Category: religion

The Legacy Collective.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Humanity has always had an intriguing relation when it comes to the whole concept of legacy! Legacy means so many different things to so many different people based on who they are and where they are, but one singular aspect of the legacy collective is the fact that, each and every act and thought deployed with the thought of legacy anchored within has always been associated with a fleeting want of immortality! Jon me here as we try to understand, what the legacy collective is all about and why the pursuit of creating a legacy and wanting to uphold one is so fundamental to humanity even in these dynamic times and how our world makes that pursuit so fragile and dynamic! So here we go!

Human kind has always been fascinated with the whole aspect of heroism, heroics and the legacy that have been handed over through the generations! Take a walk down the countryside anywhere around the world, you will be sure to find the local folklore and the intricate details around the legacy developing through all that unfolded there or is unfolding there! The real challenge to understand and define legacy is not in these pockets of humanity where time has stood still or moves slowly but it is the fast paced corridors of the mega cities and nerve centres of the world where people anyways are struggling to get a firm hold around their environments, let alone wanting to create a legacy, but ironically though, the majority of people who always talk about- wanting to create a legacy will always be found around here! Legacy can mean a thousand different things and there can be as many reasons to believe and debate that! So what is that people are normally pursuing and doing- thinking that it’s a legacy that they are creating? Well, not all may be right, but neither all of them are wrong and the real essence of being able to carve out and create a meaningful legacy resides somewhere between the two extremes!

I said this earlier, in one of my articles; In the times we live today, you would be lucky enough even if the third generation in your family fondly remembers you (writing about is a long shot anyways!). Say you are lucky and that happens, then you would really start counting your blessings if the next tow generation after that remember you (for all that you have done that goes on to impact them, influence them or effect them!) and if this realm moves beyond the confines of your family and moves on to your immediate society, your nation or the world that you traverse; it is then that you have a real claim and case for Legacy in the real essence of the word and in context of the influence and impact that “legacies” are meant to have! As long as you know this truth and time your action and work for the sphere where you want to linger along, long after you have kissed the ground, you can have a meaningful case for leaving a legacy! This is the real essence of legacy and all that goes along with it!

The daily casual use of words like “I want to work this way ane create my legacy at workplace” well sorry to disappoint you, but the day you are ejected of the chair that you are in, rest assured the next person stepping in will not only change the colors and the furniture of your beloved office, but also wipe away all that threatens to be your lingering soul- your people and your ways of working included- this is how long and short legacies are really in the corporate world! There is nothing right and wrong about how this happens or why this happens- simply because the whole corporate eco-system is basically a summation of people working and rising to their levels of incompetence!

The first and meaningful way step towards wanting to create a legacy is all about knowing the audience that you want to behold what you leave behind! You see, if you know what is that you want to create and what you want to be done with that bit, once you are no longer there to propagate or further it,that is when you get absolute clarity in what you do and not even while you are still walking around the planet! Often people end up sweating a lot of their lives for no real apparent meaningful reason simply because they align their thoughts around the legacy bit- completely disassociated with what the reality around them is! Result of this? Well, you have many legacies that lie wasted in the unsung graveyards of humanity- where no one really bothers to pay a visit or even when they do stumble upon them, they are merely a passing reference in the vast ocean of history and time! Only if the people knew that they really don’t have real heirs to the legacy they propose to leave behind, they would have either stooped dead in their tracks and charted a different course for their own lives or alternatively they would have aligned their legacy to a new and more fitting audience or a meaningful heir- in -the- waiting! So what’s the plan?

Well, the only and simple meaningful plan is about really starting by understanding whether as an Individual you are equipped to leave a legacy- whatever that may be- doesn’t matter and second important step- knowing if the heirs that you have identified are really bothered about what you want to offload to them and if that’s too much of a bother then trying to align the ones’ who would be keen to take that offload when the time comes and even as you decide to go ahead- you knowing that your legacy is safe and is being left the way you intend to!

There is no rule about leaving a legacy- how much- who can , when and where so on and so forth, but the fact remains, even that tiny speck of Legacy that you are able to leave, when done right can go on to influence the audience you want to for times to come and that is the essence of the art of immortality! The ability to linger on through the thoughts/ ideas for a long time simply because of the vibrancy, potency and the contextual relevance of the idea/thought which seems to be defying the conventional boundaries of time by being in step with the times whenever it is sought for and for the purpose that it is sought for!

I leave you with these thoughts for today, urging you to take that first step this year to carve out and create a legacy that you want to, for the audience that you have in mind- or perhaps let the world know what your journey is all about and allow people aligned to that cause rally around you- that is how you will be able to surge ahead and keep walking on your chosen path, even as you begin to form a formidable legacy of your own- at times known to you and at times being completely oblivious- but as you journey along and make the meaningful connects- sooner or later magic will happen and you will be able to get a sense of how you will be remembered when the final curtain comes down!

The story of your Legacy can be as simple as the smile you put on the face of people around you or could be as complex as leading a nation or being a global business tycoon- whatever that is, as long as you align your action to your definition of legacy with the right audience in mind- you will stay on- for quite some time, long after you are gone!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe, stay wise and yes, take those first steps today to create that enduring magic- what people normally refer to as legacy!

Live your life The Santa Claus way!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

As we approach Christmas, what better then to discuss around what it takes to be a Santa in the real essence of it on the Eve of Christmas! Join me here as we explore the space around this and understand why perhaps living the Santa Claus way is the only way to regain and restore sanity in the crazy world around us!

Santa Claus has captured the imagination of every child around the world like nothing else ever has and perhaps it is the first real unifier moment for kids all over the world irrespective of what their belief systems or ways of faith are! As kids, all of us knew very well the promise that Santa brought along and what every kid was required to do for being able to qualify to receive the gifts from Santa! We begin our journey from this lens and try to make sense of what it is firstly to receive what Santa offers and then we move on to understand what it takes to become a Santa! So here we go!

The promise of Santa, tells us something far deeper and valuable about who we are as humans! Even as kids, we learnt early the values of being able to share and care and no matter what faith your follow or not, these values are perhaps the most fundamental values to each one of us and for kids- the Santa coming to town and pushing the gifts down through the chimneys, as a reward for good behaviour and being who one is meant to be, has been perhaps the most iconic and visible communication pieces that connects with kids the world over! The simple act of being good and kind can be rewarded and that being instilled within young kids is what keeps hope alive for humanity as a whole!

As we grow up, somewhere as we begin to figure out the rational space around Santa and the gifts that Santa provided, we end up not only disregarding Santa, but (unfortunately) even the very essence and the soul of what Santa represents! This is where societal divergence begins and this is why grown ups in offices need a complete leadership training around building empathy- simply because they lost that bit as they lost faith about Santa being real! This goes on to get replicated with many other facets and value systems as well and that is how even as each one of us grow with and through the values enshrined by Santa, sooner or later, they get ripped away one by one slowly but surely!

As we grow up, given the societal contexts that we operate within, we begin to embrace and practice all that takes us away to the diametrical side of what Santa stands for. Sounds too philosophical, well yes, it is and sure enough nothing to blame anyone or suggest what is right or wrong- the simple fact remains that as humanity begins to slip away form the core values of sharing and caring for one other and disregard humanity as one big family, not only do we end up loosing the values that Santa instilled in us, but we also end up the part of Santa that actually resides within each one of us!

It may sound that I am trying to oversimplify the challenges and the problems that we as grown ups face day in and day out, but if you take a pause and listen to your heart and see within you will know instantly that the root for many a problems resides in the very basic and fundamental space of disregarding core values which define what humanity ought to be! Whether it is about the communication break downs among colleagues, friends, families or whether it is the challenge or begin able to collaborate and work together in a work area or within the society- aspects like these and many more simply signify the fact that as we tend to move away from our core values and belief systems and to put it more aptly the wisdom of Santa, we just set up ourselves as failures in the world that we roam around in! So what is that we can do to get Santa back again and guide us along the path ahead?

To get Santa back into our lives, the best and the most simplest approaches would be to get that kid back! Sounds funny, well think about it! Once you get the humility, you had as a kid and the zing of curiosity along, soon enough you will end up surprising yourself on how differently and how refreshingly you are able to see the same problems that dodge you day in and day out and how this shifting mindset – rather holding the mindset of a Santa helps you to sieve through apparent blockages and empowers you to see pathways and solutions where you saw none! No way am I suggesting you to be casual or adopt a hippie like care free approach to life- rather on the contrary it is about approaching life with due respect but empowered by the curiosity and humility that the kid in you can provide you with for it is within this space that you will feel responsible, light and driven at the same time and more importantly be aligned to values and teachings of Santa and this will go on to provide you an opportunity to live your life the Santa way!

Living life, the Santa way, is not only about sharing and spreading the goodness of life and rewarding humanity where it is due, it is also importantly about being forgiving and forgetful of what one must be and how one can be! The Santa way of living is all about seeking and touching empowerment from the pivot of your own soul and harnessing all the goodness that resides within and ensuring your keep enriching it all the way through your journey and share that aspect with people around as you continue your pursuits of life! Sure enough, there will be setbacks there will be problems and there will be days and times when you will have to retreat and takes a few steps back, but what matters is that as long as you build your foundational values on and around the Santa learnings, you will be able to bounce back and surge ahead- how fast you can do that and how often you will be able to do that- is a factor of how well you are able to imbibe the spirit of Santa within you and how well you are able to share and spread the Santa within you, around you!

I leave you with these thoughts, on a Christmas Eve, urging you to connect with Santa, get rewarded for the goodness that you have been able to hold onto and this Christmas, make that effort to be a Santa for someone else ad share what you can and care as you can- this is the only way that you can embrace the Santa way of living and make the world a shade better than what it seems to be!

Ciao for now, Here’s wishing everyone A Merry Christmas! ; And yes, humanity needs Santa and each and every one of us has Santa tucked away within us- Perhaps it’s time that we let the Santa within us, out to make the difference that we aspire for as Individuals and collectively as humanity!

Failing is natural and Success should be too!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Before you want to jump in try to tell me that “I sound like I have lost it”, well do go through my earlier piece which talked about failure by design! In the mad race that we get ourselves into- for all the valid reasons that you and I may have, what we fundamentally tend to forget is how we got to the point where we are and why do we tend to stagnate after sometime at a point we are- whether that’s we here we rise and stay or whether it is a point where we come back to after rising and racing ahead- each of these aspects conveys one singular message- that message is about- failure being natural and success being something that we have to strive for! No one is urging you not to succeed, but the fact remains, unless you don’t fail safely enough and timely enough, you will never be able to gauge and arrive at the point which defines what success is meant for you! So here we go!

The story of human evolution has been a story of many failures and few successes, and for the reason who we are, we are naturally programmed to latch on to what works and do away with what doesn’t- well that is safe and fine until you reach a point of trying to “reinvent the wheel” and this is where problems begin to manifest! Walk into any bookshop or a library that you are allowed to visit, choose any subject area- what do you see, tons and tons of books written about success, how to get there, who got there, how did they get there, when and why- thats is what is – when you go back to history-m even within those books that speak or embrace success- very rarely do they talk in depth on the human aspect of failure that those individuals would have dealt with before touching success- whether they were great scientists,army strategists, innovators, creative souls- whatever they would have been- no where will you ever easily find the fragility of the human side to who they were written and documented in detail especially when it comes to moments of failure and distraught they faced. What this goes to do with our minds- is that we begin to believe on a few “captured” and “observed” instances of these success stories and as we try to extrapolate them to our contextual realities- we start to believe that we will be successful, because they were, altogether forgetting the individuality aspect of the person involved and the realities of their world when they walked the planet!

The observant human mind can get easily tricked, remember your school days when friends said they may get a B for the project work and land up with an A+ and you are left wondering what you failed to read! Well this is what keeps playing out through and around your life- whether it is your high school, college, work place, business, service unto society or just being plain yourself- the human mind simply cannot always capture what it observes holistically and is default to reinforce pleasure and delete pain (as long as it is not a threat to existence) and this is from where divergence begins and failure begins to become “the bad thing” and success anyhow begins to become “the only thing”!

As time has flown through civilizations, the reason why success has been given the crown and failure a back seat could have different reasons! These could be as simple- people around would not have been keen to know about the failing part, it would not have got recorded the way it should have been or simply for the fact (which is evident even today) that what ever mattered was “getting things done” whoever they came by! Sure enough, humanity has made great strides, but what this has led to is having the burden to lead and create pathways for human kinds progress on the shoulders of a few to dictate the lives of the many! Look around you, chances are that the society you live in is a chronicle of a few who have written the fate of the many within it and this is exactly what happens when people don’t give the time they should to learn from failures well enough by knowing the human story within!

Needless to say, we all are witness to the maxim, “Reaching the top, is easy, being there is the real essence of success”; what does this tell you, well, the plain truth that if success that isn’t as natural as what failure is, it always will be a struggle to hold onto it and a lot energy will simply get sapped up for being there! Let me explain, we have villages after villages at the foot hills of the Himalayas, having the formidable Sherpas living there- that is natural- they are acclimatized through the centuries to live and exits at altitude above 18,000 feet, but when they go climbing the great Himalayan peaks, which are basically a definition of “success” for the mountaineers, but for them are nothing else but a walk in their back yard- albeit a harsh one! So you see what is a great achievement- read as “success” for the mountaineer is a routine walk in the park for the Sherpa- that is what happens when success is not natural and this is why it becomes so difficult to retain it, even if you achieve it- simply because it isn’t natural!

Now, if you were to see the other stories of success, like the great works of art, creative expression through writing, building and innovating- these are the examples which are the real essence of success- but if you were to measure these by the myopic yardsticks that govern our lives today, all of these would seem to be nothing! Unless success too is natural and blends into who you are, you will always have to witness a never ending struggle to retain and manage it- whether it is the position you have at your workplace, whether it is getting your targets, whether it is completing a set of paintings- unless what you choose to do is not naturally aligned to who you are, you will always end up being limited as far as who you could have been and who eventually end up becoming! So is there something called natural success? A state of being successful sans being stressful or insecure of loosing it! Well read on!

