"So we are not renting a TV?"

 "So we are not renting a TV?"

...I asked them both in disbelief.

It was March 2006 & after the experience of a lifetime at the Infosys Mysore training campus, I & the 3 others (let's call them A, B & C) from my engineering college in Mumbai, managed to get a posting at Pune after swapping locations with other trainees. As soon as we found a flat in Pune, we started buying/renting stuff. While many things got discussed, no one spoke about a TV!

"Who has time for TV? We need to prepare for CAT!" announced one of them, for the two (A & B) of them. I & the other bloke (C), who had no plans for further studies tried to protest, but in vain.

I'd see these two blokes come back daily after office & start studying. For the first month, I managed to kill time, but then after some thought I decided to take a shot at CAT too. We used to come down to Mumbai every Friday evening & back Monday morning, so I enrolled in a coaching institute to get coached over the weekends.

Both A & B had clear goals - "get thru one of the top 5 MBA institutes or not do an MBA". For me, my goal was one, to get an institute in Mumbai (due to family constraints) & two, get into a good institute (that was better than not doing an MBA at all). So all 3 of us prepared, working as software engineers by the day & MBA aspirants by the night.

Cutting short to the results, A & B scored better than me. However, the score did not augur well for their targeted institutes. Luckily for me, I was able to get through one of the respectable institutes in Mumbai. "A" decided to continue working & subsequently enrolled for an MBA from a good school abroad. After another attempt, B decided he was going to stick to plan B (MBA from the institute of his choice or no MBA). C - the jolliest of us all, never had to stress about any of this as MBA was never an aspiration for him.

As I look back about 15 years later, A, B & C have settled in the US since a decade. Are any of us more "Successful", "Happy", "Wealthy", "Famous" than the other? None of us probably knows or cares, coz these are scales set up by society to measure human emotions & mental state and while they do serve their utility to some extent, beyond a point one realizes that one only needs a very basic amount of wealth, health & mental peace to survive (or thrive) & get through the 365 rotations of the planet year after year.

One of us did an MBA from a top school, one from a school that wasn't in the top 5, one gave it a shot & refused to compromise on his plan & one still works at Infosys today. I believe each one is happy & successful if they view themselves from the other's perspective, yet in the dark moments each might be laden with self doubt about the efforts/choices they made in their journey so far.

Ironically, one of the biggest RAT races that students face early on is called a CAT and the recent talks about the results got me thinking about our CAT days.

By the way, we did rent a TV once we took our CAT.

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"Office madhun nighaaloy, gaadi chalavtoy..."

 "Office madhun nighaaloy, gaadi chalavtoy..."

..said the Uber driver over the call to someone in Marathi. ["I've left from office, driving right now"].

On 17th of the last month I was trying to book a cab to visit a few friends. As usual, the first cabbie called and asked my destination and cancelled the trip. Luckily, the next cabbie did not cancel. I had read in the news then that OLA and UBER now show the destination to the drivers so that they need not call to ask for it and then cancel if they do not want to go there.

As soon as I sat in the cab, I asked the driver if the feature was enabled for them as I was surprised at the prior cancelation. "Sir its only enabled for drivers with a good rating. I could see your destination, maybe the prior cabbie could not" he guessed.

I could see the cabbie was well dressed and looked well educated. Around half way thru the journey, he got a call. It was probably from his wife or mother and I heard him say what I quoted above. I was a bit intrigued. "Do you also work somewhere?" I enquired. "Yes sir, I work at a chemical firm. Throughout the pandemic I went to work daily. In my profile one cannot work from home. We supply chemicals to many government firms too. I had taken this car on a loan and given it to a cab driver for some extra income but then the driver was taking too much money and was causing damages to the car so eventually I let him go. Then the pandemic struck & the car was lying idle and had to be used. So instead of going to work on my bike, I started taking this car and started taking passengers via OLA/UBER on my way to work and back. A year back my wife lost her job. We have a kid whose education is to be planned and we already have some liabilities. So I started driving the car as a cab 2 hours before office and 2 hours after office on weekdays and then I drive a bit on weekends. It's better than getting up late in the morning or going home and wasting time watching TV. This way my car gets used and I am able to pay off my liabilities and save for my kid's education as well." he said.

