I'm stunned by the coldness of thought, meaness of purpose and ruthlessness of action. If God created humans, then we ended up creating these so-called 'purpose-driven' execs who see no one but their self-interest. And why not? shouts out someone somewhere. I say, hell why?
The so-called acquired positions you enjoy in high society are but a representation of your merits. Thats what your kind likes to think. In the haste of racing to the top, you know you will step on toes, break a few bones (of others ofcourse), bruise egos all over (except your own), throw your weight around (which tripples with the attitude you carry) and make it to the top with your impecable manners (reserved for public display only), keen eye for board room politics and that winning (read:irriating) smirk that says, "I'm the best that anyone will ever get".
How could have the human race given birth to a hollow soul like that? What purpose does it serve with such an existence?
Recognising or appreciating the one who help themselves is well beneath its standards. It prefers to rub shoulders with its own kind and look down on the rest. It works hard to get what it set out to achieve. In its ambitious state of mind it forgets that the 'end is not the begining but the end in itself', its always been the process that measure one's true worth.
God can be kind to the misguided corporate sometimes. When their path crosses the path of the odder ones out. Yet they fail to take notice. They'll call on you suddenly one fine day to ask you for a favor and no explanations needed for not being in touch for half a decade or even more. Its not needed right, its business. And because it is business you are expected to take the call or write them a note. That's expected professional behavior. Who set it? I don't know. Its contrary to common cortouesy, thats what I'd think and yet I'm compelled to take the call in the name of not harbouring personal prejudice in the line of duty...
Its amazing how lack of self-realisation has not hit a home run on the 'run-down execs'. They've been run down with their own amibtion, in the zeal to out-perform the other through sheer tactic, disregard any other talent/person/exec/life form that comes in to contact with them and yet when they order/request/ask for anything at all your job is to respond ASAP. If you don't you're the non-performing, unprofessional, amateur corporate who got it all wrong.
Its the conflict of a mind set. It all starts from the mind after all and ends up confusing your head and your heart.
So for the faintly hearted understand dealing with the empty-corporate suits is not for you. For the challengers (who've lived on challenging status quos) its an unwilling battle of the wills and witts. Where their sense of purpose drives them to help the empty-corporate suit but their mind tells them to beware and stop dead in their tracks because all of it sounds so familiar. It'll ask for help, hold your hand and when the purpose is achieved its likely to break it. The empty-corporate suit has room for no one else except itself.
Delete is not an option. Move ahead without a guilt of not helping is one. The costs are basic, does it even matter? Is this a chance to build up or break away for good? Above everything else, nature has its ways of unfolding people and events. Perhaps this is one such lesson. An empty-corporate suit is not worth it for the long run!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Shout
Shout when in doubt.
What a blunder your life must be
Overlooking all possibilities that could be.
Shout when in doubt.
Fear of the unknown
will only let you down.
Shout when in doubt.
Nothing really lasts forever.
The good or the worst of times.
Shout when in doubt
You can't breeze through the rough rides
with doubt in your heart and mind.
Shout when in doubt
That's what you can do
to live life loud.
What a blunder your life must be
Overlooking all possibilities that could be.
Shout when in doubt.
Fear of the unknown
will only let you down.
Shout when in doubt.
Nothing really lasts forever.
The good or the worst of times.
Shout when in doubt
You can't breeze through the rough rides
with doubt in your heart and mind.
Shout when in doubt
That's what you can do
to live life loud.
Inflation hits a home run
"M, we're more poor than we were a year ago!"
"How so?"
He hands me over the newspaper carrying a headline that says, 'Pakistan hits record high inflation at 17.6 percent'.
"Hmm, we've set a new record R"
"We're more poor despite our increments, M!".
Sad.
I wondered if both of us were sad on the prospect of being poor or the circumstances that were pushing us towards the edge.
BoL:"I told you to convert your savings in to dollars three months ago"
M.: (I dont know where the time went)
BoL: "You're the MBA here" (he smirks)
and its totally justified.
So while we fish for the Financial Advisor (yet another Banker) to be the Mesiah for the traumatic state of economic affairs, people continue to face food/water shortages and brave the price hikes. They eat less, shop lesser and yet save the least.
Oil crises worsens globally, OGRA announces yet another anticipated hike in fuel prices and the Oil transporters threaten to call a strike because they feel they do not benefit from the rising fuel prices.
