Inspired by the OPA framework..

O - Objectives P - Principles A - Attributes
' A framework that can be used in any domain..', said Dr. James D Arthur during one of the Virginia Tech contact sessions on 'Software Design and Quality', here at SP. Words enough to switch me into another 'gear' and get my thoughts headed in a parallel direction.
Well.. here I am.. now..

Everyone of us has a purpose, so to say, 'an objective' which we hope to achieve by the end of our lives. Infact, to some, it may be 'a set of objectives.' To achieve these objectives, we formulate some methods or ways of living our lives. These methods or processes are governed by some principles that we lay down for ourselves. Also, we are blessed with attributes such as resilience, strength, character, dynamism, boldness, helpfulness etc... (any adjective that can describe a human being, really! :) )

If you think about it, how happy or how successful we feel at any point in time, depends on how we go through life, within this framework. Whether or not we feel, we have achieved or in the process of achieving our objectives, within the boundaries of what our principles allow us to do, feel or think AND using the potential hidden in our attributes, indeed determines how happy and satisfied we feel with our lives.

On a lighter note, for instance, say Betty's objective is to marry someone really really rich! :D
And say her principles are honesty, sticking to ethics, straight forward behaviour, kindness etc. Betty would do whatever she can to get him, keeping in mind that she should be honest, true in the way she portrays herself, should not do anything illegal, should not harm anyone in the process or whatever else.. :)
And the attributes that might help her achieve her objective could be: intelligence, smartness, beauty and sex appeal, networking skills, communication skills etc etc :D

Yes, there are always constraints thrown in and external factors do sometimes control our lives more than we can. But, the point is those are common to the whole world. Arent they? Right now, I feel like being more of an extreme optimist than a realist, I believe thinking in this framework makes me happy.
So, we all work under constraints and in the OPA framework, unknowingly or not...

This post is dedicated to Arthur Sir for the wonderfully enriching sessions and his truly warm demeanor. Thank you, Sir.. :)

A burnt child dreads the fire..

Have you ever felt let down by yourself? When you feel helpless about something that you have done? Thats the worst kind of feeling you can feel! You know you could have done better, but you got mislead by your own judgment, your own reasoning, your own feelings.
Sometimes, things can go so wrong that you get scared of them!

Experts say, experiences in childhood and teenage - whether good or bad, can have tremendous influence on our minds and thoughts. And some of these have such a long term impact on you that your entire being is based on them.

Being attached to people, be it friends or family, has not particularly worked for me. So, every new encounter with a stranger which I can see move gradually towards me being attached to him/her scares me.... drives me up the wall! I know past failures don't determine future events, but the fear of myself is there and it haunts me..

Thats it for now.

Vagabond

Picture this - Cold dark sea. Waves a hundred feet high, lashing against each other; pleasantly. Its not a stormy night. Neither is there thunder nor lightening. By a quick glance, you can feel the depth of the water. There is calm everywhere, a calm so calm that it exudes endless chaos beneath the surface. As those magical waves dance in their realm, a ship emerges from the far left of the screen. It looks merry and pretty.

A closer look shows you people, of every kind you can imagine. Beautiful people. Rejoicing. Raising a toast. Some quietly listening to soft music. Some dancing to their own sweet tunes. Mothers fussing over their little children. Men circling around the Roulette table placed right at the center of the deck. Some others huddled around the Pool table. You pause this sequence here, thinking aloud that there would not be much you would want to remember here; nothing interesting enough to hold your attention.

Seems like quite an ubiquitous scene after all... until you notice one small speck on the lower right of the screen. In the sea. Looks like some creature. You un-pause the sequence. The creature seems to be doing something animatedly. You zoom in. You see a girl? No, a woman? Curious, you zoom in further. Its a pretty brunette, possibly in her early twenties, with her hair let down, skin so fair and glowing that you can almost see the reflection of the moon on her cheeks. Eyes so sharp and soulful that you cant stop staring at them.

But, there is something amiss. Wait. What is this beautiful little thing doing here? She has fallen off that ship! Your heart races as you watch her cling onto a large chunk of wood with one hand while trying to wade her way through the water with her hand. You stare bewildered. Even after a minute of you watching her, she doesn't seem to have moved an inch.

Surprisingly, there are no shouts. No wails. No words uttered. Seems like she is trying hard to say something. Its as if she starts speaking and mid-way her words freeze and she is unable to complete whatever she began. She tries hard to speak so many times. But in vain. Slightly frowning brows betray only a wee bit of anxiety. She does not look worried that she might drown. She does not look like she is struggling to be back on the ship. It almost seems like she is there, but not so unexpectedly. You look at her and feel the pulse in your veins speed up. You don't understand what is happening.

Her face and behavior mask many an emotion but betray a dozen traits. Distinct ones. A sense of forceful determination towards something distant. Strong will. Sharp eyes pierce through the night. Those eyes glisten with hopes for the morrow to come. You watch her slowly try to move the plank she is on, along the direction of the wind. With every passing minute, she is moving farther away from where she came.

Disturbed by whatever you are seeing, you decide to step back. A few hours later, you notice the plank has in fact moved so much farther that now the ship appears like a speck. The girl has shut her beautiful eyes and she seems to be lying on the plank. Is she dead? Unconscious?

You realize its neither. She has simply slept off. Waiting for her plank to take her ashore. Waiting for the morning light to caress her gentle skin and fill her with more hope.

Its only a cold dark night.

