Never Give up: A story

Had a communication class yesterday….told the class an inspiring story about an Army offr. Felt like it penning it down, so here goes. The facts of the story are more or less true, with minor modifications. As a backdrop, Siachen glacier is the world’s highest battlefield with temperatures ranging from -15⁰C on a pleasant summer afternoon to -50⁰C on a chilly winter evening. Soldiers get posted on a rotation basis for 3 months. The enemy there is no human, no country, but the inhospitable weather.

There is this Army officer, Capt Amit (name changed): 28yrs old, happily married, 3yr old son. He gets posted to glacier and the routine begins. In the first few weeks, no major incidences happen. One day while on a routine patrolling activity, his party gets stuck in a blizzard. On returning, they realise that the officer has a bad case of frostbite. The message for evacuation is sent immediately to base camp. Unfortunately, due to bad weather the helicopter evacuation party gets delayed by 4 days. The delay worsens the situation as the gangrene spreads further.

Two months down the line, the officer is lying on the bed, surrounded by his wife, son and others. Due to the severe infection and primarily because of delay in evacuation, he has lost his entire right leg, half his left leg and half his left hand. His commanding officer finally gets a chance to visit him and asks him how his morale was. The officer says (with a smile that makes everyone in the room so proud), “Sir, my morale is as high as that cloud I can see from the window. I’m alive…It could have been much worse…” With family support and his never-give-up attitude, Capt Amit goes on to recuperate fully, joins back and always maintains- “Don’t give up on life, and Life will never give up on you”.

The message being, life is very iffy….very uncertain….and as I keep saying (Tom Hank’s disclaimer)… "Shit happens"…and more importantly, "Life goes on.."

Ciao ppl !!
Ciao Life !!

Basket of Problems

There goes an old fable which talks about how everyone has their own set of problems and how it is wrong to go about thinking – “I have so many problems…look at them…they are so happy, have everything, etc.” Here goes the story. There was once a kingdom with people from all walks of life. It so happened that each one of them was so troubled with their woes, cribbing that other people were so lucky & happy that God decided to make them an offer. It went like this- “Each individual, from the poorest poor to the king, can write up each of his problems on small paper sheets, put them in a basket with his name and hang it in the kingdom’s biggest temple by midnight. Next day morning anyone can exchange their basket for anyone else’s basket and the problems will be exchanged by noon”. Almost everyone was happy because as far as they were concerned, no one could have had the problems that they face. The night came and everyone hung their baskets in the temple. In the morning when they went for the exchange, each one of them came back with their own basket. Each of the baskets turned out to be of the same size and no one wanted to bear with someone else’s troubles.

The moral of the story is that everyone in this world has their own basket of problems. If we do not see it in other people’s eyes, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. How often do we look at someone and think, he/she is so lucky….has money, nice job, good looking….so lucky in life? One might not want to believe, but it happens and it’s human to have that feeling. We choose to see only the fairer side of the coin for others and ignore/ refuse to see the other side….tip of the ice berg, as they say. Be it the person sitting on a sidewalk, the one sitting on a machine gun post on the border, or the one presiding the meeting of all CEOs. The balance of nature is always maintained; size of the basket remains the same, only the contents vary.

Ciao ppl !!
Ciao Life !!

Life & Comfort Zone

Events in the past couple of days (multiple blasts- Bangalore, Ahmedabad) has shook people from their well entrenched comfort zones of “We are normal….such things don’t happen to us”. As they say, ‘Nothing could be further from the truth’. These events are just one way of ‘Life’ per se reminding everyone of the uncertainties surrounding it. There was an insightful dialogue in the movie ‘Matrix’- “Every Life has a purpose”. Sadly, this is also what many of the terrorist groups teach their disciples in a distorted fashion. The way these people are brought up sets up the wheel in motion such that when the seeds grow into a tree (or even before) a ‘purpose of life’ is drilled into them. Unfortunately this ‘purpose’ is the root cause which is difficult to eliminate because ultimately the end of all such events will come only when the root is destroyed.