A middle-class bread winner is expected to maintain his/her fuel tank, bank account, grocerries, all utility bills cleared and yet be deperived of all the facilities he/she direly pays or saves for. Its a lose-lose situation.
What next for the dipping Rupee is anyone's guess.
"How so?"
He hands me over the newspaper carrying a headline that says, 'Pakistan hits record high inflation at 17.6 percent'.
"Hmm, we've set a new record R"
"We're more poor despite our increments, M!".
Sad.
I wondered if both of us were sad on the prospect of being poor or the circumstances that were pushing us towards the edge.
BoL:"I told you to convert your savings in to dollars three months ago"
M.: (I dont know where the time went)
BoL: "You're the MBA here" (he smirks)
and its totally justified.
So while we fish for the Financial Advisor (yet another Banker) to be the Mesiah for the traumatic state of economic affairs, people continue to face food/water shortages and brave the price hikes. They eat less, shop lesser and yet save the least.
Oil crises worsens globally, OGRA announces yet another anticipated hike in fuel prices and the Oil transporters threaten to call a strike because they feel they do not benefit from the rising fuel prices.
A middle-class bread winner is expected to maintain his/her fuel tank, bank account, grocerries, all utility bills cleared and yet be deperived of all the facilities he/she direly pays or saves for. Its a lose-lose situation.
What next for the dipping Rupee is anyone's guess.
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Wonder Years
Hollywood no longer makes stuff about normal people with ordinary lives. Wonder Years remains a cult TV series todate only because it showcased lives of people, anyone can relate too from a 20% to a stunning 100%. Stumbled across a documentary on the movie tonight on TV and realised I could relate to it....only it dawned on me after 15 years or so. Incredible isn't it.
Excerpts from the final season's last episode of The Wonder Years (1988).
"Things never turn out exactly the way you planned. I know they didn't with me. Still, like my father used to say, 'Traffic's traffic, you go where life takes you' and growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next you're gone, but the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a time a place, a particular fourth of July, the things that happened in that decade of war and change. I remember a house like a lot of houses, a yard like a lot of yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. I remember how hard it was growing up among people and places I loved. Most of all, I remember how hard it was to leave. And the thing is, after all these years I still look back in wonder."
"All of our young lives we search for someone to love. Someone that makes us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope. All the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect who might be searching for us."
"I learned that sometimes growing apart means growing together" -
Excerpts from the final season's last episode of The Wonder Years (1988).
"Things never turn out exactly the way you planned. I know they didn't with me. Still, like my father used to say, 'Traffic's traffic, you go where life takes you' and growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next you're gone, but the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a time a place, a particular fourth of July, the things that happened in that decade of war and change. I remember a house like a lot of houses, a yard like a lot of yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. I remember how hard it was growing up among people and places I loved. Most of all, I remember how hard it was to leave. And the thing is, after all these years I still look back in wonder."
Kevin Arnold (The Narrator)
"All of our young lives we search for someone to love. Someone that makes us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope. All the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, there's someone perfect who might be searching for us."
Kevin Arnold (The Narrator)
"I learned that sometimes growing apart means growing together" -
Kevin Arnold (The Narrator)
"When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything; Scientist, Philosopher, Artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time. "
Kevin Arnold (The Narrator)
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
State vs. People
Congratulations, we've chosen a Prime Minister for ourselves. The first democratic Prime Minister in 9 years. A cheerless President swore the new cabinet in, read the deadline of a leading daily newspaper. Surely the President has a few more things to be cheerless about than just a fresh cabinet. A number of cabinet ministers have taken their respective positions for the first time in their political careers.
Inexperienced ministers - can they possible clog the much needed political filtering? Not really. The political turmoils which Pakistan has witnessed since its inception it can withstand inexperienced over the murderers of people's interest.
The formulation and the visible eagerness of political parties to make the coalition work is an encouraging sign. Perhaps the much anticipated light at the end of the tunnel analysts hinted for. At the same time, one cannot help but remember the even the current democrats in power have a 'history' with the misuse of it. From the overseas assets, Swiss Bank accounts, loans worth billions written off and more recently the whitewash of the corruption charges against the so-called 'man-of-the-hour'.
