What happens after death....

........does it really matter ?

With all due respect to the departed soul, Mr. U R Ananthamurthy, may I ask this question lingering in my mind ? Should a democratically elected government in power decide how and when to mourn the death of a notable personality ? Do we have a set of criteria to be meet so that the government can declare a state wide closure of banks, educational institutes and offices to mourn someone’s death ? How does the democratically elected government decide this and yet be impartial ? Clearly we don’t have any rules as such. So again, ‘Should the democratically elected government in power, decide when and how to mourn?’

Shouldn't this power reside with the people of the state or country ? How about declaring the day as a flexible day to mourn ? Meaning, anyone who choose to mourn should be allowed to be on leave this day and then be able to work overtime or on holidays to compensate. Now, that gives the power back to the people instead of forcing this holiday to mourn someone on people and also adding to millions of loss.

As far as the departed soul is concerned, does it really matter to that soul if the state declared a holiday to mourn  ? In his own words from the book Samskara , "Only the form we forge for ourselves in our inmost will is ours without question." If someone mourns the death or  doesn't mourn , shouldn't matter.

What  happens after death doesn't matter. You get buried or burnt, ultimately YOU just dissolve in top soil or thin air and become NOTHING. So if the dead soul doesn’t speak or care, then this move by government in power to declare a forced holiday is just another move to appease a section of society or minds and nothing more. Mourning should be voluntary and should not in any form affect others. Why would you force closure of banks, educational institute and offices, and allow people to be disrespectful of someone’s death because it causes great inconvenience to them ? Since no dead soul can ask this question, I beg all the great souls respected in society and by large section of masses, to include this in their will. “On my death, all business and activities should be as usual. There shouldn't be any state declared holiday, closures or processions. I have received all the love and respect from the people whose life I have touched while I am alive. Therefore, what happens after my death doesn’t really matter to me.”

2014 Indian General Election + Social media + Human nature

The run to 2014 Indian general election with all its arguments and counter arguments over social media, reveals an interesting human nature. The tendency to reject or embrace an idea or a political party based on the negative analysis(drawbacks) is stronger than the positive analysis(strengths). 

Meaning, the argument over negative points of a party/idea is substantial over the positive points, leading to the formation of the decision.

Do we observe or practice similar behavior while making critical decisions in our day to day life ? Rejecting based on what’s bad for you instead of embracing what’s good for you? If you look closely, they don’t mean the same because negative and positive points don’t really have a 1:1 proportionality most of the times.

What makes us feel good at work?

What makes us feel good at work?

Dan Ariely is American professor of psychology and behavioral economics. He has conducted numerous experiments and researches mainly in the field of human behavior. I have been following his blog and presentation since few years and this one particular TEDx is inspiring and provides insights into 'what makes us feel good at work'?

You may watch his presentation here http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work.html

You could take away a lot of learning's from this talk, but the one that fascinated me the most was, the origami experiment. 

So he called a group of people and divided them into 2 groups. Group A would be given a piece of origami paper with all instructions to create a beautiful duck. Group B would monitor the work of Group A. Once the group A was done with their end product, he asked both the groups to evaluate and put a price tag on the end product. The end product to be honest was not really good as expected because group A didn't have much experience in origami.However when they were asked to evaluate their work, Group A who created the product, priced it much higher than the group B who were evaluating the end product.

Next, he removed the instructions on the origami paper and made it even harder for the Group A to create the end product. So naturally the end product was not that great. However when he asked both the groups to price it. Group A priced it even higher than the previous time and group B even lower than the previous time.So, what this suggests is that. Group B, who is evaluating the end product, did not look at the effort put in to create the product. They were concerned of the value the product provided to them.Naturally, they didn't like the end product and priced it too low the second time. However, Group A who had created the product, put extra effort the second time because they didn't have the instructions and thereby they priced their product even higher, though the end product had deteriorated in quality.

Now, let's correlate this to our work environment. We could probably take 3 learning's from this experiment. These learning's become even more important for our organization since our motto is to keep challenging and innovation is the way to do that.

1. When an employee A, innovates a new process or product and presents it to his manager/lead B, what would happen if the B only looks at the dollar savings due to the innovation and simply puts it aside by comparing it with other innovations within the team? - Can B change the behavior of A by not comparing just the dollar but acknowledging the effort and suggesting a modification or change to the innovation done by A ? Can we award the best innovation but not ignore the smaller accelerators that makes almost the same difference to client satisfaction?

2. Can employee A not get into the paradox of thinking that his or her innovation is the best because of the effort put in? Can employee A conduct a small research to find out how useful the innovation could be to others and then proceed in small steps by involving everyone and getting regular feedback instead of being adamant on 'my way is the highway' theory ?

Sometimes being within the system smudges our thinking. Sometimes we got to get out of the system and just watch it like a movie to understand what's going on and what could be done better. That's where talks, experiments and researches such as this one helps us immensely.

