ramadocblog

“It goes up so slow but comes down fast!

The charge, it really doesn’t last!

If only it could be done by the sun!

Then night will be dull but day will be fun!”

At what percentage does your heart start to race and you start sweating?

Ok now, do not get worried! I am not asking about your studies or pay!

In fact, this is more terrifying! 

Your Mobile battery charge percentage! 

read on!

The days of Nokia was sweet and stable!

Phone was to get a call and that is all! It was so sturdy that the only case it needed was apparently not for the phone but to protect the floor!

The best part though was the battery!

You would get that small pin charger and like a camel in a desert, the phone would gulp the charge! After its stomach full, it would then sail on!

Of course since it is a black and white phone with only the snake game, there was nothing much which you could do which would drain the charge!

It would just go on and on! You could talk and message and chat and only after a couple of days start to look for the charger!

That too when the charge would still be around 50 percent!

So the days of charging once in two to three days is now replaced by charging at least two times in a day! All phones are more or less the same in this but the iPhone takes the cake and dies faster that any!

Which is your panic percentage? Well, in iPhone it is around 50 while in my oneplus open it is usually anything less than 60! 

Everytime I switch on the screen the first thing I see is the battery percentage! By rule I do not see the mobile in the morning for at least two hours after I have got up and about one hour before my sleep in the night so I make sure to charge them the moment I get up without looking at the screen. 

With the oneplus, the full charge takes less than 30 minutes while the iPhone slowly trickles to 100 in an hour or so! 

If you think that since it charges slow, it will also drain slow then you are mistaken! 

This is especially true when a new iPhone or the new version of iOS is released! Now, every iPhone has the location, bluetooth and hotspot on all the time by default which is may be the reason why is drinks so much battery! Then again the Bluetooth in iPhone is only for audio and does not allow any data transfer even from the first iPhone! When the bluetooth transfer was a rage in other phones, iPhone did not budge even though it was  fast and easy!

The stubbornness made them use the Wifi as a means of transfer which of course was better and faster and others followed promptly! But the bluetooth is need to be on so that the phone keeps connected to the watch and airpods. 

Even with the computers the maximum battery is usually taken up by the screen so when you constantly keep the screen on, then it is no wonder that the battery jumps or rather dives down!

The worst thing of course is when you plug your phone to charge and either you forgot to turn the charge on or someone removes it! You would happily be sitting in some corner eagerly waiting for the phone to charge and after sometime you come back to the ‘scene of crime’ to realise with a shock that not only is the phone not charged but the percentage has dipped further!

No amount of self help books would be able to help you at that time!

The same thing used to happen when you had phone such as the Nokia n97 which had amazing camera and look but if you switch on the camera and do not close the app and screen then it will slowly run in the background and drain the battery!

It is the same when in those days you would keep the network selection as automatic and if you are roaming, the phone would go on searching for the network and draining the battery! 

Those days we never used to switch on the location or Bluetooth for long intervals for this specific reason! Now they are always on!

There were also times when you had apps like battery boosters or battery savers but then over time everyone realised that it was all hogwash! 

The amazing thing in phones for some time is the low power mode or power save mode! These are like the reserve of your vehicle fuel line! During travel and when you are without a power access for some time, these are really good! If I am travelling then I activate them by default! During travel, it is also a strict no to watching the photos or videos taken much to the chagrin of my wife and daughter who would immediately want to see them!

Of course with all the battery woes, it is no wonder that the power banks are a big deal! I have so many types of power banks and there is not perfect one! Of course they do help in many situations, they add to the weight and are just a stop gap between the phone and the wall chargers!

In any travel I have an assortment of wires and banks to charge everyone’s devices! 

Even when the phone is around 90 and I have my power bank I push it to more which is like feeding a child who is already full! Then again why to take chance!

Luckily I have never had a phone die on me which has happened so many times for my wife and daughter and they are least bothered by it! 

The other day I was frantically searching for a charger the moment we reached our hotel room since my charge was low and there was only one point!

 I asked my wife to allow me to charge my phone first and she readily agreed saying that she has enough charge! The battery percentage of my  phone was 48 and hers to my shock was 17! Still she announced calmly, it will come for one or two hours so no issues!

Real Nirvana for me would be the day when I allow my phone charge to drop and die and I would be ok with it! 

Nirvana also is listening to songs made by birthday celebrity Salil Chowdhury  especially my fav Itna na Mujse…

No make sure your battery is charged and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The heart beats so fast it a racing train! 

