.

Mind Games

2010-10-23T00:43:00.000+05:30

Mind plays many games. Over a period of time, we have avoided doing things that we had earlier wanted to do or done things that we would have ideally avoided. These could be simple things like avoiding junk food or wanting to do a bungee jump.

Mind keeps putting us first in a quandary and then in guilt. Much later, it puts these things in " not necessary to do" or " it is okay to indulge once in a while" category.

We are mostly about interaction between mind and body, primarily through a rush of chemicals passing through our body, which are again based on inputs, physical or psychological.

Bieber and Chance

2010-10-01T19:32:00.000+05:30

The place of chance in our lives can never be overestimated.

- What if Justin Bieber' s mother was 30 and not 18 when he was born. Would she have been as net savvy? If she did not know Youtube, would Beiber have happened to us? I doubt.

Innovation

2010-09-19T11:03:00.002+05:30

There is too much talk about " innovation". Resources - time, energy and lots of money - is going into developing new things. Management; medicine; engineering - everywhere.

What about efforts to apply all that is already is innovated?

Example - We are focusing efforts on developing new drugs for diabetes. Existing knowledge of diabetes and its prevention / control is enough to take care of over two-thirds of cases. When we continue to talk about innovation and new drugs, we mislead patients and their care-takers.

PS:
-Inspiration, of course, from Dr Atul Gawande. More precisely, his Better
-Similar ideas at Freakonomics Blog

Purpose of god's life

2010-08-28T23:44:00.000+05:30

I spend much time brooding over the purpose of life.

We did not after all come to this world to be working for most of our waking hours. To end up hating people who were once ours and dear. One person killing another for money. Wars over things or issues that should have never mattered. Making Kings and Queens of some people. Sucking up to supposed leaders. To die of poverty. To wake and not know what to do.

The purpose never becomes clear because, methinks, fundamentally there was never any purpose. It was an accident. And over period - given our predilection to forming patterns where there was none - we started believing that god created this world for a purpose; and human beings as the centre of this grand purpose of gods.

Now got quite interested in a thought, which saw on twitter - What is the purpose of a god's life (or even the God's life)?

Know the Opposite

2010-08-27T21:09:00.000+05:30

How would we know how good something is or even what it actually is. We see it, smell it, feel it, listen to it, read it, study it, observe it. Live it. Sometimes these aren't enough. We need more clarity. We then compare. Compare and it becomes known. Almost. We may have after all compared two un-comparables.

In such situations, why does my mind like to think that we need to look at the opposite of it. Know the opposite of something to understand it better.

PS:
-Moot question - unless we know what it is, how do we know what its opposite is?
- Does everything have its opposite?
- Is man a woman's opposite. Or vice versa?

Enemy Self

2010-08-25T20:45:00.000+05:30

We are not happy with what we are doing. All the time.

=Have management education from amongst the best b-schools. It mysteriously seems nothing. Could have done better.
=Money and position may be - actually are - good. Yet never enough.
=Want to undo past. Want to have a future which is so difficult - almost impossible - given my past and present.
=At the heart of hearts, do not want to be anyone else; yet, always compare self with someone else.
=Happy I am reading good number of books. But at the back of my mind, something nags - think of all the books you could have read had you not given it a break.

Hell, there is no greater enemy of us than self. It never lets go.

We punish ourselves much!

Coffee over Chat

2010-07-21T19:41:00.000+05:30

Animals need leash; Indian need speed-breakers. Incidentally, in Bangalore speed-breakers are back-breakers - there are many and they are really humpy. If some authority rules that these need to be taken off the roads, next day I discover more of them.
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In India many things are controlled. Drug prices as well. Yet, many critical drugs are sold at unaffordable prices. Guess what, alcohol prices are controlled in many states.
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This morning a two-wheeler fellow, with his wife (presume) at the pillion, was shouting at a Wagon R driver. All this as both were moving, but much slower than the traffic. Presume, the two-wheeler guy was shouting because the Wagon R guy changed lanes. I also noticed slightly bulged triceps of this two-wheeler guy. In spite of the wife's jabbing him in the back to stop, he continued. Meanwhile, Wagon R guy gets a chance and speeds past. Two wheeler guy was yet unhappy; he also speeds to catch up with the guy. But well before that he finds his punctuation of the road divider. He seemed disappointed, but then immediately he does something which one would not expect him to do, as he had fought against lane changing. Without a moment's hesitation, he drives the bike across the road on to the right side (wrong side) and zooms past to his destination. Maybe, her (wife's) destination. I guess he was dropping the Missus to office or something. I guessed so because she was dressed relatively formally and this fellow was in his pyjamas. Such it goes.
*****
No, I did not confuse about the order of the words. It was indeed coffee over chat, not the usual other way round, chat over a coffee. I called on an official in a client company (IT company). Having one coffee/tea too many is an occupational hazard for professionals on the sell side. The client asked my preference. Till that it was all normal and usual. He then opened some application on his PC (later he told it was a chat facility), and placed an order for coffee over it. I was suspect. Even when you order coffee over phone, it does not get served in time. Over chat, the coffee will come well after I was gone, I thought. Coffee was there in no time. IT being applied for such simple thing was quite interesting.

