World Book Day...

There is a quote which says ‘Books wash away from the soul, the dust of everyday lives’. And it is the truth of all the things. There is not a better thing that exists beyond an abstract story in a book which penetrates into your heart and soul. It moves you. It humbles you. It takes you to a different planet where you live with the story that you just read and think with the author. A book reading is an amazing experience. We all like to travel. We all like to go places and have experiences. This is what a book does. It makes you travel and it makes you feel experiences. Time travel is not a cliché, it is a reality. The writer does not suffer fools. It is the creative imagination of individuals which has moved the world and its people, it has shaped decisions, it has changed the course of society from not today, but from the time we started to live on this planet. From Classical novels of Mark Twain, George Orwell to timeless novels of John Steinbeck, these people have shared experiences and stories of the times when the world was different from where we are now.

My first great book was ‘Who moved my Cheese’, the timeless piece of Spencer Johnson of how to deal with change in your life. It actually moved me, let alone the cheese. 

When Mitch Albom describes his tale of Morrie it will sure lets you think of things in your own world through a very different glass.

When John Steinbeck reads you the experiences of Great Depression you realize, what getting low in life can be.

When Elie Wiesel and Victor Fankl describes Holocaust, you know we humans are the worst animals around.

When Jhumpa Lahiri shares her experiences with a different language and living in a different world, you know there are places to go and do.

When Piyush Pandey explains you the anatomy of a advertisement, you see the depths of human mind.

When Daniel Kahnemann dissects the human brain, you feel that this is how we think and take decisions.

When Yuval Noah Harari explains our struggle for relevance over the course of this planet’s existence, you value its priceless gifts.

When Richard Bach describes the story of a Seagull you are convinced that nothing is impossible.

When Julian Barnes shares a story, you know why endings are important.

When Mahatria writes Unposted Letters, you ought to keep it at your bedside to read when you think dark.

When Timothy Gallewey gives you an inner game of your favorite sport, you bring perspectives even if you do not play the sport but apply it in your daily life. (This is the book I keep in my bag every day).

When Sue Klebold talks about her struggle to accept her son as a mass-murderer, you will know that its miles to go before we achieve sanity.

When Bandi describes the life in a rogue country like North Korea, you feel privileged.

When Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar shared their story, you realised that Talent is temporary, attitude defines the success.  

When Paul Kalanithi describes his life as a doctor and later as a patient, you meet immortality (One of the all-time favorites).

Those mentioned above are not just books, those are experiences. Those are serendipity. Those are the things you fall in love with. As I said above, those are the things that humbles you. Books develops instincts. It feeds into curiosity. It tells you the endless possibilities that you see around. Above all, it makes you aware. 

Cognitive Science tells us that we are living in a knowledge illusion according to a book released last week called the ‘the knowledge illusion’. It explains “People rarely appreciate their ignorance, because they lock themselves inside an echo chamber of like-minded friends and self-confirming newsfeeds, where their beliefs are constantly reinforced and seldom challenged.”. The book does not describe the remedy to this problem of human illusion, but it does speak about ability to accept that folly can be a first step. You got it correct, I am arguing that being aware through reading should be our only way to spot the false narratives, speak with facts, embrace views with facts. When truth is twisted, it is a problem because then decisions change. Facts are stubborn. We need to learn how to practice skepticism and cultivate awe to get us over the line of the truth.

We are moving into a different type of world where, facts can be changed to suite one’s agenda, it can be maneuvered to a level where it no longer is relevant. We live in a very dangerous times, where being aware is the only solution to a better decision making. In an NYT column which I read recently, the current environment w.r.t literature is eloquently captured “This is why literature is the greatest argument for the universalist instinct, and this is why literature is intransigent about its liberty. It refuses to be enrolled, regardless of how noble or urgent the project. It cannot be governed or dictated to. It is by instinct interested in conflicting empathies, in men and women who are running into their own hearts, in doubt and contradictions. Which is why, without even intending to, and like a moon to the night, it disrupts the totalitarian narrative.”

As someone said “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors and the most patient of teachers;”

Wish you all a very Happy World Book Day!! Happy Reading and Happy Exploring!!

Preparation

For the starters, please do not read this as a bible and consider it as a red line of approach. This is not meant to be that. This is just an accumulation of thoughts and a reflection of what has been my learning from, I proudly say, one of the experiences of life. There is no better way to in life to know one-self than attempting to push yourself into something, which forces you to answer the question ‘Who are you?’ ‘What are your priorities?’ ‘Why you are doing what you are doing?’ ‘What is your stance on your own career?’ ‘What do you think about your professional qualification vis-à-vis your work?’. This is the single biggest experiment you can do to yourself. This is the learning in life, which frankly, no one can give you but you need to find these answers yourself to be able to come to terms with it. Sooner you find it, better it will be for any aspirant at any field. When I joined my company, I never knew I will be at a certain place like this, I am still not at where I want to be though, but it is reflection time to sit and pass on the learnings to the people who may need. I am 28, and have a career in front of me, but one thing that has been my success factor is a continuous push towards achieving what I want and believing that it is mine. So few things to keep in mind while gunning for something really big in life and for the ones you think is a very important step:

· Never allow yourself to think about Plan B, because it does not exist.

· Never think about anyone else in competition except yourself, agree it is relative, but your own performance matters.

· Take this as a big learning curve and always approach to the steps as one more step. (Higher you go, rope will get thinner and pie will get smaller)

· Introspect as hard as you can, try and dig out about yourself more than you possibly think.

