BHK - Residential Architecture thinking

Check the letters highlight by the red circle above. Says 3BHK. B stands for bedroom, H for Hall, K for kitchen. That's what typical residential projects highlight.

How much space does an individual typically get in this country? Parks and tracks are very limited to say the least. Either hopelessly maintained or crowded to the brim.

And the specific space which is always available to a common man, is called bedroom. That's right. That word has 'bed' embedded. And since it's a bedroom, the central element of the room is bed. So what is a person likely to do? Hit the bed and laze or sleep.

I reckon, instead of calling it bedroom, if it were called personal-room, it would be far better. The emphasis would move from 'bed' to the person and how he would use the available space.

Also perhaps, the space might not necessarily be filled with bed. It could just as well be free for this person to do whatever. Bed could be spread or unfolded when needed.

Having personal space could be the biggest factor in cultivating habits that lead to fit and healthy bodies.

Interviewer asks, "So why Mississippi Earrings?"

On occasions, when I've applied/pitched for some interesting job or assignment and people check my CV and ask me about what I am doing currently, and I tell them that I've set up a venture of my own called Mississippi Earrings, I've received some of the funniest responses.

Some are astonished: EARRINGS!!! MICA Grad, Communications pro, and earrings!
Some ask, how is it doing? If I say it's doing decent, they ask, so why a job now?
Some ask, but why did you venture on your own?

Such questions. I pity these folks who have very little to ask but these questions. Especially the 'why' question. Thinking for a couple of seconds can give them all these answers. But wtf, they've been trained to ask 'why'.

But then questions are not meant for evaluating the literal answers. Some questions are oblique ones. In the sense that 'Why Mississippi Earrings?' might be asked to evaluate my vocabulary or the quality of my voice or my body language.

Anyhow, since I haven't converted any of the interviews so far, I have 5 major alternative inferences about the interviewers' judgments of me. Mind you, none of these could be related to the 'why' they ask and to the answer I give to that 'why'. There could be more inferences of course but 5 is a good number.

I don't have the requisite skills. For me it's hard to believe that I don't have the skills. But then there's a possibility that I am fucked up in communicating that 'I have the skills'. In which case, I have licked jack-ass all my life and in all my career so far.

Third could be that I don't have experience in the domain. Fuck the domain, I don't want a domain-dependent job. In which case I am better off not having been selected.

Fourth could be that I am seen one bloody greedy opportunist, who wants to have a venture of his own and earn from a well-paying job/project as well. So I need a kick in the ass for my vice.

Fifth could be that if my venture's doing decent then I would pay more attention to the venture than to the job. So that's how people behave, right? My girl-friend's got a fracture and my mother's admitted in the hospital. So I will take care of only one. Or rather, I will not be able to take care of any of them since my attention gets divided. I am a management grad but 'management' in such a case won't work, they think. So, gone.

'Why' is a scientific question. And ridiculous too. In the context of a career path, all answers to 'why' can be concocted. 'Why' led economists to turn to behavioral economics. And the 'whys' they uncover sometimes are so bizarre that the 'why behind those whys' cannot quite be answered.

You can't ask Mukesh Ambani as to why he has a textile company and why a refinery and then why a retail company. But you will raise questions if I try to execute a strategy which I presented to a client and which was not accepted for whatever reason and which I believed could unlock value and give me some creative satisfaction. You will raise questions if I try to pull off more than one thing. The possibility is, I might just do.

:(

What to say?

Courting danger and smoking

On some occasions, I have given into the urge of smoking. And every time I have smoked I have questioned why people who smoke do so so regularly or find it so difficult to quit.

So here's some theorizing.

For one, 'style' is a strong reason for people to smoke. The holding of a cigarette and smoke coming out of mouth is quite a leisurely style statement. Moving beyond style...

I am always in awe of someone pulling off a difficult motorcycle stunt. I respect the cyclists who can do cross-country riding. I admire the men who scale difficult mountain peaks. In each of these I suppose there is a danger of losing life or doing serious damage to oneself. There's something about courting danger. About taking arduous tasks. It's a signal of 'strength'.

After knowing that SMOKING KILLS, if a person continues to smoke as intensively and regularly as earlier, clearly he's given into a show of strength. That he can risk his life. That nothing can happen to him.

If I go by Rupert Shedrake's theory of morphic resonance, then there's a slight twist to this. Even if people no longer feel that smoking is stylish or manly or a show of strength and still continue smoking, why is it so?

Few decades back, smoking was definitely considered beneficial or manly. And loads of people accepted it as a worthy habit I guess. Going by my understanding of Morphic Resonance, once a good number of people start doing something, then others are likely to do the same (and more quickly) with or without much reason. Repetition of the act of smoking induces habit formation even among people unknown to each other, across distances. Once a novel act, smoking was reinforced by its acceptance by a huge number of people and that still resonates.

