Yet Another (Open) Letter

Dear Times of India,

It has been great fun watching you trying to score an equalizer against your competitor in the latest round of Ads war after being thrashed in the first. However, I’m afraid that by printing those sorry arguments in your defense you might have inadvertently accepted the fact that you’re thoroughly incapable of publishing anything without adding a tinge of glamour and sensationalism, and hence, your defeat. Let me explain to you how.

You say that Aishwarya’s baby is no less important than the Vice President of India. Oh yes, I guess a toddler still wetting the bed is almost as much important as a man appointed by due constitutional process who is in charge of the policies and laws that will govern our everyday life, not exactly but still. But then why be hypocritical about the concept of equality? It appears to me that millions of Indian children living in squalid conditions under the shadow of deprivation and malnutrition have equal claims to the space on your first page. Rarely can one find you talking about the woes of our farmers who are being pushed to the brink of suicide. But hell, who cares about reading their story and the grueling statistics which only point towards India still being a third world country? Instead, you believe that Page 3 parties and catfights among startlets should be at the centre of our attention. How very thoughtful of you.

You tell us in all seriousness that mixing fun and masala with news does no harm. In fact, you go on to claim that news should be exciting, which again is a euphemism for being sensational, I guess. At this time, one might make mention of the manner in which you covered the comments made by Jan Lokpal activists against government, especially the comment made by Arvind Kejriwala with respect to Anna, and made them sensational. By trying to twist the representation of facts, you’ve made it very clear in whose hands you’ve been playing all the time. See, that’s what happens when you try to brew a concoction from important national news and ‘masala’.

Time and again, you have also pointed fingers at the contents of articles in other papers. This, coming from a newspaper that repeatedly sells the opening page of its editions and its website to the highest bidder almost sounds ironical. In fact, to me, it looks like you put news between the loud full-page advertisements in your papers just for the sake of calling it a newspaper. Why, I will take a bet that even your film reviews are heavily biased. What else justifies showering unabashed praise and giving away 3-4 stars to the dullest of drivels coming out of Bollywood? I don’t understand how can a newspaper which can’t even be expected to bring us honest cinema reviews be trusted with the responsibility of putting forth important agendas without bias and favoritism.

Also, at this point let’s take a look at your single page editorials. I know people will frown at an inexperienced blogger writing about the quality of the editorials of a leading national daily. But, to me at least, it seems that a well written, eye opening editorial which sticks to hard facts and figures and enhances my understanding about issues of interest is such a rarity in your newspaper that I’ve stopped reading that page altogether. Instead, I find it littered with litanies of over-the-top sarcasm placed alongside an article by yet another guy who is never tired of comparing present scenarios with scenes from the Mahabharata.

And let’s not forget those mistakes, grammatical or factual, which abound your paper. In fact, one can see that The Hindu always makes a conscious attempt at acknowledging and rectifying its errors. While that may not make that paper great, but it sure does bring forth their proclivity towards enhancing the quality of their product, something which is entirely absent in yours.

Even if you somehow manage to deny all the charges that I have laid against you above, even you can’t negate the fact that ‘selling sex’ accounts for a major part, if not all of it, in explaining the miracle of ToI being the English daily in largest circulation. Just one look at your website and the international page is enough to prove this. And even more disturbing is the line of reason you put forward to defend your actions. “India is the land of Kamasutra” you say. We should respect our ‘heritage’. Well, by extension of that logic, I guess Romans should go back to holding death-matches and orgies in the Roman Colosseum. But no, that would be a retrograde step towards savagery, while adorning the walls of your site with naked/semi-naked images is definitely a step in the path of modernization. Very well.

So, dear ToI, for all the noise that you’re making about your competitors waking up to you, know this that it is not they who need to wake up, it’s you. So stop pretending that you’ve outgrown your tabloid days and have evolved into a newspaper now. No matter how much you mock your chief competitor, the fact remains that the serious news reader will never take you seriously.

