Business to the Buddha

Tag: LBC

  • Cheating, with whom?







    The air I breath you too breath the same so does the ex-CEO of VW Martin Winterkorn.

    Recently, there was a huge issue of VW vehicles cheating emission testing, it resulted in heads being rolled and stock price plummeting. VWWhat Volkswagen did was – it programmed its models starting 2009 till 2015 such that during US standards testing (NOx) were met only during laboratory testing. According to Wikipedia the NOx emissions during normal driving was ~35X higher.

    Similarly Toshiba had been involved with accounting fraud. Toshiba continued doing this under three different CEOs. Had it been under only one we would have thought that it was more on personal level and not on organizational level. There are many more such cheating by the way. ToshibaThese things affect not just one person, it affects everyone – irrespective of whether you drive VW car or you are a Deer (may be a lion) for that matter. I wonder if those sitting on the top wants to go where from there! These cheating made me think – who are these people cheating? It was a question during rainy seasons in Mumbai. Roads of Mumbai get terrible during rainy seasons. You can barely avoid seeing a pothole on road. This is a normal scene – generally – across India. I asked this once on Twitter –

    The point I am trying to make is – the constructors of Mumbai roads are driving their vehicle on the same road, the employees of VW are also breathing the same air which is polluted by their vehicle. Similarly, Toshiba employees must be holding shares of Toshiba! Who are they trying to cheat? And why?

    Wish these people who are involved in such activities realize that they are effectively cheating themselves too. If they do world would become little better.

    I am sure some or the other interest groups, political circles must be pickin’ and grinnin’ and enjoying those events – VW and Toshiba. Wonder if those pickin’ and grinnin’ now would help improve the overall system instead of being selective.

    The topic of LBC was pickin’ and grinnin’ (Generally, I change topic of LBC) suggested by Lin for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently eight of us are supposed to write on the same topic every Friday. The seven other bloggers who are expected to write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    Related blogs – Games Indians play.

  • Think it over!







    This is a wonderful video. I just got it on Whatsapp thought to share it without any opinion, just watch and ponder, writing anything regarding the thoughts of speaker would make me wander in very many directions. So better just watch it.

    “Oh my god!” Have you ever thought about those things, speaker is speaking?

    This video made me literally say – Oh My God! the topic for LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog. But I thought that those who can understand must think seriously on what the speaker says. So, I didn’t title this blog – Oh my god. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Convenience or simplicity







    I had just landed from a developed nation back to India. The first experience at Mumbai airport was as usual – Humidity! I came out from the airport and boarded taxi to home. The driver – though driving taxi in Mumbai for about 2 decades – took a longer route. Exposed me to very shabby roads and potholes etc. I reached home to find out that there is some issue in water distribution pipeline of Municipal corporation. Corporation would not do any work until end of the rainy season! Just imagine – there is water all over on roads but not at home. All this made me almost utter to myself – “What the #@%^&*#” you know what I mean?

    Drop meeting OceanThough, this thick skin got in the groove of the problems quickly – actually there was no option :). I told my wife (her name is ‘Simple’) and in a way to myself too – “Simple, during summers, I – as a teenager – used to go about 1/2 KM or more to bring about 50 lts water on my bicycle about 4 times daily. We are far better off now, don’t worry this time will pass. Also, the quality of water we use to flush our toilets is far better than potable water at some places!” The real problem was storing water when our society ordered for tankers. We did not have more than 2 buckets – 15 lts each. When we shifted to this locality we were told there is water 24X7 here, so there was no need either.

    These things connected a number of dots in my mind. I did not write last week about it because of our Independence Day. At times I wonder – how long we (average citizen) will try to save these corrupt politicians in the name of patriotism. Just imagine countries of northern hemisphere have a lot of snowfall, but their roads don’t have potholes, their airport function. Wonder what happens when the temperature is in negative, how does water supply work in there during winters? In India that – too one of the most developed city – in Mumbai we observe – water on runway so flights are delayed, its raining so we wont fix pipeline!

    The other thought was – before my marriage I was more of a nomad total stuff I had with me were my 3 C’s (cloths, consumables and certificates) and 6 carton books. After marriage I started buying required things e.g. a bike, washing machine and fridge. Now, when we faced water shortage I realized this list will grow and the things we will own will include things we never imagined we will buy. One is here – water container. Now, next time if I get robbed – read what happened last year – and this water container is missing I know someone needs it more than I do and municipal corporation is responsible for this.

