My Photo..

I had been to Italy trip last easter weekend. One of the thing I have observed about most of we Indians is that we are highly obsessed with self photography. So we clicked lot of self imposed portraits. I for one who normally prefers to remain behind the camera choose to come in front of it couple of times. After the trip I collected all the snaps of mine to see how I came about in them.

I always knew I am not photogenic and added to it I don't know how to smile to a photo. To make things worse God creates other fellow being whose photos would be picture perfect even when you take their snaps one handed or upside down or both. So if I had to do a google search of all available photos of the trip taken from all cameras just to get a reasonably good snap they need to do the same to get a bad one.

This time things were no different. As expected most of my snaps looked horrible, couple of them average and only a handful could be termed as nice ones. So rare were my good photos that the most interesting photo of mine was a part of group photo and I had to do lot of trimming activity to extract my photo out.

I had never given a serious thought about this but its worth asking on why people like me come always come badly on camera and some folks don't have that problem. Why are some people photogenic and some are not (even when they are smart looking in reality). This question led me to say these words..

"Either way, You are never as good as your photo suggests.. "

Know what you own..

Being one of the toughest and challenging phases (of my life) at work which made me to sweat it out for the past 8-9 months (The very fact that life is in braces indicate that my work was [and to an extent it also is] all my Life). This act of survival makes you forget everything. Very much like Arjuna who aimed at the eye of the bird when asked to aim, I had to aim at Survival. The overload for survival in software field is called "slogging" (Yes, This is also the same term used in cricket even for a good shot played by a tailender :-/). I also slogged all day and night, weekday and weekend for most of the period mentioned above. The Problem with Slogging is that once you got into the Chakravyuha of Slogging its a difficult way out of it, just like the way Abhimanyu was trapped.

In the past as I was deeply trapped, it was me who was pushing all the 'boys' to work in the weekends. Bad I know, but I still used to ask for weekend progress on Monday. Though there was a inner struggle in me to stop this abuse of myself and others it was tough for me all this while. However after 8-9 months of struggle for survival I just broke the habit of working in the weekends. Now I not only resist but also suppress such 'temptation' (of Slogging) from fellow teammate. I have also gone so far that I try to make sure that we leave office before 7 PM in weekdays (yes, don't look great but trust me it is considering the fact that it was the earliest time we used to leave). Well I was clueless on what prompted this change (actually there are lot of people who are clueless about this change in me). I kept on asking myself on what might be the reason and after few days a thought said to me ..

May be, Just may be you might have realised that ..

"After all I just Own my Job, not the Company.."

Significance of Life..

Being where I am now and doing what I am doing makes me feel that I am carrying a huge load of significance around every damn action I take. I know it but always forget that..

"Significance of life is to find out how insignificant it is.."

Leadership..

I have been fortunate enough to lead a team of 7 including me for a short duration for now. Even the project I am working in is not the easiest by any stretch of imagination. As I have never been in such a situation (of either leading a team or handing a complex project) I had to adjust to sudden need of bringing out the leader in me. This sudden change made me often think about leadership with a larger perspective, on things like what contributes to leadership? I thought, observed (few of my team mates) for a period of time and finally came up with a simple view of Leadership..


"Leadership is 99% Attitude, 1% Authority"

Source of Creativity..

Creativity is an amazing quality. It is not easy to find it around. Most creative people are really passionate about creating something new. Their mind will be hungry and and will be craving for something new every minute. Though I really get sudden shocks of inspiration by looking at creative inventions around I never been found being really 'passionate' towards creativity. But this fact does not decline the bigger fact that I have traces of creativity in me (yes, consider it as bragging). with few exceptions my creative drive was not from the passion towards it but from a remotely related word - Laziness. One might deny it. But there are instances in my life where Shear laziness had made my mind to think (Luckly, was not lazy towards thinking) of doing the same thing in different ways..

So it wont be wrong to say..

"Creativity will certainly be there where there is intense Passion,
But it can also survive and thrive where there is utter Laziness"

Problem Vs Challenge - The fight is on..

The topic of looking at a situation as a problem or as a challenge has inspired me so much that I could think about few new lines on the same. May be this was fueled my the situation I find myself in. This is ..
A sitation where I need to climb a steep mountain,
A situation where my past experience is literally of no use,
A situation my weaknesses are left completely exposed,
A situation where I find myself alone..

But unfortunately I still continue to view this situation as a problem and not as a challenge, at least for now..
But I can really see that the difference in the two 'me' who are fighting each other..
The present Me (Unfortunately) Vs the future Me (surely)..


"When one continuously tries to escape it, the other keeps the attack on;
One can only see the large mountain to climb, the other imagine how it will be to be there on the peak;
One is always full of fear, the other is brimming with energy;
And at the end when the one 'sees it off', the other claims Victory"

New Life..

Often i have stumbled upon two very distinct kind of people.
where one views every obstrucle, stop, set back as a 'problem' and approaches it with an aim to get rid of it, an approach where means never matter. More often then not such an experience is a painful one.
But there is other set people who dont know what is a 'Problem' as they call each such occasion as a 'Challenge' and I cant explain how profound the difference is..

"In Life if we start replacing the word 'Problem' with the word 'Challenge'
Sooner than later Life will be a completely new and highly fulfilling experience.."