Satyamev Jayate - Just another TV show??

Majority of my friends know that I am not a guy who watches TV much, Yes plenty of people have expressed surprise how a modern day Indian boy doesn't watch Television. But then it is also true that I don't like cricket. Go Figure!!

Anyhow, the show Satyamev Jayate of Amir Khan has been getting some good reviews online, in Newspapers and my friends raving about how different the show is I had to watch it. I am writing this post after watching 2 episodes  Well I agree to the fact the the show is different, and if there are more shows like this might be TV won't remain a Idiot Box.

But the question is still is it all just a talk? What is Amir doing? He is talking on various issues in India which are common knowledge but still people want to keep it hidden. Everyone knows the laws against female foeticide and Dowry, but still its common knowledge that these things are still practiced in India.

So is Satyamev Jayate just another show to gainer eyeballs, push up the ratings and earn money for the big entertainment industry on India? Or does this show make a actual difference in the life of an actual Indian?

Its said the donations to various NGOs working against female foeticide increased after the 1s episode of the show, An awareness against various evils in our society like dowry, malpractices by trusted doctors, the crime of falling in love is being highlighted. What remains to be seen is if this awareness is transferred to actual action on the ground, or will it remain just a Sunday afternoon wakeup call for people.

What I am scared of is if this hype will become like the Anna's anti-corruption movement and the Jan Lokpal Bill. Populist rhetoric does not generate nuanced solutions. On various issues, Satyamev Jayate chose a populist ‘truth'; but failed to push the envelope and convert it to a difficult, deeper, much needed conversation with India.

But like its said, something is better than nothing right? Hopefully due to the show an awareness is created and India changes for the better. Hopefully Satyamev Jayate stands for what it is "Truth Alone Prevails" and doesn't decent into a program only for eyeballs, touches real issues and discusses solutions to these issues. 

Broken Window theory

Broken window theory was put up by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, in an article titled "Broken Windows".

Basically the theory is explained as follows

“Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside”

Basically if something appears to be uncared for there is greater chance the destruction will be more. If I feel no one else cares for something even I won’t care for it.

Put yourself in this situation, “A small fair girl of 5 years old, well dressed but roaming lost in a mall with tears in her eyes, what do you do? You mostly will ask the girl whats wrong and try to trace her guardians”

But now consider another situation, "You are at a traffic signal, a small girl of 5 years in shabby clothes is sitting across the road with a look of hunger in her face, what do you do? Roll up the window?"

Why this discrimination? Is it just cause of the location? Think about it, in both cases the child was a 5 year old girl.

Not convinced about the theory? You wondering what if the broken window is in a upscale location? Rich people don’t go about breaking windows, do they?

Let me put another extract from the same article

“We arranged to have an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and a comparable automobile on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by "vandals" within ten minutes of its "abandonment." The first to arrive were a family--father, mother, and young son--who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began--windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult "vandals" were well-dressed, apparently clean-cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week. Then we smashed part of it with a sledgehammer. Soon, passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, the "vandals" appeared to be primarily respectable whites.”

Basically its not the location, Humans just enjoy breaking stuff (how much ever you deny it). The difference in reactions was explained in the article, I quote

“Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder and even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things and who probably consider themselves law-abiding. Because of the nature of community life in the Bronx--its anonymity, the frequency with which cars are abandoned and things are stolen or broken, the past experience of "no one caring"--vandalism begins much more quickly than it does in staid Palo Alto, where people have come to believe that private possessions are cared for, and that mischievous behavior is costly. But vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers--the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility--are lowered by actions that seem to signal that "no one cares."

How’s it we humans with our superior intellect still governed by the basic instincts (Humans, do we only try to survive and reproduce?) ? Why is it that if a message No one else cares is conveyed even I won’t care? Can't I think for myself?

It is often complained about India that we keep our homes clean but dirty our surroundings, Isn’t it possible we keep our homes clean only cause we care and dirty our surrounding because no one cares. If you have noticed all India is not dirty, there are islands of clean neighbourhoods.

Which can be explained by  considering  this examble of a pavement.

If some litter accumulates and its cleaned at once the road remains clean but if its not cleaned, soon more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash and the whole road becomes a garbage dump.

In Mumbai, Take Powai for e.g. In the Hiranandani complex everything is clean but step outside, just near IIT campus you will see the litter. It’s the same people who pass through both areas but why the difference? I belive its cause of the above Broken Window effect. No one bothers to clean up outside IIT but Hiranandani complex is always kept spick and span

But why am I rambling this? I don’t know, Might be cause of the Broken Window in my head which needed fixing :P

Un-selfish good deed: Do they exist?