The reason the panic has exponentially increased in the last 48 hours is that 80% of the world believes that injuries because of bomb blasts, riots, vehicle accidents, etc. happen only to “Others”. For them it’s like another article in the newspaper about somebody else's woes. Every other day there is a write-up on some blast that took place in J&K where men in the olive green died and no one flashes an eye-lid. When such news flashes (like yesterday) on the TV, people start thinking- “It could have been one of our dear ones”; within a couple of days they forget everything and life is back to normal. The standard belief being-“We are in our comfort zone…nothing can happen to us…we are normal”. In fact I’d say a decade-plus back, before my family had the first shock, even we were a so called “normal” family and apparently such kinds of misfortune fell only upon the ‘Others’. However so wasn’t the case and it was confirmed again by my accident that such incidents were a random case of probability with everyone having equal chances. It was so sudden, out of the blue….as if ‘Life’ decided to press the ‘pause’ button and instead of replaying the movie, changed the movie altogether. Now when I meet new people, some of them try to empathize, others look at me with pride, and most of them with ‘hope’. Nevertheless, it’s not easy for many of them to imagine that life was once ‘normal’ for me too. It’s rather unfortunate that some of the people who make important decisions in other’s lives subscribe to this school of thought and refuse to think big. Only one sentence for them- ‘You & your loved ones might be standing in your comfort zone right now, but this zone is highly prone to the vagaries of ‘Life’. Please appreciate this and think big’. It always helps, not to take ‘Life for granted'.

Life is big, but Life can be very small,
The only way to live, is to "Live" it all.

Ciao ppl !!

Ciao life !!

2nd year in full flow......

Five days into the second year and things are back to the way they were….had heard that second year would be 'chill' comparatively....so much for that comment !!... had two ‘deliverables’ (assignments for submission) on Monday. Enjoyed the Sunday thoroughly…..started work in the evening….went for a surprise treat at night…..broke sweat as the realisation drew upon ;-) , lot of work to do….worked through the night….slept 0510hrs….put an alarm to wake up well in time for the 0845hrs class….actually woke up at 0842hrs…in class by 0847hrs…..n life is back to normal !!

Welcome to 2^nd year @WIMWI… ;-)

ciao ppl !
ciao life !

Success & Significance

I’m at the fag-end of the internship process now. The experience was not very different from what I had had in the Army, enjoyed the same…learnt a lot. I guess it all boils down to your approach towards life...You can start the day cribbing about everything under the sun or choose to make every minute of yours worth the time. Had a VC with the CEO yesterday and he gave out some Golden thoughts to ponder, to all d interns. The most important of which, was to the effect of saying:
Be humble…If you get success...congrats…but it’s of no use if you don’t make a significant impact on others through it, in terms of what/how you contribute to the overall betterment.

It’s something like success & failure can be pictured as a sine curve…with crests & troughs….the crests come…so do the troughs….but then the crests come again…what you do when you're at the crest, is what's most important....whether you want to spend that time living in a mirage, or doing something worthwhile. I hope, till now I've contributed in whatever little way I could to everyone around in terms of the approach towards life...
I would like to quote from a poem by Rudyard Kipling which is ingrained into us since academy days(NDA, IMA)…the “If Song”......quoting a few lines of relevancve....

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch.....

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,But make allowance for their doubting too;
.......
If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run
-Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

ciao ppl
ciao life

First talk in the C’ world

Gave my first formal talk in the corporate world on invitation 2 days back....on values ingrained from the forces and the mapping into this world. Again, I name no names..…it was a well known company….. got to hear about my story from one of my friends at PG. Was a great experience, sharing my 2 cents on what should ideally be the scenario n how things can be worked upon…..Hope I added some value to my audience in whatever small way it was.