Reasons No One Cares

2010-07-20T22:03:00.000+05:30

Absence is explainable. Due partly to busyness, but mainly to disillusionment and writer's block.

Disillusionment obviates provocation. And I had said before provocation is an important reason why posts, rather good ones, happen.

Writer's block - When there is no provocation, the keyboard garbles.

Busyness is because of business.

PS:
-Coming up a visit to ISB. As usual, visits, even plans of such visits, to ISB bring back good memories. That one year was great in many ways.
-Nostalgia, as I keep telling, is a wasted emotion.

Beyond Repair!

2010-07-13T22:12:00.000+05:30

Electric supply has always been an issue in Bangalore ( in fact, in most cities* in India). Now, water supply is an issue. My house rent has gone up steeply thanks to high maintenance, most of which goes into giving us uninterrupted electric supply and water.

India is a country with rich resources. Unfortunately, questionable intentions and inefficient systems have ensured that these resouces have been allocated inequitably and have been utterly wasted.

Instead of blaming themselves for bringing the country to this situation, the governments have the cheek to preach me to save that and save this; and try to make me feel guilty for taking, say, a shower.

On the other hand, assuming our systems had clear conscience and efficiency, would it have made things better. I doubt.

120+ crore population! I have been traveling and observation is my constant companion. The feeling that this country has exploded and is beyond repair is nagging me.

I know I will survive, perhaps thrive. Many others will as well. But I feel for those that have been denied access to resources. They will revolt. And I won't be surprised if some of our politicians would tell them to eat cake instead.

PS: * won't discuss towns and villages where situation is unspeakable.

Child Labor

2010-07-13T21:31:00.000+05:30

Somethings, they say, are ends in themselves. Not so, methinks.

About a decade ago, I was involved with an NGO, then in its incipience. Its focus then was more on education and health in remote areas. We used to meet every week to discuss what to do and how to go about. One debate was about Right to Education.

My view was, still is, that Education is not an end in itself. It is a means - to make one smarter, to widen perspectives and more importantly to be able to offer to the educated, more choices than he/she had before - particularly about the economic activities he/she may/would pursue. However, the CEO's view, as is held by many, was that basic education - say, up to 10th standard - remains a non-negotiable right. It is an end in itself. Thus, the NGO would support someone's education up to 10th standard. What happens to the person after that is not necessarily the NGO's concern (beyond the scope of the NGO's brief).

After his/her education, a person may not have resources enough to pursue further education; he/she may find it difficult to reconcile to working in jobs which he/she would have had he/she not educated; he/she may not find a job at all with the limited qualifications.

Prabaker, the friend of Linbaba's, in the book Shantaram, reminds Linbaba not to take moral stance about other people's lives. He tells Linbaba not try to attempt to change things about people's lives just because Linbaba thinks they are wrong. A person essays to pursue the best available choice. For someone from poor family, sending his/her child to school has an opportunity cost. If we take a moral stance on child labor, then we are effectively taking away an opportunity from those kids to earn their food, and that without giving an alternative. Action should go along with taking a stance.

Ban Child Labor! But, before that provide alternatives to those kids. Remember, Child labor, most times, is not out of choice.

CAs, Taxes and Development

2010-06-30T19:10:00.000+05:30

Practising CA friends - this may hurt.

But then some of your colleagues have been hurting all of us for years. This is how -

- sign off annual reports in spite of the knowledge that the promoters / management has depressed profits or worse has shown losses where the firm made profit.
- provided false certificates to firms and people so they could send Millions of $ when forex was a scarce commodity.
- help rich get richer by moving black-money from one hand to the other by devising schemes thanks to your knowledge of taxation.
(There are of course many other ways that I have not listed or not even aware.)

They have abetted tax avoidance. It may be acceptable per law but not so in spirit. They have also been abetting tax evasion, which actions have bled this country. Thousands of crores of rupees of taxes have been unpaid. Not saying that every rupee of that would have gone to development but even a trickle of that would have meant better lives for millions others.

