akbar

Worries of India

It’s amazing to see people in India who have access to the age old knowledge of “self” through Vedas, Upanishads and various mythological stories – that they don’t operate from that knowledge. More and more I come across people whose thoughts, words and actions are buried in worry. They act out of fear. They speak out of fear and constantly worry. The focus on what they don’t want is so immense and thick that they fail to realize that they are actualizing it. Some of the top worries I come across when I meet people.

If you are single guy under 25 – worried about getting a job/right job
If you are single guy over 25 – worried about going abroad and earning dollars
If you are single girl under 25 – worried about finding a rich boyfriend who can take her out to Bottles & Chimneys
If you are single girl over 25 – worried about finding a guy for marriage (Possibly a guy in #2)
If you are a parent of a guy and poor – worried about son’s education
If you are a parent of a guy and rich – worried about son’s worth in dowry
If you are parent of a girl and poor – you are screwed
If you are parent of a girl and rich – you are royally screwed
If you are a parent and your kids are married off – you are worried of your son not taking care of you
If you don’t have kids – you are worried about not having kids even though you know all the above are true!

So, one thing I do when I meet people like these are to say something good about the present situation. Being thankful about what they have and also try to talk about what they want rather than talk about what they don’t want. Sometimes people think that I am a weirdo because I didn’t add more worries to their collection.

Amazing Day

Today was such a wonderful day! I accepted a offer to work for a very cool company in Hyderabad. The whole thing was so cool and neat. I went up their offices to meet HR and the Management. I never expected them to be such a cool company. My idea about Indian software companies has changed now. I always thought the most Indian companies missed the principle and looked more towards practice. Following blindly the west. Now, here comes a company which has it’s own niche and looks like it stands out. Only time will tell how well we will match – but for now I am excited and looking forward to work on some exciting things.

Education – A bridge to bright future

Every parent I come into contact in India talks constantly about their kids’ education. In India education is held very high. Educated people are treated well and respected. With just 61% of literacy most Indians put a lot of emphasis on education. The most notable fact is that majority of Middle class people are well aware of the fact that only education can pull their families out of their financial troubles and save them from slipping into poverty.

That is the reason why the tuitions market in India is flourishing. When I leave for my J2EE class in the morning at 7am, I see throngs of students waiting for the bus. Everyone mostly aged between 15 and 25. They usually go to a Institute for some tuition and then go attend their college. Majority of these tuitions are computer based. SAP, Testing tools seem to be in heavy demand now. Some are aiming for US and UK. I have a cousin who is dreaming of US and preparing for TOEFL. His parents can’t afford to send him even if he gets through TOEFL well. They need at least 1.5 lakh Rupees (4000$) for his initial flight and applications etc. Once he gets a visa and admission into a college there in US they may have to spend more money. These parents are borrowing money at high interest rates from local lenders to send their son to US for education. Because deep inside they believe that once their son gets a good education, he will pay back all that money and pull them out of their poverty.

Education is the bridge which helps majority of middle class Indian people to pull themselves out of poverty.

London to Hyderabad

The flight was from Dubai and I was expecting a lot. The 7 hours flight started with a big trouble with my luggage. In UK the luggage carrying restrictions are different and they only allow one carry on baggage including your laptop. So, I tried checking in my carry on bag and it was over weight. After a lot of struggle and a lot of arguing with Emirates, I gave up and sent back some stuff along with my brother-in-law who came to drop me off.

As soon as I got into waiting lounge at the gate, I realized that this flight was filled with families with kids. Oh my. A lot of Asian population who take connecting flights from Dubai to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc. It took about 10 minutes before a kid went into this horrific fit of crying. He was literally screaming and wouldn’t stop. I swear to God, he cried like that for 2 hours of which 1 hour was in flight. A lot of people were openly covering their ears just give the parents a clue that they need to do something more than just to ask him not to cry. These are moments I wish parents carry some cough syrup with them!

Once on flight, my seat was next to the couple with kids. It was the front row with a baby bassinet in front of me. The guy who was sitting next to me was stinking with body odor. Not just your regular odor, but as I went to put my luggage in the top cabins 3 seats far away I smelled it there and wondered who it might be. Little I knew that I am the bakra who is going to sit next to him.

As I sniffed and kept clearing my nose – the guy didn’t get any clue. I am sure they have been traveling for a long time and may be didn’t had a chance to take a shower. Thanks to air conditioner, he felt cold later and put on a jacket which helped to dumb down the smell or may be it’s just that I got used to it. Eww.

