My Moment, Mine Alone

Supine, under fresh smelling white linen, lost in a riot of disjointed thoughts, I noticed something today.

If I raise my head a little more and look towards the left, I can see the surface of the blue tranquil sea. And if I push myself a little higher and turn my gaze to the right, I can see a complete view of a lamppost that hangs by the hammock by the serene lake. And I asked myself, is this real?

Sometimes I am thankful to God that I am not a pretty girl. It saves me the trouble of being vain and over the years has helped me build an extremely uninhibited perspective of all things beautiful. As a child maybe I wished I was pretty but now I am more assured of the fact that nature’s beauty completes me. I am a part of this resplendent world that defines who I am. Right now, all I can hear is the chirping of birds and playful waves hitting the shore, sometimes in zest and sometimes in pain. Which reminds me, I watched the sunset alone last evening. And you won’t believe it, I was the ONLY person on the entire beach. Not a soul was around!

I wanted to click a picture but you know, it took me a moment to realize that this moment will be my moment and mine alone. I put my phone away, rolled up my linen pants till my knees and walked into the water. And then I stood still. The sun that shines for everybody, was setting only for me today. The moment was as beautiful as it was heart wrenching. I was overwhelmed with the magnificence of the sea and the insignificance of my presence. I had tears rolling down my cheeks because I was so happy that I was so sad. Do you know what I mean?

I have come to believe, after numerous such incidents, that there are certain memories that find their way back into your mind in your most lonely and vulnerable moments. It was like a brief flashback of so many memories… My first bicycle, my first heartbreak in school, passing away of my granny, passing away of my best friend, playing with my brother, my mother combing my hair, my father returning from one of his tours and all the unnecessary mockery that some of us faced in school… Strong, vivid memories strung together to create a brief story of my life… Being screened only for me in my loneliest of moments.

No, don’t get me wrong. I was more alone than lonely.

Anyway, if I had my way, I would really fight my fear of water and one day maybe swim in the sea! I am a doer and I want to make this wish come true… Let’s see!

Some trips are fun trips, and some bad but my favorites are the ones which give me the space and time to internalize. To be with myself, sitting on this secluded beach which really is such a marvelous art of nature I can’t even begin to describe.

Last night, we were sitting on the beach and chit chatting away like best friends often do. While my husband is not a romantic at all, to me, everything has a little bit of romance in it. The crescent moon, seducing its own reflections on the fluttering waves that tease the shore with their satin touch… My God what a sight! And before we knew it, the familiar starry sky was moving in on us… Right in the middle of the sea we could see blinking lights of the fishing boats parked for the night, on our right we could see the gorgeous moon above that tiny island and right above us was this gathering of thousands of stars. Now tell me, if this is not outrageously enticing and divine, then what is?

Clearly, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and I am so glad that I behold such beauty in my eyes. Until later, live beautiful mi amigos!

Love.
Shubs

My Top 10 Favorite Inventions!

We grew up reading about inventions that have changed the course of mankind. But to be very honest, I couldn’t relate to most of them and didn’t really bother finding out more about them. Blame it on my limited mental bandwidth or sheer lack of interest in anything hyped, very few inventions have left a lasting impression on my mind.

So here’s a list of my top ten favorite inventions of all times!

1. Camera Obscura
My all time favorite invention by human mind – you can trace this invention back to somewhere in the early 1800. I love the camera. The fact that you can actually freeze a moment in time as a memory which is not just an impression on your mind, fascinates me to bits. So clearly, this tops the list.

2. The Pencil
Imagine a world without pencil! And no, pens came way later! If I am not mistaken, Conte invented the pencil in late 1700. Absolutely spellbinding.

3. The Internet
TimBL’s gift to the human race has altered the way we think, function and even dream. The Internet is a revolutionary invention and only grows to surprise us by the day.

4. The Telephone
Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone has changed the way the world communicates. Telephone has to be considered a great work of man’s imagination. Wow. Can’t imagine a world without phones, can we?

5. Jeans!
OK, I think a pair of jeans is one of the best things ever! In 1880s, Strauss gave the world ‘serge de Nimes’ (denims) and I swear to God, this is one of the best gifts to us lesser mortals.

6. The T.V.
As much as I hate to admit, I think the Idiot Box was a miracle invention. Truly fascinating! I can’t recall who really invented the Television coz I remember there was some dispute about it. But nonetheless, it is definitely one of my favorite inventions.

7. The Braille System
Louis Braille, who refused to let circumstances get the better of him, formed a world of dots that has given a purpose of life to many of those who are visually impaired. Could anyone ever imagine that blind people could actually read? Take a bow!

