Search results for: “Chinu”

  • Chinu and the pebbles

    My little niece – Chinu – is about three years old. When I see her picking up small pebbles I remember my childhood. I used to do that – “Wow this stone is very smooth.” “That stone is of very different color”, I will keep this with me always, no one can find such beautiful stone anywhere.

    I used to pick up stones the way Chinu does now. Now, I am grown up (may be!) and now I care for different kind of stones :). As many of you must be doing now.

    When I compared Chinu’s activities with my current actions. I wonder my father, Saxena Sir (or Rajagopaul Uncleji) must be thinking – hey this kid (for them I may be still a kid) is growing up! One day he won’t care for all these stones!

    I am going to ask these elders of mine – what have they really earned in life? How do they measure success now? What they crave for now? And how do they feel about my or any young ambitious persons running around?

    I see Chinu and think of my childhood and my small world. What would it be when I’d be say 60. Sitting around and smiling or still running around for something else? I wonder!

    I wrote this blog in November, posting it now. Saxena Sir told me what I wrote in previous blog – Money worth earning! He taught not to even run behind earning satisfaction.

    Related blog –

    When will we stop?

  • Tribute to my adopted uncle Ramana uncleji

    How often you delete a random post on social media because someone asked you to do it? I did it twice, once when my sister told me and once when Ramanna uncle ji told me.

    Ramanna uncleji was my adopted uncle. This is a tribute to him. He passed away in April. I blog occasionally these days, so I am late. After moving to Bangalore, I tried calling him a couple of times, but I couldn’t connect. I wish I had met him before moving here.

    In fact, when we had just moved in Bangalore, we were going to meet someone. I didn’t know the routes, so my wife was guiding and reading some signboards. She read at one place, “Ramana Maharshi Road,” and later, “Dr. Rajgopal Road.” She said, “Wow, we’re reading Ramana uncleji’s full name!” I called and sent a WhatsApp message to uncleji about it, but I didn’t get any response. Needless to say, my wife had met him and fondly remembers him too.

    I read a blog-posts on his website and learned that he was no more. I finally gathered the courage to write this tribute.

    He was more than an elderly person to me. He was a friend with whom I could talk about anything and everything. As I have written in my past post (Gratitude) – we could speak on anything under the sun from sex to super-consciousness.

    We connected in 2011 when I stumbled upon his blogs. After reading a couple of blogs, I wrote to him. We connected via emails and phone calls, and finally we met at his residence in Pune. I was unaware that he was an MBA from IIM A. When he saw my surprised face, he said that he was lucky to be there. Successful people are humble.

    He always surprised me by saying that “It just happened” with whatever he had achieved. I mean, how can one just get something, what about efforts and hard work?

    This question brings me to our very first phone call discussion. When I called him, I asked – In your “about” section you have written “I stopped doing”. It reminds me of Ashtavakra Geeta. What do you mean by that? Obviously, we started off discussing spirituality. This point came up multiple times in our conversation. He was an accomplished professional too. When I asked him about all those successful professional years (he was retired when I met him), he brushed it aside by again saying – “It just happened, I was lucky!”

    I am sure the luck part came after a lot of hard work.

    In our conversations, he would recite a Sanskrit shloka and translate it, too. It could be from the Bhagavad Gita or any Veda. After that, he would explain the takeaway from the shloka to our present discussion. I used to look at him completely awestruck. Now, when I am writing about it, I am feeling lucky to have known him and met with him when I went to Pune.

    When I met him in 2011, I was looking for marriage alliances too, all arranged marriages. He used to laugh at me. His was an inter-caste love marriage (about 50+ years ago), and it used to be another point of our discussion with him. He had a great sense of humor. I know it sounds very different from the previous paragraph, where I told you about his discussing spirituality. But remember, God loves fun. It is the title of a book by Sri Sri Ravishankar (Guruji). I understood the meaning of the book when I met uncleji. He had influenced me a great deal during those years.

    My closeness with uncleji was such that when I used to have a little serious discussion with my prospective alliance, I used to share the profile with him and call him for his perspective. He used to give impartial perspective. I will continue this in next-to-next para.

