REFLECTIONS FROM A FALLEN MAN

 

“I am dying”,I whispered to myself.

“God loves thee for living this way”, The Preacher had foretold.

“No, Not dying but conjoining with God” I corrected.

“Alas , you are all mistaken”, God whispered alone to me

 

The veil surrounding me suddenly collapsed as i lay down in my own pool of blood. I tried to get up and adjust to the new surroundings but my body refused to do it. I could see the soldiers hurtling towards me in slow motion when life played a movie for me to watch; the last one it is, i decided to watch it. The fields, the maidens and the kids ran past me and then came the beliefs and decisions in my life. I could see a dark vortex growing in one side of the screen and every image that shot across my mind were thrown into the huge pool of darkness. The soldier knocked me out and God whispered the words to me. Alas, I could tell no one the truth !

I had been an inquisitive man. Questions zoomed past me in these tense moments and i jotted them down mentally..Why did God have to keep making changes to life of men and see them writhe in agony as well as laugh in joy alternately. Why doesn’t a happy man stay happy always and a sad man stay like that forever. Won’t there be a balance then and wouldn’t there be a full-stop to this craziness in the world -Won’t people be content with themselves then and stop meddling in others business ?

I am suddenly having radical thoughts. I was fine before but please do not ask me when. My mind is too tired to reminisce when. All i can try now is to recount some of the incidents so that you too would understand the deprivation i am facing now. I could remember vaguely that i too was happy once, I could remember huge meadows, friendly playmates and long playtimes but that was too far back.  Thinking about it itself makes my heart sick and long for the dark solitude place that was growing so that i could be by myself and teleport myself to such realms. I would see a village with maidens filling water in their clay pots and see young kids playing around these maidens throwing small pebbles at each other and making faces at each other. Kids could be seen playing in the stream and the fields, Farmers can be seen chasing away the kids from the orchids who come in search of ripe fruits. However cherished these realms are, I was unable to teleport myself there because I had a duty to perform.

How does this world care for one person? Isn’t always a plural more powerful than an individual. Ahaa,No. God has designed the world for every one of his creation and it is not that every one of his creations are sacrificed for his sake. I am called a terrorist by some, a jihadist by others, a fanatic by some others and also heretics by some, but chosen ones have always learned that no matter who is by your side, God is !! While we see that plural gets more weightage than singular when it comes to negative circumstances like fifty people have died due to a bomb blast, singular gains precedence in positive scenarios like Edmund Hillary- first man to peak Mt.Everest (Even though he was with Norgay, Norgay was sidelined by Edmund because Edmund understood human psychology). Likewise, I have been selected singularly by the Gods to uphold their honor.

 

 

The terrorist died not alone, but amidst a battalion of soldiers. He was declared a heretic, a terrorist, a fanatic by the state but God took him into his arms as the terrorist realized the working of the world and regretted that he couldn’t share his newly found wisdom with the world. The World was not decided based on God’s laws, It is based on Man’s superior thinking. While there were no other species as dominant in the world as the human being, it is natural that his enemy remains himself. His wisdom, his craftiness is reflected in the world through butterfly effect or chaos theory. Alas, only if Eve didn’t insist on having the apple.

PAIN OF SUCCESS

“I had written this entry when i was in third year of college; Found it while browsing through files in my computer,,, Read and Enjoy !!

I found it missing once again when I needed it the most. I was in dire need of courage, which was lacking with me at the moment. I found with me a lack of faith that I definitely needed to surpass the mountain of worry which was piling on front of me. The situation on front of me was tense and everything slowly became less familiar and soon blacked out.I woke up much later as a wiser and experienced man.

I was standing on the podium with several other participants, watching the crowd cheering on us. Everyone was giving their best encouragement possible. The crowd settled quickly and the microphone was given to the host. The host welcomed everyone to the auditorium and bid the participants good luck. I was really flustered at the moment for the situation was intense and the silence was simply electrifying. The participants could be seen expressing their anxiety by either biting their nails or rubbing their hands together. The host slowly and smoothly came down and introduced the jury for the event. The competition was ready to start and the participants were asked to begin. I took the opportunity to make an impression and opened my account with a quote by a famous historian and slowly ate my way into the topic. I abstained from too many details and simply made the base for future discussions.

Mr.Srinivasan, I heard the calling of my name incessantly .I turned back to see a young balding man of late twenties, one of the quieter hosts, calling me. He rushed up to me and told that he was sorry for everything that happened. I simply put on a grimace and left the scene quietly. I reached home late that night after having a few swigs of alcohol, I reclined on the arm chair that I had recently purchased and thought about the proceedings of the day. “What a day?”, I grumbled repeatedly to myself and slowly dozed off.