Natural success, like failure, is silent, potent and lingers on- whether it is recognised or not and the individual who lives it- knows that well enough- irrespective of what others perceive about it! Have you ever heard about a surgeon who threw party after every successful surgeon? Have you ever heard about a Teacher- who got depressed when few students didn’t achieve the grades- well probable not! The reason for this is that both the surgeon and teacher know very well that essence of natural and real success resides in the simple space of doing what is being undertaken to the best of ones’ ability and knowing that people will continue to perceive to the best of their abilities to perceive and nothing clouds reality like perceptions do! The surgeon or the teacher doesn’t have to take an effort to save every life or send every kid to The White House (all though they may like it that way!); all that they need to stay glued upon is the fact that, they are deploying their skill to the best of what they can and hence they remain unflustered, calm and composed not being insecure or worried about their “success”quotient”!

The modern day narrative and definition has taken the whole essence of success and everything that goes along with it to a very limited and time sensitive space- the yardsticks, metrics to measure also go on to ensure that there is always a hunger for more and more with no real meaningful end in sight and this makes even what has been achieved meaningless in the future! The only people who are immune and are able to stay safe from this maddening and unwise spatial orientation are those who are able to define and calibrate their stories of success and failures built on the bedrock of their own intrinsic attributes and on the individuality that they bring along!

It is these rare eclectic species of humans in the nooks and corners of the society who go on to define the essence and meaningfulness of real success- the natural way and this is why when you visit that art gallery, that fine-dine heaven or read through those well written stories- you feel elevated- because each of those creative expressions arise from the inner solitudes of who these people are and with every story they weave, they are able to shed a bit of themselves into every bit of what it is! If you thought this is limited only to creative people-well humans are creative in what they choose to do, scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, writers, you think of it and each one of them is- the only catch being each one of them can deploy or will deploy their individuality and intrinsic essence to a limited extent for different reasons and this what goes on to differentiate the ordinary form the extra-ordinary and some stories fade away in months and few linger on for centuries as personification of success- the natural way!

I leave you here with thoughts, urging you to connect with your essence of meaningful success which is measured not on the yardsticks given around to you, but rather on the yardsticks that you think they ought to be measured upon- only when you do that- you will be comfortable being successful and will you be able to enjoy the success the way you are meant to!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece soon! Until then stay wise and stay successful!

Stand Singularly, Fall Collectively!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Well, if you are surprised by the title, so am I! Unlike the age old adage of Together we are stronger and by ourselves we are a lot weaker, this is not to contradict that bit by any way! Sure enough, strong societies and nations are always and will always be built on the concept of a unifying cohesion within the elements of the society, but if you are not into public service or politics and if you are one of those who have landed on the planet just to make enough sense of where you are and where you are heading to and where you actually head to, this piece is for you! Join me here as we try to understand, what makes a diametrically opposite idea work for us as Individuals and is this why our societies are almost always a conflicting picture of who we Individually are? So here we go!

Since times of folklore and ever since books have got written, humanity everywhere around the world has been directed into thinking around value of “Together is Better”, “All is Stronger than U and ME” so on and so forth! Well there is nothing right and wrong around it, for the simple reason that these statements and narratives are more contextual, take them out of context and quote them for something else, they loose their potency completely and instantly becoming meaningless all the way! Let me explain, say if you had a million dollars of amassed wealth and simply because “Together is Stronger”, will you be glad to just share that wealth and distribute simply because everyone should have access and there must be a socialist approach to share all the riches and all the problems equally? I am sure you will not ever want that to happen, not because you are a miser or you have some kind of insensitivity, simply because you would want to extend charity as ling as it remains so- you see, charity gone overboard increases dependency and instead of people looking at it as a gift, people begin to look at it as some kind of a right- wherein others slog day in and day out to earn and make some money only to give away- for ensuring they seem human enough within the social lens!

Now if you consider that a society is going to be hit by a natural incident or is threatened by an act of war- what do you think will happen- well, as expected every member will race ahead to help one another simply because they know unless that is done- their future- the short term and long term both are gone and they are heading to a existential crisis- because in times like these- the money of the rich is as equally useless as the poverty of the poor- it is only when elements of the society come ahead and offer what they can- whether that be excess wealth or offer of in-person service all of that eventually tides the situation and ensures that when the challenge is done and dusted the society has something to go back to commence re-building! This is where “Together” wins over “Being alone”, This is the space of existential challenges and inflection points in a society which ask the question, “You may have what you have- is it worth it- given the society that you are in- should “a” or “b” incident happen!”

This is what this piece is all about, given the times that we are in, what matters is the ability to realize and realize well enough that individuality matters over collective group think! Sure enough, you may not be successful all the time, but as long as you are aware about this simple fact, you will be just as fine! You may want to yet argue, but how can this be, when a group signifies strength, sure it does but only as long as the “purpose” of the group and the “objective” that it seeks is clear and etched for the members of the group to know and follow! When you observe your engagements around the social arena that you float around, what do you see? What is that you witness?

Possibly you work in a place where you aren’t even sure how the rewards work and you always hope and pray you get those 10 $ more than your peers for the same work, or perhaps if you are trying to sell your services or products in the market place, you will leave no stone unturned to get that big order, come what may- simply because your business is what make you who you are and these are the fundamental aspects that define your existence or end up throwing you into an existential crisis, should you not be careful enough and think about sharing your riches with everyone around for no real and meaningful reason- these riches could be wealth or the potency of your mind! How many times have you felt let down when your idea or thought was improvised and someone else got the credit, how did you feel when you got few dollars less despite and inspite of having recorded the very best of what you could have done- simply because the other person was “someone to someone”! Well it is precisely in scenarios like these which manifest so rapidly around us in todays’ world that standing up for who you are and what you believe in” becomes so compelling and that will help you, as long as you don’t end up wanting everyone else around you become like you!

This is not about taking a moral high ground and calling anyone to be self-serving or selfish, it is rather about realizing that you alone are responsible for what you achieve- whether that’s a million dollars or a hundred millions dollars, all of that will pivot only and only around your individualistic and original approach and as long as you believe and continue to tread that path, you will do just fine as long as the idea is sane enough; the moment you involve others- who have no potential to think- as you do- or comprehend – as you can (simply because the idea and the thought is yours’), you will actually end up complicating things for yourself as you begin to get weird inputs that really make no sense but you then end up into an obligation to listen to others, simply because you have invited them to the party- not defining well enough, what is and how much is their role there! So, what’s the plan?

Plain and simple, know very well what are the things where you want to be and require to be all by yourself- because not that your are selfish, self-serving or unkind or inhuman, but because others will simply not be able to embrace what you think and feel to the last details as you do and that will go on to ruin all that you would have planned as soon as you begin to pay heed to inputs from people who don’t know what you are aiming for to begin with! You see, you never learnt to swim from a coach who never was a swimmer! More importantly, as you walk through the path of your life, there will be moments when you will require to be a part of a larger group simply to propagate what you are and what you offer, or to amplify what has been achieved or just to be sure that in times of great crisis your existential crisis are managed and that you live the day to be sure that you will emerge on the other side of a storm, perhaps a little bruised, but you will be alive and that’s what is more important when times become what they do and will from time to time!

I leave you with these thoughts here, for you to reflect and think around what were the times of your life when you hit the targets being by yourself, how you ended up complicating when you got others’ around into that and what were those times when being with the larger group saved you enough to live and fight for another day, another dream!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece, until then stay wise and stay safe- by yourself and in the group that you choose!

Why perceptions win over truth.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

The human mind is only as potent as you want it to be, decide to turn it off and like a obedient appliance, it will shut down! Join me here for this weekend article on deciphering why perceptions almost always have a strangle hold over reality- read truth- truths about us, about the people, the society, the universe around us! So here we go!

To begin with, one must understand the challenges of dealing with truth, one part of that is, truth is always contextual and the second part is that truth is always difficult. I am not going to write in further depth and give a class on the “philosophy of truth” but in simple layman’s terms, as I have always been saying, “Each person’s truth is true”. Chaos and ambiguity commences when the others around either refuse to see the truth alongside of the context of the person who owns it or they observe the part which suits them and race ahead to draw inferences around that small limited understand- mis-understanding! Perceptions on the other hand are fun to engage with, like some stimulating, hallucinatory medicine, they engage and play with the human mind to create imagery, narratives and motives (for subsequent disastrous actions). If you are wondering why it is easy to shake hands with perceptions- well it taxes the brain much much less and as I have been saying- the human brain only cares if you are going to be dead- all that does not kill you is fine for your brain and that is the truth about the human mind!

The fact remains though that truth is easy to engage with and deal with only and only if people are able to do so holistically while connecting with the beholder of the truth and the contexts around it in the same moment of time! This is what judiciary is all about! Analyzing and observing comprehensive contexts of facts and data that arrive in front of them- read -evidence. This is what takes time and even at a people to people level engagement- whether they are members of your family, friends, co-workers, the feared politicians, bureaucrats,who ever you can think about- each one of them can be engaged with and dealt with only when you begin to invest enough time and mind to understand the origins of the truth that they hold on to- and as you begin to do that- you will be surprised to know that many of the truth’s that people hang on dearly to are more often than not – reinforced powerful narratives based on perceptions constructed over time- days, weeks, months, years and in case of political arenas and running or ruining of nations and societies- these are developed and curated over generations and through decades!

The eternal battle between “truth” and “perceptions” (often held on to as the truth) has been another hallmark of human societies- only societies and nations that have been able to successfully and selectively engage with few truths and many perceptions have made progress! Societies which have over-indulged into wanting to decipher the “absolute truth” have always suffered on an ongoing basis, simply because the only real absolute truth in the world is “death”! Everything else around is contextual and set to a specific audience and social scenario! But why this whole obsession around with “truth” and what allows perception to emerge and race ahead!

Well, what I think would have been the case is that as human societies began to evolve, there would have been a need to share innovation and knowledge and hence the compelling need to be “truthful” because anything short would almost always mean someone not making it back from the wild! You see back then if you were a soldier on guard or a hunter in the woods or a farmer in the fields, the only way to improve your skills and competence would be “wise words” from the “masters” who are the modern day equivalent of quality research journals- albeit which stand the scrutiny of being peer reviewed. Hence this is one of the many other genesis of applying the “Gold standard” to the virtue of beholding “truth” – to share it for the greater good! But as times and centuries changed, over simplification of truth started to back fire- and societies soon began to have a cohort of people who were second to none and from there emerges the birth of the war of narratives and development of perception- to tell the world why “A’s truth (which may again be a perception) is better than B’s). To this day, if you carefully observe the world is stuck with this same crap! Whether it’s your relatives, friends, offices, societies, governments, groups, whatever you choose to observe- you will find that people are more often than not dealing with the long overgrown shadows of perception rather than dealing with what the truth really is and this mindless, endless loop goes on to consume the human mind which after a point simple maxes out and basically is telling you, “whatever, you deal with this shit, I am fine as long as you don’t get killed”! Importantly our modern societies have ended up incentivising the pursuit of perceptions over truths and that has further helped perceptions race ahead of the truth!

You see, truth is plain vanilla- it is almost always a binary- either something is or isn’t , there is nothing more to add to create drama and intensity- you see like you believe in God or you don’t, you don’t sometimes believe in God based on your convenience! So your truth is that you are either a believer or an atheist and that’s about it- but this becomes boring- so how do I make this exciting and more entertaining- well I say you are too simple to be true, your are too uncomplicated to be real, I say, your approach to your faith is cause driven and with these small sparks of ignition, when I begin to create and weave stories the real essence of who you are gets left far behind and what the building narrative begins to do is, it very much starts to portray your perception from the eyes of the people who essentially want you to be known “as what and how they perceive or rather want you to be perceived as” What makes this so potent- well, it is effortless as easy as that meaningless gossip and as easy as intentionally throwing a few odd pebbles to create the ripples and let the “perception aggregators” do the rest! If you wondered why politicians give a damn to the media, well this is the reason- for they know a tad too well how to deal with perceptions and under the belt blows when their contextual truths (if they have any) are served on a platter as perceptions for the masses ort lap it up! So what’s the way ahead? Can and do societies win the war of perceptions and allow truth to have it’s place?

The answer is YES and a NO; Yes societies can change the narrative but for that it calls for a much orchestrated effort which is directly in proportion to the ability of the collective minds to be able to discern and see “what is” and “what is being told it is”! For this to happen you need social frame work which incentives people who are able to present the “what is” narratives and allow people to make up their own views and inferences- simply because each one sees “what is” from the context of “who they are and where they stand ” in the social scheme of things, needless to say also what we need to factor in the ability of their minds to deal with the whole space of the taxing discerning exercise which is o vital to sieve away “the what is” from “what it is said to be”.

The NO emerges from the very YES of this space! Simply because bulk of human kind is so caught up with the effort to simply survive is that, they hardly ever are in the time and space which allows them to be so methodical and clinical to understand and decipher between the real and the apparent and for the few from the society who have that option more often than not it is the case of “who will throw stones at other glass castles, when have their own”! This is why functional societies tend to lap up perceptions more readily than realities as they serve as a pivot to get even. This is the reason why societies stay replete with struggle and strife for one or the other reason around the world, all the time, because that’s what keeps the perceptions ticking and as long as they keep floating, the truth is boxed-in, in a tight corner unable to come ahead, unless and until there is some large scale systemic dysfunction which collapses the society and a new order begins to emerge. If the new order banks on the selective elements of truth, there is much respite, change and stability, however if the new order too begins to go the old ways, it’s just a matter of time before societies end into the dysfunctional stage one more time and this cycle goes one with truth remaining pushed in a corner with no one wanting to care about it! So what’s the meaningful way ahead?

Functional and operational societies tread a balanced path between truth and perceptions and you can apply this thought to individuals as well! As long as there is a fine balance between devoting the just time and space to appreciate the contextual truths on things that matter and soaking in perceptions (to know the truth- not the served perception), things will be just fine and you can very well mark yourself and your society as “safe”. The moment this changes, for whatever reason it may be- things will begin to change (good or bad) depends on who you get caught up as in that space! Depending on which side the leaning is more- either you will end up with people and societies which are vanilla, plain, with “people for rules” kind of environment (when you choose more of truth) or you end up in a fast paced, narrative driven and loud society (when you give in to perceptions far more than the reality) and you often find that here you have “rules for people”. There is nothing right and wrong between what societies or individuals choose to be- whatever the choice may be- the movement of the society or the individual will always be striving for hat lost balance and as the effort inches towards that balance progress is achieved and as it moves away you witness regression- societal and individual!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, allowing you to pursue your sense of balance, because what your contextual truth is, is yours’ and there is noting that changes that- not even powerful narratives emerging from driven perceptions! Be comfortable in your truth, for that alone will allow you to counter the narratives of perceptions that come at you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece, until than stay safe, stay wise and observe “what is” not “what seems to be”!

