Business to the Buddha

Blog

  • Uncertainties and acceptance

    It has been more than a week, we wake up to the no-water in the overhead tank of our wing of our residential complex. Initially, it was annoying. Daily, I or my wife went downstairs to tell the security to switch on the water pump. We raised the issue to the society manager, secretary, etc. I think it takes about 3 days to form a habit, soon we accepted this challenge as part of our life. The new ritual now is – wake up, open the tap – hoping system is fixed, go downstairs tell security to switch on the pump, come back and proceed as per the available resources. After a week, now security calls me daily to ask “do you have water in your taps now?”

    Uncertainties and acceptance

    Uncertainties make us jittery and annoyed. It depends on the situations, in some cases uncertainties make us anxious too. There was news that Deepika Padukone wanted to face the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) with her Husband because of anxiety; it is just an example. This initial annoyance made way for the acceptance of the situation. Once, we accepted the situation, we started planning our next day before we went off to sleep. The morning started with the acceptance of the unavailability of water and our workflow was changed to accommodate the situation. Once we had figured it out, life was easy, the disappointment of delay in fixing the problem was there but the annoyance and frustration ended. This happens many times in our business too.

    A conversation

    We had figured it out for our daily life. I and my wife were talking about it in the morning, the same evening I received a call from my ex-colleagues – Deepak Taunk. By chance, we happened to speak about the certainties of the outcome. The discussion started with analytics, human intelligence, AI, and business processes. It was an interesting discussion on how our brain connects the dots from analytics and business processes to our daily lives. He is a creative person who questions assumptions. So, when we spoke about some business processes he shared his displeasure with the templatization of work. When I say templatization, I mean making work process-driven and asking others to follow the guidelines. It is not that he is not process-driven – he is a very successful project manager. His point was the templatization results in blindly “follow the guidelines”. People are discouraged to ask questions.

    It is a very valid objection. His point of view was – educated people must be allowed to understand “the why”, freedom to figure it out, otherwise what is the need of highly educated people when they have to always follow the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). I personally have seen this issue that even intelligent people follow things blindly or are asked to follow blindly. In case some ask questions they are termed as “unfit” or non-cooperative. This becomes the responsibility of the team leader or the leadership, in general, to figure out the best course of action. There is no right or wrong in being templatized for few things and creative for others. We need both the ways to run a business well – follow the process and question the assumptions.

    World of possibilities

    In business, personal life as well as in spiritual path too both the approaches are required. I had been an inquisitive person, including on my small journey of spirituality. I asked a lot of questions to many of my guides – Dr Saxena, Ramana uncle ji, my father, Sai Kaka, Dada ji, and Dr Agashe, my art of living teacher. Dr Agashe told me – “…for a few things you need to trust the predecessors/process for others ask questions, do not stop any of these. Indian spirituality offers you both the ways…” Interesting isn’t it?

    Following the process brings certainty of outcome whereas questioning assumptions bring opportunities. Uncertainty many times brings opportunities. One has to be aware of the uncertainties, accept the situation, and find out options. When we look at situations, accept the situation(instead of fighting it), look for options, and be creative we have a whole world of possibilities.

  • Connectedness

    The world is divided into countries, races, religions, and god knows how many different factions and sections. There may be valid reasons for such sections. However, everything and everyone is connected. Problem to one results in problem to everything else around it. We have to learn the lesson of connectedness, be it hard way or easily.

    Connectedness

    Once different body parts were annoyed with the stomach. They were unhappy that they had to procure food and bring it to the stomach while the stomach itself did nothing but devour the hard work the parts did.

    In a meeting, all body parts decided they will stop bringing food to the stomach. The hand won’t lift it to the mouth, teeth won’t chew and throat won’t swallow it. This would force the stomach into doing something.
    After all, they were part of the whole. They had forgotten this basic reality. The decision to stop bringing food to the stomach resulted in making the body weak, feeble, and brought the body to the death bed.

    In the end, they all learned a lesson that in helping one another they were really working for their own welfare.

