Confused Soul

Generally my blog entries contain pictures and every time I add a picture in my blog I have to give it a thought whether should I place this picture on right or on left or in middle with nothing on left & right. And believe me that it was never an easy decision for me. I have to think about my previous entries, I have to think about that where this picture will create more impact in the post. Many a times I think that picture will suit most in the center of the entry with test surrounding it from everywhere (top, bottom, left, right) but unfortunately blogger doesn't provide us that option. Also I always give a thought that as there are ads on the right side of the blog so picture may get lost if I will put it in the right; that's the reason I didn't put a picture on the RHS of any entry.(if I'm recalling it correctly)

Most of you must be thinking that why I am writing all this. Have I gone mad or excessive crazy about pic position in a blog entry or blah, blah, blah... but I want to make a point here that left exist only because right is there, right exist only because left is there and center has no meaning if right and left are not there (some crazy people are currently thinking to post a comment that center exist with top and bottom also or with other extremes) and this is the case not only with the left right and center but with many other things like emotions, feeling, results etc. I can describe everything here but I believe that you guys are mature enough to find what I want to make.

On the final notes, I would like to say that always remember that these things are relative and always keep changing. For example, a sorrow cause for you sometimes may be a moment of joy for another time. So never loose your heart and always try to look at brighter side. There is a good thought given by a bollywood flick: JO HOTA HAI, ACHCHE KE LIYE HOTA HAI...

I always think that why I started reading if I'm not a reader type of person who can sit for long with a book in his hand. Infact, I am a person who is very much responsive to the events happening in his surroundings. Whenever I don't find anything happening I get fidgety or you can say that I get fidgety when I'm bored. I ponder too much on trivial stuff which is really a waste of time actually. I love faffing or you can say that a bunch of people (including me) in my company push themselves to faff just to get relax or to steal a moment of entertainment from their busy/boring schedule.

So the question was that why I started reading? Once, I was talking from one of my colleagues and we shared (actually only he questioned and I answered) our views regarding our colleagues. When I responded to his question about many people surround, I wondered that I noticed so much about my colleagues and that too correct as per his feedback. He was surprised to see that being that observant, why I waste time in silly things and why I don’t do something meaningful. We discussed many more things and somehow we reached to an unanimous conclusion that I should learn how to step into other’s shoes. How to think as your counterpart in a conversation. I was told that one reason that I don't like reading books is that I am not able to step myself into author's shoes. But once I learn the art of align my thinking with other’s, I will learn a lot. I told him that I had read some books and liked them too like 'FIVE POINT SOMEONE'. But then I was made realized that I liked that book because that is a story of someone like me. For that book, I didn’t need not to derail my think to catch the author's mindset. And then I decided to start reading as much as I can. This will help me in multiple manners, first I will learn to step in other's (author's) shoes, and secondly I can spend my time in something fruitful rather than faffing and wondering all around. That was one of the main reasons of my starting reading. But still I have a long way to go as currently I am on only for story books/novels. I still need to learn how to read other books. But whatever I'm reading, I'm loving that.

Simple study:

The study, though oversimplified compared to real life, was instructive. Keysar and his colleagues arranged two blocks on a table so participants could see both. However, a piece of cardboard bstructed the view of one block so a "director," sitting across from the participant, could only see one block.

When the director asked 20 American participants (none of Asian descent) to move a block, most were confused as to which block to move and did not take into account the director's perspective. Even though they could have deduced that, from the director's seat, only one block was on the table.

Most of the 20 Chinese participants, however, were not confused by the hidden block and knew exactly which block the director was referring to. While following directions was relatively simple for the Chinese, it took Americans twice as long to move a block.

"That strong, egocentric communication of Westerners was nonexistent when we looked at Chinese," Keysar said. "The Chinese were very much able to put themselves in the shoes of another when they were communicating."

I appeal everyone to learn to step into other's shoes. I am in the learning process and I think that for being successful one needs to master this art. All great men are great because they know how to step in their customer's shoes. By customer, I mean the user of your product and policies. If a government can't step in the shoes of its citizen then it's the siren of collapse of the nation. If a businessman can't step in the shoes of its customers/buyers then it will never succeed. If an author can't feel the nerve of the readers he can never be successful and there are many other examples... I found one of the ways of learning this art as reading and want to encourage everyone for this. If you can device any other way then please let me know.

