My Favorite Cartoon : Tom and Jerry

What is Courage ??

I remember a story where a Philosophy Professor had asked to describe courage in a Question paper. Most of the students gave their perspectives, explanations and justifications while one student left this question blank and wrote the answer as " This is courage "... No guesses for the only A-Grade in the course....

Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.. Eddie Rickenbacker

So when you are scared, be happy since your courage levels are bound to increase.. I am also living in the US everyday with this same hope..

Some nice scenary snaps from the web ( Part 1)

Physics and Material Advancement in Life

Indeed, the IT era has its own satirical guru in the form of Scott Adams and his Dilbert Principle, a variation on the Peter Principle that says “Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management, in order to limit the amount of damage that they’re capable of doing.”

That brings me to an interesting thought..

Warm things rise up, why ?? Because they are light... For example the match-stick when extinguished produces smoke which rises up..

Now, when things are cold, they settle down, why ?? The same reason, they are heavy !!! For example, when u open the door of a refrigirator, your feet feels the cold !!!

So, the more you know, the more heavier your brain is and the lesser you progress in the corporate ladder. The lesser you know, the lighter you become and the more easy it becomes for you to progress up !!!

Putting it mathematically in the language of Dilbert.

Power = Work Done / Time taken.

Now everybody knows that Time is Money.

So, Power = Work Done / Money.

Also , we know that Knowledge is Power.

Hence, Knowledge = Work Done / Money.

Translating the variables, we have

Money = Work Done / Knowledge.

So, assuming that work done is the same, the more knowledge you have, the lesser money you make and the less knowledge you have, the more money you mint..

Hmm... That solves the mystery of how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs ( High school drop-outs) are amongst the world's richest persons..

Hey, Thats Me !!!!

The World is Round

Well, the current best seller by Thomas Friedman goes by the title " The World is Flat". It talks about how the whole world has been flattened and driven by economic considerations. According to it, globalisation is all about procuring inputs at the cheapest location, adding value at the optimum location and selling it in the market which fetches the highest price for the good/service.

According to me, "the world is round " if you look at it in another way. Let me explain.. Consider a very poor person who doesnt have a place to call his own and he's sleeping on pavements. Typically, you would expect him to wear tattered clothes or may his poverty is bad enough to keep him exposed to the vagaries of nature.

Assume, that this person decides to work hard in life and progresses to a decent standard of living. Now, he's in a position to wear good clothes and make himself presentable. Assume that through a stroke of luck, say a lottery, this guy becomes a billionaire. Now, what does he wear !!!! Well, the surprising answer is " Nothing again " ...
Well, now, wearing nothing when you are a billionaire is fashion. Clothes made by designers are meant to expose flesh as much as possible becoz flesh sells.. So, this person, who wants to show the world that he has "ARRIVED", wears designer/fashion wear or rather to put it more aptly " does not wear anything " which is what he did when he was a beggar.
That completes the lifecycle of clothes. Looking it this way, we can say the world is ROUND. What one does when one is very poor is what he/she does when they become very rich...

Society and Values

Would like to compare the value system of India and US.

Back home in India, people are close and family oriented, yes things are changing nowadays, but India does have that concept of one person supporting others in the family. But how about the case of getting close to unknown people, Hmmm.. Thats still a taboo. We have unknown mental blocks and we build walls and fortresses within which we will not allow that stranger to enter, be it a mental, physical or emotional space. People are also not very comfortable trusting a stranger since there is a struggle for basic survival. So, in a dog eat dog world where competition kills, there is no concept of helping one another.

In case of US, the concept of being together in a well knit family is totally unheard of, people occassionaly get together maybe for Christmas or certain other pre-planned get-togethers. People are more independent and learn to live the hard way. But when it comes to believing and interacting with strangers, there is a high degree of trust. Why ??, I guess, here survival is taken for granted and so, people dont have to fight with each other for trivial issues. So, that indirectly gives a kind of cover or reassurance which makes people to be more frank and open.