First experience of life out of Army (summer internship) is going on really fine…guess it’s as good as the one I had (d army life that is)…. Maybe not the same as wearing the uniform and commanding respect; but to the same effect, in a different way….Another month, and then back to Ahmedabad for the 2^nd year....Feels great to know that people know me better as "rajat_nda" :) :)...lolzzz

ciao ppl
ciao life

Priorities....Decisions....The 'Call'

"Decision making"- 2 words that seem to be pretty simple by the look of it. But it entails a combination of patience, clear priorities, trade-off know-how and risk taking capability. Got a whiff of it once again in the "4th term course bidding process" today. Essentially we were given points based on our grades and were supposed to bid for whatever courses we wanted to take next term onwards. In the last few minutes it all came down to how much you can give.....what are you willing to trade-off to get that something.....what do you value more...at times the heart skipped a beat (last 5-6 seconds, maybe a couple of beats.....)....clear priorities n all...

One can draw a parallel with what happens around us. There are moments where you get the momentous question- Yes or No....To go or Not to Go...At times you have to take decisions that may be against your heart, at times against logical thinking.... and this is where the famous dialogue comes in "You gotta do what you gotta do"....Given a set of {A,B,C,.....}You might like A, and also like B...in fact you may like A & B more than anything else....but it's not an ideal world....this is when you need to take "that call"....the priorities come into picture....you know what you gotta do....and that's when you switch off your heart, switch off your brain and go ahead...NQA....No turning back..... Some people might be able to correlate with such situations- relationships, career, et al.....just need to remember..keep your priorities clear, and once they are....Nothing else matters !!

ciao ppl !!
ciao life !!

The NDA acronyms.....

Here are a few acronyms that we used to use in d golden NDA days (with usage....):

Disclaimer: This post may not be very clear as to the value attached to these words for most of the people, please humor me :)...would be clear to Ex NDAs n other officers why I wrote it....

• JLT: Just Like That: Was mostly used when there was no reason for giving a punishment....general happiness :) ....just like that
• DWL: Disgusted With Life: For people who often tended to go into the above mentioned mode :) :) n actually disgusted with life....
• JTB: Just Too Bad: People's way of sympathizing with you for getting caught, et al :) :)
  
• DLTGH: Days Left To Go Home: The ultimate countdown, used to start at DLTGH-45
• NQA: No Questions Asked : When there's an order (almost all orders) which you necessarily have to follow without questions...
  
• MIA: Missing In Action: An official term that goes as KIA, used for the smart-boys who used to miss the punishment reports... :)
• JIC: Just In Case: for d tendency to carry a lot of stuff in camps...just in case....
  
• NMB: No Move Before: Again, an official term...essentially to cap the start time of something
• LIC: Locked In Cabin: Describes the smart-act of locking your door from outside, entering your room again from the window and making the seniors think that you're out....while you sleep in peace (implemented on Sundays :):):) )

Met a junior of mine today....fond memories...a totally different life...a life of respect, honor & integrity... Time to get back to the real life :)

ciao ppl
ciao life

Life is beautiful again (Iffy too though)...

Well….this post did take some time to come out in black and white :)….

Life has taken an interesting turn…..a new perspective now….I think I was already lookin’ at life with rose coloured spectacles, now I’ll b having 2 of them…..the plane has found an airport, the day has found the night, the wristwatch has found a wrist, the river has found the ocean,.....the rifle has found the ammunition [Oops !! not a good example I guess...but then, thtz me:)]
Cutting out the figurative talk and simply put, there is someone very important in my life now …n shez here to stay…..I name no names n won’t explicate further….. [dn’t wanna face the music later: ) ]....Let me just say....a "value add" of Chaos Nasha 2008 (refer d blog below) :)

The biggest challenge now: Maintaining the perfect balance.....Will b investing time in the perfect market portfolio with high risks associated (with a "beta" >> 1 : for finance ppl).....Iffy life....interesting life....

ciao ppl
ciao Life

Chaos Nasha @ IIM A

The “iffy” life struck again….on a positive note….witnessed my first cultural festival, “Chaos-Nasha”.....finished tonight….awesome experience, what with having KK sing his numbers 2 metres away from me…..in the NDA times, we weren’t exposed to this stuff….but then that was the best experience in its own way...First experience of what college life is like….Finally!!....I guess life outside Army ain’t that bad at all….may not have all the pride n respect that comes with uniform, but it sure rocks !!