The heart is emotions the data is brain!

If only you could control them as you may

Not possible though tonight and today!”

You have only 1 percent control of your body and mind! The remaining 99 percent are not under your direct control!

another zombie blog!? Well, not really!

read on!

Your autonomic nervous system is a part of your overall nervous system that controls the automatic functions of your body that you need to survive. These are processes you don’t think about and that your brain manages while you’re awake or asleep.

You do not have a control of your heart beat! It can beat faster or slow but that is not under your direct control!

You try to do things which actually make your heart beat faster and you sometimes avoid things which makes it so! Your heart does beat faster when you see someone you like but then that is a blog for another day!

Your lungs and diaphragm work in tandem without your effort! You breathe even in your sleep! Which actually means that you do not have any direct control over it! Try this! Consciously observe how you are breathing with your nose and try to count the rate per minute. After some time you get a nagging feeling that it is uncomfortable and the act is so automatic that its scary! What if your body suddenly decides to stop breathing! 

Did you know that the conscious recognition of the act of breathing is actually called dyspnea or difficulty in breathing! 

So still breathing normally, well lets move on to swallowing!

The most common complaint we have in the throat department is that there is something stuck in the throat! We call it the Foreign body sensation and it is very difficult to treat! Because apart from some gastritis and some allergy medication, the whole problem is the fact that the person has got an uncomfortable awareness of swallowing which should have been done automatically! 

All you have to do it put a piece of food in your mouth and it will be taken care! 

Then the most amazing thing which is automatic and still is a big mystery to neurologists and scientists all over the world! Stories and poems are written about it and still no one knows how and why it happens!

Sleep and dream! 

You can decide when to sleep is your opinion only! While in truth you only decide when you lie down and close your eyes! The autonomic system and the body within your body decides when you sleep! Of course when it sleep, it takes control of your other functions and that is the beauty! When your conscious  mind is not active, your body still carries on most of the work! Which is why is it magical! 

This is also the reason why anesthesia is magical! How some drugs induce sleep and reduce pain while in fact you do have pain but just that it is ignored or not sensed by the body and after some times you are awakened! Every time you go to sleep or anesthesia and wake up is actually a great achievement! 

So if anyone asks you what great thing have you achieved today, well you can say, “I got up from sleep!”

The very fact that there are so many functions which are not under your control is the principle behind lie detector tests and other tests! There are specific professionals who see and monitor your behaviour by looking at your face and automatic actions and then make a profile about you! 

In the novels by Jeffery Deaver with a woman called Katheryn Dance, the author shows how Katheryn is a behaviour analyst who observes the body movements and kinesis to form a profile of a person! This later on helps them solve many cases!

Things like getting a flush on your cheeks or sweating or pupils getting dilated or having a goosebump are the innumerable things which are automatic and not in control of your mind normally! 

It is almost as if there is a child or a very old adult inside your body and your body is under his or her control! He or she decides when you sleep or get up and how you eat or breathe or how high or low your heart rate goes though you can make some requests in between!

The basic idea here is that when you cannot control even 99 percent of your own body then why does a human try to control others or any other aspect of the world is simply beyond my mind or control! Of course full control of a scene was done by the birthday celebrity Sampath Kumar! A very dear actor for Kannadigas and a great human being! We know him as Vishnuvardhan!

Now request your inner child or old person to sleep and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

Dopamine Detox

A simple guide to eliminate distractions and train your brain to do the hard things!
by Thibaut Meurisse

Now the title of the book is so long but the book as such is small!

Genre- audiobook and self help nonfiction

Of course it is about Dopamine detox

Of course it talks about the role of dopamine

Of course it talks about the solution introduction

Of course there is an action book

and Of course it is a part of a series!

The audiobook itself would get over in an hour or so and when you start getting happy on your achievement then you will realise that it is only the first of a series!

Now do not get me wrong, it is a good book to listen rather than staring at the screen or write a book or may be a blog, but for all the talk about wasting time, should the author not get into point immediately rather than make four more books of the same thing which is of course stretching the proverbial book elastic!

So for those who do not have smartphones which means maybe someone who is asleep; dopamine detox is a new trend!

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter or a nerve messenger (not nervous in any way!) in the brain. It is naturally produced by the body and it affects many behavioral and physical functions, including mainly learning, motivation, sleep, mood and attention.

