Tag: simplifylives

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!

Harness the Invisible to stay Invincible.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

As trivial as it may seem, in the times that we are in today, that cloak of invisibility is what alone can provide us with invincibility as we navigate through our lives pursuing our aspirations and connecting the dots and dashes! Join me here for a quick read through to learn about what this invisibility is all about and how that has the ability to empower us to a point of being invincible, why is it so elusive and what is that we can really do about it! So here we go!

Whether you are running for the Presidency of a nation or wanting to get that next big break or simply want to put on your 100% at what you have on your hand, it all begins with your ability to decode the invisible forces around and within you and harness them to make you invincible to attain what you are pursuing.

Often people end up being entrapped in all that is played around them and more importantly within the visible spectrum – of what they see or rather should I say more appropriately what they perceive to see! Even as they go about this, they completely forget to factor in the vital aspect of what exists behind what is apparently being played out and this critical component is often what gives strength and power to what manifests around us! Unless we are able to decipher these drivers which almost always remain hidden away form plain sight and what gets played around to the audience, we will always end up being short changed as far as being able to get to the reality and truth of what is there and what is being told is there! Let me explain!

Consider the ongoing crisis developing form the US Elections, what we get to see around is- whether you have loyalties to aligned to the Red or the Blue- irrespective of that- the fact remains that- in the ensuing war for the coveted chair- a lot of ugliness is now coming to the forefront and the way that is coming through is likely to end up doing more damage to the nation and rather than building it further- like every election is supposed to be actually doing, these have actually ended up making the nation more vulnerable and divided more than ever! But hidden away, far away from what media projects, analyzes and sells as stories to the dutiful unsuspecting viewer, are the real stories of how at this very moment politicians, bureaucrats, the judicial system and the uniforms that are under oath to serve and protect the nation would be working overtime and really fast to derive meaningfulness and sense from the chaos around to help the nation arrive at a sane decision which is just, fair, transparent and which holds the promise for the people of the nation for the now and the years ahead! Think around this, tucked away from all what happens in front of the cameras exists a whole world- a complete different eco-system which is all aligned to one cause- the cause of the nation- irrespective of the political ideology and it is this system that will eventually come up with the answers that the whole world awaits for!

If this is true about the political system, so it is for everything around us, whether it is the sales deal that you want to clinch or that decision that you want to implement for the organization that you lead- all of that will only work and work as it should only if you have deciphered who the invisible forces are and what is that they aspire for! Unless and until you don’t have a buy in or a nod so to say from those quarters, no matter what you do, and how well you do, what you do- success will remain as elusive and as certain as your ever growing confusion- as you fail to comprehend the reality around from the lens of the invisible forces! But what could be these invisible forces that control outcomes for Individuals? Well read on!

These seemingly invisible forces are your belief systems, your approach, your attribute, your competences, ability to discern and apart from these intrinsic aspects, you have the every changing extrinsic variables around you that have the power to impact what you aspire for and what you intend to do- the action that you are ready to take to get what you aspire! These could be the social construct (the passive ones’ which are so easy for one to overlook), the timing (of what you want to do- whether others are ready for that!), the intent (whether the larger intent of the society is aligned to you or not!) and finally the ever present great question “what is there in it for me?” and to make matters more intriguing this question can pop up n number of times from the same space or from new pockets and this ever changing flux is what goes on to alter the course of an individuals ability to hold on to success or experience a “yo-yo” effect on their success quotient as the extrinsic factors play havoc and try to scuttle the stability associated with their pursuit of success! So what’s the story? What’s the point here?

Well, the point is plain and simple; as gullible and deceptively simple it is to get sold into all that gets played around you all the time, that very attribute of the society or the individual ends up setting them up against the Invisible forces operating upon them and dragging them into an eternal battle zone where there is no winner and no looser! This is what ends up depleting a majority of individuals and societies; as they play to what is seen and what is perceived they neglect and disregard the value and the power of the Invisible forces and that is all that is required to embrace limiting success or continuing failure! It is only when individuals or societies are able to rise above and beyond the narratives that they are been served with and able to see the operating Invisible forces behind them, that they will be able to better manage and control the outcomes aligned to their aspirations, simply by deciphering the Invisible better and using that very force to augment and multiply their efforts to empower them for being resilient and strong as they keep walking on the path of their aspirations!

It is only this space of knowing what can provide you invincibility that will ever empower you and keep you on the trajectory of being successful by harnessing thee Invisible powers that are always at work- it’s just about getting them to work for you and not working against them!

I leave you with these thoughts here, take a break and seek the invisible powers around you and do reflect upon whether they offer or take away that vital Invincibility form you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay Invincible and harness the invisible!

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!

Get “A Philosopher’s mind”.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Human progress and development, believe it or not owes a great deal to the powerful and enigmatic minds of the many great philosophers who have walked through this planet and have made their mark at different points in time across civilizations and nations, ushering in new hope, thinking and empowering them to create a wonderful collective future for the society in particular and the nation in general! Join me here as we try to get a broader sense into what goes into the minds of these magical beings and what is that we can emulate and carry with us so that we too get a few anchors that help us through the choppy lives that we have!

Choose any point in history, and each time you arrive at a society that was flourishing and leading in that context of time, chances are that alongside art, culture and trade that would have been flourishing, there would have been instances of philosophers too (many of which) who till date, continue to inspire, motivate and keep us engaged on some relevant facets of life! Why does this happen? Well, simply put, as our needs are satiated and as we begin to climb higher up on the ladder of enquiry and begin asking more and more compelling questions that is where the realm of the philosopher commences! You see, majority of humanity takes birth, lives and dies and more or less has a templated pattern- either a job or business or a profession with varying levels of success and failures and depending on what is played out and more often then not, the general outlook and perception about everyone and everything around gets developed in this way! Importantly, this is the very space where, acquiring a philosopher’s mind helps! Let me explain!

Most of us when confronted with failure and rejection will almost always start with the first question, ” Why me?”, but when you face the same scenario and have a philosopher’s mind, the questions change based on the depth of the philosophical enquiry! Consider you got fewer marks or that pay rise which was much less than what you thought it would be – the normal way would be to crib, bitch and sulk on the outcome and come up with excuses which are disguised as reasons- the impact- well nothing really changes in your life or the other person’s life in the NOW or anytime in the future! Instead of this, if you were to hold on to the philosopher’s mindset the range of questions and the depth of questions (sure enough depending upon your own intrinsic intelligence) could range from, “What next” to “Why did I think I would get more”, “Why did my judgement on this fail?” “Was my judgement only wrong on this one instance or is there a problem with the way I come to judgements and outcome analysis?” You see, using a philosopher’s mind, you can dive deep into the abyss of human intelligence and seek answers from within and depending on where you stop your questioning, from thereon you get to develop and build a foundation for your future instances!

The mind of the philosopher, is all about being able to hold on to compelling questions and undertake long and challenging journeys to get the answers to them! Sure enough it is not the space of wishful thinking, day-dreaming or intellectual hallucination, rather it is the quite opposite of all of this! The mind of the philosopher and the process of questioning is all based on sound science, unforgiving rationality, clarity and a huge generous dose of common-sense which is so important to de-clutter the ambiguity that almost always tends to creep up on to our mind and cloud our ability to think, and discern in the way that we really should!

What we often miss in plain sight is the fact that the quality of our lives is not a factor of the answers that we are able to provide to others or ourselves but rather the questions that we are able to ask ourselves and others! The relevance of these questions, their depth, their impact and what their unlocking potential is, determines how high we will be able to fly individually or collectively how far and how fast we will be able to lead the society!

Acquiring “The philosopher’s mind” is perhaps one of the most simplest ways to bring about a compelling and visible transformation in our lives; a transformation that will stick and not fade away! Once you are able to embrace the mind of a philosopher, you will begin to see come amazing things happen! Importantly you get to understand what can be controlled and what can’t be, you realize there is a reason for everything and everyone around you, no matter how trivial, helping or harming that is and that everything else fades in front of a commodity that we all call “time”! Sure enough there can be more in-depth and more intriguing questions that one can arrive from this space and one must; for that’s where magic happens and new breakthroughs are achieved, sometimes to empower the material plane of life and yet other times to uplift the spiritual and intangible pockets of peoples’ life! What also unfolds unmistakably is the ability to stay collected and firm- not to be mistaken with ego! This ability to be- steadfast is what makes a vital difference- for this provides amazing clarity and as anxiety is stripped away- all that is left within the mind is only relevant and a scientific process of progressive questioning to a problem or an incident- this method then allows people to see through and frame instances with a proper context thereby de-cluttering and avoiding unwanted layers of ambiguity, chaos and artificial hues which tend to distort what the reality is and what perception perhaps gets built over or around it!

The concept though seems to be simple, it is that much more challenging and unless one is able to stay firm, resolute and unwavering, the path of walking through the mind of the philosopher remains uncertain!

I will leave you with these thoughts here and urge you to take some time off and wade away into the depths of the “philosopher’s mind” that exists within you and see what new questions you are able to deal with and what are the answers that you see coming back to you! Engage within and liberate yourself that’s the way to move ahead with an empowered mind and a frame that is fluid, wide, in-depth and built on compelling questions and thoughts which make a difference to you and to the world around you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then keep walking and keep asking! The only way to be sure of success is to keep failing towards it and keep moving towards it always asking vital questions through the frame of a “Philosopher’s mind”!

The Story of Hope.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

In these wonderful times, dotted with a deadly pandemic and politically charged hysteria; what more can people offer each other than some healthy dose of hope! For Hope alone (at least for now) seems to be the only constant that has always been there with us in this ever changing dynamic world that we face each day- which seems to get more and more volatile and insane! Join me here for a quick read to decipher Hope and why it works and why it doesn’t and thereby try to understand how much hope is healthy and when does hopelessness help! So here we go!

Through evolution of human societies, if there have been silent sentinels to humanity, hope is undoubtedly one of the foremost of them all! So what is hope and what is that makes “hope” so contagious? The genesis of “hope” can be found throughout our history- whether we were at peace and engaged in creative pursuits of grandeur or we lived in times when war and conflict ruled, “hope” has always made it’s way into our lives- at times to empower us further and make us more creative and at other times coming in to strengthen us to develop enough courage to deal with what we would have been facing! But how does “hope” manifest? Like everything else, “Hope” too is a figment of human intelligence, wisdom and knowledge ( each of these aspects, similar yet completely different) amalgamate to form what we term as “hope”. Without “Hope” there can be no humanity, but at times, this very misplaced “hope” endangers humanity like nothing else!

Hope has always been about allowing the human intelligence to expand and explore what lies beyond what is visible. Hope is what made crusades possible and the made explorers who they were! Hope being a function of the human mind- drawing its strength on rational thinking, a generous sprinkle of intuition, empowered by virtues like courage and patience is what has made the human society reach where it has reached today! The advancements of civilizations through the ages, the breakthroughs in science and engineering, the renaissance of the creative world , each and every element that you perhaps see around you is a story of the victory of human hope under some testing times, some years back! Consider this, today when we get the flu (not the pandemic one) we know we will be alright, that was not the case about 150 years back! With time as science and medicine advanced and a better understanding about the illness and the causes came to the forefront, scientific and rational approach to cure the sick has saved many lives and these lives continue to be saved each day all over the world, all of this became possible only because a few healthcare workers and scientists were ever hopeful and pivoting on that hope they were able to find the cure to a medical condition. This is what has made us to arrive at a stage- where we are in a better space to decipher all that gets opened up around us, all the time no matter how high or complex the challenge, a healthy does of hope is all it takes to turn the tide in the favour of humanity! But then why does hope end up getting mis-sold? How do peddlers of hope at times place humanity at the cross hairs of disasters and unleash untold misery on fellow humans? Well here, like in the case of all vices, it has to do more with human greed- individual and societal rather than a problem about hope! Let me explain!

Humans come in as many hues and colors as nature can present us with and needless to say each of those variations come in with their own package of intelligence, wisdom and knowledge. When there is a dash of the wrong ingredients a self-serving approach begins to take precedent, that’s when problems begin and that’s how these individuals begin to sell “hope” when it is actually something else (basically an agenda, a narrative- which looks and feels like hope- but sadly isn’t) and what’s more worrisome is that fact that these “pseudo-hope” stories end up creating skewed and fractured societies and individuals thereby bringing around the whole debate about “how much of hope” is alright and when does “hope” begin to turn into despair! So what’s the way ahead?

