At our studio, DIG, we have been discussing, a long while actually, but along with more concrete steps recently about doing some products together with other like-minded teams in a way which we can all share and benefit from our best strengths. We are talking with teams and like minded individuals, in development, in marketing, in design, in management, in academics… and so on. As these discussions progress, I see a clear thinking style emerge strong in our thinking: Of success, of all our successes, being one and the same. A openness in planning and sharing these successes. No ‘my idea’ – ‘your idea’ hangups. Visualization of path forward for all of us.
It’s exciting times ahead folks!
Stephen Cohey, coined a word, and explained it better as an ‘abundance mindset’. If this appears to be too simplistic & too basic, isn’t it how all great ideas appear?
Look beyond the rational. ‘The divided brain has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.’ says renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist. Here is his talk, RSA Animate -d. Take a lookie.
Yeah, Grammar apart. Just stumbled upon it yesterday, the hard way. This is supremely interesting. Not abstract or philosophical; – it’s very tangible; here & now.
Try an experiment; When you feel something, say anger, pride, happiness about someone. And if you can pause, pause and see if you can find out somehow, what that someone is feeling towards you. Most likely they will be feeling the EXACT SAME FEELING!
This is funny. I am thinking you are stupid, and you are thinking the very same? You are thinking the call-center chappie is rude, guess what he is thinking of you? You’re thinking you are not appreciated in the work space; Guess what… yeah… you get my drift…
The aha moment of today morning began here -
Karaagre Vasate Lakshmi
Karamadhye Saraswati
Karamoole Sthite Gauri
Prabhaate Karadarshanam
Each day I recite this. And of course, you know, I try all kinds of visualizations to keep up with this – B/W, Line drawings, many sorts of abstractions – and typical one that usually wins is like a soft soothingly animated version of Ravi Verma. I typically am mighty pleased when I get the form really human-like and believable.
Anyway, today’s Aha – wasn’t about the visualisation at all. The key element in this is not the all powerful goddesses – which another day I will say, it is about. The key element is really the ‘Hands!’ the Karas.
It’s repeated thrice here (significant, don’t you agree!). Should have been clued into it earlier!
Someone, sensible somewhere figured it out. That it’s all is in our hands, in our control. It’s symbolic. Lakshmi for the ability to sustain (also represented as wealth), Saraswati for ability to persue and achieve learning (also represented as knowledge) and Gauri ability to sustain human relationships. I get it – ‘It’s all in my hands!’ So each day, morning as I look at my hands and I am telling myself ‘its all in my hands!’ – ‘I just didn’t know it!’.
But REALLY now, what IS in my control? Most things aren’t. So, imagine that these (represented by the three symbols) are and aren’t in your control. It is the actions that are in our control – the doing, the initiations to influence your sustenance, your learning and your relationships. And it is also a ‘day to day’ control model. We don’t get a complete control – its a ‘present day’ or ‘present moment’ idea. The results of the actions aren’t. (the shloka doesn’t work the results in)
Now, I feel like a complete-pseudo-modern prophet. Parroting what most Hindu Gurus probably already have said it – can’t you picture Mr. Sri Krishna himself, or Buddha, Paramahamsa, Osho, JK all sorta saying this in different words? About the control thing – that it is and it isn’t.
Not saying anything. But still pretty pleased. 
When it rains like it did today, that is when the weather is sunny and raining at the same time, as children we would knowingly nod, ‘Fox and the crow are getting wedded’. This must have been just a comment on the unnaturalness of it being sunny and raining at the same time.
It’s called a sunshower. I Wikipedia it, apparently similar animal wedding sayings exist across the world for this phenomenon. Foxes wedding, Bear’s wedding, elves wedding? Take your pick.
I laughed aloud and said ‘Escaped from the entire shebang of hopeless useless miserable shit-hole life. Love, sadness, success, children, death, divorce. Every thing. You escaped it all. You must have been out in couple of minutes – lucky bum‘.
Not aloud – not to the dead body – not to anybody. Everyone was saying idiotic things. Someone said ‘thank god – he was not married’.
He was lying in the middle of the room. I ran out of the room in a couple of seconds. The dead body was very oppressive. On the way my sister had said – ‘so quickly people become dead bodies – its no longer him’. In the room, my aunt & uncle were conversing abnormally loud – about God and his crappy reasons, their poor dead son, their prayers being in vain, their misfortune. They didn’t understand. What is to understand? Death is not understood – its only a fact.
‘Silence is better than a thousand words’ or some such thing the poster said in his house. Did he choose this poster? An image of two people in a boat at night. Someone had thought this ugly image worked for the words. Actually, the words fit better with an image of death. Ugly death.
I saw fleeting glimpses of folks touching his face for the last time. Was there a point to that? My mind repulsed at it. Its a dead body.
I want you to know I love you. Are you going through shit – I will not judge. I will share your super happiness – I will be super proud and tell the whole world. I love you. And here is a hug for all those happy and sad times I missed, a hug when we are still alive.