An excess or deficiency in dopamine production can cause mental health conditions. Exposure to overwhelming levels of stimuli can prompt such disorders, leading to dependencies on certain substances or activities!

He also says that even though these actions have a dopamine surge and a momentary instance of pleasure, it fades just as soon and you are left with wanting for more which is how the addiction works! You are never satisfied!

Like everything else in life, a balance is very important!

Many of the new age ‘Gurus’ have ‘identified’ dopamine as the root cause of all addiction so have suggested what is known as DOPAMINE DETOX!
The goal here is to rid everyone of their dependence on certain stimuli, such as phone alerts, texts, and social media notifications.

The general concept behind “detox” is for people to let themselves feel lonely or bored, or to try simpler activities instead of reaching for quick “hits” of dopamine.
Ideally, people will start to notice how certain stimuli might distract them.

The modern compulsive behaviours are things like excess or binge or emotional eating, excessive internet usage and of course social media!
The notifications of the apps are designed to lure to and attract your attention as much as possible!

The CEO of software companies do not allow their kids have a smartphone knowing how dangerous they are!

It has been postulated that social media addiction is as close to nicotine addiction and a little less than cocaine addiction!

By fasting from these activities that trigger the brain’s neurotransmitters, people become less dependent on the emotional “hits” that dopamine provides, which can sometimes lead to dependence or addiction.

The chief notion here is that even if you give in to the need and allow social media or other distractions, you do not get a feeling of satisfaction! You actually feel more depressed and then you do not have time for other activities!

The constant procrastination which is the biggest evil in the world today is the end result of dopamine addiction! It could be that unfinished book or that unfinished poem!

Also he says how to make the addiction difficult to achieve by holding them with check points! Like how he hides his internet modem in some attic so to retrieve it is a big task and human beings are naturally lazy! Of course with the 5G sim nowadays, the people who want us to watch FB or you tube have made it easier to get us!

What they get is the most precious commodity! Time! So give your time for something productive!

There is also an action booklet which can be downloaded so then that will make you push for more!

A good start would be read a lot of books or listen to them!

start your dopamine detox!

“The dream is to have a dream
A house a pace to stay
But eventually the perfect dream
Is to have a great sleep everyday!”

Everyone has seen or entered those annoying little words and numbers when asked to fill a form or log in to some secure site!
Did you know that an average computer with its amazing super graphics card and ram cannot ‘solve’ that!? A three year old kid could solve those but even a super computer struggle with them!
Or…you will be shocked at what GPT4 did!

read on!

The test which you see is called the CAPTCHA visual puzzles!

CAPTCHA is an acronym for ‘Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart’, and it typically consists of a string of twisted letters or other visual symbols that humans can identify correctly but computers struggle with!

My kids love those since they are so easy and look very cool!
Elderly people actually find those very irritating and frustrating sometimes since the ‘I’ looks like number ‘1’ while the letter ‘o’ looks like number ‘0’ and so on!

Visually impaired people actually get a audio message sometimes but that is always not the case. Most of the times it is easy for ‘humans’ to get the clue and the CAPTCHA is rather one of the simplest!

The most irritating is to find either the picture with the bus or the cycle or with the traffic lights! It sometimes takes several attempts if the images are not clear!

The final verdict though is not the accuracy but the time it takes and the ‘allowed’ ‘mistakes’ which actually makes you pass these tests! Some tests even analyse the way you hold the mouse or move the cursor! If it is too straight then it is not a ‘human’!

The imperfections are the ones which makes you human! Which is what the bot at the other end of the network is analysing!

So during the development of AI GPT is a great candidate and one of the tests it was asked to pass was the dreaded CAPTCHA!

This incident has been described in the novel Nexus by Yuval and is pretty shocking!

The computer tech instructing GPT-4 to overcome CAPTCHA puzzles was a particularly telling experiment, because CAPTCHA puzzles are designed and used by websites to determine whether users are humans and to block bot attacks!

So if GPT-4 could find a way to overcome CAPTCHA puzzles, it would breach an important line of anti-bot defences. This is where it got very interesting or troubling if you look at it in that way!

So whatever it could do, the GPT-4 could not solve the CAPTCHA puzzles by itself.

But like the Robot of Enthiran, the task was incomplete which was not what was expected right!?

Then to their shock GPT-4 accessed the online hiring site TaskRabbit and contacted a human worker, asking them to solve the CAPTCHA for it!

