sharan's space

what's 'being successful'?

2010-03-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

Try to answer this question: Do you think you have been successful in your life?

If you have come up with a 'No', you ought to read on. If it's a 'Yes', great! But you can still give a shot at this.

Alright, in order to answer the above question, we need to first of all define what success is. And thats not easy. Why? Because success, like happiness, is a very relative term. What's success to me might not be success to you. And that's natural, afetr all every human being has his own ambitions, goals, way of thinking and whatever. But above this phenomenon of individuality, in my opinion, there is a fundamental flaw in the society when it comes to determining success.

And whats that? Its this practice of choosing the wrong paramater to determine if someone has attained success. Wealth is something which takes so much precedence in judging an individual's success. To illustrate, have you ever heard of terms like 'successful social rights activist' or a 'successful professor'? If you have, when was the last time you heard that or how often? Now what about these terms - 'successful businessman', 'successful entrepreneur', even a 'successful politician' ? Everyday, isn't it? For a simple reason that the primary objective of these people is creating wealth while for the former, its about making lives better, creating a betetr tomorrow. But who walks away with the accolade - the 'successful' tag? Ironic it is, and this is beacuse wealth has overshadowed purpose and happiness as the key criterian for determining one's success.

Its not important what you do, its not about how much wealth you manage to amass, its not about all your assets; its about happiness. A poor farmer in a remote hinterland who travels on a bicycle, lives in a hut with his small family but manages to live happily is far more successful in life than a billionaire business magnet sitting in his BMW but is far from being happy. A professor who instills knowledge to his students and creates leaders of tomorrow might not be 'the successful person' you are looking for, but he has served the purpose and he would only be happy to see the fruits of his labour years later.

The bottomline: It's happiness which should determine the success and not anything else. And for that, one needs to learn being content with what they have in their lives. Of course, the hunger to achive should prevail but without adapting the form of obsession, for then the ultimate path to success - happiness would be lost.

Now again, do you think you have been successful in your life?

If you are a politician in India ....

2009-12-16T03:57:00.000-08:00

1) First things first, you need to meet certain criteria.

"After the general election in May a study by the Association for Democratic Reforms, an activist group, found that nearly one third of the 543 members of the national Parliament face pending criminal charges — up 20 per cent on the previous Parliament. The alleged crimes include murder, banditry and kidnapping."

2) Corruption is your birth right. Its natural for you to assume that hard-earned public money is for you to swindle.

"The former Jharkhand chief minister and current MP from Chaibasa in Jharkhand along with his cabinet colleagues are accused of laundering money to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore, almost half of Jharkhand's annual budget, during his tenure as Chief Minister from September 2006 till August 2008."

(The whole story)

3) You can send a bunch of hooligans to launch attacks on a media house if their news updates about you or your party are not 'in line with your expectations'. And trust me, both you and your party will be let scott-free.

4) You can get new states created for you at will. Alternatively, you can stop the same by enacting a mass resignation drive and fueling intense protests. 'Fasts, bundh and road-rail rokos are ready-to-use tools at your disposal.

5) You can dismiss criticisms about your age being a deterrent for effective administration and prove people that you are still 'young' by doing what students at colleges do. Yup, you can bunk sessions at parliament or be late for a session and give ultra-lame excuses about it.

"After the railways, it's the turn of the airlines to share the blame for MPs turning up late in parliament or missing the day's proceedings. A member, who remained absent during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday despite listing a query, demanded change in flight timings to prevent absenteeism in the House. "The flight from Raipur should be a bit early in the morning so that we can reach parliament well before time," he said"

(ref)

6) As you wouldn't have really attended kindergarten, you can experience at the parliament how a typical class at kindergarten would function.

7) You are not subjected to any regulations in land, air or water.

"In a clear-cut violation of the DGCA norms, Mr Singh’s plane took off from the Dumka Airport in Jharkhand with only the headlights of jeeps to guide it through the dark, unlit runway" - more here

... and the list goes on.