Ok! This topic has been running in my mind for quite some time, Is there a Un-selfish good deed? In “Friends” one episode Phobe tried to prove to Joey that there is a unselfish good deed. The question again came up in a talk with a girl that love should be like the sun; always giving out warmth and energy getting nothing back in return.

So the question of this blog  is, “Is there a Un-selfish good deed?”. Starting out scientifically 

Theory of Evolution states that some behaviours are encoded into our DNA, Animals feel discomfort when they're hungry, signalling it’s time to eat. A plant might shed its leaves in winter to create a protective barrier for the winter. Both plants and animals survive by looking out for themselves. By this logic, an Un-selfish good deed shouldn’t even exist.

Basically what I mean to say is that helping others at a cost to us goes against the order of natural selection. Why improve the life  of another living being at cost of something to us? After all natural resources are limited, so the lesser competition the better chances I have of surviving, Right? 

Let’s take the most quoted example of an un-selfish good deed i.e of a mother caring for her child, but isn’t that just a motherly instinct; something I feel a extension of the genetic code that forces us to procreate so that the species as a whole can survive. Some or may be majority of mothers may be of the thought process  that the child will grow up and take care of her in her old-age.

Or yet another example of giving "Alms" (something I absolutely disagree, better to teach a man to fish than give him fish for a day), The money I could have used on myself I am using to help someone else in need. So amn't I doing an un-selfish good deed heret? No, I say. You are giving alms to feel good about yourself and might be sometimes even with religious reasons thinking "I will sacrifice now and  give alms now and my sins will be forgiven securing my future in heaven". Which again makes it a selfish deed?

So does un-selfish good deed exist? My explanation : Before doing any deed we think, we might be aware of some thought process; but before other deeds our thought process may be completely sub-conscious. But there is always a mental calculation which sees some or the other positive return for any action of ours before we take it. 

I don’t feel there is any human interaction which is an one way exchange. There will always be some or other expectations of a return favor.

I feel every human is Selfish in his/her own way. But even if we are rewarded/ or expect to be rewarded one way or another by performing an so called unselfish act, it still remains up to the individual whether or not to perform one. 

The main question to answer is "If by helping someone we feel good, does that make that action any less worthwhile?"

The 10 Mins Life

"You can take 10mins of your time to do ........" fill in the blank with anything someone else wants to improve in your life.

It might be the priest saying "You can surely give 10mins of your time for God", The Yoga instructor saying "10mins of these assans a day you will live a healthy life", Your Girl-Friend telling you "Can't you spend 10mins talking to me?", Your best friend "Dude, you can surely take 10mins to hit the Gym." , Your professor saying "You should read your lessons everyday for 10mins atleast", Or maybe your Boss "This work will take only 10mins of your time"

All these 10mins in the end I feel is more than the God given 24hours in a day, What say?

The main problem with this "10 Mins life" idea is that these things these well-wishers would want us to do might be a 10min job, but the stuff to do the "10 mins stuff" properly is not 10mins. 

Take an e.g

Girl-Friends asks you to spend 10 mins with her, do you really thing it will be only 10mins??

Boss asks you to do a 10min job, but the time to end your current work, start the 10min one and do it properly goes for more than 10mins.

Hit the gym for 10mins?? Joking, hello it takes 10mins to go till the gym.

Seriously people 10min life doesn't work, Its like trying to live your life in fast-forward all the time. Stop the 10mins life, Live life slow, enjoy each moment, Life's not a race my friends.

Spend an hour with your girl-friend and don't hit the gym, if she really loves you she would like you spending time with her and won't mind you fat (P.S if you really want to lose weight, life her up, multiple times :P)

"Its better to spend time doing what you love rather than doing what others want you to do",

I am sure everyone will agree to this statement.

But the question now is I am advising everyone, can I follow my own advice?

I fail at all new-years resolution anyway so this time me taking a Christmas resolution to not hurry through life and enjoy life to the whole.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Laziness - Moving Mankind Forward

The dictionary definition of Lazy - averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.

But I guess none of us ever had to actually look up Lazy in the dictionary, Majority of us have heard that word used countless number of times, I guess 1 of the real words you really learn as a baby will be lazy or laziness (not in English but surely in your mother tongue). Your mom calling your dad lazy, or your dad calling your elder brother lazy or basically everyone you know calling you lazy.