    These seemingly different points – comparison of India & other countries and my owning up things (at times having limited usage in my life) made me think about convenience and living life with simplicity. The water container was a requirement, which sooner or later may not be. I have learnt – from Mahavir and the Buddha – “no hoarding, no stealing etc. They taught that we have forgotten, we will leave everything here but still we want to own stuff.” Now, I am calling all those things written above as – “convenience”, “required to make life easier”. But how long we would keep on mending the definition of convenience?

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – simplicity. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • We are no different – Up or Down







    I am watching the highway from my hotel room at 6th floor, a bird flies just at the same level as I am currently. What an interesting sight that is – cars (and humans within) are down on road however fast they can drive and here up about 60 feet from the ground a bird is flying effortlessly. More interestingly I am able to witness all this in an AC room without any qualm of weather and being at a foreign country. The birds are not worried about the height they achieve while flying, unlike humans who care too much for the high’s their company share, fast pace of growth of their wealth et al. At times we humans do not even bother to play with numbers to show these growth figures which are fudged.Toshiba

    This weekend I read in the Economist that Japanese company Toshiba was involved with accounting fraud for last 7 years. In this duration there were 3 different CEOs, all let that happen. Where has it not happened – USA (Enron), India (Satyam) and Japan (Toshiba) sure there must be big/small cases everywhere in the world. I always had high regards for Japanese system and people – but Toshiba has let me down. The inference is same – many people are shortsighted. Here Keynes should not be blamed for making a comment – “in the long run we all are dead”, his context was different.

    The problem with corporate world is (specially with listed companies) the CXO and board is more interested in showing quarterly results over the long term. In fact, the plague of living quarter by quarter comes down to the sales associate level too. If they want their bonus or incentives they too hPoor on footpathave to jack up their sales numbers. How they do it, can be a different topic of debate.

    Such incidents let me ask the same question again and again – What more you need? When will we stop? Are the markets – that govern these listed companies – moral? And why do I think about these things?

    The last question to myself lets me relate us – Humans – to the character of Ice age – Scrat. Scrat is running behind its one corn seed and it is unending running for the same for last 4 series. We are the same – whether we become a CXO of Toshiba or just a daily wages worker on the streets of Mumbai – who has to think of this ability to feed his/her family tomorrow.

    My take is only one fold – Until we merge whole of human life (include business, economics, science, politics etc) to spirituality we would see the kind of frauds happening.

    This blog relates to LBC (Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium) blog topic but not exactly the same – Up and Down. Though I was supposed to write on that topic last Friday but could do it today. Other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok,  gaelikaa,  Lin,  Maxi, Padmum,  Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

    Image source – Toshiba executive – AFP Link, Rediff Indian Poverty figures

  • Blindness







    My mother teaches in a school where there are few blind students also. She talks about them passionately and praises their intelligence beyond the other students. By chance I have not been closely associated with the blind people, however I have filled my eye donation form when I was 18 years. Yes, I would want any and every body part to be utilized after my death, the value of each organ will increase if it remains and be useful to someone after me. This “AFTER ME” puts me on another tangent of thoughts – we are not the body – but here I am not writing on those thoughts anyways.

    So coming to the topic – Blindness. How do you define blindness? Inability to see, is that the only definition? According to me, the definition of blindness goes beyond just the inability to see. Or if I think more, in some sense of the word “see” may includes many things which we generally overlook.

    [Tweet “‘Our’ perceptions create ‘our reality’ – than whatever is the truth.”]

    ‘See’ should not be only associated with eyes. After your eyes see, what happens next? The mind creates a picture and mind infers the picture. The inference also has a sense of blindness too. Inability to infer, inability to understand and misconception of actions; these are few other things that need to be included in defining “blindness”. “Our” perceptions create “our” reality – than whatever is the truth.

    quote-Helen-Keller-the-highest-result-of-education-is-tolerance-103858An example that came to my mind is related to a recent incident in the US. A young man unleashed gunfire in Tennessee military facilities. Initial reports were stating that it could be an act of terror. This man had stayed somewhere in Middle East for more than 1/2 year in 2014. His high school friends of this man say he was a good guy and it was shocking and unbelievable that he did it (paraphrase a CNN news report heard earlier). So point is what happened that this young man did what he did?

    If I cannot see Blue color, I am color blind for that color, if I cannot see peace and only fed with what wrong is happening with “my community” by “other commutes” I am blinded by what good the other community is doing. Many a times, the bad is more of perception than a reality. This is how people are blinded to see only what they are told to see.