    Interdependence

    I had written about witnessing an incident of rioting firsthand. The learning from that incident was that we must learn managing our emotions. We can learn this by learning meditations. In fact, meditation brings compassion too. Result – more balance and peaceful response to situation instead of rioting – “Connectedness“.

    https://business2buddha.com/2019/05/heart-mind-action-awareness-meditation/
    https://twitter.com/SVNewsAlerts/status/1299458895396646915
    Protest should be representative not damaging public property

    Recently, I heard of the news of riots in a city in Sweden. Similar things occurred in two of the biggest cities in India – Delhi, and Bangalore. In our selfishness, if we miss the connectedness we end up harming not just ourselves but the whole surrounding. In our shallowness, we may consider ourselves as different or separate from the other however this aloofness ends into troubling everything.

    Note – Story source – Father Anthony de Mello, Prayers of the frog

  • Improving self

    When you work somewhere ultimately who are you working for? A shallow answer is for the company or the client. The deeper answer is for the self. You are trading your skills to a company or a client to earn your bread, right? When you improve self who would benefit more? You ain’t it?

    improve

    I was thinking about developing oneself. I wrote a few sentences and continued from my previous blogs on the competition. When I reached the end of the second paragraph, I realized that I need to take the support of this one scene of the movie “Three idiots” to drive home the point. In this movie, a character goes for an interview and says ‘…I found this confidence after breaking 16 bones, I will be able to do something good with my life…”.

    This is right, everyone has the capabilities to do something worth it for his or her life. Why get in a race of anything? Especially when one understands, competition brings stress, stress causes mental or physical suffering. Why try to be a replica of someone else when one can be a better version of self?

    Improving self

    What best a person can do? Improve self isn’t it? Improving self requires looking at your own self, knowing owns strength and weakness, understanding the environment where you’ve to perform and working on these to get better results, that’s it. 

    I know people may have a point – how is that possible in a competitive world? Sales folks may say how will we bring in new business is we don’t compete with rivals? The point is – is now of learning and improving self. It is more about improving your product rather than just trying to sell a solution that may not be a good fit – your competitor’s product may be better. The point is followers look at leaders and compete with them. Leaders look at the customer best example is Amazon, isn’t it?

    In your case, you are the customer and you are the serving company.

  • Key to success

    I enjoy watching lawn tennis. This interest germinated since childhood watching Boris Baker, Agasi, Sampras, etc play in grand slams. In the late 2000’s I preferred Nadal over Federer. Slowly I grew over this rivalry. Now I enjoy watching more with a disinterested appreciation of the skills of Nadal, Federer, Novak, and other players. I do not even consider competing with any of the great players, why? Because it is not in my consideration set. Forget about going to the lawn tennis court; I never even held a racket in my hand. Many of you must be having such similar interests be it Cricket or watching movies. We do not compete with those whom we enjoy watching play a character or play a sport. We just enjoy and come back to work. So, suddenly why compete when we look at our colleagues? Is it a key to success? Nope apparently not.

    I had this question in my mind for as long as a decade when I started blogging about Business to the Buddha. When I wrote my first blog I interpreted interdependent co-arising as “When Ferrari and Honda run on the racing track competing for the first spot, they are racing to offer the best product to their customers.” This interpretation leaves room for competition at an individual level. 

    Key to success

    These days we keep on competing. If you remember, there is a competition for even “your shirt is white compared to mine!” In most of our race, we engage with “other”, it is an outwards journey. My point of view is competition with self.

    Key-to-success

    Two weeks back I wrote about how my friend was an inspiration for improving myself. I watched the movie Fashion last week. A good story of rivalry and moving above it. If we open our eyes we can learn so many things from some any places. In this case, it was the movie Fashion. We end up outwardly and compete with others. Instead, we must try to be a better version of ourselves, isn’t it?

    The above image was so apt that I borrowed it for this blog post. If I look back, had I tried to compete with Nikhil I probably might have got into anxiety or frustration. Nikhil was an inspiration for improving myself there was a lot of learning. Thank you once again, Nikhil. Nikhil was an inspiration for improving myself there was a lot of learning. Thank you once again, Nikhil. The key to success is improving ourselves and being a better version of self (1.01)^365 on a daily basis, focus and competing with self.

