Ye Zaroori to nahi...

Ye Zaroori to nahi...

Here's one of my favourite Urdu Ghazals. Although the shers don't gel very nicely with each other, each sher is a gem in its own right. I have tried my best to translate the couplets in English without causing too much loss in translation.

Zindagi sab ko mili ho ye zaroori to nahi
Aag chaman mein bahaaren bhi laga sakti hain
Kahin bijli hi giri ho ye zaroori to nahi
(Its not necessary that everybody has got a good life
Even spring can burn down the garden
Its not necessary that the lightning has struck)

Umr jalwon mein basar ho yeh zaroori toh nahi
har shab-e-gham ki sehar ho yeh zaroori toh nahi
(Its not necessary that one's whole life is spent in the company of beautiful people
Its not necessary that every night of despair ends in a morning of happiness)

Aag ko khel patangon ne samajh rakha hai
Sabko anjaam ka dar ho ye zaroori to nahi
(The moths cosider playing with fire as a game
Its not necessary that everybody is afraid of the consequences)

Neend toh dard ke bistar pe bhi aa sakti hai
unki aaghosh mein sar ho yeh zaroori toh nahi
(One can sleep on a bed of rocks too
Its not necessary that my head is in the lap of my beloved)

Sabki saaki pe nazar ho yeh zaroori hai magar
Sab pe saaki ki nazar ho yeh zaroori to nahi
(Its necessary that everyone is looking at the bartender (object of desire!)
Its not necessary that the bartender is looking at every one)

Sheikh karta toh hai masjid mein khuda ko sajde
Uske sajdon mein asar ho yeh zaroori toh nahi
(The priest prays to God in the mosque
Its not necessary that his prayers will come true)

Aap roye meri mayyat mein itna kaafi hai
Sabki aankhon mein namee ho ye zaroori to nahi
(I am content that you cried at my funeral
Its not necessary that everyone has tears in their eyes)

Courtesy: Some good humanbeing on Indiatimes.

A letter from a friend

Dear Shobhit Bhai,
After speaking to you in the night, I was thinking about somethings in spirituality and my mind struck upon some thoughts which I have written in this article. As I told you that I have been in this spiritual frame of mind since I have been listening to Bhagvat from past one week, I have been getting some really nice thoughts on the essence of life.

I have attached the article file in this mail. Kindly go through it in your free time and let me know your views. Also let me know if I am on the right path.

Best Regards,
Rahul.

The Article

The Essence of Life

The mathematical representation of a seemingly and endlessly large quantity is Infinity. The symbol of Infinity is . If we rotate this symbol clockwise or anticlockwise by holding its sides, we get O, which is nothing but Zero in mathematics. Conversely, when the symbol O is rotated clockwise or anticlockwise by holding its opposite sides anywhere on its perimeter, it gives us . The Universe is infinite in all directions. If this symbol O is twisted along its diameter in every plane and every axis, we get , which is what Universe seems to be.

Infinity is a quantifiable representation used for mathematical analysis. But the core of this Infinity is actually Zero. When so is the case, then, certain important concepts become meaningless. A scale of O to  represents distance. When the core of  is O, then the question of Distance or Space doesn’t arise. This implies that Speed ceases to exist and finally the biggest of them all, Time, ceases to exist. The core of the Universe is Zero and it is Timeless.

“Akaal Aur Nirantar”

The symbol O is a circle. The characteristic of a circle is that it doesn’t have any beginning nor does it have any end. Anything arising from this would also have the same characteristic. Infinity represents this quality of Zero. The Universe is represented by Infinity and it also has the characteristic of the symbol O. The Universe has no beginning and nor does it have any end.

“Na Aadi … Naa Anth”

The intrinsic quality of Infinity is Illusion. The Universe seems to have an end, but it doesn’t. The Horizon seems to have an end, but it doesn’t. This is the basic quality of Illusion and this is Maya. We lead our lives in this imaginary Illusion called Maya. Our worlds, our lives, our happiness, our sorrows, our problems, all revolve in this seemingly endless Universe of Maya.
The more outward we look for our happiness and peace, the more we actually start going towards Infinity and in turn go deeper into Maya. This perception of looking outwards for fulfilling our needs is the cause of all our problems. Maya is Beautiful and Addictive. This negative quality of Maya attracts us and makes us justify our path towards misery.

Our Vedas asked us to look inwards for seeking happiness and peace. They asked us to put barriers in the path of Maya and limit ourselves within them, to decrease our misery. This is the concept of Contentment. As you approach from Infinity to Zero, the numbers decrease. On the path towards Zero, we give away things and become content with what we have. We become austere and our life becomes simpler. This is the concept of Detachment or “Tyaag”.

Once we Detach from the worldly affairs, we enter the world of Self. We train our Mind to control our Body and disconnect with the “Indriyaas”. Our Intellect trains our Mind to control our thoughts. Our Soul triggers our Intellect to start this chain of control.