Information is not knowledge, it is the prerequisite to knowledge. And the content of your pages seriously lack the latter, if not just the former.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
The Hindu Reader.

Lord of the Rings and Software Development

So, I was talking to myself the other day and the following transpired.

“I think we have watched Lord of the Rings one too many times. What do we like so much about it?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps the fact that it teaches us so much about building systems and software. Things small, yet essential.”
“I can’t believe I heard you right. Pray explain.”

“OK, here goes. What do you think the trio of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli teach you?”
“No idea bro. You tell me.”
“That the secret to building successful systems lies in building capable teams.”

“That’s too general. Give me something more specific, something more concrete.”
“Okay, You remember The Union of the Two Towers, right?”.
“Yeah. So?”
“Well, quite simply it teaches you to build redundancy in your system. Even though Saruman falls early in series, Sauron still goes ahead with the attack on Gondor and the Middle Earth. Loss of one doesn’t incapacitate the other.”

“Haha. That’s two for the count. Give more arguments if you want it to stick.”
“Gandalf teaches you the qualities of a Project Lead. That he should work closely with his team and guide them through thick and thin.”

“Umm, okay. More.”
“Similarly Gollum’s deception is an example of why you should always choose trustworthy people to give expert advice and guidance.”

“Look you’re talking in terms of qualitative things. Talk general and I’ll quit.”
“Come on. Even Merry and Pippin can teach you something.”
“Err…what exactly?”
“Resourcefulness. They instigate the Ents against Saruman which leads to the Last March of the Ents and destruction of Isengard. If you know where to look, you’ll always get some things that’ll help.”

“Continue.”
“And that you should always take care of unexpected and unusual conditions in your project. The Witch King got killed because he never figured that he might confront a woman and die. That makes him a sexist too.”
“Hehehe.”

“And Mordor can help clear a thing or two about building secure systems.”
“Hmm, like?”

“If you leave an unprotected backdoor in your system, someone is going to find it and sneak in and bring your system to doom.”
“Oh, said like a true computer guy.”

“Stop taunting me. There’s more. Like Aragorn bringing the Undead Army to crush the attack on Minas Tirith tells you that using the right tools for the job will bring you to peace sooner.”
“Yeah, that justifies the use of Eclipse and other IDEs. Haha.”

“Also, Lord Denethor’s misrule of Minas Tirith explains why you shouldn’t leave important modules in the hands of less able men.”
“Right on that. But isn’t everyone doing that already?”
“Yes, they are. That’s why novices don’t get to design systems.”

“The Defeat of Sauron. How does that figure in your list of metaphors?”
“Well, it points out that with persistence and patience, all the bugs can be quashed. Well, almost all.”

“And what about Lady Arwen?”
“I am not sure. Hope from developers’ girlfriends keeps the project alive in bleak times?”

“Okay. That’ll do. In the end The Fellowship of the Ring dissolves. Is there any message in there, Mr. Programmer?”
“Yes there is. Like all good things come to an end, all software have a lifetime.”

“Oh, that leaves me so teary eyed.
Wait. What are you doing? You’re actually putting all of this on your blog? You know what? This is not something awesome. When developers read this, they will shake their heads and raise a cry for your blood.”

“Yeah right. Whatever.” *Hits publish.*

Dear Kiranawala

Dear Indian Kiranawala,

Greetings from Walmart.

Now that we have been allowed to wrestle each other in the ring of direct customer retail, I think that a small introduction is in order.

I know that you dominate the scene of Indian retail. From what I hear, you control ultra-majority share of the market and rake in most of the moolah being generated. Now, I call this monopoly. How can you be so unfair to us and milk the cash cow that is the Indian customer alone while we sit and watch from the stands. No, we won’t allow this happen. And that’s why we have decided to give you some ‘healthy’ competition.

So what if you’re a giant behemoth with reach in every nook and cranny of the country? Look at the mess that you make of the entire supply chain process. Your government says that you allow upto 40% of the farm produce to go waste. Which is exactly where we come into the picture. Your government is either incapable or unwilling to build better cold storage and supply facilities. We step in there and thereby control you. How’s that for a master stroke?