Why wise people make dumb choices.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Whether it is about the individual decision that you took pertaining to some space of your life or whether it is the collective decision of an “empowered” group at work or in the society to vote for that project or that politician- each of these decisions sooner or later come under intense scrutiny and often leave us wondering “why the hell did that even happen!” “What the f**k was anyone thinking”! Life is replete with instances like these and many more, but before you rush to think that this is about bad choices or bad decision making- well the whole focus is not on what choice was exercised but on the vital component, “the people” who manifested the choices the way they choose actions to help that happen! Join me here as we take a quick look to understand what really unfolds in this space and why wise people end up making screwed up choices either for themselves or for everyone around! So here we go!

The real problem with our new age is that the line between “being wise” and “seeming to be wise” is blurred and still worse is intertwined! You see, for some reason, we believe in belief’s which are absolutely stupid to begin with and it is belief’s like these which contribute to creating chaos around the real wise and the apparent wise! Given the paucity of time that each of us have at hand and the flood of distractions and inherent lack of focus (don’t forget we are humans, not a jaguar or a puma to excel at focus) often end up up compelling people to click that button or say that “YES” or “NO” without applying any methodical thought or rationalized thinking! The result, well yes, actions and decisions which are then either corrected, repealed or altered in the times ahead at a huge cost of wasted human hours, lives and needless to say money! Sounds familiar? Well, yes this is how governments work- they work on what I call as “Allowable risk of dumbness over inaction” . In this space, when enough information is not available or is available and tends to be beyond comprehension of the holder of that data- the simple choice often made by people on the chair is- what is the loss for doing nothing and what is the loss for doing something with what I know- based on which option is more favorable the button is pushed through and this is why much of humanity and societies around the world end up seeing the same road being dug up a thousand time and redone that many time, all the while solving nothing!

If you thought, that this was limited to only the world of governments, well think again! The hyped world of corporate czars is no different! Gone are the days when leaders within the corporate corridors had time, wisdom and the ability to exercise a choice when it came to take action on a decision made- stakes for failure were high then and rewards for success too were great. What we witness now is, the same hurry to send that mail, say “YES” to a client and then struggle all through to provide what as agreed to! Whether it is the struggle of getting the right people to work (because even gate-keepers begin to make choices based on what the budget is, rather what is required) or getting the right product or service launched, or the right market understood well, choose any facet of the corporate world, here too you will witness a situation where day in and day out leaders in a hurry are more and more choosing between what is on the table and choosing in the now- never realizing how that will dent their tomorrow- for they know very well, tomorrow they are not here to sort out that mess! So now the million dollar question, why do we do this to begin with and what is that we can do and not to manage this?

One unmistakable cause that leads to this inducement of dumbness is the “Rush” factor, wanting to complete and do everything with an intent to “finish it off”, “off my table” rather than wanting to complete it in the essence of “it has been done the right way” or “it has been done to the best of my ability in the context it was presented”! Alongside this we have a world replete with examples where incompetence has been a measure to calibrate or trim leadership and as this happens, needles to say there is considerable chaos and ambiguity in proportion to the acquired level of incompetence. So, when you see wise people end up doing dumb things, it is almost always a factor of either of these two factors or a combination of them.

When it comes to managing, if not being able to completely avoid this issue, one approach that always works is to have checks and balances and ensure that there are always more than one entity to take a major call! Sure enough, this sets up the space whether it be political or corporate for the fallacy of groupthink, but if we end up having “groupthink” going wrong, then you can be pretty sure that the matter really is deep rooted and emerges from the society itself! In those scenarios then, corrective measures are more about community re-wiring and re-building. Group Think and Collective Decision making is perhaps the only way to stall the “rush” and “do away with” approach than over taxed, dis-engaged people may often deploy either owing to compulsions either personal or systemic! You may want to argue, that always group think is not possible, whatever would happen to individual genius and so on and so forth, well the answer to that resides in the question itself, genius never take the “rush” or “do away with” approach to begin with and secondly as far as secrecy parameters of business related collective decision making are concerned, these can be smartly managed by timing and sharing elements of content on a need-to-know basis, which can be then analyzed holistically to arrive are a more well-informed decision- which rides on a foundation of inputs form a group- which the group may or may not be aware of!

So, in a way when wise people do end up doing dumb things/decisions it’s almost always a story of the compelling contexts around them and when those get amplified by their intrinsic dispositions that alteration goes on to create more skewed approaches/attitudes that limit the application of “ability to rationalize and think” resulting in poor or ill-informed decisions which in one or the other way come back to bite!

The human mind is very potent at determining patterns of action/ inaction and those instances of half-thinking which do not get one killed and assimilate them as allowable patterns of thinking, which further goes on to compound problems! This is why many a times, when you find people doing dumb things, you will almost always find them soaked into it and enjoying it like nothing else!

I leave your with these for now, urging you to reflect on the time when you unwittingly contributed to or became a part of this un-serving space of dumb decision making and what did you do to emerge out- for that is your master-key to steer clear from any such future episodes and always remember , great things take time and group think when done right can help more than the harm it can cause when implemented with flaws!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay wise and stay safe!

The Fluid mindset.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Beyond the realms of technical definitions of human behaviour, attributes and attitudes there resides a fundamental space and how this space is nourished goes a long way to determine how individuals are able to manifest what they desire and stamp that unique authority of who they are by what they choose to do! Join me here as we unravel what the fluid mindset is all about and how being fluid is not about being disoriented or lacking focus, but rather having the potent ability to prevail over multiple aspects and situations through shifting laser sharp focus! So here we go!

The human mind is a genius by itself, even without considering whether you want to put it to use or not! With an innate ability to learn and improvise, there is nothing out there in nature which comes anywhere closer to what it can manifest! Yet, it is this very mind which also is responsible for the untold misery that humanity has faced from time to time as civilizations have risen and fallen. So what makes the human mind so potent, whether it works for us or against us? It is the singular aspect of the ability of the human mind of being fluid which alone makes it what it is- a formidable ally or a die hard enemy based on how you want to use it or mess it up!

The fluidity of the human mind or rather the ability and the extent to which it can stay fluid has always defined the great achievements and the hardships that humanity has ever gone through! Fluidity of the human mind or the”Fluid Mindset” is not about having superlative intelligence or being wise than the other person- sure that helps, but it is more to do with the way the brain is harnessed to deliver and manifest what the aspirations of an individual are! So what is a “Fluid Mindset”? What are the indicators of having one or missing one? Well read on!

The human mind has this innate, natural ability to flex and stretch- whether it be something new to learn or a new problem that needs to solved or whether it is about making something that is routine interesting- the brain (if you allow it to do so!) has the ability to spring up surprises and provide options when everything else seems closed and locked away! This becomes possible only and only when the mind is allowed to wander and experiment and importantly fail and record those failures. Failures and hard knocks are the only incentives that a fluid mind ever demands, simply because these are what go on to make the mind more fragile, spontaneous and alert on an ongoing basis and the ability of the mind to discern between competing priorities becomes sharper then ever before!

If the mind is allowed to deal with uncertainties and new world;y engagements, it simply thrives on these opportunities and sharpens its ability to evaluate and create value as required for the individual to begin with and then for the others around! Let me explain! I hope you are one of those who like that ice cream or that piece of chocolate- well what do you do when you get an access to the favorite one and have a bunch of new friends around you? Well, mostly you will end up suggesting, offering, selling or singing about why you like that ice-cream or that chocolate so much! Why does this happen, even when possibly no one has asked you to do what you do- in terms of promoting that ice-cream or chocolate that you are so excited about! Well, your fluid mind just has gone overboard to share the goodness of what you experience with the people who are around you- because your mind thinks they are worth of experiencing that moment- just like you are! Likewise when you are with someone (whom you don’t technically hate, but not like either) the very same mind will keep that excitement mellowed down and play a flat card- indicating to the others around you that “well whatever” is the state of your mind! When actually you are relishing on the feast that you have hit upon all for yourself!

The essence of fluid mindset is all about allowing your mind to mind it’s business of what it is good at- dreaming and imagining! History and our modern lives too are a testimony to the fact that, all that we are touched by or we end up getting touched with, has at some or the other time being a story of human dreams or imagination! Those dreams and that ability to imagine have been held and envisioned by individuals who were able to embrace and sustain that vital, yet subtle fluid mindset! It is not about having a wandering aimless mind, it is rather about empowering that wandering mind to build meaning out of what it sees – whether that seeking is intentional or accidental! Great manifestations of human intellect have only become ever possible because of this ability of the mind to keep moving, stay seeking and decipher all that comes its way so that it formulates and creates sense around all that it senses and empowers its ability to be potent at discerning all the time!

The fluid mindset has the power to liberate and bind at the same time! Liberate from the templated and structured thinking patters and ability to bind to vague, uncertain, untested and new ways of thinking and expressing oneself! It is when these new pathways are walked upon that magic gets created and we see them manifest in the usual ways of creative or innovative breakthroughs all around us!

The sliver of difference between a fluid mindset and meaningless hallucination resides within the content and the contextual space around what is been dealt with! When there is a problem in this seemingly small attribute great imbalances are created and often you find people end up pursuing all through their live some utopian idea or a thought with nothing ever manifesting to see the light of the day! Human failure is all about the inability of the human mind to build over the fluid mindset which is so intrinsic within each one of us- make it too thin and wide- you are aimlessly wandering without any meaningful beacons to guide you either from within or externally, make it too narrow and deep- you are likely to get stuck with a structured mindset of conforming into the ever present traps of conformation biased based thinking and hence no matter how great your potential you end up trimming your levels much below then what you can actually achieve! It’s like flying an airplane well lower then its trim altitude- result-burns more fuel and needless to say that flight always encounters more turbulence at that lower altitude as you keep dealing with one weather front after the other all through the flight!

Humanity- most of it is actually an entrapment of fixed- structured thinking patterns and why this happens? Well, given the pace of our lives that we have given unto ourselves and the kind of routine patterns that we chose to adhere to- either by choice or by compulsion, we are really left with very limited choices and a mind that is anything but fluid! This is sure enough part required but the problem begins as this “part required” tends to occupy a major part of our lives and our thinking patters! Unless an effort is made to break away and strike a balance between structured thinking and the fluid approach, life almost always end up being more average then what it can be simply because the magic of the fluid element is lost under the burden of structured thinking!

The potency and efficacy of fluid thinking doesn’t imply that we need to do away with the structured and fixed thinking patterns, not a bit since those patterns are required for the routine decisions and way of life, fluid mindset is all about being able to create and weave magic through the ordinary times by unleashing an extraordinary approach and way to a situation or a challenge and thereby being able to manifest something that is unique and unlike anything before- some call this as creative expression, while some terms this as innovation and for the plain speak this is what refer to as individuality or being unique by virtue of being able to express the wholesomeness of who you are!

Fluid mindset has the power to create magic and help individuals reach their zenith of expressions whether creative or not, that depends on what is being held within and what manifests subsequently, but this is the very essence of the whole approach to beholding a fluid mindset- that of allowing your mind to flex, stretch, dream and imagine so that you are able to get that one fleeting moment which creates lasting value for yourself and others even as you go about your life through the routine patterns of work and play using your regular structured way of thinking!

I leave your here with these thoughts, urging you to take that vital pause and decipher for yourself that right balance between having fluid moments and structured moments so that you lead and live an empowered life that you always so much have cherished and aspired for!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then, allow your mind to flex and stretch and bask in the moments empowered by your fluid thinking!

The fallacy of festive celebrations!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

If you ever wondered why you wait for the whole year for that one big festival ( whatever that you want to choose and define as one for your sake!) and then ended up being more miserable towards the end of it, well this quick piece is just for you, to help you know why after the highs get higher, the lows are simply unfathomable! So join me here as we unravel this space of humanity and try to know why and when do celebrations fail and what is that we can do about that bit, if we want them to linger on as something to look forward to in the real essence of it!

Humanity is perhaps the only other thing alongside wine that tends to get exciting with time! to know the fallacy of festivals, we need to take a step back, in fact, quite a few steps to try un and understand how the whole concept of festivals perhaps evolved- no I am not an anthropologist, just plain uncomplicated stuff based on common sense and science and sure enough you can read about this in more details by going through the favorite books of your choice of human geographers or anthropologists- whatever comes easy to you!

So the story starts right at the very beginning, when humans were able to form the very first types of ordered societies – the very first time! to monitor and create order within those- coupled with the existing and evolving belief systems/ values (which were developed over time), the dawn of festivals was ushered in! Back then festivals were more of a method to mind societies so that the element of cohesiveness and divergence was visible and was always within the allowable limits as set by those who ruled those societies! One way of doing that effectively was to align these festivals to the broader belief systems/ value systems and make them as a bench mark for social conformation! So typically, if you were part of society that broadly believes in the belief or faith type”A” then alongside with the duties and responsibilities of following that faith/belief the rewards would be these much sought after festivities which would further more work to reinforce the ongoing prevailing value/ belief systems (as they have been rewarded with the festive spirit!) All is well until this point as societies are still fragmented not much inter connected among each other and there is a more or less a steady space as far as the mix of the value systems/ faith/ belief followership within the social frames that exist. This ensures that festivities are held orderly with a purpose with an intent and with a solemn reaffirmation of realignment to the broader cause of the established belief/ value system of the said society!

Now if you were to move ahead in time, say the more evolved societies the age of the Kingdoms around the world, what you witness is a racemic mix of belief systems and value definitions leading to multiple approaches to festivities, the definition of the whole concept of a festival and this is the time in history where festivities begin to compete among each other as a mark of opulence and progress by one set of value/ belief system over the other in a given social construct! This is that point of inflection where, societies which failed to manage and keep these competing ideologies and their assertion through festivals in balance that problems have begun and festivities rapidly began to drift away from the ancient path of being aligned to the puritan belief system/ value system to something altogether new- the embracing of the narrative of the rulers/ governing establishments on how and what the festival must be and when and how it is defined as successful, a grand one so on and so forth! This is how festivals and the celebrations around them stepped into the modern age- already skewed away from what they really stood for to begin with!