Being called lazy has such a negative connotation to it, I wonder why? Now that I think of it if someone is calling you lazy they are actually recognizing your inner potential. If you really think about it, the world around us wouldn't be the same if it was not for the contribution of some real Lazy people.

It's the lazy people who invented the wheel & the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things. Its the lazy person who said lets fit a motor into this bicycle and thus the Motor-Cycle was born. A baby Diaper is an invention to not keep cleaning up after a baby again and again. These new age industry with all its automation and robots, ever thought the concept of a Robot came into being just cause of a person too lazy to do his own work.

Don't denounce us lazy people, its said "The best way to get any difficult work done at the shortest time possible is to give the work to a lazy person, He will surely find a way to get the work done in the shortest time in the most efficient way"

{All you bodybuilding hunks who get the girls, thank us for reducing your competition by being too lazy to hit the gym, ever wondered how much more guys you would have to compete with if we all left our lazy boys and hit the gym}

So all you workaholics and hard working idiots next time you see a lazy person don't abuse him but try to learn from us, what can you learn

Efficiency :- Like I said above, we the lazy people will always find the most efficient way of doing something at the shortest time possible, after all if we are working too hard we can't be lazy right? Think about it, if you people didn't have lazy people like us searching for doing things more efficiently you people would still be stuck in the stone age.

Delegation :- what better way not to do work than to delegate? Ever looked at your Boss and wondered, this guy doesn't do anything yet earns double than me, well here is you answer, he is a better manager as he knows to delegate.

Stall and Eliminate :- Learn how to stall and procrastinate stuff, the more you stall and procrastinate work you might end up seeing someone else doing that work, or that work itself becoming unnecessary, thus you don't waste time doing stuff which is unnecessary in the end.

Quick Work :- Sometimes when you stall (see above), it turns out that the thing you are stalling is really important, and needs to be done. If so, you will find this out when someone else who needs it done gives you an urgent call and 10 emails, asking for it to be submitted. This is when urgency comes into play, and it is a great motivator. You will get the thing done. But that urgency didn't exist until you stalled for a week. So the trick is to wait to do things until the absolute last minute, when you will be super motivated to do them. So don't schedule some of your tasks until the last possible time you could start them and still get them done before deadline.

Don't laugh at us you time-starved people of the 21st Century who find that even 24hours of the clock is too less. Learn from us the above qualities and you will find you  have plenty of time to do things you actually love. Learn from us, the lazy people, the actually smart people how to do things efficiently and you will find you have got enough time to stuff that actually excite you and not do the boring stuff only.

So what basically learn this

"Work Smart, Not Hard"

But what am I doing here trying to teach you people what it means to be lazy? I got to go and catch some shut-eye.

Contradictory Proverbs: Exposing hypocrisy of our Elders quotes

Remember your school days and when the teacher told you the story of the "Hare & the Tortoise" and used to end with the proverb "Slow and steady wins the race." Then when you reached back home and you were idling on the sofa watching TV arguing with your mother there is plenty of time for you to do the homework she would lecture you saying "Time and tide waits for no man."

I know its for two different situations but have you ever thought that both these age old sayings are telling you two contradictory things? One is telling you being slow and steady will get success and the other tells you to hurry as Time doesn't wait for anyone. "All good things come to those who wait." is another proverb that contradicts the saying "Time and tide waits for no man". Like I said I know both apply to two different situations but if you really think about it, the quotes that our elders and even their elders liked to quote so much to us are contradicting to each other.

Silence is golden. BUT The squeaky wheel gets the grease. / Crying child gets the milk.

"Silence is golden" I have never understood this statement, how can silence = gold?(or silver?) I never got a chance to ask this as whenever I was quoted the above statement it was for me to become silent (and asking questions is not silence!). But then as the other proverb puts it unless you make noise things won't get done. Only if a baby cries does the child's mother know he/she is hungry and gives the child food.

Birds of a feather flock together. BUT Opposites attract.

A magnetic north pole attracts the south pole, "Opposites attract" is a oft used phrase to explain why two very different people become a couple. but consider this, you always tend to be in company of people like you, majority of your friends will have some similarity with you. Yet again here we have two sayings that are exactly opposite to each other.

Practice makes perfect. BUT All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

"Practice makes perfect" how many times have you heard this, to make you do things repeatedly this is a very often used proverb. Practice again and again till you get achieve perfection. But practice = work right? but all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, remember? (I don't remember any elders telling me this proverb and sending me to play. Hypocrites!!!)