My first tryst with an IIM: Episode 1

It all began with a ping from a dear friend here at SP who said – ‘ye link dekh le. see if we can participate in something.’ Our last paper together was for XIMB where we got wait listed for the finals. He had worked on it mostly while I had just done the final decorations as its called. This time, it was my turn. Tons of assignments (I remember we had at least 7 assignments to be submitted in that week) and a couple of exams lined up before the Diwali break wasn’t really the ideal time to work on a paper. However, we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. You call it pushing yourself to do more in times of stress? I wouldn’t disagree.

As expected, we had to squeeze time in between our hectic schedule to do what we liked to do more than what we were supposed to do… :P Soon we came to the day when we split for Diwali vacations! A couple of meetings and some brainstorming was all what we had done. I felt even worse cuz this was my responsibility primarily and I had been unable to come out with something concrete. Promising myself that I would work on it on the flight, I packed up hurriedly and left Mumbai. Much to my discomfort, I got a seat in between two very talkative co-passengers. Forget about doing something productive, I could not even open my laptop for a few minutes with some silence around me! :D

I arrived at Bengaluru in the evening only to find myself so excited to be home that I forgot all about everything else until late that night. Next morning, I woke up with Mamma’s familiar ‘yeddu yeLallva??’₁. Smiling to myself, that I was finally back home, I dived into my paper – Need for shopper marketing to complement Consumer Marketing.

Skipping breakfast, lunch et all, in the midst of a series of ‘baiguLa’ ₂ from ammamma ₃ and amma, I finished what I had set out to do. In the bargain, I even missed the marriage of a friend! :P

There…. That was our entry for Papyrus – Marketing event of IIM I’s fest IRIS.

After days of waiting and endless refreshes on the home page of IRIS, I almost gave up! I still recall how I slept off at 3 AM on 16^th morning hoping the results would soon be announced. The next thing I remember was excitedly talking later the same morning to Ayush on the phone! He was saying – We have made it!! And I could not believe my ears! It was as if a dream had come true.

With that began our plan to go to IIM Indore… :)

Watch this space for more…

1 – wont u wake up in kannada

2 – scolding or rebuke in kannada

3 – maternal grandmother in Telugu; call her that cuz she is a telegaite.. :)

Trip to Honnemaradu!

Although the trip was before I took off to Mumbai, I could not find time to upload pics that I had taken. Here they are finally, in the next few posts..

Honnemaradu is truly one of the loveliest places I have been to so far..
Lovely people too, although I hardly knew half of them.. :)
Absence of anyone too close for comfort made me feel much better than I had expected to..

To me this trip meant a lot more than just a trip..
I was mostly lost in my thoughts, reflecting upon umpteen things, recalling things that I had to do, planning ahead, remembering good old days etc..
.. for, I knew back then that my stint with Mumbai had a very good chance of making me a different person.

Well, here I am after 5 months at SP and I find myself quite different already! :P

Browse through the pics and tell me what you think..

PS: This post is dedicated to me! :)
(taking a bow..)

the essence of the place is captured in this one pic, for me..!

and the essence of what the place and the trip meant to me is captured in the following two! :)

love this composition!! makes me feel lost everytime I see this pic... :)
maybe more to do with the place than the pic!

baninalli yeke heege theladu thiruve, O modave?

the boat with the tree gives a very resort look to the pic.. :)

tried getting reflections of trees which were at a distance.. they look disconnected from the actual objects, but I like the composition nevertheless.. :P

attempt at capturing some more of those distant trees...

one more attempt..! :) liked this composition better tho..

tried gettting a lazy and dreamy look in this one..

one of my fave snaps this!

love the fact that the object has merged seamlessly into the reflection itself.. or so it seems! :)

like the variety of sunk trees I was able to get into the frame... chotu.. motu.. tall.. they are all there! :)

does'nt this one remind you of an incomplete bench? its as if the top of the bench was blown apart!

in a different perspective, these two look like 2 lil stools waiting for someone to perch on them! :D

thought I would get all the 'wild' barks in one...

I know I can crop this one more to highlight just the tree... but well, wanted some water too.. to get the effect of a lone tree.

love this one cuz I think I have been able to do justice both to the object and to the reflection.. :)

Random thoughts

• The biggest challenge at any given point in time is to BALANCE between different odds.

• It is but extremely difficult to ensure that what I mean to do IS what is meant to you.. But, well.. Is THAT important??

• US = U and I => In US, U and I are AS mutually exclusive as they are inter-dependent..

bites!

The closer anything is to perfection,
the more criticism it is likely to get..?
The closer anyone is to being what you want to be,
the more you want to compete with him/her..?

well, maybe not...

PS: if u see the last few posts, they have all pretty much been of the same shade.. tons of more interesting ideas flowing in my head.. hope to write soon!

Perceptions

Have you ever wondered what perceptions are all about?
Is it about the one who is perceiving? Or is it about the one who is being percieved?
Recently I realised that perceptions are about what you want to see, not necessarily what really is. Then again, who decides what really is, is real? :)
Like there was this friend of mine from class who thought I am never quiet and never reflect.. :D
Can that be farther from reality, now? People who know me can sure vouch for it being exactly the opposite.. especially the latter part.. :P
But well, the point being that's what he thought..

There was this other exercise where each one was asked to identify some qualities in a person which stood out.. And guess what, people actually thought this aimless and goalless person is ambitious!!!! :D
Oh man! cudnt help laughing... really... :))

Perceptions are what I called it, now... :)

lighter side...

heard of the 'two and together' paradigm?

one of those 'I know I got the focus right' pics! :)

maybe we have come too far in urbanizing the land..?

here I am..!

swamp hen.. got her finally! :)

walkin off....