Irrespective where you live and what you believe or not, if you take that fabled pause and ask yourself how much of value addition have the festive celebrations done to your own personal life through the years of your life- chances are that you would have too felt the diminishing value of their impact, sense and sensibility like the diminishing value of money! This is nothing to suggest that the value of the festivals or their celebration would have diminished with time, but rather the method, the way and the impact of the conduct has certainly undergone a sea change which has furthermore added to skew festivities and their associated celebrations more further away from even the fundamental belief systems/ values to which they would have been rooted! It’s a classic case of enjoying a party not knowing for what it is and by whom it is! This singular aspect then further easily destroys the remaining core of the celebration and then what we are eventually left with are shadows which are larger than what the festival would have earlier been and more irrelevant then ever! How does this all pay out and manifest? Well read on!

Choose a value systems/ belief system/ faith whatever you may want to refer it as , and seek one festival associated to that system and check for yourself how the values of that festival have eroded with time! You will be surprised when you take a pause to reflect to see that how even you have ended up unwittingly contributed if not accelerated to making those celebrations more and more irrelevant each time that you celebrated more and more! No, the problem is not the celebration of the festival, it is the problem with the changing narrative and the method that has been implemented to define celebration which has created more problems then anything else!

I have intentionally not mentioned any names for the faith systems or the value systems, simply because that sets in prejudice and then one things will lead to another and the whole essence of the subject will go astray! You see, there was never, nor is neither will ever be a problem with the celebration of festivals aligned to belief systems/value systems that’s fine, the challenge starts as the way and method of these celebrations begins to slip away with each passing year and more importantly at times takes or manifests exactly the opposite forms of what the original intent would have been! The result? More and more shopping competitions around every festival, more and more of “display”, “senseless consumerism” and “needless unwanted one upmanship in one way or the other” the result, more fractured societies and and more confused individuals, who know they are celebrating, they know what but sadly none one ever knows what is the right way and what is that should be celebrated!

This is why the moment the “New year” is ushered in come January 2nd and it is aback to to the same old grind of whatever you have grinding upon or been ground into! The moment that instance, the moment those high days of the festivities are over, there is this bounce back to the routine norms of sharing “displayed celebration” over social media handles (which has now assumed sort of compulsive obsessive disorder space now!), those senseless bithcihng around with friends (well that’s a whole new definition now a days!) and family and that non-stop gauging and comparisons of opulence and gaps in the furniture which just go on and on until the next big festival hits home, calling for another celebration and this mad circus goes on with no end and no real rhyme or purpose! All simply because, the original ethos and the connect around them have been forgotten and lost, some intentionally, some accidentally and overall this leads to depleting value and belief systems and that downwards spiral leads one thing to another which eventually leads to societies- where some or the other segment is always celebrating something or the other- whether that makes sense or not! You think you know some society like this? Well! Stay Blessed! and Stay Safe then! So what’s that we can do?

Simple, get back to the basics! That’s the only way to salvage any remaining sanity that a society can possibly do, especially when it comes to aligning festival celebrations to what they ought to be- celebrate a festival- a path way of thought, ideology, belief, value system and you know what the best part is, all of that can be done without needing to have a shopping festival , a discount sale, a selfie contest, posting on social media, none of that is anytime needed and that is perhaps the only way to take your time away from these non productive and senseless pursuits and align your self to the more pressing and more real matters pertaining to the festival and the values/ beliefs that it brings forth and do what you can, to spread the warmth through those timeless values and that, if you ask me is the real essence of the festive spirit and anything and everything to do with celebrating festivals!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you to connect with your value systems/ beliefs in a more authentic way so that once you are plugged in right, you can reflect all that matters right and importantly in the way it is meant to be! Festivals and celebrations are no doubt the hallmark of humanity in terms of the civilizational and societal progress, but all that only makes sense only and only when there is meaning to those celebrations and there is a definite method to the madness! Life by itself is no less then a celebration! Celebration of moments form one unto the next and the only meaningful way to celebrate is to utilize the fleeting golden moments as wisely as one can and create values around which outlast the time in which they were created! Think again the next time you head on to celebrate something, take that pause and see if you are living the ethos of that festival by the way you choose to celebrate it!

Ciao for now, Will be back soon with another one, until then keep the festivities on and if nothing else practise the art and science of celebrating life for what it is and what it can be!

Racing ahead to nowhere!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

The biggest irony of humanity is perhaps that even as we all know- very well- that we all have a limited timeline within which to get done what we desire to, we tend to keep wastefully engaging ourselves in activities and pursuits which eventually mean very little or nothing at all! Join me here as we take a short tour along this space and try to figure out why does our intelligent mind nudge us towards these unknown paths even as we know even going on them will often lead to wasted time- one commodity which, as yet can’t make good no matter what!

Everywhere and anywhere you look, what you see is people helplessly and hopelessly trying to finish off something or the other- nothing wrong with people being busy- the real problem starts as people begin to “finish off” instead of completing what they are doing or what they are supposed to be doing! You may call this play of words, but there is a method to this madness- you see when you have that burger, you can stuff that right through and gulp it not ever realizing whether it had cheese or not or you can bite it slow and relish every aroma and every ingredient that has gone into making it and then move ahead to whatever you plan to do next! This is the simple yet big difference between “finishing off” and “completing”. Great Leaders know this secret and hence no matter what pressure or what kind of challenge they face- they take their relevant and valid time to arrive at a decision! Sure enough the time taken has to be contextually relevant and needs to empower the decision that ensues- I mean if someone is going to take time and again come back with a poor decision- well then what can one say! But then why do people do this? Aren’t we supposed to be intelligent and discerning? And what is that makes people want to “finish off”, where are they heading next and why?

Well, the real part of the problem is human intelligence too – as paradoxical at may seem, but that remains to be a fact! You see, like I have shared it with you in my earlier writings as well, psychologists the world over will always agree to one things- that is – the human brain even now baffles them! At times it seems to come up with something completely different, rebellious, “out of the box” as they say and as long as this pathway contributes to build up the society around us- all is well, but in those rare instances when this pathway leads to some selfish or self-serving idea- it causes destruction and needless to say- the mind which beholds that thought too ends up becoming a victim eventually! The human brain is a power guzzler when it comes to the energy demand from our body- given the fact that majority of us are more often than not binge on stuff which really doesn’t help the brain- the brain does what it can- adjusts it’s power ratings (output) aligned to the nutritional input that it receives! So if you ever wondered why fatigued and famished bodies don’t have a healthy brain or don’t come up with empowered ideas and breakthrough’s well I just answered that for you! This is the genesis of “finishing off” syndrome!

Along side this frame, it has now become more and more fashionable to do what is “socially conformable” and “what is widely acceptable” simply because either there is no energy left to bring around a change of thinking and adoption to something new or better or simply because there is paucity of genuine wealth of ideas and original thinking to begin with! Whatever the reason is, the fact is society today gets served by “I copy you” and “You copy that one” space. No one is really original enough, everyone is piggy back riding on someone else’s idea and coloring and coating it to be their own! This is what further aggravates the problem and contributes to the mindset of “finishing off” things!

Apart from the lack of originality, in this mad race among humans where (well all sensible race’s do have a finish line) there is no sensible end line- so to say, humans normally end up indulging in something that is plain stupidity! The very philosophical concept of a race has always been a differentiation of competence, skill and abilities- between individuals and teams or even societies and nations for that matter- but all of this makes sense only and only if the contextual frame and settings between those who taking part in the race are the same! This is the underlying reason which rides over “finishing off” syndrome and completely leads people and societies astray, simply because the race is among unequals’- in terms of the contextual settings of the frame of the contest even if we were to assume that the participants are all equal at all times (which is as absurd as a statement as one can get!! Let me explain this!

You may always have wanted to be that CEO or that Head of “something” simply because your friend is, without ever realizing the other important elements; the “Why’s” which would have made that possible or not! Likewise societies, nations go about their lives hastening through by creating unwanted and unnecessary hustle around something that may not contextually be relevant and true the way they perceive it to be and that’s what actually manifests into this whole one mad race about nothing, for nothing with no finish line! It is this heady cocktail of human intellect, inertia and lack of discernment that creates these races with no ends! Whether it is that race to be the all powerful, all encompassing or being able to lead in select areas / sectors as an individual or a society or a nation, as long as you continue on a path of participating in endless and meaningless pursuits, you will always have a restless existence!

These endless struggles manifest and play around us all the time, and it is their ever increasing complexity that keeps pushing people into one scenario after the other- all the time thinking that it is a worthwhile effort, while the fact often is completely different! But why do people get sold into these corners of life? Well often, these endless races are a case of ending up over complicating our lives, even as individuals set out to have it simplified! People simply fail to understand that a functional car would be good as the latest sports car- simply because there is no “motor sports” that you are ever going to participate in!

The endless race to nowhere is the product of never ending aspirations simply because they are never reached or achieved! The reason why that happens- well partly because of misplaced aspirations, intrinsic construct and differing contextual frames! So is there a way around any of this?

Well, yes if you agree to have clarity and limitation and calibration of your aspirations and pursuits aligned to who you are, where you are and why you are! Unless you get down to this fundamental space of doing an intrinsic cross check on what your goals and aspirations are, you will ever be finding yourself riding on waves of shifting aspirations and never ending pursuits which will end up depleting all that you have leaving you famished and fatigued in mind, body and soul!

I leave you with these thoughts here for today, urging you to hit that brake pedal and take a look around your life and try to decipher, if you are indeed pursuing what really matters and is worth it or if you too are caught up in the endless race!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe and stay wise!

The Leadership Quotient.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

You may be the best and there may be no doubt about that bit, but all that greatness and being the best will go in vain, unless you have a progressive and well defined “Leadership Quotient” to bank upon at your foundation! Join me here as we explore around this concept and try to embrace a singular fact that leadership has nothing to with what your business card says, but has everything to do with you!

The biggest fallacy about leadership is that people tend to wait for someone to ask them to lead and more importantly all that managerial direction is often and always mis-interpreted to be leadership! Like many of the great masters who have been advocates on Leadership has said time and again, leadership is all about – being a leader and no matter who you are, what you can do and not do, the fact is that leadership can be practiced and furthered even in the smallest way- that may seem trivial for a someone else, but that same act can be empowering and encouraging for the other person! This is the essence of leadership- it always start from you and unless you don’t take charge for yourself and decide to lead your life, why would anyone else ever want to collaborate and walk alongside you, forget about having followers and people being drawn to you by inspiration!

People have always argued and debated about leadership being in the blood or whether it can be developed- well, if you ask, me like anything and everything else, you can embrace and develop leadership as a trait- but if you are also blessed by a natural affinity for it- then the chances of one being a success story at leadership are far more amplified! (or should I say instances of errors of judgement for practicing leadership are reduced!). So, now, on to the million dollar question, how do you know, if you are a leader or how much of leadership you have with you? How do you go about deciphering the leadership quotient? How do you deploy and how do you ensure it doesn’t get lost? Well, let’s go!

Unlike, enrolling for that costly weekend seminar or that workshop, or that psychometric test (sure they do play a role, but I will come to all of that later), revisit your childhood- yes, childhood, I mean when you were still malleable and ductile enough to be stretched by imagination and flexible enough to adjust (especially when you thought it was uncomfortable!) If you spend good enough time reminiscing your childhood memories (unless you too have a lost memory problem- like the one I do!), you will come across multiple instances of that fabled “first time” and when you begin to sieve through those “first times” you will start to see a pattern emerge- this pattern is about what your natural behaviour is and what is that you are comfortable- leading (to what extent and when and for what) and comfortable following or collaborating (again to what extent , when and for what). This proportion and frequency is what determines what is that triggers you to stand up and lead and what is that triggers you to collaborate or follow others. The in-depth deciphering around this fundamental aspect will further begin to throw light about what parts of your life you want to lead more over the others! People often feel leadership, is about taking all the decisions all the time and the fact is that nothing could be more away from the truth! Leadership is about taking those decisive stances when that moment arrives, it is about leading what matters and leading when only you can and you have to- because only your way of leadership is the answer to resolve that challenge at hand! This is the space where iconic stories about leaders get built and a whole new cult of followership is born- aligned to this unique new style or practise of leadership which has is nothing more or nothing less than the personification of who you are! Effective Leadership is always the Leader in Action- It is the personification of who you are in action!

So, to drive the point here, your leadership is about the choices that you make with regards to when you want to lead and when you want to be by the sides! It is about making those meaningful choices which then go on to define you- through your practise of leadership and this is what is the essence of the “Leadership Quotient”. The Leadership Quotient, if you ask me is not about a specific metric that can be measured rather it is an observation and assessment in terms of what makes your leadership practise great and when does it fail! You see, as you you choose what to lead and what not to lead, if you end up erring by making some weird choices, you will start to see your leadership decline and falter, this faltering will not be because you aren’t a leader or you aren’t capable of leading, but rather, because you made a choice to lead something that you aren’t great at leading! let me explain!

Let me take you back to your childhood, identify that one instance when leading gave you an immense high! It could be leading that debate competition, that sports team, or acing that quiz, it could be that rattling off numbers and wining a competition or it could be acing the class and leading your way to win the annual award- and now zoom back into your now and just run through the recent examples of when you think you lead well, really well! Do you see a connection, you possibly will! Leaders always lead exceptionally well on matters that they are intrinsically hardwired into- who they are, that is when leadership personifies and that is when magic happens, simply because you are playing to your natural strength of who you are, when you lead on aspects that are acquired and not natural to you, is when your ability to lead will drop from being great to good and this is where you will find majority of the corporate managers- who are actually good and perhaps great at directing- but average when it comes to the ability to lead!

There is also another bit that plays a vital role in impacting the leadership quotient and that is about the contextual settings! You see as long as the contextual settings are aligned to what your natural strength to lead is, you will see it easy to go further and wide, on the contrary, if you are coerced into leading that isn’t natural to you and if anther layer of competing context is applied by virtue of the settings around you, needless to say, that leadership assignment will seem to be like a boulder around the neck rather being a jewel adorning the crown of your professional achievements! So what is leadership quotient all about actually? What is the path to take and when do you know, something is not going the way it should and that you should pull those brakes!