I received a forwarded mail from one of my friend in an MNC. The forwarded mail was a discussion thread on their internal common mailing list. Though it's a bit late to blog it as I've got it last month-end, still I found it too interesting to blog. Please go through the mail below and read from BOTTOM TO TOP to understand how s/w guys made a conclusion.

Note: I've deleted the actual names of person and mailing list.

Not much of a worry since someone will teach us how to print money so the concept of a job becomes redundant.

From: PersonB
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 8:30 PM
To:
Subject: RE: Anybody has a webcam in office that I can use now

I was kinda wondering about that as well. What if we just ‘teach’ our customers how to code applications?

From: PersonA
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 8:25 PM
Subject: RE: Anybody has a webcam in office that I can use now

Going by your Chinese proverb, it sould be enough if someone teaches you the theory behind a webcam's working and manufacture! ;)

Sorry, couldn't help it! :)

From: PersonX
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 7:11 PM
Subject: Anybody has a webcam in office that I can use now

Anybody has a webcam in office that I can use now?

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"
Chinese proverb

It isn't very long since I finished another novel by Preethi Nayar, "100 Shades of white", and I found it too good to avoid. The writing style is totally different from my earlier readings and I found it quite interesting. It never happened that I got attached with the book in first few pages but this was how I felt with this one. Altogether it’s a book which needs time, you can’t read it on a jet speed but if you want to really enjoy the book, you need to give time to it.

It's the story of a woman, who struggles from her birth to her entire life. It's the story of a woman who calls her son as her brother for her entire life. It's the story of a woman who is always in search of peace and truth. It’s the story of a man who agrees on 50000 pounds for not seeing his children again. It's the story of a boy who becomes responsible in very early age. It's the story of unconditional love as well as false love. It’s the story of rain, the pickles and the attachment of spices and cookery art with emotions in life.

This is a story, which teaches us to forgive, which teaches us to show/feel gratitude. On the other hand, it teaches us anger and hate too but later it washes away all the stains of anger and hate with gratitude and love. This is the story to show acceptance. This story tells us that life never punishes us but teaches us to let go, let go of all our fears or fears will become us. This is the story full of emotions, emotions of a daughter, a brother, a mother, a wife, a man who handle all situations carefully, a man who know how to handle the truth and a man who is coward and many others.

When I was reading this, people kept asking what you were reading those days and when I told them that I was reading '100 shades of white' by Preethi Nayar, everyone of them used to make faces. Though most of them were avid readers, none had heard the name of the book or author earlier. But I really loved this novel and suggest everyone to read this.

I was reading BigB's blog 15 minutes back and stunned to see the post which he wrote today. It was more of a defensive article in reply to a editorial post by 'Yamini Lohia' in 'The Times of India' dated May 19th, 2008.

I have written a post on my blog on May 18th, 2008 and glad to see that the same thing was present in national news papers on very next day. I'm not saying Yamini Lohia was inspired by my blog but it always feels good to see that you did it before anyone else. Please find my blog entry here and a scanned image of the the editorial entry by Yamini is presented below:

This is the story of golden journey (at least till 1980 it was golden) of INDIAN HOCKEY in Olympics... time passes and we slipped from Gold to fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and finally could not even qualify :( Eleventh place at the World Cup, no medals in the 2006 Commonwealth and Asian Games and a failure to qualify for Olympics for the first time in the history of the games were some of the shockers that came to the Indian Hockey in recent past. Who is responsible for this all; Indian Hockey Federation, players, decreasing popularity of Hockey or increasing craze for Cricket?

Even after one of the biggest bollywood hit of 2007 “CHAK DE INDIA”, which is solely based on indian women’s hockey, the women hockey team met the same fate as men’s; failed to qualify for Olympics… The movie, which has revived the state of many games (remember, India has won 20-20 world cup in cricket after shameful performance in 2008 ODI world cup just after this movie) and gave India is new sport anthem “Chak de India!!!” couldn’t do any wonder for Indian Hockey, which it was targeted to. Though a come back performance in Azlan Shah Hockey tournament gave a sigh of relief but it is not enough. India has to perform at bigger stages to regain its lost pride in world hockey.