These points are based only on events that have happened in the last few months. If you take into account a much longer period, say the whole decade that was, you could probably pick up a million things that politicians can 'achieve' in India.

As yet another new year dawns upon us, we continue to ride on the hope that the current breed of corrupt, inept and incorrigible politicians would cease to rule the roost. But for that to happen, the 500 million strong youngistan has to come into play like never before.

"Will they?"

P.S: All my views are entirely personal in nature and is not born out of any affiliations to any of the political parties.

Creativity, every second!

2009-11-19T22:18:00.000-08:00

It wasn't long before when millions of cricket fans across India were in for a visual treat, ironically, not as much in the game as was in the commercials aired during the course of the games.
No points for guessing, who would have forgot the excitement when they spotted those cute white creatures with their egg-shaped heads - the Zoozoos! The series of commercials from Vodafone to promote their value added services was an instant hit and easily proved to be one of the best Indian ad campaigns of this year.

Well getting into the topic, everyone knows whats happening in the telecom space today - too many players, heating competition, falling tariffs and falling revenues in that order. What still seemed to be a stable industry despite the competition has suddenly crashed over the past couple of months. The trigger - someone 'did the new'! The 'per second billing' system introduced by the Tatas for their GSM service 'Tata Docomo' has prompted every single player in the market, including incumbents like Bharti to follow suit almost immediately. The result - rock bottom tariffs which would translate into a drastic hit in the bottom line for the whole industry. Alright, let me shut the crap on the business side of this!

If developing products is one big challenge, marketing it with effective ad campaigns is another herculean task. Its really interesting to observe how all these players have rendered different angles while approaching their common new product - the 'per second plan'.

Tata Docomo, the first movers, started with a fairly simple commercial in which all the letters in 'Docomo' dance in different styles before finally settling to form the sequence. With a catchy tune in the background, the ad totally achieved its aim of being simple and let the consumers' eyes catch the '1 paise /second' line.

Then came in the industry leader Airtel, again this time with their top brand ambassador SRK, to make a series of commercials which essentially conveyed the message - 'How long does it take to convey something'. This added a 'relationship' dimension to the campaign, which Airtel always brings to the fore along with other elements like 'confidence' and 'belief'.

Soon Aircel, which is eyeing a pan India presence, jumped into the 'per second' fray and looked to grab eyeballs with its latest commercial for the same plan. The key message - 'If we had an option to have only what we need' added a concept of 'necessity', which translates into the consumer's need for only a portion of the typical one minute pulse being offered.

Again came in Docomo, but this time with an advert created with a perspective. The message 'When life can change in seconds, why pay in minutes?' brings the dimension of 'Time' along with it. Through through this, the campaign sticks to its objective of keeping the consumers focussed on the 'per second' phenomenon ,the overall approach seems a little irrelevant.

And the last one to join the bandwagon, Vodafone, has come up with yet another brilliant series of commercials where the message 'A little can convey a lot' lends a new dimension of effectiveness, strength or power. The ad where a son who comes home late at night is greeted 'Good morning' by his dad certainly packs the punch!

Fascinating to see how creativity can manifest itself in different forms by just looking at the different dimensions (relationships, strength, necessity, etc) explored to underline the same concept. Well its good news that the tariff war in the industry has not only augured well for the consumers, but also set the country's best creative minds ringing!

The recession hit auto-wallahs

2009-07-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

Well, what started as a burst of the housing bubble in the U.S has finally resulted in a cash strapped wallet of an auto driver in Chennai. This is perhaps one of the best examples of globalization and its impact along with the R-word.

