Proposals!

Was recently chatting about amazing proposals in movies we love. And it was sad that I could not find the words. But here is the homework!

Dil Chahta Hai:
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**Shalini's wedding to Rohit**
Akash: Hi Shalini
Shalini: Hi
Akash: Mujhse Shaadi Karogi?
Akash: Agar main kahoon ki main tumse pyar karta hoon tab bhi nahin?
**Rohit walks over - The coolest stare, and he stops**
Akash:
Shalini, main tumse aur sirf tumse pyar karta hoon. Meri har saans, meri har dhadkan, mere har pal main tum ho aur bas tum ho shalini, Mujhe yakin hai ki main sirf isliye janma hoon ki tumse pyar kar sakoon, aur tum sirf isliye ki ek din meri ban jao.
Tum meri ho shalini, agar tum apne dil se pooch logi to jaan logi, ki main sach keh raha hoon

Runaway Bride:
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She returns to the balcony and hands him the box.
IKE (cont'd) What's this?
MAGGIE These are for you.
He opens it. It's her running shoes.
IKE Used?
MAGGIE They're mine. I'm turning in my running shoes to you.
IKE This is getting serious.
Now she is glowing at him, shining with the full force of her.
MAGGIE And one more thing. I know it's hard to believe there could be more. Um...
Maggie glances around and spots a DECK CHAIR, which she turns so it is facing the city lights. Then she softly says:
MAGGIE (cont'd) If you could have a seat, please.
Ike sits. Maggie takes the box from him and puts it aide. And then she gets down on one knee.
IKE (laughing) Oh my God. No.
Maggie smiles up at him. Ike tips his head back and covers his eyes with his hand.
MAGGIE No, no -- don't hide your face, this only happens once in a lifetime. It's definitely a first to me, and you're not going to want to miss it.
He smiles as he looks at Maggie.
MAGGIE (cont'd) I love you, Homer Eisenhower Graham. Will you marry me?
Ike swallows, overwhelmed, overjoyed, and scared shitless.
IKE Maggie, I gotta think about this a little bit.
Maggie hops cheerfully back to her feet.
MAGGIE (cheerful) Good.
She gets off her knees and stands.
MAGGIE (cont'd) I was hoping you'd say that.
IKE (laughing) You were not.
MAGGIE I was, because if you said "yes" right away, I wouldn't get to say this next part. And I've been practicing it. (pulling up a chair and sitting) Ready?
IKE I'm listening.
MAGGIE (tenderly) "I guarantee that we'll have tough times. I guarantee that at some point one or both oof us will want to get out. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Because I know in my heart -- you're the only one for me".
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Her Praise - ah, the subtilty of words.

Whoever said that understated emotions are moot, needs to get in touch with Yeats’ poetry...
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HER PRAISE
SHE is foremost of those that I would hear praised.
I have gone about the house, gone up and down
As a man does who has published a new book
Or a young girl dressed out in her new gown,
And though I have turned the talk by hook or crook
Until her praise should be the uppermost theme,
A woman spoke of some new tale she had read,
A man confusedly in a half dream
As though some other name ran in his head.
She is foremost of those that I would hear praised.
I will talk no more of books or the long war
But walk by the dry thorn until I have found
Some beggar sheltering from the wind, and there
Manage the talk until her name come round.
If there be rags enough he will know her name
And be well pleased remembering it, for in the old days,
Though she had young men's praise and old men's blame,
Among the poor both old and young gave her praise.

Poet: W.B.Yeats
http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/

I have to take a bow to this amazing poet! The romanticism is obvious, but it is the humility of the lady being praised and the humility of the praise for this lady that is more striking. How else could you have captured the emotion of what the lady had done, without losing its essence while describing it. Just bloody amazing. Why can't american business schools learn a thing or two from Yeats. Today's world; always about small, simple broken out sentences. Business communication boys and girls, thats what will put food on your plate!

Leadership

A while back I was sent a very interesting snippet by a good friend, on leadership. The simplicity of the four quadrants and its relevance to my own priorities in life was just awesome to comprehend.

This particular thought has references to the 'Core Values' at Sapient my current employer, where Leadership is one of the key values.
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Extract from the Harvard Business Review...


Interesting interpretations/questions thrown out here.
Do you want to be a good leader or a good coach or just good at delivering results? Do you even want to be a leader?

It's interesting to consider this theory in relation to Sapient's core values and incentive structure. If we ask the question "Are all successful people at Sapient good leaders?" then the answer is NO. So then is it just another ideal that we always strive towards and do the best we can? (while being great at other areas of the spectrum)

If so then not being strong in true leadership skills is actually just another SWOT analysis point, that each individual needs to figure out how to "make up for" to be successful.