A thousand thoughts floated by ‘what if it were my son?’ or ‘…my daughter, my loved one?’ That’s when the grief hit people and they would weep convulsively, scrub away the tears.
I lived through that real grief. About 10 years ago, I lost a friend whom I loved dearly. That grief was like being hit by a train. Everything went extremely slow and extremely fast at the same time. I didn’t remember anything. Not the air hostess offering tissues or the next person looking fearfully at me weeping. I didn’t remember the questions or the answers. But I remember the horrendous weight of grief all those days. You could slice that grief and play football or something – it was that real. It took years to get out of the guilt. The survivors guilt. Every laugh, joy, simple life rewards of walking, breathing hence forth for a long time makes you feel guilty ‘How could you live, and be happy when someone you loved died?’ Really how could you?
Today I felt wiser. I wanted to laugh. To ask people to recount the stories of the man they knew – What really ticked for him? What made him laugh? He laughed didn’t he? He lived a good life, didn’t he?
We are all the same. We die. Is there a master program that calculates whats the best bet of keeping someone alive. And eliminate the rest. There’s is no reason for our existence anyway. It may be sensible to be sensible, ‘don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t hold grudges, don’t kill, eat well, pray and be healthy, meditate’. And then, if were lucky, we will die quickly and easily like him.
A jovial young boy. Long ago maybe 20 years ago – when we were very young and wore embarrassing clothes that were in fashion – we all had gotten dressed up to get pictures taken in a photo studio – no one owned personal cameras then. We were all laughing really really hard. ‘What had made us laugh that day. Were we laughing at ourselves?’ – I asked. He looked like he’d open his eyes, laugh again and say ‘Tada!! Practical joke!’.
‘Bugger you escaped life. You died!’ I said. ‘Escaped from the entire shebang of hopeless useless miserable shit-hole life. Love, sadness, success, children, death, divorce. Every thing!’
Almost no child in over 500, in 2 villages in Andra Pradesh India, wanted to be a farmer. Why? I’d say, Farming is the Great Indian Gamble.
Who knows what the prices will be a few months from now for a crop sown today? Who knows if it will rain, or rain incessantly when it shouldn’t? Who knows if the pesticide will help the yield? Who knows if all the months of slogging in the harsh tropical sun will be an iota of use? Who does know magic?
New Thinking? No, Thank you – Rather than try something new and add to near impossible risks. They’d rather follow an successful example. I would do too. Heck, If I were a farmer, with the amount of impossible things I have to have faith in to live each day – God and Superstition are good bets!
No. It doesn’t help a farmer to have a farm. It doesn’t keep poverty at bay. Forget respect; getting a job as a truck driver is more respectful. Hardships? A maid or a mechanic has it easy. You’d make more consistent money working as a house maid, daily labourer or a contractor. A leased farmer’s means next to impossible loans. If the farmer owns the land, he is better off selling – else in a next couple of years, he may have raise next to impossible loans and lose it all. Farming doesn’t even lock you in the same economic status, it’s a vicious downward spiral. Period.
Heck, Why are they gambling, ops sorry, farming?
While writing a letter, an email or a document I don’t spell out each word in my mind as it gets typed. However I tend to spell out letters of words of all passwords I use even if it is a straight forward English word or phrase.
28th of November 2010 is going to be historic; the third world war is waged and its on the internet. This is world’s first information war and watching in the arena are millions of netizens. Wikileaks, a small whistle-blower site, against the US government. Most governments are bound to get into this fight.
Cloud is the new battlefield
One side is privy into the other’s secret information. The world’s watching the David & Goliath play out. Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is putting up a brave fight. It would be hard to make internet free of Wikileaks with hundreds of mirror sites and almost zero replication costs. Perhaps that’s the reason US Government, has to hit credibility of the Assange and psyche its citizens to not access the site by oscillating between advice and threat.
Individual Voices of Democracy
Were not social networks touted as the platform for democracy? Anyone with a mobile or an internet connection has an opportunity to voice and this voice can now be measured. This was going to be the greatest tool for democracy. But will it? Twitter seemed heroic to postpone it’s maintenance when Iran Elections was going on. They were supposedly making sure Iranians had a platform to protest. Perhaps they are more bothered about their business than being heroic. In the wikileaks case, Twitter has not blocked @wikileaks account and can’t really block individuals tweeting without major backlash, but strangely wikileaks is not trending on twitter despite the spikes clearly noted here. Its easy to see that most cloud businesses don’t want to be in the war path. They didn’t choose this fight. Amazon, EveryDNS, Paypal have all quickly chosen to close Wikileaks account permanently! Rightly said, networks do great harm by appearing enough like real communities to create expectations that they can manage human & social needs.
Causalities
Do you believe that this information war will be without causalities? Aren’t the citizens /netizens/ individuals shouting out? Will this be an anarchists utopia? Will the power of individuals and voice of democracy be back to where it was; a fairy tale?