Happy Anniversary !! :D

God asked me to make a wish.
Well, I don't wish to be a Batman or Krrish.
Just make me a better person, like new!
That's when he introduced me to you !
....Happy Anniversary !!:D

Sachin – Is he really God ?

Should Sachin retire or not? Well, I am not going to answer that now. However, If I am politically right. The question should be answered by the BCCI and its members, that includes Indian cricket team Captain as well.  Let’s list some facts related to Sachin. No, not his cricketing scores.

1.       Sachin is worshipped (if that means follow without questions) around the world.

2.       Sachin is in the minds of people in every cricketing nations . He is also in the minds of people who would want him to retire.

So, that makes him a very high value sportsman to have in a team. High value? Yes. Sponsors don’t spend the money on a team just because they love the team and country. It is business. A team that has a high value asset will be sponsored very well. You think I am wrong? Tell me , oh all the Sachin worshippers and non-worshippers… how many times have you kept everything aside just to watch Sachin bat? Do you see the commercials being played when Sachin bats? They are pretty high value commercial and famous too. How much do you think the BCCI earns from all this ? Well, that shows the BCCI’s reluctance to not follow a plan for transitioning senior players to younger players. An Indian captain can only work with what he has been given. He has very little say when it comes to choosing the  senior players. Imagine what could possibly happen to the moral of that captain ?

One of the Sachin ‘worshiper’ told me that people who don’t know anything or know very little about cricket should not comment on Sachins retirement. Well my friend, your theory is something like, ‘People who don’t know or know very little about science should not discuss Einstein or gravity.’ You discuss, debate and ponder over an issue in everyday life. Did you need practical experience to debate? I don’t think so. You say what you think. You express your point of you. People can take it or leave it. No one has to the right to stop anyone from expressing their point of you. You don’t need to be an architect or understand engineering to admire or criticize  a monument. May be watching monuments around the world is just a hobby. Just like watching cricket.

I think  majority of Sachin followers belong to 2 groups. One group idolizes Sachin to an extent that they think he is God. They don’t want anyone to question their faith or their God. For them, God can do whatever he wants to do, because that’s what God do. Otherwise, he would be human, isn’t it? Right, ok. The other group respects Sachin. They love to watch Sachin bat. They respect him as a person on and off the field. They respect him for being a greatest sportsman in cricketing history. Like I said, they respect him as a “person”.

When you treat a sportsman as a person,  you stop thinking of an individual and start thinking of a team. A winning team. You start admiring a person for his contribution to the team ‘at that moment’ and not in his past. If a player thinks that he can rely on his past glory and blind followers then he will not go for long. He will be dropped. To be dropped after contributing so much for so many years, is surely painful and the second group of Sachins admirers understand that. That is why they want him to gracefully retire. They don’t hate Sachin. They respect him and they would want that respect to remain for ever. For the first category of admirers, all that I can say is that, by making him God you have only set his standards so high that he is not able to maintain it. If you want someone to remain as God in your heart, don’t allow him to fail and push him to despair by setting high hopes. Faith is in the heart of the Beholder.

Sachin once mentioned that, he made a choice and put in hard work to become a cricket player and it is only he who has the right to say if it is time to retire. That doesn’t sound like God at all. Cricket is not an individual player game like tennis. You are just a link in the chain. A weak link does not make a strong chain. It’s the BCCI who makes a decision based on what is good for cricket. Perhaps at this moment they are concentrating on the financial repercussion of dropping someone of his stature. It’s a typical mentality isn’t it? “’Jithna din chalega, chalne do. Bhad mey jaaye honestly aur commitment”. For them Sachin is a trump card, until everyone stops talking about him and the media stops writing about him. And then when a player fades away… that’s the time to drop. Imagine the players state of mind when he is dropped that way. I am sure one would feel used. Isnt it then better to sign off at peak ?? Well, only time…may have an idea. i.e only if ‘Time’ as a variable does exist :P

Happy B'Day Smiley !! :P

Everything feels so less

Where is happiness?

I thought it was in playing in mud,

But soon the mud looked dirty and it was a dud.

Everything feels so less

Where is happiness?

I thought it was in the video game

But soon it was boring and lame.

Everything feels so less

Where is happiness?

I thought it was in my first bike

But soon it looked old and I didn’t like,

Everything feels so less

Where is happiness?

I thought it was in having enough money,

But soon that was not enough and wanted more n more penny

Everything feels so less

Where is happiness?

...Today when I look back I realize

Happiness was never mine

Happiness was always in others smile.

The smile on my mom’s face when she looked at me painted in mud.

The smile on my friends face when we played the game together

The smile on my college crushes when I pulled off stunts on my bike

The smile on that poor kids face who I helped when I had enough money.

My love,

Thank you for making me HAPPY, with your ever loving SMILE!! :)     

Neenu hathira Edharey .....

Click to Read..Pardon my gramsermwerMer... :P