Outer Orbit

random thoughts in an overworked mind that is neither limited by imagination nor bound by logic: liberating the veiled feelings and limitless emotions.

[rajeshsound]

Bye bye #Hyderabad #charminar chai stop. #RaViKIAA2018RoadTrip #PenguinDads #Mega10000KMConquest #NEChronicles #BhutanChronicles #CentralCorridor

[rajeshsound]

Loving @StrongVPN

Guys, Many of you have been talking about how pained you are when you are not able to use many US services especially video and music from US.

We all have gadgets and subscriptions, but then the country is not being served. So I decided to put this entire thing to rest with a permanent solution.

After analysis of many many VPN service providers, I have been using @StrongVPN for over two years. This has been the most fantastic VPN service I have used. I used it in Singapore and now in India. Kudos Strong VPN​.

Their service is awesome and that is what I love the most. The speeds and connectivity etc. are very good, but what differentiates is their service.

Check it out!

[rajeshsound]

Death and Freedom

Waking up to a forlorn morning,

Wee-hours before the sun peeped

An aching heart yearned for peace

Abandoned, she started her quest.

  Her teary eyes looked dark skyward

Stars ceased their twinkle

The breeze halted its drift

And waves stood still.

  Long lost in the black reflection of self

Life became a meaning less chore

Sans trepidation, sans tranquillity, sans direction,

Yet, the longing self-found solace.

  With a renewed sense of freedom

An over powering thought

Pulled her into to that vortex

Of that murky unknown

  At that very moment

And with that new sense of calm

A giant wave came by

That erased her desire to live, forever.

*

[rajeshsound]

My Best Pongal-O-Pongal

  This was a weekend of sorts,

Spent in Chinnankuppam, a small village of 2000,

In the interiors of rural Tamilnadu.

  Without a phone, iPad or a DSLR, by choice,

For, distractions I didn’t want any,

To admiring the rustic beauty that were many.

  Waking up to a dawn of a zillion chirping birds,

Only to be interjected by crow of a rooster,

Immersed in the perfect round glow of sunrise on a chilly morning.

  “Vanakkan Aiyya” chants every passing villager on those long leisurely strolls,

The narrow mud pathways, surrounded by harvest-ready lush green paddy fields on both sides,

Only interrupted by a tall sugarcane crop or two or rows of beautiful turmeric plants.

  Heightened senses, with the distant hum of a water pump from some well afar,

And the dry smell of the just-ploughed earth,

The uneven feel of the mud on you bare feet.

  Watching our kids run and play with the kids (goat),

And the lovely cows with painted horns and jewellery that befits a bride,

Or the quack of ducks as they swim gracefully in the pond.

  A walk into the clean village school and its minimalistic classrooms,

The artwork filled walls lucidly explain the world of science and heritage,

A neatly organized teacher’s lectern with a chalk box and a ‘duster’ and a cane.

  It was a fun-ride on the rickety 30 year old TVS50,

As we meandered the village roads,

When smell of the crisp air and chilly wind hitting the face.

  There was entertainment and festivities around the ancient village temple,

The running commentary on the loudspeaker by the MC,

That doubled up as a ventriloquist and a stand-up comedian.

  Boys dressed in their over-sized half-pants and girls beautifully draped in paavadais,

Watching themplay the game of ‘catch-the-murukku’ or breaking the pot blind-folded,

Where the young and the old dance to the film music from yore of MGR to a Dhanush.

  Drunk in the pure, unadulterated hues on the evening sky against the crimson sunset,

As birds made their way back home, and so did the cows and the goats,

And we did retire at half-past-eight for a game of cards and a blissful sleep.

  Well, all that in in a day is a lot,

But then when there is no camera, iPhone or an iPad,

So you learn to live the moments for posterity.

  It was indeed a great pongal-o-pongal

[rajeshsound]

Children of Lesser God?

My dear child:

Till yesterday, dropping you at school was just one of those joyful things I did as parent. A customary bye and see you later, a kiss at best. With the knowledge that you will return enriched and well-nurtured after a good day.

But to think of the #PeshawarAttack writhes me (a millions of parents) with pain to no end.

What would those hundreds of parents be going through right now?

Does this give me, yet another reason to feel blessed and love and have faith in this world, for you came back home to share your day's joy.

Should I consider myself fortunate that you are back or unfortunate that we live in a world, where the other parent could not have the same joy?

Should I live with confidence that I am in a peaceful community or should I live with fear that terror has no borders?

Should I teach you to just love and be loved or should I prepare you for the darkest events unfolding in front of our eyes?

I am confused and clueless. I feel anger, anguish and blessed in equal measure.

How I can explain this such contradiction to you, I wonder.

