My picture-taking and picture-making

are as different as day and night. I

take my pictures quite unconsciously.

I see them in my mind and. . .

it is done without thinking. I feel the

exposure. My only concern is to

be ready for that moment of truth,

always ready to grasp it quickly

before it’s gone, or to wait

patiently until that split-second when it appears.

Nell Dorr

(1895-1988)

American Photographer 

I am so happy to have found such a great friend in you.

You have stood by my side always, in both my good and bad times.

Without you by my side, I would not have achieved all this success and joy.

I thank you for being there for me as my best friend.

You have always lent me your shoulder to cry on and have wiped my tears many times.

You have always encouraged me to follow my dreams and have stood by my side.

I know that you consider me to be your best friend too and I am grateful for that.

I shall definitely strive to live up to your expectations and be as good a friend to you as you are to me.

It is very rare to find a friend like you in these days and I definitely consider myself very lucky to have you.

No sparks.
No bells.

..and before you knew it,
you were going to have a journey to make….LOL

The purpose of KM is to support creation of market value or/and social value. Who is the judge whether in fact value was created?

The answer: your internal and external customers. In the non-government and development sectors, the answer is the same, but the language is different: stakeholders. The user of the output of an action is the best judge of the effectiveness of the action, and the effectiveness of the knowledge assets utilized for that action.

When an action results in satisfaction of customers or stakeholders, value is created. Wherever the results of action is traded, then a measure of the value created is the price customers are willing to pay for a good or service less the production and distribution costs
of that good or service.

In the development sector, where the results of actions are often not traded, what is the measure of value creation? It is the stakeholders’ degree of satisfaction. Within a corporation, results of actions are also not traded and there is no price for an internal good or service. Similarly, the measure of value creation here is the internal customers’ degree of satisfaction.

Improvement or innovation of a product or service that will result in even greater customer or stakeholder satisfaction is another objective of KM. How do we do this? Where do we start? One answer: ask the customer!

In most cases, customers know what they want and they know what will satisfy them better (in the case of breakthrough or exceptionally novel technologies, customers will realize what they want only when the new technology is in front of them). They also definitely know what they don’t want; for this reason, customer complaints are good sources of ideas for product or service innovation.

Making improvements or innovations is faster and easier when the output is a service and not a product. The service delivery process is also subject to greater variability than a product manufacturing process. Improving a service output requires a broadening of perspective: from focus only on the internal business process to focus also on the customer experience process. The two processes overlap in delivering a service. Keep in mind that value creation takes place in the latter process, and not in the former, which is only preparatory.

Based on the above, a low-cost way of mining customer knowledge for service improvement is to ask just two questions. It will take the customer only a couple of minutes to answer, but it can lead to solid creation of greater value for customers. “XX” is where you indicate the name or description of the service.

Question 1: On a scale of 0-100, what is your degree of satisfaction with our XX service or output?
(If the answer is 100, stop and do not proceed to Question 2)

Question 2: What improvements on XX can you suggest to increase your degree of satisfaction?

From asking these two questions numerous times in over a hundred organizational contexts, I observed that:

• More than 80-90% of the ideas on product or process improvement from employees who perform a process do not match with those from internal or external customers who use the output of such process.
• Employees who perform a business process are better judges of process efficiency than of process effectiveness.
• In many organizations including in the private sector, asking feedback from internal customers is often not a systematic procedure nor a personal habit.
• The answer to Question 2 is high-value knowledge; acting on that knowledge will surely increase customer value.
• The entire customer experience process constitute what some calls the “Moment of Truth” or the moment when the value of an output is finally validated. Actually, it is not just one moment or one minute, but it can extend over hours or days.

—

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“blissfully high-on-life relationship”?

..hmm nothing comes to mind.
You probably couldn’t care less how it happens,
as long as it does.
But the fact is,
the way you fall in love can indicate how your couplehood will develop.

“Each style has its advantages and disadvantages,
but if you know what to anticipate,
you stand a better chance of making the relationship last”

“Sometimes
you just have to put a period on something
that has to end
and not just settle on a comma,

why?

it is because
time will come that you will realize
that it is good
to see a complete sentence
rather than seeing a phrase
that is completely hanging
and doesn’t even make sense”

I am sleepy and I am yawning away to glory. Glory however doesn’t come visiting me these days. Instead, I wallow in a pool of moods that range from dismally depressing to exuberantly bland. I wonder what’s the matter. Maybe I need to just let go of myself. Maybe I need to look for something I have been pretending to avoid all this while… I really don’t know.