At that moment, this scene and line (shown in the image) from a show ( Fargo S02E10 ) I had seen exactly 6 years back on Dec 18th 2015 came flashing to my mind like an outcome of a successful =vlookup() function. The lines on the image have nothing to do with my viewpoint about men v/s women, so please do not read too much into the word "men". It's just a line that had stayed with me since I heard it and it's so apt for so many men and women out there. While some of us may be trying to cater to our needs from the upper half of Maslow's hierarchy, most people around us are probably still struggling to cater to their basic family needs and yet trying their best to move up the pyramid graciously.... and am sure they all see it as a privilege and not a burden.

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"I saw a rocket at the beach today 😎"

 "I saw a rocket at the beach today 😎"

...is how I would have described this sight of a smokey white trail in the sky, if I were to rewind the time and go back to the times when I was around 5 years old.

We stay about a couple of kilometers away from the airport and hence the sight of planes landing and taking off is fairly common. However, once in a while we'd spot an object flying high in the sky, leaving a trail of white smoke as it passed by. Since we were used to seeing planes at low altitudes (which did not emit such smoke), we deduced that these were actually rockets (coz we'd see on TV that rockets leave a lot of smoke behind them) and we'd always be fascinated to spot such rockets. Over the years then we learned these weren't rockets but just planes flying high in the sky and we stopped getting amused by its sight, because it was just a plane after all.

Today, I actually looked up (the internet, after literally looking up at the sky to spot this phenomena) to learn what causes this white smokey trail. Apparently, the term for it is "contrail" (short for condensation trail). Contrails or vapor trails are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several miles above the Earth's surface. Contrails are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals. The combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust and the low ambient temperatures that exist at high altitudes allows the formation of the trails. [Source: Wikipedia].

Contrails is probably an example of myriad such things that caused fascination and joy at a young age but eventually become something dismissive and not worth noticing as we grow older. What fascinates us now may probably not bring any joy when we are 10-15 years older from now and what fascinates/interests us then, would probably not be as enticing another 10-15 years from that point in time.

The contrail I saw today though, did bring some joy as it teleported me back to the sweet old days when we loved spotting one. Every small moment of joy counts and its probably the contrail made up of myriad joyous moments that make life worth looking back at, as we keep flying away from where we started, fully aware that we may never land back at the same spot where we started from.

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"....why don't add your phone number or social media handle on these?..."

 "....why don't add your phone number or social media handle on these?..."

I asked him curiously. I was towards the end of my jog this morning at the beach and spotted these two placards and a bloke sitting next to them. I passed by thinking about it. I found it very creative and catchy so on my way back I approached
him. Asked him if he was making websites and suggested that maybe he should put in a contact detail.

"Sir, I do not want to put a contact... it's something different I am trying and want people to come and meet me here..." he said very clearly. I asked him if I could take a picture and he was glad to pose. He has come from Hyderabad and hopes to achieve his goals here in the "mayanagari" (as he called it) Mumbai.

I am still not entirely sure what he is trying to build but I wished him luck and continued. Before leaving, I asked him if I could tag him on LinkedIn.

Although the card is not clear (am yet to learn how to take snaps where foreground and background both are clear), the bloke here is Gattu Mani Sampath and you may DM him on LinkedIn if you wish to know more about his offerings.

Intent, Clarity & Creativity. Good recipie for success perhaps. All the best again buddy!

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"...And nothing pierced your feet? Surprising!..."

 "...And nothing pierced your feet? Surprising!..."

...commented one of my friends, when she read about a jog I did barefoot on the beach once, when my shoe broke.

"I used to go there daily for years & always saw so many pieces of broken bottles at the beach." she added.

The Friday after that, my daughter joined me for the jog at the beach. While I had my shoes on, she was barefoot. All went well & I had actually forgot about that comment on broken glasses.

Last Friday, again she tagged along & ran barefoot, but this time, I recalled that comment & now started watching where her feet were landing. To my shock, I did see quite a few broken pieces of glass around where we were jogging. I alerted her about it & told her to watch out. We kept jogging & till the time we stopped, I kept worrying about the fact that she might hurt her feet. After a while, she decided to play with her sand toys & I continued.

