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.

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.  

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

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.

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?

Funny Ellipsis-using Boy

Pic taken from Indian National Congress' FB page

This isn't just about one politician. In fact, politics is only about such ramblings. Sometimes the ramblings come to be believed and politicians chance upon a windfall, on others they find critics like me.

Look at those words:

We want to give power to the people.

Since 'you' want to 'give power', of course who is going to hold the power. Because if you don't 'hold' power, how will you 'give'? In the case of your giving power to the people, can you specify how much power? Surely not enough to make them rise against you, right?

Your politics is our politics.

Whose politics? Poor people's? Is their hut your hut?

Your fight is our fight.

'Fight' implies an opponent. Who is that opponent? My proposal is that when we use the word 'fight', it should always be accompanied by the word 'against' and another word that is placed after 'against'.

So assuming it's FIGHT AGAINST ________. What fills the blank? Inflation? Wow! Assuming we can indulge in a 'fight against inflation', how exactly is the fight seen and measured?

What we have done so far is ensured the dumbness of most people in this country. Education hasn't been good enough to make most of us understand the dynamics of 'inflation'. If we can't completely fathom the dynamics of inflation then how do we fathom 'fight against inflation'.

Vote for him because he speaks the stuff that most of us don't understand.

Which camera do you possess?

Take a good pic, and someone asks you about camera.

Run long, and someone asks you about shoes.

Look good, and someone asks you about the brand or the shop.

Design good earrings, and someone asks you about metal and diamonds.

It's incredible how often we end up attributing goodness to objects, instead of attributing it to our ability/perseverance/insight/practice in using those objects.

What is Mobile Technology? Moronica has an answer!

I come across this term so often. The absurdity of it becomes really profound when I have to stop and take a call on my mobile (handset) while enjoying a leisurely bike ride.

And when I think of this term, I also come to think a bit about the term preceding this ubiquitous term. Information Technology.

Mobile Technology.

Mobile is an adjective saying something about the word Technology. In another era, it could just as well have meant technology that moves (technology that is mobile. This seems like a facile elaboration but hold on a second).

Technology that moves?

Really?! I mean we are carrying that handset with us. It isn't carrying us. Neither does it move on its own. At best, it only leads us to stop in the tracks, whichever track we are on.

Think of it. It's at best a receiver of information. Or rather, receiver of information in different forms. Ok, add a bit more. Wireless receiver of information in different forms. Ok, yet more. Wireless Receiver of information in different forms and 'reminder' of the same. I will pander to the nerds. They'll insist, it's also about gaming. I rest my case.

Again. Mobile Technology.

Without the fancy baggage of what technology companies have made us believe, think about it. Couldn't it just as well mean that technology that 'spurs us to move' or 'enables us to move', or 'inspires us to move'... You get it. That's MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. Technology that moves (the user of the technology).

Yes, one might ask further. 'Moves the user'? How? What is the meaning of 'user'? Is it a car? Shouldn't it be driver?

Good questions! Figure out the answer. I'll share when I have more. Until then, it would suffice to say that Mobile Technology is at best simply a Wireless Technology. The same old 'wireless' that we understand, but in a much more advanced/efficient form. And Wireless is a better descriptor.

Now for the next term. Information Technology.

This term, I sense, has killed the understanding of information itself. It seems now, information that's passed using digital transmission technology is our only conscious understanding of information. Which is text (that can be read), images (that can be seen), sounds (that can be heard). Mark that phrase 'conscious understanding' in the previous sentence.

It's a weird thing to be reminded of the fact that the sense to smell, to touch et al are brilliant means to gather and transmit information. Perhaps richer and more reliable. That pat on your back from behind by a friend meaning to surprise you... So now that Information Technology clouds our understanding of 'information' itself, should we call these forms of information as Sensorial Information. And our senses as Sensorial Information Technology?

As I come to a close here, people have been meaning to distinguish data and information. Perhaps rightly so. In which case, Information Technology is a misnomer. It should ideally be called Digital Data Transmission Technology. DDTT. Sounds better than IT, huh?

And revising my earlier declaration. It should be Wireless Digital Data Transmission Technology. And the gadget that receives such data, Wireless Digital Data Receiver. Or someone more puritanical might call it Wireless Digital Data Transmitter/Receiver. Chemisty/Physics nerds would like to impose their version: Wireless Digital Data Conductor.