    In case you are not from India, here is a side story: In India, arranged marriages are where family or relatives arrange for alliances, and the discussion for marriage proceeds from there. Parents, families, and prospective bride and groom meet, and so on. With the digital age, this social norm in India has been digitized. People look for alliances on matrimonial sites such as Shaadi.com and Jeevansaathi.com. I had created a profile on these portals and used to get alliances or reach out to prospective alliances. Sounds funny, but yes, this is how it is. Also, if you are unaware about inter-caste marriage, ping me separately.

    For my marriage alliance, I connected with about 24 families / girls. Many rejected me, I rejected some of them. Some over the phone calls no meeting so do not go by the number I kept it in my records as I have always been fascinated with numbers :D. It went on for about 2+ years! Whenever, I had a meaningful initial discussion I used to share the profile with Ramana uncleji (besides parents and my other mentors).

    My friends and colleagues knew me as “no nonsense guy” “always thoughtful”, however a couple of girls told me that I have “good sense of humor” and I am “interesting”! I was shocked when I heard this for the first time. But probably when I used to speak with Uncleji I picked a few things.

    The last thing, he said he is planning to write a novel. I never get to know what happened to it later on. I kept on probing him (check the comment) but he just did not budge.

    I am sure he is resting in peace, having fun wherever he is. Needless to say, I miss him.

  • Choices

    My daughter, Adviti is growing up. She has started asserting her liking and choices gradually. She decides what she wants to eat when she wants to change the song, and what she wants to wear. It is turning out to be a fascinating life lesson for me.

    We start making choices since childhood. I remember spending time with my niece Chinu when she started making choices. She liked watching Kung Fu Panda (movie) I enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda with her, she also collected pebbles as I did as a kid.

    Smiling-Baby

    I believe some of our choices are involuntary, and some are self-made. Let me take an example – Adviti likes us chanting of Bhojan Mantra (video below) before meals because she has seen us doing it for as much as the last six months. I wonder if she understands it, or whether the rendition is clear. However, she loves it, and if we start eating our meal without the chanting, she forces us to chant the mantra. Possibly this is what Sanskar is. I’d call it an involuntary choice – I may be wrong though, she may be forcing us because she understands! When she changes the Youtube video – it is most likely a self-made choice.

    Choices, Liking and Love

    Though I found time now to write about it, however, I had been thinking about Adviti’s likes, dislikes, and choices for a while. Those who know me know that for my arrange marriage I met two dozen girls. Many rejected me, I rejected some. In these discussions, some accused me of – you are not proceeding further “because I am fat”; “because I am darker shade” etc. I had to respond to these because these were genuinely not the reasons. I will share few arguments that I shared with these prospective alliances.

    One, on complexion, I said, let’s assume I get to marry the fairest girl in the world. Every evening I come from the office. and we start fighting on a trifling matter. In that case, what is the value of the “fairness” to me? It is said that beauty is skin deep, isn’t it?

    Two, on complexion and shape, I said, let’s assume I get married to someone, she met with an accident, or I met with an accident resulting in a body deformity. Would the other person leave the better half who met with an accident? I had to take this example because one alliance had such an incident. I had to tell her that such things are possible after marriage too. A bad example but I took such an example.

    Lastly, on the shape, I said who is going to remain like this forever? With age, we all will be out of shape. why worry about it from now? One must be fit for a healthier life but one should not take serious decisions giving one-factor full weightage.

    Those long discussions (or at times long-distance discussions), in some cases the contest of mind vs heart, for alliances made me look at likes and dislikes little objectively. I asked myself – if I love someone because of face or shape or behavior (or family – yes Indian marriages are not just two people it is their family and extended family too) what if one parameter changes in the same person? In the end, I came to realize – choices are made (or someone or something is loved) because of the whole and not because of the parts. Check this section of an Indian movie – Nayak the real hero – where protagonist is explaining his “dream girl” and what that turns out to be by his father who is a cartoonist.

    If I love someone or something – I love that because of the uniqueness. The uniqueness includes possible flaws. If I had to respond to “why I love someone or something” what would my response be? If my response is because of X, Y, Z and A, B, C, etc. There may be more people with those same qualities. Would it be possible to love those others too? This question helped me realize the lower strata of love. This stratum is for love, liking, or choices we make in the material world. The spiritual world has compassionate affection – of the Buddha – for everyone or full devotion – Bhakti – for the loved one.