Two and Two gives Thirteen

While going thru a cartoon strip, came across the wonky question of “What is 2 & 2”…..depends on d connotation actually….So I just assigned probabilities of 0.5 to each of 22 and 4 to get the expected values.....
Expected value of “two and two” is….0.5 x 22 + 0.5 x 4 = 13 !!
Lolzzz..wonky mathematics !! Hence proved !!

ciao ppl !!
ciao life !!

The "4 Knows"

There is so much of info in this world and the process of storing it in our memory (given the capacity constraints) is an imprtnt issue per se….Herez how we were taught to deal with the same in the academies…. All the information can b broken down into 4 type of knows:

Must-Know
Should- Know
Could-Know
Don’t-need-to-Know….

I for one, have found the “4- Knows” formula to be very handy while scouring through articles, plethora of info in the newspaper, dealing with subordinates and best-of-all handle situations when you’re not sure of something...

I remember saying words to that effect to someone…he asked me something about the Army…not a Top Secret, but still…I replied: ”You see, there is something called “4 type of knows: Must-know….and so on….” :) :) obviously for him it was a “Don’t need to know”.

Again someone asked: “Hasn’t ur life become public this way?” The answer for tht was… “Well….You see, there is something called……” and the rest of me comes under “Don’t need to know” !!

Ciao ppl
Ciao Life

Operation Welcome: "Newlywed Lady wife"

Well...Somehow this entire post vanished into thin air...Wonky Blogger.com !!!
"The Operation-Newly wed Lady Wife"...So am putting it in black and white again... :) Here goes...

In the Army, wives of officers are treated with great respect, so much so that you would find very senior officers calling wives of young lieutenants as "Maam"....The entry into the folds of Army of a Lady from a non Army background is really dramatic....In my tenure in Tenga valley (AP, near Tawang), we had a newly maried North-east couple...... Maam didn't know Sir before mrg.....they'd been married for around 25 odd days. I, being the most efficient :) youngster was entrusted with the welcome plan...Here are the excerpts...

Actors: Myself as sahayak (helper), another lady officer (Now mentioned as LO)as Dhobin (washerwoman)
Required: acting skills (not much), a love letter drafted by me (from a girl), timing and luck !!
Self- wearing white PT shoes and a jawan's working dress.

Modus Operandi:

1000hrs: Told by my senior officer to chalk out a plan
1200hrs: Liaison with the LO....brief outline
1330hrs: Sir n maam arrive...Sir is requested to get down at the gate and meet the commanding officer while maam is escorted to the Officers Mess, to their accomodation where I am waiting.

Shock 1:
1400hrs: I receive her and start settling the luggage. While clearing some documents, I inadvertently come across a "Letter"......read it and slyly (but in full view of maam), try to keep it in....(Converting the conversation to English...)
Maam: What is tht bhaiya? (A helper is called a "bhaiya" by n offr's wife)
Me: Memsaab, Nothing !! (try to deliberately hide it)
Maam: Show it to me
Me (takes it over 2 her reluctantly)
She reads it n GOSH !! Itz a letter from Sir's Girlfriend saying that she still misses the beautiful time they've spent together and words to that effect....dumbfounded!!

Shock 2:
1440hrs: In comes the dhobin (LO) with Sir's old clothes...she takes them out one by one (actually mine n LO's)...a combat shirt..white shirt..trouser...Oops !! a salwaar-suit
Maam: Whose is this ? (Shocked)
LO: How do I know?
Me: Memsaab, some of sir's friends used to come over, might be of one of them
(with a serious face !!)
Maam, (Shocked...chinki eyes wide open...whatz happening here ??)
goes n sits outside...

