Why Should I Celebrate?

I was born in year 1984 and would be witnessing the usher of New Year for 26th time in my life. So is true with other people with their respective numbers. This is great to know and should be a cause of celebration.Well, people are doing it already see everywhere that there is a joyous vibe, exuberance in the chilly air. Somebody would be going out with friends to a lavish pub; someone would be hitting big hotels opening Sauvignon Blancs’ while some would prefer cozying up at their homes with a small dinner party.

I am not special hence I should celebrate too.....really? In the midst of unending sms beeps in my cellphone, spam emails in my inbox and flashy ads in newspapers and TV I cannot help but think for a minute what this holds for me. What should I celebrate? Is it because we have completed a full year and we are one step closer to our so called final goal? Is it because we have become more mature and have gained wisdom and we will make better decisions in next year? Is it because last year was bit tough and we had tough luck so cheers for bad times or simply because anything new is good so let’s find another irrational cause to celebrate?

unfortunately I don’t lie in any of this so I need to explore what this is for me.well,2010 was pretty good for me comparably because I got newer experiences, delivered big challenges, made some excellent lifelong friendships and to small extent got a better sense of life. That was neat right? Nothing too edgy, no big mishaps, no hard lucks, no big failures...hmmm...so still my question looming large, why should I celebrate?

I am standing at this phase of my life where I see most of my friends working in good organizations, some luckier ones deciding whom to spend their rest of life with (no pets this time) while some have settled abroad and here I am fighting endlessly to get a respectable job, to make a position of my own in this society, to get a purpose of life and of course to know whether I should party on this new years eve or not...but, That’s Life..

honestly I don’t know and this philosophical debate in my psyche shall never find a justifiable conclusion in due time so I guess I shall also have to jump into a mad mad world, shoot down few drinks in an upscale pub on 31st night, mesmerize at the crowd's madness and their acceptance of the fact in their subconscious mind that they too don’t know what this celebration actually means to them. 

Sitting at a cozy sofa in a corner I will see this, I will smile at my ignorance, and I will gulp another drink down to call it my way of celebration.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Destiny & Drucker

I was never a believer in destiny...My notion was that if you are hard working guy, if you had put in sufficient amount of effort in your work then you will get what you have aspired to. It is because a person gets noticed only when he is having the traits required for that work...Little did I imagine back then that my notion was not only wrong, it was totally inconsequential.
Destiny is a very strong noun. A word whose true meaning and source is still largely unexplained, a word which is totally inverse of logic and reason. If everything in the world has a logic, a pattern then we may label it as a reason but if the outcome of that thing becomes unpredictable then we want to label it as destiny.Intersting thing is to know that sometimes this DESTINY becomes so important force and part of our lives that we want to think too hard on it.
I am facing a situation where I am totally dependent not on my abilities but on destiny. It is GETTING A JOB. No matter how competent you are, no matter how smart and talented you are, your destiny will become the defining force in deciding your career and your job...if your destiny is there then the potential recruiter will call you, if not he will not. If it is your destiny then your interview will go well even though you are terribly diffident.
Anyway I wanted to start my blog after the long come back with this philosophical note. I like reading books so let me share some of the things which I want to. I am currently reading Peter Drucker's ‘Management’. If you ask my recommendation then I would say without any reservations that this is THE book to read if you are an MBA, if you are starting your company or if you are at a managerial position. This is the complete theory of management with excellent cases to justify the theory. I read this book daily but at a very slow pace. The idea of this book is that you should read 1 chapter at once and try to think how you can bring some of the key ideas of the book into your life and experiment, work hard to bring it on.And then read another chapter. This is not a novel and is strongly warned not to read it at one go. It will be a highly injustice to Drucker.
I must say that I have become a fan of Drucker and I now feel that these precious books are my treasure. They should not be picked from library but be brought out straightaway...They are an investment which must be kept high on the bookshelves.
It’s time to get back doing some of the pending work and will come back to you soon.CHAO!!

Life in a Metro

After a grand Christmas party last night Today afternoon I was coming back from my Bhabhi’s place in Gurgaon to my campus in Noida through the mass transit rail commonly called METRO .I reached the central hub of new Delhi called Rajiv chowk to change my train and found that my train was due in 3min50sec so I just stood there and was looking at the place. I was amazed to see swathes of people running around all over after departing from trains and heading for their destination and thousands waiting for their train. It was an absolute sight of ‘Organized Chaos’. Everywhere uber, modern and well dressed young boys and girls, polished office goers, rustic villagers and not to mention Punjabis running all around and here I was standing in the middle of this rush thinking Delhi has changed so much in few years. A mass transit system has metamorphosed culture, their life style and has become a part of their daily lives.

 Metro as well call it, was launched in Delhi in 2002 and before that the only means of local transportation was road transport which was inefficient, slow, inconvenient and very frustrating.A very good salaried middle class would find it very demeaning to travel by bus for work or with family and look at now in 2010, people of all classes are traveling together with dignity and peace in metro. This is really very interesting and so I did a quick math and tried to find the no of passengers who would be traveling in a day and used the logic of no of trains originating in 5mins on one line*no of lines*no of traveling hrs*no coaches*no of people in a coach and found that the figure comes out to be around 13lakhs which is 10%of Delhi’s population. It is incredible to know that 10%of Delhi’s population is traveling in Metro or so to speak each day the whole country of Mozambique or Dominican Republic country is being transported by Delhi metro such is the grandiosity of Metro.

Metro is fast, highly efficient, clean and well connected. What used to take 1.5hrs for an office goers to reach his office after his daily share of fight with heat and dust has now become pleasant air conditioned hassle free journey by Metro is 45mins.Due to this, people are traveling to lots of places, they are now well connected, they can change jobs easily and meet relatives frequently.

But their lies the challenge too. A recent report by McKinsey predicted that by 2030, India’s population will reach from today’s 50M to 550Million that means so many jobs will be created and so many people will need to travel. It is said that fossil fuels will be extinct by 2050 and already the international crude oil has jumped to more than 50%in few years. That means the government will have to ensure that it is able to provide cheap and efficient transportation to masses and having ability to handle demand surge.

With the baton in hands of E.Shreedharan we can say that we should be relaxed but the model needs to be scaled and replicated in other towns as well. If we want to realize our dreams of 11%GDP by 2011 than we must increase our transportation to boost trade and commerce.