Had a chance to attend a group discussion session yesterday. Probably the first, I have ever been part of. The subject of the discussion was: Is Small Really Beautiful.

While I was thinking that for such a simple topic people would talk about perception, definition of beauty, the very subjectivity of this definition and how irrelevant anything else is;  be it size, shape, color, odor and anything else for that matter.

But I was in for a shock. The wannabe business students of India, were so keen to insert jargon that the whole discussion became futile and at the end of the day it was like a fish market, where every candidate was selling a new buzz word.

Don’t remember most of the answers but here are some. Judge the value of these answers yourself.

• Small has to be beautiful. See Bharti it started small and how beautiful company it is.
• All small things are beautiful. The computer chips, the electrons all these things are small and beautiful.
• Small can never be beautiful. You see small people, from small places, smaller institutions always perform small and earn small. You need to think big to make big. A beautiful mind thinks big. So big is beautiful. Have you seen A beautiful mind, John Nash? And there was this other movie Life is beautiful …
• Beauty starts small. The big bang was small and see how beautiful universe it has made. The cells, the protozoa, the mitochondria  all important things are small. Small is always beautiful.
• Switzerland is small and beautiful, (some another country name) is also small and beautiful. See big countries, India. Not at all beautiful. Big population, big problem.
• Big is difficult to  manage. Big companies don’t perform well, their share price goes down in the longer turn. One should not invest in big companies.

Sadly most of them forgot the beauty of simplicity in the course of discussion.

Image taken from Dainik Bhaskar

डाकिया डाक लाया, डाकिया डाक लाया

ख़ुशी का पयाम कहीं, कहीं दर्दनाक लाया

डाकिया डाक लाया

Picture Source:
guardianangel.in

क्यों फिक्र गिरने की जब
बादलों को छूने का हौसला है तुम में ,
बस  निडर बनो और बढ़ चलो

नहीं होते परवाज़ सभी के पास,
लग जायेंगे पंख पैरों में ,
उड़ने की चाह  लेकर  बस उड़  चलो |

मंजिल की फिक्र किस बात की
जब रास्ते पर है तुम्हे यकीं
हर मोड़ पर मिलेगी एक नयी मंजिल
यह अभी से मान के चलो |

साथी साथ हो तो अच्छा है
साथ ना मिले तो एकला चलो |
चले हो तुम तो फिर  ठोकर का डर क्यूँ !
चल दिया है तो फिर शान से चलो !!

It was getting dark.

It was alone. It was hungry.

It smelt food. It was across the street.

It waited.

It turned red.

It was empty for a while.

It was courageous. It moved ahead.

It was happy of its feat.

It was half done only.

It tried to move again.

It turned green.

It zoomed past.

It was lucky. It was frightened. It stopped in the middle. It was waiting for a chance.

It was seen by someone. It was shooed back.

It ran for its life. It went hiding in the bushes.

It ends.

Courtesy: DeviantArt

रहना तू है जैसा तू,
थोडा सा दर्द तू थोड़ा सुकून |

थोड़ा सा रेशम, तू हमदम, थोड़ा सा खुरदरा |
कभी दौड़ जाये या लड़ जा या खुशबू से भरा,
तुझे बदलना ना चाहूं , रत्ती भर भी सनम
बिना सजावट, मिलावट, ना ज्यादा ना ही कम

तुझे चाहूं, जैसा है तू
मुझे तेरी बारिश में भीगना, घुल जाना है
तुझे चाहूं, जैसा है तू
मुझे तेरी लपट में जलना राख हो जाना है

[This song from Delhi-6 is currenly ruling my heart. Thanks to Rehman and Prasoon Joshi, for creating such a masterpiece.]

A few days ago, my cellphone charger died. Without giving any prior indication or warning. On my cellphone I heard the last ringing bell when everybody was singing Jingle Bells.

I tried to dig up its casket and opened it carefully to see if I can recover its lost soul..But the wire snakes inside it de-motivated me to do so.I fixed it back and decided to use the formula no 2. Remember good old days, when your buggy tv used to rise and shine with two, not so light slaps, and that scooter that your dad owned.. all mechanics were losers in front of two solid left leg kicks..

Well, it seems that the formula was too Indian for a Chinese charger. I gave up the hope after one light slap and the charger gave up its life(whatever was remaining) after the second

So time for a new charger ??

Well, I tried looking for one. But it wasn’t that easy. Especially when you are in Singapore and searching for the charger of a two year old model of a handset which is actually a chinese phone tailor made for an Indian company. This company is actually a small MNO (mobile network provider ) named Spice and mobile phones are its secondary business.

The model I am(was?) owning is spice s-800. Don’t ask me how I got this handset.  The manufactures brought it from China to Chandni Chowk. Then the distributor from Chandni Chowk to Giridih. And then my wife presented it to me, while I was sulking for the loss of my old phone.

Oh yeah, now you will ask me about the SIM card !!

OK, Good question again. The story goes like this, not that recently I used to own a different number. When I got this new number. I copied the contacts from my old SIM card to the phone. BUT just to save space for new numbers, didn’t copy them to my SIM. See how smart I am.

So you understand everything now. A few days back I used to have 205 contacts. Right Now I have five. Balance and Topup, Singtel Customer Helpline, Durby, TOTO and Horoscope.

Got it !! or shall I simplify it further.

I have lost the contact numbers of all my friends. If you know me, could you be kind enough to send back your number by any of the following means;

1. sms me on my no (that is  00 six five – nine one two zero two six nine 7)
2. email me me on kumar [dot] rakesh [at] gmail.com

PS: The good news is that I have a new phone in the new year.

Courtesy: CartoonStock.com

Till Yesterday, Aaj Tak and several other news channels in India were predicting the LHC Experiment will cause the absolute destruction which will cause the “End Of The World”.

How bullshit, can any news be. Why can’t these news channels try to simplify the technical things and help the common man understand, what an important scientific experiment it is, like this game does.

People, in rural areas of India have actually panicked after hearing this news on news channel. Yesterday I got calls from my dad and my father in law, both saying that several people in their area have taken leaves and gone home to stay with their beloved ones, just in case if its the end of world, they can DIE together.

Isn’t there something called responsibility, which Indian news channels have forgotten about. And when the whole world is fighting against terrorism, what is this that these news channels are doing.

Spreading Terror, in disguise of a Breaking News.

Someone should sue these TV channels.