My First Baby

This is how it started, like most interesting things in my life-With me scratching my head and asking myself...Whaaaaaaaaaaat????

1st Q- What is the one thing that makes our home unique to any other place?? .....

Ans- A place to sit back and relax.....

2nd Q- What can I gift my brother

to tell him he is special?? .....

Ans- Nothing but the best whatever it takes!!!!

Two questions and their two obvious answers took me through one

rocking experience-

Building a Chair from scratch.......

A few more scratches on my head later I realised!!!!! , I knew nothing

about woodwork, knew nobody who knew about woodwork, knew

nothing about the time and efforts it would take, nothing about the costs

involved, nothing, nothing, nothing & some more nothings. The one thing I knew was the answer to my second question supported by the answer to my first question.

A plunge into the project, some expenses and some wood pieces later I was sitting with Chacha ( an awesome carpenter) at his furniture shop. Chacha was too sweet to allow me along with my army of friends and relatives into his shop and work as if it was our own. Chacha was a tough boss....I guess, he too wanted us to build nothing but the best. He encouraged and pushed us to give the best finishing to our work even when we were crying that we are tired.

Every day I had to decide what materials I would use to look like, apparently every idea in my head made life difficult for Chacha as he had to think about ways to make my ideas fly. And fly it did when we figured out & agreed a way to use shattered mirror glass for the finishing...the idea was brilliant and mirrored my idea perfectly...now I was happy.

Chacha’s shop was at the main road and for 1 month nobody known to me travelling back from work would miss seeing me sitting on the floor of the shop with all the dust happily cutting and polishing wood when they would be expecting me to be at home chopping vegetables and dressing the evening salad.....but nothing worried me... cause for a change...I WAS HAPPY

My chair making project was a talk of the town with all my friends and relatives. They all came...and how they came :) ...to click pictures...to help me...even if for a day...loved it. My joy knew no bounds when my all time hero, Papa came to help me. It is amazing how he is there for me every time I need him.

My brother got the best he deserved, the best pair of chairs in the world and I had the best time possible surrounded by family and friends. :)

And above all this I would love to tell you that without Rakesh my chairs wouldn’t have been the same!! And I would not like to spoil it by thanking him!!!

Leisure and Human Costs

Leisure and Human Costs

On Wednesday afternoon, 24th of September 2009, as I was snoozing over my Macroeconomic theories, this topic worked like an alarm clock!!!

Leisure and Human Costs

According to Simon Kuznets, the inventor of Gross National Product, the failure to fully include leisure and human costs is one of the grave oddities of National Income accounting. National Income accounts exclude an unavoidable commodity that is valuable to everybody - 'leisure'. He also goes on to say that national product fails to take into account for the mental and physical stress due to a job.

What Guru Simon says cannot be more logical than the day and night theory. Now you know why our earth is tilted!!! It’s only as tilted as our logic is and so are our priorities too - which is why our road to happiness is. As we wind up in our offices to solve the problems of our director's company we exhaust ourselves of thinking straight beyond a point. We have the gift of thinking out of the box. This gift finds clones after a few years of sharing the same walls, pens, computers, aims, lunches, boyfriends thus 'problems' with all the others on your floor - which is why recruitments take place round the year - cause when you are in the box u cant bring much to the table. Now you know why recruitments take place through the year. The company grows but your pay check does not grow in the same proportion. Economics in this case gives way....

Moral of the story - Companies should give each of the employees paid hobby time and leisure hours. And more than that express and verbalize the importance of 'Leisure'. This leisure time does not include time off for marriage, paternity, death of a family member or heath issues. It includes time out - to unwind - And the BIG CEOs AND MDs will find that the Average Rewards of leisure’s will outdo the Average Costs. Leisure should now be legally included as a part of National Income' And a lot of economic theories will have to factor in a new 'multiplier' - the L factor.

MP = f (Leisure + Work)

Hail Simon!!!

Tao of Pooh……doodle doodle dooooo!!!!!!!!!

And here I finish the last letter of the book ‘ Tao of Pooh’ by BENJAMIN HOFF ….. Happy it has ended finely cauz I loved it…. I know you read that as ‘finally’!!!

The most light book… i.e. the most uplifting book ever!!! Pooh is a cool dude man!!! And I am glad I will keep bumping into him whenever I feel like a kid!!!

I don’t want to spoil the fun of the book so I’ll quote Pooh’s original work!!! U cant believe what this bear can do!! For u to catch up …..‘The Way’ is ‘The Tao way’ which is ‘To be’

Now then…..( erhum)…….

“ To know the Way,

We go the Way;

We do the Way

The way we do

The things we do.

