mobile blog

Just got myself a mobile phone with internet access device. Let me see how good I am. No excuses any more. Anywhere bloggoing! A little tedious for sure

me brutus?

Yesterday I had the great fortune of listening to a panel discussion on cricket. Amongst them was the coach of the team Tom Moody. It was a revelation. That guy was amazing. it is the insight that you get from his cricketing brain that is amazing. the entire panel on one side and Tom on the other. The others I came out impressed with are the Sri Lankans. They have imboibed with their interactions with the aussies the sense of discipline and clean thinking. Sangakkara and Jayawardena are clearly very very sharp guys. No doubt about it. Wow.

Another thing I came across while researching the phrase “et tu, brute” in the wikipedia:-
While the words are very emotionally moving as an expression of shock and betrayal towards Brutus, it has recently been argued that the phrase was instead uttered as a threat. Caesar is thought to have adapted the words of a Greek sentence which to the Romans had long since become proverbial. The complete phrase is said to have been "You too my son, will have a taste of power," of which Caesar only needed to invoke the opening words to foreshadow Brutus' own violent death, in response to his assassination.

The other day Jispa was having a nice long conversation with me on why she should be staying at her cousin’s place as opposed to coming with us for a play. Hmmm… she is like me. I can engage in conversation till eternity if I know I am correct at a fundamental level. Well she was correct but then I was not wrong on my stand so we had an infinite deadlock. Mommy really helps in these situations.

On Saturday evening we saw “khuda ke liye”. Nice movie. One of the story lines involves a dad doing something for her daughter that was obviously very wrong. But from the dad’s perspective it was very correct. (of course in the movie its an absurd unbelievable exaggeration) . The point is that as a dad I would take a decision that I believe is in the kids interest. But from the other perspective it could be so horribly wrong. There is no guarantee against this. Dads will always take decisions. I think the trick is to do a few things right – listen to your daughter’s point of view, think if you can live with it, see how bad it could get, know when to let go (and when not to). There.

It's all about the energy dude

Of all my jobs the one at Momentum Consulting was the most intense for me. It gave me soo much but also took a piece of my soul. I was there for only 9 months but it gave me a treasure tove of wisdom to last a lifetime. Today one can easily say that it shaped me and my thinking and will remain one of the bedrocks of whatever I manage to achieve. There I worked on the strategy for one of the most irritating large companies. It was a cement company by the name of FCC. (Actually if you substitute the F with the A you will get the real name. This is all done to avoid the idiots in the company who put google alerts). So FCC is the biggest dickhead of a company with a management that is allows politics and decision making steeped in bullshit. No wonder there are consultants hovering over the company at all points of time including M/s McK etc. There was so much thought in the strategy that we had presented. The whole place had negative energy and way to weigh down any person trying to do a good job. You get a fair idea on the guys by simply looking at them talk in office. If you notice in places there is no trust, the guys talk in hused voices, there will be closed doors and no coffee conversations on each others desks. You will see the shifty eyes. Yes don’t miss those shifty eyes constantly looking around to see if any body is listening. The guys turning back again and again to make sure. Man it sure is a piss off. I had a chance to go back to this place again yesterday. It took all my resolve and my patience to talk and understand. I can’t do consulting. I can’t do this shit for sure. I like to see consultants as evil vultures seen in Disney movies that hover around near dying animals waiting to feast of them. Of course there are genuine guys in the business as well and momentum was as genuine as it gets, but then that’s the issue. With a genuine intent and work ethic Momentum took more out of you and you really lost it when the company would not be able to uplift themselves over petty issues and run the strategy.
Going back there was to relive some of those awfull memories, those awful feelings. I would never want to step inside that office building ever …ever. I wonder how people work there day in and day out. The archaic furniture, the closed wooden cabins, the silently working staff, the reluctance to smile/laugh, I would just die out slowly but surely. Laughter – its so important in anything that you do. LAUGH, take yourself a little less serious and enjoy whatever you do. No matter what! I want to die laughing! heheheheh

random photos

summer time... Jispa's cousin coming over. burger is for dinner and i am the designer chef... i only do the designing
Chakram on the plate as well...
how rickety can a stool get... i wonder who gets to sit on this one...
just like that. thats the under constuction bandra worli sea link. I WAS THERE!!!!! putting this up on social networking sites might be a better idea than the ones in front of eiffel tower or the big ben. those photos are soooo wanna be. I dont think we have gotton over the 'i was there' syndrome.

silence

The most overrated skill in the world is oratory skill. I have no clue why people go gaga and reinforce this skill from childhood. We clap when the child speaks up, we clap when she goes on stage and speaks and we keep pushing them to speak. But the bigger skill is actually keeping quiet. So many people have so much opinion so little information. The more the opinionated the person clearly the lesser the knowledge he/she has. I was thinking today, that after reading quite a bit in the last few years, I have actually spoken less than I would have. In the face of knowledge, I keep quite, greedy to assimilate more and more. In the face of ignorance I keep quite, the quite confidence of knowing and of understanding the futility. There are more reasons to hold your tongue than to let it exercise. Yet we glorify speech. We must glorify silence. If you are smart, be quiet. If you are dumb even more reason to be quiet. But if you think you are smart and you open your mouth, then you are truly ……

Body language is also words. While we use body language some of us are conscious about it while the others are not so. Of course conscious is better than ignorance but here to the winner is the poker face. The ability to not use body language at all is a skill few posses. The silent assassin is the most effective one. Not showing your response in the short run can be the most power inducing strategy of all times.