The Karmic Love - Teaser 2

Swetha walked quickly to avoid being in an embarrassing situation. Rahul persistently pursued her so that Swetha can understand his love. Swetha had already given her heart to Sriram. It was only a matter of days before Feb 14. She felt she could wait till then to openly assert her love to him. But, she did not anticipate this complication to happen. Of all the people in this world, Rahul had proposed to her. She knew he was a decent guy. But, she knew she also belonged to someone else. Swetha could always feel that electric spark between Sriram and herself whenever they used to chat. He was smart,intelligent and witty. Most importantly, he understood her in the way she wanted to be understood. She knew he was the right person for her. Finally, Rahul caught up with her and said "Why do you hate me?". In a nonchalant manner, Swetha replied " I don't hate you, Rahul. You are a decent guy and my good friend. It's just that I belong to someone else". "You mean that bastard Sriram? I have heard rumors that he is otherwise". "STOP IT. This conversation is over". 

Despite Rahul's louder and louder accusations on Sriram, fuming with anger, Swetha left him  and continued towards the bus stop still thinking on the unwarranted accusations which Rahul had cast upon her Sri. "How dare he! Did I ask him to come and propose to me? Stupid Rahul. Jealous of my Sri. Sri can never be like that. He is the epitome of gentleman". Thinking thus, she was going through the disused shortcut to catch her 130pm bus when what she saw had stopped her and her thoughts in mid-land. She felt her heart being frozen and then breaking into a zillion pieces. She can identify him even from more than a dozen mile. The appearance was unmistakable. It was he. Swetha felt that the entire world along with the Milky way and the Universe ceased to spin. Seated on a big slab in a remote corner of the campus along the disused road, Sriram was fondly stroking Mohammad's manhood. 

SABR - an Ingenious innovation or an Ignominious infamy?

Prologue:

All the characters and events in this blog are not fictitious. The perspective brought forward throughout this blog is solely mine and I am purely responsible for it. However, I mean or intend no negative or disparaging opinions or views on any one or any event.

Connexion!!

Edward Bono would have been one of the happiest persons in this world if he were to be alive today. Though he is widely recognized and regarded as the person who coined the term "lateral thinking", he has also specifically emphasized on structured creativity as an effective medium of creativity and communication. In fact, based on his radically foundation ideas and my own understanding of what he had tried to convey through structured creativity, my previous blog was written in my own style.

So, what is the connection between the first paragraph and my previous blog ?

Simple. I forgot to add an epilogue in my previous blog to thank Edward Bono for his untiring contribution to the world of creativity through his dedicated research. Lateral Thinking has helped many people and organizations to come out of their normal thought process that has been serving as a severe obstacle in our day to day thinking.

Now, coming back to the first line "Edward Bono would have been the happiest person in this world ." Would he have been so extremely happy to receive a simple epilogue from a virtually unknown stranger to thank him ? Definitely. Not a chance!! However, he would have been immensely happy to see the practical application of his lateral thinking concept through Connexion! 

Connexion is a game show hosted in Vijay TV wherein a series of images are shown and the participants are asked to decipher the common words, starting sentence of a song, movie's name, a famous personality etc that are inherently hidden and depicted through the visuals. The main challenge is that the connection between the images are so profound and deep (simple relationships are also occasionally given) that is difficult to uncover the right association between the images within the stipulated time and come up with the correct answer. The show really tests the spontaneity and the ability of the extra ordinary lateral thinking process of the participant to get the answers bang on target for the questions displayed. Though the quiz master gives out certain clues to ease out the puzzling and perplexing looks on the participants when they are interpreting and solving a particular question, the answer is still difficult to comprehend unless the right association to the interrelationship is pieced together and sorted out properly.

Overall, Connexion is a very lively and interesting game show. I was actually introduced to this show during the lunch hour discussion at my work place. Finally, I went to work after a week's worth of bed rest and recovery from the accident. Limping in pain, sitting and having my lunch , my colleagues wanted to distract me from my pain and had started a conversation which landed up with Connexion rather unexpectedly. I was completely fascinated by the concept of the game show. As soon as I came back home from work yesterday, I watched the programme on Youtube. Needless to say, I was quite amazed by the difficulty level of the questions.  One can easily find out the answers. But, the timeframe that is given to figure out the tie-in between the images and unscramble the answer is indeed an uphill task. Hats off to the show producers especially the guys who are involved to create such creative questions for pulling of such a stunning show in a very seamless manner amidst the always and never-ending, teary-eyed mega serial killers!

