testing

Can I write blogs on my bb and post them? Testing- this is how we non IT ppl test stuff

Friendship funnel

Here is an idea, lets think of a funnel, somewhat like the one used for pouring liquids and a little like the one used by sales for qualifying leads but with a few differences.
What flows through this funnel is time and what time which is the medium carries with it is new contacts or relations. Time of course flows at a constant rate but the particles i.e. the contacts it carries dont. Another difference is that this funnel has a number of nooks and corners all along its walls where the particles get lodged. Depending on how well we connect with them each particle behaves differently because this funnel is actually a relation or contact funnel- a 'friendship funnel'- cause it sounds more phonetic.
The time starts flowing through it right from the time we are born and so do the particles. A particle might move in different ways though. One particle might get caught at the very top of the funnel- in one of its crannies and then remain there till time stops flowing through this funnel- i.e. till we die. A second particle might move from a cranny at the top of the funnel to another towards the bottom of the funnel and finally get lodged at the very bottom of the funnel- this is the area that we would call our closest friends. A third particle might initially get lodged in one of the interstices and then over time flow out through the bottom. Some very rare particles might flow in and directly get caught at the very bottom.
Are we getting the idea here? Every funnel is essentially a sum of relationships that we build with our friends and all of our individual funnels are filled up differently. Knowing a person you could probably draw what his funnel looks like. For some it might look top heavy with a very few particles down till the bottom of the funnel whereas some might not have much at the top but might be quite filled in the middle and at the bottom.
At the risk of stretching this concept, we might even think that the size of the particles for each person might change over time or the size might be different to begin with.
I could go on but instead I would like help from those of you who are philosophically inclined or love to ideate to help me out. How does this concept develop?

The path

All of us set off on a path, a road. And at every exit someone took the left or right lane to his destinaton. These were the 'lucky' guys- the people who had 'arrived' or 'established' themselves. And slowly everyone took these exits till only you remained. And you felt the road never ended but finally when you had given up more times than you could remember, you finally reached not an exit but the end of the road.
And then, as you stood there and gazed around, you realized what you thought was a winding road with a lot of lanes and turnoffs was actually a path up a gigantic mountain and what you thought were turnoffs were actually path to small plateaus on the side of this massive rock. But this fact was revealed only to you because standing at the summit, you could now see the whole pictures and now the dots seemed to connect. Everything that happened to you seemed to now make sense....What do YOU think?
I am back guys and I seem to be a new person! Well...

Hate and Courage-the two opposite twins born to Fear

"Courage is not the absence of fear", someone has said. Fear however is the root of all problems. Fear has two reactions- one a short term knee-jerk reaction and another a long term reaction. Like most short term things, the instant reaction is short and non-sustainable. The long term (re)action on the other hand takes a longer time to start and give results. Hate is the short-term reaction and difficult to sustain which is why most terrorists at some point surrender or become mercenaries- no longer driven by hate but by habit and lack of options.

The long term answer is true courage-a positive emotion and one that is not really a reaction but more a state of being. "A courageous person does not need a terrorist to be courageous however a terrorist essentially breeds only in a pool of fear and terror" This reminds me of that incident about Abraham Lincoln. When he went to meet wounded soldiers from the confederate army in the hospital, a lady chided him saying that they were enemies who should be destroyed. To this, Lincoln's reply- an illustration of courage was: "Lady, do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?"

Courage however is difficult. It requires all those virtues that our parents tried to instill in us. It requires patience, perseverance and even a lot of forgiving. To quote Kipling from his poem 'If':

"If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating...."

I think that is what courage is about. Its about thinking things through, analysing the siutation without bias and then deciding on a course of action. Its about not letting others manipulate you into action often hasty and counter productive but working out a course of action which not only solves the problem but makes you stronger as a result!

Thus courage is not terror attacks by Hindus but a strengthening of our faith, beliefs and our ability to grow.

And most importantly it is most definitely NOT business as usual. In fact it is a systematic change not just in business but in lifestyle and principles.

Enough of the Mumbai Spirit!

Yah, enough of it cause Mumbai's indomitable spirit has been used and abused too many times now. Our ability to get back up on our feet and carry on has carrried on enough. Now I would like the politicians of this country (who somehow never figure in terror casualties.. even in the Parliament attack they were ironically spared) to take responsibility. Make every corporator, MLA, MP and minister accountable for the terror attacks that happen in their areas. Let's have a law which says that all the ruling politicians who have even a single terror attack in their constituency, automatically cannot stand for elections next time from anywhere! Impractical? Overreactive? Unfair. I don't care. Life hasn't been fair to Mumbaikars has it? Nor has it been fair to the understaffed, underpaid, under-equipped and overworked policeforce. Let these netas feel the heat for a change. Let's all question, not just the intelligence networks but the leaders we elect. Each and every one of them should be taken to task- made responsible. Lets terrorise the netas so that they do their job to serve and protect us
And let's not, at least this time make it business as usual!

What was HE thinking?

"The greatest irony of nature and the greatest tragedy of earth is that the only being capable of appreciating its beauty to the fullest is the only one with an unbelievable propensity to destroy it!"
That is an original quote and one that is really straight from my heart. Think about it, can any other being apart from man appreciate the beauty of a mighty mountain range nestled in clouds or wonder at the depths of the blue ocean as he sits on its shore? Can any animal spend hours on the banks of a river doing nothing and then come back feeling rejuvenated?
And yet it is this same organism that seeks to destroy this beauty. What could be the cause of this aberration?
Is it God's aberration? I know that a lot of scriptures talk about how the world and its bounty is God's gift to us. But does that mean we finish off the gift by consuming it or treasure it the way we would a flower or a card from a loved one? So this makes me think, was the creation of Man God's endgame or is it our colossal mistake (to think that way)?
I think with the pollution and the global warming increasing by the day, we might just find the answer to this sooner than we want!

Brand and the buying decision

These days I have been quite interested in the branding aspect of marketing. I guess the fact that my job is related to brands and retail does also help.
The other day when I was making a sort of buy-list or rather a wish-list I realised that as I was putting a number in front of my objects of desire, I found out just how branding works, at least for me. Let me explain..
I have always been attracted to watches. I have found that there was a gap between the amount I wanted spend and the maximum cap that I wanted to put on it. This grey area is where brands came into play because as I started naming each brand the cap for each changed and for one particular brand I couldnt even put a number (if only that was possible in buying the watch too!). But then I realised what my professor had taught me about brand valuation in monetary terms. Thus if i was ready to pay x rs. more for brand B over brand A wasnt that what brand power is?
Thus brand power lies in that grey range and it is every individual brand that then turns this into a particular value (hopefully positive) for a particular individual.
I know I am probably not telling anything new however the reason I am writing this is because I actually experienced it in the most exact terms and after having read a lot about commoditisation of products this was a powerful reminder of how much the 'brand tag' still adds to each of our lives.
Thus as someone has said, "Brands announce something about ourselves to the world"