The expressive moment of truth refers an occasion when something important happens which tests someone or something and which will have an effect on the future. …

• Veteran politician Newin Chidchob faces his moment of truth today and the Supreme Court is scheduled to announce its verdict in the rubber saplings case.
• “The moment of truth has arrived, this smoking ban aims to bring a change that will revolutionise people’s outlook, the Greek health minister said.”
• “A moment of truth is here for all who claim to seek peace and justice,” King Abdullah added.
• “We have reached a moment of truth because it is a different world after Aug 8,” the Russian leader said. …

(From Bangkok Post)

Everyone has their dark little secrets. They are good to have as long as they remain secrets. The way every media is vying to sneak a peak into people’s life is growing to atrocious levels. First it were the Celebrities; now its even the mango people (aam janta)!

I saw the new Serial “Sach Ka Samna” at a friend’s place. I was pissed with the contestants and the show. Reason: firstly why have a show that strips people off their dignity on TV? Just imagine what a disaster that would be with kids watching the Tele with their parents? And moreover the families that come there are so desperate for money, they are ready to take the grave step of hurting their near and dear ones in public. Now are they considering all this, while making quick buck?
huh!

In Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayana,one will find a good collection of ‘bed-time stories’ of the sage Viswamitra narrated to Rama and Lakshmana during their sojourn in the forests on a specific mission to kill ‘Rakshasas’. While these stories are certainly very interesting,the story of the sage Viswamitra himself is even more gripping. Therefore I will start with the story of the sage himself.
The sage was born as a kshatriya(great grandson of Kusa and the son of the great king Gadhi). During his long rule,he happened to undertake a tour around the globe with his entire retinue including his huge army. On the way he halted at the hermitage of the great sage Vasishta(who was the son of the creator Brahma himself). He paid his respects to Vasishta,stayed on for a while after accepting a few fruits and roots offered by the sage. And as he got ready to leave with his entire retinue,Vasishta had other ideas. He was not willing to let them go without accepting his hospitality. He offered to provide a sumptuous meal to them all. Viswamitra simply ignored the offer and told him humbly that the sage should not bother himself to give them such a treat and in any case he was more than happy with the offer of fruits and water. Vasishta insisted that there was no way that he was going to let them go without enjoying his hospitality. Viswamitra had no option but to agree to stay on.
To the surprise of everyone including Viswamitra,Vasishta was,indeed, in a position to provide a highly sumptuous meal consisting of all 6 kinds of dishes(sweet,bitter,salt,acidic,alkaline,pungent)to Viswamitra and his huge army. Everyone including Viswamitra was mightily pleased with the hospitality.
Viswamitra later learnt the secret behind Vasishta’s hospitality – it was the famous ‘Kamadhenu’ cow(by name ‘Sabala’). This priceless possession of Vasishta was famous for granting or fulfilling any wish as demanded by its owner. Thus Vasishta was able to satisfy every single requirement of his hosts simply by asking ‘Sabala’ for the same!
Viswamitra was pleased and impressed with the manner in which Sabala yielded every wish and desire of the sage Vasishta. And at that very instant, he entertained an intense desire to possess such an invaluable Cow himself. He immediately put forth his request to Vasishta and asked him to part with Sabala. As the latter said ‘No’ politely but firmly,Viswamitra tried to reason with him saying that such a wish yielding Sabala would be of immense value to a king like him rather than to a sage who lived in a hermitage. Vasishta was equally stubborn and gave his own reasons for not parting with it. He explained that Sabala was a jewel in his possession and he needed it to feed his innumerable guests,rishis and also to produce material needed for conducting Yajna etc. Viswamitra,whose intellect was clouded by his deep desire,was equally unrelenting. He insisted on physically taking Sabala and ordered his men to attack Sabala and forcefully take it away. Sabala resisted and pleaded with Vasishta to save it from Viswamitra and his men. Thereupon Vasishta used his spiritual power and commanded Sabala to produce different weapons to attack its attackers. Encouraged by Vasishta,Sabala could successfully neutralize attacks and defended itself. Then the hundred sons of Viswamitra who attacked Vasishta were burnt to ashes by the sage himself. Finally Viswamitra himself began to fight directly attacking Vasishta with several divine weapons (presided over by the gods Varuna,Fire-God,Indra,Rudra,Siva etc). Vasishta simply used his ‘Staff’(so called Brahminical staff or ‘Dand’) to counter and defeat all these missiles. Viswamitra used his ultimate weapon,the most powerful ‘ Brahmastra’(a weapon presided over by the creator Brahma himself).
As Vasishta managed to repulse this as well using his powerful Staff,Viswamitra was left completely clueless and accepted defeat.

