Lost Love

Good Old Days Case 1: A small kid , innocence personified from his face, sitting on the rod of his father's bicycle in the hot sun at the railway crossing, waits for minutes for train to arrive. The train arrives, very anxiously moves his head left to right, either trying to read the train start and destination station, or trying to count the number of coaches the engine is pulling. He loves it.

New Generation Case 1: A unhappy man , stressed visible on face, stand at the railway crossing in his air conditioned car, soft music being played on the high class ( you may read cost!) music player, waits impatiently for the train to arrive. Every second increases the stress level, watches time every second (as if that will make train come fast). Train arrives and he is irritated by the sound produced by the train passing by. He is more irritated, angry at fellow overtaking him once the railway crossing is opened.


Good Old Days Case 2: Small Kid reaches school and finds that his friend has not been able to do the home work. It is the same friend who stands second on the class. He knows if he finishes home work, then this kid will loose his rank. Small kids, shares his notes and asks him to copy the homework from his note book. Heart of both is filled with love. No hatred, no ill feeling. Both smiles, teacher appreciates both.

New Generation Case 2: A man is working on important assignment and is stuck on one problem. Unhappy man (His friend ) who has been with him in all official ceremonies, meetings knows how to get him out of it. Unhappy man does not help him, because he knows that if man finishes his work, then he will get a promotion, a higher salary and lot of benefits. At the end, unhappy man does not get anything, man looses his promotion. Both hates each other but always shows love ( I call it fake love) towards each other.


Scenario like this is so common in today's world. Today people who have life in them are not connected to each other through any of the five senses. They need a medium like phone, email or an application to connect. Today we find and seek for definition of love , but in good old days we just exhibited and shared love.
Love a feeling is lost in our generation. I ask you all to define what is love. So answer might be "to be happy". So can we be happy, by having more money, more appreciation, more promotions or just enjoying a small thing like a smile on your face, your colleagues face or your relatives face.

Let us bring those old days back. Let us start from within our self.  Let the happiness , love and smile be shared.

Nature - Mother

We have often associated nature with Mother. "Mother Nature" is a very commonly used word by most of us or at least would have been heard by many of us. Have you ever thought the similarities nature has with our lifestyle. Have you ever wonder what messages nature gives to all of us.
Well, look at some of the messages given by mother nature to all of us.

1. Never pay attention to criticism  "Why does it have to rain now"? "Oh Hell, this is too hot a weather to go for shopping"? These are common statements heard by you. But Mother nature does not pay attention to these words. It does it work. It know what is best for environment, what is best to keep the balance in our environment.

2. Give back and help others: A flower is born after a seed is placed inside the mother nature's womb. When the flower is born and grown , it works and produces a beauty. Moment you look at it, you get a smile on your face and you feel good. When flower starts producing nectar,it is supplied to honey bee as food. So what does flower have to do with nectar. It produces it and serves it to the honey bees.

3, Do not hate and always love all: Have you ever seen trees, rivers , fruits or flowers fighting with each other. They are all splendid in what they do, how they stand and they are firm. Even if there are two rivers meeting at one point, they flow silently after the meeting and always stay together.

4. Stand firm: Mountains, Trees teaches us to be firm in our standing. They say "Stand tall but yet be grounded" . No matter how high you grow, but keep your feets firm on the ground.

Vigyan Prasar - Dept of Science and Technology

Whenever we think of Indian people and their contribution to science and technologies, first few names which comes to our mind are:

• C V Raman
• Srinivasa Ramanujan
• Homi Jehangir Bhabha
• Jagdish Chandra Bose
• A P J Abdul Kalam 

And the list goes on. These people made us proud with their work and we still feel proud that we are born in a country which has produced people like above. So what is happening with the work , technology, development, goal they have set for India. Do we still feel proud of the work our country does or is doing?
Yes, We do.

Sadly, I somehow feel that we did not do justice to the work these great people have done. We did not take our country to the next level from the place they have left our country at. Here I am giving one real life story ( which I personally experienced, and me feel sad).

I will start with the little description about Vigyan Prasar( taken from their website)

Vigyan Prasar (VP), an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science an Technology, Government of India, was set up in 1989 to take on large-scale science and technology popularisation tasks. Vigyan Prasar aims to promote and propagate - as widely as possible - a scientific and rational outlook in the society. Its broad objectives include :

• Undertaking, promoting and coordinating efforts in science popularization and inculcation of scientific temper among the people.
• Development of software for various media - audio, visual, audio-visual & print and different modes of communication to enable the masses to understand, appreciate and comprehend scientific principles and practices.

Okay so now the story starts..
My kids comes to me and says that he/she wants a book. As a technology person, I immediately check for the book on the online sites. It was not available on any of the leading book site or online stores. I then came across Vigyan Prasar site, which had this book available. It really made me feel proud that our technology team has book which talks about our values.

