suno sab ki, karo apni

I too can sing? Can I really sing. Of course not. I bray but I love to bray in style. I like singing and humming along songs. I have always been jealous of people who can sing. Dam you guys. How the voice comes out automatically in tune. These are guys who don’t need any training. Ever since they were born all they had to do was open their mouth and sing in tune. These are guys who now walk into karaoke bars and grab the mike and sing. They know all the lyrics and the tunes and just throw themselves ta the music. I never loved music enough to listen over and over and get the lyrics right as well. But one song that has stuck in head since a long time is the famous Kishore number from Door gagan ki chaon mein. I love the wordings. A father is dreaming with his child about a place he wants to take his kid to. A fairy tale place where happiness lives. It’s a lovely song. When we were kids we had started a kids club called the Blue Star club. In that we had these singing competitions among other things and one guy used to win by singing this song.  The simple tune and the easy lyrics captivated my mind and with the advent of fatherhood, I found deep meaning in it.

Last week end we were in Pune for Jispa’s swimming championship. We stay at the VITS hotel and there they have a karaoke bar. We were with friends and they naturally hit the mike. After singing along a few songs, they urged me to try my hand at it. Seeing the playlist I saw aa chal ke tujhe. The same Kishore beauty. I couldn’t resist. I let go. At first I was reluctant. Then I started to get eth hang of it and then started singing. By the end of it I was in full flow, trying to sing in tune with the pitch going up and down and generally making a complete happy fool of myself. I loved it. As usual my lovely wife was providing all the encouragement she could. She told me while I was singing that I suck at it and should stop. She made all sort of faces, she told me I am too hoarse and that it was really bad. I happily ignored her. Thanks Jasmine. But now I can rest. I always wanted to sing in public. I sang! It was a big relief. A sense of achievement. I always sang along with the radio in the car. Jasmine would always tell me to shut up.

Moral of the story – those who really care for you will offer you unbiased and well-meaning advice. They care about you and tell you the truth. So when you want to do something discuss with them and then go ahead and do or don’t do exactly what you want to do or not do.  It’s your life. Only you know what you really want to do. In end you answer to yourself. Not your mom or dad or anyone. The closer they are the greater the vested interest in you. They really care for you and hence they can’t really be unbiased as regards you. So they will tell you the truth but progress never depended on what accepted as truth. There is no real truth to start with. Do your bit. It is finally your life at stake and it’s not likely that you will get the chance to live it again.

So Jispa when you grow older and I give you well-meaning and trusted advice that is likely to be the right thing to do. Listen carefully and then just go and do your own freaking thing. JUMP!

the struggle to reach the fleeting buddha

I still find it queer (pun unintended) that a lot of us educated people are also homophobic. My favorite rejoinder is when people talk about how in today’s generation, we will have to accept whatever cast or creed the person who our kids choose as their life partners. I correct them to ‘yes, also whatever the sex of their partner is’. Invariably I get a slight pause. The person looks at me, catches my eye for a few seconds and tries to ascertain if I was cracking a joke or something. Nopes – no response. It’s obviously not cool to be a homophobic. So in the face of a high moral ground taken, the other guy invariably is silent. Yes I have a daughter and yes I am ok to the choice of her partner. Surely I will freak out if she chooses a druggie or someone I consider completely dumb. Also it’s another story that I am likely to find anyone who has an IQ slightly lower than Einstein as dumb especially if that person is dating my daughter. But definitely the sex bit is out of the equation.

So if it’s a senior person I am talking to – I always learnt to give that person an exit hatch. I allow that person to wiggle out of a potential wedge. So this time I allowed for – it will take one more generation for us to accept same sex marriage as it will take this generation to accept inter cast marriage. Hehe.

Allowing an exit hatch in a conversation is something I have learnt over a period of time. Especially when you have the benefit of strong insight or knowledge behind you or simply you have a strong enough counter opinion.  Life is too short to fight over such small issues such as a humble opinion. So many times I actively try getting an outlet. So I explain how the other point of view is valid and likely to be the right one or search for an excuse to honorably exit. Too many wars have been fought over petty ego issues.

There was one other incident somewhere related to this issue. I was being wooed for a job by a senior person recently. I declined but was happy to recommend a friend. The friend then told me that while having a conversation with the senior guy, the senior guy referred to me as ‘The Buddha’. To my mind there is no better compliment than that. Especially considering the fact that I have consciously worked on this. I laughed and told the friend that if you were to tell my mom something like this then my mom would burst out laughing. Jaimit a Buddha? HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH. I told my wife about the incident and guess what – she almost spat out her coffee and started laughing. ‘you a Buddha?’ HAHAHAHAHAHA. Sure. That’s the drift. Dam you guys!

Being a Buddha doesn’t come easily. You need economy of motion and expression and mental thought. The ability to leave things there while simultaneously trying to change them. That did not make sense did it – then it is a buddha’ism. But seriously that word struck me serious. I managed to, in some small tiny way, achieve a balance in my persona and achieved for however a fleeting moment – the concept of the Buddha. It felt really really nice. A lot of that comes in meetings when you don’t fight on ego and when you allow the honorable exit in meetings and discussion and then when you take people’s opinion and try and forge a consensus. And people like me – die a thousand deaths in the process. It is unnatural and difficult. But I am still gloating about the fact that someone referred to me as the Buddha. However fleeting a moment – you live in it for eternity… a ha that’s another one that didn’t make any sense… or did it.

And just a verse from William Blake. I recently read it and hence the show off

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

bitch

I don’t want to be in the fight. Oh dam it. This father business is painful. Yesterday I was in the fight and scolding my daughter for something I wasn’t even sure I want. She needs to sleep as she needs to wake up in the morning for swimming. Instead she was reading a book. She went in the other room saying that she will come instantly when it’s time to sleep and till then she must read. I called her and yet she continued to read… Dam it. She needs to sleep but double dam it – she should be reading as well. Reading is good for you. But if I don’t interfere there is tremendous pressure on Jasmine. Jasmine is right now in cool off mode. She just ignores transgressions. She is like do what you want – I am tired of you. I don’t want to tell you. you are now old enough to know and handle this on your own. I am in the middle saying – no. she is not old enough, you have to keep the pressure else they won’t learn now.

So instead I get involved and do what I need to do, or rather what I am forced to do. I don’t want to be the authoritarian disciplinarian. Yesterday half way through the scolding I was losing faith in myself. But I need to get her to sleep. That is critical now. And it’s not that she won’t. She will sleep in 30 seconds of closing her eyes. If I don’t push it then Jasmine will erupt. She will burst. She manages Jispa every day, that’s a bloody tough thing to do.

So this time around Dad had to put a stupid stone on his chest and go for it. At the end of it, I looked at Jasmine and told her that this is getting too much for us. She looked at me and said, relax – one more week till the state meet and then no more morning swimming. Whew! Relax.

You know I want to be the cool guy. I want to be the guy that people love to have around and who is relaxed but if I do it all the time things would go off. The other day was the first time I had to tick a couple of kids in office off. These two would indulge in gossip all the time. Every time they would be sitting and chit chatting. I would make a joke about it and get them to work. But it would be of no avail. Then I let it rip. I got them into the room and gave them a dressing down. If they want to gossip then this is not the place for it. Every time getting together and talking in hushed tones is not the culture I want. Be loud about what you say. You can’t keep talking secrets.

I hate this secret culture. You always see these unsecure people wanting to talk secrets in office. Then when they are talking they keep looking behind their back or over their shoulder or around when they talk to you. I find that really dumb. Why do you need to talk to anyone and look around you? What is it that you are hiding or don’t want others to hear. Sometimes Jispa’s friends piss me off. They will talk to the other girls but while looking around. That is so secret secret behavior. Luckily Jispa shows no such signs nor doesn’t care or gel with this kind of stuff. Its so pissing off.

In my team I would like to root out such behavior and stomp on it. Talk, criticize but in front of the person. Don’t bitch so much, especially if it’s your team member. When someone bitches to me about someone then I assume that one will bitch about me to someone else. Tread with immediate caution!

two schools

Schooling is not the only source of learning. Parents who leave the teaching to the teachers are really giving the child the short end of the stick. You need to supplement the teaching t home. Basic concepts need to be drilled in again and again for it to sink in. Like for example let’s take the number line as the building black of mathematics. While doing some subtractions the other day Jasmine was trying to teaching her mental math. She was trying to tell her to go to the nearest ten and then jump tens and then add the ones. Like 75 – 28 is from 28 go to 30, then go to 70 and then add 5. Jispa just got a bit confused with the first 2 to reach 30. At which point I got in and then I realized that Wait – she doesn’t understand the basic concept of numbers.