This great defeat set him to retrospect very deeply. It was a moment of Truth for him as he realized that his strength(as a kshatriya)is nothing before the strength of Vasishta who is a ‘brahma-rishi’. The strength of a kshatriya is reproachful while that of a person with ‘Brahma tejas’(brilliance of spiritual power of a true brahmin)is the real strength. In his own words:”Dhig balam kshatriya balam,brahma tejo balam balam ekena brahmadandena sarvaastrani hataani me”.
This is the profound conclusion reached by Viswamitra and it is this statement which saw him set very high standards for himself. He took a vow to keep performing ‘Tapas’(penance) untill he became a so called “Brahma Rishi”(This is the highest status in the hierarchy of rishis – the others being ‘Rajarishi’ meaning royal sage,Rishi,Maharishi). Energised by this vow,as the story goes,he goes on with severe ‘tapas’ for a thousand years or so. During this period of ‘tapas’,he was tested with several obstacles. As is well known,he briefly succumbed to the beauty of one divine woman(Menaka). He realized his folly and continued with his ‘tapas’. And yet again, he had to face and overcome one more distraction in the form of another divine woman(this time, it was Rambha). And the final distraction was provided by revival of his old rivalry with Vasishta which gave ample scope for exhibition of his ego once again. He offered to help Trisanku (a king) to enter heaven even as he was alive much against the advice and wishes of Vasishta(the story of a heaven created exclusively for Trisanku is well known).

Recovering once again from his ego inspired detours, Viswamitra continued with his ‘tapas’. Brahma was pleased with him and bestowed on him the status of ‘Maharishi’ – still one notch below the much sought after ‘Brahma rishi’ status. This was because he was yet to completely control or master his senses and ego (as the episodes of Menaka and Trisanku proved abundantly). However ,not content with the title of Maharishi,Viswamitra continued his ‘tapas’ -this time around it was so severe that the fire of his ‘tapas’,began to destroy the mother earth itself. Thereupon all the Gods and Brahma were mightily pleased and conferred the title of ‘Brahma rishi’ and requested him to stop his tapas at once. Viswamitra ,however,said he would stop only if Vasishta pronounced him as Brama rishi. Ultimately,Vasishta also obliged and the great tapas came to an end with the conferment of the title of brahma rishi by vasishta.

The story of Viswamitra has several interesting parallels to our lives. Viswamitra exhibited pretty much similar tendencies like any one of us – play of ego and desiring something unjustly and trying to acquire the same in an unfair manner. By any standards,his demand for Sabala is completely unjustified not to talk of using force to acquire the same. But the comparison with the common mortals probably ends there. The defeat he faced in the hands of Vasishta forced him to look at life in a completely different perspective. It was an ‘Eureka’ moment for him. It shows that a wise man will need just one incident to completely transform himself. For Viswamitra the comprehensive defeat at the hands of Vasishta was such a moment. He took it as a challenge and set himself a high goal.
It is also important to realize that whenever we undertake a great task,there are bound to be distractions and obstacles which can make us lose control over our senses and allow our ego to take control. A wise man is one who can quickly see the traps(as Viswamitra did)and apply corrections.
The story also goes to establish the principle of meritocracy. No matter how influential one is,there is no easy way to attain the highest status of Brahma rishi. It is not a birth right nor is it to be gained by any short cuts. One has to attain it by sheer hard work alone.

Moment of truth

Rahul’s Dad brought home a robot one day.

The robot had the ability to detect lies and would slap the person who lied.

Rahul returned late from school.

Dad asked, “Son why are you late from school?”