    Image source – LinkedIn timeline of Mr Deepak Taunk title also courtesy of Mr Taunk

  • Competing with ourselves

    Learning is learning, what is the scope or meaning of competition in that? Everyone has his or her level of comprehension and skillset. Some take more time to learn math but are wonderful at poetry others take less time but not good with creativity. Isn’t it common? So life is good when we try to be a better version of ourselves, competing with ourselves rather than trying to compete with everyone out there. I hope the new education policy, keeps this at its core rather than making kids slog to get more marks.

    https://business2buddha.com/2018/10/i-want-to-be-the-winner/
    Now, when I look back I feel most of the times, it is about collective growth rather than me over you. After reading about interdependent co-arising I have always believed in collective growth.
    https://business2buddha.com/2017/07/education/
     some times, “it is ok to stop in life instead of rushing.”
    https://business2buddha.com/2020/02/interdependent-co-arising-in-long-run/
    We at times miss the power of small things and ignore them. This understanding of sensitivity of impact of one thing on a larger scale makes a person compassionate.

    Inspiration for competing to improve myself

    I was an (above) average Joe in school days, used to do a lot of extracurricular. This happened when I was in grade 11. In 11th, we all took admission in this school from different schools. I started sitting with my colony friend Sumit and his friend Nikhil. Both of them were far more intelligent, toppers, and NTSE (National Talent Search Examination) scholars. At the beginning of grade 11, I wasn’t very serious about studies. I wanted to be an engineer however I was still in many extracurricular kind of lacking focus. I found the focus on studies after an interesting incident, and yet continued with extracurricular.

    school

    One day, Nikhil was sitting with his Mathematics “book” and thinking something. Because this book was kept below the desk and there was no notebook. I asked, “what are you reading”? He replied, “I am solving a problem”. I said there is no notebook and you seem to be reading a book. He said “trying to solve it mentally”. I asked again – what problem is it. It was 2 or 3 chapters ahead of our school math classes chapter.

    It made me serious about studies and made me think about how can I solve problems mentally rather than on just pen papers. When I look back, I realized that Nikhil was an inspiration for me. There was no competition for me with him or anyone else in the class. I just wanted to be better than what I was earlier. In fact on a serious note, Nikhil always scored a perfect 100 in Math that I could never. It seems like if I take the Math exam again, there will be still room for improvement. Effectively, he helped me be a better version of myself, I could never become like him in Math though. 🙂

    What better recognition one can expect? Within a year I had improved myself a lot. Once in grade 12, he said “Computer ko lekar Brahma ne banaya kya?” (Did God make you with a computer?) for solving either probability or integration/differentiation problem in class – I used to do it in the head without touching pen paper. This, coming from the same person was a testimony that I had achieved what I set as a goal. Nikhil did not know that he was eventually praising himself because he had motivated me to do something like this.

    Competing with ourselves

    There are inspirations as Nikhil was for me – how can I be like him, solve problems in mind itself. However, when we limit ourselves we either have envy or competition. The world is too big to compete with everyone – currently about 7 billion. It’d be endless and completely outwards journey as Alexander (the great) had. He kept on trying to win the world and died too young learning “I’ll die empty-handed“.

    The endless competition with “self” is better because the goal is to improve oneself daily. Nikhil had been a positive influencer who became an inspiration, not a competition. In fact, Sumit and Nikhil both became an influencer for me (read another incident from the same school here), Sumit was the state topper in 12th. A lot later in my life, I came to understand and relate to these learnings with both of them as interdependent co-arising. I wonder what they learned from me but I improved a lot. The word “competition” must be looked at with a positive perspective, it should help one improve oneself rather than becoming a race. A perspective and an approach make a huge difference in one’s life. Thank you, Nikhil for inspiring me and eventually helping me learn that one has to compete with ourselves rather than the endless world.

    https://business2buddha.com/2019/06/societal-impact-of-interdependent-co-arising/
    We all grow when we help each other to grow whether it is our subordinates or our competitors.

    Competing with ourselves in business

    I understand it becomes difficult to digest the concept of competition in academics, professional life, and business. I shall share more thoughts on that in some future blogs. Here is a pointer until that blog, I am reading a book by my MBA professor – The new rules of business. This book also gives a perspective on competition. A wonderful lesson from that can be paraphrased as – if you compete with your competitors you may end up being a copy of them in fact one may end up doing the mistakes your industry is doing.

  • Develop taste

    In school, we studied the concept of survival of the fittest. However, learned it in Engineering. With the practicals lessons on “survival of the fittest” our tongue had learned tasting food without hurting itself from the hot food. With time, we must learn to develop taste for different things in life, be it good or bad food, experiences, situations, or practices. At least, we must be open to test and experience before making an opinion or choice. Once we develop taste, we can choose to continue with the new things or no, isn’t it?