Once “hope” starts getting mis-sold or rather should I say, once everything else begins to get sold as “hope” is when the problems start to compound and depending on how high an individual is in the social frame, what that person’s span of control and circle of influence is. It is this, which leads to the systematic and structured decay of real “hope” and with time what you end up having, is a society replete with individuals who are high on unfounded hope and eternally waiting to see the Sunrise even as they stand facing the west! It is these spaces where people don’t lie but neither offer rational or realistic understanding that false narratives get sold as hope and that takes away whatever limited courage and strength individuals are left with to deal with what they may be facing! But the question why would people do that? Why would anyone falsify and mis-sell falsified narratives disguised as “hope”? Well that really depends on the people who are involved in that space and the purpose of why that is been done! You see, a parent telling a kid that the grades will be better next year (knowing well they may not go beyond another 4-5% points) is just helping the kid stay aligned and not go astray! Genuine and Valid, this is how real “hope” is encouraging, progressive and harmless, on the other end, you have that parent who wants you to lead the pack and stand number uno (knowing that in the whole family people have struggled to get a B grade) is where stress will start to creep in and false and fake perceptions and narratives then begin to outdo “real hope” and thereby manifest everything but the desired outcome!

Likewise when it comes to dealing with people, whether be relations, work, social interactions or even in the instances where societies and nations have to be led, as long as individuals and leaders stay aligned to the space which offers, “real, meaningful, directed and objective driven hope” it works wonders and creates a vibrant, engaged and proactive individuals and social cohort. The moment people begin to sell fake narratives and falsified hope, social decay commences and sooner or late, both (the person who offers these misleading narratives and the people who soak into it) come back to the very same cross-roads where they had earlier met, only to realize what a waste of time it has been for both- the only person who perhaps will not mind that- is the person who would have profited from that exercise and this is the space where those sooth sayer’s and hope sellers operate- without thinking for a minute- what hardship and challenges will individuals face once the narratives fade away! Few politicians operate in this space, come election time, you hear the same sob story of “they did what they could” which is the underlying narrative and all time favorite, rarely will you come across a politician who says, “Inspite and Despite of all this, I did this and will continue to this, knowing well the obstacles on the way”! When you do find someone speaking this line- You have found a rare gem! So what’s the takeaway, you may ask?

Well, it’s simple, always know that “hope”- that is real hope is as rustic and unglamorous as our lives are- it is equally vulnerable as all our other virtues and feeds on your ever changing levels of confidence and fear. Real hope is hard and needs patience and courage for one to withstand the time of their lives hanging on the sliver of hope- simply because the strength and impact of hope always is proportional to an individual’s courage and patience! Hope too is intrinsic and how hopeful one person is the other will never be at the same level- the broader frame may be the same, but the depth and intensity will differ and that depends on the social context of the individuals and other ambient factors! It is when there is a broader social alignment to few issues among the many that societies tend to see the change and that’s when hope begins to manifest! Whether that cohort is a force of fire-fighters , people having a similar political ideology or pursuit of some defined cause, when these are aligned and synchronous is when hope begins to manifest and that’s how “being hopeful” consistently begins to translate and bring in the aspired transformation within individuals and around societies! It has never been a question about being hopeful about “hope”, what matters is staying clear and away from narratives which are disguised as “hope” (which are replete around us) and this is perhaps the leading cause of all strife and tribulations that individuals’, societies undergo, given the times that we live in!

If you ask me, I will say, stay hopeful about what is rational and all that looks unglamorous, hard-work and vital; all else that looks too easy, too loud and too glamorous in all probability is nothing more than a falsified narrative which is being peddled as hope!

I leave you with these thoughts here, urging you to stay “hopeful” for yourself and humanity on all things that matter and must be dealt with, no matter how difficult or challenging they seem to be! Take that pause and check, how much of “real hope” you have received and how much of it have you offered to others! Did you ever fall prey to something else that was peddled as hope?

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

Embrace “Minimalistic Opulence”.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

This quick one is to share with you thoughts on what I call as, “minimalistic opulence” ; which in turn can bring welcome changes to your life and even in the lives the people around you! Join me here as we try to unravel and decipher what this is all about and how it manifests and what are the tell tale signs of minimalism with opulence. As we skim through this, we also understand why this matters and how this can empower individuals to do what is possible in their own realm! So here we go!

The challenges that we see around the world have fundamentally to do a lot with the natural (yes natural) tendency of humans to hoard and hold! You see, as we evolved, through the ages, human settlements have flourished and perished on account of having and not having- now what those elements were changed from time to time- in the earlier days, historic times it was as simple as sustainable and on going food shelter and safety (from the wild and fellow humans in a minor way) but as we progressed and settlements began to change into civilizations and rules and regulations of societies began to come in- everything else changed, but the problem of the people on the fringe- the people who in these societies still have to wage a war to just ensure they have a shelter over and food on the plate! But within these same societies you have people who have all what they would ever need and continue to hold on and hoard on still more and more and this is the setting which makes a compelling case for embracing “minimalistic opulence”

I am not asking you to be opulent in a minimalist way, rather I am urging you to stay a minimalist and stay opulent ( not being miserly or frugal) and this is perhaps the only way that society can accelerate resource re-distribution, re-allocation and re-prioritize what the society needs and how much of it! Sure enough, you don’t have to be a billionaire to do this, but every action that you take, just by being who you are, you will end up transforming the ways that billionaires probably want to sun or ruin the societies as the case may be and just one intervention from you- will set the clock in motion to create enough ripples to bring about changes that you want in the society that you are in! It certainly will depend on what’s been held up and what’s been hoarded in a society, but rest assured a slight nudge from your end and walking away from that party- will soon enough destabilize the social frameworks as you begin to embrace this route of “minimalistic opulence”. Don’t be mistaken this not any socialist rant, it rather is a way to empower individuals so that they can keep shifting the balance of a society in a dynamic manner which discourages hoarding and promotes the idea of “minimalist opulence”. So what is this really? How can we practise it? How can we see it manifest around us? Is it viable enough? Read on!

Since this is a blog, I am going to keep it short and to the point! Whichever society you live in if there’s any way to stop the skewing of opportunities and resources within the context of the frame- it will have to start by knowing when “enough is enough” about everything and anything that we do and is around us! How many clothes are enough, how much travel is enough, how much money is enough? Well you see, you can come with different answers and don’t mistake there’s nothing wrong in wanting more or less- that all depends on who You are and what your aspirations and chosen path of life is- the real issue is- is the society ready and able to give you what you choose? Because if the social frame doesn’t allow you to (by making or promoting conditions so), nothing will matter, whether it is the extra dollar you want to make or those millions of dollars that you aspire for! This is where Minimalistic Opulence again comes to your rescue! How? Read on!

To begin with, as I said earlier, it is not about frugality or being a miser or being a Robin Hood to equally reallocate wealth to everyone! No, that’s not how it works! It all starts at the very foundation of everything, and that foundation is “You”. Once you are able to know yourself well enough-then you know what is that you need and what is that you aspire for! These are two different and fundamentally important things! When you don’t get what you need- you have an existential crisis- but when you don’t get what you aspire for- you still exist but don’t get to live the way you aspired for! The whole process of “minimalism with opulence” gets played out in the space of your needs!

It all starts by you getting to know who “you” are and once you have done that, then the only thing remains is to arrange all that you “need” on the canvas of your life. These needs can be big or small , easy or challenging , possible in your social frame or may be not- what matters is this is what you “need” to have and this is what will make “you” complete and this is the essence of social opulence! Once you reach this space, decisions as trivial as, “how many clothes in your closet”, to “which car” to “what profession” or “which vacation” all of these begin to get answered and go a long way to de-clutter your life and thereby ensure that at all times your inner circle of life is always filled and complete with(as much as possible) things and people that go on to make your “needs” and this is what “minimalist opulence” is all about! It is about knowing yourself, your needs and then living a life pursuing what matters and is critical to your existence! So what about aspirations?

Aspirations are important, no one is asking you to do away with your ambition or aspirational attitude to be better and ahead than where you are right now! What is important is that these aspirations have to be allowing your need horizon to expand naturally and in a congruent way so that even as you grow and thrive in the times ahead, you do not succumb to the hoarding or holding mentality and get drawn into the mad race of wanting beyond your needs- immediate and long term both! Let me explain this, say you are a doctor and doing well and everything that you ever wanted is there around and in your life- one fine morning you get an offer to own a hospital- your own hospital and with a little stretch you know you will be able to own it- Now the question is how natural will that step be to expand the horizons of your need and how much of that will manifest in an non-divergent way! You see owning the hospital is one thing and being able to run it like a business is a different ball game altogether- that’s why not all Doctor’s make great surgeons and neither are all of them great administrators! There are very few and rarest of the rare who are able to blend in the best of the both worlds and it is eventually these set of doctors who end up running the biggest and the best medical and healthcare facilities- simply because their aspirations melted into being their needs with the passage of time and they allowed that to manifest and evolve slowly and in way that allowed them to practise and embrace the change!

As long as your aspirations are aligned to your current needs and hold the ability to be transformed into the needs of tomorrow, you are all set to live your aspirations; provided the social frame permits that! The moment your aspirations are synced out of your need, you will begin to get consumed in the war of wanting more and holding to what you have (simply because you will find it difficult to understand how long what you have will remain!). This is what leads to never ending strife, chaos and ambiguity and often people end up spending entire life time trying to pursue aspirations that are in direct conflict of their needs and which perhaps never have the potential of transforming themselves into becoming needs in the times ahead! This is why “minimalism with opulence” helps, it helps to significantly de-clutter all that will not serve you now or in the times ahead and hence leaving you with more time and energy to pursue what matters, whether it is related to the realm of your needs or your aligned aspirations so that the journey stays congruent and converges to present you with empowering frames through the moments of your journey on an ongoing basis!

The word “opulence” you may be wondering why is it here, well opulence is all about being suave to know what really matters and how does that serve you in the now and in the times ahead! This frame of opulence alongside minimalism creates magic to help de-clutter in a rapid and aggressive manner all that one must!

The moment you start to want less, aspire less ( in line with what your trim level is) you will find you start to do a great service by buying less, wanting less, spending less and thereby no more holding back, unwanted hoarding of resources (whatever type they may be) and importantly you live a life- moment to moment- with greater focus and depth which again brings amazing clarity to build empowering moments which serve you in your now and in your oncoming tomorrow!

I leave you with thoughts, urging you to think around this space and embrace the frame of practicing “minimalistic opulence” to have an empowering now and a resilient tomorrow!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then Stay Safe and be in the now!

Designed to Fail.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

As surprising it may seem, the fact is that all of us, each one of us are designed to fail and fail as spectacularly and proportionally as our success is and this is one thing that doesn’t change, whether you like it or not, it is only the ability to change and translate that failure into something meaningful is what can ensure that you retain your sanity and keep moving ahead! Join me here as we try to decipher the why and what that makes us designed to fail and how all of that plays out and if there’s anything that can we do, to make all of those unfolding events to play out to our advantage!

When we see the world around us, what you see is that every product, every service and every aspect that touches our lives comes in with an intrinsic notification of failure! In case of some products (and what you can perhaps easily relate to) will the Expiry Date on the product- it does not mean that the product dies- rather what it implies is the fact that beyond that date- the product will not be able to function as it should and deliver the promise what it holds- that is – it has commenced to fail to it’s own standards of efficacy and value! If you thought this is limited to only food products, medicines or things that we consume, think again! Heard about accidents owing to mechanical fatigue/ mechanical failures, engine failures so on and so forth, accidental fires because of fail-safe mechanisms failing! Well, the whole universe around us is sprinkled with cases of accidents, disasters and what not, each of them having the same underlying reason- the instance when the accident or the disaster unfolds it the moment when the design fails or rather the failure of design begins to manifest!

You see every object that has been ever created has been forged by crafting multiple elements to make them what they are so that they can work and provide the service that they are supposed to- in fact almost every machine that we use, whether its the laptop on which you are reading this, your car, that plane you fly or the humble pen that you use to write your memoirs, each of them come with a service manual- some have written elaborate technical literature- which can be out rightly spooky requiring a qualified and technically competent person to decipher the language and apply method to that madness and yet at other times a generous use of common sense can help resolve and arrest developing failures! Consider this, you have that Cessna Aircraft as part of your private aircraft fleet and it comes with an elaborate maintenance manual and even if you would not be perhaps more knowledgeable about the aircraft of the need and urgency of a timely maintenance of the equipment, each time you reach out to a pilot to fly you out of that place and get you back, the first question and the first document that the pilot will be requesting you is going to be it’s maintenance records! Not because the pilot is an aeronautical engineer, but simply because, glancing through the records the pilot knows which parameter needs to be watched over which other- which is perhaps more likely to fail than the other and that’s what helps to take split second decisions, if the shit indeed hits the roof! There are innumerable such examples strewn all around us all the time and when those fabled accidents do strike, more often than not it has an element of one component that did not work the way it is designed to- be it the Human or the Machine! So now the big question- Why do things and people fail? What is failure?