All is not lost. That's something that we knew was coming. But if the office bearers are willing to make a difference, rescue Pakistan out of the economic crisis that it is in, the geographic conflicts that it is submerged in to and stabilise if not grow the economy in 2008, perhaps the people will be willing to get over the grudges.
Too many lives have been lost, too many tires have been burnt, too much destruction has taken place at the cost of pushing the country in scaring foreign investors out of the country. The depleting state of the manufacturing sector is a clear example of where this economy is heading.
New faces, fresh insights and above everything else fair intentions is perhaps the expectation we have from the office bearers. Countdown to 100 days package has already begun. The re-shuffling within the military ranks holding on to the civilian positions was one of the most recent corrective actions taken by the new government. The General must have had to swallow this bitter sweet pill. This leaves us wondering how many bitter sweet pills the General can swallow..till he of course is hit with an overdose.
Perhaps it is likely the thought of an overdose which will make the General re-work his exit strategy. Many critics believe he has none. He is too arrogant and hungry for power to even consider making an exit till he is physically pushed and shoved out of his Presidential suite. I hold a different perspective. And that would perhaps be verified by time itself.
Within the next few weeks, when all the hola around the new government has settled it will be time to evaluate the progress of the state. The people were practically out on the street prior to the election 2008. Slightest error, ignorance, greed on the part of the new regime can have people succumb to violence within minutes. The thought of it only makes us citizens, craving for a peaceful Pakistan, shudder.
The distant truth is that this is the time where the regime must perform. The opportunity has been won by the people for the people. Let not a General or vested interests decide the fate of the country. For once, would the chosen representatives of the People stand up, take responsibility and use the power with sensibility?
Its a refreshing break to see younger PM and a smiling and an eloquent Minister of Information. At the same time, disappointing to see some of the older cronies coming back to the scene to be appointed as "advisers at large" or "ambassadors at large". Could they not be avoided at large given their list of defaults against Pakistan? Perhaps we cannot have the perfect cabinet or the honest politician after all.
The formula for now has to work. Its not about democracy vs. martial law actually. Neither has worked well or done justice to the country. Its state vs. people. Its not about a political system, ideology or which slogan would work. Its about ensuring that we continue to be a free,safe, healthy and happy economy.
Simply put its the State vs. People. The verdict comes after 100 days....
Inexperienced ministers - can they possible clog the much needed political filtering? Not really. The political turmoils which Pakistan has witnessed since its inception it can withstand inexperienced over the murderers of people's interest.
The formulation and the visible eagerness of political parties to make the coalition work is an encouraging sign. Perhaps the much anticipated light at the end of the tunnel analysts hinted for. At the same time, one cannot help but remember the even the current democrats in power have a 'history' with the misuse of it. From the overseas assets, Swiss Bank accounts, loans worth billions written off and more recently the whitewash of the corruption charges against the so-called 'man-of-the-hour'.
All is not lost. That's something that we knew was coming. But if the office bearers are willing to make a difference, rescue Pakistan out of the economic crisis that it is in, the geographic conflicts that it is submerged in to and stabilise if not grow the economy in 2008, perhaps the people will be willing to get over the grudges.
Too many lives have been lost, too many tires have been burnt, too much destruction has taken place at the cost of pushing the country in scaring foreign investors out of the country. The depleting state of the manufacturing sector is a clear example of where this economy is heading.
New faces, fresh insights and above everything else fair intentions is perhaps the expectation we have from the office bearers. Countdown to 100 days package has already begun. The re-shuffling within the military ranks holding on to the civilian positions was one of the most recent corrective actions taken by the new government. The General must have had to swallow this bitter sweet pill. This leaves us wondering how many bitter sweet pills the General can swallow..till he of course is hit with an overdose.
Perhaps it is likely the thought of an overdose which will make the General re-work his exit strategy. Many critics believe he has none. He is too arrogant and hungry for power to even consider making an exit till he is physically pushed and shoved out of his Presidential suite. I hold a different perspective. And that would perhaps be verified by time itself.
Within the next few weeks, when all the hola around the new government has settled it will be time to evaluate the progress of the state. The people were practically out on the street prior to the election 2008. Slightest error, ignorance, greed on the part of the new regime can have people succumb to violence within minutes. The thought of it only makes us citizens, craving for a peaceful Pakistan, shudder.