    The realization was that we make choices in the whole and start intellectualizing the choices part by part for bringing balance between heart and mind. This justification brings reasoning of “why” and “because of”. Most likely Adviti makes her self-made choices on the whole, once she grows older she too will start intellectualizing the choices to justify her liking.

  • Bright day on the other side

    Some of us met each other more than 30 years ago. However most of us met 25 years back when we took admission in Technical school. We studied together for 2 years had a wonderful bond, competition, cultural events, and sports besides education in the school. After 12th, many lost contact because we all took different paths. Thanks to lockdown, a blessing in disguise, my childhood friend Abhishek created our school’s group on WhatsApp. This close to quarter of a century old disconnection made Vinee – another of my school friends – ask an interesting question. What if everyone can share what they did post our 12th till now? It would be great to know the journey of everyone. In fact, in some cases, we have forgotten some of the batchmates. Everyone has a story and these stories become life lessons for others isn’t it? Whatever experience we have good or bad, shape us. The darkest of the night has a bright day on the other side.

    Brighter-day

    We connected after a long time we all are rejoicing in these discussions. Some have shared their stories, others are yet to share. I am in the former category. I did introspection and then shared about how my life moved on from there. It was an interesting exercise, thanks to Vinee for asking the question that made me introspect and Abhishek for creating the group. On a lighter note, I feel we have grown old. About 8 years back, I used to ask Saxena Sir, Ramana uncle about what and how life has been for them and what would they want to tell me as some of the lessons in hindsight. Their thoughts are share in different blogs earlier

    http://www.business2buddha.com/2019/10/situations-how-this-one-word-sentence-made-me-spiritual/
    There are shocks and failures that teach you biggest lessons in life than any success does.
    https://business2buddha.com/2016/08/happiness-how/
    It is true that owning cattle, jewels or kingdoms is mine of wealth
    But when you own wealth of contentment (satisfaction) those mines (cattle, jewels etc) of wealth become worthless (like dust)
    https://business2buddha.com/2015/09/work-is-worship/
    Work and spirituality live in backyard of each other
    https://business2buddha.com/2013/01/chinu-and-the-pebbles/
    When I was a kid, I used to pick up stones the way Chinu does now. Now, I am grown up (may be!) and now I care for different kind of stones
    https://business2buddha.com/2013/08/race-never-ending/
    We are running on a treadmill, we do not reach anywhere but still get tired. At times, it becomes purpose of our life!
    https://business2buddha.com/2014/01/entanglement-of-a-langot-undergarment/
    This is an interesting story, how a small article – undergarment in this case – brings the whole world with it.

    Bright day on the other side

    When I look back, I realize that I had been blessed with some awesome experience and faced some tough times too. When I was going through bad phases I felt worthless and worst to be walking on the face of the earth. Now when I analyze life in hindsight it looks everything was great. I know that at times I had been sulking, getting frustrated, and looking for better things in life or thought that I deserve better than what I got. It might be that sometimes I did not deserve something, yet I got it.

    Generally, we think like this – what I got I deserved it or I deserved better than what I got. In the present moment it is the best that we accept what we have got in life. Otherwise we end up muddling our present too. All years when I see the ups and downs of my life I realize that it’s good that I had gone through these ups and downs otherwise, a straight line life without ups and downs would have resembled a cardiogram of a dead person’s heartbeat.

    Life is made-up of the sum total of the situations we face, how we respond to those situations, learn from those and the decisions we make. At times we get in trouble, at times we make wrong decisions and at times we come out victorious even out of the worst of the situations that we are facing. This has been lessons from my introspection.

    This pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has put everyone in tough situations. The times are troubled – no doubt about it – however the decisions we make and the way we respond to the situation is going to define us, how we are going to go ahead from this point to the future. The decisions we make are going to be far-reaching for us and generations, be it business owners or working professionals. The darkest of the night has a bright day on the other side.