It’s all there in front of you,

But if you try to hard to see it,

You’ll only become confused.

I am me

And you are you

As you can see;

But when you do

The things that you can do,

You will find the Way,

And the Way will follow you.

- Pooh

until we meet again.................. bye bye!

Hey, sharing with you what Pooja and I created for our Poonam.

Poonam is obsessed with earings and thats the only jewellery she owns......so here's a vintage style jewellery box almost her own size that is custom made for her life's possessions!!!!

:)

Plain as white. Beautiful as the sky. Pink as a puppy. Red as earth. All encompassing as the sea. New as an idea.
In this lies energy.

Charm in science. Vast as geography. Animated as dreams. Realized as a saint. Belief in God.
In this lies purpose

Lightning in the black. Blind as faith. Spoken word of eyes. In the air.
In this lies life bearing principle.

Depth of a mountain. Moment of success. Feeling of failure.
In this is meaning.

Bush all mighty?

Today, our minds are whizzing- all charged up, with a deep desire to make a change (any change), to set other people right, to put the country on the “Right track”. A debate on the country will sound us the demerits of Gandhiji’s brutal non-violence and pat the British back for the Victoria terminus and the Rajabhai Tower.
But what we do not realize is that we have paid a price of 200 years of slavery and a lot of wealth for the stone structures. Given the time, India would have given more wonders to the world.

So are we repeating history?
Today the Indo- US alliance is one that calls for attention. It has attracted both ‘for’ and ‘against’, from Indians, with equal might –(the right proportion for the country as a whole!)

Signing the alliance will surely put us on the fast track of development yet we need to be “ALERT”- to the insecurity of the politically and monetarily mighty AMERICA.
American welfare has always been treated as a global issue. The hungry and underprivileged nations too stand up to fight for American welfare. America lives each moment with a gun in hand and money in its pocket (to oblige nations).
It’s the Fear Factor.

If there is economic development in China, America becomes insecure, if Africa or Vietnam gets politically stable America becomes insecure, if India develops faster than America, Pakistan gets armed (with American fear and guns), if Russia forms alliances, America runs helter- skelter for its own alliances.

Such is the ingrained nature of our dear friend. All of America voted against Bush (after the attack on Iraq) until the elections. An entire envelope of fear of attack was well planned and disseminated only months before the election. And on this public emotional breakdown thrives the Government of America.

So joining hands with this socially responsible and politically correct country is going to be a task for us. And mind you, not just the responsibility of Mr. Shyam Sharan (Foreign secretary) and Dr. Manmohan Singh. It is our task too, to be AWARE. So how do we execute our responsibility? By getting down on the streets with posters? Or by joining politics? By being a part of a social organization or by preaching?

None of the above is required. What is required of us is to be AWARE, to have an opinion (not because it is preached by Rahul Gandhi or Milind Deora) but because we understand the situation. Because You believe in clarity of your thought and your responsibility to decide. Start not with bringing changes around you but with changes in you – and this will give the strength of belief to your opinion.

Read and know more. When you listen to speeches read between the lines, know where it is coming from. Read facts not opinions. Just because their speeches are fiery and their voice is loud does not mean that they are more correct. A critical; appreciation of their opinion is required.

Only when your opinion is founded on knowledge will it carry any weightage and only then will it offer a solution.
Give yourself an opportunity to think- to decide. Have YOUR OWN assessment and OPINION- and the rest will follow.

What Matters??

If people do not matter, the life of those on the road does not matter, the conductor and the driver of the bus I travel in do not matter, then what matters? The financial crunch of BMC does not matter, the corruption in politics does not matter, the loss of green does not matter, then what matters? The garbage on the street does not matter, the millions of heads running do not matter, the guilt of doing something wrong doesnot matter then what matters? If the distress of my colleagues doesnot matter, the profit of my company does not matter, loyalty doesnot matter, then what matters, If the headlines do not matter, the need for AB positive does not matter, emotions do not matter then what matters?

The most common answer is “I”, but who am I? If I am so pre occupied with me that nothing else matters then why can’t I answer this question. There surely is something else that matters……...

My horoscope has brought me here today!
Says its time to get creative!! Printing my thoughts today!! Saw Kharashen yesterday ... 5th Nov 06, it was a beautiful play. And I would like to watch it again. Pure Hindi sounded unfamiliar to the ears yet let me feel at home. It was their way of paying respect to the language. Each one of the actors was immersed in the role ... they created a world of their own which existed at a radius of 7 feet around them involving 150 other minds and hearts. What was the least prominent, yet what kept the show going was the passion with which it was created and performed. And that is a partial answer to my question.