I was even more surprised to find that a site which comes under Government of India had an online ordering facility available. I immediately ordered the book and felt proud that we have advanced in technology. I boasted about my work to my kids saying that they will get book in 2-3 days ( this is what all online sites commits and delivers).

After one month , I am still following up with Vigyan Prasar for the book and shocking things got revealed to me, which I am bullet point doing. i have no intentions of hurting sentiments of anybody. I feel that people managing this should either do it properly or stop doing it. Following are some of the findings:

• It takes around 15-20 days for the fastest delivery to happen.
• With technology being used, still the manual approval ( file movement - a typical indian working (non working style)
• When I called, the site, I was told that I should not have ordered online as it is Government organization and hence would take its own time.
• Money is already been taken by me.

So do you think that we should have sites like these available online. Go and check for big names available under contact us ( all scientist) and ... I feel ashamed to be part of such government. This is the government which is running the largest democracy of the world.

Democracy - Of the People, for the people, by the people...

Customer is King

Once upon a time, ...

Let me take you back to some 20+ years ago( I would call this as early days for ease of understanding) , when computers , software, software job were the buzz word. Anyone knowing computers and software was called techie( Today the definition of techie has changed). Software jobs were much in demand. Customers were all looking for implementing, upgrading and changing the software /hardware system. Competition was growing and so was business. During those days, I heard these lines , "Customer is King". 

It just stuck to my mind, to travel back to early days and find out how this "King" has evolved or changed with time. I am using top 3 things which comes to my mind.

Customer : Collaboration

- In early days : Customer (Business and IT) were all really charged up for results using software and hence they collaborated well with vendors and results were great.

- Now: Today also Customer collaborate, and  results matter. What does not matter is which solution you are using. This has given rise to easy excuse of not using /the software solution.

Customer : Vendor : Trust

- In early days : Customer had trust on Vendor. any vendor on customer site was treated as expert and even if he did not understand a small part of business, it was okay with customer. Vendor also trusted on customer and hence was more open to try new things for customer solutions.

- Now: Today both customer and vendor has lost trust in each other ( although the projection given is as the best trust bond). As a result customer is not ready to invest time and expect vendor to know everything of the business. This also stops vendor from trying new thing, as they think customer may deny this or worst may not even pay for this.

Customer :Vendor:  Time of Delivery

- In early days : Time of delivery was not the hanging sword for the vendor or customer. Both customer and vendor could spend some time and find the best suited solution for challenge or opportunity for the customer.

- Now: Even before the scope is finalized the date of delivery is fixed. Solution has to be delivered at the date of delivery agreed.

I am sure every one with around 15 or more years of experience would have seen changing face of a customer - vendor relationship. These are my personal thoughts and are not directed towards a customer or a vendor specifically. Idea here is to analyse, gather ( from other people's comments) and then apply in our lives.

Traditions and New Era

A little distance away from my house is a crossroad. A cross road which connects roads from four different direction. Although it is not a main traffic road but lot of people move around in the colony using that road as center. We in India call these junction, where four roads unites as Choraha. For simplicity of our readers I will use the word cross road. This cross road has a steady flow of people, cycle rickshaw, school Vans, rag pickers and many other forms of commuting or transport vehicle.

I woke up on 1st April 2013, and found lot of candles being lit right in center of the cross road. There was prasad ( a sweet offered to god and distributed among devotees), puris (Indian Bread) which was kept right in center of that cross road. There was enough food for at least 20-25 hungry people lying on the road. This is done as one of the process to offerings to God. I saw a dog came to eat some of the food and it was kicked by some of the devotees. True but SAD. God and Religion is not more than living beings, may it be human, animals or plants. I am writing this not to hurt sentiments of people or religion but making them realize.

Probably those 3-4 rag pickers could have been offered that food and it would have added to the humanity score of those people. Which religion or God does ask us to throw food and now offer to some one in need. We have so many people dying of hunger and our religion, devotion to god make us do things, which does not makes sense (at least to me and many others). When I looked into the eyes of those rag pickers, I felt them saying this.

"Why god we are born with so less to eat and why is that all this food is just wasted. We wish we could have been like this. If In future by any chance I will become like them, i will probably give this food to some one in need".

What happened to the food and those candles was that it got crushed under the wheels of traffic, under school vans, under cars of people going to office.

I am not being atheist, but would like people to read this and start thinking in different way. We ( all those who luckily can afford food)  run behind our kids to make sure that they are fed even if kid may not be hungry and here around us we have so many people who can eat and they run behind us for food.

Does this new ERA or new decade not teach us love and humanity. Where is love towards people vanishing.
Do believe in god but see the facts. Be open to humanity and love.

Differently Abled

I was walking on the street when I encountered a turn towards his right hand. With in split seconds bubble of thoughts hit my mind. There is something different. I realized the street on which I was walking has suddenly changed. What ignited the change of thought in me? What made me  realize that street I was walking on was no more the same I usually walked on?