  • Opportunity cost of being Humans

    It was a 2013 evening, my sister and I went for a walk after dinner. It was a daily practice for us those days. Chinu was playing with the stray dogs – well behaved and good dogs of our area. This habit also included feeding left over chapatis to these stray dogs. We had started eating multi-grain chapatis, my sister used to prepare the composition (of course sourced from internet) of different grains – usually five. One day my sister told me – “I have noticed that these stray dogs do not eat these chapatis, earlier when we were making wheat chapatis it did not happen.” I jokingly said – “They have not developed a taste for it!” Her observation was correct, these dogs did not touch these chapatis, matter became bit serious and a learning – eat chapatis of one grain at a time. Perhaps the animals are closer to the nature than us, they know what will suit their body more than we know about our body. That is our problem – we have moved away from listening to our natural instinct. I wonder if animals have glutton intolerance or lactose intolerance etc. We humans have such eating disorders. I believe the reason is our not listening to our body. I believe our body can give us signs that – you should not eat it. But we do not listen.

    I could remember incident of 2013 when I had been watering plants at home. I noticed that the pots were discarding water that the plant did not need. Plants also take as much as required, we do not, our greed is for more money than what we need to survive, we’ve huge wardrobes and eat more for taste than for nourishment. Have you seen a fat leopard? But obesity is a problem with us. We go to gym to be fit, yet our eating habits belie our natural instinct.

    Have you heard a saying birds of a feather flock together. Needless to say, many must have seen birds of same species flying together from season to season. Literal meaning of this saying actually changes in our (human being’s) context. Because we humans have divided our existence by color of skin, our way of thinking and our religious following etc. We have been fighting for Left Vs Right or religious supremacy – be it ISIS in Syria (for Islam) or Rohingya (against Islam). That is an opportunity cost of being Humans.

    We have – somewhere – missed our intelligence in our growth (smarter phones but dumb people), our belief of being morally correct (building stock pile of nuclear weapons for self protection – war for peace) and proving one being religiously pious than the other (my religion is better and correct than your religion is). That is opportunity cost of being human!

    The question to ask is – are we really “being” human? Animals are better in some sense, they don’t kill to either propagate their religion, control other animals and show supremacy.

    In Indian theology it is said that a person is born as human after a million+ lives as other creature. Well, few people would not accept this concept because of their way of thinking or conditioning of mind. Why there is harmony in nature but not in our cities, countries? Isn’t it the “cost” we are paying for the opportunities we have got as human beings?

    This was topic for Sept 7th 2017 LBC, I wrote after a month. You can see what the other writers of the LBC have to say in their respective blogs.  Maria, Ramana uncleji, Ashok and Shackman.

    PS – English meaning of Opportunity cost – the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.

    More on opportunity cost as concept of economics at investopedia

    Image source – http://www.jamieatlas.com/2008/07/24/stepmill-most-underrated-machine-in-your-gym/

  • The fish will fly in next birth

    The phone rang for unusual number of times today. My sister or her daughter is generally not that late to pick up a call.

    When I heard my sister on the other side, I said – “Hi! didi, what are you doing? Where is Chinu?” Her response took me aback. She said – “Chinu and her dad is going to burry our fish, there were two both died today.” Chinu is my niece, who is ~5+ years currently.

    I saw surprised, “when did you bring fish? Last time also the same happened.”

    My sister responded – “Yes, we bought these two about a month back. Last time also the fish could not survive more than a month. Chinu was so attached to these fish that when these died she was very upset and felt very low.”

    My sister continued – “when I could not handle here sorrow face, I told her, Chinu, both the fish were bored of swimming they both wanted to fly. Now they would become birds.”

    FishMy sister reads Jatak tales to her these days. Chinu was satisfied that both the fish are on their way to accomplish what they want to do. When her father called, she informed him also (this time with relatively more happily) – “daddy, both of them will fly now, they wanted to become birds.”

    Chinu was at peace, she went to bury the fish as she did last time also. However, this time she was content. She did everything possible to have the fish and provide them with special fish food and good quality aquarium, but these could not survive.

    Chinu was not upset. When I heard what my sister just said, I remembered an interesting scientific research published recently. This research was done at Stanford University. It falls under Social Psychology using priming as an approach. These things sound very complicated, let me elaborate these points –

    According to psychologists social psychology is usage of scientific methods “to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other objects.”

    Priming is a phenomenon about exposing people to certain words or images that then subconsciously influence their thinking or behavior.

    According to that research, if people are exposed to Buddhists concepts (experiment group included Western Christians, Western Buddhists and East Asian Buddhist individuals) people reacts to things positively more often.