And we've got a penchant for short-forms. So Moronica would respond by saying that our body is SDR! And we are in possession of SDTT!

Automobile is a convenient lie and traffic is exactly what it was meant to be

From wikipedia:

The word automobile comes, via the French automobile from the Ancient Greek word αὐτός (autós, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself.

We are still struggling with artificial intelligence. Do you really believe a vehicle moves itself? Then what exactly do you do sitting in that vehicle?

Let's say you don't move the vehicle. Do you still believe that the vehicle is moving itself?

Read more from wikipedia:

The loanword was first adopted in English by The New York Times in 1899.

If the belief of/in the word 'automobile' has resulted in losses to you (I can't think of a loss that's well-articulated and measured though), time to sue the NYT :).

Wikipedia has more on the origins of the word 'car':

The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), in turn these are said to have originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).

Now the concept of wheeled vehicle sounds like the true description, isn't it?

And we are also unnecessarily bothered by 'traffic'. It's meant to be just what it is. Flow but slow. Again from wikipedia:

Traffic in English is taken from the Arabic word taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.

And yet we keep cursing. May be they never told us about company in traffic. We've got some nasty teachers :).

Disturbing pic of my early morning bedroom and how the Japanese got it right

The funniness of what we call as 'bedroom', in the modern context, has dawned upon me. And quite conclusively.

In the second line of the wikipedia page on 'bedroom', you find this:

To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have a bed.

Actually, this line makes it feel like 'bed' is just one of the objects in the bedroom. Quite so. But mathematics isn't just about numbers. It's also about space. The modern bedroom is typically filled with the bed, in a manner that no other substantial object can be placed or accommodated in the bedroom. At least, for the majority of people who've been able to afford a bedroom.

And that no other substantial object can be placed in the bedroom, means other than resting or sleeping or making love (variants of the same posture I would say), no substantial activity can take place.

Given that a mighty number of us find ourselves doing work which doesn't quite make us exert ourselves, at least physically, in any great manner, this bedroom turns out to be a great roadblock on the way to good health. Let me elaborate.

We have risen substantially in population. Per capita space available is very limited. That's the reason we find such congestion on the roads, in the malls, in the gyms et al. And when I mention gym, I can easily say that reaching the gym is also an inconvenience in general, in a world which has made contraptions for convenience of all kinds even for the smallest of things we do.

After entering the gym, the nightmare doesn't end. Certain gadgets or equipment might have queues for use.

That makes whatever per capita space available to us a really precious thing. Space that is undividedly available for personal use, no matter the time. And that is occupied by the bed.

First you shape the building, then the building shapes you.

So you start shaping your undivided personal space with a good bed in the little space you have for yourself. Now is the bed's turn to shape you. And shapes you, it does. Pretty well.

Am I saying bed isn't needed?

Nope! Given the space an individual has to himself and the work he does in the modern context, I am saying naming the space blindly as 'bedroom' has entailed a massive cost on our well-being. We've taken it for granted that such a space can be nothing but a 'bedroom'. And the thing that we end up doing is installing a bed that doesn't leave much space for very very important things. And our architects and interior designers perpetuate the crime.

Let me go back a bit. When the convenient technologies weren't available and when majority of the people exerted themselves physically and really hard during the day, they perhaps found it very very comforting to come back home, do nothing more than cooking and eating, and simply go to bed. Having a ready mattress would be the perfect luxury. Since the space outside the house exercised majority of the people, inside the house dedicating space to sleeping was just a great complement. But now, no longer so.

In fact, there's very little space outside for healthy exertion. And, even inside, there's mostly the bed.

If we really want to make the space available count and if we really want a healthy body, here are a couple of things.

Futon. We all have seen this thing. From wikipedia:

A futon is traditional Japanese bedding consisting of padded mattresses and quilts pliable enough to be folded and stored away during the day, allowing the room to serve for purposes other than as a bedroom.

Perfect!

There's more. Wall-bed. Also called Murphy bed. Wikipedia narrates the legend:

According to legend, he (William Lawrence Murphy) was wooing an opera singer, but living in a one-room apartment in San Francisco, and the moral code of the time frowned upon a woman entering a man's bedroom. Murphy's invention converted his bedroom into a parlor, enabling him to entertain.

Now that surely takes care of a man's health, no!

Specifics are...

painful!

