Skool of Theory

This is my attempt to give direction to an abstract chain of thought. Very different from the ones I usually write. I do not think many people would like it, but the topic is very close to my heart.

Sometimes we tend to ridicule some of the things that we see around. Eg. One of my friend resigned from a job at a big IT firm and within a month of that, she cancelled her resignation and joined the same firm. This whole saga looked to be a ridiculous decision to me. Sometimes, your mind is just not set to accept certain things. Another example would be a person who drinks only bottled mineral water wherever he goes. Although it might be a perfectly normal thing for him, for some reason the whole idea is very hard to digest. 

Now that I have set up the base for discussion, lets drill in a bit deeper. We have theories about everything. Thousands and thousands of them, most of which we aren't ourselves aware of. Theories about things we know, theories about things we do not know. Theories about what's good, what's bad and what's ugly. Theories about how the air-conditioner works, about how to make the world a better place to live. Theories about abstract things. 

Having theories is good. Even if we have to make assumptions about certain things in the process. If at some point, you think your theories are wrong, you can always correct them. That's what eventually happened to the theory of sun revolving around the earth''. It eventually got universally replaced with a complete 360 degree twist. 

But as our theories get more and more concrete over a period of time, these raw theories turn into beliefs. Beliefs are more concrete and rigid versions of our theories. They are hard to shake. More often, it is easier to question our theories than to question our beliefs. For example, if you believe that god exists, it is really difficult to change that belief. Yes, it's not impossible, but its difficult. More difficult than changing your theories about how your bike works. 

Back to the beginnings. When certain actions of people around you start falling in the bucket of absolute ridiculousness according to your beliefs, you start judging. He must be absolutely a nutcase to reject a Microsoft job offer to work in a small company with half the pay is what you end up thinking. 

How does this problem solve? Does this even have a solution you wonder. Yes it does! 

Every now and then you should look at your beliefs and examine them as raw theories. It encourages you to think. It sometimes ends up changing your beliefs that were build in the first place with a bag of theories made with the help of wrong assumptions. Or maybe end up adding your theory to another person's theory to make a whole new set of beliefs. That way, you would be more open to accepting the actions of people around you which you would not normally accept. 

After writing this whole blog, i still somehow cannot in my mind approve of the mineral water drinking dude. But still, I know i tried!

Coffee and Conversations

"Up for a cup of coffee?" 

A colleague of mine asks at around 4 in the afternoon. I almost always never decline such invitations unless I am deeply dug in work. In these 10 minutes, my colleagues drop off their engineering hat and are completely different than what they are otherwise.

I’ve always been a great admirer of good discussions. For me, having good discussion with friends is as important as having good friends. In the last few months, I’ve travelled to a lot of places with different groups for every trip. Most of the places that I visited in these trips were the ones which I had already seen. But again, it’s like Goa. You don’t go there to ‘see the place’, you go there to have memories with friends.

I can go on and on about having a good conversation. I had watched Before Sunset with a friend of mine. That movie is just about two people talking to each other, about nothing in particular, the conversation did not have any flow, any direction, was a bit slow to be honest. But, I ended up liking it, it reminded me that I needed someone in my life to just sit with me and have a discussion. No matter what the topic is. A similar movie in Marathi called ‘Mumbai, Pune , Mumbai’ is just about two people talking. I can watch that movie any number of times.

Last few years I’ve had some of the craziest discussions. A few topics include Can a case of monopoly be good for people, Is Pervez Musharraf the right person to lead Pakistan,  What is the next cool thing going to be after Smartphones and Tablets that will change the world, difference between love, lust and fantasy. I know most of these questions are open-ended. Most other factual or concrete questions you need answer too, you good friend Google will help out with it.

But again, do you want Google to be your best friend? Yes, it is great with what it does, I agree, but somewhere it’s hampering human interaction. The joke that you just read and feel like sharing with your friends during lunchtime has already reached all your friends through a Facebook post. Your super-cool techie friend with all the information about latest gadgets would roam around the school corridor saying ‘Hey, did you hear about this cool new technology coming’ or ‘Nokia is has come out with this new feature in their new gadget’ and ten people would surround him eager to hear about it.

Now, there is no need for that geek. There is no point in boasting about the latest phone Apple or Samsung are bringing because everybody has either seen the keynote or read about it on some Facebook post.