I had about 3 hours of time in Dubai airport. I was surprised to see how small the airport was. I was expecting a lot from Dubai. After I made calls to India and let them know I am only couple of hours away from home – I did some duty free shopping. Just when I was thinking may be I can buy a watch for myself – my only carry on bag broke. The zip broke and it was wide open. I tried for an hour to fix it but nope. So, I opened my bag took out the ethernet cable I was carrying and tied the whole thing with it. I looked like a village dork with a bag tied up by some cable, but it worked. I also think that it might have confused the customs people in Hyderabad who stopped me for my electronic items.

Once on the flight to Hyderabad there was a lady who was sitting behind me who doesn’t like the idea of my seat being pushed back. After dinner(or whatever) I leaned back and she started knocking on it. When I asked what is her problem, she just spoke Arabic. I figured that she is having troubles with my seat. After no sleep for 20 hours, I was in a no mood t fight a belligerent arab woman.

Once off flight and clearing the immigration in Hyderabad I was marked “X” for the customs. This is where your baggage is screened and they mark “X” if they think that it might contain some expensive item in there. They customs guys called me aside and screened my luggage again. I couldn’t identify an item inside my suitcase, so I had to open it and show it to them. It was a toaster. Another item they had problem with was a Bose iPod player. I am pretty sure they had no clue what they are for. One guys checked my iPod player for a place holder for cassette or a CD.

Finally they let me go. As soon as I got outside, there was a smell. I don’t know what it was, but I guess it was smell of India and good lord lots and lots of people. Welcome to India

My Vision Book – An Idea

Success in this world depends up on Clarity. A lot of people don’t understand that if only they could just be clear of what they want – then they can achieve it. We live our lives wanting and fantasizing a lot of things. But very few make a list and out of them a minority makes a very specific list. After becoming aware of The Secret, I have been planning on to have a “Vision Book” for myself. Sangita already created one for herself and it looks so good. So here is an idea for creating a vision book site.

A user would open an account and can select a book type.
This is a book made in software but looks like any themed notebook from any country
Once the book is created, the person can start creating pages. Vision pages.
One goal may have many, many pages.
It’s all about getting visual. If you have ever done scrap book then you get the idea.
Then the user chooses to install a browser extension
So whenever I visit a site, I like something – it could be a video, audio, image text etc – I can take a snapshot of it using my browser extension
Once the snapshot is taken, the user can insert it anywhere in his vision book and rotate it, play with it.
It would be cool if the snapshots are in SVG format then the user can stretch it or skew it and it would still be the same.
In the end, it all about sharing and spreading the vision. So, the user can choose to share his/her Vision book with his friends.
If the user wants to print the vision book – it can be printed at Ink2

Law of Attraction – The fulfillment

Yesterday on 27th June, I got my first Mac. :-). It’s a MacBook Pro. Exactly after 20 days of intending it I got myself a mac. It’s not like I won a lottery or someone else gave a gift to me. I just realized that we could afford it with all the other things that are going on in our lives. My life has been transformed once I started to live intentionally. Law of attraction rocks and it is directly proportional to your faith in it.

Thank you Universe!

Wealth Consciousness

Long time back when I was reading 7 habits by Steven Covey I learned that for everything in this world there is a ‘Core Principle’. There is always one Principle and the practices, implementations and usages are many. Every individual on this planet has his/her own way of practicing some core principle. This stuck with me for a long time and I tried to use it in my software job. When ever I am lost or confused or too many voices around me – I think what is the principle of this thing bothering me? This clears a lot of air and gets me to focus on the core principle and not get bogged down by the many practices that I come across.

Today I realized that this similar concept happens in becoming wealthy. Wealth as such is the principle. The practices of wealth are – money, property, possessions etc. There are many implementations of this one principle of wealth. So, to become wealthy, we can struggle with one of the many or multiple practices and never know or learn about the principle – which is what most of the population does. Or to become wealthy, we can just grasp the principle and then the practices are just details. So, when people talk about making money, buying house and buying car – most of the time the approach is reversed. We are trying to achieve or replicate a practice.

Suppose, my friend bought a house. Which is the most common thing to happen in the Indian community who are based in US. A lot of Indian people consider owning a house is the most important thing. So, my natural thinking after looking at my friend buying a house is to think of buying one too. So, what I am trying to do here is to replicate a practice. The practice is buying a house. When I try to replicate a practice, it may not work out. Because we are all unique beings and we all have unique environments so me copying the practice of my friend may not work out with me. But instead I choose to think of the principle behind it – having a safe place to live in a good neighborhood, it might change my mindset. Now I am thinking more about the principle – which would result in me buying a house or moving to another country etc. By concentrating on principle I get what is suited to me rather than imitating what my friend did.

