Random Ramblings

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.” - Albert Einstein I guess most of us would have wondered how relative things are. Uninteresting things appear to move too fast, and good things get over quickly ... at least it seems so! The way time seems too pass in different settings, the way things in recent past seem to be too distant, just because the set up and the surroundings have completely changed. Hanging out with friends in college canteen just a few days ago seem to have happened ages ago; and at the same time, things in college which happened two terms back seemed to be a thing of recent past! Why only time? A change in atmosphere/ surroundings can completely change the way we look at things. Same thing which appear trivial piece in the jigsaw puzzle of universe, when viewed from college campus may look extremely essential when viewed from inside a wild life sanctu...

One of the important tools used by marketers for identifying potential market is market segmentation, in which subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics are grouped together. Using similar concept, people can be segmented based upon their basic philosophy or their basic approach towards life. It might be extremely difficult, as not all may express their beliefs openly. Maybe few sort of weird approaches mentioned below might help. One such method can be segmenting on basis of their movie or book preferences. For example a person whose favorite book is The Fountainhead or 1984 is likely to be different from a person whose favorite books include Sidney Sheldon and likes. Or a person who likes reading The Catcher in the Rye over and over again might be different from the one who prefers Eric Segal instead! Similarly a person whose favorite movies includes likes of Jaane bhi do Yaaron or Rang de Basanti would be different from a person relishing Suraj Bar...

There was a family of 3 frogs - Ma Frog, Pa Frog and kid frog. Like may other frog families and many other insects, reptiles and amphibians, they existed peacefully within confines of the well. The world outside the well didn't mean anything. In fact many of the residents were unaware of the existence of the outside world. One fine day, Kid frog told his parents - "I want to go out and explore the world". His parents were initially reluctant, but they grudgingly granted his wish, with an understanding that the kid would be back in well after some time. The kid went out and moved around in the vast world. And how different it was from the world within the well. It was beautiful. Things he never imagined ...they actually existed! Yes. There were few things that were quite eerie, and some made him desire to run back to his home. Nevertheless, the world was different. Quite a contrast to the world he had seen in the well! He continued his journey, and loved exploring the wor...

What you need to make your day ? There can be a zillion answers Maybe, getting a promotion and a pay rise, or getting a praise from an unexpected quarter, or maybe getting your pay cheque on first of every month ... probably getting something you earned or you deserved! ... Or maybe, getting a call from an old friend ... just to have a chit chat! ... and few more such standard answers. Or maybe, the answer lies in something extremely trivial Like - Watching a really funny poster on roadside Eating an extremely spicy roadside chaat, and desperately asking for drinking water. Or seeing a 6 year, class 1 kid smiling at you and in the process showing off his front teeth which aren't there. Or cracking a really bad PJ and laughing for minutes together, and realizing that you are the only person who laughed ... and this making you laugh even more! Or discovering that old chocolate lollipop in a store and relishing it! Or reading an interesting line in a newspaper article. Or listening to...

"If only I had ..." "I should have ..." "I shouldn't have ..." "It was too harsh on me ..." "That wasn't too fair ..." ... and many more such common refrains we hear, here and there. The underlying thing remains the same - regretting things which could have been different, had some decision or some input been different. Often these phrases seem to be excuses for things having gone wrong or unfavorable, and often they are the reasons why others did better than us. But, if I lost to any of other factors which I may regret, there might be some other factors in which the person who wins may regret. Maybe, there wouldn't be any person in the world without his share of regrets, including the most powerful or the wealthiest person or most successful person in any field. Probably, that young business tycoon sitting in his ivory tower still feels bad having fought and broke up with his girl friend few years ago, but he chose no...

"Hi, How r u doing ?" "I am fine" "Howzz life ?" "M doing great. Life is great." "Great. Life is great at my end too... you tell, What's new ? "Nothing special. Enjoying at Delhi" How many times has this or one of its variant been repeated! Maybe often, be in case of two friends catching up after quite some time catching up probably on a social networking site like Orkut, or catching up through chat or mails. Maybe, in case of a telephonic conversation, it may last a bit longer getting to some the specifics. But more often than not, the script is similar. Usually people are always doing great, they are always happy. The facade usually remains similar. But how much of those times do we actually manage to look beyond the facade? Maye, very rarely. Maybe many of these goody goody things are quite 'good' if not great. But often behind this are many layers - layers which are hidden from majority of the outside world by means...

Below is one of the signs I saw at the extremely busy Platform number 1 of Allahabad railway station recently ---> I wonder, How 'secret' or 'intelligent' the department's services would be !

"Freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want, as long as you say what they want to hear" - Freedom of expression – One of the hallmarks of great societies of the world; one of the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution. But is it all in theory? Take the case of Tasleema Nasreen or M.F. Hussain or students of MS University, Baroda or many others who dare to express things against the norm, but have to face wrath of some self-appointed moral police every now and then? … Or consider countless others who do not even dare to express, because of the fear of consequences from likes of Shiv Sena or Bajrang Dal or infinite others self appointed guardians of our culture. Yes. As a nation we have had fairly decent record on this front, if not anything great … but that is not enough. It must be made much better if we need to progress as a society. But where are we heading for ?

This is a song by Silk Route, and I have been listening to this in infinite loop since few hours now. (Actually I never heard this song earlier. Heard it first during a performance by Silk Route in our insti recently!!!) The tune is nice, but the best part are the lyrics. Some of them do fill me with a mixture of self-consolation, self- pity, and just a smile with few questions in the eyes !!! Among many lines, I especially love - " itney bure bhi hum nahi…" and " duniya ki is bheed me...Sabse peeche hum khade " In long run, this may probably not end up being considered as a great song, but maybe it will be a cult song in future ... or maybe it is a cult song even now! _______ Lyrics of the song (copy pasted from after google search) " Zaara naazar uthake dekho Baithe hai hum yahi Bekhabar mujhse kyon ho? Itne boore bhi hum nahin Zamane ki baaton mein uljho na Hai yeh aasaan janana Khud se jo agar tum pooch Hai hum tumhare ke nahi Teri aankhon ka jaadu Poor...

"Isn't it strange that in hope of a better future, the present is often screwed, and this continues even when the future has become present ... and in the end when we look back, we often realize that we have lived only in hope of a better future, and it never really translated into a good present"