Well, leadership quotient, as I said earlier is a personification of who you are and all that comes to you naturally to lead and sustain helped by supportive contextual settings! When each of these elements align aptly and you are adequately empowered that is when you get to deploy and utilize your leadership to the maximum potential and thereby your quotient will sail higher than the rest around you! Likewise, when any of these factors falter, they will tend to be a drag, that is when you will experience a drag towards deploying your leadership and eventually will find it more and more complicated to lead yourself, let alone others!

The trick to sail high on leadership quotient, is to play it to your natural fields that you can lead effortlessly, next, if that is not a choice, than make the acquired ones’ as naturally aligned to yourself as much as possible and work towards making the contextual settings fall around in alignment with the purpose of you active leadership! Sure enough, not all leaders get to experience high leadership quotient all through their leadership, but the essence lies in increasing the frequency of all that blends in to enhance your leadership quotient- the ability to deliver, in a sustained manner over a long timelines, playing on your strengths- natural or acquired by ensuring that the contextual settings align and work to further your cause!

So, final words if you ask me, I would say this, Leadership Quotient is all about practicing leadership in a way that personifies who you are and practicing it in an area that is natural to you, if not that than in a field which you can embrace as your own and while doing all of that ensuring that all the other variables around align to empower and further your cause so that your Leadership stands out as a shining example about, “How Leadership must be” and that is what the essence of being high on the Leadership Quotient is all about!

Leadership begins with you and so does it rise and fall with you! Leadership is but a personification of who You are and resonates in action all that you are and all that you stand up for and stand against for! High Leadership Quotient is a recognition of the Leader within you, whether you are busy leading yourself or an organization, how well you do it or will do it, is what the leadership quotient is all about!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to engage with yourself to begin with and assess, how high you think you are or want to be on the Leadership Quotient and what is that you want to do next to take that to the level- where you can say that- You have arrived as a Leader- that You always wanted to be!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, until then stay safe and stay wise!

Why Simple is so Complex!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Humanity seems to thrive on presenting complex and complicated reasons,logic and everything that there is and the reality is that there could be nothing more contradicting to the truth- which is- simplicity is the only and the most essential building block to develop and build upon whatever that you choose to create! Join me here as we explore this space and try to understand why simplicity is omnipresent yet so elusive!

The progress of humanity has been a story of moving from simplified structures to more and more complex systems; whether it is about societies , the rules and regulations, belief systems, whatever you choose as an example, you will find that as humans we have this unwarranted and compelling desire to complicate and make complex things as scale begins to grow and perhaps the only industry which works in a complete contradictory manner is aerospace- where – minimal essential is the key word! If you observe the journey of a business conglomerate, you will see that when the beginnings were humble with a handful faithfuls believing in the dream and aligning themselves to the cause- rules of that fledgling organization would have been minimal and they would have worked well to propel and empower decision making and progressive styles of working hereby making it possible to writer the unfolding success story in the years that followed. But once these very organizations reach critical mass, they have more and more and ore rules to be followed and in all that, the whole pursuit and purpose of the work and the organization gets fogged out- may be not completely- but it tends to wear off its sheen and the sharpness of the earlier days and than that greatness just stays overhead by virtue of who they are and not because of what they want to be! Sure enough rules and structures are important, but there is a big difference between creating rules for people and having people for the rules!

As long as rules work to simplify and empower people, they can stay simple- that is the power of simplicity! The challenge commences as people begin to manipulate this simplicity to pursue what is not within the mandate and purview and there by necessitating building additional layers on exiting simplified rules and approaches- this intrinsic trait of a few to bend and flex simple rules is what pushes the majority into having to adhere to complex systems- even as this silent majority would have been compliant enough to follow even the simplified rules! Let me explain!

When was the last time you decided to board a train without a ticket, well possibly not, never unless it was in your teens when you were hanging out with your invincible friends in an attempt to show off your unique skills! But if you see around, even for simple things like booking of travel tickets, no matter where you are in the world, you will end up having to comply with at least 2-3 additional documents- whether you travel domestic or international! SO why did we end up building a complex system for something as trivial as booking or buying a travel ticket? Well, yes, you guessed it right, that predictable ability of a few eccentric characters, who believe in hacking, bending and flexing the system for their benefit, has ended up the majority to comply with additional check points and verification systems. If you thought this is just about the social aspects, just observe your work place- what do you see?

Even when it comes to the office world, even to swipe-in you have a minimum of two systems tracking you- sure enough you may say, part compliance, part redundancy, but that takes an altogether new meaning when one system shows you present and the other one marks you absent, simply because you did not log in through your device that day! beyond this, as you try to access your official tools, whether it is the mail system, the much hyped ERP, MIS systems, every point you will see systems have been designed not to suggest that “you can be trusted” and “you will do what you must as you should”, but rather on the premise “that you will not do it well and in a timely manner”! Remember the escalation matrix, well that’s not for you to be happy about, it just tells you the broad premise that your office is working upon- that you cannot be completely trusted! You may want to argue that, this is a process and this is how it is done everywhere, may be true, but all of that argument doesn’t answer, why it has to be done that way? and if you are the one who is going to solve what comes in your inbox, what’s the whole point of escalating and if something indeed needs to be escalated(because you aren’t empowered to deal with it) then why should you even be receiving all all that in your inbox to begin with! So, why is that, we have this mad dash for complexity and why is the ability to stay “simple” so elusive? What does all this really tell us about who we are and what we do with our lives? Read on!

The urge to complicate or rather create complexity on simple aspects has it roots in the foundation of human thoughts and belief systems, like modern day thinkers, much of the mid-age thinkers also saw humans broadly in two buckets- one who are self-driven, selfless, purpose drive and have a sense of community duty and the other set which was more self-centered, who would act only for reward and cared a damn for what unfolds around- either by being indifferent or being ignorant. Needless to say, if you see around, these broad buckets still exist around and the fact is that the second lot is in the majority and it is for this second lot that complicated rules are needed just to ensure that they ( by compulsion) contribute to what the first lot is doing (on their own accord) & more importantly these complex rules guard (to a certain extent) any attempts of sabotage that this majoritarian self-centered lot may want to embark upon.

So is there a way to promote simplicity over complexity? Well, the answer is yes and no! Yes, because you can embrace simplicity to empower your life- as an individual in that private space that you live about in- by uncluttering and doing away with everything and anything that attempts to cloud your mind space through unwanted complexity! But when it comes to the larger social construct of the society, as paradoxical it may seem, the fact is, those complex approaches help to prevent attempted sabotages of the existing visible simplicity that societies may have on account of the majoritarian lot who thrive on the chaos and ambiguity that complex systems get along with them. As they say, complex rules and regulations are for complicated people! So what next?

Well final words if you ask me, the fine balance of being able to deploy and work with simple systems and complex set ups is what will eventually ensure that all progressive efforts that you embark upon, both as an individual or as part of the social construct will alone determine whether your life gets written more about the simple and clear approach that you have taken up or the complex methods that you have developed and sustained to ensure that the fine balance between simple and complex people, systems and everything around only helps to progress and aligns to what you pursue!

I leave your here with these thoughts, urging you to get that balance of being simple and dealing with complexity right- for yourself and the people you lead!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece!

Stay Authentic.

~ PA ~ 2 Comments

At a time when everyone wants to end up being someone, the real secret is embedded in a very simple fact- that is of staying authentic- staying and being who you are and who you are comfortable being! Join me here as we explore, what does it take to stay authentic and how does this small shift alter the entire narrative of your purpose enriching it with greater value, depth and direction.

Irrespective of where we are and what part of the social fabric we contribute to, the singular fact remains, that each one of us is Influenced- by someone or the other- now there is nothing to be judgmental or prejudiced about being influenced. Since the dawn of civilizations, humans have been long programmed to seek- leaders and have been benefited by able leaders and have been broken by terrible ones’ and these erstwhile experiences have gone a long way to create the different societies as we witness them around us today! It is these Influences that we receive, which further go on to create an ability within a few of us from the society to continue that Influence- which could be pertaining to an ideology, a belief system or simply an agreed framework of how the society would like to function.

The whole issue with this whole process of Influencing and being Influenced, leaving aside the context and the content what is being shared deals with the subtle aspect of altering the real essence of personalities as who they are and who they should be- unless people are careful- you will witness that Influencer’s and those being Influenced tend to rapidly loose a vital connect with themselves and thereby begin to wear off the charm of who they really are and begin to assume imagery which is nothing close to who they are and what that ends up doing is, you have an entire social fabric that is made of mirrored, fabricated and shallow personalities and ideas. This unwanted outcome of Influence comes to exist, once the true self- the authentic self- is lost- both from the side of the person who is the Influencer and also the audience who are being influenced.

If you were to analyse the global horizon for great Leaders and great Influencer’s , you will see one commonality- As long as Leaders or People of Influence tend to stay true to who they are and share that truth with the audiences that they connect- they are not only effective, impactful and motivational but they also empower their audiences as well to be the same and thereby urging them to, embrace their truth and rise and live by it even as they overcome the challenges that they may be facing at their levels! This is the real essence of Authentic Leadership- or should I say, Leading by staying Authentic! It is only when Leaders lead from this intensely private space, which brings forth who they are their personalities, their vulnerabilities that, they gain the trust and connect which is so vital to lead and influence- this is one way of the leader saying, “This is Who I am and this is where I want to take you along, this is how we are going to get there- Are you coming along?”

When leaders fail to create this foundation of authenticity as they lead or engage, they end up adding veils and layers to their leadership- the whole value around it and the process around it- this goes on to create pseudo value systems and as opacity ensues, one can then witness the rapidly diminishing connect between the leader and the community. The question you may ask, what is so difficult about staying authentic, sound simple? The fact is, there can be nothing more difficult than doing that! Let me explain!

Staying authentic, or bringing authenticity- to the forefront requires more courage than one can imagine, because in this space, whether you are a leader, a follower or a leader in the making- you need some real divine courage to accept – firstly who you are (that calls for some insane levels of self-awareness) and next being able to share that with the community that you are part of – the society, the nation or whatever that group may be! This style of leadership by being authentic, exposing your vulnerabilities is a potent tool to connect, engage and empower everyone around in perhaps the fastest way- the only catch being that you mus be dead sure that the audience or the contextual settings are what they seem to be and aren’t a trojan horse designed to defeat you! How does being authentic help? Read on!

Once you have this incredible sell-awareness about who you are and once you have found out the purpose and how you are going to approach, what remains is merely knowing what serves you and what doesn’t! What serves your cause, your journey and what doesn’t- for all that aligns alongside you empowers you and all that creates a blockade- saps you of that vital energy that you need so badly to keep going to achieve the purpose that you have set out for – not only because you want it- but because the whole process and the journey is nothing more but the personification of your authentic self- and your existence. Anything ambiguous here, will end up creating fogs of doubt, defeating your purpose and also of those who rally around you!

Embracing Authenticity is perhaps the easiest way to let the world know that you are connected within, you know your stuff and hence you are in a better position to tell others how to find their stuff, as you have already done that journey! Authenticity provides adequate empowerment for an individual to have a voice, share, lead or follow, no matter what is the choice made, as long as an authentic approach is applied every role taken up seems to align with the purpose and direction of serving and achieving the greater good for all of those who have embarked upon the journey!

Being authentic, is saying no to a lot of things around and agreeing to a few, because as unique as we are, should we want to hold on to our valid authenticity, it only suggests that there would be few and far in between possibilities to experience the same around us! The journey surely calls for a lot of turbulence within and externally for not everyone will be pleased and neither will everyone be dejected!

The essence of applying authenticity lies in the fact that, through self-awareness, knowing oneself, being true to who you are and the purpose that drives you, can you influence, collaborate, share or follow and navigate across the social fabric around you urging every member to be who they are! Progressive societies are all but a collection of authentic Individuals who have connected and engaged themselves with each other for a common purpose that achieves some greater good for each member of the society even as they retain their authentic self and touch their individual aspirations as they accomplish the larger goals!

I leave you here, with these thoughts for now, urging you to seek your authenticity lever and use that as a pivot to empower yourself and the society around you! Societies that are united even through the diversity experienced by virtue of the authentic constituents thrive and progress each time and every time!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! Until then stay wise, stay safe and stay authentic!

Three steps to sanity!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Given the kind of crazy times that we are all living by, whether be it our work, homes or the social nonsense played out on the news channels every day, there could be no no better time, to get our hands on the master key to sanity and try to move away from what doesn’t serve us and stay aligned to what helps us become the better version of ourselves with each passing moment! Join me here as we try to understand why sanity is, almost always just three steps away form you, no matter what the situation!

A lot of what, unfolds around us is simply unimportant and whatever little around is important, most of the time doesn’t pass the test of the context! So you wake up in the morning, go on to grab your cup and switch on the television just to realise how dumb society has got and how glorified nonsense can be played out on millions of screens, just because someone is ready to pay for that kind of shit! Although, one may argue, so what’s the big deal, you can always go ahead and switch the idiot box off, but given the way our brains play the fool with us, this option is deceptively tough to implement! Social compulsions, confirmation biases and that aspect of self-imposed non-productive small talk forces people to switch on the idiot box- like a drug addict high on their favorite drug- these enslaved people go on to consume the garbage played out on the screens, because that is what grabs social entertainment value- kind of talk needed to get going in those social encounters when you are keen to impress! Sure enough this also speaks about the kind of social circle you are a part of, but to be very honest when we have the very battle of existence going about- no matter where you are and how high or low you are in the socioeconomic fabric, there will be this damaged aspect of society which you will always have to come to face- what remains in your control- the amount of exposure you want to have and that will go on to determine- the extent of progress or regress you encounter! The truth about societies is that, each one of them are playing out what the master demand and who these masters are- whether many or few- goes to create the script, direction and length of what gets played out and how much nonsense will be allowed or checked! You may be wondering if this is what it is, and this is how societies eventually are, is there anything that you can do? anything at all to gain some relative control to dodge this minefield of under-serving scenarios which add little value to you and on the contrary end up sapping away every ounce of what you have and who you are- to try and end up making you one of the many- rather allowing you to be one of a kind – an unique jewel embedded in the crown of a flourishing society! What is that can be done?

Well, there are three basic and simple steps, if you choose to walk upon, irrespective of what the temptation, you will almost always be able to hold on to yourself and stay clear of the corrosive influences that seem to always come your way!

