Thursday, October 14, 2010

Loneliness

She was born this way. Of course she did like to see, but currently it was not possible. But the best she could do now was not to get swayed by feelings of sel-pity and get depressed. So what if she could not see? She knew she could feel everything better than everyone around her, she know when her mom expects something from dad but he does not notice, when seema wants to be left alone but dad does not get it, or how the room was about to erupt but stood with silence when Uncle Rakesh spoke for the first time about his divorce, she got this things instinctively. But during other times when people spoke about things around her, dresses of people, TV, internet (i cant believe all the information in the world can be made available on any gadget - a gadget itself was imaginary for her, but then she had vivid imagination) and the changing colour of seasons. That above all, the changing colours of seasons depressed her a lot, maybe because she could smell the change but couldnt see it, so at those times she usually unsuccessfully tried to change the topic.

Dad was always supportive of her and seemed to treat her almost as if she had no problems. Luckily they were well heeled and she got the latest hearing aids and went to a good school for blind people and also had a private braille tutor at home. She was a diligent student and absorbed everything that was thrown at her. She had a soothing voice and had a lot of friends in
the blind school. She loved school, everybody was like her and they spent long hours together what each other felt as people in the normal world (she did not understand it, but she always thought she was abnormal, but couldnt lay a finger on why that was the case) talked about different things. Things that they could touch were easy, apple, phone, book they were able to learn remember and appreciate, but things like countries, universe, physics (why would anyone want to learn what goes beneath what you can see?) etc... and culture. There was the culture of her world were things were imagined and there was this culture of the normal world thats all there was to it right? Her world views were simple and sufficient: If you can see things how can you misunderstand?

Medical technology has made amazing strides in the recent years. They had found a new way of treating people like her and they were going to try the new method on her, her dad told her. The operation was successful and she needed about a week to open her eyes. Slowly she came to terms with the new world, everyday was a new experience in what she could see. She understood that they were not that well to do and Dad had spent a fortune on her, she saw that countries had boundaries which people did not really understand, she understood physics to be the challenge of understaning movement she understood that culture was what each person sees and hence the misunderstanding, she understood that universe was expanding for no particular reason than that it was. What she did not understand that there seemed to be no one like her, she could not connect with anyone. No, one would talk about everything under the earth freely, giving shape to what they have heard and seen and coming to terms with the perceptions of each other. She seemed to hit a wall with people. Almost as if people decide that at some point they cannot allow someone to see further inside. Initially she was the hightlight of everyplace she went.

The person who had begun to see recently, everybody wanted to talk to her, to know how the world appeared to her, but soon she realized that it was just a novelty factor and most people were not really interested in what she saw or thought. Even those who were interested, interpreted what she tought of things in some theory that they saw fit. Men especially, their understanding was so narrow she thought, she could lead their thought process anywhere and they would follow. Women understood her better, so she spent a lot of time talking to women. About men, about dressing, aoout their lives and struggles everything, but at some point she always hit a wall.

The more she saw, the more lonely she felt. The soothing nature of her voice was gone and she felt a strong attack of self-pity. It was better in the normal world.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

State of Affairs

Bbcworld wanted to do a story on the issues of food and education in
india. So they decided to ask each of the political parties for a
view. The reporter was quite new to this part of the world actually, so he decided to start at the ground level, the party worker:

Congress worker: We will go as per the diktat of the party high command.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati (no one else could be found as they were busy
building statues): Hum jo bhi karenge bahujan samaj ke hith mein
karenge

Samajwadi Party (SP): Its a conspiracy against minorities. Amitabh and Amar
are behind this. We will continue to fight this oppression.

Communists: We will tell you after reading arundhati s (roy) views in outlook. And do you say you want to speak to workers? We are Indian communists. Btw, while we wait for Arundhati to write, you can always refer to the notes of Chairman Mao on this.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK): what did the edhar kachi (other party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)) say? Bottles, stones, riots.

Bjp: we are waiting for our next national committee to convene a "different" response to this problem. Its on our agenda. We have run through 4 party presidents to get to this point. The future is ours. Btw you guys did a story on our rise, can you share it we me? We need to train those rss fellows.

Finally, manmohan singh: "it is a grave problem and will take difficult decisions".

And bbcworld reports: india is shining away in the 21st century. There is increasing political resolve to solve the age old problems of food and education.

The correspondent: My boss told me India is an important market and I love my job.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Organization building

1) How soon does it take to put up blinds on a window ? : 6 months

2) HR figures that the actual working hours are next only to France on this planet and hence proposes a siesta time which would be added to daily working hours

3) There are value systems, value coaches, value huddles and other things that would increase value

4) Firmwide HR responsible for a business does not know what the people in that business do

5) A million dollars and more on executive training

6) Everything is stuck between the nth meeting and the n+1th meeting

welcome to the growth organization. god bless.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Perpective

Our times cannot product great art writes Aakar Patel in his piece in mint. Everything that is great in art has already been done and hence from here on our lives shall be doomed to wander in a rewind mode. True? Quite possible. After all, in most fields what s to be created has since long since been created. New particle, new political theory, new religion have been true relics of the past, we don't hear about such things so easily. Why would art be any different?

Art becomes an important barometer because of two very unrelated reasons: Measurement (of the goodness of an artist) and a sense of perspective (for the the artist regarding the wider world). What s so different about the current artistic environment against maybe something two or three centuries ago? Patronage. As any artist will tell you, patronage allows one to pursue art for art s sake. Art was/is opium of the nobility: My court artist is better than yours, I can identify a high note, this piece is so good lets put it up at the Louvre, the whole audience gave in to the uplifting music.....these are phrases that we seldom here these days. The reasons for that are too obvious: nations are comfortable about their culture and communications have fundamentally changed.

Sculpture: Give me rapid prototyping. Literature: The twitterati are waiting. Paintings: Everybody is a photographer. Without the opportunity to put people on pedestals and the ability to compare them, art will never seem creative enough. Till we get that "perspective", we shall continue to believe that we dont see great art these days. Someday, 21 st century art will be great, but the measurement of the same will definitely not be traditional.