    The story

    Pramod – my engineering batch-mate – was an awesome cook. He had a roommate whose nickname was Golu. Whenever Pramod used to cook, we used to wait for the final bell to open our attack on the food. I still remember the food, how can I forget the fragrance of lentils (dal) and rice?

    Over time each one had learned, if you wait for the food to get warm, you would remain hungry. Everyone knew this and complied with the principle of attacking the food as soon as possible. Those days were unconventional.

    Golu used to eat with us, however, after the meals he used to start finding fault – salt was less, there was no taste of spices, and so on. Initially, we responded, later we realized it was his habit. So we started ignoring it, yet Pramod had had enough of it. This happened so many times that once Pramod told him – “you won’t be allowed to even touch the utensil, forget eating.” We had dinner, washed utensils, and gave it to him. Golu started cooking we were watching him assuming he is a critique he must be a better cook.

    Golu cooked; while he was cooking we’re aghast and repeatedly told him do not put so much red chilly powder, not so much turmeric, etc. The food was red due to red chilly powder. We refrained from eating the food. We knew it was terrible, however, he kept on praising himself – in vain – his facial expressions were enough for us.

    Learning

    The learning was – either you develop a taste – in this case, it was a rather wonderful food – for the food or learn cooking yourself. A larger lesson for life, we end up making an opinion about things without knowing much about those. Some times we make this error – we follow Yoga or take Ayurvedic medicine and make fun of the same in public. At times, people have not done meditation yet, they critique it. The best I would advise anyone is to practice meditation at least once even if you want to critique it. It would have a positive impact on you. Who knows, you would continue doing meditation, knowing what you have been missing in life?

  • Pushing the envelope

    After reading my previous blog, one of my friends called me and shared his story. I took his permission and here is an abridged version of the same. The discussion was differentiating between seeking recognition and pushing the envelope. Here is the summary.

    Recognition vs pushing the envelope

    Adviti showing sketch

    We were a joint family. It was “joint and huge” we kids could make two cricket teams and play within our family itself. My father’s eldest brother was revered and he was the real hero for the whole family. In our childhood seeking his recognition and gaining his approval was the best one could get. I and one of my cousin brothers were studying together at the same school in the same grade.

    It was a practice to show the result to the elders at home. I know it may be embarrassing for some, but it was a practice. My eldest uncle always asked me on the day of the school results – “How much did your cousin score?” This started with our 3rd standard. I never scored better than him. At last, I scored 4 or 5 marks more than him in the 8th standard – it took me whole 5 years to better him.

    After these repeated question five year in a row, I had achieved this milestone. I went to Kaka – “I scored more than my cousin”. I think Kaka always knew the results before I could tell him because all this while probably he was asking my cousin – “how much the topper scored?” My cousin was studious and he used to remain 2nd. This was the first time when I scored better marks than him, I stood 2nd in the school. So, this time around, Kaka asked me – how much did the topper score? He had whopping 47 marks (9% in % terms) ahead of me!

    Throughout these five years, my only aim was to better my scores than my cousin. I was heartbroken, however hard I try I was not able to convince him that I did something worth one’s salt. He was godfather to the whole family and seeking his recognition was the best one could get within the whole family. I gave up starting the 9th standard because I was never able to meet his expectations. He should have patted me at least once that at last after so many years I could go one step ahead on his scale.

    I stopped showing my results to him as I felt I cannot please him however much I try. Though I kept learning from him as he taught me and my cousin. He was so impressed with my punctuality that he used to say – “I can match my wall clock with his entry – it is 2 PM.” This was the only and best recognition I had from him ever.

    Result?

    Well, after this summary, I said, so what happened afterward? He said I studied at good places scored decent marks and here I am, fairly successful.

    I asked, what if you had shown him results later on too? Do you think that you would have been better off? I see the single question inspired you a lot and you tried improving yourself year after year. At last you bettered your performance. Probably a couple of years more and you would have been more successful, isn’t it a possibility?

    He was taken aback! There was this “aha! moment” for him. I am sure he had not thought of this perspective. He completed my thoughts adding – When I look back on Kaka pushing my limits, I know now that he had good intentions. I was too young to understand it, I gave up. Was my giving up, on seeking his recognition for good, it can be questioned in hindsight. Probably I should have continued the ritual.