The background: A couple of days back, I took an auto from adayar to my office. The driver started off the topic by asking 'sir, neenga IT a?'! I was taken by surprise when he suddenly asked that and said 'no, something similar to that'. And the conversation followed:

Driver: Intha IT vandhapram daily savari super a poitrundhuchu sir.. oru naalaiku 30-40 trip adikarom..
Me: oh!
Driver: aana ippo konjam maasama avlo savari illa sir .. 10 trip vandhaale perusa iruku.. IT le ellam neraya pera velaya vittu thookarangalaame?
Me: yes.. (waiting for his next question)
Driver: apdi evlo pera sir thookuvaanga?
Me: neraya peruku vela poirku .. plus salary cuts vera ..
Driver: epdi sir thidirnu IT ku intha nelama? IT kaaranga than panakkarangalaache sir.. Tata company kuda kashtapaduthaa sir?
Me: (Wondered at TCS's rich reputation even with auto drivers!) uhh.. actual a world full a ve ella companies um kashta pattutu irukanga ippo.. IT nu illa..
Driver: yen sir? panam illaya?
Me: (the driver was good-natured - could decipher that in his way of speech and he wasn't drunk either.. so I went on to enlighten him on the R-word :P)
uhhh.. kitta thatta apdi than nu vechukangalen ..America la oru prachana.. athanaala avanga company lam adi vangiduchu.. namma ooru company lam avanga company a nambirkarthu naala ingayum problem ..
Driver: Yen sir government help pannatha?
Me: (Ah! you are on track! All the TARPs and bail-out packages!) Pannitu than irukku .. aana evlo panam than avanga kudupaanga .. avanga gajaana gali aidum la
Driver: hmmm.. government note adikalaame sir? extra panam vandhudum la?
Me: (Again bang on! He was talking around monetary or quantitative easing) Pannalam .. aana atha oru level ku mela panna mudiyaathu.. apram panathoda mathippu koranjidum.. vela vaasi lam eridum .. (was trying to explain inflation to him :P)
Driver: Eppo sir ithellam seri aagum?
Me: (Ha! A $mn dollar question for which the whole world is searching for an answer!)
hmmm .. innum oru varshathukkulla seri aidum nu ethirpaakaranga (what else can i say! :P)

And as I reached the office, I wondered about the flip side of globalization. Not so long ago, discussions on globalization often ended on a pro-globalization note with the only negative being brought out being the cultural shift. But this school of thought now needs a re-think!

All said and done, I am not against globalization. But the point I just wanted to make is that its not all that rosy! 'When the America sneezes, the whole world catches cold' they say! How true this has proved to be! Well, its just a small world you see! ;)

The Fascinating cosmic cycles

2009-06-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Disclaimer: I am not being religious here. I am not even being spiritualistic. I am just penning down some fascinating things that I had come across recently.

I do not know how it all started. It was well past 11 at night. My sleep was spoilt by intermittent power cuts. And all of a sudden, I started wondering about existence – existence of you, me, the towns, the hills, the rivers, and the Almighty himself. I haven’t read much scientifically about the creation and destruction of universe though I am pretty much aware of basic stuff like the Big Bang theory, etc etc. Recently, I came across some interesting explanations based on Hindu cosmology.

According to the ancient Puranas of Hindu Mythology, there are basically four yugas (epoch) - Satya yuga, Treta yuga, Dwapara yuga and the Kali yuga. Many of us would know that we presently live in the Kali yuga. A cycle of these 4 yugas together is called the ‘Maha Yuga’. A 1000 maha-yugas constitute a ‘Kalpa’ which is equivalent to one day or one night in Brahma’s life. Hence 2 Kalpas make a day and a night for Brahma (one Brahma day). Brahma’s life-span is believed to be 100 Brahma years (1 brahma year = 360 brahma days).