Our Soul starts to acquire full control over our Intellect, Mind and Body. We become Still. Everything Stops. There is Nothing more. This is the state of Zero. Everything ceases to exist. There is no beyond. We reach the core of the Universe. The core, which is the Source and the Destination. This is the ultimate truth. This is the Essence of Life.

“Param Satya … Param Aatma … Shoonya”

A Confession

Yes, I need to confess and not to anyone but myself that I did not start blogging to share my knowledge on subjects that will matter to most of the people on their professional front. Not to share my knowledge but feelings..the way I look at the world, society people around me. Wanted to freeze my feelings in this frame of time so that when I look back I can see the changes I have gone through. The requisite of writing something practical, something that should should be of some value to someone has kept me on hold. But now I shall write and write on what I feel on Hindu philosophy, Stephen Hawking and black holes, why caste system was a beautiful framework?, what power means to me? why Indian youth is misunderstood? and many more questions that triggered a thought...

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No Smoking

Why am I writing anything on No Smoking? The other day I was watching a news channel(English) and one analyst was putting her views and rating the just released movie No Smoking . She was searching for a number to rate between 0 to -10 and that made me curious so, on Saturday evening I saw much talked about movie (although with a horrible review) of well known director Anurag Kashyap and I couldn't resist myself writing about it. I would say the movie was excellent and it was a sincere attempt by the director to achieve what nobody has tried yet in Bollywood. It has less to do with smoking and more with John's arrogant and self centric character. One can replace habit of smoking with anyother obsession and make this movie. What went wrong? I think it was difficult for Indian public to digest the concept that a gate to Pataal lok can be through Dharavi(Asia's biggest slum area) but easier for hollywood viewer to accept that Angles and Demons wearing black corporate suits in Constantine. One need to take similar level of pains in understanding No Smoking as for Fight Club. The movie is far before its time with respect to the kind of public that provide hit status to a movie and hence it lacks business sense. But sometimes we have to put that business sense aside to pursue what we want to do. I like the bit when John chose life(jumping in bath tub) over a pack of cigarette but still din't get through because one need to pay for what he has already done.

I know this post is as difficult to understand as the movie itself but it is all about mind games.

Risky Business

Risk is a fact of business life. A big chunk of Companies' major responsibility of creating profits and shareholder value is occupied by taking and managing Risk. But current situation suggests that many companies neither manage risk well nor understand the risk they are taking.

The unfamiliarity of top management with Risk management is depicted by their handed down habit of focusing on simple performance metrics such as earning per share, net income or growth expectation on stock indices. Hence top management oversighting risk management and not integrating risk management into day to day decision making creates the greatest problems like unexpected and severe financial losses which results in volatile cash flows and stock prices and ultimately a bad reputation with customers, investors and employees.

"Risk" when undertaken creates shareholder value.Therefore, right strategy is to strike a balance that protects the company from financial distress and allowing space for entrepreneurship. Decisions consciously weighed against the risk, results in high returns. High returns here means the level of risk-adjusted returns with respect to risk undertaken.
And moreover companies can not only be safe but enjoys a competitive advantage that comes from taking on more risk more safely.

To understand risk and knowing what type of risk the company is facing is an important step of risk management. For a company risk can be put into four main catagories. first one is the Market risk that is adverse market price movements. second is the Credit risk where there is a possibility that borrower or counterparty might fail to honor its contractual obligations. Third type of risk is operational risk. It is an exposure to losses due to inadequate internal
processes and systems and to external events. And finally, Business-volume risk that is generated from changes in demand or supply or from competition and results in revenue volatility.

Brand Recall

Tiger Woods swings his club to be at Par and here appears the name “Accenture” or the red cloth goes off without revealing the object inside and appears a tagline “What makes you special?” for IBM Global Services, another is HSBC Gobal Solutions for that matter. Difficult to understand for a normal person sitting in front of TV what does these companies do? And so is for us.

They sell neither car nor mobiles and they are connected to the general public only in indirect ways. Their single deal goes in millions of dollars. Here I am talking about companies who provide consulting services or others into outsourcing and off-shoring. Why their advertisements appears on television as most of the viewers have nothing to do with their businesses.

The answer lies in the term BRAND RECALL. Brand Recall is the extent, to which a brand name is recalled as a member of a brand, product or service class. Common market research usage is that pure brand recall requires "unaided recall". For example a respondent may be asked to recall the names of any cars he may know, or any whisky brands he may know.

Some researchers divide recall into both "unaided" and "aided" recall. "Aided recall" measures the extent to which a brand name is remembered when the actual brand name is prompted. An example of such a question is "Do you know of the "Honda" brand?"

In terms of brand exposure, companies want to look for high levels of unaided recall in relation to their competitors. The first recalled brand name (often called "top of mind") has a distinct competitive advantage in brand space, as it has the first chance of evaluation for purchase.

TCS is looking forward to project its image of biggest Indian IT Company to overtake Infosys whose brand recall tops the list among Indian players. And what about HCL whose ad has beautifully left its mark on our mind?