So what is the reason for all this? If we look back then we can see that a dictator is in the centre of this all; KPS gill has acquired the IHF chief post almost 15 years back and the downfall of Indian Hockey has begun around that time frame. Under KPS Gill, Indian hockey plunged to new lows. More than 15 coaches were sacked, incidents of violence in domestic hockey saw a rise and performance on the field was shocking to say the least. And that was not enough; IHF secretary, Jothikumaran, was caught on camera taking a bribe to induct a player into the team.

Finally, IOA (Indian Olympic Association) opened its eyes and sacked Mr. KPS Gill and Jothikumaran to save Indian Hockey. Not only this, it suspended IHF and appointed a new 5 members committee to take care of Indian Hockey. Actually, I’m not sure whether IOA took this step willingly or under the threat of International Hockey Federation, which threatened to take away India’s right to host the 2010 World Cup unless stern action was taken.

As India is showing a better performance J… can we expect from this new committee including some big names of Indian hockey, such as Dhanraj Pillay, Ajit Pal Singh, Zafar Iqbal and Ashok Kumar to reform Indian Hockey and regaining its lost spot in world hockey? Let’s hope for the best…At this moment we can say only one thing:

CHAK DE INDIA!!!

Today, I got a mail , which was nothing more than a general office time forward. But I liked that mail and the consequences in that mail remind me a part from the movie "Life in a ... Metro". I've attached the clip of that part and that gives an illustration of real time management :D

Here is the mail I got:

From: Akash Agrawal
Sent: 15 May 2008 16:46
Subject: Deadlock Explained ... Can't be simpler than this
Importance: Low

Boss said to secretary: For a week we will go abroad, so make arrangements.

Secretary makes call to her husband: For a week my boss and I will be going abroad, you look after yourself.

Husband makes call to his secret lover: My wife is going abroad for a week, so let’s spend the week together.

Secret lover makes call to small boy whom she is giving private tuition: I have work for a week, so you need not come for class.

Small boy makes call to his grandfather: Grandpa, for a week I don't have class 'coz my teacher is busy. Let’s spend the week together.

Grandpa (the 1st boss ;) ) makes call to his secretary: This week I am spending my time with my grandson. We cannot attend that meeting.

Secretary makes call to her husband: This week my boss has some work, we cancelled our trip.

Husband makes call to his secret lover: We cannot spend this week together, my wife has cancelled her trip.

Secret lover makes call to small boy whom she is giving private tuition: This week we will have class as usual.

Small boy makes call to his grandfather: Grandpa, my teacher said this week I have to attend class. Sorry I can't give you company

Grandpa (Boss) makes call to his secretary: Don't worry this week we will attend that meeting, so make arrangements

This is called deadlock

“If I am a hypocrite because I draw my salary from the Parliament of India and I still criticise India for the excesses in my state - so be it.”…” I have an uncle who more often than not I disagree with but I admire the conviction he has - he disagrees with what happened in 1947 and subsequent events and so refuses to carry a passport.” –Omar Adbullah, National Conference president in his blog

“Shah Rukh is licking my feet and I am feeding him biscuits every now and then. What more can I ask for?” Aamir Khan in his blog

Amitabh’s comparison of himself with Shahrukh in his blog

All this are indicating that blogging is becoming a new mantra for celebrities to remain in news. If there is no other reason to be in news, so what??? Write a spicy blog entry which draws everyone’s attention and you won’t suffer any dilemma of running out of publicity. Today, when there are less news about politics or glamour world (Bollywood) because of IPL and Jaipur blasts, people found new tricks to remain in news. All the chaos started after Big B started his Big Blog. Aamir woke up from a long sleep to update his blog…Omar Abdullah started a blog and there may be many other celebrities who have started their blog but they still owe to have a much hyped entry.