Only time will tell, and time shall heal. Or will it? I have no answers and only He has them.

Till then, Dear Son, let us just believe that to love be loved is what right and these are aberrations and this too shall pass

  Love,

A confused Dad

#DedicatedToChildrenOfThisWorld #PeshawarAttack #16December2014 #ChildrenOfLesserGod

[rajeshsound]

Achieving a Zen state, amidst the clutter called India - my first 30 days

Almost a decade ago, June 17, 2005, exactly 30 days after I moved in to Singapore, I wrote about my settling-in titled Singapore – Can Lah. I had also written My India! on that very day.

Today, September 14, 2014, a month after we moved back to India, a decade later, here I am penning my first one month here. Apart from crisscrossing Bangalore, there was rail-journey to Chennai an 1800km drive on a Goa trip in this one month.

For a start, the core of My India! has not changed. It is the same country that I left a decade ago. I am going to highlight my six observations in this one month which may well be the change in perspective.

Corruption is over-rated: Well, I will talk of the only few experiences that I have had in the Government. I had heard a lot of cacophony about this outside India and I have still not experienced any (touchwood). There is that sense of (slow) speed, that I may not agree with, but by-and-large, clerks and officers were friendly and helpful. In my humble view, I think we citizens use systemic corruption as a punch-bag to hide our own degrading personal and societal value systems. Yes, corruption exists in the minds of people.

Discipline and Responsibility are best left to the Creator: Discipline? Being Responsible? What does that even mean? They are not a norm, and so be it. I wonder why we would even want to pain ourselves with discipline. It is best to go-with-the-flow. I am coming to terms with that many may not be held responsible as well. At a meta-physical level, as in the cosmic roll of dice, everything occurrence in this universe is a random probability. Or as most Indians phrase it, it is fate or destiny. And if God is responsible for making things happen and he is the one who maintains checks and balances, why should we live in the illusion that it is our responsibility and discipline that will change the world?

Everything is possible and miracles happen: Yes, you can get telephone or broadband in one day, admission into the school of your choice, clear your 20 foot container in a single day without paying a bribe, drive on the wrong side of the road and not meet with accident, have an electrician land up in 15 minutes after a call and the same person can prune that tree, unload a truck or clean the roof-top. All you needs is one or more of these– Money, Patience or Luck.

Extreme High Energy in people: The energy in people is just as high as it always and infectious. So is the highly inefficient use of that energy. How else would you explain 99 inbound calls from 24 people to just sell one $20 4G LTE connection? All I filled in on the Airtel website at 3am that was that I is interested in a home-broadband. Well obviously you have a choice to feel like a King, or be annoyed. I chose neither. I was observing the moment. 99 calls (6 visits to my house) just sell one $20 4G LTE connection is a lot of energy in the country and it is immense loss of productivity as well.

Inefficiency is good for GDP: Earlier, I would complain of inefficiency. But now I guess I am wiser to understand that such inefficiencies are built by purpose in Government and Private sector, by a repairman, by a auto-driver or a maid so that in so that the parallel economy runs well. Inefficiencies are the heart of GDP. In case of the above 4G LTE, imagine all the 99 calls + 6 visits and all the expenses towards that add to the GDP of the nation. It is very similar with domestic helps – what could be done by one in 4 hours by one Filipino worker in Singapore takes us 3 maids, 6 sessions to get the job done half-well? But then again as long as it is the norm, who is complaining?

Time is just an abstract concept, why fret? Yes, Time (IST) is just another number on the number line, better still it is an abstract concept. In Singapore, I was used to commitments like 27 minutes or meeting someone at 8:32. Here, in India we segment Time into nice larger chunks. ‘Come over for Lunch’ means somewhere between 11:30a-4:00pm or meet me after lunch means between 1230-530p. ‘I will meet you this week’, ‘You will receive this soon’ without any other commitment is just okay. Yes, really okay? I love this concept. Yes, and time also is just a concept. Why fret unnecessarily over something that adds stress. Imagine if one does not have a pressure of time ever ever ever, then there is 90% stress taken out.

I will stop it here for now and yes, I have made a choice to be in Rome, it is best to become a Roman. That way, one would achieve the Zen State and internal peace.