Most often we don't see them in advance. We just chance upon them. And then we find painful to address them.

If you can see a lot of specifics in advance, you are lucky. The only thing then is getting the people who (or who might) matter to see the same specifics. Now, that's also painful.

Is buying when not on 'sale' any good?

I just happened to visit the Alpha One mall this afternoon. Some students were sitting in the atrium on benches doing nothing and breathing in the cool air. Shops, all looked empty.

Of course, it's a Thursday, and one won't expect much anyway. Besides, everyone's blaming the economy. And lastly the discount sales are largely over. Or have they? So it looked.

The last point has become the reason for people to move out shopping. They know that if they don't buy when there's no discount sale, they won't have to wait too long.

Now that 'shopping when there's discount sale' has become the norm, I am wondering what exactly is a person who's shopping when there's no 'sale' thinking? For surely, asked directly if he would prefer to save money on buying the same thing when there's a discount, every single buyer would reply in affirmative.

One grand excuse that people might give to themselves when they do 'unsale' shopping is that they buy when it's new, fresh, just in. They buy when very few others have the same thing. But that's only internally satisfying until it is publicly recognized that very few others have the same thing.

We all know public recognition of new things isn't necessarily uniform and up to date. In fact, majority don't bother to keep track of majority of the things. And therefore, recognition from others is difficult when someone goes 'unsale' shopping.

I think that's so terrible. 'Unsale' should be added as a tag alongside the brand name so that such shopping gives shopper some good credit for having taken the risk.

Return on Formal Education (RFE)

Sharing some stats from this article I read two days back:

• India now produces more engineers and MBAs than the US and China combined. Our annual output of 15 lakh engineers and 3 lakh MBAs is way ahead of the US (1 lakh engineers and 1.25 lakh MBAs) and China (11 lakh engineers and 75,000 MBAs).
• MBAuniverse.com estimates that outside the top 20 MBA colleges only 24% of students are employable.
• Assocham believes that campus placement (in the context of engineering) outside the top 20 colleges is 10%.

The article also has some suggestions which is where it gets really funny. By funny, I mean the quality of suggestions, not really the stats. Stats aren't surprising at all. Have a look:

• They must get 3-5 years of work experience after their engineering or college degree before getting an MBA.
• If most students are not getting campus placements we need to fix our dysfunctional employment exchanges that only gave 3 lakh jobs last year to the 4 crore kids registered. We need to allow foreign universities in.
• We need to raise our 3 lakh formal apprenticeships — Germany has 40 lakh, Japan 1 crore and China has 1.5 crore.
• Most importantly, India must explode job creation because nothing changes a student's life more than their first formal, non-farm job. 

A critique of the article:
While every action or piece of execution benefits from good measurement systems and the stats emerging out of these measurement systems, the recommendations offered in this article reek of naivete at best. Even offering only the stats would've done better justice to the gravity of the situation.

Find the article here. 

SDC Bank?

Oh the brightness captured my attention amidst the drabness of the architecture you see in the picture and the dullness of the traffic of the traffic I found myself in.

SDC Bank. Full form, The Sahebrao Deshmukh Cooperative Bank Ltd. Given the transformation that every little bank has undergone, I wasn't quite surprised to find this. However, it looks to me that this fancy abbreviation was a result to put itself in the league of the big abbreviatedly branded banks of the country.

I wonder if this peculiarly traditional bank name has a history, a story. If it really does, it has just added one more layer between itself and the people's understanding. Perhaps there's another way for such brands to tell  us their stories and appeal to a certain audience.

May be, its customers will now feel a little better when others ask them, "So which bank you have your account in?" And they say, "SDC Bank!" Wow! Was that the thinking for this change?

Brightness helps get attention. Abbreviation adds to the confusion though.

Verbal Confusion

A friend, Subur Khan, expresses on FB:

Why the hell everyone is so politically judgmental these days... If you oppose Modi... Then you are pro congress... If you raise your voice against injustice you become traitor... Nobody ask what Big B/Ajay Devgan/Akhshay Kumar have done for Uttarakhand's victims whereas SRK/Aamir/Salman are being questioned... Suddenly FB has become more communal then that of 'rest of India'

In my response, I didn't touch upon the communal aspect because I reckon that's an off-shoot of what I call the Godly Confusion, that is Verbal Confusion. Here's my response:

Really, is that happening on your timeline!? Ha ha ha ha bollywood finds itself under fire every time something serious happens.