Everything and Everyone by the virtue of their construct is designed to fail; just as all of us who are born, eventually end up being dead one fine day! Some fail early, some delay that, and it all boils down to a singular facet of how well does one manage and work over their failures to move from one to the next- this inversion of failure is often also referred as success in the world and how frequently and how well one is able to carry out this inversion is what sets apart a few from the others! Now if this is what failure is really all about, why do people fail? You see, failing and bouncing back is a very natural process (although it doesn’t seem so, because we have ended up planting negative social dogmas and references around it) and the reasons why things or people fail are broadly one of the two- There could be Intrinsic reasons- that is things and people fail because who they are and how they are or Extrinsic reasons- the context in which people and things are put into or operated within which ensures that they fail each time as they try to perform! This is something akin to stepping on the accelerator pedal with the hand brakes on! You may say now, so can we do something around this or are we just fated to fail?

We may be fated to fail owing to one of the attributes and depending on which one is more or less of the two adjustments on those fronts can ensure that you are able to incrementally nudge the contexts in your favour and that simple effort is more often than not enough to ensure that you move ahead and din’t remain stuck or get dragged back! Once individuals are able to determine what is contributing to their failure and what type of failure they are experiencing, it’s just a matter of time that adjustments can be done and executed to change the tide and turn failures inside out into success! So how do we go about this and if this is so simple, then why isn’t everyone successful using this technique?

Well, the trick to turn failure into success relies on two fundamental things; firstly the ability to know yourself- what is that you are or the thing that you are dealing with is and second is consistency. It is only when purpose and consistency meet that magic happens, because purpose keeps people and things moving ahead in the direction to achieve a set goal or reach a set destination and every time there is an obstacle or a hurdle in that process (read failure), the consistent approach to decipher the causes, correct them and keep moving on is the only way and perhaps the simplest approaches to take! Why is not everyone able to do this then, well, patience is perhaps the most rare of all virtues that we come across and without the sprinkling of patience around, consistency does not stand a chance!

Before I leave you on this piece, a few final words- Believe it or not the compelling fact of life is that we are all designed to fail and everything that humanity has every forged will also fail at a point in time- the only question is whether that will be an intrinsic failure or an extrinsic one and that goes on to determine the timing of that failure! This is the crux and this is what paradoxically empowers an individual to take a path to fail fast, forward and walk ahead or plan and delay that failure, either ways aligning themselves for an early or late success story!

I wanted to keep this piece intentionally a short and breezy one, so that you can have more time at hand, thinking and contemplating about the failures that you have experienced and how that unfolded then and were you able to turn that failure inside out to be a success story or was it something altogether different that walked into your life from that moment on and was that “success”?

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then Stay Safe and Stay Wise!

Time your failure.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

For anyone who has ever done anything worthwhile in their life, they would know the value of success and more than that they will importantly know the value of timing their failure! Yes, believe it or not more than timing of success (which is certainly important) it is of paramount importance how one times their failure, time it too soon and you may loose on some benefit and time it too loose, you end up missing the opportunity completely! Join me here we explore this space and try to unravel what makes timing failure so important and whats the real way to go about it!

Success stories, almost always start with the statement “I or We saw an opportunity” rarely do we see a success story openly stated as “I or We failed at “X” so we planned and that’s how the success story of “Y” came to life!” You may say, well why does it matter what “X” was and if the whole world is celebrating the “Y” shouldn’t we all do the same, well sure enough we can celebrate “Y” but if we ignore “Y” and fail to understand what happened in that space, be rest assured the transformation of Y to X is just a matter of time- When and not If! It is within these hidden away, intentionally or unintentionally forgotten spaces of “X” that lie the real secret of understanding and embracing failure well so that whatever next steps one chooses to take from thereon, they end up being essentially rewarding success stories that “Y” is! So what is it about timing of “X” or rather timing of one’s failure? How does that become a factor to determine the scope and success of “Y”? Read on!

To answer the question about the timing of failure, one must understand , what is failure and how is that different to success? Can at times Failure be really Success disguised in the moment? Let me explain! Consider this, you are a business tycoon with a few millions of change to spare and of the many real estate projects that your firm is working one odd project which represents .0005% of your revenue and perhaps .00025% of your business profit has gone bust- so what does that mean to you- may be nothing right- you may not even notice it unless it comes up in the mentions of the annual review meeting or something like that, but now, if that’s the only project you had and the only one thing to showcase as your business endeavor to the world- now what is unfolding? Almost staring into the darkness which threatens to wipe off your very existence of the business horizon ins’t it! So the first thing to take note is that the frame of failure is very important- if you use the right frame, you can really see if what is unfolding is indeed failure or perhaps just a small bump on the road that you tread upon and this first observation is vital to arrive at the next critical one- the one that helps you decipher timing- knowing when enough is just enough and when you need to stand down, step back or just stand still or perhaps take that crucial detour- simply because the way ahead is simply self-consuming and detrimental!

If you carefully observe stories that spelt success owing to a failure- it almost always is the case of the crucial timing of that failure! We have all heard about how larger businesses have acquired some business that was been offered at dirt cheap rate simply because the founders could not sustain it and how over time that business ended up saving the larger one and ended up being the identity of the business itself! This is the space where failing at the right time becomes crucial- you see, even for the original founders of a business for being able to walk away and actually earn something of a failing business (at that moment in time) is much of an achievement and that ability to have that kind of a risk appetite to dive into the unknown at that time is what creates a contextual difference about how the big business is changing its approach and attitude in the business landscape and thereby creates enough buzz and ripples to not only revive the failing business but if the conditions are right, empower it and turn that failing story into a shining success beacon! This all but can happen only if the failing business and the one that can identify and pick it up arrive in the frame of context at the right time! If the timing is wronged by even a few quarters, more often than not, it ends up scripts of fallen businesses and missed opportunities!

There is one more essence to this game of timing and that is of being the right size, you see when failures happen at the right time and the right size, they stand a chance of being picked up, course corrected and give another lease of life, either by the same people or by a different group of people! We have these examples all around us, know that airline which has been struggling and seeking buyers or investors, well why isn’t it being rescues, for the simple reason that the size of failure, you see when it comes to business like it comes to even helping on a personal level- you would never go beyond your set boundaries and the moment you think that even offering the help that wish to is going to tie you down or hamper your peace and safety- intellectually and financially- needless to stay you are going to step back and stand down unless you are helped by few more friends who can collaborate and together then perhaps you can tame the odd colossal failure- again provided the benefits of the turnaround are in line with what every partner is expecting! If that doesn’t fit the bill, then you have people backing off in the middle of the things and trust me that’s one things you never want to happen- that is like pushing a car downhill with no one at the wheels to control the jump start!

Whether we like it or not, whether it be business or the personal equations that we have amongst us, unless we have stories of failures around us subsequent stories of stellar success would be all but lost and even the few original success stories would loose their appeal, because failures of all kinds- whether or not dealt with provide a stark contrast to human society and this alone perhaps is what keep humanity anchored to certain set of values and principles! It is when the cost and benefit of failures are played out in societies in the open that people tend to become more understanding responsible and attentive to whats unfolding around them, for whether you are aware or not and believe it or not, someone else’s failure can mean your success pivot and even the converse s true!

So as you journey along, as you plan for milestones of success and celebrations, do also try to calibrate your failures that may come your way on the way- for if you get it right and know the right failure to arrive at, you may end up scripting perhaps the greatest come back stories or perhaps be the reason for something new altogether to begin! Who knows! There is no real reason to fear failure, rather it is only when you embrace failure that you are able to liberate yourself off the ignorance and arrogance associated with it and that in itself becomes a key to your future foundation whether you want to just perhaps want to get a job or sell popcorn or build the next business empire!

So I leave you with thoughts here, urging you to perhaps plan your failure, so that your success is even more brilliant and dazzling! Whatever you do, time it well and size it apt! Every Success Story has been built on the Souls of some failure- at times these souls are known and more often than not they remain unknown! As someone said, Failure is not Final and Success is not eternal!

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

Climate Change: Fact or Fiction.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

Before even you try to begin thinking what makes me an authority to write on Climate Change, a few facts- firstly you don’t have to be an “authority” because those labels are dangerously misleading! and secondly I have my Master of Science in the subject, if that helps to quell any fears that I may have lost my mind, so If you think , it will be fun reading and simplifying the big elephant in the room, join me here as we try to make sense of all the clutter that is dished out at us under the garb of climate change- the next thing you will hear is the Earth’s change is the reason why people are reaching office late (as and when they start to commute- post the pandemic that all of us are still up against as yet!).

For starters, if you have studied Geography or some science- whether be maths, physics, chemistry, biology or botany or anything that got you connected with the planet Earth as a planet- well then you are well qualified enough to take a stand , have an opinion and be vocal about climate, the planet’s today and tomorrow! The only catch being your voice must be based on facts and facts alone which confirm to what science and scientific principles say- not simulated statistician models built on some crazy AI modelling and those fuzzy corporate presentations by “experts” that want to tell you why, “their approach” to do “a” over “b” saves the planet form “x, y and z”- that is all glorified bullshit and the fact is whether you do something or not- Mother Earth has her plans and together with the other cousins in the Solar System- each cycle around the Earth and each tug of gravity of other planetary objects within the solar system and the interplay of the energies of the Universe- ensure one thing- dynamic equilibrium- the balance that is just incrementally enough to keep going in the intended direction- any less- there would be chaos- wiping off life, any greater same result- so well you may say then should we disregard all the “experts” warnings? Well, yes, disregard all the “experts” who come in double quotes; but pay heed to common sense and what science and your observation tells you! Let me explain!

Each one of us no matter where we live- our lives are all under 70 years , most of us- who are reading this blog and the sensible reference to anything and everything that we can learn, have learnt and are learning is from the last 200-300 years, sure enough we know more about ancient history back and beyond BCE, but when it comes to the space of Geography, Climatology, Meteorology, Geology, these sciences have developed with us in the last 100 odd years in a way that they can be trusted, explained and shared! The whole understanding of the Earth’s climate dynamics was a big learning as we entered the age of the satellites, planes that could fly though storms and advanced precipitation radars so on and so forth! At any time, we have over 150 satellites, just keeping an eye from heavens above to let us know if the Earth has some trick up it’s sleeve and if we need to brace for the next storm, cyclone, typhoon, hurricane or whatever it is planing to throw at us! You may say, we all know this, what has all this to do with understanding and decoding Climate Change? Well it has everything to do with it!

We have seasons and each season we experience extreme weather formation, whether that’s extreme heat, rain, snow, scantier rainfall- whatever way you want to look at, now my point here is simple, first, for how long are you studying that data for that area under study- 5 years, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200? How old is the area (that you know about) as being part of a geographical land mass of the Earth in the same place and in the same climate? 10,000 years, 20,000, 100,000 years? So what are your really measuring? How and Why?

Ask any true planetary scientist and they will tell you, how and why the Earth that came to life 4.5 billion years ago has a finite life of perhaps an equal amount left and until then the thermodynamic process and the physics that governs the planet will play its role and dominate the spaces around determining the planetary climate and all that comes through it! Change is the essential and fundamental process of our Planet and being part of the Universal arrangement, everything is in a constant flux and change is the only thing that is really ever constant! So now you may ask what about “Climate Change” why is it such a big thing if change has been the planetary normal for millions of years all through? Well part of your answer lies in the question itself! Let me explain!

You see the whole “Business” of “Climate Change” has evolved in the last two or three decades! Early 19th century rapid industrialization was hailed as the way to uplift people from poverty and empower their lives, as that theory began to stall, the next narrative moved to enhancing production, automation and so on and so forth and for every inch of progress, there had to be a reason to be sold- and what could be a better reason to sell than “Climate Change”! Let me explain! consider this you had 5000 workers in your automobile plant and wanted to bring about automation and we are now in 1950s, what do you do? With strong unions and lobby groups, what’s the easy way out? Well, simple take government support, build a narrative on climate, state that access to clean air and water is a fundamental right (which even after all that has been claimed to be done or not done- still is a myth!) and then show your 5000 workers the changed law of the land and express helplessness and get moving ahead! This is the simple uncluttered truth and pattern that gets played all over the world over and over again disguised as something new- the proverbial old wine in never ending new bottles of changing narratives!

