Heal Yourself!

There are moments in life that test your character, test your existence as an individual and test your strength. You may think that these are the worst times in your life and may struggle every step of the way. There is a very unique way to deal with this and believe me when you get past it, you will realize what an amazing person you are. 

As human beings we are tuned to think through our brain when there is no pressure. However when we are in a stressful condition, we tend to think through our heart more than our brain. We react quickly and we are on an emotional roller coaster. It is in these moments when you should think of yourself as a two layered organism. An outer layer, which fights the situation, faces the harsh weather and reacts constantly. There is nothing wrong with it, it's human and it's healthy. Often human mind and body needs shake ups to ensure it is still elastic and can handle the extremes.

Then there is the inner layer - which is the core YOU! You - when you are happy; You – that has your base personality; You - under normal conditions. In tough situations, it is easy to put on the suit of outer layer but the resolution to the situation is in the inner layer. This is your strength, a zone where you can think through your brain.

So how do you get to the inner layer? By the process of “detachment”. Remove yourself from the tough situation by becoming calm, by becoming quiet, by engaging in something else or by talking to other people. Once you start detaching from the problem, you will start to think through your brain - think how to resolve the issue or how to overcome the problem. It is important to get to the normal state in which we operate at our best. It is in this state where we will understand the situation better and make best decisions.

Easier said than done - right? Remember this is not an antibiotic that will cure your disease in 5 days. It is a habit - something that will make you stronger the more you practice it. So go on try it!

Frequent Flyer

I am a road warrior. I like my Monday morning sleep and Thursday evening drink in an airplane. When you are traveling so much, you tend to develop certain likes and dislikes about how you want to travel. That includes your fellow passengers as well. For e.g. A newbie in the security line doesn't know that he needs to take off his shoes. Entire line gets backed up by 5min - 5min is a lot of time in my travel life! Then, the newbie sits in a window seat and wants to enjoy beautiful scenery of nature while the sunlight keeps me up. Newbie, I can't sleep - have the courtesy for your fellow passengers!

I am not being picky. There are thousands of people who would agree with me. This is just like your office space. You have it set a certain way and don't want other people to change it. Airplane is my space.

Air travel every week is not easy especially with a perpetual "orange" security advisory. Check-in line, security line, boarding line, baggage claim line, rental car pick up - each of these activities take about 10-20min. My flight time is sometimes less than the airport administrative time. As a result, after running around the airport, only time I get to relax is in the flight itself. It's not any different for not to frequent flyers as well.

So next time when you travel, think about people like us - come prepared, be courteous and relax!

Safe travels!

@saxenaas: written on a flight as I cannot sleep due to the sunlight in my face :-)

The Future of Humans

I have been watching a lot of sci-fi/ futuristic movies lately. Some of them are from the 1970s like the Planet of the Apes, and some are all time hits like Star Wars and Star Trek. And then there is a whole another set like Terminator, Idiocracy, Time Machine, Mad Max etc., which have their own unique concepts.

I am intrigued by the wide range of thought processes in all these movies. It's not really about their stories but about how they envision the future of humans. And this is where I realized that we all think that we are going to hell! Most of these movies show degradation of human society and the emergence of a superior species. There is large scale destruction caused by humans, which results in a genetically altered species that dominates the Earth. In some cases apes dominate the Earth, and sometimes machines, but my point is that humans eventually become a low form of life.

Take for instance, machines rule after the apocalypse in Terminator, Morlocks eat humans in Time Machine, Apes rule humans in the Planet of the Apes and humans with IQ of a squirrel govern in Idiocracy. Whatever may be the event that changes the history of Earth, it's humans who suffer.

So are the producers and directors of these movies trying to tell us something? If yes, are we even getting that message? Take a moment and tie this thought with the current phenomena like global warming, declining social integration, nuclear fear, rising terrorism, and cyber-crime. We are at the starting point of the journey which leads to the time that these movies depict.

Maybe I am thinking too much but maybe this is something we should think about for our generations to come!

Email Overflow

I am not a salesman or an executive who has to run a company (yet!) but when I see an average of 80 emails in my mailbox daily, I wonder about information clutter. So I talked to a bunch of my colleagues and found out what I am going to write here is a common phenomenon. We all suffer from the email overflow!

It begins with corporate announcements (about 10%) which I read selectively based on the subject or when someone in the cafeteria is talking about it (those I have to restore from Trash). Another 10% comes from reminders for deadlines or admin stuff which we should normally remember. This is a representation of how committed people are to their own plans. Sad but true – hence the email!

Then there is a good 40% in which I am copied as FYI. Three words for the team – “just fix it”. So far 60% of the emails are about 25% effective but consume a good portion of my morning schedule. Now the remaining 40% are the interesting ones. This is where I have to really pay attention.

5% Emails highlighted in Blue are from the boss
3% Emails highlighted in Yellow are from his boss or higher
25% Pink emails are from my clients. Yes pink because I find pink to be a soothing color. Red was the original color of choice.