    This Tennessee shooter was blinded in the same manner. That is also a kind of blindness too. The intolerance we see in many people is because they can only see what is right for them and they are blind for opinion of the other. Perhaps the young man got brainwashed by some education which was rather reverse of Education – “The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller. [assuming it was a terror attack, as it was speculated initially]

    [Tweet “”The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller.”]

    In a similar manner, I am blinded to see only peace, growth, happiness. On a lighter note – I see many vehicles with their number plate as 23XY, reason is – my vehicle is numbered 2315, its not that these vehicles were not visible earlier, now I notice them intentionally and ignore vehicle with some other numbers.

    I am late to write on this LBC post. This topic was suggested by Lin, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • This and That







    When you see me as different from you, you get into the idea of “This” and “That”. When there is an “Me” and “other” there is a question of “This” and “That”. In Indian philosophy we call it dvait (द्वैत) or duality. There is a whole philosophy in India on duality – Adwait Vedanta. I am neither an expert nor have I read much about the vedanta so I wont be commenting on those lines.

    crossroadsWhen Maria suggested this topic, I felt this is a unique and interesting topic. However, my line of thought did not go beyond the Indian philosophy of Adwait Vedanta. The mind suddenly moved to “free will” and choices when This Vs that came to my mind.

    Are we really free to make choices? Science may suggests now that our perception of free will is a kind of illusion. Perhaps, in future we would prove with big data analytics that there is no free will. I am sure we can do this with analytics as I have been involved with analytics on various levels and have personally seen what decision and output we may get when it is rightly done. So how a person would react in given situation may be predictable and the choice of “This and That” may not be the “choice” actually. Our choices are influenced by what we have been exposed to, how our mind is conditioned. I think a game of chess can explain how we make decisions – we make one decision and if that works we may say this was right. If that decision fails we may say the other option we skipped would have been better. [relevant blog here]. So the free will of This and That makes us rational individuals but that rationality is also under question.

    I love how the Buddha has put things across for such kind of situations. Free will seems to be an illusion – “Go meditation”. Free will is not concerned with you. Does God exist? “Go meditation” that question is irrelevant. Though I am not Buddhist (This) nor I am staunch Hindu (That) or follower of any other religion as such but somehow I love the way The Buddha has explained his line of thought. It is “This” and “That” together – Interdependent co-arising.

    This topic was suggested by Maria, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    Image source – https://pixabay.com/en/crossroads-signpost-directions-wood-303896/

  • I’d Rather Be







    The topic is esoteric for me. If I can just “BE” I would just want to “be”. Unfortunately until my mind runs round I would keep on BEcoming rather than just being someone/somebody.

    I am a wanderer, not physically as much but yes the mind does not stay at one place. You can check – I have found relationship between spirituality and business. I have written how technical methodology (TRIZ) can be associated with business. These are signs of just-be-597091_640my hyper active (rather wanderlust) mind. Can I just “be” – if yes I would just “BE”.

    A final thought – how about BEing the Buddha? The Buddha of this age?

    This topic was suggested by Shackman, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The eight other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too.
    Image source – http://pixabay.com/en/just-be-being-i-am-existence-597091/

  • Right And Wrong







    Recently, one of my friends Piyush ‘Jayant’ Arora published his poetry’s book. The title of the book is Rang Leela.

    When I received his email stating from these places I can buy the book –

    I told him that I rarely read poetry out of my educational requirements. The title seems interesting I would like to read it. I got a copy this week. So, I started reading it from cover.

    This was the first time I was reading a poet whom I can imagine as an individual. When I read Dharamvir Bharati (Andha yug) or Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (Kurukshetra), I always felt poets are super humans from a different world. Piyush is like me – he has done his engineering and an MBA. So I can think of a a human [not a super human writing].

    The first thing I read in his book was back page cover.

    [Hindi] ना खुशियों की बहार … आ गामो का दरिया है…
    ज़िंदगी और कुछ नही… बस अपना अपना नज़रिया है…

    [Translation] Life is all about our perspective and we all see it with our own lens. Our experiences and interactions fill in the color of the canvas of our lives.

    When I was reading the good small poems I wrote to him about referring to some in my blogs. He readily agreed.

    This week’s LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) title perfectly matches with Piyush’s perspective.

