Word...

My titles are mostly one word. So are many of my Facebook statuses. People ask me why. So...

The thought behind the Facebook status is, "What's on Your Mind?" Have you ever tried saying that in one word? And actually made someone understand? It's not only challenging but exciting! Even fulfilling...

And then of course there is word play. Every time I post a one word status, my faithful Facebook friends add something to it in the form of comments which lead to a creative assortment of expressions - synonyms, antonyms, compound words, idioms and even an array of lateral thoughts. It's fun...

No wonder then that I have stretched this habit! Every picture I post, every song I play and every piece I write, I'm trying to see if I can sum it up in one word. It's not easy. But I'm trying...

I've gone wrong many times. I've been way off in some cases. Like a piece I wrote last year. When I first put it on Facebook, I got very few hits for it. It was a good piece, I wondered what went wrong. And then I re-posted it with a different title and it got significantly higher attention. Go figure...

There's a benefit to brevity too. You can't go wrong by saying a single word. It's mostly simple and can cause no hurt...

Because, no matter how you say it, if a lot of words is all you got, in the end, you're always going to say something stupid...

Pick...

I saw her first thing as I entered the grocery store!

Not that she was strikingly beautiful or even particularly good looking. But she was the first person in the first aisle of the store and I couldn't help notice that she was picking the okra (now that was good looking!) delicately, carefully, one by one...

I wanted some of that okra! So while I waited for the First Lady to be done with it, I found my cart a safe parking spot (stuffing my jacket in it so no one would walk away with it) and armed myself with a plastic bag to gather my loot in...

Given the First Lady had moved to the second stall and given free access to fresh okra, I dug in. I thrust my right hand in, scooped out handfuls and gathered them in the bag until my left hand, holding the bag, started moving south, the gravitational force due to the weight of the okra defeating the resistance my arm offered...

Satisfied with my okra loot, I knotted the bag and gently looked over at what First Lady was picking at stall 2. Vegetable K, (I will call it for the purpose of this story as I don't know what it's called in English and in Tamil, it starts with a "K"), looked good too. First Lady or not, she certainly seemed to have fine taste...

Now I wanted some of that too but it didn't look like she was moving past it anytime soon. So I decided to come around and start picking Vegetable K from the other side. Kinda like from aisle zero...

Armed with another bag, I was ready to thrust my hand into K too, but something stopped me. It was the First Lady. She seemed to have made the chore of picking vegetables into an art. She picked one K at a time, gently pressed it to see how it was. She neither wanted it hard nor squishy. She wanted it soft and fresh but firm. Every time she found a bad one, she would patiently drop it to one side and pick another one. On and on she went...

After the brief moment of admiration of her art I looked down to see what my own hand was doing. Lo and behold! I was doing the same too. I didn't know what had come over me but I was picking Vegetable K, one by one! For someone who couldn't tell a good K from bad, I couldn't fathom why I was doing this. Frankly I think I was just embarrassed to thrust my hand and scoop it out as I stood right across the stall from the First Lady...

Another gentleman joined us soon. As though this was some kind of programmed act, he started picking them one by one too! I at once looked up at him. He didn't seem any different than me. Well, I'm not judging him, but he definitely didn't look like he knew a bad K from good. If I was embarrassed, I guess he was in entrapment. He had joined a code of conduct that was sacred, not to be broken...

None of us spoke or even looked at each other, we just continued cherry picking Vegetable K as though there was nothing else we'd rather be doing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon...

We might have gone on and on long into the evening but as though the proof that all good things must some time end, soon a woman, slightly older and clearly the norm, joined us on the vacant fourth side of the Vegetable K stall and before we knew it, thrust her right hand in...

Coffee...

I turn over! It's still warm and cozy but something's not right. I'm awake...

"What time is it?", I reach for my phone under my pillow. It's 7 am. "It's 7 am, wait what day is it?" The haze clears and the head processes the answer to that question. "It's Saturday! Ahh! It's only 7 am". Only a subtle difference...

The phone goes back under the pillow and the eyes automatically close. Silence, but something's still not right! The eyes open again. Hope is that vision can add sense to what does not feel quite right. "Hmm! That's the problem". The sun is streaking through the space between the 2 sets of shades that cover the window...