I explained to her that numbers are in a number line. You have to understand them as in one straight continuous never ending line. This line does not curve. If it curves then suddenly after 100 you may find a zero again. So that will confuse the whole math. So math assumes that numbers are running straight. You have to get that right first. Now the basic building block is adding. So if there is a 4 in a number line and to get to 9 – the distance between them is 5. That simple. Minus is also nothing but adding in reverse. What needs to be added to 28 to get 75 is 75-28. And multiplication is nothing but doing addition again and again. And division is reverse of multiplication (or repeated subtraction as she told me). So think of them in a straight line. This way you will be able to understand and work with numbers better.  I think that helped her understand the numbers better in her brain. Then I spoke to Jasmine later. I told her that she doesn’t have her basics right. Jasmine told me that the number line chapter was taught to her. I said exactly – it was a chapter, it was not taught as the basic building block of mathematics. Also basic building blacks can’t be taught like this. I realize this when I teach in college. There is so much to be taught in school and college that there isn’t enough time for building blacks. You quickly teach a chapter and then you move on. Possibly the syllabus is designed properly – the building block comes in first but then they are completely forgotten. They need to come in again and again in the course of the years and that should help you learn more. In marketing – research and consumer insights must come again and again. What I find most stupid is that research lectures come in the semesters following the marketing lectures. You can’t do anything of marketing if you don’t understand research. It’s that simple. So you need to a bit of research and then you need to do a bit of marketing and then again reinforce some research again. That’s the way. Every year at the start some of the building blocks of math must be taught again – in a little more advanced manner for it to make sense.  Therein lays a problem. Also the teachers are tasked to complete the portion in a predetermined amount of time. Where is the scope for dreaming? Who is tasked to encourage dreaming and explain the practical applicability of the studies done? My solution is to have one period per week where the objective is to ask and discuss the week, and the lectures and the studies, without the pressure of marks or portion or anything else. Surely there is time for this. There are enough free periods in any case.

But for Jispa it’s me for now. Talking about everything else. She is also learning some pretty good stuff, Like doing experiments. They do it the right way. They write a hypothesis and then they have to conduct the experiment and then they are given the apparatus and are asked to do stuff on their own. Its not like our days when we went to the lab just to see the teacher do the experiment and then we had to replicate it. They are allowed to write their own hypothesis. My teacher wrote that stuff on the board and we had to copy it down. Then post the experiment if they get are unable to prove it then they write ‘we learnt that – blah blah blah’. I was explaining to Jispa that this is the perfect way to do things. Proper method is important to the madness. The discipline to write down the objective is so critical to proper thinking. So while the school is pretty cool you need the parent to reinforce the reason why its important to do what they are doing.

But at the same time you have irritating teachers, like her history teacher who on a good day will appreciate a question and on a bad day will publicly flay you for your ideas. Jispa was doing well till her teacher suddenly announced ‘this girl has bookish answers’. What was that for – the question was on what is it that civilization invented? The standard answers that kids were giving were pots and pans etc… Jispa thought a bit and said – religion. Wow. That’s a brilliant thought according to me. I was floored by her thinking. But teacher thought it was bookish. I asked Jispa about it and she said that wasn’t from any book. It was her own mind. If we were to assume that religion helped code a set of values that were necessary for order then religion is crucial to civilization. I keep thinking about it and I keep thinking that it was a brilliant answer. Forget a ten year old, most elders wouldn’t grasp this concept easily. Surely there must have been a form of faith before man settled but both would feed off each other and reach heights together. Good one kid.

Jispa was upset and I explained its ok. Most teachers wouldn’t appreciate all this. “but they told us to share our knowledge at the start”. “yes they did, but teachers are like that. I too get frustrated but still share but don’t bother too much on the outcome”. Then I told her that she has a parent teacher interaction coming up. I will raise this with her irritating teacher. Let’s see where it leads us. I am planning to ask her teacher what was wrong with this answer. And what’s bookish about it? And even if it is wrong or bookish – what’s with the public snub? I am open for a bit of confrontation. Let’s see where that leads us. Of course – all politely of course – as jasmine keeps reminding me. I hope I keep my wits about me.

Jispa gets it right

Jispa gets it right an amazing number of times. I do get the feeling that just because she is my daughter I must be seeing her in shining light. I am sure other kids are also equally smart. But then I look around the office. I see so many whackos in office who would not get it the way Jispa gets it. I am talking about abstract concepts and the ability to live with it and allow the opposites to reconcile in the mind. So you have to allow the brain to ask questions, be happy with the fuzzy nature of logic and somehow manage with it, reconcile it and even expand on it. She got inflation concepts, money supply concepts and other general economic concepts bang on.  She manages it well within her brain.

These days its history that she is pretty excited about. She has just started learning history and they have started teaching about the pre historic Stone Age era. Many years ago I had accidently been in touch with the Dead Famous series of books. They were basically biographies of famous people very well written and were funny to read.  They were in mixed format with fun facts, interspersed with simple lucid writing and a lot of cartoons thrown in. They cracked a whole host of jokes at the expense of the personality in question as well as the history teacher. A delight to read.

After that I bought a whole host of such books in the series – horrible histories, dead famous, murderous math etc. Of these one was on Stone Age. Jispa had read that and it fit nicely in her brain. She did really well and she answered a lot of questions.

In fact there were so many answers from her that her teacher suspected that she had the notes of the earlier batch. So today I got her to take the book to school to explain to her teacher that we are the irritating parents who driven enough to take the notes in advance and start teaching their kids to win early. But I felt good. The choice Jasmine and I made early on was to surround Jispa with books. Lots of books. We werent earning too much we decided that we will never have a budget limitation for books. We have budgeted on so many items. We have cut back on many but we have never ever lost the plot on books. Jispa was always free to buy whichever books she chose. Never any limitation.

Then she told me about a question she asked her teacher. She was scared of asking the teacher as the teacher is known to shoot down questions on a bad mood day. She was learning about this statue and how we believe that it is of the mother goddess.

She asked how we can be so sure this was a Goddess that was being worshiped  Good question was her teacher’s reaction. Her teacher said that we are around 90% sure that it’s a goddess but can never know for sure. Then I explained to Jispa that do understand that we are only 90% sure, that means there is a 10% chance that we are not sure and that we are wrong. History and especially prehistoric period is a difficult subject to understand. You never know what the truth is. It’s just this story seems to all add up but so can something else. After the conversation Jispa just summarized beautifully, she said – it’s just that in this story all the pieces fit well, but there can be another story in reality where also all the pieces fit , so we are never sure, it’s just one way of looking it. I was pretty stunned. That’s a lot of maturity for a ten year old. Many adults I know will fight on versions of history and believe whatever is told to them to be true – just because a text book, or worse still – a newspaper said so. But she understood that well. I was surprised, I asked her if that was her understanding or was it taught to her. It was her own understanding all right.

Then we branched off talking about probabilities and that life is all about probabilities. I explained about the coin toss. The chance of a coin landing on heads is 50% and that after 5 consecutive tosses of heads the probability of the 6 toss is also a 50% of heads. That’s probability for you but after let’s say 7 consecutive heads you seem to be better off betting tails thanks to mean revertal. How long can you have a streak that beats the average, even though you know that every individual coin toss is an independent event? We can’t predict any single toss but we know that over the long run things always average out… I dint bother to check if she really got that. If she did and if I do talk to her later about it and she gives it back, then I will let you know. That (is her teachers words) is too advanced :)

here is one extract of the book. Highly recommended as gifts as well.

keeping up with the....

Red, greens, maroons, deep blue, dark browns etc… these are the colors for the season. You have ads all over the place promoting these colors. All the shops sell these colors they are there for the taking in pants and shirts as well as shoes. The pants are tapering and tight and the shirts are tight fitting as well. The fad is well and truly upon us. They are everywhere. And such loud fashion is universal. Right from the slums to the fashion lords on high street. Such loud fashion works well for everyone. I am possibly an old man now. I find it difficult to wear these colors. Nopes these are not for me.