1530hrs: Maam is still waiting outside while i stand next to her awaiting orders...
Maam: You don't look like a helper (Ohhh...dude say something stupid)...till where have u studied?
Me: Memsaab...till 8th
Maam: Where is he ? (The officer)
Me: Memsaab, he had a lot of good friends here (achhi dost thii), might have gone to meet them.

I'm feeling sleepy...as seen in the pic above, all the rooms were on a downward slope...my room was the one immediately below sir's...the last one (in d pic), made up n excuse...
Me: Maam I'll be working in this officer's room, call me if u need anything

Shock 3: 1700hrs: I come out..Maam is still sitting outside....in the same state of shock...couple of days into d mrg...new colours coming out ...Lolzzz
The LO's room was above sir's n she had to go to office in the evening..she came out n rushed down the road....
Maam: Isn't she the dhobin who had come?
Me: (with a gulp n a sly smile) Yes Memsaab, she is "known" to that officer :) :)
I could see the shock on her face.....it was 1800hrs.... her husband was no where....goodness what was going on there...... there was no mobile communication in that hilly area....couldn't call up home...just waiting....

Shock 4:
1830hrs: Message conveyed to her that the First lady (Commanding officer's wife) would be taking her interview and she has to be in combat dress (Never happened...Ever !!)
Well, she was given sir's combat dress, ranks (appellates) and sent for the interview
1930hrs: First lady asks so many questions about her knowledge about the Army that Maam breaks up n starts crying !! Operation called off with immediate effect!!

Then maam was told about the entire prank....was escorted by other officers to her room where sir was waiting...She couldn't believe it till she actually saw myself and the Lady officer arriving in the formal dress for the party. She was like: "I told you na, you didn't look like a sahayak". Maam treasured that "love letter" and showed it to me whenever we met....

Pleasent memories galore...

ciao ppl
ciao life

Good Ol' Iffy life...

Rewinding my life by three years, same date, same time....I’ve just come back from evening classes in the Faculty of Instruments training, EME School Baroda...have given a presentation on ‘Time management’ in the morning...doing well professionally, doing well in the course, enjoying the life in Army, enjoying life!! ....

4.5 hours from now, am gonna have an accident that’s gonna turn the tide by 180 degrees...gonna take me off the planet for a minute n bring me back....Have no idea whatsoever... I keep saying, “Life is Iffy”....guess what!! Life is Iffy....One year down the line I was confused about the future, 2 yrs down the line I was going to ISB, and 3^rd year, here I am....

Just a casual thought that came back today to commemorate d accdnt anniversary....Today I’ve turned "3"....My second B'day....Lolzzzz....

Ciao ppl !!

Ciao Life !!

Expectations in life...Indifference

While doing probabilities in the Quantitative methods subject here, came across a realization which I could prove using conditional probability. In life (in general) and in all our relationships, be it between siblings, friends, peers, lovers, relatives or anybody; expectation from the other person plays a big role, which at times becomes the cause of disappointment. You go-do something out-of-the-way for a close friend, when time comes he/she doesn’t reciprocate, you feel bad…..You have feelings for someone and show it, doesn’t get reciprocated, you feel bad….you work hard for an assignment and expect cooperation from your peers….don’t get it… don’t get a good result either, feel bad….You help out a stranger in a difficult situation and when you need help from another stranger in another situation, no one comes forward---feel bad….

My point is, we should NOT...NEVER EXPECT. Sometimes you help someone and expect at least a courtesy 'thanks'…when you don’t get that (maybe because the person forgot or not used to saying it), you feel bad….don’t do so…welcome it but don’t expect a ‘Thanks’....it shouldn't matter. You love your GF (/BF) unconditionally with all your heart and expect the same from her (/him), many a times that doesn’t happen….don’t do that you’re the one who’s getting hurt. Herez my calculation that by assigning more weightage to "Not expecting" from other ppl, you improve your “Happy:Unhappy” (probability)ratio from 1:1 to 2:1 (Click the diagram on top left for proof). Life is very small and Life is very iffy, as I keep saying.... doesn’t make sense in feeling bad n waste even a second in doing so when you can avoid it. So people, stay happy-be wise-do what you are doing-but do NOT expect...be indifferent...

ciao ppl...
ciao life...