Somewhere we need to think that all we get from this social media is news and updates in some form. Views, analysis and opinions are still up for grabs. I am waiting for my next cup of tea with friends. That will unleash the discussion forum. 

p.s.: Realizing that I started with coffee and ended with tea. Back to basics!

The Q and A

It was 4 in the afternoon, time to play cricket. I asked dad some money to buy a Tennis ball (for cricket of course). He asked me why do you want a tennis Ball, why not a rubber ball. I was about 8 years of age and the only answer to this question he just popped me was rubber ball 7 Rs, Tennis Ball 15 Rs, tennis ball ought to be good. I knew that answer could convince me, but not my father. At the end of conversation, I ended up saying “Ok, Give me money for rubber ball, it's fine”. He would give me that. After playing cricket when I came home that day, I saw a box of Tennis balls lying in my cupboard.

Why this incident still persists in some part of my memory is not because of some stupid reasoning I gave. I will remember this for the important message I got from my father, that was asking the right questions before making a decision. Sometimes, you may not be able to give a satisfactory answer to justify the decision you are making, but atleast you have thought it through and would have less of a reason to regret the choices you make.

I once went to an auction where they were selling vintage coins. There was a high school kid sitting next to me. He was bidding for an ancient Egyptian coin. He had to raise his bid 4-5 times and every time he did that, someone else would put in a higher bid. It so happened that the bidding stopped with the kid next to me winning it. I can never forget the look on his face. You think he would be jumping with joy, but he was a bit pale. He said to me after he got his coin , 'I should have not bid so much money on it, but everything was happening so fast, I did not get a chance to think it through'.

A few months ago when the new Nexus 7 rolled out, I was just a final click away from buying it. Had filled in my address details, credit card information and everything, last thing was to click the confirm button. I don't know at that moment I thought to myself, what am I going to use it for? Good question, probably should have come in a lot earlier. I did not hit the confirm button that day.

Last year at around this time of the year, I had planned my vacation to San Francisco with a friend of mine. I got a very important interview call just before the trip. My tickets were fully refundable tickets and I could have very well dropped the trip plan and studied for the interview. Then I asked to myself, what am I going to do in the next five days that is going to summarize what I did in the last few years.

Did I taken the right decision back then? I don't know. It could have very well worked against me. But again, I had a question at hand and I had made up my mind. No answers are perfect, you have to live with them.

My current job is a result of that interview. 

The Morning Email

The morning coffee had no effect on Megha. Still feeling sleepy in her cubicle. In a corner, there stood a trophy which said 'Employee of the Year - Megha'. A couple of days ago, that one got added to her long list of achievements. Just two years in the race, she had set new performance benchmarks in the office. 2 promotions in two years!!

Today was different. She did not bring her car to office. Took the metro instead. She was so deep in her thoughts that she missed the announcement for her stop, went one station ahead and came back. Never had she been so lost. Ten days ago, she celebrated the second anniversary of her job. Her first job after graduate school. She remembered how scared she was while taking the interview and how relieved she was after getting a job offer.

Her chain of thoughts were interrupted by Aditi who came to her to ask some questions. Megha was now the 'To-Go' person in the office. Her quick success did not go well with her colleagues, but the junior folks in the company admired her short term accomplishments. Megha was not used to being in limelight. She did not have a good schooling record and her college performance did not paint a pretty picture to be noticed. This was new to her.

Megha was good at 'making sense out of numbers'. Infact, that was her job. She was paid to take unstructured and complex data and to derive meaningful conclusions from it. Last couple of months, she was getting the feeling that the only numbers which made her more happy where the numbers on her paycheck.

Two months back, she was thinking of moving to a more technical job. She wanted a new challenge. But this new challenge meant a lot of things. It meant giving up something you are really good at to go into an unknown territory. Giving up safety, the comfort zone. Giving up the success stint she had achieved in couple of years. Being in the race, she had the chance to create history. One more quick promotion and she would be the youngest manager of her company.

The longer she stayed here, more difficult it would have been for her to try something different. The last time she spoke to her friends about having thoughts of shifting to a new job, they had a good laugh. Some of them were struggling to be efficient at their current job and feared that someday they would be thrown out. Megha throwing away a secure job to go through the insecurity of finding a new job in a different field was beyond their imagination.

She looked at the 'Star performer award', opened her mailbox, replied to the unread email items which needed a response. Opened up another email window and wrote 'Thank you very much for everything, it's been a great journey, looking forward to a new one, consider this my two weeks notice'.

