WORLD IS FLAT

Few months before I read this fascinating book by Thomas L Freidman called World is Flat.

In that book the author highlighted the 7 major factors that contributed the flattening of the world and seamless synchronization among different countries/cultures/time zones and the eventual globalization. Of course he was focusing on the business/economic globalization of the world.

Last week I found out the 8^th factor (and to me the most important one of all) that made me believe in this concept even stronger. But then I am referring to the human side of the globalization. The side this world is fast forgetting to maintain due to the fast paced meaningless life packed with everyday mundane stuffs.

This discovery happened when two non Chinese speaking Indian brothers (one vegetarian) daring themselves and others known to them (some friends were wishing them good luck) went backpacking to Taiwan for four days.

Before we went to Taiwan I knew it’s a place of real beauty with lots of mountains, seas, cultural locations and night life.

But once we were there we saw all these and the most beautiful thing of all. The one that made the beautiful mountains look more beautiful, the stunning seas look more blue and vast, the one that made our trip more memorable.

Taiwan’s PEOPLE.

You are right Mr. Freidman the World is Flat indeed and it always will be as long as the world is not deprived of people like

1. the polite bus driver who took us on a rainy night to the MRT station, showed us the correct train, helped us buy the tickets (but for him we would not have reached our hotel) and parted apologizing for his broken English (if only I could believe my ears)
2. the caring lady in the bus
3. the old man who did his best to indicate us the time of bus arrival
4. the guy at the keelung visitor centre
5. the restaurant guy who gave us the cakes on the house at 11pm
6. the man who offered to call his son on mobile to help us with the direction as he felt his English was not good enough
7. the old man who volunteered himself to help us out in yangmingshan
8. the lady who walked almost 200m to show us the right bus stop and walked back the same distance with a smile in her face and a spring in her steps
9. and the Four Friends we met in Taiwan who took us for dinner on 2 occasions

Because you see ladies and gentleman it’s these people (who do that extra bit for others) to whom the two Indian brothers would be eternally thankful for, makes this world one seamless, boundary less and a special place to live.

Cos that’s the bottom line of life, the one for which people from Mr. Christ to Mr. Gandhi to Mr. Mandela lived and died for. It’s that wonderful thing called HUMANITY. It’s the only engine that could drive this world forward towards peace and happiness.

It’s the mother of all religions that this world should dearly not worship but practice.

It’s the SON OF GOD.

Actually….. IT IS GOD.

During our last night one of the 4 friends we met asked wat memories we would carry with us of Taiwan.

To him and to all others who want to visit this wonderful place, I wish this Blog would confirm the memories me and my brother took with us as we left Taiwan.

A WEEK TO FORGET AND TO REMEMBER

Wat a terrible week it was. My big B was angry almost the whole week (am sure his managers are driving him crazy) and that mood was reflected by the entire BU for few days.

Personally speaking yours truly had the worst week in the last 2.5 yrs in this company. I made such a stupid blunder (it just was meant to be made) that it was funny in retrospection (except for my Big B. Anyway he was in a grumpy mood right from the morning). But boy it was a mistake that delayed 8 people’s lunch by 15 minutes. Sent an apology email and with the correct information to settle the issue.

Just when I tot it was all over I realized I had made another mistake (a bit more critical one) which escaped my eye and mind earlier. But it was too late to correct it and was duly notified by the central team to my Big B. U tend to think how unfair life is when the same incapable team which committed a blunder 9 months before resulting in a small calamity in our BU (which is known for its mistakes both in terms of frequency and magnitude) spotted this tiny error (not cos I did it. It indeed was a innocuous one) and immediately filed a complaint to my big B.

Two mistakes were made in a span of 7 days (UNPARDONABLE).

Glad the week was over and “A WEEK TO FORGET” ASAP.

But the good part was I had the magnanimity to apologize for my mistakes to all concerned and still managed to get thru the week with total concentration at work (at least personally).

I firmly believe a slight slip up that’s not immediately checked and countered could turn to be a bleeding bad habit. Last week was a tiny reminder to me on that. In a way I am glad (though I am totally pissed with myself for this) for making the mistake as it makes me focus that extra bit more which was missing (now its obvious) last week.

Two mistakes were made in a span of 7 days (UNPARDONABLE).

Glad the week was over and “A WEEK TO REMEMBER” FOR EVER.

THANKS

Well been sometime since I blogged. Spent one week of holiday by sleeping, eating and slacking. Was glad to be back to work (shocking right)

Well after two innocuous days I tot the entire week would be kinda uneventful. But then wats life with out its own surprises. So came Wednesday and my first half at work went in a jiffy.

Suddenly at 3pm my manager asked me to join the staff meeting which was dragging on in different directions. Things got worse (not sure if it was any better earlier) and I had to end up losing my stupid temper and argued with the one man I respect / admire the most due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. Wat a dud I am.

Left work at 7 and went for dinner alone at the near by FC. Then for some reason I decided to head back to office (I am crazy at times). But u see god had his own plans…he was hell bent on making my day better.

As I was walking past the cubicles in my office I spotted one of my colleagues still working…. Immediately I smiled….

So I asked “Hey wat ru still doing here?” but internally I was saying “So glad ur still here” (I can be extremely selfish at times…J). Then I went over and started chatting with her about various things ranging from World War 2, Hitler, College life and books. The next one hr (wish this had dragged on and on. Hope she was not thinking the opposite) was the best I had in the last 2 weeks. Then came a message which had to terminate our chat and we left work together.

So finally downstairs as we parted our ways she went past me saying “Thanks”.