Inspiration for a book....

It feels great whenever I meet someone on whom I have had some sort o’ impact. The other day I’d gone to a dentist for a check-up and after the meet, it seems he got inspired to write a book on the varied inspiring stories he had come across in his career. Went over his script..; it seems he had been mulling over this idea for some time and I think especially after seeing d interview n then meeting me in person et al, he got the final signal [ at the cost of sounding immodest :) :) ]

Feels as though this way I’m partly serving the purpose of this second life- giving an external support, ray of hope and getting out d confidence in-self from as many people as I can....Anywayz, placement season is over…..ain’t not feeling like going back to the era of quizzes galore…thtz the way it is though !!! :) :)

BTW ppl herez a one liner….Life can be a bouquet of roses, as long as you are willing to handle the thorns attached !!

Ciao ppl !!
Ciao life !!

Few hrs to breathe....

Finally a few days to breathe....when you say that there is a break at IIM A it just means that there aren't any classes....thatz it !!
Lolz...the time has been scheduled to fall in line with the summer placements and that's whatz "in the air" these days...so much for the vacation :) :)

BTW Happy Diwali to all and sundry....
"Have time,will think...." n the wonky mind takes the time machine to the past to another Diwali day when everything was Okay...."perfect" would be the mot juste for that time frame
Frankly speaking, given a choice between going back to the Diwali when I was in the Army n was having the love of my life, and the Diwali when I'm at IIM A...I'd rather go back. But given a choice between the best of your past n the present, wouldn't we all not ?
So, No big deal !! ain't something special....
So my 'practical side' says..."Dude...reminisce the past.... but you have interviews after 72hrs.....better come back asap n live the present"


ciao ppl !!
ciao life !!

Livin' today...

Long time ppl…this term was supposed to be less grilling as compared to d first one… (coz we’re already used to d deadlines n stuff)…now, on with the internship blues with interviews round the corner for next summers. Literally no time to reminisce or work on the lines of the ‘Non Blondes song’ (here)

So I wake in the morning and I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey....
And I say hey what's goin' on !

Still trying to delve into where my interests lie….. seems like am falling into an abyss, not sure wht the end has in store for me. But whteva d end might be, d modus operandi is: Live today as if there’s no 2moro. Tht in no way implies just enjoy, but work towards my self-fulfillment such that at the end of d day, when I look back (If I do…), there sholudn’t b a moment spent on an event I regret upon later. Simply put (less the jargon…) If you study, study hard…play, play hard…chat, talk your heart out….sleep, have a sound sleep (love this part:) ) n words to tht effect…

Ciao ppl

Ciao life

Benchmark 1: Gusshow ppl....

Well Well Well,
The counter crossed the 10,000 mark today (since March,when it started)...
Not a big thing though,but it's one of those-
"Small things in life, that matter"...made me smile !!

Throughout this time ppl (most of the time, invisible....) have gone out of their way to give their opinion on d varied events in these months...accident n beyond....d love story...IIM'A-ISB dilemma...d break up....Leaving ISB for IIM'A....the supposed patch-up n status quo thereafter.....et al.
Still remember the day when 2 days after my breakup I was giving advice to an Indian living in (I think.....dn't remember) Australia who had had a big time break up recently....
I would like to take this post as an opportunity to thank everyone for their best wishes for whatever I have right now....
Feels great to know that in some way I might have motivated someone or shown that:
Be it a physical or emotional breakdown...d world does not end, It starts from a new benchmark !!
At the cost of repeating yet again, Shit does happen and its OKAY !! Part of life, happens.... The first question that should come to d mind is...
(figuratively speaking) Do you wipe it off or keep cursing life for it.
We always have a choice- Good or Bad, Yes or No, Be Glad/ Sad,
'tz upto us to choose and Live with it... So go ahead ppl,
Rock thy world n thy world shalt rock with thou !!

Ciao ppl !!
Ciao life !!