It has been observed that opening up of Indian supermarkets has hardly had an effect on you. But don’t mistake us for them. We’re not cash-strapped and hanging by a thread like them. And don’t you forget, unlike them, we will have a much higher degree of control on farm production and retail back-end infrastructure. Vertical Integration is where we’ll hit you.

Now people are saying that are you’re a tough nut to crack. Your reach is far too extensive for us to destroy. On come on, I don’t even want to destroy you. Why would I want to do that? I will just whip away the cream of your business, leaving you to wither away and die slowly. When your customers start joining our ranks because we can offer discounts and offers much higher than what you can, what will you be left selling? Candies for children? Ha ha.

I also note that you’ve a second line of defense against me: People trust you. That you are too well connected with the local populace to be uprooted easily. That you are willing to offer goods on credit. I don’t see how that is a problem for us? With the kind of deep pockets we have, we can easily afford credits much larger than what you can ever imagine. Ever heard of Walmart credit cards, my friend? Yes, I can see you trembling already.

Simply speaking, the hard power of money and market forces is easily going to erode the soft power of trust which you’re counting upon.

And if all that fails, how on Earth do you think will you ever stand against the barrage of advertisement and marketing strategies that we’re going to unleash against you? I don’t see why people would choose you over us when we hit them with mind boggling deals when they enter our stores. Who will you run to when your celebrities and stars start endorsing our cause and when giant hoardings in your city proclaim our victory over you?

Apart from all this, we also know a few of your pain points. You are totally disorganized. Besides, more often than not, we hear your customers cribbing about your insincerity. You think we’re not going to pit that against you?

In fact, I’m dreaming of the moment when you’ll be knocking my doors for your supplies. Oh, the irony of it.

But don’t worry, we’re not all that bad. We promised your government that we’ll generate jobs for your country. The fact that we’re going to decimate your economic independence for jobs paying paltry sums of money is another matter which we’re not going to discuss anyway. And the best part is: We get to control your entire food supply chain while we take all the profits overseas. Someday, we’ll start siphoning off food grains from your country to sell at higher prices to others, while you may starve. No, don’t count on your regulations for protecting you. Your government could not control illegal export of ores and minerals, remember?

Somehow, if all this fails to frighten you, remind yourself of the fate of K-mart. And also let it be known to you that we’re the largest enterprise in the world.

Let us see what you can do about my challenge.

Goodbye, already.

What is wrong with me!

The other day I noticed a peculiar link on one of my friend’s Gtalk status. The subconscious decision to follow it to whatever server it led to was supported by the need to break the monotony of the office life rather than any occasional spurt of inquisitiveness in my mood. And behold, up came a cool looking website with the even cooler punchline to promote itself  ’Want to know what people really think of you?‘. The silly me wonders; ‘What would prompt someone to take such an extreme step to know one’s faults in character?’ Must be some overwhelming desire to find out the really microscopic flaws in the brilliant diamond that you otherwise consider yourself to be. Or may be, someone just asked you to fill out a section in a form, not unlike the ones they ask you to fill out in IIMs, [God! what's with me and IIMs?], which read ‘What do you consider to be your greatest liabilities?’ and you were caught off-guard, and the pressing need to know your Achille’s heels drove you up this site’s door. Or, as a rare possibility, you did it for fun and wanted to know what your friends think of you.

Now, I do not abhor the idea of rectifying the flaws in your traits and personality. Knowing your faults is the way to correct them, they say. But taking this practice to a public level where you try to consciously collect feedback from others as regards your character, is something I’m not really comfortable with.

Now, let’s give this a moment’s thought. When you decided to create that profile on this site and went about sending invitations to the same, like it was some family wedding, would you claim that you were unaware of the fact that you have some deficiencies? Now if you were aware of this, would you still say that you never paid a thought as to what these short comings might be?