“Dad, we had extra classes today”.

Robot slapped Rahul on his face.

Dad shouted, “Come on tell me the truth, why are you late?”

“Dad, I went to see the movie Ten Commandments.”

Robot slapped Rahul on his face.

Sorry dad, I went to see the movie “Chameli Ki Jawaani”.

“Shame on you son, when I was your age, I never watched obscene movies or misbehaved.”

Immediately, Dad gets a slap on the face from the robot.
Rahul’s mom comes walking out of the kitchen and says to her husband, “After all, he’s your son!”

The robot slaps the mom.

..when I meet an argue with someone,
he/she might call me as
maldita
but you know what?!
I would rather say I am
more than that..

actually I prefer myself
as a
rebel one..
nobody’s perfect
each of us born to be selfish in other way around
but that’s the fact
people are pretender
they just hide it just to protect their own

When I first heard that Siddharth Basu is bringing Moment of Truth to Indian television, I was very curious to see what it would turn out like, when put in the Indian context.

And what I saw, surprised me, pleasantly.

Naah, pleasantly is such a mild word. I love it!

It’s so much fun to see people squirming in their seats – actually, it’s mostly the contestants’ family and friends that are squirming in their seats, while the contestant just goes on and on.

It must be a very strange kind of person who’d go up on TV, on prime time, with all that many people watching the show, not only then, but also later on youtube – and be able to sit there and acknowledge their deepest, darkest truths. I know I’d never do that. And neither would I put someone I love through that. There are people who make someone they know and love go up there and take part in the show. Like, I remember one episode where this woman made her husband go. Strange, no?

Is it the magic of wanting to be on TV? Is it the money you could possibly win? Is just that they want to hear the truth, or tell the truth, badly enough to even want to do it in front of the whole world? Or, are they – and I suspect this is the most correct answer – just crazy people?

I mean, really! WHY would you do that? Or, what would make you do that?!

But I think Star Plus has finally hit upon another winning show.

Siddharth Basu and Ekta Kapoor together probably make up for 90% of the channel’s revenue and TRPs – no?

Really, since after Colours took over as the most-watched Hindi GEC, this show has finally started making people go back to Star Plus.

Of course, though, the most watched Reality Show on Indian television, in the last two years, has been Rakhi ka Swayamvar, which by the way, I LOVED!! But, I digress.

Back to wondering about what makes people do such blatant “khulaasa” (as popular Hindi news channels would say). And I really can’t say what it is. I know why I like watching it, though. And, I actually do like this one more than the American version. I guess because this is in a context and space that’s closer to relate to? Because the American version just seems to hold my attention for a while, but this one makes me not want to change the channel at all. And it’s also because all of us like watching other people’s discomfort on TV – no? And not our fault – they put themselves under the spotlight on their own, crazies that they are!

Oh, and Rajeev Khandelwal, I think started out as a slightly uncomfortable, awkward anchor, but how he’s grown into his role! He’s perfect, I think – the correct mix of being involved and sensitive, and also detached and business-like.

What I find myself doing most often, though, while watching the show, is making up stories in my head about the kind of life the person’s had, or has.

The relationships that are important to them, the circumstances that made them who they are, what’ll happen to those important relationships once the show’s over and done with? Will a man just move on after getting caught out on a question about him having been unfaithful to his wife? Will his wife just move on? Will that be the end of the marriage? How will their family, their friends, their children, their neighbours and colleagues at office react to them from this moment on, for the rest of their lives? Will these memories actually last for the “rest of their lives”, or will it just be forgotten as a TV show?

The woman who said that she still believed that her parents always loved her brother more, and they continue to love her brother’s children more than her own, and then had tears in her eyes while admitting this – would she have got closure after having admitted this on TV, or did this admission bring the whole problem that had been pushed under the carpet for all these years, out in the open for the whole family, to be forced to acknowledge it? How will her parents react now, knowing what they do? How will her brother react? And her brother’s wife, for that matter?

I think one could write many stories. I think I will, actually.

In Detail

Surprises are en route. Big ones. They’ll be coming to you via your career and the people involved in it. This could mean the higher-ups you’ve been dealing with have been less than honest about your situation, but the chances of that happening are slim, to say the least. What’s more likely is that someone in a position of authority has been working a bit of magic for you from behind the scenes. Either way, get ready for a surprise.