Of course, many more factors might be in play but I choose to smoke them out in this piece of writing :).

50% Indians defecate in the open!

For this one reason alone, political parties should be voted out. Or perhaps, for this one reason alone, the 'right to reject' should be invoked.

And India's megapolis and financial capital, Mumbai, would put a lot of cities to shame when it comes to defecation in the open.

I am also sadly wondering, amidst everything - railway budget and this and that - this kind of information just goes unnoticed and untalked about.

Congratulations India!

Why most of us don't have 6-packs

Placement woes

Found this on the front page of AM yesterday. Doesn't come as a surprise. And won't be surprised if the stats in other states are similar.

The numbers are such that I suppose India has to produce jobs for 1 Australia every year. That is insane! Couple the enormity of the number with the quality of governance and structure of education system in this country, I wonder what are we staring at in the times to come.

Anyway, all's not bad. I've plan for some young grads willing to take initiative and be on their own. Will try to connect with some of them and find out.

Afghani Nuskha, Sex, Nudity & Beer

Yes, these've garnered greatest eyeballs on my blog. I'm sure all who've landed on my blog searching for these were lured by the headlines and disappointed by the content ;). An experiment of sorts, it's got good result. Let me call this the short-term dynamics and the dominance of 'baser' instincts. Rest you can infer.

Have a great Monday!

It's the way you make me feel

It's the way you respond.

When it comes to job applications, an applicant's feeling is based on the way the employer (or the representative of the employer) responds. Included in the 'way of responding' is the time taken to respond.

And surely, an employer's feeling is also dependent on the way an applicant responds. Here am just talking from an applicant's perspective.

Process:

1. Employer broadcasts an opportunity to the world.
2. Prospects come to know about the opportunity.
3. Prospects apply.
4. Employer calls for an interview/meeting.
5. Employer takes a decision (or applicant takes a decision).

The negotiation or deliberation always takes place before the 5th step. During this stage, representatives of employers typically do this (the list isn't exhaustive but gives an idea):

• Find the applicant suitable but try to judge 'how badly does he wants it'.
• Find the applicant suitable but try to bring 'the price' down.
• Find the applicant suitable but still try to figure out if they should be adding to the head-count.
• Find the applicant suitable and try to make him join sooner than later.

The last option is the best, of course, for the applicant. The other three aren't bad either until the way to negotiate is 'don't respond'. 'Don't respond' means stay put. Don't communicate at all in response to the applicant's communication. And the impact of 'don't respond' gets either mitigated or aggravated depending on the monetary/occupational situation of the applicant.

Here's what I sense. There's magic to swift response. No matter what the response. Yes, No, May be, Later... It spurs the next action on both sides. It's also a signal about the organization, one that's hard to ignore.

Nude Veena Malik & Free Laptops

These things work it seems.

Alright, let me honestly say that I got tempted to check this page out; the actual purpose of checking Rediff.com homepage was to read about Dev Anand.

An MBA program which always DARED YOU TO THINK BEYOND THE IIMS highlights Free Laptops to lure students into doing the course.

A magazine on the cover of which is a news item WHY NAKED PROTESTS ARE JUST AMATEUR PORN features a Veena Malik nude. I wonder what is this ISI tattoo gonna mean on her nude body.

And all this on a very respectable rediff.com. :)

These things work!

Noise Pollution on Diwali? Give me a break!

It's Diwali. And am in Mumbai. And am checking some greetings conveyed on Facebook.

As observed in the last few years, this year also I find quite a few people conveying 'stay away from crackers, stay away from noise pollution'. I find it surprising.

Surprising because we, who are living in cities, endure the loud droning noise almost every single hour of our waking life. I bet if anyone can call that music or euphony. I bet if this isn't noise pollution of the highest order. But we have hardly cared about making our day to day life free of such noxious sounds.

And here, on a beautiful festival like Diwali, an integral part of which is firing and bursting crackers, we make a hue and cry about noise pollution! Tokenism at play.

Yeah, I know the common refrain: when we bear it everyday why bear it on a holiday. Such is the pathos of life that a festival turns into a mere holiday and, at best, simply a respite from the mundanity and drone of everyday life.

Better to set things right for our day-to-day life or just curb the joy of noise on a festival like this? 

Dhanteras

Today is Dhanteras, an important day of Diwali festival here in Rajasthan.

Here's my SMS to all the members of Krishna Hospital:

--
Dhanteras par kuch aisa karein ki  log aapko dhan dene se na katrayen!

S Soni
--

The same message to you as well. :)