Working reasons……

In an earlier post, about an year back, I had mentioned it feels lousy to find a reason to get to work. That’s still true.

Today i got some 7 more reasons on Seth Godin's blog.

They are :

• To be challenged
• For the pleasure/calling of doing the work
• For the impact it makes on the world
• For the reputation you build in the community
• To solve interesting problems
• To be part of a group and to experience the mission
• To be appreciated

What do you work for?

For me, while money as a reason had stopped working long time back, rest of the reasons do not really work for me. But  I’d say money is good enough. At least it pays for phone bill and petrol. And stuff like that.

I guess there is the difference. People like me, who need money for something, and hence need to work will not necessarily think of the other 7 reasons. But someone like Prince William would.

Guess it finally boils down to your needs and wants – if its Roti,Kapda, Makaan, you will not think beyond money. A lot of people have often given me lectures on how they work for the challenge, impact blah blah and then were very silent when I said – Good, you enjoy your work, give me your salary, or your car.

If at all, a reason for me to work would be to get a chance to travel and see places and meet people. But some people say even that becomes a pain in some time.

Insomniac thinking........

Warning : May not make sense.

A Raja (or DMK) taking steps to fleece the country or the PM ignoring those activities.Having no work or2having but not doing it. Replying back or staying silent. Justified investment with steady assured returns or reckless expenditure with instant gratification (right word that?). Socially active or socially dead. Long term commitment or short term TP. Lying or not saying/concealing the truth. Facts or beliefs. Plans or impulse decisions. To refer or not to refer. Impressions or judgements. Fight Club or Andaaz Apna Apna. Jagjit Singh or Midival Punditz. Lead or be lead. Complaint or action. Forget or remember. Evade or own up. Fight or forgive. Aromas or CCD. Goa or Rohtang Pass. Alone or lonely. Coffee or Tea. R.Guha or C.Bhagat (please dnt kill me for mentioning both in the same sentence. I can't sleep!). Viru or Dravid. Sachin in form or Sachin otherwise. Mumbai rains or Delhi winter.Bus or auto. Bus or car. Auto or car. Blue or silver. Cricket or football. Sex sells or SRK sells. Alone or with someone. Nokia or ofcourse,nokia!

Been trying to sleep for 2 hours now.

Being cynical…….

cynical adj. (pronounced sĭn'ĭ-kəl)

1. Believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others: a cynical dismissal of the politician's promise to reform the campaign finance system.

2. Selfishly or callously calculating: showed a cynical disregard for the safety of his troops in his efforts to advance his reputation.

3. Negative or pessimistic, as from world-weariness: a cynical view of the average voter's intelligence.

4. Expressing jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity: cynical laughter.

People have had the opinion that I an a cynical person. I came across this test (not that I trust the reliability or the logic behind it) and took it to see how cynical I am. It just reiterated what I say to all the people calling me cynical.

The result :

You Are 60% Cynical

Yes, you are cynical, but more than anything, you're a realist.
You see what's screwed up in the world, but you also take time to remember what's right.

Take the test. Feel free to compare scores.

The benefit of being cynical / realist is you are not startled by most things and can generally react or not react at all. You in fact don't believe the stories they want us to believe.

Many things like politicians and their scams.And the fact that they will not go scot free after everything.Involvement of business houses, journalists and other such people who we generally believe to be honest in such scams.

Our democracy. Requires a separate post, though i guess everyone knows what a sham it is.

Pamela Anderson in India and Bigg Boss. She says she is here to create awareness about, uh, umm, something, clean water or what not and her assets just get her the required attention. (And of course, INR 2.5 Cr for a 3 day stay. Someone said silicone has better ROI than gold!!) or that Anna Nicole Smith married for love!

Saina Nehwal is a global superstar – come on, she plays a sport played in 5 countries and gets thrashed by the Chinese).

Reality shows are real.

Amir Khan is a superstar, Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Robot, My Name is Khan made the kind of money they claim they did.