If the answer to above two questions is in the negative, then perhaps your subconscious already knows the holes in your character and with some effort you can also discover the ways to plug them. Why then, do you need to bank upon my perception of you to correct yourself? In short, this whole exercise is a farce and you are too busy playing a cute little doll who wants a little of everyone’s adoration and adulation, although in an obtuse way. Some introspection and keeping your eyes open for subtle clues from those near you will go a much longer way in helping you correct your mistakes than any amount of me writing long texts about your irritating habits.

If the answer to the first question is no and to the second you say yes, then, my dear, there is no point in me telling you that you are a  moron. That you didn’t care enough to note your flaws despite knowing that you have them, also kind of guarantees that you won’t pay heed to any of my advices to you. This whole damned thing is then reduced to a absurd exercise in futility. Those who can’t listen to their own inner voices will rarely lend ears to what others have said. QED, you are not going to change.

I assume that the possibility of answering a yes to the first question never arises because then, your defence becomes a case of ‘reductio ad absurdem’. You are confident of your perfection and yet you ask others to point at your mistakes? How absurd?

What I suspect is the true motive for someone playing in the hands of this site is to seek the indulgence of others. Perhaps that gives you and your way of life a vague sense of purpose and validation. You want to know that people notice and admire you when you step out of your shell. For, only people who like you will whisper somewhat mushy things in your ear about how ‘That dress looks totally.. totally horrible?!’. Or were you expecting advices from your nemesis on how you could change yourself for the better? That you are prepared to do this en masse also goes on to show the amount of importance you shower upon yourself. But worry not, such are the times that everyone is bent upon creating a larger-than-life image for himself in the cyberspace. This site, for all it’s worth, is just another part of this megalomania.

So, spare a thought before you get busy collecting feedback from your friends and that lovable anonymous. Though I can’t rule out an off-hand chance that this might change you, for better or worse, depending on whose advice endears itself to you.

The Mirage of Freedom

Ever since you started uttering those gibberish sounds which consisted of only two syllables, or three if your brain was hyperactive from the beginning itself, and your loving parents misconstrued them for being ‘ma-ma’or ‘pa-pa’, a fort of aspirations was built for you to conquer. My son will grow up to be a king. No, that didn’t quite have the effect. So, allow me to repeat in Hindi, “Mera beta bada hoke raja banega.” (I can be quite a sexist at times. Never mind.) was what your parents had to say every time they looked at your oh-so-cute face. And so began the tale of dreams and aspirations, with you as the pathetic centre, which continues to grow to this date like some absurd Taylor series expansion (Now you know I’m not a mathematical prodigy.)

If you were smart enough, you’d have foreseen how this story ends, given up the useless petty struggle against fate long back (most probably by the time you entered the fifth standard) and could now be seen relaxing in the shade of the banyan tree of wealth your fathers and fore-fathers left you. There is nothing bad about it. After all, the often cited reason for amassing untold amounts of riches is so that your future generations can live in abundance. So why the hypocrisy with frittering away the hard earned money of the ancestors?

However, not all of us were born with the gift of foresight. So, we decided to trudge along those narrow lanes to our schools, the full weight of books and notebooks bearing down upon us, and become bonded labourers of the tyrannical master that was Education. Unwillingly, we allowed ourselves to be tied with the filthy leather bondages (all innuendoes intended) of habit and routine which were glorified as the lacy ribbons of discipline. We struggled hard to keep that nearest competitor at bay while our peers were busying themselves in activities better left unmentioned. It wasn’t that we didn’t long to break free, we just decided to believe in a false utopia of accomplishments and accolades. Year after year,  after coming out the examinations in ‘flying colours (What were we? Parakeets or something?)’, we secretly wished that it was over, only to be reminded that there still remained so much before we attained the cherished dream of freedom.