Epilogue:

I knew I had forgotten to give the epilogue to my previous blog. I was wondering how I can purge myself of the guilt as the idea of structured creativity rightfully belongs to the great Edward Bono. Wondering how I can set things right, it was then I saw Connexion. Things just hit me like a violent typhoon. As soon as I saw my ever show, instantly I came up with the bright 1000 watts idea to link up my previous blog with my new blog using the concept of Connexion - Lateral Thinking!

The Infant Age of Structured Creativity !

Just imagine this scenario. An invading army is very close to our border and waiting for the right moment to strike and unleash their brutality on us. Supposing the weather is extremely cold and an important strategic soldier fails to be up and ready for the war. Think about the consequences in such a hostile & combative environment . The catastrophe will be immense and beyond the bounds of our wildest imagination. The chaos and pandemonium that surely ensues after such a lethargic portrayal of indiscipline will definitely create a frenzied furore across the length and breadth of the country.

It simply gives us the shivers when we merely imagine this hypothetically impossible situation and its possible potential ramifications. 

But, this is what is happening in real life due to lack of discipline and self restraint in our people. The gross misuse and abuse of freedom made me wonder as to whether the Britishers had done the right thing to give us our much needed independence in the first place.  Such is the appalling dearth of discipline in the country - be it the media with the reporting of their news, politicians who rule the country, eminent personalities and celebrities involving themselves in scandals and the list can forever go on in the upper echelons. Coming to the next strata of population that occupies the vast majority of our motherland , even we are not disciplined. Right from simple adherence of traffic rules to payment of taxes, loyalty to our spouses, sincerity in our work  - the list can again continuously go on - we not only misemploy our freedom but we exploit it to our undue advantage without giving much heed and forethought to the consequences of our actions. For instance, if the old man hadn't come in the wrong direction then I wouldn't have had the accident in the first place and sustained the painful injuries which I am suffering now. What if I had died in the accident!! I wouldn't have been able to hear his apology also or write this blog now. That small act of his indiscipline cost me an arm and leg - literally and metaphorically. Even in my workplace, I had requested my boss to grant me the privileges to access Youtube for my Market Intelligence report. One of my colleague comes cooly and asks me to open Youtube for watching some trailers and comedies!!  I had to calmly tell them that "I have work to do. There is a proper place and time to watch those videos. Please watch it in your home". These are just simple and sample real life scenarios. I am sure even you would have encountered such normal and wild acts of indiscipline in your life too.

I understand that people cannot be military-like over night. But, there is a certain permissible level of indiscipline that is acceptable like keeping ones room untidy, not shaving, not grooming oneself properly etc as the net effect is only for the concerned individual. In my opinion even those things can be improved. But, this kind of indiscipline is much better than the kinds that harms other individual and public property.

When confronted with being undisciplined, some carried the belief that creativity should stem from being completely free and unbound to restrictions and that disciplined people are too structured and systematic in their way of life. In a way, they have a point. But once when it comes to creating a compelling and persuasive message that needs to be shared across to a particular group, the use of creativity in such a situation cannot be employed to build castles in the air. Rather, the creativity must be tuned and be given a proper shape and structure so that the intended point reaches out to the target audience so that they appreciate the crux of the message in a better light.

Being creative for the sake of creative to be different from others does not add much sense to the people any more. The huge difference lies in the way we are being creative so that our creative ideas are meaningful and adds value to others thereby enriching their lives. This makes our creativity to be more purposeful thereby making a difference in this world. This is precisely what Steve Jobs did with his more than successful ipods or iphones. He radically innovated on the existing walkmans or mobile phones to create a simple and simply dashing and dazzling ipods and iphones that the consumers cherished to have it as their prized possessions.

Structured creativity is also a type of creativity that must be judiciously used depending on the circumstances. But even for this type of creativity to develop, grow, prosper and flourish, a congenial, conducive and the correct environment should be laid out as a fundamental platform for an individual to explore and tap into their infinite creativity.

Let me just give an example to illustrate this point further. Supposing someone asks me " I want a car under sub 4m". I can come up with a wild and ground-breaking idea of a double decker car with 6 wheels and doors opening only from one side. But, the feasibility of this idea might take a hit when this creative idea is to be implemented in reality. On the other hand, if some one tells "I want a normal car under sub 4m with new features that can be practically implemented". Then again, we need to have a proper feasibility study of our fresh, new features but at least the scope of our creative thinking can be very focussed and targeted to reach our objective efficiently and effectively.