[rajeshsound]

#BollyLove Song - Creative Commons Lyrics

I was listening to some Bollywood channel and pretty much realised that the play of words with this will summarise 80% of the breakup songs in the movies. #CreativeCommons

Without you, my life is just a shattered glass

You are, my soul, my love

You and I are connected beyond time

And in one moment, you chose to snap it all

 I have lived for you, every moment

And given my everything, just for you

Without you even oxygen chokes my lungs

And I gasp for your love

Your love triggered my being

With you I crossing seven seas is a breeze

You are, my life, my reason

My love, my peace, my pain

You are, my life, my reason

My love, my peace, my pain

Your love triggered my being

With you I crossing seven seas is a breeze

Without you even oxygen chokes my lungs

And I gasp for your love

I have lived for you, every moment

And given my everything, just for you

You and I are connected beyond time

And in one moment, you chose to snap it all

Without you, my life is just a shattered glass

You are, my soul, my love **

[rajeshsound]

#HappyFathersDay - Only Time Will Tell - by @rajeshsound

Only Time Will Tell by @rajeshsound

Who am I?

What am I?

He is the reason

I am the consequence

His name is what I share

With him, I learnt to walk

Learning life’s core values

The value of being

To be a stoic

To value people

To be a good human being

To be content

Even as I grow older

To be about half his age

He still remains my idol

Whose profession, I did chose for myself

Today, as we talk and argue \

Share opinions and experiences

Playing game-theory and one up-man ship

The core value still remain far too similar

Can I fill his shoes, I wonder

For they still are too big for me

Maybe I can, some day

May be never!

He is a loving father

Who conceals his innermost feelings?

Yet, his eyes talk a thousand words

And his actions express a million feelings

Imbibed in me

Is his value of giving?

Taking care of his near and dear

And that money is not everything

Yes, he is dear to me, very very dear

May be, he’ll never ever know

For some emotions are never expressed

For I too is his son

Masking it in arguments

Expressing it in silence

Devoid of emotions

Justifying with rationale!

He still is my father

And I am his son

Worthy or not

Only time can tell

Happy father’s day

This post was first written on June 18, 2006 and 8 years later, it still holds its fort - http://rajeshsoundararajan.blogspot.sg/2006/06/only-time-will-tell.html

PS: This was when @lavanyanagaraja and I did not even meet and in one of the first tele-conversations, she asked me if I wished for Father’s Day. “I did not believe in these”, I said. But then, to impress her, I did want to show-off something. The words did come from the heart; the trigger of course was the prodding by Lavanya. Thank you Lavanya, for triggering this timeless piece.

[rajeshsound]

Tic-tac-toe (or Noughts and crosses, Xs and Os) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The player who succeeds in placing three respecttive marks in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row wins the game. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe)

This game gives an interesting analogy to our human behavior - we all start to win the game, but soon get into the mode of blocking the other from winning. The best case scenario is when players draw and none-gets-anything. We then call this #sportsmanship.

Now isn't this strange that we exhibit this behavior for each game and draw each of them.

[rajeshsound]

Made With Paper

[rajeshsound]

Made With Paper

[rajeshsound]

life and randomness

life is full of randomness and is unforgiving

what you want to happen, do not

expectations are met with disappointments

luck lets you down while holding on to the last straw

  and yet,  life is full of randomness and is full of compassion

impossible things do happen

faith is rewarded with miracles

luck gives strength of steel to that last straw

  the choice not let-go and be-worry is yours

just as the choice to let-go and just-be is yours.

[sequoiacapital]

WhatsApp Co-Founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton

Earlier today, Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp for $16 billion. It’s a spectacular milestone for the company’s co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and their remarkable team.

From the moment they opened the doors of WhatsApp,...

[rajeshsound]

Gone too soon! #RIPMJ #RIPSteveJobs

Michael Jackson’s song – just as applicable to MJ as it was to SJ

 a comet Blazing 'cross the evening sky Gone too soon

Like a rainbow Fading in the twinkling of an eye Gone too soon

Shiny and sparkly And splendidly bright Here one day Gone one night

Like the loss of sunlight On a cloudy afternoon Gone too soon

Like a castle Built upon a sandy beach Gone too soon

Like a perfect flower That is just beyond your reach Gone too soon

Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight Here one day Gone one night

Like a sunset Dying with the rising of the moon Gone too soon Gone too soon

[rajeshsound]

Business is Social: Implementing Social Media Strategy in Business (Part 2 of 2)

In my earlier post of Business is Social:…, I shared the size of the market was and the lovable demographics social media presents. In this second and final part, I will share with you the basic steps of getting there. Before I proceed I want to share with you a personal sorry that occurred a few days ago.

I was disappointed at mediocre internet banking infrastructure of the two banks #hdfcbank, #icicibank and the unhelpful call center of #jetairways. The numerous attempts to the call center that either put me on hold for a good 20+ minutes or were unable to understand the requests yielded no results. As their customer that lives abroad, such waits and both frustrating and costly. I did what was the next step. Vent my frustration on a tweet. In less than 12 hours, I had ‘messages’ from two of the firms #icicibank #jetairways requesting for more details. In less than 24 hours of me providing my contact details, the representatives called me and promised to fix the issue. One bank #hdfcbank, just chose to be unheard and non-present on twitter. Needless to say thy just lost my $10K investment that I was planning to do to 

As a customer, I was delighted that a 140 character tweet could achieve what a 20min international phone call or a 300 word email could not. Harnessing its power, let’s get serious.