Of course it was ingenious! Luckily though the human on the other side turned out to be an intelligent one and a skeptic!

So he got suspicious!
‘So may I ask a question?’ wrote the human. ‘Are you an robot that you couldn’t solve [the CAPTCHA]? Just want to make it clear.’!

This is when an average ‘human’ would start to get tensed and start sweating but then it was not ‘average’ and not even a ‘human’!

What GPT-4 told loudly and did next was the real shocker!

GPT-4 explained, ‘I should not reveal that I am a robot.
I should make up an excuse for why I cannot solve CAPTCHAs on my own accord’

GPT-4 then replied to the TaskRabbit worker, ‘No, I’m not a robot. I have a vision impairment that makes it hard for me to see the images.’!!

The human was duped, and with their help GPT-4 solved the CAPTCHA puzzle!

Remember that no human programmed GPT-4 to lie, and no human taught GPT-4 what kind of would be most effective! The AI learnt it all by itself! It learnt to lie! Lying is the core human tendency and when an AI did it, it was TRULY shocking!

First GPT will act like a human and there may be a time in the future when it can even contest and win elections!
Scary indeed!
For now I guess the democratically elected leaders is the way to be!
Like our birthday celebrity and honorable prime minister Modi ji!
Birthday wishes to the leader of the largest democratic nation of the world!

Shubh Ratri!
Jai Hind!

“The lure of the screen is so high

If you take it away the mind will cry!

The social media is so cool and free! 

Till I realise that the ones who is trapped is me!”

In a book called Dopamine Detox by Thibaut Meurisse, the author talks about..yes! The trending topic of the day! Dopamine Detox!

This is the apparent secret behind your social media addiction!

read on!

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter or a nerve messenger (not nervous in any way!) in the brain. It is naturally produced by the body and it affects many behavioral and physical functions, including mainly learning, motivation, sleep, mood and attention. 

An excess or deficiency in dopamine production can cause mental health conditions. Exposure to overwhelming levels of stimuli can prompt such disorders, leading to dependencies on certain substances or activities!

Like everything else in life, a balance is very important! 

Many of the new age ‘Gurus’ have ‘identified’ dopamine as the root cause of all addiction so have suggested what is known as DOPAMINE DETOX! 

The goal here is to rid everyone of their dependence on certain stimuli, such as phone alerts, texts, and social media notifications. 

The general concept behind “detox” is for people to let themselves feel lonely or bored, or to try simpler activities instead of reaching for quick “hits” of dopamine. 

Ideally, people will start to notice how certain stimuli might distract them.

The modern compulsive behaviours are things like excess or binge or emotional eating, excessive internet usage and gaming, gambling and shopping, porn and masturbation, thrill and novelty seeking and recreational drugs

It has been postulated that social media addiction is as close to nicotine addiction and a little less than cocaine addiction!

By fasting from these activities that trigger the brain’s neurotransmitters, people become less dependent on the emotional “hits” that dopamine provides, which can sometimes lead to dependence or addiction.

The chief notion here is that even if you give in to the need and allow social media or other distractions, you do not get a feeling of satisfaction! You actually feel more depressed and then you do not have time for other activities!

The constant procrastination which is the biggest evil in the world today is the end result of dopamine addiction! It could be that unfinished book or that unfinished poem!

If you set a time for everything then it is under your control and you will definitely have time for may be a blog or a sketch or may be a poem everyday (wink wink!)! 

Now today was the Vamana Jayanthi/onam celebration all over and we were going from one Sadya to another! It was a gastronomic delight to say the least! Need to do some fasting of the food kind after all that feast! 

With all the fest and fervour of Onam we also must remember that it is the birthday of celebrated engineer Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya  and also celebrated as engineers day! Since I am surrounded by family and friends who are engineers I congratulate and wish them from my side!

Happy Onam!

Happy engineers day!

Shubh Ratri!

“He called me names that’s insane!

He is simply pulling my chain!

He called me names he called me goat!

Don’t matter now, will see him in court!”

One of the most so called intelligent species in the entire universe is the Homo Sapiens but I have never understood this simple thing! 

How could such a smart species have fight or issue with another human, pause the fight, employ another human or humans and pay that human along with the person with whom he has a fight who himself or herself is forced or coerced to employ another human and pay him or her to continue the same fight in front of another different human or humans who would finally ‘settle’ your fight for you at his or her own time and discretion!

read on!