It was about 6am when my daily alarm started buzzing. I snoozed till 6:30 and then completed my morning chores. The whole scenario came streaming on to me along with tears for I knew this was a performance I could never forget. I could visualize the remarkable start that I provided to the discussion and the repercussions of it. The discussion was going on fine until a red-haired guy had disrupted the discussion. The discussion which was moving smoothly suddenly became inchoate and everyone started to blaspheme each other’s views and the topic soon went out of hand. There were several attempts for amending that but the limit had been reached. I was thoroughly disgusted by the happenings as I was touted to win and even grimaced at the organizer of the “Brain-watch” contest.

Being a management consultant was a difficult task for a person who had a dream of being a top notch orator. I worked throughout the day with my clients and advised them on their projects and the nights were duly spent on this dream. I spent about four hours daily reading on philosophy and other abstract topics to develop my thinking. I spent up all my free time and money on better and effective methods to communicate with the people. I started small with participations at major conferences and conclaves where orators and politicians from different parts of the world talked on various topics. The topic had never concerted me at any point but the speaker had always did. It is said that the orator is a person who perseveres in not communicating facts but in sharing interest. Slowly I started presenting at conclaves and after few stutters I went on to become one of the familiar and yearning figures in major conclaves. I travelled around the globe and added awards from major conferences and conclaves to my name when I finally heard of “Brain-Watch”. Brain-Watch was organized by Harvard University in association with American Writer’s Guild. It was considered to be one of the prestigious events in the literary and management sector. I grew passionate about this competition and applied almost immediately. I started persevering almost immediately for this and soon became nostalgic about the world. I stopped working for awhile and concentrated my efforts for the cause. I cleared the preliminary rounds with ease and moved on to the forthcoming rounds. Slowly, the mass decocted and only us connoisseurs remained. Again, several rounds saw the elimination of interesting, yet palpable personalities. Finally, only few remained and we were considered to be the elite among the literary world.

We were publicized among the literary world and the winner was to be entitled to a small fortune but money hadn’t really appealed to me; it was the title of “Churchill’s Successor”. I worked hard and savored the beauty of the tense position that I would be faced during the final discussion. “That would be the most inspiring oration that I will ever present”, I thought and smiled at my own confidence. I mentally imagined myself being conferred the title that the entire literary world craved at the moment and took an oath to win it at any cost.

The grand finale was to be taking place on the grandest hotel in the city of Boston. We were ushered into a room and were left alone for some time. We were just socializing among ourselves when the host welcomed us to the podium. We sat in the room to face a million people and a thousand national cameras recording our every reaction. That was when the red-haired man sitting on the edge of the room disrupted the discussion and everything went into chaos.

Sorrow and grief seemed to engulf me completely after this incident and soon I was too morose to do anything. I lost all faith and felt like I was destined to be doomed. It was at this instant that strange and foreign ideas engulfed me and I was forced to reminisce about the dark past that I thought would never reappear to haunt me. I remembered the first time I found it missing when I needed it the most. I remembered my graduation day with its grandeurs and horrors. It was on that spiteful day that I was unexpectedly called upon stage to deliver an oration in front of the press and my fellow students where I faltered and broke down. I lost my courage and became depressed. However time, being a slow healer saw me through it. I came back with a thirst to become one of the best orators of all time. The drive to this dream was constantly fueled by the occasional failures and my will to succeed.

I write this story today as the management executive of a major food processing organization to tell everyone that success is how one perceives it. If I had won that day, I would have definitely been successful and become a top notch orator but then would my interests be fueled by some other thirst to win, that I am uncertain of. However, today I am successful on different terms because I thought of a change to management. That change could have been the right decision as life is full of changes or maybe I should have persevered a little more as perseverance is the road to success. That I do not know nor care for it is the decision that has shaped my life.

Photographs (Essence of Time)

Disclaimer: I am sure that when you look at the photos,you wouldn’t have a single emotion in your mind. That is solely due to the fact that you were not a player in the game. If you notice however that you are a player in the game, then i am sorry to have put up your photo..

Requisites

1.Personal Album

2.Any distant relative would do.. If you feel that you don’t understand yourself properly , that would do.

View Full Album

“A Photo has a lot in common to cotton string ; one leads to another and by the time you know it, a flurry of emotions and memories flood your mind”

Far from going out of fashion, the camera is not only getting more powerful but also being integrated into every other device that we use.The camera’s popularity is attributed to the perception that it is a memory-clincher, not a photo- clincher. These photos(memories) are all part of a bigger canvas called life that we have sewn together in our lifetime.Basically , we are all tailors in profession; here also we have good as well as bad tailors.

A photo of a bird in flight could be viewed as a natural beauty for a nature lover, freedom for the suppressed, or a Kingfisher for a teenager. What one perceives wouldn’t be perceivable for the other because of the way he has been exposed to.