Second thoughts made me realized that day was Tuesday. A Day when lot of activities happens in the temple. Right on the turn was a temple located. I had not observed the Temple although my routine for the walk was same. What made me  realize that there exists a Temple?

It was Tuesday, a Day worship some of followers of God. There was lot of incense sticks which were burning and the environment around the temple presented a feel of perfume garden. There was lot of people worship god and offering "Prasad" ( a sweet which is generally presented to god and then distributed among people). Small kids played with the Bell of the temple. Few young and some old people were worshiping god with their eyes closed and  hands folded. Probably all of them had something to be asked from God. Some may have wanted love, some money, some happiness, and even some of them would be asking for death.

As I walked he looked at a young but Differently Abled  man sitting on his feet. This man must be in his late 30s but looked older and pale. The Man ( I will call him godman for our reference) had white hairs, very beautiful sparkling eyes, long nose and white teeth which were visible even when he was not smiling.  this GodMan was sitting and waiting for some of the people to come out of temple and share with him some of the Prasad. A little of prasad from few people may probably quench his hunger. I am sure if this man would have dressed well and was standing in a Movie Theater, or a Discotheque, he would have attracted many eyes towards him. Two small poor kids came and start making fun of him. Each time they made fun of this man, he smiled and laugh. Probably this is the way Godman enjoys happiness. It touched my heart. He was such handsome man but could not think as we do. But he could smile from deep beneath his heart which probably lot of us could not.
So is it he who is truly happy or is it all of us. He did not have brain and intelligence like us. He did not have clothes to cover his body fully. He did not have money to buy food for him. All of us or many of us have all these things. What he had probably many of us do not have. He had a smile, a genuine laugh at some of silly things. I wish we could smile and laugh from our heart like him.

His smile is sitting deep in my heart. Whenever I think, I do not know if I should smile because his smile was so addictive or I should be sad for he being "Differently Abled"

Social Media and Being Social

I will start by quoting "Aristotle"

“Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. ”

Facebook is one of the very prominent and accessed social media application. Human Being (Social Animal) has been taught or injected with some of the teachings/values right even before the birth (right from Mother's womb). In this article I would like look at one of the aspects of Facebook which will allow us to learn from this application. Facebook (if looked from different view) teaches many of the values of being social and hence living a happy life. I would like people to add more views/points if they can.

Some of the lessons which Facebook teaches us are :

1. Always Appreciate from Heart:
    Who does not like to receive Appreciation? Login or check Facebook account of yours or any body and you will see the immense pleasure you get when you see people liking your picture or talking about you or your post. Why, in reality we fail to usher such appreciation to others? It is always good to say a word of appreciation while they are living than writing a beautiful biography or bringing a bouquet on their death ceremony. Dead men can not see , smell or read what is written in their praises. Facebook teaches us to be generous in appreciating others.Many times we do not appreciating other due to one of the following reasons

Jealousy:

We can not appreciate others when we are jealous of others good deeds. We need to remove jealousy from our heart and soul in order to appreciate the great work  and support others are providing to us.

Ignorance attitude: 

Today with so much advances we are living in a better life. Have we ever thought  our heart and soul in order to appreciate the great work  and support others are providing to us. If we are so ignorance about others good deeds, we can not appreciate others good deeds. In order to know good deeds of others we need to come out from our ignorance. Ignorance is due to lack of thinking and analytical power.

Callous attitude: 

 We are intentionally or unintentionally too callous our of others hard work for us. We may not have personal relationship with him/her but we need to appreciate the good work of others.

2. Ignore Negative Comments:
      What do you do when some one posts a very bad or a negative comment about you? You go and delete the post or picture. Another way is that you may try to understand why he said so by commenting back on it. All these actions are basically teaching us (human beings, the social animal ) how to handle negativity or negative comments. You can not run aways from negative comments , especially when you are vocal and love to express yourself.

Facebook teaches us to deal with negative comments as follows:

Dealing with Troll:

 Trolls in social media are the lifeforms which do malicious things to get attentions. So what do with them. We do one of the following:

 1. Delete the comment

2. Sideline them

3. Use the U-Turn, Ask question.

In reality also we will get face to face with trolls ( people who would love to get attention by using negative comments about you).What do we in reality? In reality also we need to delete the negative comments from mind, heart and soul, rather than think and worry about it. We can other wise sideline the comment by responding " Thank you for sharing your opinion".

3. Knowledge Sharing

      There is old saying I always heard i.e. "More you share, more you gain Knowledge". Today when we meet someone and we talk about some business , we ( I for sure) see that people tend to hide knowledge. We forget that we have moved from era of "consolidation" to "collaboration" . In facebook we share without hesitation, be it a "traffic update" , be it a "technology update" or for that matter a "rape , abuse , robbery". We do with pride. why do we not share openly when we meet in person. What are we scared of?

Sharing definitely increases knowledge. If you are wrong , your friends (true) would correct and if you are right people may ask you questions and while you answer you gain more knowledge and the topic is stored in your memory more deep.