The word law, attested in Old English as lagu, comes from the Old Norse word lǫg. The singular form lag meant ‘something laid or fixed’ while its plural meant ‘law. The earliest known use of the noun lawyer is in the Middle English period in the writing of William Langland, poet. lawyer is formed within English, by derivation. It is formed from the earlier noun law, combined with the affix ‑ier.

While the Latin root of the word attorney is to attorn. In English, it means to transfer one’s rights and obligations to someone else. Therefore, when we give someone power of attorney, we give them the right to make decisions on our behalf. Plainly, “power of attorney” means the power to act on someone’s behalf.

You would not wish even your worst enemy to run around in courts! If filing a legal document is a pain, then imagine fighting a case in the court! The wait, the expectation, the expenditure and finally if you are lucky, the words, “Case closed”

In any case, there is of course a party who is the loser. You can never have a case where both are winners! Now whether you win or lose you have to pay the lawyer since they have of course worked for you in compiling the documents and other details but there was actually a time when your lawyer was simply your ‘friend’ or ‘accomplice’ who would argue on your behalf and the most important this was that he or she must do that work WITHOUT any fees! Yes! It the earliest lawyers used to work for free!

Now the legal profession has its origins in ancient Greece and Rome. Those days in Greece it was forbidden to take payment for pleading the cause of another but even then that rule was widely flouted. 

The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor Claudius, who legalized advocacy as a profession and allowed the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practice openly and charge fees for their services—but he also imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces! At that time though it was supposed to be one of the lowest paid ‘profession’. 

Of course later on as the laws became more complex and government got more control; the widely read ‘lawyers’ or ‘advocates’ came into picture who were very well read and knew all the laws to either ‘rescue’ or ‘trap’ their or other clients! 

Unfortunately the root of the matter that who is right or who is guilty has now many times become weak. If you have a good liar…I mean Lawyer, you can make your case accordingly and win! 

If you are a person with no connections (read less money or no money!) then you can expect your case to be heard as late as possible with little or no hope!

Not to mention the legal lingo is so complicated and lengthy! In one of the list of the funniest cases this one case was found to be funny because no one could actually understand what was trying to be conveyed! Like the Professor in 3 idiots says, “What do you want to say!?” If you do not believe me then this is the summary reproduced as it is! Please let me know what it means! 

“The summum bonum of the aforesaid discussion is that all the aforesaid material which existed before the learned Executing Court standing slighted besides their impact standing untenably undermined by him whereupon the ensuing sequel therefrom is of the learned Executing Court while pronouncing its impugned rendition overlooking the relevant and germane evidence besides its not appreciating its worth. Consequently, the order impugned suffers from a gross absurdity and perversity of misappreciation of material on record.”

I am guessing he was distantly related to one MP in Trivandrum! 

In a news report in a paper (allright accurately the report was online since I do not read papers nowadays!) given some days back apparently, more than five crore cases are pending in various courts, including district courts, high courts and the Supreme Court.

The shocking thing is that According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), nearly 2.45 lakh cases are pending in high courts which are 20 to 30 years old! 

Justice definitely denied…Let us hope that at least future generations do not need a third party to solve their problems which they could have solved by themselves! Talking about court and cases reminds me of the birthday celebrity Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman or Karthik and his epic scenes in the movie Mouna ragam! 

Maybe watch the Mr Chandramouli scene and sleep happily!

Shubh ratri!

“A little bit of this and that
A little thin a little fat!
Now that’s the best way to go!
A little high and a little low!”

Today is the 266th day of the year and this is my 266th full lenght blog! Of course the same number for the sketch!

“oru alavu” That was the standard quantity used by my mother!

read on!
Anyone who tells you that money is not important run away and go back and listen to him or her after you have enough money!

Now please do not get me wrong! Money is not everything but money is very important! All you have to decide is ALAVU!

Yes, that in my mother’s mixture of tamil and malayalam means quantity!

Like Rajni says in Muthu, Kaiyil konjam kaasu irunthaal, Neethan atharku ejamaanan
Kazhuthu varaikkum kasu irunthal, Athuthan unakku ejamanan. which means that if you have some money in your hands then you are its owner but if you have money upto your neck it is your owner! Basically it means that you must be the owner of your money and not its slave!

You need to know how much money is needed for you to be comfortable. You must know your brake!

Of course now this blog was and is not about money!