It’s funny how age does it to people. When I was younger I would wear the loud fashion of the season. Bright colors, deep washed denims, colored t shirts and other stuff. One of the things that I loved wearing and that elders never understood was torn jeans or simply shorts. Both were an anathema. They just couldn’t understand why on earth would a grown up want to wear shorts? Isn’t that what you wear in school and isn’t that what you outgrow and mature into pants. And this boy was trying to go back. And torn jeans? Why would anyone want to look poor or as I would rephrase as ‘grunge’. That would be so bloody stupid. Then came the cargo pants. Why would anyone want to wear a pant with so many pockets? Cargo pants came into fashion at around the time Jispa was born. It was a boon. Carrying all of Jispa’s stuff in the many pockets. They really helped me carry my fatherhood with me.

And now – I sit like a fat head refusing to understand the new colors for the clothes they wear. I find myself old, stubborn rigid and stupid. I am reminded of my professor from school. Kantaraju. He used to wear the most boring pants. Flat front, no pleats, straight fit. That must have been the fashion at time he graduated. And he stayed there in the time warp. And I look at my wardrobe and feel, I have gotten stuck. Now what should I do. Should I change with the times? Should I ring out the old and ring in the new? Should I wear mustard tight pants with matching shoes?

I guess not. But I think I must get rid of the old shirts. I am generally not that particular a dresser. I don’t really mind too much about what I wear. I have my own sense of style (or lack of) which I am comfortable with. Over the years it has deteriorated into – screw you types fashion. This is what I wear. Sometimes I again dress up nice and sometimes I just don’t bother. I have shirts in my wardrobe that are possibly 10 years old as well. The average age of my shirts would easily be around 5 years. Possibly more. The cost would also be very low compared to the market. I don’t like spending too much on clothes. But then recently I had one hard look at myself in front of my wardrobe. I think I was becoming a Kantaraju. I was in danger of becoming a relic. I needed to throw out the stuff I don’t want. There are many shirts that are there because I am too cheap to throw them. They sit there, they don’t get worn, and they lie around and gather dust, that’s it. I was telling Jasmine that I need a new wardrobe now. And that can only happen once I rebuild my collection by throwing what I don’t wear and buying stuff that I will wear. Recreate my mix and match styles, fabrics and colors. I need cottons for the summer and woolen blends for the winter. If it means budgeting a fat sum and spending then so be it, but I need to get it done.

So it’s a funny one. While I hate to sound vain and bother about my clothes, I possibly also like to look decent and in line with current trends. And at the same time I am not wearing what these kids wear. That’s not my style. I have my own and it needs to evolve. If a marketing guy doesn’t, then who will? Eh?

sweet victory

Over the weekend Jispa had her final Mumbai meet. This is the final meet in which the association selects the participants to represent Mumbai at the state meet at Balewadi Pune. The same complex which I had blogged about earlier. This place has amazing infrastructure that is ill maintained. But that’s not the story. So Jispa this year is in a disadvantage year. The top honors belong to those who are one year elder to her. A two year gap is huge amongst children and it makes a big difference to the seeding. Hence we had no hopes of qualifying. One of the interesting bits about the competition is that the association allows each kid to participate in a maximum of four races. Now that suddenly opens up the entire pool (pun unintended). Jispa traditionally had been horrible in the breast stroke. Her forte is the butterfly. All this while it meant skipping the breast stroke and the individual medley (IM) (all four strokes). Suddenly in the last couple of months, she got her breast stroke right and that meant a good chance in the IM. So she participated and baam – third place. That day I was the volunteer with the timings. I got a beautiful perspective of the sport as an official. You see it differently and you talk to the coaches around you and the entire game changes for you. Coincidently I was taking the timing for the same lane Jispa was in. There are three time keepers per lane and the median time is taken. As I saw Jispa in my lane on the other side, I told my colleagues that it’s my daughter on that side. Should I exchange or opt out. They said it was ok. So I was the time judge for the big victory. IM is considered the holy grail for all round swimmers. You get announced as the best all round swimmer. Not bad at all.

Afterwards I told her – “not bad, IM eh? The third best all round swimmer in your category eh?.” She was happy as well. Pune – state selection meet – here we come. She also got through on the 50M freestyle dash. I was the lane timekeeper for that as well. She came 5^th and that meant she goes through that one as well. The top 6 go in each race. Luckily all this got over on Saturday itself leaving the Sunday to rest and relaxation.

This was one race I was really proud to see Jispa win a medal in. It’s the final race of the year in Mumbai. The best of the best come in and give in their best. Awesome stuff. I wasn’t expecting this.

before you run, choose your race

“You know dad, boys are really irritating”. It’s that age when the boys and the girls really absolutely hate each other. Different things to do, different likes, dislikes, sports... everything. They just don’t see eye to eye on anything. Girls still have a sense of propriety, while the boys will go out of their way to disrupt any semblance of order. The way they react to situations is completely different. So I wasn’t surprised when Jispa told me that she found them painful. “Dad, we had a science lab experiment today and we were two girls and two boys. The boys just did nothing and fooled around while we two girls managed the experiment. It was so irritating.”. “Ah, yes, you know how boys are. Ignore them.”. “no. But they got all the credit for doing no work. It’s so unfair. That’s not right.”

“hah! Jispa understand the game. Right now the boys did not study or perform the experiment. They learnt nothing from it. You learnt from the experiment. You performed it and you understood it. They not only fooled around but they also got marks for it so their parents will never know that they fooled around. After wards when you go for a job, and you are competing with them, who do you think will get the job? You who understood what you did or they who did not understand. It’s in fact a good thing for you. The more people fool around the less competition you have later in life. In fact you WANT them to fool around. And GET marks for it so that they don’t realize it and improve.” The penny dropped. “Understand Jispa which race you want to win. Now or later”.

Now that’s a controversial bit of advice to give. I would normally say that one must be sweet and nice and share. I still believe that it’s important to share. I still am not telling her to be a bad person. Just telling her that every time things are not what they seem. It’s about perspective. Long run short term. What’s your perspective? And how an irritating boy who seems to be having all the fun is good for you.

I told her about one incident in college I am not likely to forget. It was b school and we had a project to get done. I was in a team with a guy and two other girls. Like usual no one really worked on the project. But the chicks worked without telling us and suddenly one day they told us that since we did not work on the project, they kicked us out. Fair. No issues on that front. I guess they were right in their way. But I was in the lurch. So I went to another guy, I think he name was Acquino or something like that. I explained my situation and he promptly took me in and convinced other team members to take me. After a few years I went out of my way to help him professionally. I met his boss and gave him strategic gyan and other information, just because it was him. I told his boss as much as well. Acquino thanked me and I told him that I merely returning his favour.

So I explained to Jispa – see what happened. There are two points to gain from being relaxed and r chilled. Selfishly it helps you both ways. So why unnecessarily stress yourself out. Let the boys remain dumb. Choose which race you want to win and then act. I think she got it.

the beginner's mind

One of the big problems of reading too much or understanding a lot is arrogance. I have blogged about this in the past. I face arrogance. That is also possibly the reason I don’t read too much fiction as well. What on earth will that give me? I guess I underestimate the fun of reading for the sake of listening to a story. A story need not have deep meaning, it seeks to merely entertain and hopefully mesmerize the reader into a world of fantasy and imagination. Imagination lets us be unbounded by reality and hence the ability to experience what we physically can’t. I would not underestimate its power in doing good to the world and to the person. I am possibly a bundle of contradictions into myself.

But over the years I have learnt to be a little less arrogant or to put it right – I have learnt to overcome / hide my arrogance.  It’s a difficult thing to do.  To put it aside and constantly say I don’t know. Or there are things I don’t know. Or to constantly look for ways to prove yourself wrong. Arrogance can be defeated. It is possible. The right way is to constantly challenge everything. Nothing is real and nothing is the whole truth. In marketing I learnt there is the truth and then there is the truth. Dharen once explained to me that while doing research on hair oil, there is science that says that oil doesn’t permeate the scalp and possibly does nothing to the brain, but there is also the truth when the consumer says that when my mother puts oil in my hair and then I sit to study I can retain more.