Sometimes, logic defies sense! Giving up the job two days after being declared the performer of the year.

Some decisions are best made by the heart and not the brain.  

India trip

Dude, next trip pe mera laptop leke aana. Dekh, I told u first.

I haven't booked my tickets yet. I am not even sure when I am coming. 

Are jabhi bhi ayega, leke aaja. Koi jaldi nahi. 

And thus the first laptop gets booked. Way before my journey to India begins. The second one is usually my work laptop. Then starts my hunt for the cheapest flight to India.

Wait, this isn't just my story, this is the story of every Indian/ Chinese student who has come to the USA. Trust me, there is no exaggeration!

One fine day you get that flight ticket deal to India which is a 'super steal' according to you. The excitement levels are to a maximum, you have started counting the days remaining. You call your parents and inform them. The happiest day of your life!

Your cousin brother/sister comes to know about your 'surprise visit'. And yes, they want a laptop from you. Macbook air US mein sasta hai na. Now you have the bad task of informing the first guy that you can't bring him a laptop.

In the meanwhile, you think you should probably buy your sister/brother a Tablet. She would feel nice. So you order that thing online while the deals are still there.

Then one fine day called thanksgiving day comes, the shopping festival of the US. You shop the whole night. Gifts for every family member and friends. The day when the world calls broke and you call your friend and ask, do you have 500 dollars, I'll give you from my next paycheck.

In the meantime, some well wisher(idiot) posts that you are going to India on Facebook. Your surprises that you planned (if any) are put to dust. You bring the post down, but it's too late till then. Now comes the most important part, Mobile phones.

I am not kidding, but this is a conversation that happened between me and a friend.

Dude, can you do me a favour? Can you bring the new Galaxy S3 for me. I'll pay you the money. 

You will not save more than 5k on Unlocked Galaxy S3. Are you sure you want me to do that. 

Then this guy sends me a link which has Thanksgiving day ad about Galaxy S3 for 99 bucks. He asks, what about this??

I roll on the floor on seeing that. Show a few of my friends that message, they roll on the floor (I'm a bad guy! Plus, I have every right to share a joke!). I reply to him, it's At&t phone with two years contract.

"So what, I can unlock it here", he replies. Anyways, you have At&t, you can have the contract for two years.

I am still on 'rofl' mode. While, I still keep receiving messages from friends who haven't been in touch for years, to bring in a mobile phone.

Meanwhile, the people who you really care about and actually want to bring something and help out, never really reply. When they reply, it's either too late to order or your bag is packed with every pound of weight allowed on the plane.

Then the last thing, two bottles of Chivas Regal which we carry for our friend at the airport duty free.  India trip is incomplete without it.  

Somehow, I've always liked a different picture. A picture in which I carry a single backpack and board the flight. I can buy things for the people I really care in India itself. Even if it's a little more expensive. Someday, I'm sure I'll be able to travel like this. 

Someday, surprises will be pleasant!  

The Two Ends

14 June: Boston Airport: 4 pm

Anita was waiting for her flight to San Francisco; A flight that will begin her transition from the University campus to the corporate world. A feeling of pride enveloped her for a moment. The best company in her field was waiting for her at the other end of USA. Her friends who had come to drop her at the airport took off.

Anita spotted Nilesh waiting at one of the airline counters. To say that there was rivalry between the two of them would be a massive understatement. Nilesh had got through the same company, same location. Only those two in a batch of 60 students had managed to do that.

The two most successful people of their batch facing each other. I am not counting success as purely academically or career wise. Both of them were the so called ‘leaders’ of their so called ‘groups’. Everyone in their department knew them. They were a part of every major activity or party in the campus.

Anita, in her mind, was thinking about the last 2 years. Why couldn’t she be in good terms with Nilesh? He was not a bad person afterall. A week after she came to US, she had an interview with one of the most reputed professor of her department. It was down to Nilesh and her for the final call. Professor went with Nilesh. This moment, Nilesh not only got his 2 years tuition fee waived off, but also ignited a fire.

Anita bounced back from this after getting an opportunity to work in the University’s finest research lab a couple of days later. After two weeks, these two were already famed as ‘The stars’ of their batch and looked up by many as an example. In the first set of exams, Anita had outscored Nilesh and then the talks had begun that Nilesh getting the professor’s job ahead of Anita was ‘just a fluke’. The fact was that none of those two really put forth these arguments. The fire was started by other group members.