"Why did I even turn over"? The head buries itself under the pillow and the hands pull the sheets over the head. "Feels better"...

"It's Saturday! It's 7 am and the sun is shining. Seems like its going to be a beautiful day. Why bury myself under the sheets? Why not get up, shake off the slumber and get going". It takes very little for the grey cells to take over the body...

"What good could come of it?", a silent rumination. "Let's see. It's a bright and sunny day, I could go for a run. Or I could get some work done. Maybe even write or set the house straight. Call a faraway friend or catch the stock market trend. Meditate or vegetate. Stare out the window and watch the birds or look into myself and introspect"...

"Or", the hands throw the sheets back in a rush and the head pops out in an instant. "I could have a nice, hot cup of coffee"...

Not just Saturdays, that's how my every day begins...

First...

I started my life in advertising! I was taught a lot of lessons in my formative years, significant among them being the one on "First Response", otherwise called "Unaided Recall". It's an old technique in consumer research used to test whether a customer has top of the mind recall for a brand when asked a question like, "What's your favorite brand of toothpaste?" See, Toothpaste was the first thing that occurred to me when I thought of this question, so that's first response...

I moved on from advertising and the lessons I learnt soon got buried in the depths of my mind. Only to be awakened by a senior sales person I worked with very briefly at a software company. He had just joined the company and someone had told him about the sales support operation I ran. So true to his caliber, he left his offices on the top floor and walked down 4 floors to come talk to me about how my operation could help him...

"We will develop a list of target companies for your territory, identify the key decision makers in those companies, contact them, explain our services and set up appointments for you to go in and sell", I said in one breath, trying to impress him. "Oh that's good", he said, "you'll save me the effort of cold calling", he added, reducing my life's work to 2 insignificant words. My first response was the urge to hit him, but instead, I buried my face in a pillow that night and cried...

"It's great that you make these appointments, but do you classify them as Hot, Warm etc?", he asked. I requested him to explain that better (obviously we weren't doing that but admitting that was not going to be my first response)...

"So", he went on, "you call all these people and pitch our services and let's say, it takes you 5 calls before you can get an appointment with someone, then that person probably gave you the appointment just to get you out of his hair. Say you got the appointment in 3 calls, there's still a chance that he is just being nice to you, but there is an equal chance that he wants to hear you out. That contact is Warm. And then, there is that person, who gets your call from the cold, his ears perk up when you pitch him and he gives you an appointment, right there, after just a few questions, now that is Hot! That is the guy I want to go meet more than anyone"...

Enough said, this senior person didn't even stay in the company for long. Before we knew it, he didn't see eye to eye with the top brass and left. But he left such a great first impression on me that I have never forgotten him or that first meeting in many many years...

History repeats itself and this lesson was reinforced to me as recent as yesterday, in a sad way. An Uncle of mine had recently gone down with Parkinson's. I wasn't aware of this until I recently decided to pay him and my aunt a surprise visit. I was obviously disheartened to see him bed-ridden, unable to talk or even comprehend who I was. I have a particular fondness for him. When a few years ago, I went to seek his blessings as I was relocating to the US, he gave me a picture of Shankaracharya, the revered Hindu saint, which I framed and hung on a wall in my home...

I didn't have much time on hand that day but I promised my aunt I would come back and spend at least a couple of hours with him one day, soon. I never did and yesterday, he passed away. I was filled with regret for not having spent the time I promised to spend with him, but consoled myself that at least, his suffering was over and that the picture of the saint on the wall would serve me his memory for long...

I called my aunt right away. It was the least I could do. I don't know why but my heart began racing even as her phone rang. Her son picked up the phone. I told him how sorry I was and he told me that this was best for all as my uncle had suffered enough. I felt a little better. Then he asked me if I wanted to speak to my aunt and I said yes. My heart went still for the few seconds as he called out to her and told her who was calling even as he passed the phone to her...

"Hello", she said. "You said you would come back to see him, but you never came"...

In the next 5 minutes, she said a lot of things. She asked me how my wife and son were, she repeated that he had suffered a lot and that this was best for all. She even consoled me (funnily) that it was good that I had paid them that surprise visit, lest I hadn't seen him at all and signed off in her motherly way asking me to take care...

But only her "First Response" will keep ringing in my ears every time I see the picture on the wall...