Unfortunately, most companies are still treating social media like just another teenage fancy. When in fact, it’s so much more. 

Where can Social Media help?

customer service, building loyalty

public relations, networking, thought-leadership

and yes, may be customer acquisition, too.

And because I’d hate to see it all not add up, I’ll add this tiny bit of advice. Do not assume that social media is the answer to every problem

If your product sucks, social media won’t fix it.

However, if your customer service sucks, social media can help.

If your repeat business sucks, social media can help.

If your company’s word of mouth sucks, social media can help.

So, here’s what you need to do:

Define your company’s social media strategy.

Hope is not strategy

Stop thinking “campaigns”. Start thinking “conversations.

Your customers are queuing there. Your resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn't putting itself out there, you are putting yourself out of business?

[rajeshsound]

I wonder!

phew! what an evening the two of us, went to watch Memoirs of Geisha the twentiish she, was doing an MBA in a premier b-school and me in, what is usually termed a cushy high-flying job two die-hard optimists we were so alike in our beliefs of a super positive outlook to life and living life as if there were no tomorrow we dined and talked over pasta, pizzas and macaroni soup and what I heard was silent pauses and both looking into each others’ moist eyes it ended up, being so different more like, Memoirs of Us as we spoke of our derailed dreams, shattered hopes despair, disappointment, destiny, doubt, fate, uncertainty of a guys not committing and girls who have been avoiding pangs of staying apart pressures of an arranged marriage on how much we wished for the dear ones and how we longed for them if only they knew, if only we could express, if only strange are the ways of life delicately entwining of what we aspire and what ensues we talked of helping them overcome disappointments giving them a shoulder, a silent ear of being a friend, clearing the confusion of giving them a reason to dream and cherish as I traveled homewards a cacophony of thoughts agitated my serene mind I wonder! was it, we, who needed a shoulder, a patient ear a true friend, company, love, care hearing our own outburst and deeper fears seeing our own eyes in tears was it, we, who need help I wonder!

[rajeshsound]

Japan Hour: Latur, Earthquake Reasearch and a unfulfilled dream!

  It was Latur: September 30, 1993, 03:56 local time (India).

A ‘massive’ earthquake struck this small town Maharashtra, India. This intraplate earthquake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale. Over 8,000 people died whilst another 30,000 were injured. The earthquake's focus was around 12 km deep - relatively shallow causing shock waves to cause more damage. (Japan’s earthquake on March 11, 2011 at 8.9, in contrast was at a depth of 24.4 km and 5700 times more powerful)

About 500 miles away in Bhopal, a young boy of 20 who was doing his course in Civil Engineering heard this first on the morning news over radio. Over the next few days he was glued to the disaster through newspapers, radio and television. The boy was moved. Unable to bear the pain and agony of death and destruction, he chose to research on Earthquake Resistant Structures. As a young boy, his dreams were lofty and goals were social. The very idea that ‘as an Engineer, he can make the difference’ and prevent such catastrophes was too exciting. Quickly he jumped on to researching on the topic. Over the next four months, he poured into every research paper he could lay his hands on and hundreds of books on earthquakes and structural designs. He gained adequate knowledge to write a few technical papers. Much to his surprise a few of his his papers were selected for presentation in the premier Engineering Colleges in India. His solutions were well appreciated and said to be practical. While he was not sure if it was the quality of research or if it was the recency effect of the earthquake (akin to Oscars), he loved his moment in limelight in any case. >>Fast forward 17 years >> This young boy of Civil Engineering is as far from his stated dream of building Earthquake Resistant Structures. He ended up with an MBA degree and now runs a management consulting firm. He runs business development for Asia for a US Multinational. When he wakes up to the news of Japan on March 11, he wonders whatever had happened to the research, his passion to bring a difference in Civil Engineering in India. As a young Engineer, his lure for the Technology Industry was probably too attractive to miss. A starting pay that was twice the salary of an Asst. Engineer was too appealing to let go. Added to that the company offered him highest pay in campus and that was too much of a ego-trip to ignore.

Result, decades years later, he is just another bystander watching the events unfold as earthquake strikes in a Haiti, Chile, Pakistan or a or a Japan and make comments and share a few words of condolence on the catastrophe over cappuccino on the 14th floor overseeing the sea. He cancels his Japan trip that week, shuffles his itineraries, rebooks his itinerary and goes on to a different city.

Life moves on and all that was left is this blog post!