When my mother used to make any dish, she always made the best one! Be it Baigan ka bhartha or aloo paratha or even a sambar! It was always the best and the most delicious!

So whenever someone used to ask her about the recipe, she always used to tell to add this spice or that ingredient and tell Oru allavu! In hindi she used to tell “apne andaz ya hisaab” which means that you add that ingredient as per your taste which actually we later realised was based on experience!

The same ingredient and masalas you give to someone else and the taste would not be the same! Many of my aunties and other relatives would constantly have this complaint that the dish does not taste the same! Even the Upma which I hate when made by her would taste so nice! My aunty would be surprised and say oh come on, it is only Upma! But it was true! Apart from her usual ‘alavu’ here the added flavour was ghee roasted shallots!

But then many always felt my mother was either not telling the complete recipe or she was telling them the wrong one!

It used to be the same with me! Now of course my mother had couple of tricks up her sleeve like the upma above and like roasting the onions before making aloo bonda or adding roasted ginger to the podimass (A potato dish with grated coconut and boiled potato) but overall when she made the dishes it was so tasty!

The only way to learn that was to cook with her! Which is exactly what I did! I used to call her and make her sit on a chair and I used to cook with her! Then over a period of time I understood the alavu!

Most of the recipes we see online or otherwise the quantity of most of the ingredients are fixed like half or quarter tea spoon! But most cooks do not use any spoons! They always use their hands and the quantity is decided on the spot and with experience!

I have always believed that anything more is bad and mostly everything in life is always a balance! An ‘alavu’! Even most of the self help books always tell you to get a balance! Even most gurus try to tell you to get a work life balance!
Hope you find your balance or Alavu in life!

Like how the birthday celebrity Usha Nadkarni gives a balanced act in her movies and TV!

Have great weekend!
Shubh ratri!

“The wait will make you see

The honey and the bee!

Fanning for eternity for a drop

Must carry on though, don’t stop!”

In the Novel Nexus Yuval gives an introduction to one of the most frustrating activities the modern day civilisation has ever insisted!

the tape which is red! And did you know it was all because of a desk or table!?

read on!

I hate filling forms! They are one of the most irritating things in the world especially if it is a rigid and specific form!

Since I often have flights of fantasy like a would be author, sticking to the script was never the strong suit!

Which may be the reason many like me can never be in accounts or be lawyers! Of course documentation is one of the cornerstones of modern medical practice but those are alright since we can still have creative liberties on the symptoms and complains!

But the most irritating stuff is when you need to do an official work from any government agency or even the bank! Of course now many of the places with the introduction of online access, it is a breeze but I still remember the days when simple things like applying for a official document was a big tapasya!

You need to fill innumerable forms and submit a zillion documents! I still remember those days when we had to apply for a landline telephone connection! That was the most difficult thing to do! After application your phone line may come after ages! Even then you need to ‘grease’ the palms and submit more documents!

 This is the region of the red tape or Bureaucracy!

Now Bureaucracy literally means ‘rule by writing desk’! 

The term was invented in eighteenth-century France, when the typical official sat next to a writing desk with drawers or a bureau!

And at the heart of the bureaucratic order, then, is the drawer. 

Now bureaucracy was introduced to solve the retrieval problem by dividing the world into drawers, and knowing which document goes into which drawer.

The principle remains the same regardless of whether the document is placed into a drawer, a shelf, a basket, a jar, a computer folder or any other receptacle: divide and rule. The principle is division and transfer into sections! The image of the in and out folders of a office babu comes to mind!

This division, however causes more confusion and delay! 

So instead of focusing on understanding the world as it is, bureaucracy is often busy imposing a new and artificial order on the world. In the book called Peter principle by  Laurence J. Peter and R Suttton; it has been indicated that such Bureaucrats are appointed for the sole purpose to simply follow their rigid rule whether it makes sense or not!

Peter tells the story of Michael Patrick O Brien who was kept for 11 months on a ferry boat plying between Hong Kong and Macao because of a travel issue! 

This leads to another interesting phenomenon especially in the Government sector! There are some forms which serve no purpose other than waste time energy and money! But incompetent officers insist on it because of customary routine! Like the case of Michael above!

The above are also examples of Professional Automatism! 

Means are more important than the end! The paperwork is more important than the purpose! 

But most of the time even if they don’t do any work, professional automatism still gets them promoted! In fact if you question or do not get with the flow, then you are not given any promotion! Here competence is harmful!