Sure enough you can argue how planting trees and having forests develop around, brought down the temperature in a local area, made the stream more regular and allow flora and fauna flourish- but what has that to do with Climate Change- this is simple habitat management- conservation and development of forests or foliage in scientific terms and the impact that it has will be local because thats how ecosystems get built, it is only when ecosystems connect and start a relationship of inter dependency over a larger area, is that we see a larger broader weather pattern, seasonal pattern evolve and when that again gets hooked onto the planetary weather systems, is then that anything will ever qualify for Global Planetary Climate patterns- not change! Simply because Change is a given in the life of Earth, whether humanity does it proactively or passively, that stays, what has changed in the last few decades is the mad obsession to measure all that can be measured, not realizing whether that measurement really makes any scientific sense and loop it back to whatever one can and then declare a theory! It is like seeing a yellow butterfly and then declaring all butterflies are yellow! But then we people lives’ destroyed by storms, wild fires , earthquakes what is that all about? Well read on!

As Humanity made advancements in technology and science, it has become ignorant and dumb in an proportional to how much knowledgeable it has become! In the mad haste to sell cities, get international funding in the millions, societies have out-competed each other in being dumb and unscientific and then what follows is utter chaos! Pick up any case study of a natural disaster of your liking study it and then go back 25 years, 50 years and check if those natural events happened or not and what impact it had on humans then- chances are impact would be nil because there were no human settlements there! This is the holy grail which no sellers and peddlers of Climate Change want you to know and understand, the simple truth that human settlements and activities have crossed the line and ventured into a territory where the Earth breathes and is more than active, it is similar to walk on the rail track and expect a train to stop- because you are there! Doesn’t work that way and thats why humanity gets slammed every time they err on that side of the line!

Humanity in the last 50 years has ended up building cities over swamps, emptied lakes to build commercial complexes, allowed settlements on fringes of wild forests, come up buildings in seismically active zones and that never ending craze to have that french window by the beach- not realizing that house is been undercut from below, even as you take the views from the balcony every moment! This is not climate change- this is changing dumbness of humanity! Like the fact remains, there is no cure for dumbness and the show continues! But you may want to still argue, sea levels are rising, the corals are dying, habitats are changing, sure they are and that is how it is meant to be! For humans who have been on this planet for just around a few millions years,(we still are digging for older references) of the 4.5 billion years that the Earth has been around- if we get into the space of divine intelligence that we know all about this stuff called Earth! Well have fun, and keep going on with that route till you hit the wall! So what’s the point!

The point is simple and clear, don’t get sold into unwarranted, unscientific bullshit of climate change, you planting that one tree is equivalent of applying color to few streaks on your head and hoping everyone will get the same color! Doesn’t work! The simple rule of engagement with Earth is “Have Mutual Respect”! Steer clear off areas where nature dominates and learn to listen, not come up with the next technology and still insist to live around a swamp or a zone where you know the next big earthquake is about to come, or buy that ranch on the fringes of a forest, don’t do that! Next use what you need and ensure you do your bit to follow the social norms of mindful living that your society may have, if it doesn’t have one for yourself! get into a mindset of “minimalism with opulence”. This is the long and short about dealing with so called “Climate Change”!

There is no point getting sold into false narratives which are more often than not agenda driven and trying to sell you something by instilling fear, confusion or both! Respect nature, be kind and stay where you must using the resources that the planet has provided- trust me they are more than enough to last your life time! Problems will begin the moment you start to think you Know All and You Can Manage All, well this is the biggest problem with Humanity and this is from where the whole misplaced fear mongering and oversell of Climate Change begins! As long as human activities continue in zones which are not supposed to be made habitable- floods, earthquakes, fires, smogs, ill health will run amok and yes, don’t blame the Earth for your dumbness and bravado of wanting to be where you shouldn’t be! The whole narrative of “Climate Change” is a Socio-Politico-Economic” one which goes the way, each one of those elements want to drive it at different point sin time to suit their agendas and establish new norms of social behaviour!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you think about it, apply the science that you have known and think! Is it really Climate Change or is it more about Changing attitudes of Humanity towards the resources that we have an access to! The key is “Minimalism with Opulence”

Ciao for now, will be back with another one soon, until than stay safe, respect the planet and be where you are supposed to be unless you are in one of those coveted jobs of being a planetary scientist in the real essence of it, sans the fear mongering and agenda selling!

Why News Channels go rogue.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

News evolved as the wise person’s genie to ensure that people who matter and what mattered reached to people who could do something about it, so that in time the greater good to serve the society could be done! In our present times, this seems to be a fairy tale, and this is why we are here for- to know and try to possibly see why and what makes news channels turn rogue, especially when they too have risen from the cradle of the same society where they keep barking, shouting and yelling every few hours, never realizing that they are in a way- doing it to a mirror for every time a finger is raised, three go back to them! Join me here as we try to unravel this space and figure out what really is possibly happening!

Right now, in 2020, even as the pandemic ended up killing thousands across the world,if you take a moment to analyze what the news has been all about- more often than not it has been about a political rhetoric around the pandemic, rather than covering and real picture and helping policy makers and government by being that extra ear or eye to the ground to possibly cover what has slipped! The political rhetoric is importantly more damaging, especially when it goes on and on and starts to follow the same formula at international, national and even at local or community levels- what than unfolds is chaos and division- people who lived like extended families for generations or more overnight in the span of few months end up believing there are groups in the society and as the socio psychological aspects start to play out- social confirmation bias takes precedence and the urge to belong to one group or identity over the other and being vocal and loud about it starts to take precedence over anything and everything else! What’s more worrisome is this rogue approach by news channels has not now remained limited to only the ideological battles of the political theater, now it’s coming after every thread tat goes on to weave the intricate social fabric and the last mistake that anyone can do is to think that it’s not happening around you or you have not knowingly or unknowingly erred and moved beyond the side of caution at some or the other time!

If political theatrics by news channels was not bad enough, which in yesteryear’s had the potential to cause greater rift and confusion among nations (who are adversaries or possibly wanting to amicably settle something and then step back because some channel sends out a “breaking news” which basically ends up breaking the only hope and ends up creating more damage than anything else!); in today’s times, these very rogue channels can pick and choose establishments that run a nation, bureaucracy, law enforcement, judiciary, social sectors, private organisations, celebrities, public representatives, you and me, if they perceive any of these sets as a threat which can scuttle their agenda of peddling what they have! So now the million dollar question? How did we reach this place? How did we allow this to go so far beyond repair? Well read on!

If you see the genesis of human growth and progress the world over- irrespective whether the social set up was aligned to democracy or autocracy or whatever political style you want to call it, the singular fact has been that every and any social set across the planet has always been the case of a few leading the many and it always has been the quality of these few which has either accelerated the growth and development of the societies in question or has regressed and finished them off, sending them back by years and decades! As I said earlier, as long as the news channels stuck to their oath and delivered what they were supposed to all was fine, the decay and regression began as the news channels decided to cross that line of vintage journalism and get into selective game hunting under the garb of investigative journalism- which by the very own genesis of the word “journalism” has no place! Once news channels realized the vulnerabilities and the voids in the systems as they worked or began to get dysfunctional, soon their stance changed from being journalism and society driven to proactive exploitative approaches aimed to facilitate agendas of the “other” bosses especially as they are aligned to their own! But why would this happen?

You see, societies have been always governed by the “few”. These “few” could be anyone or all of these- kings, President’s, Prime Minister’s Rulers, Few Private business houses (the real original blue eyed tycoons!), visit any of the 196 nations on this planet and the chances are you will see only one or multiple of these core pillars playing the pivotal role in shaping or sizing the today and the tomorrow of the millions that rely on them! As long as these elements of the “few” agree to disagree on a few things and pledge to work collaboratively with mutual respect and defined boundaries, the news channels have no role, except for covering the occasional announcements, reading out the press releases and those odd accidents that happen in any society, but as confrontation and greed sets up in these governing elements either as a cause and effect of each other or independent of each other, the news channels get the small break in the fabric of governance and once they latch onto it, instead of the good old vintage days of journalism instead of stitching the wound up, they take devilish pride and pleasure in accelerating the depth and degree of the break and simply allow the society to bleed even as the founding elements end up coming up with narratives in an vain attempt to course correct- for by now- the drama is already playing out and the audience who anyways are suffering (as the society begins to hemorrhage) have nothing else to do but get sold into one narrative over the other and it is this space where the war of the narratives are born which threaten to rip off all remaining values, functioning elements and systems of governance. So what’s the plan you may want to ask? Well read on!

News Channels and their rogue behaviour can be only allowed and go on as long as the governing elements of a society allow that to happen and why they would or any of them would allow it to happen is a direct relation to the amount of greed, power play and ego warfare among the elite- these egos are not the usual ones’ these egos ride high, real high of millions of dollars of business awarded/rejected and plum positions offered to taken away! This is what is the real root why news channels go rogue! Fix this one aspect and you will see the good old value based vintage journalism making a come back even before Christmas rings in!

At the end of it, the news channels, the “few” who (mis)govern the “many” all are a product of the same social bucket and once in a century, there comes a time when that bucket does get punctured and then the onus lies on the “few” then to create a new bucket- hopefully learning from the lessons why the old one failed! Human greed and the aspiration and desire for power has been the core to our evolution, the only problem is that now, in a few pockets this aspiration and greed is crossing the lines of morality like never before, sure enough one person’s moral grandstand could be not of the other’s liking, but when it comes to the very existence of the other person, there will be competing and conflicting narratives coming up and with that you will also see the coming to rise of the rogue news channels- who know only one thing- profit- profit from chaos, profit from division, profit from hate and profit from turbulent times, knowing well that the very society that they are operating within is being exposed and becomes even more vulnerable with each histrionic show that is allowed to be played out by the rogue channels and the society then not only gets expose to vulnerabilities internally but as a nation too external agents then proactively begin to seek weakened organs to penetrate and damage- these organs then could be the people, sections of the society or the very establishments themselves! So the solution?

Well to begin with as individuals just log off the rogue news network! Stop unverified circulation of things that you may not be sure off, have opinions on logic and science and propagate a rationalist mindset! Political alignment has nothing to do with common-sense and being scientific, you may be extreme right or extreme left- for both the cases the Sun still rises in the East and rivers still flow into the oceans, the only difference is what these two ideologies do, when they get eggs, one goes on to make poached eggs, the other may go ahead an make an egg sandwich- that’s the simple singular truth of life! Give common-sense and science a chance! Once at the individual level this unwarranted and unwanted intellectual garbage consumption is halted, the “few” who (mis)govern will be left with no choice at all then to begin to govern and redraw the lines of agreement to disagree and once that is done, it will be he final nail in the coffin of the rogue news network and in no time, they will vapourise as if they never existed in the first place!

It is the collective effort of the gifted and talented “few” of each society alone that can put an end to the rogue news network, locally, nationally and internationally and for that to take effect, individually we need to switch off from what doesn’t seem right! The easiest way to do that is, use your rationality, go by facts and figures and always remember Great Leaders and Great Nations are not the ones’ who never fail, but rather are the ones’ who fail, accept it and make amends to move ahead and overcome their setbacks over and over again! Rogue News Channels are like insects; the first ray of Sunlight and they are dusted!

I leave you here, take your time, reflect upon the society that you are in, wherever you are, see who are the “few” that make decisions for your life, identify the real news channels who still are standing there and weathering the storms for you-align to them and as soon as you the see the “rogues” among the news network, well by now you possibly know quite well what you need to do!

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

Foundation matters.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

This calm weekend, I share with you a fable! Journey with me as we understand why “foundation” matters and no matter who you are, what you do or not, this is the singular and perhaps the most fundamental of all things that as humans we must be concerned about, simply because everything gets done and undone from this space alone! So here we go!

In a certain place on the planet there were four friends, each one of them was offered an equal measure of land and a free choice to build upon that whatever they pleased! The first person, let’s call him “Perseverance” went on the task by going deep and deep into the earth and when he was asked by the others what he was planning to build, he replied. “it will be a religious place which will serve humanity for ages to come”. The others just shook their head and went back to their own piece of land to start their work and get off the block! The second person, let’s call this one “Belief” went about his task and to everyone’s surprise erected a structure which was minimal and functional at it’s best- but no one could ever tell how well it would weather the challenges of time. The next friend, “Intelligence” was no less, he was quick to assemble all things that mattered to have his structure ready and well he too began to work in a structured manner- rather more meaningfully than anyone else! Finally we had this person, called “Risk” who well as his name suggested, went on to accomplish what he had set out for, taking one step at a time, and well dealing with what the outcome was and then just moving ahead to the next one, by mitigating what must be and building upon what must be!