Many such battles continued throughout the year. Fight for the best group dance. Both groups had great ‘party occasions’ when the mocked people from the other group. Both groups had a fight again in the cricket tournament, the race to get the best internships, the Diwali party celebrations, their trips. Name an occasion and you’ll have a competition.

Anita, all this while, had limited occasions to talk with Nilesh. She did not know how he was. Did he actually start spreading bad things about me? Did he want to be more successful than me? She had no answers.

Let’s give it a chance, she said. She went ahead and said ‘Hi’ to Nilesh. Till this time, Nilesh hadn’t spotted Anita, so was taken by surprise. ‘Hey’, he said.

Anita: So how’s the feeling. Finally studies coming to an end, excited for the first real job.

Nilesh: Yes, pretty much. Two years were fun. What’s in there next should be fun too.

Anita: I’m hoping for the same. I’m going to miss all my friends here!

Nilesh: Same here. Said goodbye to all my friends today, it was tough.

Anita: Anyways, San Francisco should be fun; I’ll get good friends there!

Nilesh: Yes, San Francisco has nice weather. Remember us going there together for the interview.

Anita: Yes, I do! (She clearly remembered that. Many of her friends had said to her: ‘Go and perform better than Nilesh, the person who took away your first job in US. Here’s your chance for revenge’. In the end, both ended up getting the job.)

Anita: So, you are travelling with only two bags. How did you fit everything into two?

Nilesh: I travel light. All I need from this place is two bags of clothes. Too bad that memories do not fit in a bag!

Anita: They do fit in a camera!

Nilesh: I don’t think so. Anyways, your flight is called for boarding.

Anita: You are not on the same flight? They set you up on a different one?

Nilesh: No, I chose to take the different one. Mine is a tiring 17 hour flight.

Anita: 17 hours, in that time I would’ve reached India.

Nilesh: and I would be reaching India.

Anita: Oh nice, meeting parents before job. How many days of vacation?

Nilesh: I’m going there for good. I asked our company if you could transfer me to India, and they agreed! I’ve got everything that I needed from this country, stayed here for two years, did my masters for free, got good friends, time to go back.

Anita was stunned. She did not know what to reply; too many thoughts in her mind. She could not really understand Nilesh’s decision. Nevertheless, she felt people need to be out of the box to take such a decision. In this world which lures everyone to be in a position to earn more money, she had found someone going in the other direction. It was not like one of those scenes in the movie ‘Swades’, but it had that flavor to it.

‘Good luck, I’ll miss you!’ was all that she said!

The 5 Dollar Bill

I was walking home from my workplace. It was a very cloudy evening with some light breeze flowing. I see a 5 dollar bill (In US, a note is called a Bill, Bill is called a Check and a Cheque.....well it's still a check!!! Why do they have to do things differently??) laying down on the road. 

That note or bill whatever we like to call it, made me think! And I'll be honest with you, I did take it and put into my pocket after some thought. Now before you label me into 'categories' that are unpleasant to hear, let me put down the possible scenarios that could have happened (or what I thought could happen).

Best Case: Someone who really really needs the money would get it. Now this is a really really rare case. I live in Raleigh and most of the beggars in this area are at Moore square which is 5 miles away. I've never seen a beggar in my complex, so that makes it even more rare. It could be that some college student needs it to get home, but the transportation system is free so that is ruled out. 

Most probable case: The bill would have blown by the wind in the forest nearby and nobody would have got that. 

Second most probably case: Someone just like me would have passed by and took it. 5 dollars is not a big amount but it's money nonetheless!

An unrealistic scenario: The person who dropped the bill picks it up again. How rare is that!

Another scenario: Somebody would have picked up the bill and used it for charity or some good work. I do not know how much good work can be done in 5 dollars. But I do know that that someone could just be me! 

One more reasoning: Think that I played some Roulette and ended up winning that 5 bucks. Luck as we call it!

Now 5 dollars is not a big amount and I am no thief. Had I known who the money belonged to, I would have surely returned it. I ended up spending that 5 dollar note to buy a pack of chocolates to keep in my office common room for people to have during the break. 

At the back of my mind, I was still thinking. What if that amount was big, lets say 100 dollars, 500 or 2000 dollars. At what point would I have kept the money to myself. What point could have caused greed to kill the senses. 

Frankly speaking, I do not know. And I do not wish to know. Life is good the way it is!