Being A Kid...!

Sometimes seemingly chaotic, unplanned, silly looking yet spontaneous fun can make us exceptionally happy. Well, today was indeed one such day when while flipping channels I came across Hungama Television that was broadcasting "ShinChan" Cartoon and what followed was uninhibited and loud laughter (I bet neighbours heard me pretty well;)). This Japanese Cartoon (which is way too hilarious) is about a four year old boy -'ShinChan". Shinchan is a highly curious hyperactive kid (who is quite fond of choco-bees) and his mischiefs are pure fun to watch. The way he troubles those around him with succession of his well planned naughty tricks. Particularly notable things are his husky voice , vivid expressions, his silly yet funny jokes, out-of-place comments and ofcourse his fondness of pretty faces around him ;) Every plot includes his parents (Mom specially) and/or his equally notorious classmates (Boo, Maso & Georgie) and is entertainment at its very best! Past episodes (in Eng/Japanese) can be viewed at here and Episodes in Hindi can be viewed here. For now enjoy the opening theme here or here !

"A ship is safe in harbor, but is that what ships are for?"

Different Strokes...!

I was super enthusiastic earlier this evening for I was going to meet a close friend (We'll be meeting after 3 years!) and which is why I kept hunting for the coolest T-Shirt in my wardrobe for way past 20 minutes. Now that isn't usually me-I said to myself as I found myself a corner in Local Train to Vile Parle-thats where my friend asked me to come and here I was again lost in thoughts pondering about the significance of colors in life (wish I carried a book to keep my mind at peace :D)

Wordnet defines the word "Color" as the appearance of objects (or light sources) described in terms of a person's perception of their hue and lightness (or brightness) and saturation. Speaking of colors - I am sure most of you will agree that Colors have the ability to trigger our emotions, affect the way we think or act and most important of all influence our attitudes & mood. Admit it or not, but all of us (My quick generalisation stems from my own self belief though;)) do respond to colors around us - cars, homes, clothes, iPods, watches, perfume bottles and even the food we eat perhaps that explains why some of us prefer way too colorful surroundings while the rest prefer a sober one. Is this (creating a lasting pleasant experience) the reason that our decisions to wear a specific clothing varies with the person we are going to meet? Or is this why kids' toys are so colorful ? Is this why Companys' Logos have solid colors? Perhaps a rich amalgamation of colors creates a vivid experience. Well, I honestly think it does and upon getting back home here's what I read about colors:

• Yellow - Represents Joy and serves to energise us quickly. [Mango Frooti]
• Orange - Represents Hope and serves to alleviate us. [Orange]
• Pink - Represents Love and we sure know what it does :) [Pinkberry]
• Blue - Represents Truth and serves to inspire and leaves a peaceful feeling.[Blueman Group]
• Red - Represents Fire and serves to inflame our passions. [Product RED]

Before I could congratulate myself for this "Eureka" Moment-a Google Alert conveyed that there are few ultra-smart folks who are already know significance / impact of colors on human psyche and have a look here [Idée Labs Rock!] or here [and so does Engineers at Nissan] to get wowed like me. Till you (or me) keep our hunt for a super cool, novel and breakthrough product idea - keep relishing the different shades of life :D

"What we appreciate begins to appreciate !"

Winged Formation...!

Its 12:15 PM IST, 11th October 2008 and here I am at Reliance Industries' Nagothane Site with my Dad. My Dad has been posted here to head the construction of a colossal (to me anything bigger than my cubicle is BIG !) Gas Power Plant for Reliance Industries with a mission to meet Western India's ever increasing demand electricity (wish we shut off our ACs atleast sometime). And for me - watching site activities sure is an experience of a kind - a fantastic one indeed ! During my 4 year association with IT industry - here's how I processed various aspects of life:

• Fun - pushing things (products/services they say) out of my cubicle in a quicker and efficient fashion. And yes those eventful team outings !
• Seriousness - When a bunch of people get together in a Meeting Room and talk about strategies, goals and lots of numbers and metrics.
• Euphoria - Product Launches or Conducting Orientation Sessions / Training Programmes for new recruits or experienced professionals. Spotting that fire (intense desire to prove themselves in professional world) in new joinees was breathtaking indeed.
• TeamWork - So many of us co-ordinating on Web Messenger to get a code snippet perfect - with proper exception handling, near zero memory leaks and bug free execution.