    QUOTE Huffington Post

    Across all groups, people who were exposed to words like “Buddha,” “Dharma” and “awakening” in a word puzzle showed fewer negative associations with African and Muslim people than those who were exposed to Christian or nonreligious words.

    Participants who were primed with Buddhist words also scored higher on a test measuring prosocial behaviors. These effects were particularly pronounced among people who scored higher on tests measuring open-mindedness.

    UNQUOTE

    Though, I myself have questions on the way research was done, what is the impact Kanakia 7on before priming vs after priming etc yet when I relate this research to my niece I believe this must have some correlation.

    I think that is why Kanakia ‘Sevens’ – a residential project – is advertised like this. Also I have been seeing a lot of photos/status etc of the Buddha at various places as “fashion” perhaps having subtle – unknown – meaning.

    Image source – Kanakia Sevens

    Aquarium Image source – Flickr

  • At a crossroad

    Kala Ghoda festival just concluded, in Mumbai. My sister and her four year old daughter – my niece, Chinu – religiously followed the festival. Yesterday was the last day of the festival. I was there for few hours.

    Instead of events, I spent time wandering around. At about 10:30 or so we were about to get back to our car, parked near Westside at Kala Ghoda. My sister looked at a temporary shop of Rajasthani necklace. A flute seller hawker came to us. My niece has already bought a flute, I started seeing flutes. This flute seller was very good with playing flute. He taught us a few thing, in fact he played a raaga and told us its composition Aroh Avroh. Than he told us how to play with different notes and how a Sa, can be played differently.

    My sister came after a while and she made a very strange yet meaningful observation. She said – “Look at the irony of life. Look at the display of Westside – Gourmet. They have displayed exotic foreign brands, especially of hard drinks. Just on the footpath of this display this woman is selling traditional necklace, this fellow playing so wonderful flute and the overall cultural festival of Kala Ghoda. We are literally at the crossroad.”

    We observe rarely, every moment we are at a crossroad. The decisions we make or the market places we obliviously cross in our routine. I have crossed Kala Ghoda numerous times, yet never observed what my sister told me. Few of my friends started their business, they make tough decisions all the time, they cannot be unmindful about their decisions. I know what tough time an entrepreneur goes through in the initial years.

    We are at crossroad; how often we realize it?

  • Race – never ending

    I met Professor Arun Ramanathan a few months back (precisely in April). He taught us Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in our MBA. I told him a very practical daily situation I face. Whenever I walk, I am almost running, I notice that I walk very fast that I leave people behind as if there is a kind of competition happening. I am running to – say – win some competition.

    Courtesy Nilesh Yeram (my friend)
    Courtesy Nilesh Yeram (my friend)

    Why are we doing this? Am I alone in this kind of running (not just literal) without knowing where is the end or many professionals – like I do – are just running. Some running for money, some for a next bigger car or home, some others for a better position. Or is it that when people are young they just get in a race, a race no one knows who started but a race in which other peers are also equally involved (at least in the runners mind)? This is how ethics gets shelved in our personal and professional life. We are trying to be something. Is it of any consequence or what are the accolades related to that? It is of no interest in many cases. So the mentality is by hook or crook achieve the results.

    Two weeks back Rajagopaul uncleji shared a story with me. This perfectly relates to my discussion with Prof Ramanathan, so, sharing it here.

    Race

    I was jogging one day and I noticed a person in front of me, about 1/4 of mile. I could tell he was running a little slower than me and I thought, well, I shall try to catch him. I had about a mile to go my path before I needed to turn off. So I started running faster and faster. Every block, I was gaining on him just a little bit. After just a few minutes I was only about 100 yards behind him, so I really picked up the pace and push myself. You would have thought I was running in the last leg of London Marathon. I was determined to catch him.

    Finally, I did it! I caught and passed him by. On the inside I felt so good. “I beat him” of course, he didn’t even know we were racing. After I passed him, I realized I had been so focused on competing against him that I had missed my turn. I had gone nearly six blocks past it. I had to turn around and go all the way back.

    Isn’t that what happens in life when we focus on competing with co-workers, neighbors, friends, family, trying to outdo them or trying to prove that we are more successful or more important?

    We spend our time and energy running after them and we miss out on our own paths. The problem with competition is that it’s a never ending cycle. There will always be somebody ahead of you, someone with better job, nicer car, more money in the bank, more education, better behaved children, etc. But realize that “You can be the best that you can be; you are not competing with anyone.”