I was still wondering how these pieces weren't hurting so many walkers/joggers/runners. So then everytime I saw a piece of broken glass, I paused to examine it. Since there were plenty of such around, within about 5 mins I had encountered 8 or 9 such pieces. I stopped to pick up each to see why they weren't hurting anyone.

What I saw, and deduced, was:

1. Almost all pieces were noticeable, a few cms wide. Did not spot tiny (or large) pieces. All these pieces probably get thrown by the sea, daily, but the sea only throws out pieces of a particular size perhaps. Tiny/large pieces either get sucked in or (tiny ones) get mixed in the sand easily.

2. Nearly all of these pieces belonged to bottles as most of them were curved.

3. "All" of the curved ones were resting in a position where the broken edges were facing down. The force and motion of waves perhaps act in a way, that they always land with edges facing down - this means anyone stepping on them won't get hurt.

4. For a few which were flattish (as well as for the ones that were curved), the edges had smoothened out, they weren't sharp. Perhaps the effect of the waves also significantly eliminates the sharpness in the edges & hence even if one were to step on an edge, it would be nearly harmless, not potent enough to make a cut.

Learnings:

1. Sometimes, ignorance is indeed a bliss. Till the time I wasn't aware of these glass pieces & hadn't noticed, I wasn't worried about running barefoot. Now that I know these exist, I will always have some worry, especially for my kid when she runs barefoot (even though the probability of getting hurt might be low).

2. Nature always has a way of protecting. The sea, in this instance, ensures the glasses land curved side up and take the sharpness off from the edges.

3. A thing which would cause extreme fear, anxiety & caution in one scenario, almost goes unnoticed & unfeared in other. Imagine pieces of glass, laid down in your path on a usual floor, as opposed to them being on a beach (albeit with the washdown effect).

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“…what a quiet bunch of students!...”

 “…what a quiet bunch of students!...”

…I told myself. I was on my way back from college in early 2000s in the general compartment of a local train in Mumbai.

A couple of stations passed & a group of 5-6 college students boarded the train. From my window seat, I was able to glance at them as they boarded the train. It was a mixed group, with a few girls & boys. They decided to stand near the door & did not come in.

Slowly, the compartment started getting occupied & I could barely spot them due to the crowd . I could see them involved in an animated discussion, with their hands moving all around. I guess they were speaking too softly as I couldn't hear them & that’s when I pondered how such a group of seemingly energetic students can be so quiet in their discussions.

In a few mins, I was about to reach my destination, so I decided to alight from the door they were at. As I reached closer to them, I was stunned at what I saw. I could see why they weren’t as noisy as any other group of students would be. All of them were specially abled (differently abled, as commonly known) & they all had a hearing impairment. They were still involved in a very animated and engaged discussion (in sign lang.) which most of the people around had no clue about, yet they seemed to be enjoying it. As I waited for my station to arrive, I was totally mesmerized by them. All of them probably around their 20s, dressed immaculately with trendy accessories – bright and energetic faces and not an ounce of indication about their struggle with the impairment.

The incident stayed with me for the next few days. Got me thinking how these folks, who did not have the basic ability of communicating via spoken words, seemed so happy. Their smiles were as beautiful as any and their dressing sense perhaps much better than most. They did not seem to bother about onlookers who stared at them as if they were aliens from another planet. It seemed as though their palms and fingers were more efficient in communication than most people's tongues could be. 

We often wonder about the abilities we lack, but forget that while we can try and acquire the abilities we desire, the abilities & attitude we possess can make up for the absence of such missing abilities. Things like ability to speak, hear, see, walk & touch are totally disregarded as an “ability” whereas we are actually privileged to have these. There are millions of such people in the world, who lack the basic abilities in their life yet manage to rise in their life like a phoenix through the ashes. Some might put up a great picture for all to see, though deep down, they might be fighting a tough battle daily.

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Hopefully, the word disability will soon be replaced with different or special ability. Links in comments for similar anecdotes.

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