Musings on Executing a Wall Bed or Murphy Bed

The cost of real estate has ensured that I stay hooked to the concept of wall-bed. I think any piece of estate that makes multiple uses possible is a gift. I think wall-bed is one piece of furniture that is crucial to make use of the precious estate we own.

It's been a while now and I've been reading and checking videos of different kinds of wall-beds.

A bed is typically a stationary object but a wall-bed involves movement. One movement results in bed occupying space for sleeping and another movement results in clearing space for uses other than sleeping. Easy to miss little but important things whenever or wherever movement is involved. So am trying to list them all down here. You can add too in the comments. Here I go.

1. When a wall-bed opens obviously it needs clear space so that it can open fully. Nothing should obstruct the opening and landing of wall-bed legs on the floor. So if, before the opening of the wall-bed, the space was used for some other purpose or occupied with some other objects, one needs to move these objects beyond the space to be occupied by the wall-bed. If this space is visibly marked based on the dimensions of the wall-bed, then it would be a good reminder every time the wall-bed is opened and will result in smooth movements day in and day out.
2. When the wall-bed closes, how does the mattress and the bed-sheets stay in order?
3. When the wall-bed closes, where do you keep the duvets, blankets and pillows? One may need a dedicated space to keep them properly and easily. Of course, when the wall-bed opens, it should be easy and quick to retrieve the same.

Measuring Distraction

I knew I would write this post right after I scanned this piece of paper. And yet, what did I do? I opened an email which led me to open another link before I reminded myself that since I had scanned the format, I should write this post.

If your mobile phone and laptop suck up your time and leave you tired without any feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day, you might just want to do this exercise for a few days and measure your DISTRACTION QUOTIENT.

If you look at the sheet, you'll see 4 columns. You'll also see some symbols and words highlighted in green.

The first 2 columns are sort of 'purposeful'. Obviously, we use mobile phones and laptops for purposeful activities. So the first 2 columns give you the space to record what you consciously decide to do using these gadgets. They are marked with 'right tick' on top. You can fill these columns well in advance.

The 3rd and 4th columns are meant to record the instances of 'unintentional' or 'undetermined' use of these gadgets. The kind of thing I did (narrated right at the start of this post) before I started writing this post. You would fill these columns only after you've distracted yourself and done something which wasn't quite consciously determined in advance.

The ratio of the number of items in the first two and the number of items in the last two should give your DISTRACTION QUOTIENT. I hope you would know how to interpret that ratio :).

The stomach of our eyes and the legs of our fingers

As an incredible and incredibly tired - to the point of puking coz - user of the smart phone and laptop screens, I have often wondered about the role of tablet and phablet (that's such a fuck-all category name, the sound of it, the meaning of it) and the distinctions between the the latter two, and the distinctions between the latter two and the smart phone especially. Without any more long sentences, here are a few thoughts.

I can see two broad categories: consumption devices and production devices.

Mobile phones? Consumption devices in 'sachet' form, literally and also for different purposes. Suited for small tasks, small talking, small give and take of messages, small viewing. (Exceptions galore. Sickening ones largely I guess. Am not a gamer, but have watched users pore into their little screens playing obnoxious games for good stretches. I find reading a decent length article on a mobile mighty difficult for my eyes.)

Laptops, PCs? Production-cum-consumption devices. When we want to do graphics, write articles, some thoughtful long posts, read at length, browse a little long for comparing and shopping things, watching decent length videos or movies and such...

Tapping on touch-screens is not the same as tapping physical keys. Imagine, if we were to lay down the keys of a piano in a touch-screen form or the strings of a guitar in a touch-screen form. How easy or how difficult? Some folks have attempted such innovations. I wonder if they are any convenient.

And a weird statement is, small screen is not the same as big screen. Eyes want certain width of landscape viewing at least to feel comfortable for long stretches of reading, viewing, coding and so on.

Tablets/Phablets take care of the viewing bit, but don't make finger-tapping any easy. The brief periods when I've had a chance to use a Tablet didn't leave me feeling any great.

Making sense of that non-commital answer 'Depends!'

If there's one answer that drives us all nuts, it's 'Depends!'