    It is difficult to accept one’s mistake, isn’t it? One friend two mistakes of his and he stopped communicating to me. One of regarding managing emotions and other was regarding the international matter on which I asked him to keep a balanced opinion. So, I perfectly know this friend of mine was wrong at both the places, however it is difficult to accept one’s mistake.

    He added a “but” in his thoughts. He continued – However, I believe it gave me some freedom to experiment – I learned new skills and excelled in those and won awards too. Probably because I just wanted to do the stuff without expecting anything in return. I did not have the pressure to prove myself. Probably no one was watching me if I did well there.

    We concluded the call telling him that at times it is not seeking recognition. Your Kaka was pushing your envelope to do good in life. Probably, had you shown your results of every try or achievement he would have given you next goal. Since I see you were determined you would have surely achieved it. I think you mistook throughout your childhood the practice of showing your results was for blessings of elders and not for recognition.

    Note – Picture of my daughter with a random scribble we did.

  • Peace second

    When the need arose Krishna told Arjuna, pick up your arms, and fight. When there is a need, you have to do this duty without thinking about the results. Krishna said you have the right to perform your duty, also you do not have control over the results. Peace comes first when we are trying to reach a peaceful solution or consensus. If the peace fails, relegate peace to second. Perform your duty by taking arms. This is what happened in Mahabharata.

    Krishna picking up a wheel to attack Bhisma in Mahabharat. Krishna had avowed not to take weapon in the war, even a wheel was considered weapon if used for attack

    India and her culture and China from a religious perspective

    For time immemorial, India has been a harbinger of peace. India’s message to the world has been of spirituality, science, and peace. Every single message from India has been for the progressive world as a one-world family “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”. The examples are the first surgery or mathematical genius of Aryabhatta or the message of the Buddha. The best thing, Indian culture has never asked for recognition for any of the achievements. The world knows basic mathematics from the middle eastern name – Algebra. India developed the concepts of algebra, the message of meditation, astronomy, or peace all are open for adoption.

    Hinduism has a lot of branches. Every branch is exploration of different aspects of spirituality. Hinduism accepts every approach. Buddhism lays immense importance to meditation as a religion. Meditation is yet another path (Dhyan yog) within Hinduism. A book – Vigyan Bhairava Tantra – contemplates more than 100 meditations. You can read/listen to Osho’s commentary on the same. A better suggestion is to experience the meditations described in the book. The art of living foundation has a special course on Vigyan Bhairav. Buddhism was spread to Egypt in the west and Japan in the east. The western side of India has curbed Buddhism by force – bursting of the Bamiyan Buddha statues is a contemporary example.

    India has been a kind country for many centuries. She has to rise to the occasion and not only be a guide for a peaceful world order but also communicate clearly about its national interests too. There are multiple conflicts here such as Chinese and Pakistani occupation on its territories. Possibly, as stated, peace may have to be related to the second spot for that.

    Buddhism in China

    In the recent past, Tibet was forcefully taken over by China. There are close to 20% Buddhists in China. Buddhist and Communist approach of life is diagonally opposite. Buddhism has a concept of Sangha a community. However, it lays a lot more emphasis on an individual’s personal growth – because enlightenment is achieved by an individual. Whereas the communist approach is – an individual has no value as such. China has been trying to use Buddhism to influence South East Asia, in fact using Buddhism with forums. This is another meddling in the personal life and beliefs of individuals – a very common practice of China.

    The way China crushed Tibet (watch 7 years in Tibet), it is going to pay back. China has crushed one such uprising at Tiananmen square. China has been able to control these descents to a great extent – Google and Zoom. It is no secret more you suppress something, more powerfully it will come back. Sooner or later, this is going to happen to China.

    Chinese aggression

    Recently China has tried to push Indian boundaries on North East Doklam in 2017 and Jammu and Kashmir in 2020. This attack comes with the audacity of pushing the world into a lockdown due to Covid-19 (actually the Chinese Virus). It is a natural response for a country that feels threatened by a potential competitor. Many companies are likely to shift from China to other countries – including India. The other reason for considering India a potential competitor because India is a major economy if everything falls in place, India can grow faster. Though there is at least 5 times gap between the GDP of both the countries, however if mass exodus happens it may adversely affect China in short span.