The distant truth is that this is the time where the regime must perform. The opportunity has been won by the people for the people. Let not a General or vested interests decide the fate of the country. For once, would the chosen representatives of the People stand up, take responsibility and use the power with sensibility?
Its a refreshing break to see younger PM and a smiling and an eloquent Minister of Information. At the same time, disappointing to see some of the older cronies coming back to the scene to be appointed as "advisers at large" or "ambassadors at large". Could they not be avoided at large given their list of defaults against Pakistan? Perhaps we cannot have the perfect cabinet or the honest politician after all.
The formula for now has to work. Its not about democracy vs. martial law actually. Neither has worked well or done justice to the country. Its state vs. people. Its not about a political system, ideology or which slogan would work. Its about ensuring that we continue to be a free,safe, healthy and happy economy.
Simply put its the State vs. People. The verdict comes after 100 days....
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Borderline
You say sit down,
I stand up.
You insist,
I resist.
You watch as I walk in,
I can not cross this line.
Let it be our border line.
The great divide;
My spot, on the other side.
Colder, safer,
Bitter, better.
You say come on in
I fail to give in
You look down when you talk
I cry, "move on".
You drag words
I wish you'd stop.
Interventions, very welcome.
You pause and smile
Still can't meet my eye.
I wonder why?
My chapters were very clear
You tore them out, for sheer fear.
Just so you know
I was not the one who was blind.
I fought the test of time.
You stumbled,
Trapped in your thoughtless lies.
Go ahead, scream denial.
You still fail to meet my eye.
Let's not make this into a trial.
We know its not a crime.
You're free, so am I.
No sooner or no later
You'll see why I tried,
how you failed,
what we made out of our lives.
And you in all your new found Glory,
yes you, with all your Blessed ties,
will not be able to meet my eye.
It'll hound you in the middle of the day
in the smaller things of life.
You will wonder One day
why you could not stare back at the truth, in its eye?
How you should have cried:
"Hang on!"in the roughest tides.
That's OKay,
No sentimental ties.
Being spontaneous with the heart is a folly of the wild.
Have I lost my mind?
I'm standing on the borderline.
Waiting till you see it through my eyes
the story of sentimental ties.
Nevermind for today,
I look up to tomorrow's blue skies.
Not easy surrendering,
But a harbour is found in its own sweet time.
I am giving in to the thought
your failing gaze has narrated a lot.
There will be no meeting of the eyes,
That's OK
Its felt like a life time,
standing on the borderline.
(*) January 17, 2008-10:00pm
I stand up.
You insist,
I resist.
You watch as I walk in,
I can not cross this line.
Let it be our border line.
The great divide;
My spot, on the other side.
Colder, safer,
Bitter, better.
You say come on in
I fail to give in
You look down when you talk
I cry, "move on".
You drag words
I wish you'd stop.
Interventions, very welcome.
You pause and smile
Still can't meet my eye.
I wonder why?
My chapters were very clear
You tore them out, for sheer fear.
Just so you know
I was not the one who was blind.
I fought the test of time.
You stumbled,
Trapped in your thoughtless lies.
Go ahead, scream denial.
You still fail to meet my eye.
Let's not make this into a trial.
We know its not a crime.
You're free, so am I.
No sooner or no later
You'll see why I tried,
how you failed,
what we made out of our lives.
And you in all your new found Glory,
yes you, with all your Blessed ties,
will not be able to meet my eye.
It'll hound you in the middle of the day
in the smaller things of life.
You will wonder One day
why you could not stare back at the truth, in its eye?
How you should have cried:
"Hang on!"in the roughest tides.
That's OKay,
No sentimental ties.
Being spontaneous with the heart is a folly of the wild.
Have I lost my mind?
I'm standing on the borderline.
Waiting till you see it through my eyes
the story of sentimental ties.
Nevermind for today,
I look up to tomorrow's blue skies.
Not easy surrendering,
But a harbour is found in its own sweet time.
I am giving in to the thought
your failing gaze has narrated a lot.
There will be no meeting of the eyes,
That's OK
Its felt like a life time,
standing on the borderline.
(*) January 17, 2008-10:00pm
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The World As I See It
By: Einstein
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me.
The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude...
My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself havebeen the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of thismay well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality...
The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to beabolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me.
The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude...
My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself havebeen the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of thismay well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality...
The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to beabolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)