 “Google and The Human Brain work in the same fashion. Any input you provide to your brain is run as a query and the relevant memories start flooding your brain”

Photos do pose some social problems too. I am sure those with large families have faced this problem before. Relatives that you meet once or twice in your lifetime start showing you their family albums and introduce you to each and every character in the album with such fine detail that you would be able to tell their entire horoscope when you are finished. Well, the time spent thus is(I am not a fan of calculations but this is for the left brain junkies out there..)

Number of such relatives *2*100*3

• 2= Meeting such a relative twice, ie, if you are unlucky.
• 100= Average no. of photographs per visit
• 3= 3 minutes is the ideal time that is spent on each photograph. You try to rush it through but they too are the relentless type; the struggle eventually always ends up at 3 minutes..

 “I am a big fan of taking photos but am not the die-hard type to have a photo for every memory. Some memories are best played back in the mind”

  I am sure that you would be wondering why i have uploaded these photos, that's easy, these are the worst digital photos that could be uploaded online without getting marked off as vulgar by Google Crawler. Each photo captures the essence of the characters at that time and would be lively to do a comparison in a few years

Bye folks and thank you for patiently reading my entry..

Apple Versus The Rest Of the World

Several weeks before Apple is expected to weigh in with a multimedia device with 10-inch touch display, Hewlett-Packard unveiled the prototype of a slate-type computer during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's evening address at the Consumer Electronics Show here.

The HP device, also touted as a multimedia device with video player, e-reader and multitouch, should be available this year. No name or price were announced.

It's "a beautiful little product," Ballmer said. He showed a demo of the slate PC running Kindle software for the PC, which made the slate look much like a Kindle but in full color.

Earlier, Lenovo introduced what it claims is the first hybrid PC for consumers with a detachable screen that can function as a multitouch slate tablet or a clamshell laptop.

"We are seeing the next wave of technology -- the convergence of the Internet, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and its impact on everything from smartphones to netbooks to slate computers," says Rory Read, president of Lenovo.

Both had better be good, analysts caution, because Apple's tablet is expected to make a big splash. Apple has declined to comment on its plans.

The new entries should invigorate the middling $950 million U.S. market for tablets, says David Daoud, an analyst at IDC. Sales declined 25% in 2008, and were expected to drop again in 2009. "Apple could do for the tablet market what it did for smartphones with iPhone," Daoud says.

Indeed, Apple could help define a decade-old market interpreted as anything from a large phone to a Kindle or slate device, says Mike Stinson, vice president of marketing at tablet manufacturer Motion Computing.

Ballmer's second address as Microsoft CEO focused on new PCs, software and product momentum, most of it tied to Windows 7. He said PC sales jumped 50% the week of the Windows 7 launch on Oct. 22. Holiday PC sales surged 50%, year-over-year, largely due to Windows 7, according to market research firm NPD.

Ballmer was joined onstage by Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's entertainment division. Project Natal, Microsoft's controller-free gaming and entertainment system for the Xbox 360, will be ready for the holidays in 2010. It lets gamers play through spoken commands and gestures.

Courtesy:USAtoday.com

Penstroke and Keystroke

While the power struggle has existed for quite long, it is in the near past that the keystroke has shown overpowering dominance to the pen stroke. While Magazines and Newspapers had once routed power from telegraphs and radios, it is time for another power transfer to take place. Today you can find several newspapers migrating to the digital realm. With Google expanding his access to many newspapers and Microsoft not trailing far behind, even news giants like Rupert Murdoch are facing the tremors.

After the recent digital boom,we can see that each keystroke is landing massive punches in the information sharing space. It is as if everyone has a space to share their thoughts. If Facebook can show a growth of more than 1000% this year and we can see new blogs and sites springing up daily, it leads to one conclusion- that the internet is spawning a new turn of information exchange. This form of communication (through online forums, web blogs etc) was always anticipated to be a major breakthrough but the response is overwhelming with major organizations promoting forums and sites. Online forums are promoted by organizations (eg Java by Sun, eclipse by IBM etc) so that the popularity of these forums increase the popularity of the product discussed in them. This form of advertisement, though very popular and successful, is isolated to a small group of people and the reach isn’t global yet.

Organizations across the globe are now unraveling the power of the Internet to boost their revenues. While organizations like Google and Microsoft have already made it big here, other product based organizations are utilizing the existing frameworks to generate additional revenue for their organizations. I am at present working in a pilot project in our company that uses web 2.0 and social networking sites for generating revenue. Even though we haven’t faced a lot of success, the results are encouraging as we are seeing continuous improvements in the online market space. We also find a nascent deal of activity from other organizations. Although not measurable in the vast internet, we occasionally brush each other during our online activities. It will be remarkable to see how this is taken up across organizations globally. One thing for sure, the Internet is a complex child of several brilliant human brains and it would be a dishonor to them if a simple solution be provided to beef up the commerciality of the internet.

Thank you and wishing all of you a Happy Pongal !!!