Now, coming back to the starting point, all these 4 yugas have a specific duration of existence:
Satya – 17,28,000 human years
Treta – 12,96,000 human years
Dwapara – 8,64,000 human years
Kali – 4,32,000 human years

So going forward,

1 Maha yuga = Satya + Treta + Dwapara + Kali = 43,20,000 or 4.32 million human years
1 Kalpa = 1000 Maha yugas = 1000 * 4.32 million = 4.32 billion years
1 Brahma day = 2 Kalpas = 2 * 4.32 billion = 8.64 billion years
1 Brahma year = 360 * 1 Brahma day = 360 * 8.64 billion = 3.11 trillion years
Brahma’s life-span = 100 Brahma years = 311 trillion years

So according to the Puranas, the life-span of the universe is 311 trillion years (since its believed that its Brahma who creates the universe). We are now supposed to be in the 1st day of the 51st year of Brahma’s life-span., which means that the universe is more than 150 trillion years old. But according to the scientific school of thought, the universe is hardly 14 billion years old. Where did the calculations go wrong? I am knowleadgeable by no means to challenge the ancient Puranas or the modern-day discoveries. But this leaves me with something to ponder about!

Back to what the Puranas say, another interesting phenomenon is the gradual changes that are believed to occur yuga after yuga. Refer to the table below.

* indicates that 100% of the people were righteous in the satya yuga, 75% in treta yuga and so on…

I am fascinated by this 4:3:2:1 ratio. In fact the names of the yugas themselves indicate these numbers (in Sanskrit). I am partly convinced that the righteousness of people might be the root cause for the other factors. When there was more truth and righteousness, there were far less negatives – people tend to be bigger in stature and lived longer. But I am stuck at the fact that the number of avatars or incarnations taken by Lord Vishnu has been reducing in the same ratio over the four yugas. Ideally, one would expect the number to increase with more and more disorder on earth. I wish someone could answer me!

It is believed that at the end of each Kali yuga, there is a large destruction of life – destruction of all the evil forces (since by the end of Kali, its believed that there will be only a handful of good people around). After this destruction, the next maha-yuga begins – another satya yuga rolls on. Similarly, at the end of each alternate Kalpa, there is a pralaya (massive deluge). It is believed that this occurs after each brahma day time i.e the first kapla of a brahma day. No life exists during the second kalpa i.e Brahma’s night and then a fresh lease of life begins on the next day Kalpa. This activity is repetitive until the end of Brahma’s life-span. At its end, the whole universe – the earth, all heavens and the hells get destoyed. And there is belief that a new Brahma emerges from the lotus yet again to kickstart this cycle of creation and destruction.

Well, I am poor at coming up with good conclusions but still I feel I need to put in a couple of lines.

You might believe all this or simply shrug it off. Even I am not sure that I am convinced. But the whole science is amazing. Truth or not, possible or impossible, it is certainly enthralling to know one gripping perspective on existence.

Lifeline of CEG - the good old canteen

2009-03-20T05:34:00.001-07:00

Its time to get nostalgic yet again! I wish I wouldn't but somehow the feeling creeps in inadvertently. I had to go to our college today to get my TC and ended up having my lunch in the good old canteen. The moment I entered the place, all those memories were back! Finishing off the first hour assessment and rushing to the canteen for breakfast (was laughing at how I used to finish the test in the first 1/2 hour and use the remaining time for my breakfast :P) , those lunches after sweating out in the tail like queue (and that knack of looking for our frenz who were already in the front;)), those snacks in the evening after countless games of cricket before the hostel and the dinners in the open at the night canteen after an enjoyable long walk from the hostel :) And ofcourse, the special occasions - the TREATs!! how can we forgot those !!

Well, we dint have an air-conditioned food court, neither did we have those plastic cards, nor the 'sodexho's .. yet we relished the food and enjoyed ourselves! Those moments will be etched in our hearts forever :) Hail CEG, hail the canteen :D

From 21,206 to 7,400

2009-03-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

21,206 to 7,400 .. the riches to rags story of the Indian stock market! .. who would have thought abt this on the 8th of jan, 2008?! People were talking about the benchmark sensex breaching the 30,000 levels by the year end and the so called experts even gave guidance to 40,000 and above in the next three years! .. And the rest is history..

People's wealth have been eroded by more than 60%. Companies saw their stock prices crashing, export sensitive sectors the worst hit among them. FIIs started pulling back and investor confidence is at an all time low. All this in a span of 12 months.