Good...

I saw Santa last week! Same day, may be a few hours off...

We don't have a chimney so I don't know how he got in, but he was there. I was awake. Waiting for him, in fact. My son is 11 and still believes in Santa. He'd left milk and cookies for him near the tree with a letter that stated what he would like this year for Christmas and what one calls a powerful close. "I will always believe in you", he said. I wanted to make sure Santa got the message and my son, what he wanted...

The letter must've been last minute, because what Santa brought for him was way off! "I'm not sure he's going to be happy with that", I said. "Forget the milk and the cookies, I know you get that all the time, but read that letter again, especially the close. You have got to do better than that", I urged...

"Hmm, he thought, "What if I gave him a gift card instead? So you can buy him the game he wants", he said. "That could work", I said, "what gift card are you thinking?", I asked. "Oh! It's either Target or Barnes & Noble, I got to stick to Red or Green, you see. Does that work?", he asked me back. "Target could work", I said, "though I have to check their stock to see if they're still carrying the item"...

"You know what, I'll thrown in an extra Barnes and Noble gift card, just for the trouble", he said. "It's no trouble at all Santa, but I would appreciate the extra card. He did get a Nook for his Birthday recently, so he can really use it to get some e-books. And I'd love for him to read books than play games anyway"...

Santa did have an extra B&N card on him but not one for Target, so we agreed that he would order it at Target.com. I asked him to sit down and have the milk and cookies while he did that, so he plopped himself on the couch, pulled out his mobile device (I don't know what they call those at the North Pole) and started his act...

A couple of minutes in, he asked me for my email address and told me he would have to send it to me and asked me if I could forward it to on the little fellow (something to do with not being able to send stuff electornically to children under 18, he mentioned). I agreed and gave him my email address. Ho! Ho! Ho! "That is probably the longest email address I have ever seen", he laughed, even as he hit "Submit"...

He said it usually took a few minutes for the order to be processed and for me to receive the email and I didn't want to let him go till I was sure that I had it in my inbox, so I asked him to sit and chat a while . I pulled out my iPhone, hit the email icon and gently stroked the screen with my thumb in a pull down motion, which is the equivalent of hitting refresh on a browser. It wasn't there yet, so we started talking...

"So how come you didn't bring ME anything?", I asked. "Hmm! That's a good question. Have you been Good this year?", he asked me back. "I can't say I'm perfect, but I try to be Good", I said. "I work hard, I care for my kin and I don't wilfully hurt anyone. Is that Good enough"?...

"Sure is", he said, "and I'm sure you believe in me too, you wouldn't have stayed up otherwise, would you? Well, let's see here. Maybe you never asked me for anything", he said. It made me think for a minute. "It's true Santa, I said, I really don't ask for much from life. But then, isn't just being Good good enough?", I said, even as I kept repeating the pull down motion with my thumb on my iPhone...

This time I think I made Santa think for a minute. "You certainly seem to have the right questions", he said. "But I think you also answered it yourself. You're Good because you want to be Good, not because you want something, right"? I looked hard at Santa, looked down at my phone again, saw the email from Santa drop into my inbox and then looked back at him. "You're right", I said...

I stayed awake a long time after Santa left that night. I've been thinking about what he said all this while. "Been Good" isn't good enough! Being Good is not a means to anything. Being Good is a choice we make, for ourselves...

The New Year is nigh! So like the merry old song says, "Be Good for Goodness' Sake"...

HAPPY 2013 TO ALL...

Seeking a Trend for the End of theYear...

It's that time of the year! 2.5 days to go...

I want to wind down, get some rest and spend some time thinking what I want the next year to be like. Not that I can control how it turns out, but at least sit down and think about what I want to do in 2013...

If this was 2009, I would have made a list of "10 things I want to do in 2010". Considering I still like 2 months of vacation like a school kid, that would amount to an even one milestone a month. Simple...

But I've grown up. I've realised that the longer the list gets, the smaller the chances of me getting anything done. So the last couple of years, I've really been trying to keep it to 2 or 3 things I want to do...

I've still got to account for what all I did in 2012, but one thing I did was read "Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson", cover to cover. Too early to say if I'm inspired, but to say I'm influenced is an understatement...