The Bottom Line

You must do your talking face to face. Words alone won’t communicate what you want.

what would you feel?
if your day seems like totally mess
would you rather ignore it or
better face it?!

..i wish T_T

it’s hard to tell the truth when all you need is to lie,
it’s hard to act rightly when all you do is wrong,
what makes it hard is that when you take the chance to change everything;
yet there is no other way to go back….

starting from the month of July
my days was never quiet easy
goodness! it’s a sort of burden
life’s for me a lot of twist and turns

i almost could not bare it
but still i’m blessed and thankful
for God is always there for me
He’s my saviour

“Sach ye hai bekaar humein gham hota hai… Jo chaha tha, duniya mein kam hota hai.” are the words of a popular Ghazal sung by Jagjit Singh.

That probably echoes the reality today. What we think, it hardly happens. It is not that the truth exists or that the truth is troublesome… it is our inability to take it in ‘as is’ form and live with it. After all, truth is not so good every time. How many of you can actually digest the fact that the person you loved unfortunately got married to some one else and is getting laid every night by a person you would love to hate till eternity? Do you actually say ‘how nice’ where (s)he says his/her spouse is very romantic? No! You just smile and say WTF to yourself. You wish you had better luck. But you didn’t and thats the god damn truth. What you do is probably just move on.

Its not just about this example (I probably quoted the one that will hit one of the the hardest). Truth is always difficult to accept and then to survive after you have accepted. A lie, for that matter, is very easily digested. Ask yourself how many times you have spoken the truth when you could have lied and easily got away. Most of you might answer audaciously say you spoke truth every or rather most of the times. I’d say this is one of the times when you didn’t. Fooling one self, in my opinion, is very easy. In the entire life we keep walking on the brink of the thin line between the true world and the false world. And it is very difficult to tell when we have crossed the line. Take for an example, we dont know what we are. Meaning, we are not aware of our own true potential. So we might be under confident and think we are no good. Or we might think the opposite. So most of the times we are portraying a false image of ourselves in front of the world. Afterall haven’t you seen a shabbily dressed voluptuous woman thinking she is one great xxx bomb around? The problem lies within us. We are oblivious to what we are and what the world around us is. Being a normal human being, we are bound to do it. But what if we all start accepting the truth as is? Will we lead a good life?

I’m happy with my life and that is indeed a truth. But if you ask me, my truth is a life I wanted to live on my own terms. So that I never have to speak a lie or accept a lie. But I know it is a, well… may be another truth. Can life give me one day to chug all my bound and live like a free bird? just one day!

India's Got Talent snapshots

At long last, there’s finally an Indian TV show worth watching. I haven’t been following ‘India’s Got Talent’ at all but this morning’s display of…well, talent – had me enthralled for almost the entire duration of the show. Reality TV was never so worthwhile!
Apparently today’s show (a repeat telecast) was some sort of a semifinal where the takings included – sample this:

• A 20-something deaf and dumb guy who danced the sensuous Marathi Lavani dance without ever having heard a single note of it! What’s more, the dance is traditionally meant for women and includes a whole range of gestures and expressions that I’d never thought would work on a man. Guess what? I was wrong.

• A Bhangra performance by a troupe of super-enthusiastic guys all from a single college somewhere in Punjab. There was so much zest and energy to their movements that it made people leap to their feet and cheer out loud! But what I admired most of all was their superb coordination. 6 people moving as much in tandem as is humanly possible. It was so good that, if you looked at one dancer’s foot somewhere to the extreme right and then some other’s far away to the left – you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! Amazing, that’s what it was!

• A group of kids (evidently from a lower middle-class background) who had such agile and flexible bodies. They walked on their hands, jumped over each other and over themselves in beautiful formations and – hold your breath (I did!) – even managed to thread a needle with their bare feet. That’s right – they supported their bodies on their heads and threaded a needle with their toes. If I had just about 1% of their flexibility, I’d be a prize-winning famous contortionist!

There were 6 other acts as well but I was only watching off and on. Apologies if I missed mentioning some gems here. Still, watching this show was perhaps one of those very rare moments when you actually feel something stirring inside you, a feeling of supreme pride that you – like all these shockingly talented people – are an Indian.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised then to see Siddharth Basu’s name among the quickly-rolling credits at the end of the show. The man has always managed to do one up over whatever the current trend might be.