And there wouldn't be a surprise if your reaction to the above statement is 'Depends!'

Actually 'Depends' is such a dependable answer because it seems to tread those fine lines between 'right' and 'wrong'. Our assessment of 'right' and 'wrong' is always so pathetic that we tend to depend on 'Depends!' to save ourselves. And so very often.

I won't be wrong to say that 'Depends!' means 'Debatable but let's not debate!'

Suppose I depend on the old saying 'excess of anything is bad', then I can also say, 'excess of rightness is wrong'. That might also tempt me to say, 'excess of wrongness is right'. And I might so rightly sound foolish with that excess of wrongness.

Anyway, have a look at this 2x2 matrix on the debate between means/methods and consequences. More elaborately, right and wrong means/methods, and right and wrong consequences.

If right and wrong always involve the 'Depends!' answer, then this matrix above doesn't accommodate explicitly the space for 'Depends!'. No?!

How and where do we accommodate 'Depends!'? Of course, between the Right and the Wrong, no?

Let's make some space...

That's the playing field. Plus-shape :)!

See if you can play around in this field. Take an example:

Means/Method = Coca Cola's incredibly frequent cute advertisements saying 'Open Happiness'

Consequence = Obesity among drinkers of Coca Cola

Can you place it in the matrix? And likewise many other things...

This Matrix of Means/Method and Consequence is just one way to make us ponder... Scale and Consequence. Ways of Reminding and Ways of Influencing. And whatever else you can conjure up, here's the plus-shape playing field.

Meanings of sharing 'family and children' pics on FB

I wonder when Facebook was originally built it carried the tag 'social media'. But since it was meant to become a virtual hangout for friends, typically from a college, it isn't a surprise that it assumed the tag so easily.

Given the current situation, the meaning of 'social' can be talked about until...

Given that the connections to most 'friends' on FB now are at best tenuous, I am trying to make sense of the sharing-family-and-children-pics-(with all the friends)-on-Facebook phenomenon.

1. Sharers know that friends might want to know what's happening in the family. Though these sharers don't know who these friends are exactly. So anyway, the pics should reach these not-exactly-known friends who might want to know.
2. Sharers know who these friends are exactly but don't find any other channel suitable enough to do such sharing. 'Suitable' means convenient or sophisticated or common channel used by all friends.
3. If in point#2, I pick the aspect of convenience, I can conjecture that sharers find it inconvenient to build a channel where they can do the sharing with just those friends with whom they want to share.
4. Sharers find it a matter of pride to show off their 'families', whatever the context.
5. Sharers are not exactly content sharing their moments and space with those they find themselves with. They want the moments and the space of togetherness to spread among other friends too. And who these other friends are, they might or might not know exactly.

It isn't very tough to reproduce. And it isn't tough either to take smiling pics every now and then. And it isn't very tough not to know exactly with whom to share smiling pics of those that we reproduce.

What's tough often doesn't get addressed, nor shared.

Friend, not a follower

Earlier when I would befriend someone on FB, I would get that person's updates on my timeline (basis whatever algorithm FB has). There was no choice.

For some time now, FB has given us a choice. If you don't want to see updates from certain 'friends' on FB, you can 'unfollow'. In which case, you don't have to 'unfriend' to avoid the updates. Just 'unfollow'.

The default is 'follow'. When you befriend someone, FB assumes you'll 'follow' this friend. Follow = Receive updates on our timeline.

Befriend. Unfriend. Follow. Unfollow. Meanings galore.

Let me just open the box using a two-by-two window!

First you shape the system, then the system shapes you?

Not really. First they shape FB, then they shape you!

In a bid to have good conversations with all the friends 'befriended' on FB, a few minutes back I was engaged in calibrating the Notification Preferences of my FB account.

After my clicking some "unfollowing" buttons, FB throws a message:

"It looks like you’re using this feature in a way it wasn’t meant to be used. Please slow down, or you could be blocked from using it."

Funny this is, they've built a system in which users might end up taking up such an activity. And if FB has throw such a message, clearly they dislike such an activity or perhaps they didn't anticipate such an activity. Hurts their business, does it?

The verbiage of the warning message above is an interesting one. Read again:

"It looks like you’re using this feature in a way it wasn’t meant to be used. Please slow down, or you could be blocked from using it."