As Perseverance, Belief, Intelligence and Risk finished their tasks and when they began to see what was done/undone, they began to realize the power of manifestation on the strength of their intrinsic virtues! What Perseverance achieved was a great, deep and wide foundation, upon which the structure (irrespective of how small or large it would have been) would rest assured stand for ages to come, no matter what challenges are thrown at it! Intelligence’s structure was fluid, just what was needed, just right and having all what was needed just as it was supposed to be. Needless to say this lean and delicate positioning of this style exposed it to the vulnerabilities of stress and pressure that change could bring along with it and if times really took a change, then perhaps a lot of elements that were laid in within the complex built by intelligence would be simply redundant and of hardly any value in those future spaces! Risk, built as it thought was right in the moment of what was getting done! Needless to say, aesthetics were lost, but the form of the structure was fluid and dynamic, it was flexible at astonishing levels and everyone was astonished to see the way it had come up!

The day of he great test finally arrived when, the area where these structures stood got hit by the great storm and well, needless to say, as far as Perseverance was concerned only a big deep void remained where once the foundation stood and it all was filled up with the rain water and flood waters that simply flowed in to fill up that void! Belief saw that the only spire that it had erected over the structure to be visible from far away, had somehow managed to stand the storm, although bruised but not broken away, that spire survived the storm, but that is all that remained, with nothing beneath to support or assist! It seemed as if Belief was riding on thin air! Intelligence saw a lot of elements being ripped away simply because they were good for the time when they got built, but had lost their strength and relevance with time and when they got hit, except for the bare shell all the minor elements were shred away! Risk, perhaps was the luckiest of them all, simply because, all elements in the structure were made just to fit a purpose for a time and when the damage happened, there was hardly anything remaining to be damaged, because the approach of Risk necessitated a new order with each moment and hence, in no time as the storm abated Risk was raring to go and re-build all over again, not to forget so was the case with others too!

Just as they thought that it was time to begin all over again, the moment they all shared their stories and witnessed what had unfolded, it dawned on to them, that it was never about taking a singular approach and even though the foundation was the key, it was imperative for all of them to collaborate and add their intrinsic strengths to ensure that not only the foundation weathered the storms that come their way, but also the structure above and the elements within survive and are abe to get better and better with every storm that they face! Soon they began to work and toil, Risk added it’s flair to help Perseverance fix the loop holes in the deep foundation, Intelligence helped Risk calibrate its endeavors and Belief knew exactly where to be in the new structure so that it shined like a beacon of promise and hope for their today and their collective tomorrow! This is in fact the story of each one of us and this is the lost story of humanity at large; it is the missing foundation and the elements which make it what it should be; which (when lost) bring down what we have built and thereby threaten to erase all that was right and create ambiguity for humanity to live with!

Like in this story, in our lives too, all of us, in fact each one of us need and requires to build that foundation, have an imposing structure, replenished with all that the structure needs and a bright display of faith and hope fluttering tall over the structure that we wish to build! The structure is in fact who we are, the elements are the gifts that we have within and the flag that we fly high is the one of our achievements, ability to share and care for ourselves and the ones’ around us, the foundation is what we are at the very core of all of that we want to build over and that core is the cradle of the belief’s values and attributes that we have, we want to continue to hold on to and the ones which we want to share and advocate, simply because they serve the greater good and have something for everyone- more for few, less for others, but everyone has a seat at the table! This is the essence and the real meaning of building that foundation!

The foundation matters, simply because, what type of foundation that you choose will eventually determine the kind of structure you are allowed to build- how tall or wide and how much of elemental value it can hold within all of that will be in one way or the other a factor of the foundation! Take a look around you, all the great marvels of ancient times are etched in stone and stand on some solid foundations, even after thousands of years (in some cases) they have been able to stand- perhaps not in all their glory- but certainly enough to inspire and motivate the generations today! The longer you want your legacy to be remembered, greater is the depth of the foundation that you need to go for! Sure enough there has to be relevance of context and timing- but great things that are built over strong foundations are the only ones’ that are ever able to withstand the test of time and serve as beacons of human creative excellence and provide hope and inspiration in equal measures for generations to come!

I will leave you with these thoughts urging you to think about the foundation that you want for yourself, seek the elements that you would want to go along to make that happen and perhaps also define the structure that you aim to build for that alone will go a long way to define the legacy that you will be able to leave as mark for at least a few generations to come, if not forever! Take your time and run through your dose of Perseverance, Intelligence, Belief, Risk and all the other elements that you need to create that imposing structure which is perhaps your life or even better a legacy of your life that provides hope and inspiration for others that seek hope!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay wise and stay safe! Always remember, no matter who says what, we are all unique and as unique as we are, we all need different foundations, even if we tend to build the same structure with a common purpose to serve humanity with goodness and touch greatness as we go on to do that!

Saving democracy (in the digital era).

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Whether you are in the US, India or some other nation or any society for that matter, 2020 has shown us in greater contrast and vivid detail the power that the digital world and the elements therein have when it comes to creating competing narratives and stories which hold a formidable power to destabilize/ impact functioning democratic societies and place them on the edge- either forcing them to become operationally dysfunctional or change them completely into a new entity- which may serve or dis-serve the people living in those societies! Join me here as we take a quick look to figure out why and how democracies get nailed in today’s digital space and if there’s any real way around or through this to safeguard the values and principles of democracy for our collective today and tomorrow!

Democracies have thrived and survived without major glitches around the world since time in memorial, however as societies began to advance, gain access to more and more knowledge and as the power of print and the documented word began to be taken as a gospel, democracies the world over were beginning to set themselves up for failure in due course! The unchecked, unregulated and disproportionate access and power of media through agenda driven deployment the world over has done more harm to democracies than anything else! Think about it! Every time you hear about a scam, a scandal, an ideological narrative, the whole spread about labels like “RW”, “LW” who gives birth to them? Think about it! Whether these are endorsed by political establishments or not is a different matter, but the fact that these labels very often come from the cradles of media houses who desperately try to make news for themselves! Think about it, whether you like or not like a politician, whatever your ideology is, “why would any successful, right thinking politician want to jeopardize their individual careers as politicians and let go of all that power and control that they get to have by involving into something which at the very foundation of it, threatens to take that away form them!” So now the question, if politicians are not keen on this, why would media want to get into something that has the potential to threaten the existence of their business?

Well, the answer to this is embedded in the societal framework and how societies forgive and forget! Forgetful societies are often vulnerable to onslaught of media garbage with or without political endorsements! The simple reason why these societies are forgetful are, is because a large section of these societies is simply struggling to make their lives meaningful by surviving and rising just perhaps one notch higher then what they had inherited in terms of life standards and aspirations! This small step too is at times so all consuming that, in the very struggle of survival and touching their next aspirations, they are left with no choice but to keep ignoring every now and then what is unfolding around them and thereby the whole social ecosystem ends up being a blind animal with sensory perceptions intact but not wired to any purpose driven action or effort! Furthermore, as these onslaughts increase in frequency and variety (based on which section and for what reason they are coming from the society), these societies become vulnerable , anxious and thereby more narrowed down in their outlook to life and survival, simply taking away any remaining resistance, dissent or question that they may have for those who govern them, and who makes this happen- well who else the omnipresent media with or without the clout of the political system at work either behind, alongside or leading the charge!

Societies that are hard to forgive, are paradoxically spared and the media and the political clout weigh their options a thousand times before tinkering with these societies, because they know it too well, that one wrong move or perhaps even a right move at a wrong time and their careers are surely coming to an end with unprecedented speed and certainty! Societies which are not forgiving are the ones’ who have established themselves as a core and a foundation to nation building for generations together! These are societies which resemble small clusters developing into larger towns and cities, where growth has always been slow, steady and calibrated enough at all times to ensure that the local flavors are not trampled over and that essence is the key why these societies become successful and retain their strong identities even after 50-75 years or perhaps over 100 years in the case of some societies and nations! So what is really getting played out and why has democracy become so vulnerable especially in the last 20 years?

You see, based on what type of society you are part of , you perhaps witness a generous dose of narratives from the media spaces every day, every hour and in case of few societies (which suffer from information overload and are necessarily societies running on (mis) information steroids!) perhaps very few minutes! Now these narratives very rarely have anything to do with “you” and very often are at their very best “teasers” being sent out by “someone” who is managing the show. How and what reactions begin to crop up gives that “someone” the power to negotiate, bargain and leverage “something”, “somewhere” in the elaborate fabric which has interwoven spaces of media, political clout and bureaucracy!

With the advent of the digital ecosystem the abuse of democracy has only accelerated; knowing well the vulnerability of people across societies (not because they are dumb, simply because they are too busy fighting and figuring out their survival- the next meal or the next pay check!) it has just unleashed a relentless onslaught to drive agendas and narratives with little or no time for people to think, evaluate or even fact check! The result, is chaos- again based on the type of society and which part of the world map you are in, the impact can be mild or severe and the consequences of this agenda driven media hype (with or without political benevolence) is almost always detrimental!

This is how it always has been and this is how it will remain to be, the point is, earlier there were unspoken and unwritten rules, a point beyond and below which neither the political clout and nor the media would ever want to navigate and explore, but once those lines have been erased, it is a virtual free for all and with every person, every element of the “someone” trying to out do the other, the value systems begin to evaporate and societies start to appear like predictable simulations, wherein set pieces get played out before every major political event, announcement, strategic announcement or before regulatory changes are made! Depending on what type of society you live in and who that “someone” is (whether there is more power in the political clout or the media has enslaved the political clout) the rules of engagement will keep shifting and needless to say, the price will be heavy and more often than not paid by the members of the society who almost never realize what hit them and why! So does this mean that there is no respite for a democratic set up to survive in a space where the political clout and the media, either by themselves or hand-in-glove are working to erode the foundations?

The answer is a YES and a NO! Yes there is away to get over and beyond this heady cocktail of political clout and media nexus and NO if Inertia gets the better off the society! Societies and importantly democratic suffer from what I call as the “Curse of Democracy”, like Democracy has multiple blessings and people can write and write poems, essays and even their PhD Thesis on why Democracy is vital, fundamental, progressive and the true personification of the human spirit, nothing wrong with all or any of that, but what a lot of people fail to factor in the singular fact that democracy is not a state of a society or an end destination; it is rather a lifestyle, approach chosen by the society for empowering its people to reach their aspirations, it has to be and should be always in Action, it has to be practiced, preached , lived and kept alive by ensuring that the conduct of every member of the society is aligned to the laid down democratic principles and guidelines that have been chosen and adopted by the society! It is when this sensitive element fails, that the political clout and the media are able to drive narratives, (mis) represent intentionally or by error and create competing views and postures not for debates, but for confrontation and if you have read the story of human evolution, confrontation and aggression brings the best of animal behaviour among humans and that is what we get to see all around us, in one way or the other!

The only way to safeguard democracy and ensure that the adopted values, principles and the future are protected, is by breathing in and practicing what we have adopted! As individuals, don’t bribe that official, follow those rules, don’t ask for favors for jobs and business, be who you are, stay authentic, live a lifestyle that you can afford and then see how the things begin to change when a major section of society embraces this! Sounds utopian? Sure seems like that for me too, but that’s the essence, societies get driven to false narratives and unwanted ideological confrontations simply because of the latent inertia of speaking out when it matters the most and standing by what is right and allowing too many exceptions! Societies are at times forgetful and at times forgiving, what is needed is that they need to be unforgiving at all times and unforgettable each time, that’s when the political clout and the media will dare not drive false narratives or (mis” lead thoughts, (mis) plant ideas or resort to under the belly tactics to pursue their own selfish agenda of exercising demonic control and a falsified sense of achievement at the cost of millions of tarnished aspirations!

Democratic societies have the been a witness to milestones and achievements of scientific and creative excellence in the last 300 years of human history and also in the medieval and ancient times! There is a reason why the “I” matters alongside the “WE” and it is this spirit of finding the individual excellence among the collective good that hold the promise to the future of democratic societies! Shun the clout whether political or media, switch off that shrill channel, spend that time to develop yourself and your family, each house doing it, you will have a changed town in a year, a changed city in three years and a changed state in five years and in a decade a whole new breathing, vibrant and alive nation with a promise of the future!

Democracy is like a flowing river, dam it right, it will nourish and give you the bounties of nature, dam it wrong and it will wipe you off unleashing the fury of nature! The change begins with you, the next time you go to Vote, know that well! Vote today to align your future!

