Frantic Dilemma

“To acquire balance means to achieve that happy medium between the minimum and the maximum that represents your optimum. The minimum is the least you can get by with. The maximum is the most you're capable of. The optimum is the amount or degree of anything that is most favorable toward the ends you desire.” -- Nido Qubein.

But how do I know what’s my maximum? Do I have to push down myself to the limit until I break down to realize my potential? What if I cannot get up again? Or even if I do strive out to find my best, what if it’s not good enough? How can I just pull out at the last moment when I’m going full-speed and can’t stop myself from crashing? Is staying in my cocoon and being safe is better or risking out everything my only chance?

People I’ve heard talking out about balancing life and work are the usual out-of-the-mill types. Though they’ve done better than their peers and risen in rank, it’s mostly just because they’ve done more than others around them to make them stand out. Well, at this point you might be thinking isn’t this blog about ‘balancing’ the whole crap and not hitting either extremes. Well, it’s not! Or maybe it is, for me whose life seems to be about hitting extremes of late. There are those bursts of energy in me which keeps me from collapsing even when I know I’ve burnt all the fuel and now I’m running on reserves. Do I wait until I burn it all or wait to catch my breath? Wouldn’t life by then have moved farther away and all the work done by me to catch up with it is all futile? And from where do I gather the force to decelerate myself at this speed? It’s like riding a bike full speed, downhill and realizing you don’t have brakes on. Do I jump off and be content with couple of bruises than being a total wreck, or do I cling onto it hoping to be able to steer and control even at speeds I’ve never been on before? What if an angel is watching over me and I might get away with it safely? What if there’s not? Is it my destiny to see to it till the end or to crash and burn and never get up?

Why I fret so much about it when I can lead a normal, day-to-day life like everyone else? Well, you’ve answered it yourself. I’m not your regular just another kid on the block. Most of us have a vision and are the hunger to achieve it. Let’s just say that right now my vision is to have a vision and my hunger for its fulfillment is insatiable.

Whether the attitudes that I have are parasitic or symbiotic, I still have to figure out and it’s still a long way downhill with lots of time before I decide to bail out.

yours truly,
A messed-up mind

The Mood Pendulum and the Theory of Relativity

(This document is marked as work in progress (W.I.P.) and is a draft version 0.1)
The thing about mood swings is that we men do not have the same biological frame of reference of those of women and hence, we fail to hold any empathy to what they’re going through.

Okay, we might be able to get it that it’s one of the days when nothing’s going right for you girls. But often have we not tried and though failed every time to try in to please you pretty girls? It’s not that we’re indifferent in any way – it’s just that, what’s the point? No matter what we do, we get it wrong. And to top it up, either our efforts go unnoticed or we get condemned to the depths of frustration with the acrid sarcastic feedback that they (our efforts) aren’t enough.

I am sure than many resourceful and geniuses have spent quite of their time on trying to work out a plan around the swings. I’ve tried to capture quantative as well as qualitative data of many of my good friends to try and find the dimmest glimmer of hope of finding a predictable pattern in the realms of mood swings. But even after days, weeks and months of observation I’ve gained no ground. Not on any two days have any two moods been repeated in the same manner than before. And there is absolutely no defined time-interval indicating the next mood swing. Nor have I been able to notice any sociological, facial or body language change which would indicating us men that the next mood swing is in progress. In fact, the mood swings have happened over such short intervals that I’m not even sure I can even measure the time period.

When Einstein came up with the theory of general relativity, and predicted that nothing can move faster than the speed of light, I’m sure he hadn’t considered the moods of a lady. To quote an illustration from theory of relativity, Einstein said that in our world where everything has a speed lesser than that of light we have the cause and effect. This means that one has to shoot a gun before the bird dies. This is what happens in our 'normal' world. He speculated though in a world in a parallel universe where there are things moving faster than the speed of light there would be an effect and then a cause, which considering our previous example would mean the bird would die before the gun is fired – or in other words, the gun was fired because the bird died. Now over many years of experience of co-existing with the fair members of homo-sapiens, I’ve noticed many a times that the Effect almost invariably precedes the cause! Something happens first and you get blamed for it. So much for parallel universe and theory of relativity.