To my mind that is the reality. What consumers feel or experience is something that can’t be challenged. They experience the impossible. That doesn’t make him deranged and to be dismissed. That makes it an interesting point of view. There are so many things the consumer says but also the truth is the things he doesn’t say. All this put together is the whole nebulous truth - if there ever was a paradox.

Over a period of time I have constantly tried to challenge what I know and what I feel. Its dam irritating and I understand the value or the pain of being a devil’s advocate. Society depends on progress and progress means taking a stand. And the sticking to it and going forward. You never know everything is an interesting concept but it can’t stop you from taking the steps forward.

Why all this philosophy all of a sudden? Just recently I came across this term “beginners mind”. It is a term from the zen philosophy -  Shoshin (初心)

And I quote from the Wikipedia -

Shoshin is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts.

The phrase is also used in the title of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, who says the following about the correct approach to Zen practice: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

Saadat A. Khan suggests that "Beginner's mind embodies the highest emotional qualities such as enthusiasm, creativity, zeal, and optimism. If the reader reflects briefly on the opposites of these qualities, it is clear to see that quality of life requires living with beginner's mind. With beginner's mind, there is boundlessness, limitlessness, an infinite wealth."

That’s right. The beginners mind. A child like curiosity to question everything and the ability to start afresh every time. It is extremely irritating but to constantly question everything is the greatest requirement to learn and to innovate. I try and get that in Jispa but it can get also pretty irritating. And a school with the focus on teaching 30 kids and going forward to a set syllabus is not conducive atmosphere for Shosin.

Yesterday Jispa asked me that ‘you said you could help me in History and geography. Right?”. “Yup. Ask”. “So, teacher was explaining large scale maps and small scale maps. I asked teacher this question and she explained something but I did not understand – if 1:100 is a small scale map and 1:10 is a large scale map, what are the maps in between called?”. This question is seemingly easy but at eth core of it it’s a tough one. For one there are no middle scale maps and the question is not of terms but to understand that sizes are relative and the terms are actually irrelevant. It took some amount of patience on Jasmine and my side and I could hear the irritation in our tones when  at eth end of a large explanation Jispa simply says – ‘I did not understand’.

All this Shosin posin is easier said than done.

you never stop learning

Which Indian kid is so bloody dumb and living in a vacuum that it doesn’t even understand cricket? I mean cricket is everywhere. Everyone talks about it and everyone is fascinated by it and simple stuff like how many runs to score to win etc is simple stuff? Right? Well I was rudely shocked one day as one day as I came home my wife told me – Today Jispa did math in school and she couldn’t understand the example sir gave using cricket. Now they have started teaching a bit of statistics to Jispa at school and the poor prof at school used the run progression cricket graph to explain to class some kind of statistics. One morning I sat with her and tried to explain the graph to her and I realized that she would obviously not follow the graph. She doesn’t even know what the game of cricket is all about. Simple stuff like – the first side scores the runs and the second side have to score them to win. That basic stuff is missing. That’s when I explained the game, the basic rules, the scoring etc. It was an eye opener for me and her. I never realized that not having a TV at home could make such a massive impact. Jispa does watch some cricket. She does sit in front of the TV at times when the matches play at a friend’s place or at the gymkhana. But she takes away different things from it I guess.

After I explained the run rate, I had to explain the average run rate required to win, the concept of chasing at a run rate etc. then she asked me about another graphic she saw on TV. The bowlers graphic on where they pitch the ball. Short, good length, full, Yorker. The I explained that to her and I had to explain why good length is considered good. To explain the concept of pitching the ball, I made her stand in one place and bowled a few spinning balls at her. I showed her how at good length she has the least amount of time to react to a spinning ball and at full length she just doesn’t need to wait for it to pitch and swerve. So in a short span of around an hour she went from nothing to understanding the nuances of pitching a ball. That’s always the fun part with Jispa.

She has learned to ask and visualize and seek. She catches things well and is not tired by understanding. I see many kids tired when I try and explain. They give up. So many adults simply give up. They have no patience for learning an understanding. After a point of time, you see them disinterested. I always wonder how on earth can that happen. If someone is talking from their experience how is it that you can find it not interesting. You must ask, provoke, disagree but a conversation cannot be ignored. Of course monologues are difficult but a conversation with a person on his specialization – how is that ever limiting.

Conversations are so important. Over the weekend I was helping a friend do something. In fact he was a senior guy in my company and he put in his papers to start something of his own. He wants me in his firm but for various reasons I am not too keen. Nevertheless I agreed to help him out. And when I did, I helped with proper professional ardor. I took notes, thought and worked hard over the weekend. I gave ideas and listened patiently. Jasmine was like – you should be paid for this. Its ok, I told her. I learnt a lot in the process. If I have to help someone with my skills I must listen patiently to a lot of people, understand markets, behavior etc. and I got to do that. I wasn’t just supposed to lecture, I was supposed to meet understand and use my brains. For that I don’t mind not getting paid. Free work is good. It will in some time come back to you. Either in terms of the good will gained or more realistically and immediate – the learnings gained. No one can take that from you. That is important.

turn it around

A ha. We successfully organized the Matunga gymkhana open swim meet. A grand success by any measure and people came on congratulating us. It was an experience like none before in any meet of any kind in the city. The people were mesmerized and couldn’t stop talking about it. The swimming department now walks with a little extra bounce in their steps. But when you coldly step back and look at it, what was it actually that made it so big. The swimming pool on the day belonsg to the officials. At every meet you have the same commentator, the same officials and the same events. Ours was also the same. But the difference lied in the packaging. There were large banners outside welcoming the participants and at the entrance was the clincher – the greeters. Borrowed from a bit from Walmart and a bit from the Singapore immigration authorities. At Walmart you have greeters when you come in to shop. At most other immigration checks they give you a cold stare, but at Singapore there is a bowl of fox sweets greeting you. In line with that we had apples and bananas awaiting all participants. So at the entrance a team was waiting with the fruits. In addition we gave them a folder with the schedule. And if that was not enough we also gave them two iron rich bars which we bought from an NGO. So that just shook them out. We then put enough cut outs around the place and just before the swimming pool a huge massive 36X6 banner greeted them. All these were of course done in corporate style with amazing visuals. With so much stimulation at the start, I left very little at the main pool area. That was taken over by the sponsors. We also gave space to a pro shop, a free stall for the isotonic drink guys to freely sample their products and some other stuff.

For those expecting a boring placid swim meet were completely shocked. There was shade all around with the pandals being erected and fans installed. I was rather amused by the reactions of the people. I thought this was par for the course. This stuff is simple. Like the checkerboard backdrop against the winner’s podium got a lot of comments and people thought it was really cool and ‘IPL style’.

I can still think of a million different things that I want changed from next time around. I want a different way to submit entries. I want to email stuff and want IDs, I want to have a better registration, I want better side games for the kids, I want a relaxing lounge, I want a winners picture booth,  I want flowers for the winners, I want better food stalls selling better food and drink for the champions, I want better invites, etc etc… a lot is still left to be done. The dream is to have a small souvenir shop for the event as well, selling high quality merchandise branded – the Matunga Gymkhana Open Swim Meet. That will be so bloody cool. That’s when the brand will be really built.

Ah well. I am a dreamer. But only if you can dream it can you possibly do it. Dream on. There are so many things to be done at this meet. Next year I am definitely going to ask for a bigger budget. I will have a better campaign to bring in the entries and hype the bloody thing before the event. I want to run it in style. Raise the bar so much that people have no clue what to expect next. I want to make it really really BIG.

But while I am talking about the event… I too took part in one race. The under 40 men’s freestyle. In my time trial I dived in and swam really fast. I reached the other side and turned. Not knowing the tumble turn I wasted precious seconds. While coming back I was tiring and slowing down. I hadn’t eaten well and the energy was sapping. I emerged second best by a small margin. I then heard the commentator explaining that I messed up the turn and lost there. I saw the video and everybody also told me – I was leading till the turn. My daughter was at the finish line waiting for me. She greeted me and took the time from the officials. She told me – not bad –“you did 37 seconds. You did two seconds better than your last time”. She was doing a Jaimit to me. Okies.