Well, honestly, switch off that “idiot box” and whenever you are presented with information, make a rule to fact check and do bother to know, if what you consume are candies or garbage coated in sugar!maybe it’s easy, maybe it’s difficult, perhaps will take an effort, but remember, as humans fundamentally we all are hardwired to care and share for each other, we lived millions of years earlier on that way and in these modern times it only makes simple plain sense to step away from all that puts us onto a path of confrontation and contradiction with each other to a level where we begin to think that “You” and “I” is greater than “WE” and nothing can be far away form the truth than this!

So I leave you with these thoughts, grab that coffee and switch on that news channel/entertainment channel and try to run a test to see what you are being served today- candies or garbage!

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

Stand by your ideas.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Whether it is the recent case of that Indian Jewelry brand, who had to take down a commercial (for whatever reasons) or whether it is the whole social context of misaligned priorities, many of the challenges that we see around us, are in one way or the other, a manifestation of quick fixes and the the inability of people to stand by their own original thoughts and ideas! Join me here, we we explore this space and figure out what this is all about and if there’s any way to fix around these aspects and if there is one, what is that!

The times of today, are like none other before, even as we had ventured into 2020, quite a few economies were under strain and the pandemic was the last thing that any nation or society ever needed! What eventually has played out is the partial or complete wrecking of economies and stalling and failing of life as it is meant to be. You may want to ask what has an “idea” even got to do with all of this social chaos; well it has everything t do with it! For starters, even the very approach taken by societies to deal with their failing economies somewhere in the 2019 was perhaps someones’ idea and zoom into 2020,how societies chose to deal with the pandemic was another set of idea- needless to say some of these worked- worked rather well and some of these ideas failed and failed real bad! So how does one really know what idea to stand by and which one must be stowed away?

Based on the social context of the society that one is and based on who you are within that immediate contextual settings, you are the only one who can take a call on whether you want your idea to see the light of the day or not! This is an area of some fine judgement and unless the person entrusted to take the call is not sure enough what they are actually unfolding, the whole thing can be detrimental and create a big mess, then one can think of! Societies the world over are more polarized and divided then ever before in the last 40-50 years- there could be multiple reasons- some right and some wrong- but let’s leave that too the other wise people to comment and debate! The point of relevance and importance here is that unless ideas aren’t evaluated from the stand point of what they serve and whether they serve the larger good, playing around with them will almost always be detrimental and there will be consequences, in the same breath; as long as there is enough clarity (which can be communicated aggressively, boldly and empathically) about an idea and through the idea, then it is the very duty of the originator of the ideator to protect, fight and stand by that original idea- as and how one can do so- depending on what is the position occupied in the society, the power equation and the ability to engage and do away with all the challenges that come in ones’ way!

If the originators’ of an idea, lack conviction and belief in their own ideas, then it really doesn’t matter whether they are good or bad, or anything at all, simply because, at the slightest nudge, the ideas will fail and fall like a pack of cards and ideas like these end up becoming a tool for something else and end up loosing their very purpose of being there on the first place! So the learning point- Well any idea can be good or bad only as long as the contextual environment is studied and understood in depth! A misjudgment about the pulse of the immediate society, can make even the noblest of the ideas fail and can also make even the stupidest of ideas come to rule! Let me explain!

All of us know about that one nation or society, where people are not happy with their government and paradoxically enough, it is they who have chosen it to begin with! so what does this speak about the ideas and thoughts that would have been playing around the minds of the people when they elect from the very same social bucket people who seem similar and aligned and end up getting treated in a radically different manner! Well, this is the space where ideas are camouflaged and mis-represented, you see very often the standard reply the governments of the day, when and if they are questioned about anything and everything that they don’t do – is that “they have inherited a legacy and there has been so much little time to get so much of the things done!” Well then why was all of this, not part of the election vote seeking promise? Well, this is how the war of ideas, ideologies is played out when it comes to the running of nations and societies en mass! Contexts, change and meanings are given and taken away with equal ease and the idea- with which the journey would have started is all but lost and new entity keeps taking form every now and then, depending upon who is beholding the thought in that moment of time!

If you thought, the fragility of ideas is limited only to the space and theater of politics, well think again, when was the last time your original idea got to see the light of the day, at the place where you work or even at your home? Is anyone even listening to the ideas that you have, if yes why? and if no, still why? This is the space of intermittent silence and pauses and this space is the literal graveyard of many ideas- good bad, ugly all sorts of them and the only reason why ideas prematurely end up reaching their graves before they see the light of the day, is the singular fact that the beholder of that idea- was simply unable to communicate and execute what the idea was- perhaps there was a competency challenge either with the idea itself intrinsically or with the beholder- who would have picked up that great idea off the wind and just failed to get things to work along to make it alive and breath! What makes Ideas fragile and so much prone to destruction? Do people ever end up living by their idea- through the storm of life? Does that help? Read on!

Weak ideas or ideas that can be weakened are never great and its better that they get an earlier burial than seeing the light of the day, playing havoc and causing chaos! The real crux of the matter lies in the space where we have great ideas, wielded by average people- average by terms of the ability to mange tat idea and drive it in a way to ensure that it achieves the greatness that it is qualified for! There could be multiple reasons why people fail at great ideas, not necessarily all of these people would have intrinsic flaws, at times it could be the overbearing construct of the society around them and at yet other times it could be the simple case of being the right person with the right mind, the right idea in a terribly wrong place! Well, so in these instances, forget about executing the idea, guarding that idea from probing dis-serving people and eyes becomes a life-long pursuit and very often, it is only after a long hibernation of years or decades that that idea gets to come alive- provided it has the ability to retain its relevance across the time lapse which may have occurred! If you are wondering about examples around this- well the modern day aerospace machines, those tall skyscrapers in the world top 10 list- well each and every one of them has had to wait for the right time for science and engineering to catch up even if the idea of that machine of structure would have been there, many years preceding to the time when they actually got top see the light of the day!

Ideas that are resolute, vital and which serve the greater good of the society will always see the light of the day, perhaps delayed but they will for sure! It is ideas like these that one must stand by for, not let them go or allow them to fade away- because if the idea holds the promise to serve the greater good and promise for the many- no matter how long the road is, that walk will be worth it- simply because at the destination, you will be welcomed with more people than that you have walked along with and as your idea is embraced, it will bring about a fundamental positive change for the many around you and that idea then goes on to alter itself and tweak itself to suit the exiting conditions of the society and play its part to benefit as it should! For all and any of this to happen, it’s fundamentally important that the conviction of that idea has to be steadfast and should be anchored deep within to face the storms that may come ones’ way or the challenges that may keep visiting! Many great Ideas get killed before they arrive, not because their beholders were weak or the social contexts were not ready, but rather because the beholders lacked the necessary conviction to drive and push for them when it mattered the most! So what’s the point?

Well, as long as the beholder of the idea, one has the conviction and faith that “it” is what it is, and it serves the greater good, rest assured the Idea will live and see the light of the day, sooner or later, but it will do for sure! In the same breath it is also important to note that if conviction is lacking, then even the best ideas will fail and they will rapidly and predictably!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you to take some time off and run through all the ideas that you ever had and evaluate- what made them click and what made them fail- was it something to do with you or was it something about the idea or have you been spending much of your valuable life in a place where you should never be!

Ciao for now, will be back soon, with another one, until then allow those thoughts to flow around and get hooked to an awesome idea!

Know your buffet!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Simply because ignorance can’t be bliss anymore and indulgence can turn fatal, knowing your buffet is perhaps the most important thing that you can decide to master! Join me here as we take a quick fleeting look to understand this space!

Our lives have never been serviced or should I say, over-serviced like ever before, to the extent that even a pandemic which was supposed to halt the world dead in its tracks, failed to do so completely! At the most what we witnessed collectively the world over were mere hiccups and even as nations and societies went into lockdowns and closures, it was clear that this was not going to be the real solution to the overwhelming problem! Our lives even now, irrespective of the level of restriction that we live in are sprinkled with instances of deficit and over indulgence in various areas! It is within these contextual settings that it becomes important than ever before to know your buffet and ensure that you are nourished well enough with all that you consume, but are never malnourished or overtaken by gluttony! So what is is this all about? What is this buffet actually?

This buffet that I am referring to here is the buffet of your life! Yes, every second that you spend, you are being served with a buffet, a buffet which consists of ideas, ideologies, facts, fiction, realities, perceptions, truths and conspiracies and everything that you can ever imagine of through the workings of your mind, simply because all that manifests in front of you each moment is all but a figment of imagination or reality or the perception of reality of someone else’s mind! Think about it! What you consume from this dynamic spread in front of you goes on to further determine your next buffet and that’s how we make choices- individual and collective at times- which take us from one buffet to the next, as we continue to consume what we choose to and how we choose to! It is within these pockets of making a choice to consume in a moment that our buffets and course of paths get written, re-written and inter-twined at times with purpose and many a times, leading us through meaningless wandering and false pursuits which simply go on to amplify the impact of having consumed something which we were not supposed to!

You see, as you go about your daily chores of life, whether you lead a nation or lead yourself or even just drag yourself, every point you are making a choice and that choice that you make (either by a free will that you have or as a coercion) is indeed made by reviewing the buffet that exists in front of you. The buffet that presents itself to you at any moment, at all times comes from the choices that you made previously- so your story can either be one of moving from one fulfilling buffet to the next or one unhappy buffet to the next, simply because, what you desire is not presented or it either gets presented the way you can’t really do much around it! So how does one ensure that the buffets being presented always and at all times are the ones’ that you would be the ones’ that serve you and you can look forward to them?

Well, the answer to this question is simple and at the same time, that much difficult to implement- simple because it is you who- can begin the journey of one buffet to the next and difficult because as the variables of the contextual settings get added upon- there will be more and more distractions that will tempt you at all times to have that dish which will simply conclude your ongoing buffet and short serve your future ones! As long as you make choices and aim for the right stuff at the first buffet that you come across your life, rest assured all your subsequent buffets will get aligned to what your purpose is and that’s when you have a life as mentioned in the fairy tales! When you make incoherent choices in between the matrix of making them, at times you are forced to take a few steps back, at times take detours which are demanding and at times, it simply the case of too little too late and you have to settle down with what you are then eventually served and left with no choice to make the most of what you have around! So you may now want to know what is that First Buffet really about, what is it like? When do we face it and how do we know we are facing one now?

The First Buffet is different for each one of us and unique to who we are, for some it is about that first choice of a school that is being made, for yet others it is the first million dollars earned, for yet others it is the first 100 millions dollars invested and it really depends on who we are and at what point in time one comes face to face with a question that demands a decision- a major one- either by choice or by being forced to exercise that decision! Let me explain! Consider this, you may be a stable, well to do businessperson, but then one fine day, you come face to face with a decision- to stagnate and level off or should you go for the leap of faith and plan for the being bigger and better- that moment in this case – is the first buffet and the buffet is served with a plethora of options of, “If this then that” scenarios and it is the individuals ability to use wisdom and intellect in those moments that either propels them into the next orbit of greatness or holds them captive in a never ending loop in the orbit where they are! This is the real essence of The First Buffet- It shapes and forms your paths ahead and mandates the time when you will be able to achieve what you pursue. More importantly it also indicates, whether you will really reach what you are pursuing or will you be left to settle with something that you had not bargained for and if that is the case how much of value will you be eventually be able to make out of all that manifests!

People often rush through decisions on a daily basis, not for once realizing that every decision taken is either taking them towards or away form what they pursue or what their goal of life is. Sure enough no one is asking to have a brainstorming session for buying that pack of chips, but then there are those seemingly innocent and harmless decisions, like what to study, where to work, with whom to work, when to start your own venture, is it now or later to do “a” or “b”- it is these situations in the buffet space of life that go on to create our realities and perceptions for others! Needless to say a lot of success stories around the world are more anchored on perceptions of others than the realities and the truths as experienced by the people who live that tale! Think about it! This is why to unleash the potential of your life and the purpose that you have either chosen or want to be chosen for, it becomes important to weigh those “yes” and “no” well in time as much as you can, you will not succeed always and that’s how it is supposed to be- the trick is in failing less and succeeding more and ensure that even if that margin is as slender as it gets, your “yes” are leading and this alone will ensure that you are making progress from one meaningful buffet to the next with minimal detours and unwanted set backs!