Why am I cribbing. That is how life runs. All problems are micro, not macro. What happens to a country is not a concern of a small to medium practising CA. His main job is to earn his livelihood and through whichever means possible make his kith and himself richer.

PS: Generalization. Could not avoid.

Marriage and Morals

2010-06-27T20:26:00.000+05:30

Society was, and is, interested in ensuring legitimacy of children so that distribution of property / wealth is within known framework, and no surprises spring up. Society is also interested in general health of people. Consequently, taboo on extra-marital affairs. So that no illegitimate children are born who can later become claimants on property; so that STDs do not spread and wipe out population.

Of course, at an individual, extra-marital affairs cause jealousy and insecurity.

Contraceptives and Automobiles have solved these problems.Contraceptives prevent illegitimate children and STDs. Automobiles enable people to travel so that their partners do not get to know of their affairs.

PS: inspiration and elaboration at Marriage and Morals

Life is suffering

2010-06-23T20:08:00.000+05:30

Thousands of people on the road. Some in cars; some on bikes; some on bi-cycle; some in a bus; some walking; some pushing a cart; and some standing across a cart selling fruits.

Let us look at a few lives.
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= I get up at 7 am, get ready by 8 am, have idli for breakfast; say bye to family; walk up to the bus-stop; get into an already full bus; reach office by 9.30; start working; struggle through work, politics and pressure; finally take off at 6.30 pm; reach bus-stop about 10 minutes away from office-walking; this time bus is relatively empty; gets a chance to sit after 20 minutes; think of work, wife, kids, limited means; bus reaches stop; get down and walk home; 8 pm; have dinner; ready to crash.....Everyday.

=I get up at 7 pm; it is already dark; where am I; wait, okay, okay, I work at a BPO in night-shift; pick up cab comes at 8 pm; small graces - pick-up and drop facility; at work by 9 pm; what I talk gets taped; good god there are girls/boys at office; i get to flirt, at least; it is 5 am; drop off at home by 6 am; who is that - looks like milk-man and paper-wallah; why does the world get up in the morning; okay let me go to sleep; have to get up, have lunch and then go back to sleep. Fuck My Life.

=4 am; market place; i have to choose vegetables carefully so that i can sell off everything by evening; don't get good quality stuff these days; anyways, hope i can sell off all of these vegetables; 7.30 am out with the cart; why do people bargain; they look rich, why can't they pay what i want; today looks like a good day; by 12 noon all sold off; good; have to prepare for my fruit cart by 5 pm. how much cash - INR 300; after paying interest to the money lender, looks like today, the family can have meals; hopefully, the money from fruits will take care of education of kids; hopefully.

= I go in a chauffer driven car; i am the boss; good bank balance; foreign trips; my story is a little different; Better I think, as people in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World are programmed to think.
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Parents of these people, including mine, would not have put much thought before getting us into the world. That is how it has been, is, and perhaps, will be. People beget people.

Life, for most of us, is too much of physical work. There is loads of mental pressure as well. Life almost borders on suffering.

The Buddha said this many aeons ago.

Money or Love

2010-06-09T22:01:00.000+05:30

Love needs expression. Else, it cannot be felt; it cannot be measured. Words and Actions are the ~~principal~~ only sources of expression. Telling someone " I Love You" is words; how you tell how much you love someone can determine the measure. Touch is action. How you touch can determine the measure. Giving a gift is action. What kind of gift can determine the measure.

In fact, love can be expressed more in action (loosely, giving) than through words (loosely, saying). Giving is mostly a function of money. It is almost impossible to keep saying " I love you" all the time and manage a love relationships. Even when one is poetic and is impressive, it is difficult to manage just by saying. Love needs to be supported by action - protecting, supporting, providing needs, convenience, comfort, and luxuries.
The more the money, the higher the chances of protecting and providing. It is easier to understand money than love because money can be measured. Since love needs money for most part of its expression, it is easer to choose someone having money than love.

PS:
-From the day of marriage, it is irrelevant whether the person you married was already in love with you or was a stranger. From marriage, details take over, which is consistently overlooked in pre-marriage love.

The Art of Choosing

2010-06-07T21:15:00.000+05:30

- Two dogs each contained in a room (and cannot escape) are subjected to electric shock. Both suffer. One dog has access to switch that can put off the electric supply. This dog learns to switch off. Everytime, shock is supplied, the dog which has learnt, switches off. The other one suffers. Later, when the same dogs are put in a room where escape is possible are again subjected to electric shock, the one that has learnt to switch off, escapes. The other one does not escape, when escape was obviously possible.