I always wanted to learn the tumble turn. But I tried it once and the water just rushed into my brain. I hated it. Jispa kept telling me to learn but I just couldn’t try. Now I have additional incentive. My knees have robbed me of my running victories but I guess I found another race. Tumble turn it is then. To learn the tumble turn and to push myself hard.  Jispa keeps telling me to learn but because I have the power in the equation I am unable to push myself. If the roles were reversed I would have harassed her, but the poor thing can’t do that to me. I must set that example and do it. I must learn the tumble turn. It’s not just about the turn but it also my duty as a parent to show that I can do it. It an example.

being right

Jispa’s school is getting on my nerves. It’s not her school in particular that’s to blame it’s the dam bloody education system. I have blogged earlier that our education system does not allow the child to ask questions and probe or even confront the teacher. It is a hopeless power equation in school. The teacher is all powerful and the rest of the students or anyone else can take it or leave it. Last year we let go when her teacher corrected her wrongly on the meaning of the term ‘light year’. At Jispa’s behest we kept quiet and did not ask her to go to school with the right definition. But yesterday I knew I had to knock some defiance into Jispa.

I was waiting to have dinner with jasmine while she was trying to do Jispa’s home work. I dozed off when Jispa woke me up call me. I went outside and I saw Jispa and Jasmine at opposite sides of the homework. Jasmine was explaining how it should be done and Jispa was sticking to exactly what her teacher had asked her to do… exactly by the letter. In Jispa’s way the sticking activity was impossible with the pictures she had. Jispa was explaining exactly how her teacher wanted it. Jispa was adamant. Normally I just let Jispa get her way and tell Jasmine to give in. I remember my dumb arse teachers. They would give very clear specific instructions. They obviously wanted regimentation and refused to see anyone move away from the straight and narrow.  They did not want anyone straying and their job was to produce clones. Creativity was not encouraged or tolerated. There was only one way to do a particular job. As Ken Robinson argued in his TED video, that this was a product of the industrial age where students were needed who could simply mass produce goods and services and fall in line with the systems and processes set up.

I had kept quiet for long. I knew the pain of standing up and sticking to your gun. Once my dad was called into school as I argued with my teacher. I knew I was right and she was just being a pain. You just can’t win. But yesterday I had enough. I explained to Jispa, “look Jips, I understand and I hear you. I know what your teacher ordered you to do. You are right in explaining that to us but in principal what your mom is doing is also right. It is correct given that you have larger pictures (the whole argument was on how to arrange pictures on a time line). Last year your teacher taught you some wrong stuff on the light year etc, I kept qiet but this year you are in the fifth standard. It’s time for you to stand up. This is not wrong and if your teacher scolds you for it, I will talk to her or write her a letter explain how that is not the right thing to do and how this time line is not incorrect. This is the way it’s done in so many places on the internet and encyclopedias. If your teacher tells you that you are wrong don’t just take. Talk to her politely and tell her that you did this with your dad and he explained it to you how it was right.”. Jispa told me that she wouldn’t be able to tell her that. At which time I explained to her “Listen, I am not telling you to talk rudely to her. But you must be polite and yet explain to her why you are thinking the way you are thinking and that you are not wrong but don’t be rude. Even Gandhi told the British that they were wrong but he did so with a lot of respect. Didn’t you see that in the movie?” The penny dropped. She was better. And she got it done in the way her mom was helping her.

I looked at Jasmine. It takes two to do parenting. It’s not possible for one to have all the patience required. One is near the problem and tends to get exasperated; the other is a bit away and can take a bird’s eye view. You clearly need two to work.

But more importantly I think gave Jispa the courage to stand up for what she thinks is right. When my dad got called to school, he heard me and told me that you weren’t wrong in saying what you said but you can’t argue like this with the teacher. That is the wrong thing to do. That’s the story I explained to Jispa as well. Say it but say it with respect. And you have to stand up for what you think is right. I think not getting Jispa to explain that light year was a wrong lesson to teach her.

You have to stand up and not bow down to a teacher. I explained to Jispa that listen – don’t worry. We pay school fees and the teacher is expected to teach you right things. She can’t just scold you for something that isn’t wrong. You go ahead and be respectful and I will back you up. You have to assert yourself. Jispa is an amiable kid. She doesn’t like confrontation. She is a sweet heart with no interest in girl politics. But I guess it’s time for her to assert. She is beginning to do that with us and we aren’t taking it too well. I try and avoid a show down and take it diplomatically. I try and select the fights and the issues. The trick is to get her to assert on the right issues and be smart about it all. Talking to people in the right way while being what you want to be is life!

a tough ask?

How many questions should you ask? I was just reading an article that questions the number of questions that are being asked today by students in school. Read on: Asking questions is essential to learning. That was an essential lesson from one of history's first great teachers, Socrates. Or, as the wise Rabbi Steven Greenberg puts it: "we train children at the Passover seder to ask why, because tyrants are undone and liberty is won with a good question." And yet, children are not asking questions nearly enough. In fact, data from the U.S. school systems tells us that the average high school student asks one question of substance per month in a classroom. Yikes!

This is particularly alarming if we consider the skill set that is required for success in the coming decades. Hal Gregersen, the co-author along with Clayton Christensen of the recent book The Innovator’s DNA, tells Big Think that the world we’re entering over "the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years – I can’t imagine it being easier, simpler, less uncertain than what we’re living in today."So what is the best way to "unlock the solutions to that wild terrain," as Gregersen puts it? "We need to build this capacity in ourselves and the people around us to ask the right question." Source: http://bigthink.com/big-think-tv/the-future-is-uncertain-its-time-to-start-asking-the-right-questions

Yes you need to ask questions. Tons of questions. I always had questions on my mind and in classrooms I was known to be the irritating one. Actually – few teachers loved me and a few them possibly didn’t. some thought I was asking questions just to prove I was smart or I was disturbing the class. I remember one question that was completely dismissed by my science teacher. She was taking I think about chlorine or flourine (nice periodic table link http://www.ptable.com/)which is so reactive that it reacts with anything and that she said it is used on rockets as fuel. I may be wrong in recollecting the gas but my question was that if it’s so reactive and reacts with everything then how do you store it? Oops. That one was dismissed. In another science class the idiotic teacher called me to the desk twice or more since I was participating ‘too much’ in class. She called me in and tried to tell me that if I know too much I should take the lecture myself. What a Bitch. I want to meet her and show her this video.

Ask questions ask many questions. Ask them all the time. Keep asking. I think I am losing the art of asking those questions which I used to as a child. In my meetings I ask, and I don’t really mind admitting that I don’t know too much; but higher level meetings work without asking questions. People don’t want to show any of their insufficiencies I guess. I don’t know. I keep telling people – ask – ask more questions. Think a bit. But idiots just don’t. My own team just doesn’t want to ask any questions. Is it because they don’t think enough or they can understand enough or is it because they feel shy or what? Are you too dumb to ask or you are too smart? Why is it that I am the one asking most of the questions.

I think the author on top is right. In school with the grades etc – you are taught to simply learn the portion by rote. That is what gets rewarded, not asking questions. That is irrelevant for grades or for anything. In my class when I teach I try and encourage people to think or ask questions; but its so bloody tough. Years of training can’t be simply undone by one stupid professor.

The other day Jispa was really upset and there was something bothering her. She was having a fight with us. I have a different style of fighting with her. I talk to her and then I continue to keep channels of communication open. I am firm on the issue but soft on everything else. So I asked her what was bothering her. She refused to say. Then I told her that whatever it is, she has the freedom to tell me anytime. I am there for her. And then offhand I asked her – “take a guess – how many time in Jasmine’s life has she had a conversation with her dad. A nice conversation”. She looked at Jasmine. The answer is never. Jasmine has never ever had a ‘conversation’ with her dad. They speak but there is no conversation. I told her that I remember a few conversations with my dad and those I cherish. “So how many have you had with your dad” I asked her. “Hundreds”, she replied. “So then” I said “you have something your both parents didn’t. You can always talk to us”.

Well at the end of it all. She still dint tell us what was bothering her. Well… Ten years olds are also equally complicated. But I respect that and she sorted the issue in her brain, or at least I hope so.

growing up and drifting apart

A couple of weeks back was our big family vacation bash. Mom, my brother, his wife, sister, her husband, their sons, Jasmine, Jispa and me. I was dreading this week. The last time also we went we weren't exactly happy about the whole thing. This time was a semi disaster. It gets pretty irritating with all the families which have now become so different from each other. We all like different things, we do different things, we see differently and we are very different tourists. Mom is one of those who wants to see all the attractions and tick them off as done. My brother couldn't care less. I and my family like to stay in one attraction for long and don’t like to stress out too much and my brother in law couldn't care less for history. He likes long walks in cold woods.