Is blog for all this controversy or for the mud-splashing on each other? I thought that a blog is for expressing what one thinks or to share knowledge or for anything but articulated view to gain publicity or political advantage. Are we doing the right things by writing these types of blogs? Are these entry targeted to tell the truth to world? Is there no motive for gaining fake publicity? What ever the answer to these questions but one thing is sure that blogging is rapidly gaining popularity for attracting publicity…

Finally, I started hitting the gym again. Though it was pending since long, my laziness didn’t allow me to go there. But today was the evening; I dominated over Mr. Lazy…

• 1.6 Kms over treadmill
• 510 strides
• 3 rounds of dumbbells
• A little weight-lifting

Look at the scoreboard at the top and you will feel that cricket is no longer a game between two teams but it is spreading it’s wing to accommodate three teams in a single match. And ironically poor Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t get a chance to bat but they just had to bowl Banglore Royal Challengers followed by Delhi Daredevils. You don’t need to look at this post with puzzled eyes and neither need to Google for ICC new rules. What all you need to do is just to open sports page of ‘Times of India’, May 14^th 2008, New Delhi edition and everything will get cleared to you.

I am writing this post not to criticize TOI editors for this single mistake but to open their eyes (as if they are reading this post) towards the increasing mistakes (read blunders) day by day. I generally read just Sports page along with Front page and sometimes have a glimpse of Business pages also and thanks to TOI editors, I daily encounter a lot of TYPOs.

Let’s have a look at some more mistakes in that very article mentioned above.

“With local lad LR Shukla doing the star turn in the end, picking up three overs in the only over he got.”

“Ishant Sharma went for 11 in the next over, orange cap-holder Gautam Gambhir doing the damage, but the belligerent southpaw was Akhtar’s next victim.”

Unfortunately, I missed yesterday’s match and assumed that Delhi will win it for sure after a heart throbbing bowling performance. When I woke up in the morning the news that Delhi lost was waiting with this type of article and an awesome scoreboard.

Thanks TOI, you taught us how to make guesses every time a TYPO (may be a deliberate one) occurs in your articles.

"At the end of the day, people need to understand that the IPL has a corporate side to it, and a very definitive corporate side. It is not at all cricket in the traditional sense” Vijay Mallya, owner of Banglore Royal Challengers

"You need to construct the team with lesser amount of people and continue with it because it's just delaying matters" Shahrukh Khan, owner of Kolkata Knight Riders

What are these statements and names conveying, is the Indian cricket (read IPL) is being colored in the color of corporatism? Hardcore corporate terms like ‘value for money’, ‘cost cutting’ are being associated with IPL. And why not...Eight companies are vying for top honors in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they have invested millions for it. It was always said that Indian cricket team is not professional but IPL came with so much professionalism (or we must say corporatization) in the game that nobody can forget it. Every player is giving his best b’coz if he won’t he won’t be in for next game and loose money. SHOW-ME-THE-MONEY is becoming the new anthem for international cricket. Do the players play only for money or there is something more than money when they play for their country or club or state? Players make themselves available only to rest on bench so that they don’t loose money.

Now the bad side of IPL emerges; since cricketers are not used to playing under this kind of pressure. A thousand abuses are fine, a million angry words too just to win the game. And if they don’t, they are never averse to try new things like slapping and fistfights also. As the corporate factor is in and they know only one diktat works in the corporate world: perform or perish. Clearly, one man’s (the owner, that is) demands and expectations are more burdensome that a billion’s. The statements came form Mallya, sacking of Charu Sharma and cost cutting by KKR team owner king Khan seal this.

But one thing is to be admitted without hesitation that IPL is a big hit… so big that Rickey Ponting had to appeal to Australians to watch AUS-WI series in place of watching IPL. By this we can assume what a hit IPL is… IPL is based on big money on stack; it is all about money… Hit sixes get money, Take wickets get money, Score runs get money, Bowl economically get money, Score runs get money, Take catches get money … money is everywhere in the air and everyone is running after it.

Since we are talking about MONEY factor in IPL, let’s see what is the return IPL giving to it’s team owners. Obviously Rajstha Royals are on the top after wining 7 out of 9 matches and that too without any star quotient in their team. That is the team with the least expensive players and was the most underrated team at the starting of the series. But it proved that cricket is a game in which a team shouldn’t be judged by the head count of star performers on in record books but with the on field performance, strategy, discipline and dedication.