8. The Bulb
Yes, Edison’s invention lit up our lives forever. Thank you for this absolutely fantastic invention!

9. The Zero
Thanks to Aryabhatta, the world will always remember our contribution to numbers. The Absolute. The Zero.

10. The Steam Engine & The Airplane

Fine! I give up. No matter how much I didn’t think I would, the damn Steam Engine is definitely one of the most useful contributions to mankind. But sharing the space with the Steam Engine is the Aeroplane. Thanks to the Wright brothers, the world became more believable and accessible. And also now, home’s only 2.5 hours away.

So what’s your favorite invention? Tell me!

7 Reasons Why You Will Fail

There is always a certain someone around you who either teaches you everything that will make you succeed or will go ahead and show you the perfect approach to ensured failure. I talk to my friends all the time and it appears that the latter certain someone permeates through all organizations and households. He/she comes in all shapes, sizes and situations! And mind you, this breed is avoided by most of the sincere, field workers.

The thing is, if you are a doer, then somewhere, you will stop thinking and actually get to work! Just maybe?!

Anyway, post a conversation with an equally frustrated friend, here are my seven reasons why some people will definitely fail. Maybe not today, or tomorrow… But in the bigger scheme of life, these people will definitely fail. So if you’re nodding your head at even five of these points, thinking of someone (hopefully not yourself!) then, well you will know!

1. You’re too busy working on whimsical excel sheets instead of working on the goal.

2. You effortlessly piss off the people who could potentially help you.

3. You have way too many complex ego issues.

4. You are the unanimously chosen “Mr All Talk No Action”.

5. Your instant recipe to feed your fragile ego is to put others down.

6. You lack tact.

7. Your discernment of success is different from the rest.

While there is no sure shot way to success, there are sure shot factors that will lead to your downfall – oh, which by the way, equals to failure of sorts.

Apple iBooks : My Two Cents

A for Apple.
B for Books.
C for Content.
D for Design.
E for eeehaw!

Apple does it again. And this time puts the entire publishing industry in a delirious uncertainty. I was on Twitter most of the day following this big announcement. Most people are not happy with this news, clearly because they are against Apple trying to monopolize the eBooks market. Apple with it’s strict policies, unfriendly software configuration and arrogance (that I love), has a strong segment in the market that revolts against anything it comes up with. All said and done, what they come up with is absolutely out of the world! Tell me, when touch phones were already a rage and the eBook market booming, why does it take only an Apple to come up with self-authoring tools that redefines publishing? Because it’s Apple! And they are like Gods of technology invention.

They say Apple’s intention is to increase its iPAD sales and guess what, give it some time and it will happen! They really might be the leaders in education technology.

Why am I writing about this on my otherwise very random blog? I happen to work with a publishing technology company that has been working with a lot of great publishers across the world. We have been building Apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and phones etc. And yesterday, as a company who has been only focused on the publishing industry for over a decade now, this announcement made us sit up and take notice. The revolution has already gone a notch higher. This announcement might create a lot of unsteadiness in the industry but publishers should keep in mind one thing – you can empower teachers to pick and choose content, but the skills set required to create interactive iBooks will have to be either built, or entrusted to experts. Author may allow you to create your own books, but from design point of view, keeping in mind how it will influence and help a child learn, will require expertise. And iBooks Author is not an easy-to-learn software, they say.

Well, I love Steve Jobs and I love everything that Apple does but for now, I am waiting to see how the real players – publishers – react to this news.

From our end, we are already geared
up to offer solutions and services that enable publishers to get their iBooks on iBookstore!

Where do I work? Impelsys
Our brand? iPublishCentral
If you want to hear from the experts, connect with us through info at ipublishcentral.com or,
Visit us! www.ipublishcentral.com

a trip extraordinaire

I have traveled a lot within India. Sometimes with family, sometimes with friends. And almost all the trips I have made have had one memorable moment. But my most recent trip to Pondicherry takes the cake.

Almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

1. The Place

It was a very last minute plan to take off. We all gathered the night before to discuss and decide where we could go, with what budgets and how. I have been to Pondicherry 4 times already so Pondy wasn’t even an option. However, its only whimsical to expect that we would dial in on 30th Dec hoping to get a swanky place for the New Year’s eve in ANY getaway destination near Bangalore.

And hence Pondy. A friend figured out a place and we were informed in the afternoon that we are going to Pondy. Well. I was not too kicked about it and the flashing news of Thane, the cyclone that was about to hit Pondy on 30th freaked me out even more. But Pondy it was.

(Oh by the way, I hadn’t taken our car even to the Bangalore airport until now and suddenly I was told I should be prepared to drive down to Pondy coz it’s going to be convenient and fun. Please note, I was palpitating by this time.)