During the tenth standard, these hopes got really high. Dreams of freedom started to fill every waking thought. But all those brilliant marks of 10th standard earned us were the bragging rights that we had the pole position in the Formula 1 of the most competitive two years of our life. Inspired by the likes of Chetan Bhagat, who made the years of engineering look like one big non-stop party, we sold our gullible selves to the devil of competitive exams. Gaining that the fuel of ambition was very much required to last this final lap of dog-eat-dog race, our well wishers again started to fill our heads with lofty ideas and promises of a blessed life where we’d eating out of golden plates. Not wanting to fail, not wanting to lose this last (or so we supposed) bout, we put everything we had at stake. We were fed on a steady diet of inspirations from our seniors, people who had seen it all and survived to tell the tale of glories that awaited us. Routine and schedules became tighter as we struggled to squeeze every class in 24 hours and still be sane enough to understand all of that which was being poured into our minds. Very soon, the time had come for the final battle, the victors became the subject matter of intense mohalla discussions and the losers were chastised with ugly looks from acquaintances and  strangers  alike.

But,all was not yet over yet. Though you were driven to believe that getting into that prestigious engineering/medical college was the last leg of your pilgrimage to the Mecca of freedom and independence, you soon realised that freedom was not all yours, not quite yet. Between you two, there still stood the vast sea of four years, ridden with sharks and squids of tests, assignments and what not. Still, you decided to play along. For the next four years, you courageously battled every hardship that came your way, while the illusion of attaining freedom grew stronger. Your hallucinations of what you’ll do when your time is only yours for the taking, took deeper roots.

But, alas, when the day arrived, you looked around and found yourself betrayed, for you had already signed off your freedom to the highest bidder, the corporate master for whose service you were being secretly prepared all these days. Your freedom was the elusive Promised Land, never meant to be yours. Too late in life, you have realized that  freedom, after all, was just a mirage.

Why MBA?

“So, you want to do an MBA? Why?”. Just how many times does a management aspirant have to hear to this condescending question in cold patronizing tones? Coming from mouths contorted in various expressions, ranging from a simple disbelief in your credentials to feigning a sense of wonder or pleasure that you indeed want to be one of those well-groomed, smooth talking, overpriced individuals who call everyone from a janitor to the Prime-Minister an ‘executive’, leaving it to some vague preceding noun/verb/adjective to sort out the difference between them, this is not just a question. Since times immemorial, oh wait, since the time someone set up the MBA program I believe, this question has been used to gauge the depth of your understanding of yourself and the clarity of your ‘thought process’. (Yes, I have reached the limits of my stereotyping.)

Now for questions such  as these, which can make or break your future, a simple answer just won’t suffice. But first, what qualifies as a simple answer? A one liner is a strict no-no. You’re aspiring to be a manger and you don’t know how to present things with a dollop of the sweet honey of sycophancy and top it with the sugar of yes-man-ship? What?  Just get out of here.  And if you’re as dumb as me, you ultimately capitulate to all the pressure and blurt out, “I really don’t know”. Then, all hell breaks loose. It is probable that the interview panel wants to hack you to pieces for wasting their oh-so-precious time. But then, they are managers not savages, remember? So, they put the burning stake of a few hurting, pinching comments through your heart and off you go, feeling sorry for yourself that you ever appeared for the interview without knowing your true self first. Find a  guru and hit the Himalayas already.

You want to say, “I’m in for all the gargantuan bags of money that you guys make. It’s just awesome. I just want to be filthy rich. Like you.” Again, you are greeted with ice cold stares and sharp smirks. “You think that making money is all we do?”. No, wait, when I said that I missed out on the fact that you guys make some cool slides and sheets, wittingly put together many charts together, combine all the information in a manner which is easily digestible, everything which an MCA/BCA guy could do too. What the same MCA/BCA guy can’t do is to use his tongue in sync with slides to create the beautiful symphony which is called the management gibberish. I salute you, sir, for being able to do that.

I am also told, and I am referring to fresh graduates from top management colleges, no less, that you must always present yourself as an ethical, upright person. So straight that it looks like an iron rod has been jammed up your spine, leaving no curvature in the naturally S-shaped organ. You might even want to conjure out of thin air stories about your moralistic behavior, pretend that you’re the modern age incarnation of Lord Rama. How’s that for being a moral guy?