    There are various internal and external factors affecting China. Some of the Internal factors are the aging population of China, shortcomings of the one-child policy. The external factors are abused rules of free trade, debt trap for smaller nations, etc. The world now sees a new way of colonialism from China. This has woken up the world. This aggression if taken forward, is likely to cost a lot not just to the two nations but also to the world at large.

    The economy trap of China

    If you look at the trade balance of major economies vis a vis China, you would see trade balance is 1:3. Almost every country has trade-deficit with China, in effect China sucks funds from every country! In many ways, China either flouts World Trade Organization (WTO) norms or takes unfair advantages of the same to trap countries. The worst form of trap is – debt trap – giving loans to countries at better rates (naturally these countries cannot service these debts) and later gain control over assets of these countries, Sri Lankan port is an example. Nepal will soon get into this trouble. China is trying to control the sea too. In the east, they are contesting with Phillipense.

    In a nutshell, every country, business, and economy dependent on China has a problem with China and yet it is very difficult to look at short term alternatives. This is the kind of overconfidence that anyone should be cherry about. This overconfidence has to be and will be tamed sooner or later. Probably the fear of this taming is forcing China to take aggressive steps against India. Further, in the coming time, China will face the heat of Covid spread worldwide. The whole world has suffered. Recently Geeta Gopinath of IMF wrote, that the negative growth rate is expected to be worse than previously estimated. More likely, the countries worldwide must get compensation from China for this massive loss.

    Peace second

    There are multiple problems the whole world is facing currently. Starting from the Chinese Virus challenge, economic downturn, and major control of China over many smaller countries to Chinese aggression on Indian territory. The China-India standoff is probably a warning to companies considering moving from China to India, giving a signal that India is not safe. This exposes China to many of its internal problems, suppression of its citizen, forceful control on Tibet to name a few, and external right from the debt trap, surreptitiously controlling land to the aggressiveness across sea routes too.

    At the time of Mahabharat the equation was more driven by the military power and the kingdoms aligned to a side. Now, more than military power, it is economic power that drives alignments and overall control on world affairs. In Mahabharat, Pandavas were forced to ask for their fair share of the land they had to fight for it. In the present day world when a country faces such an adversary that is powerful, manipulative, and extremely aggressive sooner or later it has to be relegated peace to the second spot.

  • Seeking recognition

    Disclaimer – Death of Sushant Singh Rajpoot (SSR) has moved me deeply. This blog post is dedicated to him. Neither this post nor I mean to insinuate anything related to the causes of death or anything related to the big personality in SSR. I request you to please look at the message at a larger perspective.

    Humans are social animals which eventually results in seeking recognition. We end up seeking recognition from our family, friends, peers, and society. This happened with me a few years back and recently. I realized that one must grow beyond this exercise itself. This social acceptance can take a toll on our physical and mental well-being. This can result in we taking an emotional decision rather than a logical one. Life is a miracle we must simply live it why bother to seek recognition?

    My story – Morality, logic and larger balanced perspective

    A few years back one of my friends was posting some international matter concerns particularly relating to a country East of India. So I replied or spoke with him – I forgot now if I replied or called – I said, this is a matter of concern however it is at Central Govt level to take any decision be it settling the affected in India. He was furious, he said something in rage and shared some disturbing photos on my Facebook messenger. I replied to that saying –

    1. we do not know the authenticity of these pictures and
    2. if we have concerns for the Eastern part of India we must have a balanced approach – western part of India and even the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia. We should have the same scale of measurement on any religious atrocities.
    3. if we concern ourselves with one kind of the oppressed people we must have our ears open for the other oppressed and consider all of them equal. Or the oppressed should consider living in a more socially acceptable country isn’t it?

    This was a question of morality for him for me it was a question of logic and balanced perspective. He was upset, unfriended me on Facebook. I came to know about that later. I felt I was more logical and balanced. When I came to know he unfriended me I wrote to him – “not being a friend on FB does not mean we are not friends, isn’t it?” We had been friends for decades and it was an abrupt end to communication. At times one must leave aside being correct and logical, however this is an afterthought :).

