The Wee Little Gestures

There are the small gestures of niceness...the Thank you's and the Please's, that we use around us all the time, be it with family, friends, shops, office, college..........and then there are those you do with complete strangers.

                                         

Not to take away from the ones closer home,  yet, the ones with total strangers seem to have just this different charm....maybe comes from the zero expectation space.

I had it both ways since yesterday and guess, I'm still feeling that little bit of extra joy:

Yesterday, I saw this car waiting at the signal, and as I came by I saw that he was a little ahead of the signal and didn't seem to see it changed to green......he continued to wait... I slowed down to tell him. And I was so surprised to see him catch up with me at the next signal just to say thanks.

And just now, after my morning walk, guess I was a little late....the road was choc o block with traffic, and I was waiting almost five minutes just to cross the road....then there was this car guy who actually caught my eye, guess felt sorry to see the pouring sweat, or caught the exasperation in my face....whatever, he just screeched to a definitive halt to let me pass. I could have bowed...but ofcourse chose instead to lip sync a grateful thanks.....and the flash of a smile I got is still in mind.

Guess, within our circle, we so take for granted the thanks and pleases......but when it comes to strangers, the occurrence in itself is such a joy and a pleasure. Would be nice to pay as much attention to it at all times I'd think....in the telling and the receiving......that much more joy all around :)

Reality looks like this.....

A beautiful video...



Great job, Funk You !!

Don't Let Others Opinions Rattle You

Think about the last five times that something dragged you down.

There's good chance that four out of those would have been the consequence of another opinion....either something someone said, or someone did, or you perceived as someone thought. 

A casual remark by a colleague 

A slight from a friend

A fight with your spouse

A reprimand from your parents

Even a weird look at a store
A sideways glance by a neighbor

Think a little deeper into the issue. What does it make you feel?

Maybe sorry, angry, anxious, depressed, worried, small.....any one or more of those feelings, all those negative feelings which in essence touch a deep sad space within.

So much sadness and negativity triggered from an opinion that the other has about us....real or perceived being secondary...it's still about an opinion.

You'll find that a lot of those times, the negative feeling is caused by the 'lack of approval' or the 'actual disapproval' of others. The need for approval runs deep....it has been conditioned in us from the day we were born. Approval from others gives us a sense of higher self-esteem. We’re convinced that their approval and recognition matters to our self worth, and impacts how deeply we value ourselves.

In fact a lot of decisions that we take are again based on opinions ......approval or disapproval of others. Be it minor decisions like having a late night with friends ( if my husband says yes, but with a sulky face, the evenings gone) buying a pink dress or a purple dress ( oh..you think this looks better?).....or major ones like, do I quit my job, do I continue in a relationship, do I shift home .....we seem to allow another opinion to not just influence, but even direct a lot of our decisions, and thus largely the course of our lives itself.

So, do they think better, do they know you better than you know yourself, do they have a control over your life, do they have more rights ..............what is it?

Where is our own opinion here. 

It's a loop many of us are caught in, and what we need to get out of is a nice strong dose of self trust. Why do we trust the other over our own opinion. And very honestly, giving an opinion is so easy. Observe a little, and you'll start to see that they may not even be listening to their own opinion. They might in fact be mulling over your opinion of them (given as unthinkingly)

Can we think of claiming our own rightful space. Respect ourselves some more. Trust our thinking some more. Love ourselves some more.

And trust me, once you're there, you'll see magic happen....you'll see others respect you, trust you, and love you even more.

Who Moved My Cheese

I'd read this book, first time maybe fifteen years back, and I now realize that back then I'd so totally missed the basic message in the book....guess direct evidence that what you will absorb is only what you are ready for :)

It's a small book of simple parables about 'change'.....in essence to move out of your comfort zone... move beyond your fears.... towards achieving what truly fulfills you.

The story is told through four characters who live in a maze and who are looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese here is the metaphor for what makes you happy, and the maze is life, where you look for what you want. There are four imaginary characters, two simple minded ones called Sniff and Scurry and two more complex ones called Hem and Haw, each to represent different facets of ourselves. Sniff, who sniffs out change early... Scurry, who just scurries into action... Hem, who denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse.... and Haw, who learns to adapt in time when he sees change can lead to something better.

You pretty much journey through the maze with Haw, experiencing his difficulties in moving out of the comfort zone, how he overcomes them, and what he learns in the process.

Lessons like how when you take that leap of faith out of your comfort zone, even when you do get discouraged, you remind yourself that, as uncomfortable as some moments of risk might be, it was in reality better than staying in a cheeseless situation. And how present situations can get moldy like cheese but its so gradual that you don't notice it happen.

And the basic realization that what stops you is your own fear... You change what you believe, and you change what you do. And how through the process you even find a better part of yourself, one that recognizes that it was safer to be aware of ones real choices, than to isolate oneself in ones comfort zone. 

Life is to be lived, so be ready to change quickly and enjoy it....again...and again....