Here is a quick 1 hour poster for this Fran Lebowitz’s quote…
“If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater… suggest that he wear a tail.“
Hope this year brings in great new colors in your life. I am going to be on a Portrait Mode for this year. I will have many self portraits but of course it will not be here. Other’s portraits may be.
Hope to bring in more pictures here. Till later then.
We were going to Sumangali Sevashram for dinner, if our request for one at the last minute will be accepted. Dinner was to begin at 8PM, it was 8PM now and we were a good 3 minutes away from the Ashram. We expected to see the girls to have started and if so, we were prepared to go elsewhere.
Sumangali Sevashram was spacious, airy and looked a well run place – carried with this, a promise of instilling good values in the children they take care. Ashram is a general day school for the nearby children plus a hostel for girls from economically challenged backgrounds. These girls are taken care of till the 10th Class. They are then encouraged to pursue their higher studies, job oriented training or join work. The school also trains rural women in livelihood tasks in Chamarajmanagar (Karnataka). At the ashram were displayed with pride many artifacts from these endeavors. We noticed some refined models made of granite and other stones.
We had an unique opportunity to talk to Susheelamma, the lady who runs the school, lovingly called Amma. The good aura that you feel around people who selflessly dedicate their lives to the service of others – exudes plentily from Amma. Taking time out from her regular activities, she gave us a brief about the institution signing off with a small wish to be away from the politics of governments and to become a self sufficient institution. As the day’s dinner was already sponsored – Amma graciously invited us to share their food. We were quickly ushered in, leaving Amma reiterating her advice to the caretakers not to henceforth wait for the sponsors beyond 8:15PM, I could hear her clearly – ‘The girls will be hungry and sleepy – do not keep them waiting’.
At the dining hall, the dinner plates are being served we walk to the kitchen where the finishing touches for our dinner is being undertaken. Kitchen is clean and the hygiene is well maintained. Outside the kitchen, near their plates, a couple of cats hoping for some leftovers waited politely.
As the girls walked past us, they greeted us with a warm ‘Namaste’. We stepped into the dining area to hear 100 odd voices rhythmically chanting their evening prayers. A few rows of neatly dressed girls were sitting waiting patently for their food to be served. Some of these kids were probably 6 or 7 years of age and looked like likely to fall asleep on their plates. The elder girls were busy helping their caretakers by serving the food. Today’s dinner was sponsored by someone to mark his/her 60th Birthday. The usherers had an elaborate Arti for their sponsor, their earnestness not a slight bit marred by the fact that the sponsor had not arrived for to share this dinner. They lit the lamps and prayed to God seeking happiness and joy for their kind sponsor.
Suddenly, a small hush fell among us; I turned to see a visually uplifting scene in front of me. The elder girls brought small diyas and placed them neatly next to each ones plate. Another girl followed behind placing the wicks, another poured oil and finally a caretaker came to light the lamps. Each of these girls had a lamp to remind them of who sponsored their food. But from where I stood, it surely looked like they were tiny innocent goddesses whom we were praying to.
Thanks Shyam for the Picture.
The dinner was modest mixed rice accompanied by a sweet, some Boodhi Kalu (deep fried mixture of flour and fried groundnuts) and finished off with rice with buttermilk and some pickle to taste. I felt very happy to share this meal with them, thankful to be a part of this experience. The lady who was ushering us kindly offered to serve more food, we accepted what we could eat and finished our dinner.
On the way out, we gave a donation and requested them to take it against another weekend which wasn’t yet sponsored. They humbly accepted to do so and promised to send us a receipt for the same. As we said goodbye, we thanked our hosts for the gracious dinner and the memorable experience.
‘Next time’, I thought ‘I shall bring my nephew along’.
We had this dinner as a part of my friend Sourabh Dubey‘s Community Project Arpanam. Get in touch with Arpanam to have a wholesome dinner experience.
A lot of thought & energy goes into designing the peripherals to the things we buy – say – clothes or a nick nack. Tags, stickers, bills, brand communication pamplets, carrybags etc. These peripherals – they help build identity, enhance brand value, makes a mark in the customer mind etc etc.
We bring all these peripherals home along with that thing that we buy. Once home, the thing, that we paid the money for, goes to its proper place – say cupboard or a display case. And the peripherals go to the trash bin.
We need to spend less time designing trash and plan to go beyond?
01. Stop such design. Cut the trash you send home to people. – hard to score brand points – but you score eco/ green points
02. Provide a discount for people who bring their own bags to your store – encourages such behavior – scores brand point as it sure makes a mark in your customers mind. – Scores green points – scores ethical points – a positive step in changing the mindset of people.
03. Provide a recyclable theme – bring the tags back – ‘autograph and write a message on it’ and bring it back – get a discount and reuse that tag to sell another cloth – helps build a community of people who have used the brand – scores morally as well as ethically.
What other methods can we think of?