Awareness- Creating an awesome amount of awareness about yourself to begin with and of what’s around you alongside an innate ability to observe- not see- is what will help you to sieve what matters from the clutter that’s coming your way! Awareness works only when you are assertive about who you are, you know what you seek and you are firmly in control of what you think and feel- this certainly like everything good and nice will come at a price- not every person will like you and neither will you be comfortable being around everyone that comes your way- what is important here is unlike the ignorant earlier self- once your awareness levels are fine tuned- you will have a strong reasoning and belief system to stand by you for all the decision that you take- whether to engage with a person or not, whether you want to take up that assignment or not, almost everything that you do or plan to do-will come from your alignment to your core beliefs, values and awareness that you go on to build and sustain on an ongoing basis!

Lens of Context- Once you have reached a decent understanding about who you are and what drives you fine and what drives you crazy-not to forget the who’s- the next step is about applying the Lens of Context! As you increase your awareness you will realise, that not everything that you see around, serve you now, later or anytime and a lot of it, really a lot of it- is always something about which you can do nothing- not now- not tomorrow- the only thing that you can do is- if that aspect begins to be an existential crisis for your personal self- is leave the place and get out of the way- unless your life is aligned to the the very cause of fighting this out! Say, you live in nation wherein you don’t agree with the political narrative- your ignorant self- will get into the bitching mode- which is what the majority of less aware people would do- does that serve you or the society- absolutely not- what do you gain? A few more beers, few more smokes, occasional heart burn, arguments, raised blood pressure and everything that doesn’t seem to help you! So how would a person who displays awareness behave- well simple- see what the facts are and make sense of what it really is and what it is been shown to be- next- analyse what is that you can do or not do- and by doing or not doing how will the unfolding events impact you? So once you begin to deploy your awareness and frame it to the lens of your context- you will know exactly how much attention each aspect that comes your way deserves and you get a choice to act- and how you act- is the final step which ensures you stay sane! read on!

Act with Calibrated Ownership- “Calibrated Ownership” is one word here, as long as you you deploy your awareness, through your lens of context and act with calibrated ownership- you will begin to rapidly evolve- disconnecting away all that is clutter and adding up and building upon all that empowers you to provide and share what your awareness brings forth! Calibrated ownership is different by the sense that you need to have ownership in the right proportion to the context and the level of awareness you may have developed around it! Consider you come to know that there is a need of an animal sanctuary around your place- that is awareness- you may have the place and fund for that- thats the part of understanding the context-calibration comes when you know how much of what you are doing is enough- that is when to stop- at what animal types and how many!

Only when individuals learn to know you they are- It is this collection of aware individuals that goes on to create an aware society/ nation and that helps everyone to focus on what serves the community and also helps them act with necessary prudence- collaboratively, with a purpose that creates and adds value!

If you ask me, the best way to know the health of any society is to study who the recent philosophers have been in the last two hundreds years and if there are any living legends around who have the ability to show the way but stop short of directing what to see!

Awareness, context and ability to act with calibrated ownership will ensure that you spend your valuable seconds on what creates value for the next one and will count your breath to give life to some great cause that serves you, the society around in a way that remains as your signature when you are long gone by- do it well and you end up being an icon- you decide not to enact and do anything- you will fade away in the crowd of humanity. Nothing is right neither is anything wrong- its your life and its your choice and its the choices that at the end of it make us who we are and will always be!

I leave your here with these thoughts, urging you to start working on your awareness, your contextual settings and that managed ownership drive!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, stay wise and stay connected!

The religion of GOD.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Before you jump to any conclusion, no this is not about taking a stand on any religious ideas or faith systems, this is not about creating an opinion or directing the reader to move in a planned manner to any inference. This article is about reflecting what we see around us, possibly make some sense of what we see, or rather should I say, perceive what a religion is and If it is indeed what it is then, what is or what could be the religion of GOD? Join me here as we take this sneak peek into an area that touches our lives, irrespective of what faith system or belief system we choose to follow or not!

Religion-Faith- Belief system- Value system- you could come up with a hundred more similar words and all of them would eventually come to one final reality that religion has been, is and will always remain to be a defined pathway to reach, seek, sense and surrender to the supreme power- the universal energy- the almighty- again known by different names as defined by the religious pathways, but all coming to the final reality and recognition that there is nothing above or beyond that supreme manifestation. This is the essence of all the religions of the world and all the pathways that humanity has ever been aligned to for retaining our sanity and virtuosity! So the question why does GOD need so many multiple pathways and systems of eventually there is singularity of the supreme manifestation? As someone said, GOD never created any religion, it is Humanity that has created the pathways that we know today as religions, faiths and belief systems and this is at the very root of everything! Then why does everything that is divine and serene at times gets lost into the muddy waters and frightening darkness that human societies end up presenting themselves with every now or then! So where did all this possibly begin?

Sure enough, I am not making any tall claims to be an expert on Theology or the world of spirituality, this is a blog and keeping it that way, a thought starter so that you people- get your grey cells working to seek the truth that makes peace with you- any which way as humans we aren’t going to be around forever, so the truths that you and I hold with us so dearly, at the most will live for another 100 years (that too if you are lucky and have done that much of quality work for the society that you move around in! Else – you know the rows and rows of unnamed graves and tombstones which are perhaps never even visited- forget about people imbibing their value systems and belief systems!

As we race back into human history we come across the richness and vastness of establishment of religious systems, belief systems and values where there is a mention of reverence to a singular super power- a supreme manifestation which is formless and omnipresent- which has the power to provide divine grace and unleash unthinkable fury with equal ease, provide or take away what has been given in a moment- so on and so forth- access any holy book that faithfuls follows across any religion that you choose, these singularities of ideas are all the same. People often lead others into arguing to create contradicting narratives; and more then ever before, the times that we live in are ripe with this kind of social behaviour- which is not only unnecessary but out rightly stupid and dumb! To know what is the religion of GOD , we must know what GOD is, isn’t it? So here we go!

As a student of science and being realistically rational, every belief system, value system that I ever came across, had to pass questions like, the test of science, does it serve the greater good, does it makes sense, is that reproducible, can it be tamed, so on and so forth! What I share with you here are my personal reflections and experiences in this area and as I said earlier, each one of us has a different truth, bound by the contextual settings that we are confined to, all may be right, all may be wrong, few may be right, few may be wrong, eventually it all boils down to the belief of the individual for that is what leads that individual to their final resting place!

If you want to understand and want to know GOD, the only accepted way is following what is written down in the holy texts of various belief systems. Surely a right thing to do, because they have been pretty much written at a time when human societies were forming and gaining critical mass and as they expanded rapidly and shared the richness, it became more than necessary that alongside the allegiance to the rulers, there had to be a central binding force and that force was realized through these valuable texts which personified the divine engagement and that till day is a cornerstone of human society! As long as this power was harnessed for the greater good and to serve fellow humans it always rewarded by enriching the society and to this day the same is visible- where societies are anchored to the true belief systems of the faith that they choose- you will see a reflection of that among the members of the society- their approach, attitude and behavior unto others! This is where the real strength of GOD really is! But what about GOD?

Well the thought of GOD across the belief systems almost always speaks about super human abilities and an omnipresent stance. One needs to understand that these texts which recorded, documented and created the rule book for various path ways were- eventually written by some human being and then that is where we have the writer’s error that can creep in (error as in not a mistake- but error as in the inability to comprehend the vastness and the power in the absolute context of it!). Let me explain, say you are a nerd and I ask you to write an essay about the world’s fastest super computer- sure enough you will throw your knowledge into it and have a paper with intricate details about that fabulous machine, now if I were to ask an Arts student or a language student to do the same, sure enough they will research and they too will come up with the same article, but their approach and treatment will be different and this is where GOD becomes more mystical, magical, and universal! So if the recording gets tweaked a bit, needless to say that tweaking can get amplified by the people who listen, reproduce and present and so the classical communicative gaps play their role and then we have amplification at crazy proportions- not every thing is fiction, but neither everything then is a fact too! So finally human societies arrive at this middle ground agreed upon by all the pathways or belief systems- where you agree to things and principles to a particular point of mass consensus and beyond that it becomes voluntary and then there is that tiny little space where you are never allowed to enter- by questioning or challenging – for that will invoke the wrath of the those who would want to keep what is the way it is as that serves humanity in a more meaningful manner!

Irrespective which system you choose, the singularity of power, formlessness and omnipresence with a veto on everything and everyone that your cognitive mind can connects with, is all but the domain of the supreme manifestation defined as GOD- so if you see GOD being universal and being the way as described by the different pathways- by itself is above and beyond any religious bondage! The religious pathways or approaches have largely been a result of the ups and downs that societies have seen as they evolved through the last 10,000 years! Now, if you ask, if GOD doesn’t have a religion as a supreme universal formless force- why do humans follow and why do they lead to friction at times?

Here again, you need to understand that the social settings are critical and as long as societies are steady, you will always find examples of multiple faiths co-existing and thriving with none intruding into the others space! The need to compete or intrude arises when the interpretation of the pathways get altered & a few select individuals (for whatever their motive would be) go ahead and distort the established facts with modern day fiction, giving a complete twist to the whole definition of that particular religion or pathway and thereby as one does it so does the other and in no time, there is literally no GOD left in what humans begin to follow- because what they really end up following are not those holy ancient texts of divine grace and bliss, but rather altered, twisted and moderated modern day interpretations by so called “gurus” who rant off what they feel like to achieve what they personally have set out to achieve at the cost of the gullible masses who actually look upto them with complete faith in their hearts!

It is when societies deviate from the true essence of what the universality of GOD is and what the real manifestations of the supreme and omnipresent can be, is when problems begin- then the whole show of spiritual and religious upmanship begins!– One pathway suddenly becomes the star (or rather is made the star) for some time, then the other, then the next and that cycle goes on, seemingly forever! But the fact remains that unless you really connect as an individual to the GOD that is – the Universal Energy, Supreme manifestation the way you ought to- by walking on the original pathways or religious teachings of compassion, love, sharing , collaboration, discipline, equality and brotherhood, everything else is but a conveniently altered version of the original hence, we may have thousands and thousands of places of worship across the religious pathways that we choose to follow; but then the worshiped may never be really residing in there! This happens because humanity as come to the point where it has forgotten the most fundamental truth that GOD resides not at a place or point- rather being omnipresent resides in every speck that you can think of and have ever thought of! This is not what I say, this is what all the great religions and pathways of the world say and this is the singularity of the essence of GOD!

GOD, doesn’t need, neither ever had nor will ever have a religion or a pathway, for the simple reason GOD is the destination and not the pathway! The universal omnipresent force is beyond and above all human possibilities and that’s why the authentic texts, and religious books, irrespective of the faith system you choose all begin with a salute and bowing down to the magnificence of GOD! So why did humans create multiple pathways and why do they cut across?

As I said earlier, societies, their sociological construct, belief system largely reflected how the ancient rulers shaped the unit and that’s how it is to this day, with a few changes here and there! It serves a few who rule the many and that is almost with every other vocation that humans do and this is how it has been since the dawn of the civilization and the rise and fall of every civilization has been a factor of this dissonance and allied reasons! The pathways even as different as they could be, the fact is they never competed nor did they ever cut each others path, they evolved to different societies at different times and served different purposes and aligned those societies to serve the greater good and made them human unlike ever before! It has largely been the curse of modern history when so-called politicians and rulers, and people who could use their influence to alter the narrative did so and that has been the unwarranted price that societies have ended up paying almost across the globe!

So you, see neither GOD was ever a point of debate, neither were the pathways, the religions or the belief systems, it has been the directed, sabotaging and unwarranted human creation which created a smokescreen- a fog of illusion- which has left modern societies divisive and more chaotic then ever, it doesn’t help GOD neither does it help the few who are aligned to HIM, but it serves the ones’ who want to be intoxicated in the arrogant belief that they are powerful enough to create chaos and rule and direct societies to the direction that they want- the truth is that nothing could be more fictitious then this hallucination which ultimately leads to societies rising up against these megalomaniac few and a new order is re-established when the time for the same arrives!

My final few words before I wrap this blog, If you ask me, I think GOD has no religion and I also think no religion or faith is a problem, all of them did co-exist and do and will always do! The challenges for modern day societies is to stall the societal sabotage that happens around us lead by the few who want to do anything that they want to just to ensure that they do not loose control on the many and these few are the real danger to humanity!

But rest assured, I will ask GOD his religion when that meeting happens, not sure though if I will be able to relay that message back, not sure if laptops work there!

I will leave you here for now, urging you to think and reflect! No matter what your belief system, no matter what your religion is, as long as you are anchored to the truth (that is the real truth) of singularity of a supreme energy and the thought of severing everyone around so that the greater good is always realized- you are fine and you will find GOD around in everything and everyone and most importantly within you! Remember GOD is more important than religion, just as the destination is always more important than the route taken!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article!

The “expert”syndrome.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

Frankly speaking, I never thought life would be so exciting! We live in times when facts are stranger than fiction! Even the best fiction writers would not have been able to imagine the way we see intelligence and dumbness been played out every now and then! Join me, as we explore a funny, innocent looking and possibly the most damaging trait that lurks amongst all of us, nope, not the virus, this story is about the “expert” syndrome. We have a look into how this possibly originated, how it has evolved (or kind of devolved); so here we go!

As much as I wish to avoid, but I helplessly gravitate towards the topic of the “pandemic” ( not that I am obsessed by it), right now perhaps there is no other topic around the world that unites humanity the way the pandemic has! Either you are suffering more or suffering less, but the fact is you have earned yourself a ticket to this global show! Importantly this is a live study about how “experts” just ended up screwing the fate of millions of people the world over- by punching the right buttons at the wrong time and how the birth of overnight “experts” has possibly added to the chaos, creating more drama rather then providing solutions!