    Seeking recognition

    I had been considering a discussion, in our common friend group too. Unfortunately, there was no reciprocation. So, I tried analyzing. I was trying to seek recognition. Unknowingly, I was seeking recognition for my point of view and logical thought over the emotional opinion of my friend. Why am I ruminating about all these things?

    sushant-singh-rajput

    When I felt is it useless, suddenly, we heard the death of Sushant Singh Rajpoot. There are many theories whether it was murder or suicide. Though, the truth seems elusive until now. Some reports say he was undergoing depression, though it is tough to believe. It is said that he did not receive recognition from the film industry that he deserved. This incident has opened a pandora’s box on not only Bollywood but also in other fields where nepotism is at its peak – publishing brought forward by Author Ameesh and Sanjeev Sanyal. Being an insider, Sushant might have known the awards were for sale – India Today report of Rishi Kapoor.

    Sushant’s death let me ask a question – why would someone seek recognition? In fact I was doing the same off late.

    I felt two things. Assuming it was depression forcing him to take the extreme step, he was seeking recognition at the wrong place and two he could look at brighter side too. He had more than 2 million followers on twitter, 13.9 million followers on Instagram. Numerous (read millions), like me, have watched him on TV or cinema hall and praised his performance. he had a good success rate in movies. I still find it difficult to accept he committed suicide.

    Net-net, point I was ruminating was – at times in our emotional or local circle we try to seek recognition whereas it may be unnecessary to do that. At times, people are emotionally blinded or at times you need to look beyond the small local circle, you have many more who understand your logical reasoning and admire you.

    You do not need to prove anything to anyone. Do not seek recognition from others, especially from those who look down upon you.

  • Nothing special

    Disclaimer – Death of Sushant Singh Rajpoot (SSR) has moved me deeply. This blog post is dedicated to him. Neither this post nor I mean to insinuate anything related to the causes of death or anything related to the big personality in SSR. I request you to please look at the message at a larger perspective.

    It was just another weekend morning, we were in our room, reading a newspaper. Literally, it was nothing special, usual day, nothing much exciting. My neighbor called me – “Pravin, it is your sister’s phone”. I rushed to the room, picked up the phone, and said – “hello, hi Tai”. I call my elder sisters Tai. It was my eldest sister speaking from somewhere in North East where she was posted as an army officer. She asked – “How are you doing and what is happening?” I said, I am good and nothing special at my end. She responded – “Life itself is special, do not respond to me like that next time.” Whenever I responded ‘nothing special’, she had said the same thing earlier to me.

    This happened in the year 2000. About 20 years back, we did not have mobiles as the current generation has these days in their pockets. Admission in Engineering and completing that itself was a privilege for a middle-class family kid – I had that privilege.

    Yes, I was privileged that I was doing my engineering, I had “earned it”, we’d a competition with a handful of seats (1000 in total in Govt/semi Govt colleges put together for general category) across the state. With this point too, it was “special” that I was studying in Engineering. My saying nothing special was an understatement.

    My sister’s one sentence with 2 words stuck with me. Our life is precious, it was not that I made it to engineering was special, life itself is something to be celebrated. Why am I revisiting this 20-year-old incident?

    Small incidents of saying “Nothing Special”

    sushant-singh-rajput

    Sushant Singh Rajpoot’s death – be it a suicide or a murder – moved me. The death of anyone makes me feel – the world lost life experience and numerous relationships with one person. I wrote on China India standoff and loss of lives there too, though I could not conclude it so has not posted it yet.

    I knew Sushant as “Dhoni”. Whenever I saw his picture or video, I said – “Vo Dhoni hai na (that Dhoni)” and my wife used to correct me with his name. He made me believe he is Dhoni on screen. Though, I watched only 3 of his movies Dhoni, Byomkesh Bakshi, and Chhichhore.

    When I was reading the news of Sushant Singh Rajpoot, my mother recited a Doha of Kabir das.

    साईं इतना दीजिये, जा मे कुटुम समाय। मैं भी भूखा न रहूँ, साधु ना भूखा जाय॥

    Oh God, give me as much that my family can survive. As much that neither I sleep hungry nor the saint (guest) who is at the door.

    She further elaborated, that we must not run behind many things in life – be it money, fame, success, and every other possible possession. She said – all these things end up making a person want more. My mother made valid points, in fact I have written on it for a long time. I asked her how can we say that someone had a hunger for something and that hunger forced him to take the extreme decision? In fact, I could some how make it to the engineering he was national topper. I always felt he was a very thoughtful person and find it difficult to believe he committed suicide. Though, our discussion had no conclusion in the end.

    https://business2buddha.com/2011/09/life-is-simple/

    Wish Sushant had spoken with anyone who could tell him that – “life itself is special”.