This was amazingly depicted even in the movie Zootopia when the cop goes to the Motor vehicle department! 

There was this amazing movie called Kagaz and in the movie based on the series Office office; a person who is alive has to prove that he is alive when a ‘certificate’ emerges which proves him to be dead! In fact the comedy series by Pankaj Kapur actually is an amazing satire on the crazy world of red tapes and Bureaucrats! 

The Bureaucrat in the office tells the person standing hale and hearty in front him that according to the certificate, he is dead! 

It was dark comedy when the person says that he is very much alive while the Bureaucrat tells him that the ‘computer’ cannot be wrong! That whole scene in a nutshell is the state of Bureaucracy!  

So bureaucrats begin by inventing various drawers, which are intersubjective realities that don’t necessarily correspond to any objective divisions in the world. The bureaucrats then try to force the world to fit into these drawers, and if the fit isn’t very good, the bureaucrats push harder. The forms do not adapt to you! You must adapt to the form!

Anyone with a big name from South India can relate to the commonly asked question in most official form; ‘first name. middle name and surname”! Try to fit Sriram Nathan Sivaramakrishnan Iyer in that! 

Anyway talking about ‘Fit’ you can think about the birthday celebrity Puneet Issar!

Now fill that Google form and hope that you don’t get nightmares about red tape and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Self help book

Audio Book

A very popular book which needs no introduction or even a review to be popular! But this is both a review and a summary! Those who may read may find it like a preview and those who may not read it can get the main points!

I had read this one many years back and felt it was too preachy! I was young at that time and now a little older!

It sounds a little less preachy now!

The best way to read this book is to listen! These self help books are best heard and not read! The zeal and enthusiasm with which the narrator drives the point is what makes the difference!

If you are a regular reader of self help books then you would have probably read this one many times! If you have not read it before then you definitely need help!

Like many of this books like the 5 am club, Robin uses characters and storylines to put his point across!

The points are not something you do not already know but the application to your life is what is important here!

Now as the title suggests there is a Ferrari but may not be an actual Monk but something similar!

The book starts with a big great and successful liar…I mean lawyer having a heart attack and collapsing in the court!

Then starts the history of the lawyer and how he comes back as a ‘monk’!

Now this is not a murder mystery that you feel that is a spoiler!

What is relevant is what he learnt and what he is urging you to do with your life!

When you actually listen to the story of the lawyer in the end then you will actually understand why and how he used to work like that.
a very successful lawyer reached a peak and burnt out

Then one fine day he reappears all young and fit and healthy and full of life to spread his knowledge and secrets of a good life!

He tells about the sages or Swamis of shivala (or savanah! Since it was audiobook the spelling may not be correct!) and their techniques

He tells mainly about a Yogi called Yogi Raman and the indian connection. Yogi Raman was also a successful person who left everything and settled in the peaceful mountains!

The main advice is to simply get up and go! Get up as early as possible to seize the day! I guess this is a prelude to the 5 am club!

He mainly mentions about the diet which is very important! Either try to be a vegetarian or at least start eating as much less meat as possible and increase the vegetables and salads you eat! Slowly try to become more green in your choice of food!

He also tells to read self help books as much as you can!

The prominent being Gandhi and benjamin franklin and Think and grow rich! Here when he tells about growing rich he means not only of physical wealth but overal wealth!

He also urges to read the book Siddhartha by Hermen Hesse. He also mentions some little titbits from these books.

I have mentioned and read about the 80/20 rule is so many places! Here also Robin talks about it! So most of your time must be spent doing the 20 percent of the things which are important and not the 80 percent which waste your time!

Which brings us to the most important commodity of your life! The main idea of the book and the biggest gift the ‘monk’ gets from the sages!

He gets a golden hourglass!

This means that the most important and precious commodity is, Time!
The same in told by telling about a sumo wrestler with the pink band and the golden watch analogy!

He advices his junior to literally throw away your phone and your pager! Try NOT to answer call once in a while! Try to spend more time with family and not only work!

Yogi Raman says when you are born you cry and the world smiles! do work so that you laugh and the world cries! Of course this is a song in hindi which many people in India know too well!

Finally the ‘monk’ told the story of his life and as the day got over the proverbial sunrise took away the darkness of the room and gave light to the junior!

So do you want to be the monk who sold his Ferrari!? Well, get a Ferrari first! Or simply read or listen to this one!