To begin with the pandemic is not a health issue, to begin with! Yes, sure enough a virus has crossed over from an animal to humans and this has in fact more to do with understanding the Virus, its behaviour, its potency, its vulnerabilities and ways to block, inhibit and restrict it form creating dis-ease or illness that can lead to fatality!Now just look who all are responsible in formulating strategies around the pandemic, no it’s not the virologists, neither are the immunologist , it is the doctors (who are supposed to pull those log tubes and ensure you live your life, even as they try to treat you with whatever they “think” works because “someone” told them so!). Sure enough, doctors will alone be able to save your life and keep you on this side of the world, no one is discrediting them, but the problem is that unless the “real experts” don’t give real solutions, all that doctors are left to do is struggle by trying out options and facing the never ending wrath of the patient’s families even as they are hanging on to their own dear lives with each passing moment! Other times, if it’s not doctors then depending on which country you reside in, it could be the head of the major religion that is followed in a country, or leaders in clinical research, bio-statisticians- yes, those gifted people who crunch numbers, extrapolate graphs and show the grim scenarios- straight out of a Hollywood movie- so that everyone is happy with any number less than that- this is the same shit like what you used to when you explained your maths scores to your parents- The conversation goes something like this-“Hey Dad, you see I got a C, and you should be grateful its not a F, something like that”! When all of these fail; you always have those invincible politicians becoming overnight Virologists and Health experts- who come on television and ask you to do everything and anything- from clapping, to banging your utensils to asking you for helping those who are more affected then yourself- so basically you burn down your house to provide warmth to the community! Hold your thoughts, with this pandemic here and let us visit another set of “experts”!

Alongside this pandemic, the world is also witnessing an increasing period of military tension and aggression whether it is encroachment of Indian land by China, the fragile nerves around the middle-east, the uneasy clam around the South China sea, The newly defined US- China Cold War ( I think a better term could “American Chop Suey” War!) Importantly, the war theaters of the world for some strange reason seem to be immune to the virus- making me wonder does the virus really exist! (well, don’t bother- it does!). Now with regards to this military flare up, if you are lucky to be in India or the USA, just switch on your Idiot- Box (yes the good old television) and flip to any of the news channels- you will be left dumb founded at the variety and diversity of suggestions/solutions and action plans thrown every few minutes, guess by whom? Yes, “the experts”! These experts have the answers, solutions, action points for all problems that the world is witnessing in real time and in few cases there are also animated VFX enabled decks which can play out scenarios with complete end-to-end detail and remember this- For every challenge that the world is facing- by evening all TV News channels the world over- have managed to get the experts (even before the nation or the government can lay their hands on their grey matter!). These experts then spell out strategies, action plans and hidden motives about the subject with great accuracy and convincing tenacity (putting even Nostradamus and other modern day fortune tellers to shame) the entire topic is laid open- all thread bare- often you are left wondering to which side do they belong- or are they the aliens from Mars who want to see humanity fight and finish off each other! Thankfully, the only commonality with these “experts” is that, no one is listening to them- no not even their audience! So what’s really happening- what is this phenomenon all about- why do we end up wasting prime satellite broadcast time what is this all about? Read on!

Since time in memorial, as civilizations have advanced, there has been the urge to dominate society with knowledge, information or power, the days we live today are no different, the only slight change perhaps, has been that we are also plagued by the space of mis-information, pseudo- knowledge and “self-proclaimed experts” more than ever before! The real problem accelerates because , even as the “real experts” are busy chipping away the challenge one step at a time- away form public glare- you have this abundance of “so-called experts” who seize the moment and occupy the void space of the real experts and convert the it into a glorified entertainment zone with no real sense or substance! Now, you may want to argue, why is that even allowed in the first place? Well, sadly that is how social engineering works to further what is called as “building narratives” and “getting social acceptance on opinions that are being sold” (irrespective whether they make sense or not)!

Consider the case of the pandemic, experts all along have debated, discussed and emphasized on cutting off people to people contact- well nations did it- what happened- did the situation improve? Well no if you are talking about absolute numbers, but yes, if you want to consider delaying a problem as a solution! If you are still wondering why this would have happened, well the answer is simple- remember I mentioned about “Immunologist” well yes, who were the centre piece to provide a solution- were all but ignored and not paid heed to as the world should have- you want to ask why? Well, you see creating economic adjustments and narratives and the promise of a new drug in the market makes vibrant economic sense and irrespective whether how accurate it is or not- the fact remains it serves the purpose of the few who drive and direct the societies the world over and once this is supplemented by the entertainment over media- you have a water tight case and everyone now believes that lock-downs are good! Wait until they realise that the cure has been worst than the disease and that by itself will be another story of social chaos!

Likewise, do you really think, armies across the world would decipher their strategy, potency and abilities over news channels and TV shows, well certainly not, than why the circus- this is called as opinion building- I mean you want citizens of a nation to support a decision of your’s to go to war- how would you get it done? Well, yes the classic way- ignite the patriotic lamp, create an enemy- communicate the over exaggerated threat and inform that this is the only way and you are the only one who can do it! That’s it! The nation is ready to go to war! Now, if you are wondering why would anyone do this, well, it plays well to the audience in the one countries who have just rudely awakened to their patriotic nerve and secondly helps to create a new order by bringing in distraction, chaos and uncertainty, not for one, but many countries around the world! In the connected times that we live in today, if USA catches cold, India will sneeze and the converse is also equally true!

So even as multitudes of ” so called experts” burn the midnight oil, fry our brains and occupy TV shows at prime times and keep throwing off solutions by the minute, the real experts are busy doing what really matters and the way it should be done- with focus and direction to create solutions to the problems at hand! You see these “overnight experts” have advise for everyone; whether it is the President of the USA or the Director General of WHO; they always have a suggestion for everyone, but for themselves! We should be thanking our stars, that The White House or The UN is as yet not taking these stunts seriously, if that happens, it will be the last sign of overall annihilation of intelligence form the face of the earth!

The only reason why this “expert” syndrome exists is because we are now kind of attuned to some “breaking news”, “some development”, “some news”, which may be good or bad, to make us feel our lives contextually better or worse each time that we switch on the TV and we are always left saying, “Great it was not me” and then moving on as if noting happened to the next circus! You see the real geniuses of the world don’t have time for TV shows and ranting off strategy on prime time! They are serious about what they do and they know what is at stake, likewise real politicians, statesman and business houses, they never waste time ranting off their next moves, secrets as a prime time event! Often,the ones’ who hardly have a figment of understanding of what’s really unfolding end up occupying the void places left by the real experts and since public memory is short, they are always forgotten and at times they themselves forget what is that they had said about a problem and often end up contradicting themselves as time flows!

The easiest way to note and steer clear of the “expert syndrome” is by knowing who is speaking about what! If the people who are speaking are not the ones’ who are solving the problem at hand, then no matter what, you can be rest assured they are just occupying the void and creating an entertainment quotient! Think about it! Had they really been experts and there is a criss at hand, where would they really have been? In a TV studio or at the place – Ground Zero- where the solution have to be found and implemented?!

Before I begin to sound like another “expert”, I will leave you here, urging you to reflect and check for yourself, how many “experts” you really know and if you too are an “expert” which one are you- the real one or the pseudo one!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, until then stay wise, stay safe and enjoy your expertise at what you really do!

“Guru” in the workplace!

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

As the title suggests, this article is about trying to understand and explore- what really does it mean when we call or refer people that we work with “Guru” and what makes or doesn’t make one a “Guru”. Well certainly enough, you can always say, who am I to take a shot and define this space, well I am not doing that and neither do I intend to do that! This is about reflecting upon the true essence of the word “Guru” and how that can be appreciated in the times that we live in! So let’s begin!

We have all walked through those so called “aces” at work in our work areas, someone good at sales, someone good at marketing, few others ace it with numbers, few dealing with people so on and so forth, but very few and rarely you will find people around you, when you come across them , seem to be institutions within themselves! These are radically different, they may not always have that coveted expensive degree, nor always will they have that infectious personality and neither will they always seem to be all that spic and span – almost ready for the next shoot of a corporate magazine cover! These are the ones’ who hold us in awe, and respect by virtue of being who they simply are and these, my friends are the real “Gurus” that we have around our workplace! I am sure you would have encountered a few, I had the privilege to be lead by a few and that’s what makes our lives all that more enriching!

This is beyond that help your senior provided you with and you repaid the same with an evening beer, this is beyond that odd shift you took up to help that unlucky junior who had a bad bout of food poisoning, it is different from saving the job of that finance rookie who had posted wrong entries on the forbidden side of the balance sheet! So, by now if you are still wondering, if it’s none of this, not the managers, not the seniors, not the work, not the help, not the guidance, then what is it about? Well, my friend to begin with, let’s start by understanding the philosophical concept of the very word that we are trying to understand here- “Guru” – One of the many golden words from the ancient Sanskrit Language from the Indian sub-continent (often referred to as the language of the Gods) , the word Guru primarily has two parts- Gu- which implies Darkness and Ru which implies Light. This word primarily has been used to anyone and everyone who has had a profound capacity and ability to guide and direct the life or people away from darkness and usher them into the area of light! As the old masters say, The Guru never tells what to see, The Guru just tells where to look!

Now, with this new information at your disposal, I am certain your mind has already started to get into an overdrive to possibly evaluate who are or have been your “Gurus” and for whom you think you have been, well hang in there, there is much more to be understood before you actually end up offering the title or receiving the same!

The genesis or the importance of the “Guru” evolved and developed through the rich ancient history of what is today India, back then historically societies, in terms of complexities were far simpler than what we are today and largely worked around the dignity of labour and definition of the work that an individual did within the contextual frame of the prevailing society, so you end ed up being a priest, a soldier or a farmer or a tradesman or a social worker based on the competence that was derived on basis of one’s lineage- well there would have been benefits and adverse impacts around this- but that is not for the current topic. So once you had these defined sets of social class, meant to perform tasks with exceeding levels of competence to rise and ensure the safety and well being of the society- read kingdom, the onus was only on one vocation- it was the Teachers- The “Gurus” were the only people who stood between a society- kingdom being assured a continual supply of aces across the work areas or incompetent people joining the work areas which would eventual result into the disintegration and falling apart of the kingdom- because once Incompetence sets in- sooner or later- collapse will be certain- whether it be an individual- a society or a kingdom!

Now that the onus of ensuring safety and well being of each and every soul firmly resting on the wise teachers, what do you think would have manifested further? Well yes, good teacher’s created good enough students who were able to hold on to the societies and kingdoms for a few generation perhaps and when extraordinary teachers created geniuses among students, their kingdoms had legacies which last centuries and in some cases have left an impeccable mark on the way we carry out our modern live as well- don’t believe me- well think about the India’s National Emblem you will possibly get a hint at what I mean here! The real “Gurus” have always been able to influence and create value for time periods lasting centuries- long after their physical presence has been lost by way of their structured teachings and eclectic followership- with only one goal- serve the larger and greater goal of the society and replenish the capabilities of an individual! So now that you have got the context, let’s come back to the “now” and what do you see now, do you still find an equivalent or a close comparison to these ancient “Gurus” within or around you? May be you do or may be you don’t, either ways, that’s fine-because that’s the irony of the times that we live in!

In the time that we live in, at the most what majority of the people involved in working around glass clad offices experience is the modern day concept of mentoring- that fabled mentor- mentee relationship- well it lasts as long as the objective of the organisation or the task at hand are met, post that no one really cares for the other! Nothing right or wrong with this aspect as this how the norm has been set whether we like it or not! Certainly there are ramifications for this, it works for that specific problem to be solved, but leaves both of them devoid of any learning which can set them up for future failures- as their focus is too focused and entrapped into one specific aspect- without considering the need of learning in depth of the mentee! The modern day office settings have invariably created pressures of work and time which simply don’t allow to foster in- depth understanding, which is needed for the real Gurus to present themselves, as the students too are almost never ready! There is an old saying, which I had read somewhere along, When the Student is Ready the Master arrives! Well in the modern day office where everyone is working from one pay check to the other, this wait of the students ends up becoming an eternal one, sometimes the Guru is there with no students and yet other times, the student is wailing for help with no Guru’s around! So what can be done about this, is there anything that can be really done?

For the Gurus to arrive and the student’s to thrive, we need to consider a radically different approach to work, an approach which thrives on debates, discussions and experimentation- with an emphasis to fail- rather than succeed (sure enough I am not suggesting the organisations to go bankrupt with this approach- whatever is within the limits of allowable failure). The ancient “Gurus” always had a great tenacity to teach through this approach and it worked because no one ever told the student what to do, they were always told what was required as a result- not how to get it done! The student who would have been the most creative and effective in providing the solution, would than be able to set a standard process for the given challenge for others to follow- this encouraged learning, competitiveness knowing well that- there is never only ONE right way and this ensured that students and Gurus alike ever remained humble! You see, Humility is the anchor stone to Learning and applicability of what is being learnt- Without humility, knowledge will just slip away like grains of sand from the fingers of your palm!

Another important way of knowing you are in company of a true Guru- “Gurus are not bonded to their designation/labels/business cards,they have a strong sense of assumed ownership and will jump straight into the challenge at hand and start providing directions for resolving the challenge- this will be needles to say, to the delight of many and the horror of a few others! Unlike the modern concept, people often misread the part tat the “Guru” has to be a senior person- your boss- or someone in the office who is about to get an heart attack or fade away or retire; well it doesn’t have to be that way! On the other extreme end, actually it could be that new intern sitting and smiling away in all glory to your dumbness! You see,- Guru- as the word implies- the ability to dispel darkness and show the light- also has an intrinsic aspect of common-sense woven into it, you don’t always need to have a deep philosophical bondage to it, just because the word and the manifestation of it have such deep rooted civilization tagged to it!

The fact remains though, for the master to appear, there has to readiness among the students!; You see businesses hire based on consideration sets of the services that have to be provided to the society, and unlike earlier times, we have warped workplaces cloaked and hidden away into far too much of incompetence- which is hidden not because of anything else but the pressure of loosing the livelihood– If businesses ensure that incompetence management is an anchor stone of their business turnaround policy- more than ever students will present themselves to be trained, retrained and skilled and for that to manifest, the masters’ the Gurus’s will appear like magic- This simple shift in the mindset of people to deal and engage with incompetence and not negate or hush it up will do a lot good not only to save livelihoods but create finer and sharper work force which in times ahead can unleash new ways of excellence pertaining to their work!

Well, if you ask me, the presence or absence of the real “guru” in a workplace speaks a lot about the place itself! All great places which have created an impact on human lives have been fortunate to have these unsung masters always around- some famous, many not so famous and it is these tiny elements that go on to make a big difference for an organisation to be considered among the best and being THE BEST! Not to forget, there is a “Guru” within each of us, perhaps you may be struggling with what you do, but something within you, can make a whole big difference in someone else’s life! It is about taking those pauses at work and reflect to see, what is that you know and what is that you know- that you don’t know- when you reach this space- you will have the Guru paying you a visit and at the same time you will end up being a Guru to someone else too!