It was as expected an unmitigated disaster with mom getting on the nerves of my brother and me. We both tried our best to stay focused and be happy and try not to get provoked by mom. Sometimes he kept cool and sometimes it was my turn to cool down. I think as a family we remain reasonably happy by recognizing our differences and not attempting to reconcile them. Bro and I are like chalk and cheese. There is little connecting the two. Same with sis and me. For some reason we grew up to be very different individuals. And the worst thing for me is when I can’t have any intelligent conversations with anyone on a trip. Jasmine is a happy listener but Jispa is the best. She listens, asks questions, understands and provokes. We have many conversations. But with my family no one wants to have any conversation with me. On so many things I am the resident expert but my opinion counts for jack. My bro in law is attempting to run a place in the hills as a home stay. I told him the best thing for him would be to be active on trip adviser  In today’s age you possibly don’t even need a hotel website. You can have official photos and videos of your property hosted on trip adviser and the best thing to get is other guest comments on your property. You don’t even need to put in fake comments. Any active member will easily spot fake comments when you see that there is only one glowing recommendation of a traveler. That is so obviously a fake. Real comments are balanced and useful. And then I tried talking something else – but I realized that I wasn’t making any real sense to anyone.

I kept quiet. I told Jasmine – now I understand what gets me bugged. I am the youngest one. All my life I was told I was a stupid kid who couldn’t control my emotions or my tongue. I would be the stupid boy who they all ran over. I rarely made any sort of sense. Now I am 37 but still a boy in their eyes. Its doesn’t matter that firms are currently paying lakhs and putting crores of rupees on the same advice that I am giving for free to them. Hehe. I don’t think they can see that value. I must be dumb to open my mouth.

The only real active conversation I had on the trip was with my nephew. He studies in Doon school and suddenly as a 15 year old he has emerged as a very strong beautiful brainy boy. I explained and talked to him about a lot of subjects. He was an active listener and asked me tons of questions and we spoke about politics, economics, religion amongst others. My family wondered what conversation was happening. Jasmine and Jispa are used to this. The others don’t understand. Possibly my nephew wasn’t encumbered or prejudiced by childhood.

All in all even Jispa came back and was not entirely happy. On the way back I explained to her and had a small chat – see Jips – things happen. Families move away from each other and stay separately. Their styles change and their modes of enjoyments change. It’s not that we are good and others are bad. Each one has their own style of enjoying. In fact that you did not enjoy as much shows that we are rigid in our thinking. We want it our way. That’s not always how it’s going to be. So understand that even though we are one blood, after staying away for long we have drifted in many ways.

I don’t want her to be negative. I don’t want to have any conversations that try and show our family superiority over others. There is no such thing. People are different. Their likes and tastes are different. A family needs to give space to each other and recognize the differences, or even celebrate them. My bro and I fought like dogs as children but have grown to trust and be with each other by recognizing the very fact that our planes do not intersect. Full stop. I too realized it this time around, how different we have become. My style cannot function everywhere. It must change or must be grinned and borne. That’s the truth. Or least my version of the truth ;)

dekho - magar pyaar se

One of the reasons that I don’t often blog these days is that my mind seems to be in a complete state of neutrality. I am unable to have strong views or even give importance to my normally strong views. All my life I never had the problem of strong views. I have always been hot headed and relished the chance to express my views. I guess if one were to see my writing style at the start of writing this blog one would possibly see the change over the last few years of my life. I believe I have changed a lot. One of the things that I have become is a … a bit of a cynic? As in I don’t really mean it in a negative way. I can possibly appreciate and understand a lot of stuff that goes around… it’s nice to see a nice play or a good movie or a lovely painting but… it’s not the same unbridled joy that came along with it when I was much younger. When someone did something nice to me or spoke nicely or gave me some importance I would attach a greater deal of value to it. Now I am more… I would like to say circumspect rather than cynical.

I have learned the hard way and the cost of innocence that the world is round. It is interconnected. People do what they want to because of various different emotions, reasons and compulsions. I have realized that no one is doing things just for giving me joy. It gives them joy as well. And I am not being holier than thou here. Even I am party to the same fallacy. I thought I did things for others, selflessly, but I too have my own reasons for doing so. Hence now I see things differently. It does not mean that I don’t enjoy the good things in life. I love movies and I love good friends, especially when they are nice to me. There are so many friends who are genuine in their care for me and my family and I thank them, I appreciate them. Only thing is that I try not to expect a lot of joy to be served to me unilaterally. I hope I making sense, without offending too many people.

Let me rephrase my thoughts – life is nice, people are nice, everything is nice. But I must take care not to take it for granted. I must do my bit to get my share. I must grow up and not expect things to be served to me just because I served it to them. Every person is different. Recognize that. Understand that and love them for who they are and not what they do to you or why they do what they do to you.

Hehehe. I said what I thought was essentially the same thing but with a more positive twist on it. I should get into preaching. The first two paragraphs is what I tell myself when I am in a mood to talk to myself in absolute honesty. I try and be ridiculously blunt to myself. To the point of a scolding. But when I talk to others, I realize that they may not be ready for some real badly said honest feedback. I too hate negative feedback. So at least I hear it from myself rather than hear from others.

One wise man told me, not to look at God also too closely; you will notice even God has blemishes. That is so true. When hold people in high or even exalted status, invariably you try and come closer and then you see them with all their dark spots. And you are left disappointed and even bitter. Things are not what they seem to be. Sometimes as the big marketing guy in office giving all that gyan, or in college lecturing, I am expected to keep an artificially high image that people hold in their hearts of me. I can see it in many eyes or possibly I imagine them in many eyes. The pressure to be a great guy is too much. I am supposed to be a great guy in so many things, that I soon start believing that I am a great guy. Over the last couple of years I realized that I am not such a great guy after all. I need to work hard like everyone else on every issue, being a good dad, a good husband, a good boss, a good friend. Everything. And all the time. It’s tough. Especially when you know you are working hard. That when you expect something back, just because you are working hard. But from the opposite perspective – its simple – that how you are supposed to be – a good _____ (fill in your role).

So life is a really tough thing to live, if you are hard on yourself. The trick is in being hard but taking it all with salt. It is to attempt to live to your values and morals and know that everything is subjective. Jispa can love me just because I let her play with the iPad and hate me because I stuff the banana down her throat before her workout. That’s ok. I have to keep trying hard and be what I think I know what’s best at the time. The trick is not to push too much as what I think is best is transient. It is subject to change, all the time.

One of my role models I realized was my brother. I think my blog writing helped me realize that. A lot of what I do in many places is what I have seen my brother do. Though I would be at loathe admitting it but a lot of his gyan in some way has found itself into my life. One of things he said was I never interfere with other parents and their children. I don’t discipline them or anything. What they do with their child is their problem. I thought that was a pretty good gyan and I try to follow it, to some extent. Of course it becomes impossible to follow it entirely when you are with so many kids as we invariably are. But I saw my brother always follow it and he never interfered with my fights with Jispa. Recently we were in dehra dun at my sisters holiday home and they have a cute pup in their premise which is looked after by the servant as my sister is not often at Dehradun.  My brother has decided not to have kids and they have a dog instead. They take care of Angel as if it’s their child. Now seeing an untrained pup, my brother took it upon himself to train the pup. He spent his time disciplining the pup and explaining my sister and her husband on how to take care of it. At one point he seriously admonished them and the servant for not letting it sleep properly. My brother really scolded the caretaker. Now I was at the sidelines looking at this. How different does one behave when one is confronted with something close to one’s heart? Wasn’t interfering with the dog master relationship the same as interfering with the child parent relationship? Surely its different in many ways but its also the same in many ways.

