Cycle

It's all happening again, it's all coming back. Magnonimity is at its peak, exuberance is overflowing, the basket of cornucopia is again back on the dinner table...or is it just that Goddess Laxmi is tweaking one of her fingers to show the world what is magic and what is illusion?

I was reading a leading Indian financial newspaper and got a general picture of Indian state of economy and I could not stop comparing it to United States as it existed in 1999-2001 era. It almost sounded like the new business model was the new direction in which economy was going to grow. Traditional ways of doing business for example, meeting your client in market place was gone. Everything was on the web and the web was the future of new generation. Neither did people realized that the 'old' economic model has been in practice for thousands of years, had aged and thus had reached the state of maturity. Which was not true for the internet-based business models, the hastiness in awarding the best and fittest and thus survivor, was as a matter of fact childish. Ideas were great but again as any farmer knows it takes time to rip from the seeds you have sown. The externality of IT was not accounted for completely.

Is it happening all over again in India? Are we matured enough in providing the best business process outsourcing services to the world? Have you found the never-ending source of wealth in form of BPO? Have we reached to that state when we can confidently say that alongside with farming our niche is providing BPO and such services to the world irrespctive of the country that we are dealing with?

Is this a temporary growth fueled by whims of World executives who want to cut costs and blow up bottom lines as long as they are on regimes? Is this huge hiring drive directly related number of jobs exported from other countries to India or is it bacause there is true market potential lying in India?

I hope none of the doubts raised by my pessimistic side of brain are true!

I want India to be a recognized power in that business. Ultimately, as you see India is leaving the rags of socialism and moving to capitalistic society to realize the riches it provides. Many examples, it all started with opening up markets in 1991 with liberalization started by then Finance Minister (current PM) Manmohan Singh, to privetization of state owned companies to firing of 400 employees in a day by Mahindra British Telecom in Pune. Yes, India is moving to Capitalism.


I think we are still in the second part of the play and will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Statistics

70 million passengers will be flown in India by year 2010. 20,000 H1-B visa quota reached on January 17th 2006. $29.65 is the amount I paid for sending FedEx Overnight. 21 miles I drove from refueling the tank. $8.9 billion offered as a buy-out by a group of private-equity holders to ADNeilsen in EU. 2 innocent people killed in an accident involving a drunken driver yesterday in Houston. $24.24 amount I paid for new Banana Republic flaks.

Are you just the statistic? Are you just part of the system? Are you being driven? Are you the victim? Are you the game-player?

Shake up yourself. Get up. Radicalism is the key for survival. Think outside the box...drop a boulder on your thought-process. Quite simply, because whoever says equilibrium is the key is an idiot. The one who says equilibrium is prime has not checked the clock, the calendar, the oil prices, number of people killed in wars, number of organizations who went bankrupt, number of lives lost in natural disasters.

Equilibrium leads to stagnancy. It just proves the second law of thermodynamics...the system will go into entropy on its own unless an external force is applied to it.

Break the protective shield, the equilibrium, get out of there. Be the proactive person. Be the game-maker. Be the leader.

Stupidity

"No, I don't get profound thoughts everyday"

Massive Extinction of a Specie Reported ('Homo-Sepian Sense Humorous Sarcasmus')

Recently it was discovered, specie which was in abundance on planet earth from more than 50,000 years [1] (See footnote [1] based on your religious orientation) is soon to be extinct. Apparently cause of this massive extinction has been blamed to be 'other person's feelings.' Common name for this specie is 'human-being' and in scientific community, it is commonly referred as 'Homo-Sepian Sense Humorous Sarcasmus'. Common traits of this specie are good sense of humor, ability to laugh at others using almost-extinct tool known as sarcasm, also many-a-times with self-deprecated humor.

Sense of humor is an ability which produces a state of mind in which humans experience euphoria, happiness, smirking, smiling, laughter, sometimes bliss or as a layman would put it 'good ol' fun'. A quick literature review will show that it was good for human brain, heart, as well as facial muscles. The feeling of giddiness produced by sense of humor was also known to release certain chemicals in brain, such as endorphin, dopamine and serotonin which are believed to be important ones in brain/human development and for overall well-being of the person.

Scientists working on this extinction and particularly 'Homo-Sepian Sense Humorous Sarcasmus' revealed that cause of this extinction was other person's feelings. Sarcastic Sense of humor at different levels may be/can be enjoyed at the expense of others, especially by laughing at others, their deficiencies on which they don't have any control, their gaffes in public or certain personality traits.

In addition to laughing at others, self-deprecated sense of humor is good, jolly way to make others laugh in social situations. It was reported that only few were able to practice this difficult art.

If you know somebody who belongs to this specie, help Mother Nature to save them. Let them take shots at you while others laugh at you, perhaps you can also laugh when you are not target of sarcasm. There is no known medicine for stopping extinction -- other than helping this specie grow abundantly.

You can do that by being more open, more receiving, keeping in mind life is limited so why not spend it enjoying and laughing and also by regular doses of hit sitcom Seinfeld, HBO serial Curb Your Enthusiasm.

You can help. We can do it.

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[1] 2,000 years, if you are from Jesus Christ and all Intelligent Design stream, 5,000 years if you are from Hindu mythological stream. If not from any of above, you are a sensible person and would realize that 10,000 or 50,000 years does not make a big difference.

Her

-- a blogger whose diary I read quite often, this is her work. --

"Her" -- A. P.

Sometimes I relive the day it all began… the day I bumped into my college sweetheart, 9 years after we had last seen each other. It’s been about 14 months since that day, and just thinking about these months gives me a rush. I look up at him from under my half-closed eyes. It’s all a dream come true, I think.

Well, almost.

Why…

I turn up the music. Always works to drown out questions I know I can’t answer.

His lips linger from my hair, to my ears, then my neck, and I know he’s not leaving, not just yet. He straightens, checks the bedside drawer, shakes the empty condom box and throws it into the trash. His mischievous smile again.

Always time for once more, but never time to stay and just talk later.

He strolls out, flinging a “Be right back, honey”, above his shoulder. Immaculate as always, I think. Never takes a shower, but always dressed to the nines.

I check the clock. About an hour till he goes back.

Back to that damn…

Bitterness stung like bile in my mouth.

Why can’t he get that damn divorce soon?

The music system is blaring now. Next to it is a photo frame from our college days. I’ve lived 11 years with that frame, right there.

He has the same brilliant charming smile. That particular photograph had been taken just three months before he told me his parents had found a girl for him. He had spent the next few weeks convincing me he didn’t want to, but had to.

He didn’t want to? Yeah, right.

I’d seen her.

She was gorgeous.

Ah, well. It’s all gonna be o.k. He was going to tell her about me any day now.

…. Why not till now? The voice in my head asks, above the blare of the music.

I jump out of bed and start pacing. Maybe I can out-walk my thoughts.

It’d just been one thing after another, she’d been sick first, and then, you know, his parents were visiting.

Her face flashes before my eyes before I can blot it out. Was the perfect wife.

In their perfect home.

The image doesn’t go away even if I crush my eyes shut. Like the past few nights in my dreams.

Argh!! Why do I see her in my mind, every evening, every single evening, after he leaves? I have got to stop thinking about her.

His cell phone starts ringing. I check to see if he’s back yet, and quickly check the caller-id. An unknown number.

It rings insistently.

I toy with the phone, my alarm increasing as it doesn’t let up.

The caller keeps calling back, four, five, six times, and he isn’t back yet. I start panicking. What if it’s an emergency? Should I pick up the phone? If it’s her, I can always say it’s a wrong number.

“Could you please inform Mr. K that his wife has gone into labor?”

Soul