Probably people should take a few lessons moving from here on. Firstly, avoiding the herd mentality. 'If my friend had invested in the equity market and made stunning annualized returns of 30%, let me too pour all my wealth into it'! Investors who thought this way and took a plunge around end 2007 might be the worst hit at the moment. The thumb rule is to look at your investment goals and horizon and plan accordingly; don't follow the herd blindly! But strangely, ppl don't seem to have learnt enough, seeing the way they are running after gold in the recent 2-3 months. Yes, they might get handsome returns in the short run but even this rally has to meet an end sooner or later. Secondly, expecting returns in a very short time frame. Half the reason for this huge fall is panic selling. This again happens because ppl do not look at a long term horizon when investing in equity. Investors should be educated about the basic fact that equity gives unmatchable returns only in the long run. Yes, making good profits is possible in a short time frame, but only in the case of a strong bull run such has what occurred between 2003 and 2007.

Well, all said and done, lets hope that the market recovers at the earliest and ppl resort to wise means of investing in the future. After all the India story has just begun ;)

The pains of pricing

2009-03-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Know what.. after the likes of McD, Pizza hut and KFC, a new international food chain has opened shop at the Ascendas IT park. Yup, international by pricing but not by quality! The outlet is called 'Saravana Bhavan'!!

Probably they should be looking at altering the format of their menu card.. say plain dosa $1, meals $2, spl parotta $1.5, etc.. (by the way, these are not random numbers but are indicative prices of their items! )I always wonder how these guys decide the prices of the items they sell.. Take any item, it costs almost twice the rates in a normal veg restaurant.. and guess what! I sincerely believe that despite all this, they have captured a huge market share in the food court affecting the likes of Pathankot, sans kitchen, etc upon which ppl were dependent on indian meals earlier.. Probably those tiny colourful leaflets with denominations of money are to be blamed!

I strongly feel that some sense needs to be put into their heads at some point of time .. Though no stringent pricing norms can be enforced, there should be some regulation coming into effect before they probably step up to pricing in dinars!

The Will to succeed

2008-07-25T01:05:00.001-07:00

One hot june afternoon,my cell phone's tone jarred amidst the hustle of heavy traffic on the road. 'I secured 9th rank over all in the Pondicherry University entrance exams!! just wanted to inform you saran'said the excited voice. It was my friend Muruganandam who had just cracked the entrance exams to pursue his masters in English Literature in Pondicherry Univ. He was elated, and why wouldn't he be for he had chased his dreams perfectly!.. The joy was transparent in his voice, and so was the will,the will to succeed in life!

Sometimes I think about the words 'perseverance' and 'determination', and how their influence varies from person to person. Most of us at some point or the other feel contented with what we have achieved. The determination is gone with the wind! But Muruganandam proves to be an exception ...'There is no such thing called success, you just failed to reach higher'reads a quote,how true!!

Muruganandam had completed his Bachelors degree in arts a month back, he would have got some job for sure to earn his bread but he chose not to stop there! He aspires to pursue his masters in a good institute and take up the profession of a lecturer and extend helping hands to people like him..

Muruganandam knows me for the last two months when I was reading for him to prepare for his entrance exams.. Yes,Muruganandam can only recognize my voice for God has given him the challenge of living life without the comfort of visual perception!.. He remembered my small deed of scribing for him in his exam and took care that i was the first one to be informed about his remarkable feat!.. I was almost moved to tears ..

I thought at that moment,they are absolutely normal people and we,certainly the challenged lot !!

A game might lose its way !

2008-05-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

The red swinging ball , grassy surface, fast and bouncy tracks, overcast conditions, nine fielders, yes, nine of them around the bat and a deadly seam bowler bowling at a horrified batsman. Ya ! this game was called cricket long back. The batsman's ability to defend his wicket amidst all that happening against him was applauded; he was called the true batsman. Passing years saw the evolution of modern day cricket gradually. The white ball generation had begun, teams were given only a limited number of overs to prove themselves and suddenly there was a sense of urgency added to the game.