But I don’t see how I being an uprightly moral being matters to the panel. Your guys are out there, waiting to pounce upon any chance to sabotage the other person’s/enterprise’s plan. That they are in a mad rat race of corporate one-up-manship, where only victories matter, begotten of methods righteous or crooked, notwithstanding. The same graduates tell me, “If you’re hardworking and upright,you’ll just be screwed over in management.”. So, isn’t it plain hypocrisy to even ask this question about personal integrity? But, yeah, I am sorry, I forgot who gets to ask questions here.

And what is this stuff about trying to look into my creative side? Does that mean how creative I’m in forging my lies? Or just plainly, how well can I placate an infuriated client/boss? Hmm, creativity. That’s the driving force behind management, right? That’s the reason why we are just a big back office of the world and not a giant software powerhouse, right? Isn’t creativity the way how you devise new plans to fleece the populace of the country while you fill the coffers of your foreign patrons, after making your due cut, of course? Yeah, creativity, I take a bow.

So, unless you think you won’t make such mistakes while you are closed in with 3-4 other guys at least double your age, going all the way for that coveted Management Institute interview, after you have told multiple lies to your current boss that you’re just going to visit your ailing mom or that distant pregnant cousin, it’s just isn’t worth it.

Oh, did I mention, I have 2 interviews lined up this very month.

What did you say? A hypocrite? Yes, I am.

PS: I know that this post is a victim of extreme forms of stereotyping. There is absolutely nothing here which can prevent you from taking me as a narrow minded jerk. But, this post is meant to be petty sarcasm and it is supposed to be taken that way.

For Facebook

Lately, I have come across two posts denouncing the concept of social networking, to be more precise, computer aided social networking in general and Facebook in particular. I am sure that there are many more blogs and articles emphatically calling out to the human race to shun the ignominy of being social networking addicts. The first post which I read had more scientific (or should I say geeky?) reasons for Facebook-bashing, the other held more of a psychological perspective and it in fact persuaded one to go on a Facebook fast, as if we Indians don’t already have a calendar full of fasts (Oh, it was addressed to the world by the way).

First, I must confess, at one time I was so impressed by one of these articles that I deactivated my account and never returned to it until it was eaten up by one of those garbage collectors on the servers (Oh, just using my imagination on this one). But, after months of self restraint, I returned and have been on Facebook since then.

Being a self-proclaimed Facebook addict, I believe it’s time I stood up in defense of my favorite social networking site. (You can swear against Orkut though, it’s just yuck!!!)

How many times have you heard the argument that Facebook-ing is nothing but downright narcissism? I agree to it. Facebook gives you a platform to be heard. You can hum, yell, crib, blaspheme, criticize all you like. How many times does one get a chance to do this in public and be noticed? You can’t go out and shout on the road to people about your personal life. And on Facebook, it’s not just anybody, it’s your friend circle. One could argue that there are other media like blogs (Oh, ain’t I writing this one?) for doing that. The USP of Facebook (or twitter if you want), however, lies in the succinctness of its messages. How many of you could bear to read such long posts as this one by even 1% of your friends. In all probability, you don’t even want to read past the first page of the newspaper, that is, unless you’re a sports fan or you are an IAS/IIM aspirant or you subscribe to the Times Of India (for obvious reasons).

Another common argument is Facebook is not real socialization. That the warmth of relationships is missing here. Now that may be true for the kind of people who go out every night, have drinks and a nice chat with friends, just like HIMYM. But wait, what about the homely guys like you and me, people like us who actually have to go to office to earn our daily bread and who come crashing to the bed in the evenings? People who’ve a friend diaspora spread across cities and even countries? How are they supposed to remain in touch? By writing long mails? Or by calling up all your friends everyday? My point is simple. Facebook helps you to reach out to more friends than you could ever do by the simple expedient of giving you a personal space on the Internet (am I sounding like a marketing guy now?). So, the argument really doesn’t hold much water for me. In fact, if anything, Facebook actually helps me know what others are up to or how have they been.

