chaotic order

A day of remembrance.. I woke up today morning with a mucky feeling in my stomach. My head was heavy, and a sense of uneasiness pervaded my body. It wasn’t the best of nights. My sleep was pretty disturbed, with images of blood smeared bodies, stunned and scarred faces, limbs writhing besides its decapitated owners, buildings in flames – all kinds of grotesque images kept floating across my mind’s eye. I am normally a deep sleeper, but yesterday night, I kept tossing and turn ing for most part. Early in the morning around 4’ish, with a cup of coffee in hand, I stood in my Balcony absorbing the pitch darkness that normally precede a dawn. It is as if the night throws up its deepest black on to its canvas in these early hours, before the stirring brightness of the day repaints it to gold. It was at this moment it dawned on me that today is 9/11, and I understood the significance of my disturbed sleep. It has been fourteen years since that tragic day at the beginning of this beauti

I have always rated Sangakkara as one of the most polished players to have wielded the cricketing bat in my generation so far. Left handers have a natural flair, a gift, an artistry which right handed batsmen belabor to achieve. I can, even after all these years, still stand transfixed, mesmerized by a David Gower cover drive when replayed on television. There is something so poetic about it transcending the mere physicality of the act to a sublime experience where aesthetics and talent mingle in divine unison. After Gower, I must admit, the only other left hander I have openly admired and enjoyed is the cultivated purity and elegance of Sangakkara. I write this short article in lieu of his retirement from the game this month .Here is a man, who could have done anything with his life. Born rich, bred well, educated meticulously - the young boy achieved all meritorious honors one is capable of acquiring in Trinity College, Colombo - one of the foremost elitist educational institutions

"Two days and One night" - a review. Here is a hypothetical situation; and I urge my sensitive readers to put themselves in the situation I am about to describe. Let’s say, you work in small organization of about fifteen employees, earning a salary just enough to lead a dignified life, raising kids and aspiring to remain secure financially You have recently recovered from a bout of depression (an emotionally bad phase), nothing serious, but just enough to put you in a slightly precarious position at work. You badly depend upon this job. It is not that you love it, but it pays you enough to lead a respectable life. And that’s all matters to you just now. Apart from a couple of co-workers, whom you consider friends, other respect you as fellow worker, and one or two remembers professional favors you have extended. Beyond this, there is no bonding between others and you. Your employer faces stiff completion from Asian market and takes a decision to cut down costs. This is th

Shashi Tharoor’s eight minute defense… The Oxford union debating society is one of those hallowed bodies established in 1823 to further free speech and exchange of radical ideas in a liberal environment; and its chief objective is to not cast aspersions on people and places, but rather a forum where Men and Women with reputed intellectual caliber and genuine integrity could exchange ideas impartially within the closed walls of its magnificent debating halls. Except for a few instances in its remarkable history, the society of Oxford union (the body that administrates these debates) have not found any occasion to public retract statements of speeches by its esteemed participants; and they have held debates on almost every conceivable topic that has stuck a resonant chord in national and international consciousness. Even a casual perusal of its speaker list over the decades will show that eclectic array of people: Models, musicians, sportsmen, Scientists TV evangelists and presenters

A Sage passes away.. Dr Kalam When I heard about the sudden demise of Dr Kalam in class today, I was instantly reminded of Einstein’s remark on Gandhi: “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever walked upon this earth”. It will not be untrue to rephrase this moving tribute and write “Generations to come in Independent India will scarcely believe that amidst the turmoil, corruption, bureaucracy, unenlightened leadership and utter lack of vision – t here lived a man, whose life was devoted to the cause of humanity as much as it was to science, whose life was as much a study in humility as it was in the dignity and respect of human beings, whose living presence was a reminder that political life need not be divested of statesmanship, whose prolific and prodigious scientific intellect was tempered with sense of material achievement with a human touch, whose fertile brain at the age of 83 was still young enough to think of a modern and rejuvenated India, who

The pulse of a Leader.. It was one of the finest 30 minutes of technical exposition that I have had the opportunity to hear live in a long time. One often wonders, why CTO’s and CEO’s get paid so well, what exactly at their skill-sets that they make them eligible for a hefty paycheck, or made to blaze forth in the media as icons worth emulating. What is that charm - that tangible, palpable essence of who they are that makes us forget idiosyncrasies, arrogance, inconsistencies or madness so amply displayed in their daily life? The answer is not far: it is simply the vision, a holistic understanding of business, and a mysteriously ability to connect the dots in an astounding simple manner - that to a listener, it would seem almost insanely logical and coherent. It is not so much the detail (which obviously is a path they have trodden assiduously before reaching this level) but a piercing insight into how the juggernaut of their businesses rolls, and an uncanny ability to forecast, pr

Diaries of a vacation - Part 5 Excellence in life often boils down to very simple principles: Following one’s heart, dedication, willingness to commit oneself to a chosen task with passion, energy and zeal, grabbing opportunities as they come by, constantly innovating and finding ways of adapting to changing needs and times - all these are to found in the myriad books, inspirational speeches that abound for the benefit of common man. But what they don’t, won’t or cannot tell you is why then Excellence and success is so uncommon then, and discouragingly hard to come by. After all, if there is a fixed regimen to be followed; and if one is willing to follow it to the tee- then success must be inevitable. But that is not the case. It seems that Men and Women who are successful, and have reached the pinnacle of their chosen field of work seem to be “divinely chosen” for whatever they are destined to do, and the rest can, at best emulate their ways and means with a fervent hope that they