    There is nothing right and nothing wrong. These are all our perspectives. Piyush’s poetry’s are also on the same. Another Poem I am referring here from his same book –

    [Hindi] अगर सत्य से हमेश असत्य है हारा…
    और सब कुछ होता सिर्फ़ गोरा या काला..
    तो क्या अब तक बह रही होती यह धारा?
    यह तुम्हारी हमारी विचारधारा.

    [English – my words] If truth has always been triumphant over false… and everything is completely black and white… had there been a flow of different perspectives?

    Everything is our mind game, a perspective. There is nothing right and wrong. Everything is just “IS”

    This topic was suggested by Maria, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order,  Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

  • You Can’t Do That!







    When I read this title – “you can’t do that!” – for the LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) I asked myself “what is ‘that’?”

    The title gave me a sort of shock, why would someone ask the other to not do something? It is a different case that when we tell a child not to do something, well we say this with some reason. Or let us grow the logic of not letting someone do something – someone who is not aware of the environment can be “advised” not to do something. This logic can be explained in the business as – a new joinee told about keeping away from the wipers / foxes of the office. How they should manage the office and department politics.

    Guruji

    I have heard a story. A master told his one of the disciple – “Do not eat outside food.” He meant that you are doing meditation practice, you should restrict yourself to the Satvik food of the Ashram. Specially for this disciple the reason was that he was progressing well. As the fate had been – Adam ate the apple! This disciple was tempted to eat some Moong bhajia [an Indian delicacy]. He ate it. Next day the disciple could not meditate properly. The master realized it but kept quiet. In the evening disciple confessed – Master I am not able to meditate properly. Master asked – did you eat something outside? Disciple confessed yes ate moong bhajia. After a brief silence the Master said – “The person who was making that bhajia was not paid for last few weeks, and he was cursing his fate and the owner of the shop. The person was worried for his family and daily expenses.”

    When I was a kid my father used to tell us that the food is also affected by the feelings of the maker. I remember Indian philosophy saying “what you eat you become”. [Tweet “It’s True: You Are What You Eat www.inc.com/magazine/201307/adam-bluestein/the-best-foods-for-leaders-to-eathtml.html”] Read Inc article It’s True: You Are What You Eat.

    Me being me – I ask occasionally, the Buddha used to beg. How about that? But as instructed – You Can’t Do That!

    This topic was suggested by Shackman, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The eight other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order,  Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

  • Predictive Texting







    To err is human and to typo in predictive texting is smart phones! 🙂

    This is my first effort to share my blog on LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium). This topic was suggested by Padmum, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The eight other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Rummuser,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

    I was aware about LBC, thought of joining the group earlier too. However, I write only once a week on my blog.  It is a big responsibility to write and on regular basis is a very tough job with the kind of engagement I have. Honestly it has been difficult to keep up with my regular blogs of Business and the Buddha.

    I was impressed with the title  – “Predictive Texting”. Reasons are a plenty.

    1. First reason is, I have been doing this mistake often. Here is one – Writing “Vegetable” instead of “Venerable” to Ramana uncleji is one. In my Whatsapp, I have written most often – *<WORD> TYPO <CORRECTED WORD>. One can do an analysis on the same and infer that one of the most frequent word from me is “TYPO” or a typo – a misspelling.

    Inline image 2

    2. I have been doing text analytics so this field is of some interest for me. Predictive texting learns from an individual’s usage of words as well. I can save “Pravin”, “Uncleji” as right spellings and the program will learn. In fact, with more knowledge of my usage of words it may predict what is coming. The type of analytics I am doing is on Twitter feeds & text based identification of sentiments as a starter, instead of predicting text.

    Coming to the point – How did predictive texting start? Do you remember Nokia mobile phones used to have T9 feature. This was a dictionary, T9 used to do auto suggest. When user used to type a digit (in those days digits used to have 3/4 alphabats associated) T9 used to offer suggestion. The same is extended to predictive texting of current edge.

    Our machines have become smart to beat humans in Jeopardy quiz but still Predictive texting is error prone. Is also referred as “Cupertino effect” because in the initial year predictive text used to change cooperation to Cupertino :).

    We should not be blaming machines completely for these errors, after all they are not humans and in whatever case they are also learning. Machine learning is a concept where computers learn from past. Recently published news suggest what Google is trying in – Machine Learning. One thing they are doing and continue to do is – suggestions based on the user behavior. Just imagine how interesting it would be to have machines helping us in whatever endeavors

    Be patient  something worthwhile is in  the offering. Please Cupertino (cooperate) – as vegetable (venerable) uncleji did.