What do they mean 'it wasn't meant to'? Are they the arbiters and judges of meaning?

'Slow down'. What's that? Are they to decide how fast or how slow should I be operating the system?

As easy as it is to consume and post the rubbish that appears on our newsfeed, FB is alright if we suffer from infobesity. FB doesn't want us to get fitter however.

The Curious Case Of Dubious Quality At Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar

Have been wanting to record this instance for quite a few days. Finally.

In the last few years, a lot of construction and building work has taken place at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar.

Natural stone and granite have also been used in huge quantities.

We've been interested ever since this work began some years back. A few months back we did really get a chance, a small window to show what we can do, what we can supply, the quality et al. We were optimistic.

The construction company (a giant of a company in India) contracted by the Govt. of Gujarat
showed us the kind of material they expected from their suppliers. All top-notch.

We submitted quotations for high-quality in all kinds of stone they asked for, thinking it's such a big project. Such important work, such big construction company.

They found our quotation high. They bought the material from some other supplier(s).

We were disappointed. Just exactly why we were rejected, we were curious. So we went there for a courtesy call and to see what's getting used. The Project Manager proudly urged us to walk around and see the high-quality material they bought at dirt-cheap prices.

When you happen to visit Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar and walk around the Salt Mountain, check the quality of Brown/Yellow Kota Stone. We don't have the audacity to stock even a few samples of that kind of material, forget supplying it to any project.

That's the lamentation part of this post.

What perplexes me is, except a visual inspection, there's no other way to define quality in natural stone. Even a visual inspection will be subject to debate for there's yet no way for us, or them, to articulate and pinpoint and measure the aspects of high-quality, in spite of whatever words written or spoken, unless there's a genuine intention to do quality work. (For example, out here the word 'quality' sounds vacuous! You'll believe only when you see the material with your own eyes and feel it with your own touch.)

Even if we were to articulate the aspects of high-quality, only 100% visual monitoring can prove us right on our judgment of the ridiculous quality but that's not something that we can undertake or they would undertake and disclose.

Quality, material, words, inspection, chuck them! Humein toh Gandhiji se matlab hai!

Out-of-the-box solutions

often come from outsiders. Or comes when we are outside the box, literally or figuratively.

So 3 possible forms of outsider.

1) I am into jewelry retail. Someone who doesn't do the same is an outsider.
2) I am into jewelry retail. Example, I am showering and I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail.  I myself become the outsider. Literally.
3) I am into jewelry retail. I am thinking about something else sitting at my desk in the shop/office and suddenly I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail. Again I become the outsider. Figuratively.

First definition suggests that consultants, friends, father, brother, brother-in-law, jewelry manufacturer, etc. all these can be called outsiders.

I am more keen on looking at second and third definitions. Because the same person turns out to be an insider as well as an outsider.

In the second definition, I've mentioned 'showering' to suggest outsideness. However, it could just be anything. It could also be bird-watching. Or travelling. Or chilling on a beach. Or it could be working on a project other than jewelry retail.

Focus is important for thinking. So is outsideness. It makes sense to be working on at least two projects in any given time-frame.

Interesting Things and Emptiness

In the physical-store windows of all kinds, we see different kinds of things that the shop-keeper stocks and sells. Most often some unusual or interesting things in the window attract our attention and prompt us to enter and check out the stuff.

Once past the entrance windows, we see sections dedicated to a single category of goods.

When we enter an electronics shop like Croma or Vijay Sales, we often encounter number of television screens lined up on the wall. Most often all showing the same visuals. Thankfully. You can focus on one screen. And then another without feeling like you are missing out on something.

When we go to the homepages of the big ecommerce sites, 'blocks of visuals' like TV screens described above stare at us. So what do we stare at? Would depend on what frame we are in. Looking for very specific stuff or just generally in a mood to shop. If we are looking for very specific stuff, do we these blocks of visuals help? Even if we aren't looking for specific stuff, do these blocks help?