The options that the world today presents are mind boggling, it’s no wonder that you come across many people who walk into buffets thinking one thing and end up doing the exactly the opposite or something different purely on impulse and in majority of cases that choice made through fleeting moments comes to bite back at the very pulse of existence of the individual and sure enough in those rare instances, these impulse driven decisions go on to create history and usher in a new future for humanity! So what’s the takeaway?

Well, it’s simple- Life is all about the buffet that you get an entry to and then from that moment, it is from one to the next, to earn yourself a ticket to that right First Buffet is a matter of wisdom, intelligence and at times a chance or luck as well! For that first step goes on to decide whether you lead and live a life narrated in a fairy tale or have to embark upon a crusade for yourself and others battling the odds and wining and loosing, just enough to keep moving on the path to your purpose and goals! The essence also lies in the ability of an individual to stay aligned and focused through the distractions that the typical buffet of life comes with and as long as one doesn’t succumb to them, rest assured you will have a sumptuous life!

I leave you with these thoughts here, for you to figure out, how your buffets have been, if you are in middle of one now or if you are heading into the next one anytime soon! Whatever the case may be- just remember- The First Buffet is what will define your subsequent ones’ and the more right choices you make, the easier will that journey be, from one buffet to the the next!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then Stay safe, stay wise, and hit the buffet now! Go ahead and make an empowered choice for now and for the times to come!

Acquire the Presidential Mindset.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

As strange as it may seem, but another trick to empower yourself is by embracing the Presidential Mindset! We are just about a month away from perhaps the most crucial and important elections on the planet- The election to The White House and what better time than now, to share a few thoughts around embracing the Presidential Mindset- so that even if you do not want to necessarily lead a nation, you can always be sure enough that the choices that you make to lead yourself and those around you are at all times as aligned as they can be to what the chosen path is! So join me here and let’s decipher how this unique Presidential frame of mind can go a long way to assist you to counter challenges as they manifest!

No matter which nation you live in, the most powerful office- almost always is going to be the one that belongs to the Head of the State- some nations have Presidents, few have Prime Ministers and yet a few have Monarchs or Rulers! Irrespective of what type of designation label you have on that chair, the common strand that runs through each one of them is the simple fact that- It is THE OFFICE that decides the fate of millions! That Chair comes with it’s own contextual frame and irrespective of who occupies it- the moment the person is seated- THE chair has the power and ability to transform and extract all that is due from the person who beholds it! Very often people are inspired, in awe, at times in disbelief and yet at few other times left wondering- did we really put this person to be on that chair! But there are then those times, when the people of a nation also feel, Thank God! We have this person on that Chair! So what is so special about THE Chair and what is the real transformation that happens- which manifests in front of the nation as leadership in action from these power corners?

You see there are two basic aspects to deciphering the Presidential Mindset- One is THE CHAIR and the other is THE PERSON who occupies it! Let me explain, this bit quickly! The Chair really acts like a calibration device- it safeguards to a greater extent that irrespective who comes to occupy it- the fundamental fabric and duties that are expected to be discharged- in the normal contexts (which are so rare now a days) will not be disturbed. This is what lays down the rules of engagement- if you want to see it that way and then allows the person to play to that game using the allowances that the chair has provided. The Chair- gives an opportunity to enhance the service quotient and reduce the tape around- but very rarely will you find anyone occupying it- wanting it to be used that way! So to give a sense of it, THE Chair sets up the trim level- you see as a President or a Leader of “ABC” you will be able to only extract “xyz” and not “pqr” as someone else occupying the chair of another nation can do- simply because the trim level of the Chairs around the world are set and every time nations have tried to play around with that bit- results have never been in anyone’s favour- be it war or the economic crisis!

Next you arrive to meet The Person- Unlike what normally people seem to think, decisions of THE Chair are never really an individual decision of the person on The Chair, but rather a collaborative effort and a consensus driven decision of the “Inner Collective”. Sure enough, the decision, to pull that plug off some nation or whether to hit that button to unleash a device, rests with the Chair and the Person who occupies it- but to arrive at that, the “Inner Collective” presents well informed scenario’s that may stem form the “Go- No GO” situation and this why you find that any Leadership of a Nation is not only good or bad, because of the Person who leads it, but rather more importantly is a function of the “Inner Collective” who are by the Leader and suggesting/guiding/ advising/ collaborating at all the time! So you may want to ask, so does the “Inner Collective” really run the nation? Well the answer is Yes and No! Yes- Because the “Inner Collective” is the Guardian of the laid down principles, ways of working and internal and external connect of the nation and No because- unless the Chair doesn’t allow the “Inner Collective” to function, it may have all the solutions to all the problems, but simply will be ineffective as it can only make the difference if allowed to do so! So what is this Inner Collective?

The Inner Collective is the whole association and ecosystem of people and processes that go to present the Leadership with information of challenges on hand and the possible solutions and the timelines of deployment and execution and these are the people who get the things implemented on the ground once the Chair signs them off and for the Chair to sign things off, unless the compelling case isn’t made (which promises some socio-economic benefit, needless to say with a political one) it won’t go ahead! So you see, in a way the rise and fall of a Presidency or Leadership of a Nation is not only about the Person, but rather is a reflection of the whole ecosystem and the quality of the Inner Collective that the Chair has, as it’s support system! It is the totalitarian impact of these wise people that advise, guide and implement what they must in accordance with the Presidential Consent that goes a long way either to create a legacy of accomplishments or a story of blunders! and the only one person that gets to be labelled by the rights and the wrongs is always THE Person on THE Chair and not THE Chair, neither The Inner Collective! Think about it! So what am I trying to tell you here and how is that relevant to you and me?

Just like, The Presidency is as an outcome of the Inner Collective, The person and the boundaries set by the Chair, each one of us, is an outcome of who we are as a person- the chair that we hold or aspire for and the Inner Collective that we have around us- The family, friends, colleagues, mentors and all that can influence and nudge you as an individual!

Acquiring the Presidential Mindset is all about harnessing the power of the Inner Collective that you have, the Chair that you hold or aspire for and becoming the Person that you would want to be , being on that Chair! The Presidential Mindset can go a long way to, not necessarily making you a President in the literal sense, but making you lead yourself like a President and once you do that with finesse, you will be surprise to see the ease with which you can de-clutter and streamline your pathways and realize your goals with considerably reduced friction and unwanted challenges as many of them are managed and taken care by the Inner Collective- that you chose- so that you are aligned to only things and pursuits that matter the most and are not left battling out every small disagreement and battle on the way!

Once you have developed this knack to understand that to lead yourself, is nothing short of leading a sovereign person that you are and begin to know the value and importance of having the right Inner Collective around you, rest assured you will be well on your way to create a lasting legacy and govern yourself! As you pursue your aspiration to reach that Chair- which then becomes the final icing and final frontier for empowering you- you will continue to become the person that the Chair demands and needless to say your Inner Collective will get aligned to your dynamic needs as you stay glued to the path that is needed to reach where you aspire to be!

Sure enough, I could have gone into further details and discussed here with you, how President’s think and how they don’t and how good decisions go wrong and and sometimes how even the most brazen ones’ align to the most progressive developments, but, given the limitations of a blog, would not wont to deep dive in this piece for now, this piece was more to let you know that, like the nation you live in- You too are a Sovereign entity and You too can lead yourself like a President of your own Sovereign Mind and Space!

The Presidential Mindset is the secret to lead yourself like a sovereign state, by drawing up the principles that go onto define who you are as a person-state and more importantly as you do so the quality of your Inner Collective and the choice of it, will go a long way to decide whether you do reach The Chair that you aspire for and if you do so, for how long you will be able to sustain it and if you do sustain, whether you end up creating a legacy or a story of blunders!

I leave you here with thoughts, for you to seek your Presidential Mindset, know your Inner Collective and seek That Chair so that you too can write a story of the Person-State that you are!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then keep Leading!

Know the knot.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

As trivial it may seem, do not be fooled, for the humble knot tells a lot about who got it done and who will get it undone! Join me here as we try to fathom this seemingly simple aspect of our life, but has a big message for all of us, whether we are the ones’ putting the knots in, getting them out or simply playing the role of an observer.

Perhaps the biggest playtime for few kids, and I say few kids here, has always been about getting to know the knot and in that process, getting to know a little bit more about themselves! You see the knot is essentially, by itself -nothing, but it rather becomes easy or difficult as a function of the person who decides to have a go at it, either by tying the knot in or by untying the same!

The biggest strength and perhaps the most fragile aspects of the human brain lies in the ability to perceive what is being presented- more often people end up spending their lives battling and waging wars against perceptions rather than focusing on what really the matters are or perhaps ought to be! This is what also is true about the “knot”! People often come in two broad groups, if you ask me, one is the group that simply relishes on creating the knots and untying the knots and you have another one which has no other role but to either avoid the knot either out of ignorance or fear, or just look out for people to help as soon as they realize that they just have unintentionally either created one or untied a knot, which was meant to remain the way it was!

So why is that some people relish the knot, while others avoid? Well, there could be varied reasons for that, but this happens to be the fundamental aspects of human societies and the way we shape ourselves, individually and collectively as societies, this is also what further gets reflected into the advancements and development potential that societies are able to embark upon- societies that have an uncanny accommodating approach to knots – creating them and deciphering them needless to day, race ahead and stay in control of not only their immediate contextual needs of today and tomorrow, but also play a pivotal role in determining the path for the times ahead for everyone else to follow, collaborate and share!

The whole human defiance and avoidance of the “knot” arises because the normal- majoritarian views about the knot across societies have been associating it with a problem- and more importantly as a difficult to solve problem, but the point that majority of these societies end up missing out completely is that, beyond that problem stance lies the real realm of creating something new, unveiling new frontiers by answering questions never answered before! The tighter the knot, the more exclusive the knot, the rewards for finding that answer by untying the knot are all the more greater and satisfying! Need proof for this, check all the discoveries and inventions of the 19th century- whatever field you choose- you will see a singular construct of the relentless pursuits of intelligent minds to answer a question- a pursuit to untie the knot and create history by opening up possibilities that were locked in time of the knot that locked away!

There is another aspect to the knot thought and that is of letting the knot be where it is! You do remember when the knot would have saved the life of someone you know- if you were anytime with the scouts or the national defence guards or some sort of civil defence set up on your society! If you are a mountaineer, who else will be better to know the value of those fluid knots on that rappelling line! Those are the fleeting moments when your life is literally hung on by knots on the line and the flex over the line! If one goes wrong, you are sure to find yourself in some trouble!

Knots, like human virtues have no other layer to who they are and what they are- the only thing that differentiates between a workable and meaningful knot and the odd knot (which is meant to be left the way it is) is what lies within and beyond it, once it is untied! So this brings us to the effort aspect of untying the knot, as I said earlier, only a small portion of humanity will ever want to untie a knot, in the era that we live in, where cutting the line almost always sounds, fast, classical and effective- well nothing to argue on that bit, next time try asking the surgeon do it while your angioplasty is on! Knots that hold value/ contents whose time has arrived are meant to be unlocked and these are the knots that propel humanity ahead- a few risk to solve the challenged at hand and serve the whole humanity- development of cutting edge technologies in aerospace, medicine are all a apart of this space! Next, you have those knots- which are best left untouched and unmoved- for they hold the power to undo everything that has been achieved till that moment- these knots can manifest either as a technology that has a larger double edged attribute or some ideology that has the ability to ruin everything that has ever been created until the moment that they are set loose! Sounds, familiar, yes pretty much they are and in fact it is the fallacy of humanity that as a race we have globally ended up untying more and more of these less serving or rather counter productive knots than the ones’ we should have actually untied! Why we end up doing this? Well, the answer to that lies over the past knots that we have chosen to untie!

If you think everything to do with knots has limitations only to the societal frame, well think about it! Take a pause and reflect into your own efforts at the very intrinsic level and what do you see, what are the type of knots have you been tying up, untying, avoiding, dealing with and how has that effort lead you to where you are in the journey of your life, has that propelled you or has that made you take a detour or has that halted you dead in your tracks to where you want to go! Well this is the space where the knots become very private, real and intense and it is the choices that we as individuals then go on ti make- informed or other wise that ends up us either being served by these knots that come our way or we end up being entrapped within them and then are just left at the mercy of one knot unto the next in a seemingly never ending knotted existence of our life- where the only goal seems to be moving form one knot to the next, while untying none!

Knots, have a character too and that character is a combination of what that knot is about and who is tying up that knot or untying that knot! As the knot gets untied or is let loose, all that character is let loose and how much one is able to manage that aspect goes on to determine what element of that knot will come to play a major role!