- In a Zoo, Zebras are put in a protected segment quite safe from lions, which are put in another segment. But the zebras can smell the lions. They are not sure where the lions are and when the lions would attack. But they realize they cannot escape. Zebras suffer emotionally thinking they could be attacked any time. That they are safe and lions cannot attack them is not known to them. (to think of it, this fact is actually irrelevant)

A couple of examples (language mine) from various such examples given in the brilliant book The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar.

How is our life different?

Many of us become like the dog that had choice to escape but refused to exercise its choice, because it felt that it does not have choice and its choice would not reduce its suffering. We may not realize, but, many times, we give up our ability to choose. We silently suffer in our situation.

Many of us are like the Zebras too. We can, within organization / personal context, sense fear many times, but not sure when / whence it would come and if we ever can escape. That our fears are not necessarily based on reality is not particularly relevant.

PS: Will try and capture more learnings from this book

Complications

2010-06-01T19:15:00.000+05:30

Complications - a brilliant book by Dr Atul Gawande. He takes us through various cases where there was unbearable pain, suffering and in some cases loss.

- some girl all of 18 going to get wisdom teeth pulled and dying because of incorrect process during anaesthesia (the oxygen tube was put in oesophagus instead of trachea)

- someone suffering from excruciating back pain. Doctors not able to identify any physical cause. Consequently, no cure

- another woman had to suffer extreme nausea for over 6 months during her pregnancy. Could not eat or drink or sometimes breathe without vomiting. No cure or care worked.

He discusses many more cases where pain, suffering and loss were more extreme.

Yet, yet, it will be difficult for me (or for anyone) to compare with these and think that my problem is insignifiant compared to these. My problem is as big to me as cancer is to a person who is afflicted with it.

Life is about I/me. And this is how it is.

ISB and Masochism

2010-05-27T19:09:00.004+05:30

Just because I am an ISB alumnus does not mean that I will not speak things that are wrong about ISB or being its alumnus. As with every system, it has its merits and demerits.

Suffice it to say, ISB alumni mail group is the lowest point of being ISB alumnus. People send requests like these

- can you give me some milk man name / phone number in Andheri area
- can you please share ISB website address
- will someone know what is the spelling of pithecanthropus erectus
- I want to know about stock markets. Give it, gyan
- I am traveling to Timbaktu for 40 seconds. I would like to meet with any alums loitering around
- I want to know about X. If you are expert at this, call me. Feel Free. I won't mind.

Ok, ok. Some are exaggeration, but never far off the truth. Masochist that I am, I continue to subscribe to this mail group.

PS:
-Lest my ISB colleagues should tear me apart, if chance offered me to go back 5 years, I would still go to ISB.
- Consider this - If you get lazy, even sex becomes boring and difficult.

Mileage out of death

2010-05-22T17:18:00.001+05:30

Accident happened; lives are lost. Families will suffer - both emotionally and financially. Government has announced, in a manner which beats logic as I had written before, INR 2 lac compensation for the families of those who died and INR 50000/- for those injured.

Most of the rest is empty talk. And some are outright gibberish. All illustrated below -

@LalitKModi- My thoughts and prayers for all the families affected by the Mangalore plane crash..extremely sad news.
@srbachchan - T5 - I wrote about excess and balance on my blog last night.. Is the plane tragedy God's way of balancing ..?? Sad and disturbed
@sachin_rt - Woke up to hear abt the plane tragedy in Mangalore. My heart goes out to all the family members of the people who hv lost their lives
@mandybedi - Shattering news. Very few survivors. My thoughts and prayers for the passengers who have passed on and their family members.
@sardesairajdeep - passenger list confirms that we are a country of amar,akbar, anthony. death knows no religion.
-sad, sad morning. It looks like this will be india's worst air tragedy (he hasn't checked the facts)
@bdutt - horrid horrid horrid. there is something about an air crash that reminds you of your insignificance in the universe

More rubbish @twitter. There are some sane voices too.

My life; My time

2010-05-20T22:43:00.000+05:30

My life = My time (derived through the number of years I live)

But how can I call it my time, when much of it is given to organization. Good parts go in ritual, dogma, living up to society's expectations. Good part is already gone putting up with instructions from everyone. And god forbid other parts may go in not so good health and suchlike.

Where is my time? Where is my life?

Comparisons are odious

2010-05-20T22:14:00.000+05:30

When parents pick on their kid and say look at Bunty, how well he is swimming without being afraid of water, and you!; the kid could retort - look at you both, your genes and upbringing.

Comparisons do not say a thing. Two lives are different. Details make them different - genes, circumstances, and experiences.