Ultimately, the context defines and mandates how wild our creativity should be for a particular situation. When we are writing a novel , then we must be highly creative and put in all our visualization process into the big picture to have the perfect novel, infused and peppered with facts and history, if necessary, like the way Dan Brown does in his books or it can be truly creative like the way JRR Tolkien created a new land, history, species and language in his "LOTR" trilogy.

Whether this blog is a result of structured creativity or the result of an untamed creative idea that eventually became so organized and methodical, I leave it to you.

The Karmic Love - A Teaser

Countless triangular love stories have been written and depicted in novels and movies alike. I wondered why not give the stories a new tstwi and a run for their money through The Karmic Love.

The  Karmic Love has been pending in the pipeline for a very long time - 2 years - to be very precise. It will not be just any random romblog but also portray a very close reflection of my personal life for some of the characters in this tale. 

Without much ado, I would like to give a glimpse and gist of the story.

The teaser:

A loves B who loves C. But, C is madly in love with D. Unfortunately and unknown to A, D loves A. Upon the arrival of E, D immediately falls in love with E. One character discovers that she is a lesbian during the course of the story. A's best friend also has a crush on B.

Who marries whom? Does at least any of the 5 characters eventually and ultimately become a romantic pair ?  Best friend's crush crushed or became a joyful happy ending?  What happens to the lesbian?

For answers to these probing questions, kindly wait, watch and follow my blog column regularly.

PS:

F marries one of them in the story.

The Sweet Hurt

Aristotle once said "The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances". 

Like how we used to take a relaxed walk in the park, this quote gently strolled into my mind when I was working on Tuesday in my bay amidst the intense pain caused by my severely sustained injuries in the road accident. On Monday evening, I felt I was okay despite my severe lacerations, abrasions and gashes on my hand and leg. The doctors were very surprised that I had no fractures for such an awful accident. They had asked me to take bed rest for a couple of days. I did exactly what was told for my body to heal and recover itself. So, I decided on Monday evening that the time was right for me to go to work on Tuesday in spite of the my mom's repeated insistence to stay at home and take rest on Tuesday too. 

As usual, I started to work by 820 am. But, instead of reaching by 9am , I reached the office by 920 am. It was not the traffic. The problem was that I couldn't grip the accelerator properly as a severe abrasion on my right hand and laceration near my right elbow prevented me from driving at the appropriate speed. To make matters worse, when I gripped and turned the accelerator using my right hand, I could feel the tremendous gravitational pull near my right elbow. I realized it was just the strain that was caused due to the immense pressure that I exerted when I kept my elbow straight during the drive. After a harrowing driving experience, I reached the office by 920 am. While parking the vehicle, one of my colleague was exceedingly appalled on seeing the state I was in. I did not realize that my situation was THAT bad until then. This was just the beginning. My entire team were horrified when they just gave me a superficial look at my hands. I was thanking God that they did not have the opportunity to see my knees. The gash was beyond the normal words of description. I knew then I had committed a grave crime by going to the office in such a disturbing condition. Wrapping up my work and giving the schedule for the week to my team, I left from work by 5 pm. 

The return journey was as torturous as the morning drive. The only difference was that the searing pain had multiplied exponentially to inexplicable magnitude. I drove straight to the hospital to have my injuries examined by the doctor. Having had a few comforting & chiding words from her, I realized that my guilt was killing me inside for going to the work place in that agonized plight. 

"Your best teacher is your last mistake" - This adage gave me the much needed easement and relief from my guilt. But, it was still persisting in my system like a impending volcanic eruption. Ultimately, I grasped the core crux of the matter and finally got the picture accurately - "We see things as we are and not as they are" 

There is always always always a silver, gold or platinum lining to every situation. It is just that we need to keep both our physical and mental eyes in complete unison and in a state of consciousness to receive the message when we start looking and analyzing things differently.

Though the nasty hurt is very bitter even now, there is a gentle pleasantness in it too. 

The Ugly Beautiful

Arjun (screaming): No. I don't want politics. It is a highly stinking sewage

Manivanan: If you call it sewage, then why not get into it, clear it up and make it pleasant for everyone?