And here everything seems so different when compared to my myopic view of the world as listed above! Never before have I spotted so many people working together, pushing steadily forward with full zeal towards meeting a common objective. Considering the weather conditions - (its scorching hot here and yes there's no Air-Conditioner too ;)) and absence of otherwise omnipresent Soft Drinks / Food Outlets - this is certainly an exhibit of true team work. As I walked past the Rock Blasting Area (they do that to construct foundations of Turbines, Boilers etc), I asked my Dad a dozen of questions seeking explanations for how so many diverse people (who aren't that educated too) work together, whats their motivation (certainly money isn't), how the synchronisation is achieved....and so forth. Well, as anticipated he smiled back and said lets go for a walk around the plant area and promised that we'll talk about it at the end of the day. Here's what I observed during the next 4 hours:

The Only Area with a Shade was this Boxed Movable Meeting Room

• Abundance Of Greetings - Everyone here genuinely likes and respects their team members as evident from their way of exchanging greetings.
• Willingness to Go Extra Mile - The idea of grasping opportunities right in time is drilled deep in the minds of workforce. My Dad suggested positioning an extra beam for tensile strenth of a column post the usual column reinforcement operations and to my utter surprise one of the guys responded "Sir, Why Wait - lets do that right away?". And I was wondering why they don't have spreadsheets to track minute by minute progress of people.
• Frequent Boost Up Dozes- Many of the plant construction operations require extreme physical exertion (I was so shaken observing a guy doing some metal fixing well below the ground level) and what these guys know is every move can't be perfect. Sometime discouragement sets in inspite of a day's hard work but together they still pat each others back saying "Good Going...Good Going! " and move on at even faster pace the very next day.
• Being in Control - When faced with technical challenges, few amongst them are real quick to take charge and rest of them provide their full support to face it right on.
• Family to Support - Every person who works here knows that their families know that they are working towards a huge goal and I know (from personal exp) that challenges become so easy when you have support of your loved ones !
• Quick Thinking - Ofcourse their are distinguised engineers here who are expert at conjuring up quick associations (and improvise existing Plant Drawings at the same time) of how a plant structure say Boiler Casing would look like if you do A as against B.

One things is for sure - I am quite moved by this visit and am certainly very thankful to my Dad for arranging for my visit. Oh and yes, we headed back home my Dad quietly said (may be it was intentional:)) : "Our unique ability to choose how we respond to and process any event that happens to us can make us either a "great" or a "not-so-great" person ! - Think about it" I sure will Dad :D

>> My Google Gears will push a few more posts that I wrote while in India - life should get back to its normal self then :)

Sound Of Stillness...!

One notable difference I find here in Mumbai when compared to my stay in the US is the super high "Entropy Levels" around me! And thanks to my prolonged silence, I seem to have become more observant of the noises of varying levels around me. While some of them are beyond my control (@ Bus Stop, Local Train or Vegetable Market) but then there are those like Television, CellPhone etc which I can certainly shut off at ease. It appears to me that Noise can affect us in ways more than one - from preventing us to think logically, making us avoid dealing with problems at hand, making us numb to certain emotions and yes drifting us away from the reality. Perhaps that explains why I always love evening walks - they bring so much peace and equilibrium.

Today evening though, as I was walking past the vibrant 'n' beautiful flowers in the picturesque garden here at Shailesh Towers - I was puzzled when I saw few tiny tots who upon noticing me halted their game and seemed to be staring at me for way more than few seconds. I certainly wished to know-Why? After I exchanged the usuals "Hellos" or 'Namasteys" - one of them (Avinash) asked another dude - "Why does this bhaiya (big guy) always keeps his strange looking headphones on when outside in "our" garden?". Before I could understand what Avinash meant, Aniket (the most talkative of the lot) declared that "That's 'coz he doesn't want us to listen to nice new songs he has!" - and they laughed :( Oh boy, it took me almost 5 seconds to realise that they were referring to headphones of my iPod. Isn't it so strange - I always thought that iPod helps me stay in 'thinking' & 'calm' mode by blocking external noise....and these innocent kids thought totally otherwise. I so much wish the world around us thinks like these amazing kids - who value caring, sharing and experiencing true fun since such an early stage in life ! I have decided to bid farewell to my iPod provided - the marketers slow down the rate of bombarding us with ever growing Ads, co-passengers in trains/buses/airplanes talk in lower tones on their cellphones and veil of unwanted external noise is somehow attenuated soon. Till then I'll keep my pursuit of inventing new ways to experience the true "Sound Of Stillness" on !

"One of rarest things that a man ever does is to do the best he can!"