Similarly, when we want to become wealthy – it is very important to choose to be conscious of the Wealth principle. It could be cash, it could be stocks, it could be Gold, it could be possessions. But it’s very important to think about the principle of wealth and be conscious of it. I may lose my money, but if I am conscious of my wealth then I will always make it no matter how much I lose.

I think this is key thing that differentiates from people who are wealthy and who are not. People who are not wealthy and who want to be one – are wasting time on the practice – like making more money, or owning stuff. But if they shed the practice and just focus on the principle then the Universe will bring in the wealth into their lives from various practices suitable to them.

Spiritual Force – An Idea

I am a fan of SaaS (Software as a Service). I love the Salesforce’s model of hosting software. Even though ASP (Application Service Provider) model has been around for a long time, I think Salesforce has injected fresh energy into this market. But this is mostly for business people. I think we should have something called spiritualforce.com. A web services hosting provider for all the new age guru’s like Deepak Chopra, Bob Doyle, James Ray, Wayne Dyer. This site would have facilities for:

Hosting each Guru’s course ware in all media formats: audio, video, text etc
Providing easy contacts and mailing list options
Able to conduct selective pilot programs with pre-selected members
Provide discounts for members of one Guru to another or across the domain
Once a week or month have a public panel of all the Gurus’ together online at one time so that member can watch them discuss and ask questions.
Providing live chat with Gurus.
Every teacher will have his/her own blog.

This basically will make it easier for any spiritual teacher to open up his own shop and teach what he/she believes in. I am sure this could either be done as a Salesforce module but I think it would be cool to have just spiritual people gather around one set of software services. I also believe the with enough customizations Drupal or mephisto could be used too. This will reduce a lot of redoing of the software for these teachers.

Virtual Bookshelf – An Idea

I was always fascinated by books. I read, buy and collect so many of them every month. I believe a person’s bookshelf tells a lot about a person. When I see pictures of famous people sitting in their library or holding a book – I am more interested to see their book collection or what books are they reading right now. That is one way of knowing what their thinking(at least) for that period of time. May even tell a lot about their tastes if you get a list of the books they are reading. So, following this idea I think there should be an easy way to maintain a virtual book shelf online. So, here is an idea…

Registered users will key in the ISBN # for the books they have or own.
The site would create a virtual book shelf and store it online
We will also have small widgets, for blogs so that I can show off my book shelf on my blog
The books in my book shelf (that is being shown on my blog) link to my choice of book seller (amazon/bn) there by if someone follows the link and makes purchase I would get an incentive.
I should be able to mark the book public or private or protective meaning only people I choose can see that I own that book
Whenever you make a online purchase, you are also given a choice of adding it to your virtual bookshelf.
Ideally I should also be able to keep my e-books and audio books in my book shelf.
Amazon can advertise, discount and sell a whole row of a bookshelf from any popular person’s bookshelf.

I am sure someone must have thought about this. There must be a site which already does this. But I have never seen one so far and also this could be a great pet project to do in Ruby on Rails.

Manifestation and Ancient Scriptures

Listening to ‘The Secret‘ and reading a lot of literature on Manifestation and other techniques, it reminds me of some of the old sayings of Upanishads and Vedas. There is one saying that comes to mind ‘Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahudha Vadanti‘ (more here) meaning -“The truth is one, the wise call it by many names“. So listening to Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and The Secret has definitely changed my life. But it is amazing to know that this path has been shown and tread by many teachers and sages since age old times. It’s been documented so throughly in our ancient scriptures. I am only aware of Indian origin scriptures, but I am pretty sure we would find the same language scriptures that are from other lands.

Another quote which resonates with me and which Swami says so many times is – ‘ Yad Bhavam, Tad Bhavathi‘ meaning – “As you think so you become“. This rhymes with the very core concept of all the new age gurus talk about. The reality which we sense with our 5 senses is an effect. It’s an aftermath of what is created inside of us. Within us lies a far bigger universe seeded with potential choices which needs to be manifested into our so called sensual reality. This means that we are in charge of our lives and it’s been said and documented since aeons.

So, the questions arises, how come after all these things have been said in our scriptures which are about 5000 years old – we still are being controlled by our environment? That’s something to think about and another blog post.