Kudos to The Bangalore Police

What really caught my attention is how the Bangalore City Police used social media during the recent cauvery crisis that hijacked the city. Monday morning all was normal. Around noon news of protests started to come in and within the hour we were hearing how aggressive and violent it was, buses trucks and cars burnt, tamil owned establishments attacked, malls stoned... and the news spread so quick that it started to create panic. 

I was no exception...when I heard how bad it was getting, I decided to store up on some basic supplies.  Even as I was buying, there was this gang of bikers with sticks and flags who came and force shut the kirana shop...even in our calm and sleepy Jayanagar galli. I then went further, only to see tyres burning at every crossroad, totally deserted roads, small groups of scared faces....the tension was palpable. The city was in the grip of fear.

And as is rife in such situations, rumors started to spread.....of sec 144 here, curfew there, bandh on this day, rasta roko on that day. What was impressive is how the Police used social media. They used twitter, FB, website.... to put the facts out there. The moment you got some news on whats app, there would be someone else who put a screen shot of the police fb page saying it's not true. 

Sec 144 was later imposed, but this was even before that. They also did two additional things: a fb post which said that any arson or attacks anywhere and we could take a picture and send and they would take care of it right away. And second, imposing section 66, which said that spreading news without actual evidence, was punishable. 

Just to know the truth at times like this.....it instilled confidence, and I believe this played no small part in getting the city back on it's feet within a day. My respect for them has definitely gone up many points. Kudos and Thanks Bangalore Police!!!

Blistering Barnacles

Well, guess that's as Tintin specific as it gets. Any Tintin reader would need no introduction, and a non Tintin reader would have no clue..... as I doubt the phrase has ever been used outside of Tintin.

I was a huge Tintin fan. Actually, more than me Praveen, my brother was, and between us we had a decent collection. I'm fairly sure I've read all of the twenty four comics multiple times each, and my brother went one step further....he recently bought himself the whole collection. Just to say how much Tintin was part of our growing up years. 

So when Deepak and Diksha recently did the walls of a cafe called Blistering Barnacles, I felt an immediate bond.  This is their artwork from the cafe.

The inimitable  Captain Haddock

I'm not sure if this one belongs there, but anyways it's Deepak at work, so putting it in.... for a bit, I couldn't tell if the chair was from the painting or real :)

What a lovely piece.......

Wonderful work guys......right from the name, to Captain Haddock with his colorful expressions, and the great detail in the last picture with Tintin and Thompson and Thompson, and little snowy ofcourse. Nice chance to reminiscence, and, loved the work too !!!

The Roofshot Manifesto

A worthy read from Luiz Andre Barroso, Google VP of Engineering

Google’s “moonshot factory” is inspiring and ambitious, but there’s a less talked-about route to many of Google’s great achievements -- the consistent, short-term, incremental “roofshots” that make our products better year after year.

Don’t get me wrong. I want flying drones that can bring me fresh produce. I’m excited about contact lenses that measure blood sugar. And I look forward to the day that self-driving cars are on the road everywhere. These initiatives are examples of some visionary programs being pursued by Google and Alphabet teams, collectively referred to as moonshots -- disruptive, 10X leaps in technology.

But there has been a growing perception that moonshots are the primary model for radical innovation at Google, and chiefly responsible for our greatest product and technical achievements. What I have seen during my 15 years at Google does not match that perception. I contend that the bulk of our successes have been the result of the methodical, relentless, and persistent pursuit of 1.3-2X opportunities -- what I have come to call "roofshots."

When I was a software engineer in Search, I witnessed how our product continuously got faster and more amazing. It happened through thousands of scoring code changes, new click data, faster networking, clever use of in-memory indices (later through Flash memory), and so on. Each of them a roofshot. The combined result, though, was awe-inspiring.

Our datacenter innovations followed a similar storyline. We started with a pile of machines in third-party facilities and decided we could do better. We kept gaining electrical efficiencies, changing how airflow was provisioned, improving maintainability and automation of repairs processes, and learned how to rethink datacenter design as a computer design problem. Roofshot after roofshot led to some of the most efficient and reliable datacenters in the world.

Seen from afar, these kinds of achievements could be mistaken as moonshots. They were, in fact, sequences of roofshots. A sequence of roofshots is a compelling innovation model that can produce both quick returns and sustained, transformative results. A 1.3X roofshot per quarter is a clever way to achieve the equivalent of a 10X moonshot in less than 3 years, with the added bonus of giving you a 30% improvement in the first 12 weeks!

Although true moonshot leaps are rarer, particularly in mature engineering areas, we must learn how to identify and seize them. So how do we find those rare opportunities? I subscribe to the artist Chuck Close’s position that “inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Moonshots tend to reveal themselves to people who chase roofshots with passion.

I’ve had a chance to contribute to some of Google’s successes over the years and had a front row seat to many other wonderful achievements by my colleagues. If there is a winning formula, it is this: go out there and dream big; then show up to work the next morning and relentlessly and incrementally achieve them