And then there are the privacy concerns and the fear of identity theft and social engineering your account to get the keys to your treasure troves, no matter what kind or how secure they are behind those Verisign verified sites. To this I could only say, “Grow up. Don’t be so paranoid.”, and many people will scoff at me for my naivete. In reality,I’m a little paranoid too. I wonder if there is some agent, human or automaton, which actually mines data from these pages to look for patterns which could then be used for various purposes, including building a character sketch of you (Spooked, are you now?). But with the better privacy management in Facebook, the chances of just about anyone laying their dirty hands on your precious data is minimal. Of course, there are risks (and cases) of profile hacks and profile tarnishing, but that happens mostly if you’re stupid enough to let your credentials hang by your neck like an obscenely large diamond pendant. By the laws of probability, there’s only a small chance that you’ll be the next target of some nasty hacker, though I am not writing off the threat completely (and I am in no position to do so, putting aside the pretentions of being a computer science guy).

The last and probably also the strongest line of reasoning against Facebook is that it’s addictive. Yes, I will agree to it too (Didn’t  I proclaim myself an addict in the beginning itself?). Thoughts about how to post a witty message here or sarcastic yet humorous comment there tend to fill my though process. I also start to suffer from the pangs of loneliness if I don’t get a notification or two for more than 2 days. I guess that’s bad. But then, once you start to have some control, it falls into a place in your timetable . Besides, Facebook is great to kill those lazy afternoon office hours when nobody in the cubicles is really working.

I wish I could also include the ‘How Facebook helped the uprising in Egypt?’ in this post. But, what am I writing here? A damned IIM essay?

So, that’s the end of it. I could sing many more ballads in the praise of Facebook. But,I think if I had to make my point, I’d have made it by now. Thanks for listening. And not leaving Facebook just yet.

The first one

A lot of preparation goes into the making of your first blog post. After all, the first impression’s the last and you don’t want to mess it up, it’s the whole world out there for goodness’ sake. However, this blog is unbridled and unhindered from the yokes of social acceptance, for I know that it’s voice will fall upon few serious listeners who in all probability don’t know me and who most likely won’t bother to come back. That brings us to the question – should perfection be achieved just for the sake of it? Or does perfection matter only when you have an audience which can admire your efforts and their outcomes. Can the beauty of a wild flower which remains unseen by human eyes still be considered beauty?

I am quite sure these questions will evoke the natural response of  ’Oh, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’. But  being a student of the human nature in my own right, I believe that all of us are fuelled by a need for admiration and recognition from the society, be it our peers, our seniors or in a much smaller fraction of situations, our juniors. Oh, wait, does this contradict what I said in the first paragraph. Am I consciously making this all up? You see, that’s the problem with studying psychology, you eventually end up being strangled by those very arguments which you had put up in your defence.

The need for recognition is also the fountainhead for competition and competition need not always be healthy. Newton and Leibnitz, each wanted to be recognized as the founder of the science of Calculus. History stands evidence to their bitter row which often ventured into realms considered below scientific and social graces and ethics. Same for Edison and Tesla.

Many a times, one hears the phrase, “I am my only competition”. I wonder whether the man uttering these words really knows  himself well enough to make such a statement. The point which I am trying to make is simple. Competition drives life, comparison is normal. Who could be so ignorant as to close his eyes to another man’s progress? When I say this,I’m not discounting the jealousy in human nature. But somewhere, it’s linked to the way we’ve evolved.  Nature itself is based on competition. “Survival of the fittest” pretty much sums up Darwinism. Hence, the spirit of competition is vital to our continued survival and will drive our pursuit for excellence.

Oh, thanks for listening by the way. If you feel confounded by what I am trying to say, my advice is ‘Don’t bother yourself’. It’s just another blog after all.