That’s what I believe by being a little bit more circumspect. Reality is not what we see or perceive it to be. It changes, people change. You only believe what you see. There is so much you don’t see. And in all this what blog do I write – what I see or what I don’t see. All my blogs will start looking like this. This is what I see but there is so much I don’t see. I find it difficult to hold a strong opinion and that is critical to writing. But then that is also a bad excuse, there is still so many experiences to share. They may not be worth writing about in the long run but strung together they are what I have lived and tis blog is about what I have lived so that Jispa many moons later will know what I have lived. It will just be that – a chronicle not a tomb on greater gyan. So with that I hope to write more often. I hope I have admonished myself enough, destroyed myself ego and broke my wall of excuses. Atleast I am my biggest critic or cynic!

ding dong, oh baby sing a song

Music is beautiful. It can turn your mood to a different direction and it can also be used to reflect your mood. It’s beautiful. But I… I don’t listen to music. I have never been able to sit for hours listening to music. I can’t appreciate music for long. I don’t understand it. I love it when it plays. I can sing and dance along. But I can’t let it run for long. And I just can’t talk about it too much. Singers, musicians etc.. These are no conversations for me. Jasmine still likes her music. No she isn’t too picky but she still likes it. She can go to sleep listening to music and she can’t stuff her ears with the earphones and enjoy. I can’t do that. And ear phones for music… I can’t handle that as well. I feel it just separates me from the rest of the world. And I would like my sound system to be of a decent quality. But still even after all this I can’t spend money on listening to music. Concerts bore me after a point of time. I would love if someone tried explaining some of the music to me. I would be able to appreciate it better, but still not much beyond a point.

I think Jispa loves her music. Jasmine always has the radio on while driving and Jispa listens to a lot of radio. Now she has this thing for English music. Wonder where she picked that from. Jispa insists on listening to the English radio channel. I find that even more irritating. New English music has passed me by completely. My western music is limited to the stuff I heard in college and a few songs from there on. While driving, I feel is the best time to catch up talking with each other. So if Jispa or Jasmine is in the car then I don’t switch on the radio. I rather talk about something or the other. Music is a conversation restrictor. Earlier when I drove alone I heard the radio but since a few years I have listening to good podcasts and using that to further my readings. Sometimes this makes me feel like a completely fuddy duddy. I am hungry and have an almost insatiable appetite for knowledge and music becomes a faltu waste of time. And then it surprises me when sometimes I switch on the radio at times and love the music being played.

I love the music but can’t listen to it. What is this weird combination? In fact I feel most music listeners are highly pretentious. But then this I attribute to my own stupid judgment (or lack of). But I still can’t understand my behavior. If a song is stuck in my head, I like it. I can sing it again and again. Singing songs while batting have helped me improve it and I think highly of it. I sing so much that Jispa hates it and I a song is stuck in her head while swimming she blames me for it. She hates it when that happens. She feels irritated and I can’t understand why that is a bad thing. I love it. But I still can’t listen to too much music. I also never understood how people listen to music while studying or reading. I can’t do that as well. Today morning I tried listening to music while working or reading – it bombed as usual. I had to switch off the music.

It’s a weird thing. Music is so powerful and I have mentioned this incident before – I used to sing to a pregnant Jasmine. It was this one song and when Jispa was born whenever she cried I sang this song and it made her quiet. I completely believe in the power of music, but I can’t somehow get it to work hard on me. One song and at best two. Full stop. My mood is ok, now let’s get on with it.

Well, whatever. When I was marketing head for the wealth division, we used to have KK concerts organized for our clients. He was awesome and this song of his was brilliant. I loved it. I heard it today morning and I thought I could hear a few more. In fact I put his entire playlist to play from youtube and then I simply switched it off in 2 minutes. I can’t take more than 67 seconds of emotions. Brain fry ho jata hai J

For those wondering on what the title means - listen to this...

a tough act

Ever since we took up a major research exercise last year, we have been screaming hoarse about the need to simplify the jargon associated with finance in general and broking in particular. A large number of people want to invest and a large number open their trading account, but you see a large amount of dormancy within the system. The reason is simple – the whole environment is far too intimidating. Way too much rubbish is used for a lot of the names. The money you give a broker to carry out transactions is called ‘margin’, then there is the ‘ledger’ and ‘payout’ is done on a ‘T+2 basis’ after which the shares hit your ‘demat’ account and of course  there is the ‘bid and ask’ as well as ‘spread’, ‘impact cost’, ‘PE multiples’ available. All this is scary especially when you are looking to invest money in bid to exercise control over your destiny. Basically the poor soul feels constrained and helpless when trying to invest in shares.

But no one seems to be listening. You will find even more incomprehensible offers with thousands of lines of fine print for everything and the dice firmly loaded against you. In the back drop of all this is the Union Budget. You have the jamboree every Feb end where the finance minister gets up and presents what is essentially a nonevent. But the TV channels have managed to hype it and create enough buzz so as to charge astronomical premiums for advertisers and attract eyeballs. No one understands jack of what is presented and no one understands jack of the impact of these proposals. Key terms are misunderstood and people are watching in a bid to see where the markets react to the whole charade.

So in light of all that we decided to set up a micro site called budget simplified. Among other stuff we decided to shoot videos explaining the budget to the common person. What is it and what does one look for in the budget. Short two minute videos that give a fair idea into the whole process. Having less money we decided that I would be the model for the videos. Nine videos should be easy enough. One day shoot and we wrap it up. Boy I was wrong. One shoot it was but the videos were bloody difficult to shoot. One is at first pretty stiff in front of the cameras. It takes time to get a bit lose and to free up. At first the lights and the focus is a bit intimidating but over the day it worked out pretty fine. The other problem is the energy level. One has to maintain an energy level through the day. You have to perform at higher degrees of energy every time you are in front of the camera. Afternoon was tough for me. It showed on the screen. One can actually feel it when the cinematographer tells you that “sir, energy nahi aa raha hai performance mein.” Yes of course. I had to actually pull off reserve energy form the system to give a ‘performance’. Wow. It’s a tough job. I now have new found respect for models and actors and have a small insight into how they must be going about their everyday life. I did not have the additional burden of trying to look good. Those guys need to manage that as well through the day. And the stakes are ridiculously high for them and everyone. Here I was the boss on the set, so everyone was forced to be patient with me and I could modify the lines as I saw fit as I was the quasi script writer as well. Imagine if you are getting paid for this and your opinion on script counts for jack. Wow. Running around trees can also be stressful. Nevertheless, at end of it, the videos did come out pretty cool and I did manage to remain standing. Here are the videos.

They are pretty simple explanations for a lot of the stuff. If finance or economics hold no interest for you, you have bets leave these videos unwatched, but if you have even a passing interest in these topics then you may find the same quite interesting and educative. We have tried to keep things at a very simplistic level and repeated a lot of the concepts. Have fun and let me know.

little big dreams

It’s been a really uphill struggle to remain fit and fighting. My bad right knee keeps getting dislocated at the slightest stress. I strap it heavily to play badminton and yet in some vague situations, snap it goes. Now I am used to the drill, it will dislocate and then I will fall and then I will be in grave pain while I straighten my knee and snap, straightening it will get it into place and I can be normal again. But I still wont be able to run hard.

Its seriously my worst nightmare coming true. One of my recurring nightmares has been that I can’t run, a train is running away and I can’t run fast enough to catch it. This nightmare is something that I am living. Running and turning fast and long has been very important to me. And that has stopped. But I am surprised at myself. I have adapted very well. I started badminton instead of squash. It’s easier on the knees and I swim, that’s easiest on them.

Last week, I played a cricket tournament in my colony. I was in the team on reputation I guess. The senior pro who talks like he knows it all. I am still good on the field as a thinker. I may be a better player thinking through the game. I resisted from giving too many comments upfront, but when we lost one match and every one blamed it on bowling, I stood apart and explained how we lost it on batting. We overhauled the batting order and style and smashed through the next couple of games. I was sent in early, in spite of me explaining that I can’t run. I smashed one straight six off the ground and established my reputation. The next match I then destroyed my reputation. Well, almost. I am done with cricket. I dislocated my knee playing a shot, not even running. I retired never to bat again. And my back is sore form the wicket keeping I had to do. That was the only spot available to fielders who can’t run. So now after giving away my kit, I even gave away my bat. Only if it stays out will I not be tempted to play again. I loved my bat. My daughter was asking me if it was my lucky bat. No, I don’t believe in lucky bats but I did have a bat with an amazing balance, weight and power. I have hit a six over covers with that bat. But I knew I had to give it away. Its time. I explained to Jispa that when I was younger – around 25 yrs old, I always wished I had a great bat. Now I have a friend who is that young and plays cricket and he deserves a bat that is this good. What will it do in my house. Let him use it and let him get what I didn’t.