Love is all conquering,selfless and blah blah.

Performance is awarded.

The downside is, in my line of work, a realistic projection is not always welcome.

Will you pick a known evil…..???

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before - Mae West

This,for some reason, came up as the funny quote today. It was probably funny in context of the situation Mae West said it. But by itself, its a smart statement. Its practical. Given a choice, I would always take the unknown one. Simply because it is not so much of evil as it is a perception of evil. While the other choice is a known evil. The chances of it springing a surprise and being a non-evil (?) are slim.

Making choices on the basis of expected rewards and punishments is crucial for survival. But if the rewards and punishments are known to a fair degree in one of the choices, the chances of it being picked are more. People like to play safe. Or at least they think they are playing safe. They are comfortable with the known evil, because they think it will not get worse from here. And by doing so, they close themselves to the possibility of getting something better in the other choice. Since you don't know really, you cannot rule out that the other (perceived) evil may not be so after all. And mind you, even if both choices are evil with their advantages (again,perceived), there may be a pleasant, not bargained for surprise in the unknown one. And there is that question: what would have happened if……

Whenever i have moved to a new company, i have always had someone or the other telling me “that's not a good company” or “that industry is not doing great” or “ U’ll do the same thing there” kind of things. It always boiled down to the choice I had – the comfort of the known evil I was with or the chance of better life with the unknown evil. I do not regret picking up the unknown choices i have picked so far.

Having said that, the choice between a comfortable job for some other company or starting up a new company of my own will be the real test for me. At least in this context. Because even if there is the challenge, the chance of success and riches and all that – there is always the practical consideration of a salary at the end of the month to pay all the bills.

In cases where choices are to be made for a life partner, most people prefer the easier known evil. This is actually funny – you are making a life altering decision, knowing very well this choice is definitely trouble!!! But then there is an emotional angle involved in the decision making and smartest of people have been known to make the dumbest of decisions when that happens. I am sure I'll go the unknown evil way again.

Lets see.

What I do for a living…..

This is a screen shot of the stats related to the readers of this blog.

While I seem to have a worldwide audience, it largely because of friends travelling to these places - Akash in Nigeria, Deepti (I believe) in Australia, Clinton in US and Singapore. Except in South America (Clint, please plan a trip there – a friend just came back from Brazil, if he liked what he saw, so would you!).

The breakup by OS is funny. Assuming not many people would read blogs on their phone ( I do, apart from doing other things), it means 1/3rd of the time I am the reader of my own blog . Wonder if that's too much?

Hmmmmm……..

Not really, cos my phone is meant to entertain me (in the absence of sufficient people to talk to everyday) when I am on the move….. plus my blog is a gateway to some other links and from there on…….

I am glad to see the number of IE users. Firefox and Chrome are rubbish and i have no clue what Version is. Can anyone enlighten me?

Anyways, this shows what i do for a living. Same set of numbers projected by this, by that and so on. And we call it analysis. Of course, its in a lot more detail and leads to, sometimes delightful, insights.

By itself, this post is meaningless……. but I am insomniac all over again. So.

An alternate today……

Today I went shopping for books. Dumping some old ones and buying some i had wanted to. One is Makers of Modern India by Ramchandra Guha. Recently released, it details out the impact 19 individuals have had on the creation of modern India over the last 200 years. Another one is India after Gandhi by the same author. History of India after Independence. Have read this earlier, thought it as worth buying. Its a lesson in history independent of how the ruling classes wanted history to be projected. Was also looking for Sunny Days, by Sunil Gavaskar, but couldn't get it.

The third book i bought is For One More Day by Mitch Albom. Not a very recommended book, not a very celebrated author. The only reason i got it is because its small, easy to handle and read when travelling in bus.

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one? More about the book

To me, on the last page, the book also asked one more question – If you had one chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it?

