Couple of realizations

A friend once told me, "You have very little control over what is going to happen." Well for many things this is true but I refuse to accept it as a blanket rule. I believe one has sufficient control over own actions to decide how one intends to spend his time and these decisions largely affect the outcome if not entirely.

I plan a lot in life; I dream a lot. Many of my plans go bust because I have always missed out on some or the other parameter even misjudged my abilities. I have realized that you have to take life as it comes. You are probably too in-experienced or in-competent to determine in advance with total accuracy how things are going to unfold. You invest in most promising stock and six months down the line you find out there is hardly any value left in it.

Life is about problems in opportunities and opportunities in problems. It depends on one's abilities to spot the opportunities or make the mess of it. Early in his career Amitabh Bachchan was rejected at All India Radio for his rather deep voice and later that voice contributed to the making of superstar of millennium.

Though uncertainty is a fact of life, certain amount of planning is necessary because plans give you directions. Moving without directions, you would be surprised with the destinations you reach. And yes not all surprises are pleasant.

Delving further on this line of thought there is another important realization of life that is to keep looking ahead. What one can pick from the time gone by is the experience and not repent about the lost time or resources. Life is indeed too short to crib on things left behind.

What makes life enriching and fulfilling is dreams, efforts pursuing them, company of loved ones, assurance of being accepted, transformation of self in that journey and the rewards that come along. There is so much to achieve in life, so much to take from it, I feel one life is too short for living it fully. So why waste time in repenting instead make the most of things at hand.

Success and failure are part of game. Till date it has not happened to anyone who has never tasted failure. Fear of failure should not stop one from dreaming or taking the next step. It is essential to have a goal and to keep walking towards it, other things will surely fall in place.

And an ad that left me speechless

[Source: GreatBong]
Couple of days back I came across an ad by Israeli defense firm Rafael to woo the Indian Army with their missile technology. The ad left me speechless. Do whatever but do not miss this ad. I just can't think how one can imagine to sell missiles with such marketing. I hope it is a spoof, it better be a spoof.

Top three ads this season

I watch lot of TV thus end up watching lot of repeatable stuff that happens to be advertisements. Most of the ads are useless, they definitely don't serve their purpose and waste our time.
But, few ads are cut above the rest, they make me watch them again and again. At times I even wait for them to show up. :-)
Here I am listing three such ads that have aired in past six months, all three of them have wonderful tune to support them, excellently shot and very creative.
Third on my most favorite ads is Visa travel happy campaign. Nice tune, intelligently shot, core theme of product is maintained in tact and soothing in the wild world of loud ads. Here is the you tube link and you can download it from here.
Second ad is from Vodafone campaign of 10p sms, "sabko pata chalega" theme. Vodafone folks always come out with suit of ads and they are always decent. Remember the "Happy to Help" campaign. One issue with these guys is, they just don't know when to shut up. They keep playing the ad again and again so however good the ad may be, after a while you want to turn it off. My favorite ad from their suit is of a middle aged (bald) man buying a ring, passing through all the looks he never got and approaching his girlfriend in a restaurant. Nicely shot, very good tune in background and again sticking to the idea. Here it is on you tube and download link is here.
My most favorite ad this season and many more seasons to come is of Limca "Fresh Ho Jao" featuring Sushma Reddy, the ad is wonderfully shot with a very good song playing in the background. If you have not watched it, you can get it here. The young couple trapped in traffic jam get refreshed with Limca and playing pranks on each other. Very nicely created ad with the focus right on their product.

They Just Don't Get It

I have often noticed people, including myself, using the expression, "Ooh, why they just don't get it!!!" It so happens that something is evident and so obvious that conveying that information seems redundant, far leaving the need for convincing it. With this line of thought, if encountered with disagreeing party, it gives rise to conflicts. I recently read a book dealing with the same issue, not surprisingly named 'They Just Don't Get it.' The book puts forward an idea about 'how to change resistance into understanding.'
Some of the ideas presented in this book are similar to the ones presented in '7 Habits of Highly Effective People.' But still I recommend reading this book for simplicity of its presentation. It is a pretty small book, does not include boring lectures on philosophy, human psycology or behavioral patterns. It has constructed a very happy scenario, the conflict that occured because of different lines of thoughts and finally the solution. It gives out five simple tacts called as "Get It Keys" which if applied properly can get you out of the syndrom, "I just don't get it, when they don't get it."
One of my favorite lines from the book is "The older we get, the more fallible we become. We know less compared to how much there is to know but more about what's important and what we need to know."
So folks, if you ever wondered the person sitting next to you is probably from different planet, take couple of hours out and read this book. You would either understand his point of view or change yours :-)