    Some people are insecure because they pay too much attention to what others are doing, where others are going. Take what has been given to you. Stays focused and live a healthy life. Run your own RACE and wish others WELL!!!

    Is not it a good thing to learn?

    Other related blogs

    Chinu and the pebbles

    Money worth earning

    Swasthay – dwelling in oneself

    What more you need?

    When will we stop?

    Why are you doing what are you doing?

  • Tender coconut

    I live in a place where there are many coconut trees nearby. No doubt we get tender coconut on a regular basis. In fact for months I had been playing with my niece – Chinu – with those tiny coconuts by helping her throw them in the sea. What I never noticed while helping her play with those tiny coconuts was – “how it grows from a nothing to so many things!” That blossoming of coconut from just a tiny coconut with nothing to a tender coconut with water and coconut with oil and thick shell with husk and so on made me think.

    Source - indiaheals.blogspot.com
    Tender Coconut
    Source – indiaheals.blogspot.com

    Recently, I went to our regular tender coconut milk joint. I saw some completely ripe coconuts kept in the shop. That made me thinking. I have seen those small non-entity coconuts. I started wondering, how come this thing gets water? Slowly that water converts into a shell. The same shell then helps create the outer cover of a ripe coconut (brown in color), coconut and the outer husk. Where does the husk on that green outer cover come from? Even in a ripe coconut the husk is not visible!

    See it is very interesting, the same content converts into many forms. The tree is the same, its receive same nutrients from ground and sunlight. Tree does the same activity but different parts grow in different ways. Everything is so perfect at its place, making that non entity to a perfect coconut.

    I was lost in my thoughts that nature has strange ways to convert one thing into other. More deeper in thoughts, I started thinking about us – Humans. We also are from the same source. We get our energy, color and share everything from the contents of the earth, right! In a unique way we are different but at a macro level we are humans. If we think about future we would leave everything here – the iron of our blood, calcium of our bones and water of our body. We got everything from the earth and we would leave everything behind when we would die. Still we fight when we are alive!

    This tender coconut helped me realize this clearly that we are made from same contents. Though in my mind I always knew it, perhaps everyone of us knows this. Yet we generally think it as “obvious” and overlook it.

    Related blogs –

    Blogs on Interdependent Co-arising

    Death

    Death is inevitable

  • What are you searching for?

    My little niece – we call her Chinu – has a couple of  videos and books. In some of the videos and books there is a story, in this story the main character – Lenny (in one story) – is searching/waiting for a friend. The idea is – Lenny wants a friend did not know how to identify the friend. Some of the dialogs of the story –

    …”Oh Sorry! cheeped a little voice”

    “Never Mind,” growled Lenny.

    “My name is Tweek. And yours?” cheeped the voice.

    “My name is Lenny, but I don’t have time to stop and talk,” Explained Lenny. “I have to get home and wait for a friend”.

    “May I wait with you?” asked Tweek.

    “If you want to, but don’t disturb me,” replied Lenny.

    “So what does your friend look like? when is he coming?” asked Tweek.

    “Don’t know,” said Lenny.

    Believe it or not, the search/wait is on…. everyone of us is searching for something. TV channels are searching for next sensational singer or dancer. News channels are searching for next breaking news. Box office is searching for its next bigger hit or super star. Citizen of India in general for good governance and so on. Whatever said and done, search is on.

    Ideal Final Result

    When we turn to individual, the search is for a better friend, good house, better life style, peace of mind, love or a superior job. No doubt search is on. Many a times what is observed is that the search is on but one does not know what is that he/she is searching for.

    When an organization is on the journey of innovation, not knowing what is required becomes a very big problem. In my innovation consulting and TRIZ learning I used to have a framework for removing the problem of not knowing what are we searching for. The method is Ideal Final Result (IFR). The concept of IFR seeks the destination or best solution in the beginning itself. This method helps identifying what are  looking for and where we want to go?

    So what are you searching for?

    By the way, when the Buddha was searching (enlightenment), he could not attain that. However, when he even dropped the idea of “searching” he achieved it! To start off – the Buddha knew what he is searching for.

    Image source – TRIZ Journal, article by Simon Dewulf and Darell Mann