After almost 30 years, yet another form of cricket was born... this time more challenging, much improved and of course much shorter.. the 3 hour micro version of the game was developed by the England cricket board to enhance the patronage for domestic cricket . . Soon the game gained international recognition and today it has brought every tom,dick and harry before the television sets.

But the million dollar question : Does this format help the game and its development?... There had been debates all around the world and even the BCCI had once ruled out India playing in T20 matches ! But not for long,though ... One can't deny that this format carries a lot of entertainment quotient along with it .. Quick runs, more sky-high shots, music on the grounds, cheerleaders swaying to the beats- its all happening there !!... But cricket ?? is it still what it used to be ? Can a heavy slog down to mid wicket for six compensate for an elegantly timed front footed cover drive for four through a packed off-side field ?? Where have the drives gone? .. Of course I do agree that T20 is not all about slogging and it involves good cricketing shots as well.. Still.. Where is the time to play the strokes you have in your repertoire ?? You may argue saying that test cricket is still played and all these things still do happen.. But for how long? .. With the advent of limited over games, test cricket slowly started losing its patronage and now with T20 emerging, even 50 - over games might not prove attractive anymore !..

I strongly opine that T20 must be set aside for a particular season .. You can witness entertaining cricket, the cheerleaders dancing for your teams, foreign stars playing for your local sides and all that !.. But only for a period of the year.. rest of the time must be devoted to cricket and quality cricket, to be precise !...

Anyway, hail the Superkings !! :P

The season of slam books . . .

2008-05-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

Exactly three years and nine months earlier, I was entering the monumental portals of an institution, excited, amazed and thrilled. There were a few qualms about what was in the offing in the next four years of my life. As i whizzed past the gates of the age old institution, the huge central building painted in aesthetic red and hosting a giant clock, stood majestically beckoning me. My adrenalin got going for i felt a strange sense of excitement in the air. Now i knew that i was stepping into a different world altogether with more challenges ahead.

'Was it a dream?' , i asked myself not before realizing that it is sheer reality which my mind refuses to take in. Yes, almost four years had passed in a jiffy ( or does it appear so ?!)... Its not the case only with me;many people, i bet, would be pondering over that question. It was semester no 8 - we entered the last 5 months of our 'undergraduate campus life', which arguably is deemed as the best part in any individual's life. All of a sudden, bizarre and freakish thoughts crept in, ' Are we gonna have this anymore??'... Our mind knew the bitter answer though its obviously quite hard to reply in the negative.

Come the end of final exams, you witness sights of students exchanging slam books, involving themselves in hour - long chat sessions in oblivion and of course snapping up shots of the campus along with their best pals. The urge to make the most of the last few days of campus life makes even the 'geekest' of geeks go crazy and indulge themselves in all sorts of fun, which they would have termed as a 'mere waste of time' until a couple of months back. ( No offence meant ! :P) .. Yes. its this scintillating magic that the campus had created in our lives, relishable and of course unforgettable.

This campus has brought about a lot of transformations in me .. i am able to feel that i am no longer what i used to be .. (in a positive sense ! :D ). Last but not the least, i ought to thank people who have made my college life more colorful than ever before .. Life @ CEG has certainly been a mixed bag for me and without those people, i wouldn't have stood against all the odds..

I know i could have given a much better beginning to this blog.. still i prefer to begin with the end.. an end which when recollected some ten years down the lane would send a sharp yet sweet nostalgic feeling into our hearts...
Well.for now,lets enjoy this season of slam books !!

Something about Sharan

2008-05-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

Well to begin with, I'm a fun loving ,kinda happy-go-lucky guy. I dont like to take anything too heavily.. Thats how i look at life... Like people who have a very good sense of humour.. Have a great passion for music.. Like to travel a lot, meet new people and get to know different cultures and languages ... Wildlife and motorcycle touring are my growing interests of late ... Hmmm.. guess that quite sums up about me :)