Safer editorials!

And I had to settle for this. (as opposed to the Economics of Religion essay in the last blog)
I loved it as well, but its just so... Well for one you dig up numbers from other's surveys. Then you use researched trends as well. Not original enough in my book, even though you work just as hard to write it!

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Humanity has borne witness to a multitude of grave issues in the span of recorded history. On one side are the problems created by mankind, ranging from large scale wars, to massive genocide campaigns, the use of nuclear weapons and global climate change induced by deforestation and greenhouse emissions. On the other side are issues that nature has provided of her own largesse - from calamities like tsunamis and earthquakes, to diseases and non-human triggered destructive weather patterns.

It would be unfair to prioritize these issues based on casualties or causes, although there is one issue which has been growing in proportion alarmingly in recent years and is still eluding the focused attention of the world. This is the threat of communicable diseases (CDs). A recent study by the World Bank estimated that annually more than 10 million deaths worldwide are caused by CDs.

Even though there has been a very structured approach to known CDs during the 20th century, there are variants and newer diseases that have sprung up. While immunization and antibiotics were successful in eradicating small pox and widely controlling polio, newer diseases like HIV and newer strains of TB & malaria continue to wreak havoc. According to the world-bank survey, HIV has infected more than 60 million people worldwide and already claimed 20 million victims, and that TB is responsible for over 1.7 million deaths alone each year.

Changes in human demographics, dramatic increase in international travel and development of variant strains of microbes have made CDs a world wide phenomenon today. SARS and Avian Flu are two recent examples of global outbreaks of CDs that impacted countries throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” is a rude awakening to the reality that even a traditional safe zone like the Unites States is not insulated from the risk of extremely lethal and highly contagious diseases like Ebola and Marburg.

Today, international economics are closely linked to local public heath. In 1994 during the pneumonic plague outbreak in India, international travel came to a near stand still, resulting in millions of dollars in lost trade. A similar situation ensued during the 2003 SARS outbreak in S-E Asia. Today, more than ever, there is a need for global action to identify, control and prevent CDs.

For humanity to solve this problem, greater investment will be required in vaccine research, development and distribution. Global coordination in obtaining funding for research, in sharing the benefits of global R&D, and also in implementing disease prevention measures is another key step.

Several international agencies are currently involved in combating CDs. But the money, research and solutions available today are no where close to the scale of what is needed to really solve the problem. The World Bank, one of the largest financiers of international disease control programs committed $334 million in 2006. Compare this to the $441 billion dollar US national defense budget in 2006.

The need of the hour is a key revaluation of our priorities at a global level. The time has come to pool our resources, research and intellect to fight this gravest of threats to humanity.

Economics of Religion

A recent academic requirement drove me to write an editorial on the topic of "The most pressing issue facing humanity".
I loved the concept behind the write up, but funnily got a review that it was well too "Controversial". Life!
Of course it is controversial! Why do people want to forget that debate is the driver for a better society?

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One of the most pressing issues facing humanity today is the need for increased tolerance. This human ideal - stereotyped as a ‘greater good’; can actually be viewed in purely economic terms as a free market fundamental. A classic example of this would be religious tolerance.
Religion today is like a competitive commodity – no one religion is equipped to supply the entire market & its diverse needs. The demand for religion remains high, but markets are dramatically changing as information and global communications improve. This global change has led to accessibility of alternate religious products in remote markets and also to increased competition as new markets are made accessible to the large suppliers.
The marginal suppliers meanwhile are doing all they can to retain their market share. They are greatly helped by global support networks from similar products, something that was not easily accessible previously. The major suppliers on the other hand, are trying to redefine / standardize the market’s requirements to ensure uniformity of demand characteristics and to ensure that their product can meet the entire demand.

Add increased competition in an unregulated market, to other factors like:
- global energy sources & their availability – primarily oil and gas;
- economic growth needs of the major economies – requiring smaller economies to conform; and
- monopolistic actions by the largest suppliers of the product – influencing political policies, media control, propaganda marketing and unilateral actions
and you get a very volatile market on the verge on breakdown.

There is ample evidence of this advanced state of market distress across the globe.
- 12 cartoons – cost around 150 lives, $170 Mn in boycotted trade and billions more due to the international agitations and riots.
- Product conversion by local consumers – lead to riots in Alexandria, Egypt; to Patna, India; to Lagos, Nigeria – primarily incited by the local majority supplier
- Global polarization – Formation of cartels of nations and local organizations on the lines of the underlying religious commodity. The intricate relationships between the cartels have greatly increased chances of lengthy complicated wars – as precipitated in Lebanon, Kashmir (India), Chechnya (Russia), Iraq, Iran and Indonesia among others.