So if we see at IPL team’s average paisa vasool index (PVI). The PVI is "the amount paid so far to the player" divided by "the player's MVPI (measures a player's "contribution" ) so far (after 27th match)". Players with low PVI values offer the franchise owner a good return on investment.

(Source Rediff.com)

This graph is based on the performance of 10 most expensive players of each team.

Just as we guessed, Rajasthan Royals' top ten players (who receive perhaps 90% of the franchise payouts) are offering the best return. For every "run" (MVPI) contributed by a top RR player the payout is US$ 1338. Royal Challengers Bangalore pays their top ten players about three times more for the same "run"! Perhaps that explains the recent turbulence that the team is witnessing.

So IPL is the format, if a player wants to stay in it and make money out of it. The simple mantra is to perform. If you don’t perform, the doors are open to throw you out. But it made an impact on international cricket; players are ready to quit playing for their country so that they can play for IPL. The money factor of IPL is transforming Cricket form GAME in to BUSINESS. The players are not only loosing match but loosing self respect when they have to witness the RED faces of team owner.

But what the audience want? A masala mixed with game, and IPL is full with masala content. The political touch, cheer girls controversy, slapping issue, mind games, glamor quotient and things like this are contributing equally to make IPL a big hit. Corporate India -- in the form of the new cricket leagues -- is giving it fans all the change they want.

U call it love when u c sum boy/girl and u find them the best of all (actually it’s the likeness of personality)
I cant help u if your love comes and you still feel the same.

U call it love when u wanna give them ur mobile number (actually its fun of increasing ur buddy list)
It may be true, if you just wanna to publicize ur number and doesn't want to talk to him/her. What if you always wanna talk to that person?

U call it love when u impress them by ur funny and decent gestures (actually its nothing but the preparation of taking part in acting)
What if you are ready to do anything just to see a smile on his/her face?

U call it love when u wait to c smile on their faces (its just to make ur self happy that ur not too bad to receive a happy face towards u)
We want some faces never to smile (Sadist me...)

U call it love when u get jealous when u find them laughing or talking with sum one else but not u. (actually it’s the enmity)
What if I address it as a possessive case?

U call it love when wait to get cool remarks from them about ur dressing or style (actually it’s ur habit of hearing lies)
What if you always want the good remarks only from someone special and don't give a damn to others?

U call it love when u r alone in car and wanna sum1 next to u (actually its ur fear of staying alone )
What if you feel alone in the crowd it sum1 is not around?

u call it love when u want some person and he/she calls u at the same time (actually it’s a friend in need concept)
What if you expect the same person everytime ur phone rings?

Eligible Jat boys from Haryana travel 3,000 km across the country to find themselves a bride. With increasingly fewer girls in Haryana, they are seeking brides from as far away as Kerala as the only way to change their single status. The girls have not vanished overnight. Decades of sex determination tests and female foeticide that has acquired genocide proportions are finally catching up with states in India. At least one should think that whom his son will marry if there were boys all around. Girls can’t be produced using sorcery. They are the most beautiful gifts of God and we should look after them our hearts out. Why don’t people think before killing a female fetus that they exist this world because of a woman?

My heart wants to burst every time, I hear that girls are a burden on their parents or one got an abortion because it was a girl or any news like this. When will we grow up? Look around, women are competing with men everywhere. They are not only competing with men but also beating men frequently in many fields. Whether it is technology or business, armed forces or medical, everywhere women are going shoulder to shoulder with men. In every new survey, there is the decreasing sex ratio for women, why??? Where are we heading towards? In a recent survey we got that there are 927 girls per 1000 boys in 0-6 age group. It has declined from 945 per 1000 boys in 1991. The most surprising part of this that the worst ratio doesn’t come form Bihar or UP but it comes form Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Gujrat. I especially want to mention Delhi, which claims it's residents smarter than those of other parts of the country. Delhi has 868 girls per 1000 boys in this particular age group.