Get out of that box !!

"The heat that you face when you are out of your comfort zone is from the fire that will be required to melt the tar used to lay the road for your journey ahead."

I admit, like many people who blog, even I crave for a rock star starting for each of my blog posts. I do not get them often but I realize that most of the times that I do get it right, is when I am truly inspired to write. This captures a part of what I am going to write.

I have just finished reading one of the best interviews I have come across in recent times - Brad Bird's interview in McKinsey Quarterly. I am, in general, wary of interviews on business / finance / economics / strategy / innovation websites. They tend to get the point across by using a lot of jargon. One thing that attracted me to this one was that it was the Director of Pixar - an organization respected for its creativity - talking.

I would recommend everyone to read this interview. A few highlights:

1. Brad uses very simple language - almost zero jargon and speaks from rich experience.
2. He is a director at Pixar - a part management and fully innovation oriented position. A lot of stress is laid on human side of affairs as compared to hard statistics.
3. Recommends the 'malcontents' in a an organization - people who think differently are, many a times, the ones who find the solution to difficult problems - the jargon is destructive innovation.
4. Points out that complacency should be kept at bay
5. Stresses the need to get everyone to speak their mind.
6. If you are a leader in a field, it is your duty to NOT to play it safe.
7. The best people are those who never tire of learning and improvising

He quotes Walt Disney "I do not make movies to make money - I make money to make movies". A good collection of anecdotes too. Must read it.

Routine Checking

I was looking for a topic for this post when I saw this program on Sony Pix - it was about the shooting of a short film. The film showed two constables "randomly" checking baggage on a train. During this they search a middle aged man, a woman in a burqa (veil worn by Muslim women) and finally a young man. Once the checking is completed, the young man expresses his surprise to his co-passenger, who is reading a newspaper, "It cannot be a coincidence. My baggage gets checked everytime I travel". The man says "It is not a coincidence. You are a Muslim". "But it is not written on my face that I am a Muslim", counters the young man. "No, it is not written on your face. But it is written on the reservation chart and the constables carry a copy of it". The film ends with a constable reading a marked seat number from a list and checking the baggage, calling it "Routine Checking". I would have liked you to watch the video but I was not able to find it on the net - so had to write a transcript here. Anyway, the name of the film is "Routine Checking" and so is the topic of this post.

I got to know about this incident when I came home to Mumbai this time. It happened in the apartment where we too own a flat. Another owner had let his flat out on rent. When this family - husband, wife and small kid - tried to move into the flat at night, they were stopped at the apartment gates itself. The persons stopping them were two other flat owners. Their reason - We will not allow a Muslim family to live in our apartments. Yes! I was quite taken aback at listening to this piece of reasoning and so would any person who lives in a relatively isolated, or shall I say secure, part of the society. This stand off continued into the night and the child had to sleep in a shop owned by another flat owner. Finally the person renting out the flat called the police at around 2 o clock. The police was able to ensure that the family gets into their house. The police can enforce, but, only the law and not mindsets. One of the days, the small child strayed indvertently into a neighour's house and get a beating a return. I am sure there must have been other smaller incidents - with two hostile neighbours that is only to be expected. The Muslim family finally relented and vacated the house within 10 days.

This incident leaves me in shame. It also leaves me thinking on the kind of area we have bought a flat in. What are the traits of persons who perpetrate such kind of incidents? Why do such things almost always happen in a particular part of the city? Is there any study which co-relates the people, their mindset and the area they live in?

The Doppler Effect of Life

It has been a very long break from blogging - well, very long by Web (read Web 2.0 ) standards. Reasons could be many. No topic worth writing about - though, as I will tell you further on, a lot has happened during this break. Writer's block - though, I do not think I have reached a stage of creativity where I face that kind of predicament. Busy schedule, though I would like to believe this to be the reason, I believe even more in the fact that irrespective of the time at your disposal you can always find time to do something you really want to. That's the reason I was able to make two great trips in a span of 4 months. Plain laziness -now this seems to be the most plausible and digestible of all reasons and I will go with it.

So what do I talk about in this "come-back" blog post of mine. Before that, as promised, let me tell you things of reader's interest that have happened during this sabbatical that I took from writing. My nephew has been growing like the proverbial beanstalk (from Jack and the Beanstalk), I worked like a ?????? (please fill in the term that you deem fit) for close to 2 months, went on trips to North India twice (Hardwar/Rishikesh/Dehradun and Vaishnodevi/Patnitop), bought a refrigerator and a laptop (amusing to see that prices are inversely proportional to the size - at least when I see these two things), getting tantalizingly close to being married. I am sure I am forgetting the more interesting ones - but then what are the edit modes in blogger for?

Down to the topic of my post. I think I was struck with this analogue when I was traveling this time to Mumbai. I was seeing "Jab We Met" for the fourth time - a clear indication that this movie is a favorite on the air-conditioned bus circuit - I remember seeing it when traveling from Chandigarh to Delhi. Somehow, I really like the movie - has some good points too, for the ones who are on the lookout for lessons.

Back to the topic ;-)

Problems and Life are analogous to the Train and Man on Railway Platform example used while explaining Doppler effect.

As a source of sound (train) comes close to the receiver (man on railway platform) the pitch of the sound increases, peaks when the source coincides with the receiver and then recedes as the source moves away from the receiver.

Similar is the case with problems in life. When they are far away - that is, when they are too small to warrant attention - they do not bother us. When these problems coincide with our present - they manifest themselves as unsurmountable and unsolvable, resulting in a lot of anxiety and heartburn. Then, as these problems slowly fade away and join their ilk in our past, we laugh at ourselves in amusement. We find it hard to believe that something like this could affect our lives. While we are laughing at ourselves for problems that bugged us in the past, we brush the, as yet, unimportant ones under the carpet and grapple with the, current, seemingly unsurmountable, problems.

In XII standard, getting a bike was THE issue at hand. After XII, IIT-JEE was the issue. During college, getting a girl was THE issue. After college, getting a job was THE issue. During job, preparing for the daily status meeting was THE issue. Career has always been THE issue. Marriage is THE current issue. IIM-CAT was an issue for a long time. Then it was GMAT - now it is admissions for MBA.

This cycle of life goes on until you face the unsurmountable truth - Death. All your problems which haven't been relegated to the past, either get passed on to someone else or get lost in the crowd of problems looking for another carrier.