I often find that these blocks of visuals on homepages are least helpful to me. And there are many such sub-homepages too that are not really helpful. Only when I really enter a section-page that has listed the specific goods that I really get a sense to getting closer to the thing I am looking for. And even then, I consider myself lucky if I get the stuff I have in mind. And checking beyond a certain number of listings certainly makes it less interesting to shop.

It seems to me that these portals have arranged themselves in this way since they want to offer a lot of interesting things to us in a short span of time so that we can find what we want in a short span of time. Or so that we can spend a hell lot of time browsing the interesting things so that we can eventually buy the most interesting thing. Does it happen that way? Has it happened that way with you?

Facebook has us all, and grossly under-performs

How much can our eyes see in a given moment? How many moments do we have in any given day? How many moments do we spend on reading and going through the FB updates? On how many such moments we feel 'amazing'?

From how many friends (I've got some 850 odd friends) do you see updates on any given day that you check FB? And so, how many friends you would surely like to check updates from? Who are these friends? Given the number of friends, how adept you've become socially as a result of social media?  Apart from friends, how many groups are you a part of on FB?

I spend a considerable time on FB almost everyday. And yet, on reflection I feel no great on most such days. I itch to get updates from some people and I don't quite know if they've posted anything. Why? Simple, everyone's posting a lot of stuff and that lot of stuff is algorithmically curated and the algorithm is no good. If I have 850 in my friends list, and everyone's posting 4 updates on average, there you go. On any given day I have a total of 3400 updates to go through! It's become a super-market of updates!

Is there a way out? A way that can make browsing the FB timeline marginally better and yet significantly effective?

There must be a cap of, let's say, 5 updates for every user. Don't let the algorithm curate. Let all the updates appear in a sequence on the timeline. Let the user figure which updates are worth posting.

Someone will argue, another platform will emerge that will offer 50 updates for every user. Sure, can emerge. Will that be any good? Will that help you read and go through the updates in any better way?

Capping the quantities is what makes something worthwhile. Otherwise the space is wide open. And you aren't even an atomic organism when placed against that space.

I love my bed and he underwent angioplasty at the age of 36

But I don't love this place called my bedroom.

On dictionary.com, I find two meanings articulated for this concept called bedroom.

One says: a room furnished and used for sleeping

Another says: a room furnished with beds or used for sleeping

Just in case the meaning of room is debated and philosophized and spiritualized, here are two meanings that, to my mind, hold sway:

1. space or extent of space occupied by or available for something
2. opportunity or scope for something

Space available for something. Opportunity or scope for something. In this world called India, what kind of space is available for anything? I mean, for practical purposes. If room is 'opportunity or scope', what kind of opportunity or scope is available given our notions, ideas and imaginations of 'bedroom'?

Now have a look at this bedroom. I randomly picked it up searching on Google.

All the houses that you've been to, how many bedrooms have a similar layout? There goes room that means 'availability', 'scope', 'opportunity'.

And all construction companies, including the mightiest ones which are considered 'brands', keep feeding us with the ideas of 'BHK' (bedroom, hall, kitchen). With those thoughts we dream, we buy, we get into the cycles of EMIs, and so often get into those ever-debilitating problems called Lifestyle Diseases, in spite of the earnest attempts to visit the best of the gyms, and to work out on the best of the equipment.

Just yesterday, son of my Dad's good friend, at the age of 36, underwent angioplasty. Going by what I've seen of them, he lives in a house with a fair number of bedrooms and a little lawn as well to boast of.  

Made in School and Sucks

After birth, how much time does a child spend with parents?

If asked, parents would prefer the child to stay at school for as long as possible. Why? Coz they believe that their child learns and grows in school.

If we look at the quality of adult individuals, I would have doubts about learning and growing in school.

Actually after school, parents send their kids to tuition classes and other classes. There are tuition classes all around our store. I observe kids vigorously copying their homework received at tuition classes right before they enter these classes.

Do we then understand that typically parents are incapable of instructing and teaching their child? And therefore, they banish the child from their sights for a really long time of the day? Or do we understand that parents are unwilling to take responsibility of building their child into a great individual?

Or all my questions are ridiculous. Things are just fine.

Ahmedabad is a one-mall city

I just happened to visit the Gulmohar Mall. Saw quite a few branded shops closed. Enquired about the phenomenon with a service executive at one of the shops I entered.

