Categories
Philosophy

Tonnes of thought

>Patience. Patience.
My mind is alien to this concept.

Restlessness. Hyperactiveness
They are good buddies of my mind.

Well, don’t mistake me to be a hyperactive guy. I am among the laziest.
Its my ‘mind’ that I am talking about.

The constant chattering of the mind. Its judjemental nature. Its sentimental nature. Largely drives my life.

I want more control over my life. I want my mind to simply shut up when I ask it to.

I read this somewhere recently – ‘An ounce of action is better than tonnes of thought’. I have promptly added this thought to my thought library. No action yet.

Categories
Leisure

Customer Service sans Service

>I get very irritated when I get unsolicited calls from Credit Card / Insurance companies offering their products.

The bad part is that they will not let you speak, but keep telling you how wonderful their product is.

The worse part is that they will not be able to answer basic questions in a sensible manner, and will conveniently hide the fine-print stuff.

The worst part is, the moment you agree to try their product, you are trapped. Then on, YOU have to call them ‘n’ times for simple things such as mispelt name on the card, unexpected charges etc.

“La La La…Please continue to hold the line. Our customer executives are having coffee. They will be with you in an hour…La La La…

“Sir, You say that you have placed this request last week, but my computer screen does not show anything like that. It shows ‘Flying Objects’ screensaver now. I will take a fresh request now and make it high priority. Please call us again after a week. We will tell you the same story again. Is there anything else I can assist you with ? …”

In software teminology, every rainy day test case will fail multiple times. It will pass after weeks/months, but by then you will be fully drenched.

I am going to collect the phone numbers of these free-credit-card-people and call them one by one. I will tell them this:

Hello Ma’am,
I am calling from the Bangalore Electricity Board. Based on your excellant electricity usage, you have been chosen for a special gift from us.

The gift is a premium cat-mark-candle. You can use it for urgent light requirements when our services are temparorily down.

Please come to our office in Shivajinagar on 1st Sep 2006 between 10.00 am and 10.15 am to collect the same. Carry your PAN card, Passport and Voter’s ID for our verification purposes.

Thank you. Have a nice day !

My friend, Gopi Chinnasamy triggered this idea in my mind. In fact, his ideas are far more explosive ! He has posted some nice photographs in his Flickr page.

Categories
Society

Loving your Job

>SWill I ever truly love my job ? Should I ?

Five years in the IT industry have made me realize that work is just work.
The fire that burned in my belly when I was a fresher is no more.
There was a time when I admired mere source code. Now that illusion has dissolved.

I get thoughts about making my favorite hobby my profession – Composing music, which is the most satisfying thing I have done in my life.

Practical difficulties aside, will a hobby remain enjoyable when it becomes a job ? Will it not change to an exhauster from being a rejuvenater ? Will creativity survive when deadlines loom ? In such a case, I will have to ensure that my creations are liked by others too, which is not necessary when it is just a hobby.

Similar thoughts have been blogged by Anjana.

But then, there are people like A R Rahman, who are like creativity-factories – delivering with a punch every time. Touching the fan’s heart every time.

Probably, I should make living a hobby.

Categories
Philosophy

Friends are Angels

>I am my friends.
That is only slight exaggeration.

My friends influence my life very much. My interests, my ideas, my choices in life – all have been touched by my friends’. To me, friends are angels who are there to make me smile, who don’t expect much in return, who make life a lot lighter than it is.

Friends are gifts from the divine. We don’t realize this most of the time.