It wasn't me

As India celebrates 60th Republic day today, it is also two months since terror unleashed itself in worst possible way in Mumbai. As the official word goes, ten people received intense commando training somewhere in Pakistan, sailed from Karachi towards Mumbai. Once here fired at random, hold the symbolic places under siege for over 60 hrs, taking innocent lives, killing police officers and preachers of faith too. According to me this is not a terrorist act, it is a war. It is a well thought out, planned, prepared and executed war. Sadly, we have lost this battle.
Today looking back at two months, we need to ask ourselves where are we? Grand processions for martyrs, glued to breaking news TV presentations, venting out anger through peace marches and in tea time discussions is all behind us now. Though our government has been successful in defaming Pakistan and its establishment, but how much of it is going to be effective considering the fact, two months have passed and the masterminds are still at large. We have identified their faces, we know about their whereabouts but we can't do anything.
We have setup National Investigative Agency, that will help out on achieving better co-ordination of intelligence input within different states and center. But, all of it hardly seems promising. I do not think if we are ever going to get our hands on these Pakistan based elements. But, what seems more probable is similar such attacks of same or greater magnitude. Make no mistake worse has no limits and if we don't act now, things are just going to get worse. We have seen pictures from Gaza and one day it can come to us too.
We, the normal citizens put blame on leaders. Leaders in turn blame foreign hand or rouge elements. But, we need to introspect, is it that politicians have been airdropped or they came from within us. Our system has produced them, chose them to lead us. If they are inefficient or lack abilities or themselves of darker shades, what are we going to do?
The root cause is nobody is doing own job sincerely. Everyone is interested in jumping over the light or similar such law escapades. If each and everyone of us works sincerely, pays taxes honestly and follows rules, we can demand accountability from the officials or politicians. Rather than doing this, we point out faults in others. Some consider paying tax is actually a charge of service that one should recieve. Is it correct? I think paying taxes is a National Duty and demanding effective governance is a Right. It can not be, I don't get good roads, I won't pay taxes.
To move towards a brighter future, we need to take responsibility of our actions, stop giving excuses and be honest. I believe these things can only build our nation without which every progress is going to fall like a structure of cards. Now the choice is ours, either we make humble beginnings or live under the fear of terrorism.

Mumbai attacked again

Mumbai is a city of dreams, financial capital of India, city that truly never sleeps. This city has given countless number of people opportunities to realize their dreams. People even from the most remote places of India, wish to visit Mumbai once in lifetime.

As I write today, this part of the world is under attack, but is it the city under attack or state of Maharashtra or India. No, it's the humanity under attack, few terrorists who barged into the Taj hotel asked for British and US national to take them as hostage. When they killed people they were looking for Indians not the Hindus not the "Marathi maanus" not wealthy nor poor.

We have seen lot of terror attacks over past couple of years. But, I fail to see any concrete step taken to prevent these. Every now and then attack happens and some xxx Mujahidin crops up, claims responsibility and mocks us. Our efficient government takes the tooth away from the security agencies by removing tough terror laws as in TADA, POTA or MOCOCA. Otherwise misuses them for the purpose of settling political scores. Clearly we lack political leadership to tackle these issues.