I will leave you here, with these quasi-philosophical aspects around the concept of “Guru”, I have intentionally stopped short of getting into mundane examples of our office lives and will leave all of that for your imagination and experience to play it around for you! What is important is to have the realization that without The Guru- there is no light and without Light there is no Life! The Guru is sometimes within you and at times around you- You just need to seek THE GURU! Yes, I read this somewhere, never forget- The Guru doesn’t ever tell you what to see, but always guides you where to look! Think around this!

Ciao for now, will be back with another article and once again, Here’s Wishing Everyone A Very Blessed Guru Purnima!

The damaging myth of Immortality!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Ask anyone what they want to achieve in life and the eventual answer will lead you to one definite truth- “Everyone wants to be remembered”, Well reasons can be different-good or bad- duration can be different long or short- but the fact remains- people have this urge to be remembered and recalled and guess that is what is a hallmark of humanity- nothing wrong or right about this space- the real fun begins with the concept, the contextual relevance and the eventual reality of what “Immortality” really means and how it will in all probability manifest! Join me over the next few minutes in attempt to simplify and add clarity to this ambiguous space! to know and learn why, as humans we are the way we are!

To begin with the concept is as humorous it can be, I mean to be immortal essentially you have to die and the best part is once you are dead, you don’t ever know if you really have achieved what you had set out for while you are alive! Sounds weird right? but well that’s how plain stupid and ironic the whole shit is! But wait, in’st the world full of autobiographies and records of great people who have created or destroyed the world- Well sure it is, but if you dig deeper, you will realise the number of such documents only exploded exponentially since the mid- 1700’s once the ability to print and record became mechanical! Search any medieval time frame of history or even ancient records, you will always find that even the greatest of all civilizations that ever existed and flourished had a limited number of documented recordings (compared to the last 400 years) whether in text- or through inscriptions on the stones or whatever medium was possibly used! What does this tell you? A couple of things, firstly, majority of the people who got recorded in history in greater details- lived at a time when they were too brilliant or simply the finest among the best- either they weer surrounded by real idiots to look smarter or on that rare occasion (the period when science flourished early 18th century) you had a dazzling collection of the finest minds which catapulted the breakthroughs in science and technology almost simultaneously across Europe and the Atlantic! Secondly and most importantly, none of the people who came to be remembered for longer times post their departure, never lived their life pursuing “immortality” , they basically kept things as simple as they could for themselves and went through their lives doing what was best possible and the way they could create an impact with what they had within themselves and around themselves in terms of resources and competence! As they say- once you start acting to the best version of yourself the world aligns itself to serve you and your cause! Whether that is a good one or bad one – contextually differs and let’s leave it at that! So you may want to ask me around now, fine so what?

Well, the problem is that people, in today’s era go about their lives as if they are going to live forever and are so obsessed with the fallacy of creating so called “legacies at work”, “signature statements” and so on and so forth, without realizing that, given the level of complexities of our time, unless you don’t do anything which has a radical, immediate and sustaining value of creation for the greater good of humanity- you will too fade away as just another “death count” in the ocean of humanity! Perhaps you will be lucky enough if you your grand kids remember you, well that will be the maximum that you will earn- as far as your tryst with immortality is concerned! Consider this, each day whether you like of hate it- you will touch some form of plastic, nylon based material- how many of you would know the story about the people behind the invention of this material? We all know about the Wright Brothers and the first powered flight of humanity- how many of us know all the fine engineers and designers who went on to develop and build on those principles to shape the amazing machines that we fly today? Well, don’t panic neither do I know all of them, so even I am as blank as you are- this is exactly the point- you see many of these great people would have spent a major portion of their lives- at times their entire life- creating an amazing machine for humanity or some great technological value that made our lives so comfortable- but in their giving up of their whole life for this cause- what have they got in return? Unless you are some kind of driven by research and bitten by the “Why” bug, you will never want to walk into the library and find for yourself from the dusty books to learn what all transpired in those times, through the journals of science and know the efforts that went into making our lives what they are today! We are just fine with a search string on a search engine and more often then not quite happy with the unfiltered and unverified garbage that it throws at us!

As much as it is true that great inventors, innovator’s and fine people who aided and accelerated discoveries and contributed to make our lives the way they are today, never went after the maddening craze and urge to be remembered forever- by uploading selfies, writing and re-writing books or posting online videos etc– well, you may argue had the technology been there- they would have- well, who knows, may be you are right too! But the focus here is- critically about how they lived their lives- they lived their lives with a finite purpose and focus – and yes- except for those few lucky rich inventors and scientists a majority of them were average wealthy co-creators who were able to strike a balance between their work and personal lives even as they went about creating magic for the centuries ahead! So what is this telling you- Not to forsake your today for a tomorrow, especially when you are not going to be around to relish it! Well, don’t jump the gun and say, I am asking you to be selfish, I am just asking you to be honest and accept the fact that you will not be there forever- so for the time you are there- Learn to create more value and whatever that you want to create in the “now” of your time and not being bothered by anything else! Consider this, you may ace a new way to bake a chocolate cake- you use your today- each day two hours each day for a year to come up with this super wonderfully delicious chocolate cake- now you have two choices- either keep baking and serving people as long as you are alive and then the recipe dies with you or write a book – create a video and let the people relish the goodness of what they end up making for themselves! But if you try to start thinking how people will enjoy the cake over next three hundred years, after you are dead- well than you have a serious mental issue which is no more related to immortality but straight way exhibits hallucinatory streaks! These are the seemingly innocent spaces where, the misplaced understanding of immortality ends up damaging people beyond repair in their present! Want to know what immortality is really about? well read on!

If you see the classical texts of any religions or civilizations, chances are that the oldest, the finest and the most famous one’s have been written, inscribed anywhere between 5000-15000 years BCE and some of them are still revered as texts of great value- so if you now analyse the “content” of what these texts say, well they all in a way try to communicate the essence of way of living for humanity and albeit few of them would have created religious or spiritual pathways through the content created- few would be mere civilization documentations mentioning how they went about their daily lives- and whats was meant, how and why- eitehrways the common and the only thread that is unifying and found across all the continents within these seemingly “immortal” creations is the emphasis on “quality of human life, purpose, direction, way of living and societal construct”. So if you are aiming to be immortal- first and foremost your creation has to be at that caliber-that even after 5000 years from now, that work of your’s must hold good and true and if this initial challenge is not enough, you will need to have a mass followership and a real line of disciples who can continue to propagate the idea/thought in a structured manner on an ongoing basis -adapting the same with their tweaks as times evolves through the course of history!

So having given you this secret, if your business or office work- is not helping you come anywhere close to this what I just mentioned, you and I will be all, but a death count and the fallacy of immortality can rest within the confines of our families!- They too will remember if we have given anything to them of merit and value which they perceive! So if you have been wasting your present for those elusive awards, works of fiction, great business numbers and all that- thinking you will leave a legacy and people will remember you- well sorry to disappoint you- no one would really care enough! because we live in times when managing ourselves by itself has become a task unto itself and you too know it very well deep within! So what to do?

Well get a helpful dose of common-sense and start living your life by creating, co-creating experiences which will effect and lead to some value creation for the people around you and the people that you engage with! Stop hallucinating about the right and the wrong- see the context and measure what best can you deliver against the contextual frame that you operate from! If you frame is small and your delivery is large enough- who knows you may just become lucky and really be qualified enough to become an immortal soul! However like it is often the case, we move about societies wherein the societal frames are too wide and too deep and no matter how much we attempt to create a splash the water seldom causes a ripple beyond a small zone and before anyone even reacts/ reads those ripples your life is all but lost within the great history of humanity forever! Lasting fame which remains for the next century or so will be a huge achievement, if you were to ask me what constitutes to modern day equivalent of immortality! Well, and to share with you another secret, unless you work or associate with something that changes the fundamentals or builds further upon or creates value to them, rest assured all that you do or don’t will not go beyond your grand kids!

Living in the “now” to create lasting value makes more sense and is perhaps the only incremental way to achieve fame (although it may only last for a few generations), without wrecking your mind or the people around by pursuing immortality without any real context! Final words- Immortality is the domain of the fundamentals of human society which pivot on belief’s, religions, philosophies and allied areas- unless you don’t create a lasting disruption within these corridors- lasting immortality will not go beyond your third generation!

I will leave you with my thoughts here and urge you to reflect when you hold your next coffee and look away into the distant horizon, to really understand within yourself -for your own benefit- What is that you are pursuing in your “now”? Fame or Immortality or both? and importantly if you are in the right frame to grow large enough to make that count! Never wreck your today for an unchangeable past or an unknown future, the “now” alone matters and that’s the only thing that each of us has got! What we do with it alone maters!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! Before I forget, thank you for your ongoing support and the mails that come in! Keep writing and do let me know what next you want to read here!

The simple truth about religion!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Among the few eternal questions that humankind has been asking through recorded history; one of the most important one has been “What is religion?” and “Who has given it to whom?” Well before you begin to jump to conclusion- well no, I am certainly not claiming to be an authority- or providing you a definitive answer to all your religion driven pain- this is about sharing a few observations, thoughts – to the limitation of this being a blog (which I am sure many of you would have also experienced) and trying to make sense within the fog of uncertainty and ambiguity!

No matter which belief system you decide to choose and follow, the beginnings are all mysterious- with some answers being found- while others still shrouded in a cloak of the unexplained! Few belief systems have symbolism, while few do not have. Some believe in the practicing to the written down guidelines by the rule- yet others offer relaxation to ensure the that the belief system is amicable to the individual and is something that becomes a natural part of the self.

But the topic is not this, the question is what happens when we have a belief system or a religion? Well one way of looking towards it through human evolution through the eons- Religions or Belief systems- have over a period of time developed and evolved to ensure that the evolving human intellect is harnessed for the larger and greater good of the individual and the community around! As human beings made progress from being hunters, nomads and civilizations came into being (at times with large kingdoms and empires that stretched far and wide), belief systems set rituals, beliefs and practices that brought in a common thread to ensure a common identity of conformity. A conformity towards expected behaviors, values and ideologies!

As long as these laid down belief systems were practiced within the confines of the kingdoms and empires and left untouched virtually for long periods of time they have flourished and become richer in expression in the form of hymns, verses, texts, manuscripts, theological masterpieces and philosophical renderings. These have in many cases added value to the religious belief systems and in few cases- has added to regressive mentions which tried to confine communities into sub-divisions using one or the other aspects of the societal structures of those times!

Everything is fine till this point; however as societies became more permanent in nature and as instances of expansionist greed and hunger for power and control began sometimes through invasion of gypsy warriors and at times by planned expansion (which could have been for some forceful need to migrate from original lands- read fearing persecution) the fabric of faith and the followers of faith began to undergo a metamorphosis and a change that worked for and against each faith and belief system across the world!

The real challenge studying Human beings is that – As humans, we are perhaps the most logic driven yet one of the most irrational beings at the same time! I mean you will never see a wild animal attack it prey if its not hungry! You will never see any animal for that matter attack (unless it feel provoked and threatened or gets confused about Your intentions!) The reason for this logic and irrational paradox within our personalities resides and rides upon our higher evolved emotional attributes – read- pride, ego, jealousy and fear! Ignorance when added to any of these attributes casts a spell that only swells with time and ultimately blinds out all rational thinking and creates a mind which has its own thinking like a runaway carriage and goes on into a self-destruct mode- not ever realizing what it is unleashing in the ensuing journey and at what cost- whatever that is being pursued is being achieved!

Over eons as faiths evolved and belief systems evolved- they have not been handed down from one generation to the next- the way they should have- that is without any flavoring of what the previous generation though and how they adapted it to suit their needs of the bygone times! In certain cases this evolution of faith and belief systems has worked well- because it has simplified understanding and follower-ship in the present times. However in some cases additional layers of ambiguity and thoughts which create animosity and rift have got planted (which at some point in time in history would have been appropriate for safeguarding the follower-ship of a particular faith in a geographical region under prevailing political scenarios then) but as these did not get dropped off – they tend to raise their ugly heads and whip a deadly cocktail of justifying inhuman acts across the present times- which really serves no one- not the faith – neither the followers and certainly not Humanity in general!

So you may ask what is the way ahead? Well, as I said in the beginning I am not an authority, nor do I claim I have the power! but what I can share with you is a few simple and human things that we all can do to ensure we individually contribute to make our immediate neighborhoods better- and once we have done that- we have better communities, societies, nations and a better world!

Always remember as a cardinal principle-

1)Religion, Faith or a Belief system is a Private matter and always allow it to be that!

2)Respect other’s faith or belief systems, so that they respect your faith and leave it at that!

3) If all questions had the answers- they would have been already answered- if there are few questions that are yet unanswered- there must be a reason for that too- leave tings at that!

4) While choosing over the right thing to do or doing a thing the right way- always choose a path which serves the greater good of humanity- if even one human is harmed by any chord that is being touched under the garb of altering or furthering belief systems or faith- that is not the right path!

5) Finally always remember- all the authentic , ancient texts, manuscripts have always preached and cherished the feeling of togetherness through affection, love and fostering humanity as the greatest service to the supreme power that you believe through the Belief system of faith that you choose and there is no second to this principle- Hold this belief and approach ahead- you will find the world is a better place than what some make it to be by telling you what suits them!

It is perhaps the greatest and the most simplest truth of life- that in the metered seconds of life that each one of us has- if we spend bickering and wasting about tings that really don’t matter – What is that we have achieved and What is the story and legacy that we want to leave behind? Think about this when you have your next coffee! Trust me on one thing- If you follow a belief system or a faith- and you do believe in something- it really doesn’t serve your Supreme Lord- when you go about discussing, fighting, bickering about things that really don’t count! If you are indeed spiritual or someone who holds a belief system dearly- all actions must align to take you closer and further towards that celestial journey- This is what all texts and manuscripts across all faiths and belief systems speak about in one voice! The Greatest service to the Supreme Power is serving Humanity!

I leave you with these sublime thoughts for the week ahead, stay clam, stay wise and remember to always act in a way that makes your presence equally celebrated as is your faith- no matter what faith that you have chosen to follow! Stay Blessed!