Look before you leap. BUT Strike while the iron is hot.

Attack the iron while its coming out of the furnace, tackle the problem when you come to face to it not 10 days later when the problem has morphed into 20 more problems, absolutely agree to that. But what is this "Look before you leap", Isn't that telling me to consider the problems from 15 different angles and then to tackle it? Spending my time looking at it from different angles, isn't that letting the problem go cold before I get around to tackle it??

To quote some more

The pen is mightier than the sword. BUT Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. BUT Fools seldom differ.

The best things in life are free things. BUT There's no such thing as a free lunch. 

Do it well, or not at all. BUT Half a loaf is better than none. / Something is better than nothing

Don't cross your bridges before you come to them. BUT Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. BUT Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. BUT It ain't over 'till it's over.

You're never too old to learn. BUT You can't teach an old dog new tricks

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. BUT One man's food is another man's poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. BUT Out of sight, out of mind.

Too many cooks spoil the broth. BUT Many hands make light work.

So what do we take from this, that our elders and their elders didn't know what they are saying, or being human actually make them hypocrites, making and using saying / proverbs as and when it fits them? Well actually I don't know. But what I know is that even I will be using these sayings as and when situations suits me (which makes me also a hypocrite, doesn't it?)

I am going to end this post by saying :-

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. BUT Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.

There and Back Again: Savio Story

Some time in July 2008:
After 4 years of B.E  I was waiting for the day engineering would end. Was tired of the boring lectures, faculty droning on and on about something (seriously I don't remember a word what I had learned in 4 years of Engineering). I already had a placement in my hand from a MNC so was chilled about that part too (its another thing that due to recession the MNC called us for joining only 1 year later, of-course I didn't join the MNC cause of obvious reasons). So was pretty tension free was looking to enjoy a long holiday.But fortunately or unfortunately my friends were not so tension free as me they were going around knocking on company's doors for jobs. And yours truly being as sporting as he always is (another thing I was looking for timepass) went with these friends of mine to Zeus Learning Tech and again  fortunately or unfortunately I was the one selected from all my friends (these friends of mine congratulated me but also gave me gali's :) )

30th July 2008 onwards
I went from being a student to a tax payer. Well seriously let me tell you it was not real fun for me becoming a salaried guy. Why you are asking? Well!!

1. In the 1st One and half years it was real slog. Late nights in office, later nights in office, all nighters in office you name it. There were days in which we spend more that 40 hours in office. Not fun dude. Not at all fun.
2. Money in the pocket at the end of the month was good no doubt. But it was my hard earned money. I really had second thoughts before I spend it. (seriously you don't feel the pinch as money running away when you are spending your own toil)

So was it all work and no play, Nope here was plenty of play, Best thing about Zeus was it didn't have a formal structure to it. Suited absolutely well to a guy fresh out of college. You could go to your PM put your hand around his shoulder and tell him something is wrong. Or you could remove your frustrations by beating him  up on his Birthday. No formals, go to office in a t-shirt jeans no one would say anything. Team Mates were great, made a lot of friends. :)

Well if everything was so great, why did I quit? Wait lets put the question in another way. Was I happy with the job? Straight answer NO. I was not seriously enjoying what I was doing. Everybody said I was doing great, got good appraisals,promotion etc (didn't mention before, I was a Senior Software Tester). The job didn't feel suited for me, wasn't seeing any real growth in the company. Seniors (I mean the PM's) were real good but seriously I had a inner feeling inside me that I can and will do a better job than them (Not trying to hurt anyone, but that was the feeling inside me). In 2 years I felt I have learned what ever the company could teach me, both the good and the bad.

Zeus gave me chance in designing of some projects, give juniors to delegate work to, responsibilities. Anybody looking from outside would feel like I was in a perfect setup. But "Dil Mange More", feeling I can and do something better kept growing inside me.

Jumping jobs was a option but then again I would get stuck in the same rut some other place, wanted a good jump. Had time on my side to take risk, So MBA, why MBA? 1 word answer - MONEY

Well a MBA is much more than a money, its a chance to get a good role in a organization, go from being a follower to a leader, what it means to be a leader, how & why leaders take some decision. It seems like a good bus to climb on to. Well so here I am

1st July 2011:
2 years 11 months of travelling the corporate ship called Zeus am jumping to a PGDM ship of Welingkar B-School. Searching for directions, searching for new horizons, good lucks and wishes in my ears off I go. Well follow me right here saviojosev.blogspot.com to see which shores this Ship is going to deposit me on :)

All the best to me