2. The Journey

So we set sail right in the morning. Oh wait, before that we wasted about two hours trying to wake two of our friends up. X-(.

It was drizzling in Bangalore. On a gloomy, wet Friday morning, with grumpy faces that didn’t get enough sleep, waiting for two friends who were snoring away to glory was not a very happy thought.  Anyway, ten of us somehow got together and started our journey. I drove on the highway, absolutely freaked out but I loved it. The weather was fantastic and we had some great music playing in our car. And then, when I was driving at a 110, I almost rammed into a speeding truck that decided he wanted to take a detour and come the wrong way! I froze. My heart was pounding and I couldn’t feel any worse. Sigh.

And then in heavy rains I drove on roads that were built around potholes. It was quite frustrating.  After the drivers were switched and I took a break, I was reading up on updates about Thane. And that gave me the chills. The photographs were scary and I was getting paler by the moment. As we got closer to our destination, we got a glimpse of the disaster that had already struck. Force of nature in all its glory. Technically, only fools do what we did. While most people were heading out and getting away from Pondy, we were the only two cars driving straight into the catastrophe. Foolish. And bold.

As soon as we slid into Pondy, we were all dumbstruck to see what had become of that beautiful town. It was a ghost city. I felt like we were in a movie where only a few surviving cars drive into damaged lanes, looking at the destruction with disbelief, fear and despair. Fallen trees, ripped out electric poles, damaged houses… water everywhere and then the constant cold rains to make the whole scene overwhelmingly epic. The Pondy we knew had disappeared. Amidst all of this mess, we walk into the place we had booked only to discover a discredited hotel which would  have been quite charming otherwise. By now, we were all extremely tense. There was no electricity. No source of water and food. And finding a place to stay the night looked impossible.

So we split. One car went about the town looking for a place to eat and stay and the other (mine) parked right in front of the beach that was struck by the fury of Thane. Sitting in the car I kept thinking to myself, are we really that foolish or do we think we are invincible. Nature is unpredictable. No matter what you plan, it takes one solid gush of infuriated winds to shatter everything that you build.

3. The Turning Point

We were told that they have found a place where we could stay the night and guided us how to get there. All the roads were flooded and we didn’t know which direction to drive in. In that state, none of us realized that we were actually driving towards the Pondy beach and soon enough, we were on the beach! And then the turning point. Our car goes straight into an open pothole. Next thing I know, my friend and I are jumping out of the car because the car was in deep water only to realize that the wheel arm of the car was damaged. The car was immobile. Picture this, heavy rains, in a cyclone-hit town, ON the beach, in knee deep water and stuck. At that moment I knew all the predictions of 2012 were true. And that ‘this is it’. The car was damaged and we called for help from the Road Emergency Help people who told us they would come in an hour’s time but got there only next morning. We were on the beach waiting by the car for almost six hours in the night but no help came. Anyway, we got help and managed to keep the car secured. And we left it there for the night, at God’s will.

4. The Random 

Everybody was worked up. And we were all trying to keep our calm. Obviously that doesn’t always help. But we decided that the worst was over and that we should usher in the New Year with happy faces. So we headed to Satsanga where we had booked a table for ten. As soon as we got there we saw that the table we had booked was given to a group of French folks. And we instantaneously knew this was going to get worse. They charged us a bomb for the buffet but half of us didn’t even get any food to eat! It was chaotic and frustrating. Like the last straw that just becomes the tipping point. The only good thing about that night was the live band that was playing some excellent progressive jazz. FANTASTIC. Anyhow, we did what we had to, got back to our rooms and played DC till we dropped dead. The original plan was to leave at 12 but for some reason or the other, we kept getting delayed. And further delayed. By the time we got in the car, it was 4:30. I was so apprehensive about driving in the night on the highway… and that’s exactly what happened. We got home only at 2 in the night and I swear to God walking back into our house was the highlight of the trip.

You know, life teaches you lessons. And I did learn a thing or two on this trip as well. While threats posed by nature are beyond our control, at times even other controllable issues can also take a toll on you. It was a trip I can’t really say I liked or disliked but I surely don’ t want to do this again. There were a few good moments too and we did have a fair amount of fun but the atmosphere of Pondy was not conducive for any  kind of celebration. And somewhere, we all knew we were trying too hard…

‘Eventful’ is a tricky word, you know. Anyway, here’s to life and all the big & small things that come with it.

Happy New Year!

2012 it is!

Happy New Year!!

Here’s hoping 2012 is super awesome for everybody… Oh, by the way I have a very interesting story to tell. Watch this space for an update!

Until then, rock n roll!
Love.