I walked into the night thinking wat a strange world it is…

After all I should have said “THANKS” for making my day better… One day I will

I Took a Picture Today

My hands were searching for it, with an objective of reaching for it. And finally after many slashes in the thin air and my mattress and other empty places, it hit the object which was screaming at the top of its lungs (cos the previous night I had ordered it to perform this job at 7am in the morning knowing I would hate it for performing the same with an unerring consistency and accuracy).

That’s how my day started (as it has been for the past 2.5 yrs). Let me fast forward a bit as wat followed after my hand’s unrythimic dance to the noise of my mobile’s alarm music was the normal mundane stuff of my getting ready for work.

……………. Ohk then so I was in the MRT (and praying for it to be not so crowded so I can get a seat to sit and continue with the reading of an interesting memoir of a Drug Addict and a Convict) waiting for the next train. Well as the train was fast approaching a relieved smile was forming in my face as god complied with my wish.

I entered in to my usual cabin and found a seat in the centre and opened the memoir and was starting to enjoy both the book and the music played in my ears by the iriver MP3 player I was carrying.

After couple of MRTs and most of the seats being filled by other commuters dragging themselves to work, something happened. I was praying again (My Dad will be surprised to hear that). Will god comply for the second time running in a span of 10 minutes (it has never happened in my life before)? Well there is always a first time for everything right.

My mind began its prayers when my eyes saw her entering the train. And then she moved towards the centre (I told u right, god decided to be more than nice to me today). All of a sudden the words in the book became meaningless, music became noise and I was becoming more like the protagonist of the book I was reading (oblivious to everything around). My mind was willing my eyes to make a short and speedy round trip from the book to her face and back to the book…..at regular intervals….hoping the trip won’t be spotted by the concerned.

Oh yeah forgot to tell u guys……. “SHE LOOKED DIVINE”…..

There were only 2 tots running in my mind for the next 5 minutes. 1) Should I say Hi to her and 2) be a gentleman and offer her my seat

After those 5 min of tot (god I am slow to make decisions at times) I finally said it.

Hi…..:) Do u wanna sit down?

I asked her this more than once. But she dint even bother to look at me. But u see I can’t blame her behaving like that. It’s not her fault if she dint hear me (oh tats cos I normally don’t speak to strangers and there was no first time for this either)

The next few important tots were fighting amongst each other to occupy my mind (human mind is never satisfied). will I ever get to see her again…… should I take the same train the next day…… and the following day…… until I see her again….. may be I will after all say hi to her…..smile at her and more importantly she would smile at me…….

Then the voice of the lady over the speaker, mentioned the station I had to get down has arrived. So I got up, excused myself among the crowd and without taking my eyes of the pale green floor of the train I exited the train, with all those tots still swirling in my mind.

Then I decided to turn around. To take one last look as I realized finally that I won’t be seeing her ever again cos I don’t want to see her again (am crazy at times). As my head did its U turn, there she was with those earrings dangling to the rhythm of the moving train shooting a tentative glance towards me (I bet that was my imagination. Silly mind).

Imagination or real I was unable to change the profile of my lips from J for the next few minutes. More importantly my mind was smiling for even longer time.

U see there are certain things that are so beautiful it’s best seen once, and then imprinted in ur mind so that they remain like that for ever…….

I imprinted one in my mind today.

OH BEAUTY SHE WAS!

THE DAY MY MANAGER BROT OUT MY HIDDEN PASSION

My hands were begging me to do some thing.... My mind was bored to death and was fighting for its freedom. So I gave it a well deserved break and let it wander to places it wanted to go.

And then suddenly it happened....

While my mind was globe trotting, my hand started scribbling something illegible in conjunction with my eyes. Few seconds later my mind stopped its world wide tour and told my hands and eyes, buddies lets do it together....may be something useful might come out of this.

And so it all started....

But where, why and because of what/who.....

While my hand/mind/eyes were doing a decent job of penning my random tots, my ass was doing its best by staying stuck to a chair in a room occupied by 5 other people (they were my colleagues btw) listening (I presume they were) to the blabbering of the man behind the desk whom we call BOSS.

But then certain questions need to be answered I guess…

1. Why was I not able to be involved in that meeting mentally?

2. Why my boss's discussion regarding 2007 BU’s vision sounded meaningless and almost close to being considered a blabber?

3. More importantly what made me to pen my tots for the first time as I have been in this room under worse situations many a times before in the last 2.5 yrs?

As my mind was about to prioritize based on the severity and the magnitude of its contribution, the reasons/causes (of which some are given below)

• Growing (exponentially) disinterest in my job over the last few months
• Dirty politics played by my boss and senior colleague damaging the psychic of me and my other poor colleagues
• 100% confidence on my boss that nothing useful is gonna be discussed
• Ran out of ideas to while away my time, hence decided to write

the voice from across the desk interrupted my train of tots by asking “Subbu u got any questions or issues?”.

After a couple of seconds (this is cos I had to soothe the inaudible inner voice of mine which was screaming “Yes Boss what the hell are we doing here?”) my audible voice politely said “No questions. Everything is fine”. So after similar customary answers from my other colleagues and a thank you from my boss, we all departed the room feeling glad for being out of this one but at the same time dreading the next one in a week’s time.

But then haven’t we all heard (many times than we could remember from Indian/English cricket team) that there is always a positive from every happenings in life. Though it may not be true in all cases, in this one it was spot on (at least for me personally) as it made me do what I have been wanting to do for the last 10 yrs. Something I never managed to get around doing it.

After all my boss made me to “WRITE” finally.