Move over ‘Moment of Truth’, ‘Bigg Boss’, ‘Fear Factor’ and (ugh!) MTV Roadies/ Splitsville/ random show where surprisingly young and supposedly innocent people bitch/ carp/ crib/ politic against each other to win some obscure bike or some-such prize (?) Mr. Basu shows what reality TV is – and should be – all about: A platform for true talent, nothing more, nothing less.

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”

I was spontaneously reminded of the aforementioned adage while I caught hold of a few episodes of the latest fiery offering of the circus called the Indian television industry – Sach ka Saamna. A lot has been spoken, affirmed, criticized, printed, dictated and heard about the show all across the information channel. After music, dance, creativity, brawn, morality, virginity, peace and hatred, its time to sell truth under the pretext of being audacious.

The Indian television industry has been “inspired” by its western sibling intermittently in the past, and this stint is no different. A show that proclaims to impose honesty on its participants by virtue of the questions that are thrown at them like barbs, is enough flesh to chew upon by the audience, who are annoyingly tired of the drama unfolding in some great “Khandaan” whose “parampara” has been tarnished by the sole harbinger of the family hierarchy, or the story of a poor girl who is not accepted as the ‘Bahu’ in a wealthy household, or of catty rivalries between women tarred with quintals of make up and kilos of jewellery – in short the obnoxious K-serials.

We have all the reasons to be addicted to this reality show. We have been conditioned that way by the predecessors of Sach ka Saamna. I clearly remember how the only one topic with which the discussions would start and end in the office, in the bus, on the telephone would be the contestants, their emotional atyachaar and sometimes their singing prowess when Indian Idol was launched. The focus soon changed to Rakhi Sawant’s extreme machining in the Big Boss, another flimsy rip-off of a show which has been a rage in the west. And how can we forget the time when Shekhar Suman tried to do a Larry King Live on some god forbidden show in which he would purposefully rip apart the participants with slick questions. We have been exposed to such a great deal of fraudulent offerings, that we tend to believe in the reality that the television offers much more than the reality that it erases around us and the massacre it creates around us.

“Moment of truth” has been one show that has been making waves all across the west and it didn’t come as a surprise, that its Indian twin was conceived. Although, the original show is known for questions that are bold and that compel the participant to be honest, the desi version is just jaw dropping, eye ball rolling and stomach churning. A person is probed with questions that bring his/her straying and betraying self open in public. Questions that make the participants sweat like pigs and the viewers cringe and squirm in sadistic satiation and well, the producers to be green with Gandhiji. I am not talking about societal morality here. There is nothing in this show that we Indians have not heard of. We all have a dark side of our personality, of course with different hues of darkness. We have seen husbands cheating on their wives, children of troubled marriages taking wrong turns in their lives and siblings ready to bury each other in the graveyard for the legacy of their deceased father. And that’s the very reason, why we tend to be fascinated, entertained and pleasured by someone’s admissions of guilt, misery and deceit. The question is do we really need to be exploited by the idiot box in this spectacular way?

The bigger disappointment and indignation is caused to know that the dodos called parliamentarians in our country have the cheek to argue that Sach Ka Saamna is adding profanity to the Indian way of life. These insolent mispronounced leaders should be enlightened with the fact that they are not the leaders of a developed country in which there is such a dearth of issues to tackle that a debate on a sensational TV show should seize the operation of the parliament. Do we really need a bunch of jokers clad in veils of shamelessness and indifference to decide what is good for us and what is not? Can a show being aired at 10:30 in the night cause a bigger blemish on the Indian culture and values than when these vultures throw microphones and chairs on each other in the House? Is it really that tough to change the channel or lock a reality show which we don’t want to watch or which we don’t want our young ones to watch?

If it is only truth that is creating all this sensation then why not bring a footpath dweller on the show and know about his/her dark secrets. Nah! That wont be as juicy a stuff to know as compared to Urvashi Dholakia getting pregnant as a minor. In spite of the fact that as kids we all listen to stories about truthfulness and honesty, do we really need a television show and an incentive of a few lakh bucks to speak the truth? That’s the naked truth – face off!