He informed me that after the opening of Alpha One (another significantly bigger mall) footfalls have really really gone down. Saturdays and Sundays are when some crowds gather.

Some time back, I was talking to a Mississippi patron who has a retail shop at Iscon Mall. She said the same thing. Gets corroborated by the fact that a lot of shops have closed down there as well.

I have always found the air-conditioned malls unsuited in the Indian context. For Ahmedabad in particular, I have always wondered if there's a number of people that can help survive even 3 malls. It turns out, only 1 can survive. To me, even that's suspect. Let's see.

Indeed, if we debate the definition of 'mall', Ahmedabad has many which have tuition classes and offices and dental clinics and orthopedic hospitals. In that sense then malls can survive.

Add to this, the quintessential habit of finding a 'deal' makes online shopping quite attractive for people from Ahmedabad. So something like Flipkart et al offers a far bigger mall for Ahmedabadis to get hold of stuff (after checking them physically in the brick and mortar shops).

Long live the malls. 

Gandhiji and the tragedy of getting my clothes ironed

I thought about this some 5 days back.

In my ways of clothing myself, I thought I had reached a Gandhian simplicity. And on occasions I felt proud of it. Yes, thought of matching Gandhiji in matters of fashion can make anyone proud.

So I reached for my lush navy blue Mufti trousers, pulled them on and buttoned myself. And I let my palms caress my butts and feel the freshness of a ironed and washed pair of trousers.

Tragedy has epic proportions and minute ones too. I felt some burnt ends of the stitches that shaped my beloved trousers. For a little moment I felt the pinch of spending yet again, in spite of my simplified wardrobe, on a pair of blue trousers. Oh my Gandhiji!

Actually, Gandhiji surely had it better than I think. May be coz of the environment, or the lack of options available, or pure (intentional or inadvertent) wisdom.

So what if I wear only two colors - white and blue. So what if my trousers are always blue and my shirts always white. My iron-man has a world of options to contend with. My colors and others' colors. The fabric of my clothes and the fabrics of others' clothes. The content of poly-material in my clothes and the content of poly-material in others' clothes. The styling of my trousers and styling of other people's trousers.

And he has to iron them all in a given time to make sure he gets enough to sleep peacefully somehow. He has to show courage and strength to iron them all and feel music in life.

Let's say I want to feel at ease and peace, and also master my skill in the 100 square feet of space I occupy. I would stick to my drum-set. This man sticks to his coals and bicep-exercising mechanical iron. He masters it. He burns whatever comes in the way. He folds them nice and tight. Thinks he has mastered it all. All day long. And sleeps.

I might have to pay a visit to the mall yet again. Perhaps, before that think whether Gandhiji got his khadi ironed or not.

Pics courtesy: laudafinem.com and paulniederer.com

On Andy-Amelie and Coaching

Headline reads Andy appoints Amelie as his new coach. If you read this, you'll gather that for now it's limited to Wimbledon 2014.

The surprise as projected by the media is 'a male player appointing a female as coach'. If you read the article linked to earlier, you'll see that male players have appointed 'females' as their coaches earlier as well. Besides, female players have so often have had male coaches (if I am not mistaken, most female players do).

I haven't played a sport at any significantly high levels, but I have surely trained under 'coaches'. And while I haven't been a sports-coach, I have coached many a student so far under various guises.

To add, with the realization that help's available nowhere and nobody's helping me surely, I have been a coach to myself, and it has been a painstaking ultra-time-consuming process of coaching myself. It takes immense amount of what sounds like self-criticism. An attitude like this among youngsters is often labelled (mistakenly) as 'lack of confidence' or need for 'personality development'.

Andy's announcement of Amelie as her coach makes one review what 'coaching' is and who can be a 'coach'.

While in professional contexts, especially sports, naming and appointing coaches is explicit, coaches come in all forms. Teacher in a school (Taare Zameen Par style), elder brother at home, unusual friend at school, may be girl-friend, a boss et al. Just that the name 'coach' isn't explicit. We are all aware of the famous 'Eklavya-Dronacharya' coaching relationship. Rancho for his friends in 3 Idiots.