As for the last 8% that’s mostly travel notifications. For my kind of job you need those – from one airport to another and another!

So are we email obsessed? Check this out
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373233,00.asp

@saxenaas

Cheers!

12am Cheers!

02am Cheeeers!

04am Cheeeeeeeers!

05am One last time Cheeeeeer….

And we all went to sleep.

Rewind to the 90’s when a few fine young men who had never met before in their life came together in a college in India. There were no loyalties, no acquaintances yet they started to learn about each other and shared some of the finest experiences of their lives. One of those was an evening on a weekend – a table full of a variety of liquors – variety was a must because they didn’t know which one they are going to like and develop a taste for, for the rest of their life. That was a bonding moment! That night everybody won – Haywards 5000, ACP, Vodka and Gin! For the next four years, those men did not leave anything behind on the table – literally and figuratively. Now fast forward to 2010 when some of them came together again – this time they were not alone. There were wives, kids and old spirits. And the mix was awesome – a couple with twins, new mom and dad, a new couple and a not so new couple.

Day 1: Re-union started at 12:00am with Cheers! Lots of catching up to do until 5:30am when they decided they may need some sleep for day 2. Best part, even the wives kept up with them and shared a few moments of their own.

Day 2: No surprises – it started late as expected but with lot of enthusiasm – around the kids! These men who were no longer young realized how their lives had taken a turn. It was now centered around the kids and even the ones who did not have any got involved in it. It was fun. That determined the venues for the day. However, the evening was the highlight of the day when an extensive BBQ plan was kicked off. First time on a charcoal grill was not easy for them – after 4 hours of extensive coal burning, the chicken barely made it!

Day 3: The Final Day. This one started early in the beautiful valley of the Smokies. Gatlinburg - a small beautiful town with thousands of tourists and local shopping set in the foothills. A cable car going up the hill was the best feature of the town. Following a hibachi dinner, they realized this night ought to be one like in the college in a new setting – hot tub, foosball, music and lots of pool. Their eight ball was in the right place that night.

Morning brought the departure – they all left in different directions just like they did several years ago – but to meet again!

 

@ saxenaas

Skymall - shortcuts in life!

If you are a frequent flyer or have been in an airplane in the last few years, you may have looked at the Skymall magazine. Every time I fly I grab the magazine first to see what's new. There is a lot of exciting and very innovative stuff advertised in it. I call it the magazine of creative people. But this time it was different. I noticed a pattern in the variety of products that are being offered. There are so many products which make simple day today tasks mechanical or electronic - in other words they make us lazy! I had this instant flash of characters from Wall-E where future generation has weak legs and can't even walk. The movie portrays how the human race became dependant on robotic devices for basic tasks in our life. If there is anything to learn from the movie it is that there are a lot of mundane things which we do and should be doing to keep ourselves active. I also remembered my grand parents telling my parents how their generation was more hard-working and then I hear my parents telling me the same thing. So are we becoming lazier generation by generation? Definitely the electronic age has dawned upon us and has changed the human life - how we do things, types of medical issues we have, how fitness centers are blooming every day! Now I am wondering where am I taking this - I have no complaints about the Skymall magazine because that's their business. How we live our life is our business - the choices we make and what lifestyle we choose. Human brain is creative enough to think of ways to make life easy - just remember the cost!

Mera Desh Meri Jaan

My country my pride

It started as a dinner conversation with my colleagues. We were discussing how horrible the traffic is in Cairo. That’s when I told them about traffic in Delhi. One thing I have learnt in my globe trotting is that if you can drive in Delhi you can drive anywhere. And that would apply to most other Indian cities as well. We have mastered the technique to occupy every square inch of the road. The traffic pattern is no longer linear – just think of any geometrical figure and you would find that there. However our conversation did not stay on traffic. It got interesting when we started talking about how over a billion people live my country which is about the size of Texas and some neighboring states. How’s life in India? That’s when I started telling them about India. We are a service oriented country and there is a fee for every service. Well you have to understand the cost of time and that’s when you will appreciate this fees. It would normally take couple of months to get your passport but the guy standing outside the passport office can get it faster for a nominal fee. You can probably get away with a traffic violation for a fee. You can get some legal documentation sitting at home again for a fee. There is a fee for everything. This is the system but then I thought – India works, this system works! We may not have the highest standards of operations but work gets done – probably faster than most developed countries. Yes again there is a fee!
Which other country has a billion people and a system which is this efficient? Believe me, I am not a supporter of such practices but I am proud of my country – every aspect of it. Even with a low literacy rate and high poverty we are still one of the strongest economies in the world. There has to be something that keeps it going, whatever mechanism is that – it works!

You may be thinking everything that’s happening in my country is correct. Not really because every house has a good and a bad and so does India. There are people fighting against corruption, people protecting women’s rights, people helping small children and people helping other people. Remember those people. There are things that need to be fixed but think about it – we all live in a complicated social-religious-political-economic web – and it still works!

PS: My colleagues left with a good impression about India and a desire to visit it sometime.