· Do not take it as a challenge to overcome it, but as an opportunity to learn from it and take it as learning.

· Have an ability to listen and comprehend.

· Be your own harshest critic, and never allow any sense of complacency go into your head. (Roger Federer would not have been that great, if he had settled with what he has got in life in 20 years.

· Learn as much as possible.

These are just pointers and can be many of such, but one thing that keeps everyone occupied is the 1st point above. I myself, during the course of preparation, asked myself. ‘What if?’. This is an inherent human folly to think about. We always like to be in the comfort zone of thoughts wondering what if it does not turn out the way you want. Let me pull the trigger, it will never turn out how you want. But you can determine the result by just giving your 100% and not thinking about it. That’s the best way to overcome it. Result are a momentary realisation of what you have achieved, a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. It can never take you far ahead in life. It can only keep you in that moment. Result-win or lose-works differently or matters differently to different people. It never is/will be a barometer of your success. It is what you do with the result matters. Always. Just like what you do with the success in hand or how you deal with the failure in hand. I have had my own share of failures-some of them are big ones, some of them made my career at stake, thankfully I am a little bit stable now- but still miles to go. So when you are running for something big in life, and this is nothing to do with competition, remember results are relevant only to the point how you take it. Failure presents an opportunity, but success presents a different variety of complacency. Not to say success is not good, of-course it is good, but as one of my favourite speaks ‘Failure is always the first step towards success’. Public life is filled with stories of people who have bounced back. Make this a mantra about results not affecting you.

Only then will you go in front of the panel, more blank, more open, and without doubt more honest. Being aware that your life rests on this, makes it a little harder. Prepare your best, do all you can to win it, work as hard as needed, think this is the only one that exists (Now or Never) but never allow fear of failure to cross your head. I gave an explanation above about failure, just to make one understand that it does not matter. As Vikram always says ‘What got you here, won’t get you there’. So you need to keep exploring what you are good at, what you need from work and life, what your priorities are. Make sure your approach to this is positive and honest. If those two works, Confidence will flow and doubts will get washed out.

And lastly, the home of Tennis, the Wimbledon locker room has two of the best line which captures the above theme very eloquently ‘If you can meet Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two imposters just the same’. 

Ellie Weisel

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.

Peace is our gift to each other.

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason.

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

War

John Steinbeck famously said ‘All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal’. It cannot be a more truer time to prove that line than this. We are a failed species. The biggest of human attributes has been left exposed and tittering on the brink of an imminent collapse. At a time when world has advanced leaps and bounds in technologies, from how we work to how we move to how we think (a larger audience), there are parts of the world which is more interested in avenging revenge. The purpose of the war is to stamp authority on the minority of population who did not agree to a certain ideology or a way of governance.

I may not have the detailed account of reasons and on ground reality what I see on TV of what is going in Parts of Syria and Yemen makes my heart cry. I saw a video of a 5 year old boy, in a hospital mask, crying for his mother inside the hospital and Nurse trying to console the inconsolable. I saw a father, who is still waiting for his 2 year old daughter to breathe for life after doctor has pronounced death and his son sitting beside his disbelieving father trying to understand what is happening. Those people are too young to understand the difference between right and wrong. Those people are too young to die. Even those who survive, all they remember would be a childhood of bombs and scare without an iota of their fault. Think about a pregnant mother and a child in her womb, what is the pain of that child who has not yet breathed that he should not be allowed to come to this planet? I am not angry with the happenings around, I am saddened by the utter disdain of the political class to forget the basics of any rule book they follow, the facet of any religion they are subscribed to, the very basic reason we exist-Humanity. It is a cult virtue. And we as a society has lost it and will keep on loosing until we realise that this was not the purpose of existence. This is an end in itself.

Syria and Yemen are in a midst of the biggest humanitarian crisis since the WW II. And I am, with all the responsibility at my command, wish to say that we are tracking back on years of progress with this inclination to finish something what is not responsible for. This is second compared or comparable only to the ‘the final solution’. I am not miffed by it, because I think we, as humans, have only to blame for this. This divide and rule strategy is not new, and we have had this for centuries if not before. This hole is human discourse and disagreements are something which we ourselves have created and we nurture it. It is our way to demonstrate power and authority. Because if you-some feel-do not demonstrate power you are worth not a talk. That’s a way to shout and tell the world to ‘listen I’m the boss’. That is autocracy and dictatorship. I am a firm believer in democratic form of human discourse, because everyone individual has a choice to make of its own preferences. No single human being can be lectured on it because it is not one’s mistake to be born in a certain family with certain values following certain religion hence it is individual’s choice. The idea that ‘i or we are the best clan in the world’ is a sure way to rip the generations apart and so the entire presence. It is the most important time in the human history that values of decency and acceptance of difference is at-least understood and actions taken based on what works for all and not for what works for only a small part.

We are in a very feeble time in human discourse, the anger is at an all-time high, the path towards living in a protected environment rather than an open is on the rise. The use of human force to establish a sense of order over a region one governs are back dated and can push entire human race back. I have been saying we are on the brink of WW III, because all the necessary conditions satisfy it. I think this particular crisis, if averted, would be a post pone an impending war. Human ego is a tricky thing, it can start a war, result in a calamity of epic proportions and may end with generations and societies wiped out for. Plato famously said “Only the dead has seen the end of war’ and that is what it will be reduced down too.