In an ideal world I would find that question stupid. Simply because I believe one cannot do anything about what's happened. Secondly, there is no way to know if that alternate future would be the one that you wanted. But there have been times in not so distant past when i have wished things could have worked out differently. The question is what it is that i would have done differently and what point to make things work out differently. And there is only one thing i would want to do.

Study chemistry better in FYJC (11th).

Yes. For reasons unknown, while I was good in the first semester (which comprised of inorganic chemistry) in the second semester i hardly focused on it. And it was all organic chemistry. C-H-C, and so on, ugh!. Anyways, when i reached 12th i was not at all strong in the basic concepts of organic chemistry. Was in fact lousy and spent a lot of time and effort catching up but never really gaining the required confidence. On the other hand, i was overconfident with Physics and hence started devoting more and more time to Chemistry. Mathematics was taking care of itself, Biology and languages were being managed. Finally,as it turned out, i did just reasonably well, scoring nearly equal, but not enough in Physics and Chemistry. My PCM and aggregate score took a beating and affected my future.

Yes, think of it, one thing influenced it all - the college i went to (not so much the stream thankfully) the experiences i had (good and bad), the friends i made, contacts , maybe even the person i have turned out to be. For all i know,most of you would have never read this blog, someone else would have! I would have been in a different job profile? My facebook and linkedin contacts list would have been different.

So many possibilities – and you don't know for good or for worse.

But the question remains, for you as well : will you take the chance, if you get it ?

Done something about my love life.....

Today,I am happy.

Feel a lot lighter (which is quite the opposite of what i should have felt).Finally i have done what I should have done quite some time back.Cant really place what it was that prevented me from doing it. But doesnt matter, better late than never.

I do not dread the reaction. Nor the questions people may have. Its my life and i take steps based on my judgement (ofcourse mamma is an influencer!!). But the decision is mine.

Read in the morning that i need to do something about my love life. My love life?? Whats love got to do with me? Its always been desire that has been the driver. And so it was now. The desire to break free.....

From a situation dictated by someone else, on a stupidly constructed premise.....
From a self imposed ban on doing what you want to do just so that others are not hurt, offended or affected at any level....
From the belief that you can never be in control of the situation.....you can be. More importantly, you can make sure some else doesnt control your life too much.

So, all this in mind, I choose to have Pizza for lunch.
The love of my life, as far as food goes (well, along with Pav Bhaji) It had been ages since i had it. Felt happiest I had felt in recent past - since the time we parted ways. Why? Cos a person (and mamma) believed Pizza was the reason we were ill in August. While that was disproved, I thought it better to listen to elders and avoid for some time. But had enough. I'll control what i want to do. A pizza once in a while doesnt hurt.:)

and it leaves you very happy happy! So, when are we having another one?

How to be embarrassed and / or angry.......

By announcing to the world what you intend to do - whether you may end up doing it or not.
I announced in my class that I plan to buy a car.You see,in Consumer Behaviour,each one of us is expected to maintain a diary of the entire process for a purchase you may have done in the last few days. All of us are expected to be prepared and maybe called upon to present anytime.

This morning the prof came up to me and said, Rachit, have you done you exercise? I said yes, but i forgot my diary. He said no problem, just present.

So i went about giving a speech on my car purchase process (which started quite some years back). He appreciated the way how I dissected the case and presented it.

Screw up - all ppl in class came up with their experiences, opinions, advice.
Worse - next few weeks they will all keep asking 'car li kya?'.
Worst - I will not be buying one.

Cannot justify the payout and dont want to buy a set of 4 wheels, seats, chassis and engine pretending to be a car.So, the purchase is put on hold. Indefinitely. Now people will rub it in (in all innocence or deliberately).An embarrassed smile or angry glare would be the reaction based on the situation.

This post started on Sunday and was initially intended for only embarrassment. By Monday, the realisation had sinked in that i'll have to postpone the purchase and by night people had (deliberately or otherwise - no way of knowing) instigated anger about the same. Hence talking about both at once.