Forgive my poor translation but Sujatha's well-chosen and well-worded slap on the face dialogue in the Tamil film "Mudhalvan" sums up the perfect state of affairs concerning the politics in our country. 

I am not going to go into the formal politics regarding our netas and babus who govern our country. They are highlighted, displayed and portrayed by the media in rich limelight everyday giving the much needed entertainment factor for us besides the deep betrayal, disgust and resentment that we feel for them at their attitudes, behavior, dishonesty and overt lies. I felt that I would rather explore the day to day politics which we encounter in our lives.

I wake up in the morning and after completing my morning rituals, I commence to work @ 820 am so that I can wade through the traffic easily and reach my office by 9 am. Stepping down from the stairs, you would want to peacefully take your vehicle and start to work. But, our esteemed neighbour will find the perfect time to carp " You had parked your vehicle in my space last night". Despite having a valid and genuine reason, I know that if I start explaining myself to him I wouldn't be on time to work. Muttering an apology and starting to work, you know that however safe and sound you drive, there would still be persons to criticize your driving. You drive rash. You get scolding. You drive fast. Scolding. You drive slow. Scolding. So, to avoid these comic characters, you drive to the extreme left/right of the road - Yep. the guess is right - we would still be luxuriously showered with unprintable words that are too strong for our delicate ears. After a successful scolding session, I manage to eventually reach my office between 855 am & 9am everyday. Now, the real drama starts. You work sincerely. You get spoken behind your back that you are being artificial. Ignoring the catcalls and focussing your effort and energy on the task in front of you, the web of people to speak behind your back just keeps on increasing at an alarming rate much faster than our galaxies expand. I know and understand that I cannot antagonize any colleague however brazen they are with their comments. Office Politics at its peak to the extent that even Mount Everest seemed smaller to such petty politics. So, what do I do now. Get a very quick 10 minute coffee break to ease up the tension and have a quiet time for myself. Unfortunately, we will have another situation here. I would be standing in the line to get the token for the coffee. Then suddenly you will find an over smart person trying to cut the queue citing some random XYZ reason for their actions. You do not want to pick up an argument with them. What do I do "Yes please". It does not stop with it. Similar situations happen to you during lunchtime also. So, the morning session is done. When you have calls and the client is being unreasonable in their demands, you know that it is not at all possible. They might even bite our heads in the process. But, in the most professional and polished demeanour, we enlighten them that what is possible is possible. The rest is not impossible but difficult to implement right away. So, the calls stretch till 830pm in the night and sometimes late into the night depending on the time zones. Patience. patience. patience. After a gruelling day's work, you once again encounter the same scolding scenarios before and at last reach your home sweet home. You have you wifi on and check the messages. Smile at funny updates and status and your mom gets suspicious that you are in love with a girl. She starts asking probing questions in unthinkable and unimaginable ways that even a seasoned lawyer would have to come to your mother to take up training classes with her on the art of asking questions. Just like how a warrior defends their kingdom, you defend against your mom's inquisitive questions. Finally, dinner is served. You have your dinner and hit the rack for the loop to continue again. 

This is when I felt something was terribly amiss. The loop needs to stop else I felt I would continue to be a victim of the circumstances again and again and again. So, what was actually happening here?

I realized that the moment people came together, formed and framed societal rules, politics became an integral part of the society. Every person has their own expectations, mindset, beliefs, attitudes, their own definition of right and wrong and has their own unique levels of patience and tolerance. I gradually became aware and cognizance of the fact that politics has pervaded into the very DNA of our system. I comprehended the indubitable truth at last and finally came in tune with the reality that escapism is not the way out. So, to traverse and wiggle through this complex interactions with multiple stakeholders, instead of running away from politics - be it home, office etc, I understood that it's I who needs to stay firm and hold my ground diligently by taking up responsibilities for each and every action - big or small. 

Politics - As I saw it - Poly: Many and Tics: Blood sucking parasites. That's how I viewed politics to be. But, since my realization on the truth, there's a beauty now in this harsh and cruel game. The everyday challenge. The daily fun. The day-to-day enjoyment.

To sum it up, Life is really and literally how we want to see it - It is red when we wear a red glass and green on wearing a green glass. The choice is always ours to know when to use which glass.

Epilogue:

Just wanted to try a different writing style for this blog so that a true and accurate picture is given in a simple, direct, straight forward and lucid terms.