I am happy. I may have gotten old and crippled but I haven’t lost my touch with my emotions. I am happy that I have the heart to give away my equipment while they are still in good condition. And truly give them away, without having any condition attached to them. The only condition I attached to the bat was that – please love it. Respect it. I need not have said it. The boy who took it really loved it and was excited by it. NICE. It’s nice to see such joy. I know what I might have felt to get such a fantastic bat.

So here I am retiring almost from all forms of the game. I am not even fit to play colony cricket. For now atleast. It’s time to swim I guess. Swim and make your muscles. I can’t stay away from a sport. I can’t become round and happy. I have to remain straight and fit.

In swimming I learnt all the four strokes, though not all proficiently… but I know them. Only one thing remains – the tumble turn. Jispa is after me to learn it from her. I hate it as whenever I try it, I lose all orientation and water enters my nose giving me a fizzy head. But I have to try it, once that’s done, a big dream will be done. And what better way to fulfill your dream than having your daughter helping you along the way.

rearranging our prejudices

I have many times talked about this. The best experience in reading is when you get two books to read as a set. Sometimes they are complimenting each other, sometimes one takes the learning of the other forward and sometimes… sometimes they are actually two points of view of the same history. Right now I am reading Rahul Pandita’s book – Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits. Rahul has written a book called Hello Bastar (about the naxal movement) in the past and he writes well and I have felt that he does try and be objective about what he writes about. This time he writes about his childhood and his growing up as a Kashmir Pandit who was forced to leave the Kashmir valley with his family while he was still a boy. The book may have many flaws but it does bring alive some of the horrors of the terrorism in Kashmir that forced the pandits to leave the valley.

Some time back I read another book. This one was called Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer. Similarly this is also a memoir but from the opposite point of view. Basharat is a Kashmiri Muslim and he sees the same situation so differently. He is also a very balanced and objective writer. He talks about how as a young boy he idolized the Kashmiri Fighters who crossed the borders over and received training. And how it was to be a Kashmiri under constant threat from the Indian Armed Forces.

The same situation but the villains are the opposite parties. Who do you believe? I would assume that both are telling the truth. I don’t think either would really dispute the other’s point of view. But the contrast is telling. There is never an absolute truth. I would like to gift these two books in unison to Jispa when she grows up. What is the truth always depends on what you have been exposed to. Your knowledge no matter how vast is colored by your own experiences. Truth is relative. Muslims were killed and so were the Pandits. One believed in fighting for freedom and the other believed that freedom was already achieved. Both the authors were touched at am impressionable age by the fundamentalist forces and both wanted to take arms and exact revenge but were taken by their fathers to a land free from this racial animosity. And both seemed to have grown up to be largely secular. They realize the futility of violence but bear such deep scars that it may be impossible for them to be completely neutral.

Can one ever be neutral? For life to go on one must take a strong stand in one direction. These choices are made every day. We take a stand basis the information and experience we have. I am not saying to not take a stand. That is stupid and a complete waste. Devil’s advocate is a nice term for it and as one of Devdutt’s piece on this explains (link) this is many times the wrong way to discuss. Just a few days back, at the gymkhana where I got active with the swimming department, we were presenting the budget. Most of the office bearers were understanding and practical. One fellow was completely irritating. He kept switching sides and said, yes, that’s a good idea to every point and on both sides of the same point. Yes it was nice and diplomatic but it just prolonged the meeting and got nowhere. Endless argument and recognition of both sides got no one anything.

It is important to see both sides, to hear both sides to recognize both sides, to understand that both exist and that both are right in their own way. But at the end life and reality is that you have to take one side and move on. You have to take a stand while being polite and accommodating of the other. Its easy to be brusque about the other side. I have been guilty consistently about this. I have tried my best to change. From merely brushing them off to thinking actively from the other side I have understood another point of view. Now instead of brushing the other side I try and make an argument to convince the other. But that itself creates another sense of pressure on the opposite side. A convincing argument is so difficult for the other to accept, possibly more difficult that a brush off. One can be forced to accept defeat to power but not to reason. Oh dam!

But we all need to understand the other side. See that it exists, acknowledge it and try to live in that shoe. Possibly then we realize that the demons on the other side aren’t that demonic after all. They too were just acting on their prejudices. That’s all.

Like this quote my friend showed me “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” - William James

Side note – I was talking to a colleague who happened to be a Kashmiri Pandit who too left when he was 9 yrs old. I urged him to read both the books. HE ordered one. Rahul’s book. He was reading it and he said a lot of that was the truth. He was pretty excited. It was going to be the first book he has ever read. On any topic! That’s a good start. I asked him if he ordered the one by Basharat. Nopes, he dismissed it. Later. Possibly.

I guess we only know what we want to know

as blunt as a knife

A few weeks back Jispa had her 100 meter freestyle event. Normally Jispa doesn’t do too well in the 100 mtr race. She like the 50 mtr. We thought that’s because she needs to build greater strength and stamina. That was also one the prime reasons we took Jispa to a nutritionist who specializes in children sports nutrition. We were hoping that eating right would help her build some strength and help her in the longer races. But ofcourse  we weren’t expecting a miracle too soon. These things do take a long time to settle in. Though I think the right approach to eating does pay some immediate dividends.

But something else happened in this race. This was a 25 mtr pool and hence it’s a four  legged race. Jispa was in lane 5 and by chance her friend from our club itself was in lane 4. As the race started, her friend who is normally better in the longer races set off. Jispa followed a little behind. Throughout the first fifty she tailed her friend. Then something happened. I saw something that I haven’t seen in Jispa’s race before. Her second fifty was faster than the first. Normally Jispa’s second fifty is quite bad. But she took off and slowly built a lead over her friend, ever so marginal but a lead nevertheless. Wow, something interesting was going on. Then in the last 25 some reserve energy came in and she went even faster to beat her friend in the race. Not that she was medal prospect or something but she did improve her timing. Even her coach who was watching this was quite amazed. “Great timing”, he congratulated her, “but, your second fifty was faster than your first fifty”. Basically you normally don’t do that, you should logically slow down as your energy wears off.

A few weeks back we had a parents-teacher meeting at Jispa’s school. Jispa is a sweet kid, largely stays out of trouble, never gets into fights nor is she bothered by the girl politics playing around. She is completely chilled and unaffected by it all. A lot like Jasmine I guess. So these meetings are always nice and sweet with the teachers never having anything really big to say. As the meeting was drawing to a close, her teacher told us “Jispa is a lovely child, she is very good, but…. But…. “ I guess she did not know how to put it. “but… she is not ..” I forget what word she used but, basically she meant Jispa is not aggressive or ambitious or a take charge kind of girl. She is very happy and content. Like if the teacher wants someone to get chalk or someone to do some work, Jispa isn’t the enthusiastic raising hands jumping in plea volunteer. She is happy being seated.

Yes, she isn’t that ambitious yet. She is content and is not interested in too many incentives or positions. She likes to do stuff but not necessarily has the killer instinct to win at all costs. She is contented and happy. Now that is a good thing in many ways and we also have brought her up that way. We haven’t taught her to kill or to covet winning at all costs. I have always maintained that desire to win or perform must come from inside of you. You don’t have to win because your dad wants you to win. You have to win because you want to or you think it’s in you to win. Her teacher also admitted that its possibly a good thing but she was possibly lamenting that it could be a waste of talent or something not to be ambitious or to be contented.

Now after the race, I asked her, what she was doing. I suspected that she pushed herself as her friend was in the next lane and that turned out to be the real reason. She wanted to beat her. Something inside of her came alive. She wanted to compete. Sure Jispa like competing and competing hard and coming ahead but it’s not the winning. Difficult to really explain, but it’s a case of opposites reconciling. Try to win but not really covet winning. Her coach and I had a discussion on this today. I said she isn’t really that ambitious but I guess she needs to know how good she really is. Her coach told me that he is waiting. He believes that Jispa is a great potential. Once her mind will flip and she decides that she is a good swimmer and she is capable of much more, then she will suddenly zoom ahead.

Ya I agree. This race was testimony to the fact there is much more to her than she shows. She is capable of performing better. She needs to realize this on her own at her own time. Only when she realizes this on her will she emerge from her own shadow. She is talented, physically fit, mentally sharp and a nice amiable kid. Can be become sharp without losing her … BLUNT? That is for us to find out.