But, when I think what I, as a citizen of this country, been doing in these troubled times, I don't see any actions. Mostly these events have turned into another topic of discussion for me. As of today, attacks have never affected me directly or indirectly. So, is it that I am going to wait till my ass is not caught in the firing lane. I think it is time for us to stand up to terrorism and support the police. I am looking for what all I can do but at least I can start with:
1. Be alert and vigil about the surrounding.
2. Not supporting anything that promotes discrimination based on religion, race or ethnicity.
3. Not being stupid, something like Rahul Raj, getting a gun and thinking of solving problems in a matter of one day.
4. Not following "Eye for an eye" rule. Less than 24 hrs ago, ATS chief who was still alive then had reported in media that 90% of their energy was eaten by Malegaon bomb blast. When we are fighting enemies from all sides of India, if our resources are wasted with our own people, how are we supposed to stop this?

The gun-battle is still on in Mumbai. But, it is the spirit of Mumbai not to stop, CST (VT station) where first reported incident of firing and blast had occurred is already operational. Should the message to terrorists be more loud and clear?

1000 Rs/Kg

This is an account of last six months, wherein along with shedding pounds of fat, I learned few life lessons too. These days everyone who meets me after a long gap is wondering how have I managed to lose weight. Well, it has come after a lot of perspiration, determination, failures and frustrating times. But in the end if I could do it, you can do it better :-).

I have always been a "heavy person," and a soft target. After years of half-hearted attempts, this March I fired on all cylinders for one more attack on fat. Started with the "GM diet"; got more attention than actually reducing any weight. There lies the first lesson "Extreme diets and without any workout don't work."

I am 25 and in last quarter century I have heard / overheard as many weight-loss "tontkas" as in
1. Drinking warm water all day.
2. Taking Triphala Guggule (Aurvadic medicine) with warm water, thrice a day.
3. In morning, take honey with warm water.
4. Instead of honey use lemon juice.
But, not even grams were lost because of these. (Lesson 2: Make peace with yourself. Doesn't mean compromise with what you are but accept if this is not working for you something else will. Find it and do it.)

After all these failed experiments, I researched and got to know that weight loss is a game of calories in versus calories out. Thus, I started one more fling with gym. In the initial days my regularity was again in question. I promised myself if I go to gym for seven days without break, I will get new gym shoes. (Lesson 3: Appreciate, reward yourself and be wicked, gift gym shoes which would further compel to the cause). Later on I went on to workout for 30 days without break. :-)

After first three months passed, I became pretty regular and my diet was in line. But, my weight lost was mere 3Kg, so I got few tests done (Sugar, BP, Cholesterol and Thyroid) everything was just fine but 3 Kgs in 3 months wasn't enough. So I grew frustrated, on one such Sunday morning while working out a girl came upto me and told me, "Hey, you've slimmed down a lot since I first saw you around, you look a lot thinner now." After completing the conversation with her, I could not stop smiling. That was my first compliment and truly uplifting moment.

But, still the fact remained that I got to lose a lot more. So I got a personal trainer. He would be there monitoring me all time, scheduling my workout and giving diet tips.

My daily schedule is: In morning have a bowl of skimmed milk with Muesli before gym. After gym, one bread, one cup tea with very less sugar and couple of Marie biscuits. In lunch, 3 chapathis, one bowl each of sabji and daal but no rice. At 5 PM, some light snacks. For dinner very light mostly South Indian. But, it would be a good idea to mix-match the dinner with Soup, fruits and salads.

These six months have changed me a lot not only in physical appearance but my lifestyle as well whether it being incorporation of workout in daily schedule, eating food before bath and many other things. (Lesson 4: If situation demands, change yourself.)

It takes time to lose weight, one needs to be very patient, very regular and follow strict regim. 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 Calories. So one needs to take at least 1000 calories per day and utilize them to burn in excess to lose weight. In the initial phase, as I wasn't losing any weight people around me hardly noticed any changes in me, some even told me that this is my body-type and I won't be able to lose weight, don't fight the one you can not defeat. But, I still didn't budge, I had decided if this wont work, I would take help from the slimming clinics. Apart from this, there was a brief period that required me to break my workout in two and make me visit gym twice a day. Other than this too, I had to battle out many other issues, but I overcame most of them. (Lesson 5: There are more solutions in this world than problems.)

Finally whats with the name of this post? Well I am Baniya, all I can do is calculations and think about profits. I have lost 12Kg in last six months and the rate applicable was 1000 Rs/Kg :-)