Well, given the limitations of being a blog, I would not want to (no matter how much I would have loved to) dwell and deep dive into the different types of knots their manifestations and the whole aspect of either dealing with them or living with them, but I would want to stop short for now, here with a thought- a singular thought that says and conveys only one thing- Know your knots, for which you untie and which you keep closed- determine where you head and what you become and perhaps what you don’t become!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, take a break, grab that coffee and think about the knots as you have time- examine which served you well and which harmed you well, for what you are today is a sum total of all those knots that came your way and all those that are lined up will go on to make who you will be in the times ahead!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Stay safe, stay wise – knotted or otherwise!

The Courage Collective.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Courage is perhaps the most time sensitive of all attributes that we can behold and deploy! Use it wisely, at the right time and in the right proportion, it can work wonders, any imbalance in that deployment, either with the timing or the proportionality and you will in all probability end up more exhausted and famished rather than feeling like a victor! Join me here as we explore what makes courage so elusive and slippery to work with and why when it works it creates history more often than not!

Unlike what the normal belief is, courage is nothing glamorous and neither is it an unfolding moment; courage is actually the manifestation of all that you are in that moment of action! Courage is all your experience, knowledge, wisdom, intelligence and intuition applied in that moment to engage with what is coming your way- by exercising the choice for the style of engagement! Courage has never been about being that fluke of eccentric voyeurism and risk taking behaviour rather it has always been about calibrating the risks and working always towards avoiding and dealing with minimal risk at all times! So you may now want to ask, if this is what it is, then why have people glorified and written pages and pages through history about courage? Well it sells! Let me explain!

How would you feel if a military general told you that he won the war because he trained well, or how would you feel if the doctor told you that his exceptional skills at operating sick people came to him by hard work and training, or how about that school teacher- if the teacher told you that dealing with kids and educating them is what they are thoroughly trained for!- Well nothing inspires here, right- they are doing all that they are supposed to , win wars, heal people and uplift the next generation! Now if the same thing is re-presented to you as , “the military general, sensed that opportunity in a fleeting moment and acted with valor”, or that “surgeon acted instinctively and aggressively to stabilize the patient and revive from the brink of death” or “the school teacher- empathized and saw the things as the kids saw them to create that unparalleled learning experience!” Well, basically the same thing, expressed differently! So while the earlier narration lacked the dramatization through the play of words than the later, it communicated the same thing and so did the later approach, albeit with that drama added! This is exactly where courage gets lost in translation, if I have to put it in that way! You see, the act of being courageous is intrinsic and as I said earlier, is more reflective of who we are and what all we can get to that moment to face, sustain, avoid or overcome the challenge that we face, so whether one showers generous words or not- the element of courage and valor doesn’t diminish or change!

In fact, the misconception about the over- rated and over-glorification of courage happens more than anything is because, people who record, document and share it, do so after the event and than thats where their own personalities and figments of imagination start to play mind games- to try and feel what the characters of the story would have experienced- irrespective whether that is real or not and this is why courage gets distorted when it comes to its real essence and rightful representation! Courage is not in the moment- courage leads to the moment and helps one sustain and overcome and move unto the next by acting with intent, purpose and direction!

Real courage is rustic, ageing and non-glamorous- something pretty much what an iron- smith of the yesteryear were! Courage gets forged by the variation in experiences that one gets, the contextual settings, the intrinsic value systems, belief tables, intellect and how one chooses to deploy and use these to ones’ own advantage or to the service of others! Like all other human virtues, courage too, when used to self-serve is always short lived and unless there is enough goodness for the many around, the highs experienced will fade away much rapidly than they come in! Unlike other virtues the one place where courage differs, is that it depends a lot more on the contextual settings and the wisdom and alignment of the people around! Let me quickly explain this bit too!

You may be a wise person, living ahead of your times, say a scientist or perhaps an innovator and who has been able to come up with something unique to offer to the world around you- but if that world around you is pathetically dumb (sounds familiar!), ignorant or indifferent, guess what is going to unfold? All of that you have come up with is going to be wasted! Not because you were the problem, but the contextual settings around you were! You may want to ask- where’s courage in all this? Well courage is very much at the centre of all this!

You see, even for that individual scientists/ innovator to come up with something knowing that the society around may or may not lap it up – would have been a very bold and courageous step to take to begin with! So this is where, courage gets wasted away- knowing that you are courageous or have the ability to deploy bold and courageous actions is one thing, but doing it when the contextual settings are aligned is more important! This is what makes courage- so much intrinsic and extrinsic at the same time! Like a Leader without followers and Followers with no one to Lead- Courage applied at the wrong time or for the wrong reason- just fades away and is the essence of all the great failures of humanity which just missed being the headlines- either because they were ahead of their times, in the wrong contextual settings or simply because they were meant to be going that way!

Like other virtues another interesting space around courage is the factor of proportionality! Everyone likes to see the good crush the bad, everyone likes the right to win over the not-so-right, but now if you alter that question, how much force and how much of crush will you want to allow to prove your point of right being over the wrong- you will get a wide range of responses- ranging from total annihilation to the extreme other end of forgive- forget and join together type of a reaction! So what does this say? How much courage is enough- can courage be detrimental and can it backfire too?

The falsified stories around courage to be brutal, fierce, fast and rapid have just gone on to make more and more people fall prey to that fallacy and the results have been erroneous, disastrous and far from what they could have been, we all know about when nations attacked the other, thinking something was amiss, or because someone said, something was going to be amiss and in all that melee, nations attacked with brutal and unrelenting force and till this day global peace remains elusive as ever before only form one simple factor- misplaced courage and overzealous deployment of a generous amount of it for no real reason! You see, you don’t burn your house down if there’s a cockroach that get’s into it! You deploy and enact that much courage, as is needed to manage the cockroach, not wreak havoc and burn down your whole house and threaten your neighbors too! Calibrated courage is the only thing that differentiates someone who is on a progressive path from one who is either destroying that path or embarking on a detour by creating altogether new consequences as a result of excessive or less than adequate deployment of courage!

So my final words, courage is all about steadfastness, being steadfast in the moment to bring in all the resources that you can harness to meet, sustain, avoid or overcome a challenge using the right amount of it and at the right time and needless to say for a purpose that is aimed to serve the many at all the times! This is when courage shines and fables are built and legacies get created! Anything apart form this, if you ask me, is just a passing flash of lightening which will be soon forgotten as the wild fires subside and new forests grow in areas which have been lead bare by the unwanted and unwarranted use and deployment of courage!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you to sharpen your courage so that, as you arrive at that moment of yours when you need to deploy it, you are able to create a story which inspires not in the future, but even as it gets played out in the today and leaves no room for falsified representations or larger than life contexts getting woven into it!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Stay wise and stay courageous!

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!

The antidote to mindless pursuits.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Much of humanity loses its breath and time pursuing a thousand of acts for one or the other justified reasons to eventually achieve nothing! Whether it is about the career that you want to pursue, that college you want to be in or that big corporate brand that you want to be associated with or whether it is the eccentric dream that you are caught up with to create something great and awesome or perhaps none of these and you just want to be doing what pleases you in the moment that you are, without giving a second thought for the next moment- well each of these aspects have been one of us at some or the other time in our lives and many of us end up realizing that- whatever that pursuit was, it was a colossal waste of time and energy, because you never ended up where you wanted to be, by pursuing what you did! So what’s unfolding here actually? Read on!

The human mind is at the forefront creating this overbearing drive to pursue! Well, there is nothing wrong to seek enquiry and then go on to pursue to find the solutions; problems begin when the whole pursuit not because of what it should be, rather it is because of the created simulations of the mind which fog out clarity of thought and purpose! Let me explain!

Like with anything else, the mind works exceptionally well as long as it is nourished and is utilized to pursue what makes practical and realistic sense, sure enough taking risks is a part and parcel of life (without which nothing great would have ever seen the light of the day), but the key word when it comes to risks is calibrated and measured risks- risks from which you can walk away- should your attempts fail! It is when people remain stuck with ever failing attempts and simply refuse to budge is when the pursuits start to become mindless! Yes, there are stories about scientists and innovators who failed and failed and failed only to succeed after the 10th, 50th or perhaps the 100th time, but the only factor- albeit a slender one which stands between their pursuits still being meaningful rather than being mindless is that – their risks were fundamental to alter the course of history and thy knew about it, even as they embarked upon it! You see, once people become clear what is at stake, then it becomes easier to know what is that must be pursued and what is that must be left alone and when it is the time to walk back to seek a new frontier! But then what is it that makes the human mind go berserk and get off-course in the first place?

The trim level of any machine is not always determined by at what point it fails (sure enough that is a key parameter), but rather what does it do- how does it react when it is made to stretch to a point beyond normal and the scenario of failure is eliminated! This is precisely what fails the human mind and makes it wander into spaces which yield nothing more than an intellectual experience that can be either rewarding or a nightmare! Once the option to fail, breakdown or stall is done away with, the human brain, pressed on and on- like a machine whose stop switch has gone wrong- will simply keep wandering in the universe of thoughts and self-reflection (bordering on either self-doubt or unwarranted over confidence) and this the moment from where that journey into nothingness commences!

The human mind as potent as it seems, has this feature to take you to long never ending scenario simulations- which at times are like a free movie premiere- for a movie which only you can see and experience- simply because it has in all probability got to do something with you! More importantly it has got everything to do with what you have achieved and not achieved and it’s often the things that you have not achieved that trigger your mind to carry you along into that mindless journey with no end and no result in sight! Let me explain this

Consider this, you have been a good doctor- you have treated people well and you have not ended up killing someone due to wrong diagnosis-but despite years put into this, you have never received the recognition or that position where you could influence many and address the crowds! So in this backdrop- although psychologically you are fit and fine, these unrealized desires, when the time comes take shape and they can shoot off in any of the two ways!

One- either by your involvement and proactive management of your mind- you can ensure that you get more busy doing what you are good at and make peace with what the fact is- that your social recognition for service is not coming now or anytime soon or may never come!

Alternatively you can allow your mind to take control and start to create simulations of forced thought which essentially all begin to provide creative solutions on how you may get that elusive recognition, which you logical and rational thinking has said you can’t! It is fine until this point too! A whole part of creative reflection, contemplation, over passed detours and challenges is what makes people wise to deal with their approaching times in a more progressive and directed manner- the problems start as soon as people start to act on these simulations, without thinking whether it is really meaningful, sensible and practical to take that route!

As long as that odd eccentric scientist, continues on the path of pursuing what is a figment of imagination of the mind, with no current science to back up or no rational thinking to cover the actions, the only possible outcomes that will ever play out are either a ground breaking invention which will alter the course of humanity or the deafening silence of lost hopes and misplaced expectations that will play out privately, leaving the scientists all alone to defend oneself and either course correct or walk into a trap of yet another mindless pursuit!

You may now be tempted to ask, if these are indeed the two levers on which the human mind operates then why sweat? Choose one over the other and keep going and when one fails, go back to the other, well sure enough that’s the only way around dealing with the mind, but that’s easier said than done, for the simple reason that, the judgement to know when to use which facet of the human mind is the key to keep a check on the mindless wandering and yet harness the creative genius that it has to offer and this is the only antidote to stay away from mindless pursuits!

The ability to harness the potency of the mind effectively and in a timely manner between the flex and the rigid stand is the only antidote to keep that urge to mindlessly wander under check! The mind works well and in fact very well, when it is given its own space and time to stretch and limit- stretch is important to allow it to create simulations- wayward- meaningless and out of the world- for it is in this realm that magic and new age solutions appear seemingly from no-where, limiting the mind on the other hand has the power to make it answerable to the faculties of logic and rationality- whatever the thought is, has to abide by the laws that govern the universe! Say you even wanted to imagine a spaceship or a faster than the speed of light craft- it has to adhere to the principles of physics and astronomy to even get to the equation board!

Given, the limitations of a blog, I will leave it here, urging you to experience for yourself-how were the times when your mind wandered away in pursuits- that perhaps yielded nothing of what you have now with you or perhaps that wandering itself has provided you with everything that you have with you now! Whatever, the outcome would have been, sure enough that has gone a long way to make you more wise and progressive when it comes to choosing your pursuits and perhaps has kept you aligned to your goals despite the detours and situations that would have arisen owing to the pursuits of your free mind!

Tame your mind- to stretch and flex, limit and expand as you demand and not the other way around! Once you have developed the ability to sustain this ability, you will be able to tap into the vast reservoir of imaginative and creative brilliance that your mind has to offer you, and trust me you too will be surprised with the way solutions begin to present themselves, only because you have learnt the art and science to tame the waywardness and limit those mindless pursuits!

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

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!