Part of the reason is people think they are heroes. And heroes are always meant to give others a good time, whether the times are good or bad. That's how people view it.

But bollywood is an acting industry not a heroism industry. And heroes are actors, not necessarily heroes. This verbal confusion is the source of income and is the source of pressure.

And this brings to light the deficiency in verbal education in this country. There are english speaking institutes whose mandate was just this. But then the way it happened, english speaking doesn't quite mean speaking english meaningfully. So again a verbal confusion.

All schools I guess were also meant to impart a sense of understanding meanings but since that takes effort and time, they just dropped it out of their list of objectives. Now it seems as if meaning making doesn't exist.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Don't mind. This is early morning verbal energy.

RIP Umesh Shinde

A friend, Harish Jain, expressed this on FB:

It hurts to wake up and read a news that says a newly wed guy died because of pothole on the road. Life has really gone cheaper than the cost of filling these holes. BMC - Please make a list of all the holes and put a price for filling each one of them. I can assure you that people will come out and pay you for that also other than the taxes. RIP Umesh Shinde.

And I had this to say:

I have been riding slowly. I have been driving slowly. For the co-traveller, typically it's boring but then I start showing my slow-motion pothole dodging skills and it all becomes thoroughly entertaining. And I feel so elegant to myself. 

My description is absurd but it's the truth, at least in my context. But when incidents like these happen, I wonder how absurd it would be to rise in unison against a pothole-indifferent government.

Per Capita Nautanki Space

When I visit this lovely garden, morning or evening, I find a lot of people doing crazy things (no sexual innuendoes here) in the name of exercising. Perhaps when they see me running endlessly in circles for hours or doing some kind of stretching, they might amuse themselves thinking I am such a crazy guy.

Which brings me to this point. The landscape of this garden is quite wonderful. It offers relatively free and solitudinal and less-publicly-observable spaces to visitors. Guess it's this nature of the garden that prompts people to do crazy things and stay happy and feel healthy.

One of the casualties of modern town-planning is the Per Capita Nautanki Space (PCNS). If somehow that's given more conscious attention in planning, we might do a world of good to people's health.

Architecture of Confusion

There's this strange being which creeps into some deep recesses of our skulls. Apparently, it is observed to make its way out through the precise hole through which human beings take in their sources of energy and survival. 

But before making its way out, it has to make its way in. So it uses two orifices on the sides of the human face and two glassy balls which see and reflect this being.

This being has enchanted so many intellectuals and fools alike. And supposedly is responsible for development of civilization too. In democracy it's considered to be the biggest part of freedom of speech.

It feels like it has truly found its home in the human skull. But on other days, it feels like human beings have truly found their homes in this being.

Yesterday morning, until I came back from the garden, I felt like life's really good. I light up my mobile phone and this being flips my feeling so thoroughly to make me feel like life's pretty ridiculous too.

But then the forms that this being manifests in is staggering. And through those forms, it makes the human beings feel like they've created amazing structures. But perhaps if a way were to be found out to reach into those deep recesses where this being resides, we might find it to be laughing out playfully watching us use its structures all over the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the one and only one, Mr. Worrrrrrrrrdemon!

Can I talk to Goldeena Loadlekar?

We released these two ads in succession earlier in the month. Day before this is what happened.

Mobile rings...
Me: Hello
A girl's voice: Hello! Sir, kya mein Goldeena Madam se baat kar sakti hoon? (Sir, can I talk to Goldeena Madam?)
It takes a few seconds for me to gather what's happening. The line's silent...
Me: Aap mujhe bata sakti hain... Bataiye kya kaam hai? (You can tell me... So what is it about?)
Girl: Sir, I am calling from "xyz" technologies. We are offering web-solutions...
She completes her pitch.
Me: We already have a website and, right now, there's no requirement. Thanks.
Girl: If you have any requirement, please call back on this number. My name is...

Fuzzy Logic? No, Fuzzy Duck!

Those in Ahmedabad and read Ahmedabad Times must've seen this ad. The size compels you too. And if it holds your attention, you must've noticed the name. FUZZY DUCK.

FUZZY DUCK?! I check my eyes every time I see the ad. Must admire the audacity. Not sarcastic here. Of course, with their spends and audacity, they could think of better branding efforts surely. I really want to see how they fare.