While I mull more over the thought (and I should be because it is believed that anything which does not verify the theory of relativity is wrong), I may be able to apply theory of relativity over our little problem if I make certain assumptions and approximations and consider certain paradoxes – but the only conclusion I’ve been able to come to is that either the theory of relativity has an exception (which is a dreadful thought) unless we consider the metaphorical reference to our medieval literature and assume that a woman holds a universe in herself. This will explain the effect and cause scenario and if we consider the individuality or every woman to be different, it may even explain the unique ‘mood swingness’ among women. It does have some certain flaws like the existence of a universe within a universe and other non-trivial singularities. Otherwise, another assumption can be made that women are aliens who’ve come from a parallel universe whose space-time continuum is entirely different from ours and the observations made in one universe do not hold any consequential relevance in the other. This may even explain the fact, that why we men are never been able to understand women. But it may also indicate that we men are under attack by aliens from other universe wanting world domination and us surrendering into complete slavery with no freedom of action or thought.
(I am also trying to come up with a nomenclature to identify the universe within a lady. The conventional method of identifying a lady and communicating within other fellow men for further observation is something like “36-26-36-red skimpy dress-located 9 O’clock”. Most of the men can easily aware of these universal conventions. Women on the other hand, do not bother yourselves with it please. Like I earlier said, any observations made in our universe are of non consequential relevance in your universe and any attempt to comprehend it will lead you to interpret out intentions with disastrously wrong results! )

Being low on resources and of limited social acceptance in the world of our friends from the ‘other universe’, my research has to go a long way. It is but very imperitive though that this crucial work must continue for the sake of happiness of ‘mankind’. Because as of now, irrespective of whether we’re the ones incapable of understanding them or they failing to realize that we don’t ‘get it’, we men, are always the victims. So much for Gender equality!!

Something About Friends – A prelude to a long story

Friendship they say can show many colors. Men, on one hand treat friendship like football kicking it around and there never will be cracks. On the other hand, Women treat friendship as a delicate piece of glass and it often shatters. Even so, one has to wonder why two friends part ways and more so on a bitter note.
I’ve had friends of sorts like most of us. We’ve had childhood friends, friends in school. Then we meet new people and make friends when we’re in college. We find colleagues who are our friends and friends who’ve become colleagues now. In this crowd of acquaintances, there will be few in front of whom we can think aloud without feeling stupid. To them one can tell one’s deepest desire and despair and not feel haunted anymore. But then best friends have known to be one’s nemesis too. Remember Julius Cesar and Brutus? Brutus always was able to justify his action in the name of greater good and well being of his compatriots. But can we all do the same when we’ve betrayed our friends for our own selfish needs? Not always.
But then what is an act of betrayal and what might be an act of treating your priority and individuality and desires above those of others (especially friends) for your own good?
Love they say happens only once and you should let nothing come in between you and your love. But what happens when you and your best friend are in love with the same person? Or say you and your friend are both fighting for the same dream job you’ve always wanted? Talking more extremely, what happens when you and your friend find each other on the opposite sides in a war? Who will make the sacrifice and who will triumph? Will beating your friend in a race or such situations be called an act of betrayal? On might argue that all the above illustrations wouldn’t be comparing apples to apples. Fighting the war is your duty and for the job is professional competition. But is it still when you know taking a shot a second late deliberately will get you killed but might save your friend. Not taking an interview will get your friend a job and may leave you unemployed and missing a date can leave you without love and very lonely for the rest of your life? It is here where I’ve always thought that a metaphorical reference to the Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest” suits best.As a social animal in today’s aggressive society one has to compete and conquer and run a race against many other alike us. So why is it get different when the guy you’re competing is a friend? Perhaps, in a perfect world one would never cross path with his friends but in this real sad world there’s just one spot on the top you can let a friend have it or it could be you. No worries.

Designer Collection, NIFT Bangalore 2008

Having a lot of friends in the Fashion and apparel industry, I’ve had more than one chance to interact with the more glittering side of our world. Though not an artist myself and never a genius in recognizing art, I still somehow find the glamorous world of fashion intriguing and interesting. And now I am much drawn to it after last night. Apart from Pretty faces and scintillating beauties walking the ramp, I for once understood that creativity can inspiration can come from anywhere and in any form. Colors wrapped in satin and silk, blended with themes reflecting on remote regions of the world to the more environmentally aware I saw that the youth isn’t just about looking pretty anymore or myopic in its local society. These young aspiring designers and to be famous designers of tomorrow showed and indicated that one has to be aware of a world beyond their neighborhood and to be looked upon in a global and more importantly responsible progress, which sometimes can mean retracing the steps we’ve taken so far.