Assuming that the need of the world is a functional market place – or a peaceful world where cultures/peoples and nation states co-exist to allow real economic activities to proceed; then the need of the hour is a dramatic change in market fundamentals.

This correction of market fundamentals can only be driven by increased tolerance in humanity today. And it really does not need to be defined in terms of a greater good. In pure economic terms, the large suppliers will continue to strong arm the world till the marginal cost of the response overshadows their investments or until they are negatively incentivized to do so; and the marginal suppliers (who have achieved sufficient numbers to survive) will continue to use all means available till the market allows for their existence and growth as well.

The truth is that religious belief is not a regulated commodity, just like international politics; and in uncontrolled markets where the limits of survival practices are undefined, the first casualty is the market place. The catch is to figure out how to incentivize the market to incorporate this fundamental.

We can only hope that the marginal cost of actions for suppliers becomes too high before the entire market place, a.k.a humanity, is destroyed.

Optimism, Spite and Cynicism

Wikipedia is an interesting place to look up philosophy!
How many of us are cynics in some area or the other in life? Think relationships, professional life, personal life, academics, ethics etc etc...
An interesting theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism
- Life's vagaries ?-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness (see the interesting last paragraph on the link to optimism - learned_optimism they call it)
- Leading to ?-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism
Sometimes evaluating why we react in a certain way in certain spheres of life - does give us an insight into how much of it is from habit (learned helplessness/optimism?).
Surprisingly personal life and personal philosophies link closely with professional life and professional philosophies; especially in demanding work environments.

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Quote:
**self-esteem, with psychological well-being and with personal health. Martin Seligman, in researching this area, criticises academics for focusing too much on causes for pessimism and not enough on optimism. He points out that in the last three decades of the 20th century journals published 46,000 psychological papers on depression and only 400 on joy.
Ideologically convinced optimists may defend failures in their hoped-for outcomes by discussing "misplaced optimism" rather than abandoning optimism altogether.
A number of scholars have suggested that, although optimism and pessimism might seem like opposites, in psychological terms they do not function in this way. Having more of one does not mean you have less of the other. The factors that reduce one do not necessarily increase the other. On many occasions in life we need both in equal supply. Antonio Gramsci famously called for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will": the one the spur to action, the other the resilience to believe that such action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity.
/**


On a related note:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism

-Rishi
Note: The views included in this article are views of the author only, and do not convey any corporate views. The author does not suggest a path, he merely wishes to provoke thoughts.

Uncertainty...

How does one get over a feeling of restlessness? of uncertainty, of diverging paths, of the unknown...
You'd think that you have already done your share of the slog. But somehow each time you take a moment and reflect, you feel like a 4 year old kid who thinks he's done it all. But in the end thoughts and perspectives are so very relative. You can market / debate the hell out of a success and make it a resounding failure or vice versa. Some how as a kid who loved debating, I used to love doing it with abstract topics, but recent incidents really make me wonder on the absurdity of relativity.
Relativity... A very convenient term. A term that can make a contended (successful?) and happy person; into one who is just in a confort zone with blinders on! I just recently proved that to someone. Perspective indeed... But brings up a key point. Where do you draw the line on perspective.
Take for example an individual who just does not want to / does not know better to think about more variables / complexities in life. Such a person can be very comfortable with where he/she is in life; going on with life's tenacities. Why do I resent such an individual as being shortsighted? Why do I want to brand such a person as being beneath my interest zone? Is it wrong to lose interest in simple people? The funny thing about people is the shades of grey. It is easy to categorize the really simple ones. The picture gets hazy when you get to people who are just amazingly complex in some areas in life and yet just so under-developed in others.
The philosopher in me just cannot reconcile to this spectrum. You do learn to stop judging people, else you would never have 'friends' to hang out with. But when you think back to an Aristotle or a Socrates or a demosthenes. Why should a philospher indulge the simple?
An answer pops up- loneliness! Sucks indeed if that were the only answer!!!
But the realist in me suggests that there are more solutions to the problem. Life can be a collage of people, groups and relationships. Some where you learn, some where you teach and some where you are equals. And loneliness is just one aspect of life, conveying the fact that man is a social animal. Perspective! :-) Don't I love its attires.

Maybe my current restlessless is the impatience of a life in transition. Sigh. Why can't there be dictatorship in life on an as required basis! with full blamability on screw ups! :-)

Life!