In my mind, I have no doubt that every single person who is sensitive to some area of performance and desires to achieve (as Aamir puts it in 3 Idiots) excellence, needs a coach-figure, if not all the time, surely at certain critical junctures in life and preparation. Having said that, those critical junctures are unidentifiable so very often. Which essentially means that this coach-figure is needed all the time.

I bowled in the nets imitating different bowlers. Sometimes I bowled well, sometimes pathetically. Was prodigious at swing but often went down the leg. Coaches would point out the errors sometimes but none pointed out that my front foot (left leg for a right hand bowler) was landing wrongly. I wonder they knew such nuances. I wonder they observed me closely. I wonder they were inclined to focus on any particular individual, since they had numerous pupils to oversee. Of course, I was always an introvert and 'egoistic' stoical moody affable kind of person. But I was at least 15 or 20 years younger than these coaches. Who would harness the raw energy. The one possessing it or the one watching it? I identified this problem with my bowling action just a couple or 3 years back!

Anyway, to close this, coaching requires an engagement that touches the deepest parts of your being. An engagement similar to a love-relationship in many respects. Great eyes, great observation, great reading of skills (not necessarily 'having' the skills) and temperament, great articulation and a lot more. Ivan Lendl helped Andy win the big title. Females might be different in some ways from males but in coaching 'gender' surely isn't a clinching point, and Amelie might just be more effective. Am watching closely.

Photo courtesy: www.telegraph.co.uk

Weather, Food, Movement

A couple of months back, I met the head trainer at a new gym nearby (right above Mississippi Earrings).

While talking, I told him that I don't like 'gyms' as we know them. I prefer running in the open, ground or road. Working out in a garden-like environment than in closed air-conditioned chambers.

He summarized in turn. For fitness 3 things matter: weather, food and moving in that weather. He went on, air-conditioning cuts the weather out. Food is not in gyms' control. And a body among mechanical apparatus does not compare to a body in the sand.

The work environment - corporate, educational, political et al - at numerous mighty places is very much like the gyms. One feels one's exercising but doesn't get substantially fitter.

Ph.D. = Phoolish Doctor?

It's still a 'may' headline but am positive. A lot of places don't consider me suitable in a 'teacher' role simply coz of the Ph.D. requirement.

In the same breath, when I talk with Ph.D.s I am astonished at the (lack of) quality with which a good number of these places make do.

And I can only imagine what's the state of affairs at not-so-known B-schools, and they simply take 2 mighty years away. The folks are reeling under shortages of faculty, and of the grey matter in the heads of their faculty, and then release an ad saying they want 'Ph.D.'. Meanwhile students, when they go out looking for well-paying jobs, brandish an MBA on their CVs, with obnoxious grammar and spelling mistakes haloing that MBA.

-18

That's the score at which, I was informed at an institute I recently visited, a student was (or had to be) admitted to the MBA program.

1. MBA is no longer a serious program.
2. Supply of MBA institutes far exceed the demand.
3. Students are getting dumber.
4. Institute is under pressure for monetary reasons to admit such students.
5. MBA, the tag, has become more important than actual merit.
6. MBA has become a short-cut to everything.

I still haven't gotten down to listing the more serious inferences. Make your inferences.

Elevating to the gym and driving to the divine

Right opposite our society-complex, there's a walled piece of land. In one corner near the entrance to this land there's a family residing with a few cows.

When I go for my run, every time I see quite a few people come to this place. They buy green shoots and feed these cows. I reckon most of these guys have astrological or religious reasons to do this. May be, doing so leads to some or the other believed benefit.

As with all situations and occasions, peculiar folks do turn up. Some come driving in their cars but don't bother to step out. As soon as the green-shoots-seller sees them he picks up a bunch and walks up to these cars. The car-dwellers touch the bunch and this guy feeds the shoots to the cows.

My shop is in a complex which houses a physiotherapy center on the 3rd floor and a gym on the 4th floor. I open my shop when it's typically women's time (that is, latter part of the morning) at these places. And I see all women take the elevator to the gym.

Does it require education to make the carzy folks see that walking down to the cow-shed might benefit them immensely? Or climbing up the stairs might be a good warm-up exercise instead of an inconvenience?