I was never an adept multi-tasker, but now, I only believe ten times more in doing only a few things but doing them extraordinarily well. In being minimalist, but pure...

No wonder then, that my goal for 2013 has been reduced to ONE! Sitting here the same time next year, I would be happy if I have done ONE THING, and done it well...

No points for guessing what the ONE THING is. I want to Write! Nothing would make me happier than if I can spend every spare moment of 2013, doing the one thing that stirs my soul. Write...

And I don't even want to wait for 2013! I want to Write every spare moment of the next 2 something days. I want to waste no time. I want to warm up. I want to get in the groove...

I'm not even seeking a trend for the end of the year. It's the only way I want to end this year...

Overheard...

In the back seat of a car with a 12, 11 and 10 year old (L to R)...

12: Hey Guys! I got Pokemon White 2 for Christmas.

10: I got an iPod touch and Pokemon White 2.

And the conversation lingers for a while on games, devices and everything under the Christmas tree, until...

12: I am a member on Youtube.

11: Oh! You are?

12: Yes, and I am now an ex-member of the White House.

10: What do you mean ex-member of the White House?

12: Yeah, if Mitt Romney had won, I would've still been a member of the White House, but Obama won, so now I'm an ex-member.

10: That doesn't even make any sense...

12: You know, it would have been so much better if Romney had won.

10: No, it wouldn't! It's actually better that Obama won.

12: No. If Romney had won, there wouldn't be so many homeless people in America.

10: If Romney had won, all the soldiers wouldn't be coming back home for another 5 years. Obama has promised to bring all of them back in the next 2 years.

12: But there's so many homeless people, think about them! Romney was going to give them money so they wouldn't be homeless anymore.

10: Ah! That's so stupid. He can't do that.

11: No 12, what 10 is trying to say is, think about all the soldiers who are far away from their families in places like Afghanistan fighting endless wars and living in dangerous conditions.

10: Yeah! Think about it, they can't even be with their families for Christmas. That sucks.

12: Yeah! But think of all the homeless people who can't even have Christmas because they don't have any money. Haven't you seen all the homeless people in Philadelphia?

10: Listen, no matter what there are always going to be homeless people. There's like a 500 million homeless people all over the USA and you can't prevent that.

11: 10 is right 12, there's always going to be homeless people no matter what. But 10, that's not right, there aren't even a 500 million people in the USA...

10. Yeah, whatever. But there are homeless people all over the world and there are going to be homeless people no matter what, because some people are lazy and stupid and just don't want to work.

12: But Romney would have taken care of that. It's true. He was going to give all the homeless people money so they won't be homeless anymore.

10: Thats not even possible. Even if he wanted to give away that kind of money, he would have to take that money from people us, like in taxes.

12: No. Romney went to the Olympics and all that and he has a lot of money. And he was only going to ask the rich for more taxes. He had a plan for that.

10: I think you are right about that, but that wouldn't solve the homeless problem. Besides I think the soldiers are more important. They're fighting for the country.

Car pulls up a traffic light...

12: No, the homeless are more important. Look at that guy right there, he is homeless and he is begging for money to buy food.

10: No. He probably wants to buy wine or some cheap liquor, whatever...

12: How do you know that?

11: I guess what 10 is trying to say is that all homeless people are not homeless because they lost their jobs, some of them are just lazy and they beg for money to do the wrong things.

12: No that's not true. When Obama was President a 100 people lost jobs while only 25 people got jobs. So that's why there are a lot of homeless people.

10: Listen 12, there are always going to be homeless people but Obama is better for the country right now.

12: No he's not. I myself heard him say that the richer you are the less tax you pay and the lower you earn the more you pay taxes. Did you hear that? The lesser you have the more tax you pay.

10: There's nothing wrong with that. More people want to be rich.

11: Hey, that's not right. But 12, I don't think you heard it right. How can you have less money and pay more taxes. That doesn't sound right.

12: It's true. I heard him say that myself. And that's why I think Romney is better.

10: No way. Obama's better. That's just the way it is. And look who won anyway?

11: (Thinking to himself), Yeah, whatever, I'm Switzerland...

Driver: OK guys, time to get off. Put away your devices and get ready. I'll be back to pick you up in an hour. Stay inside the glass doors and don't come out till you see me pull up...


I wasn't a big fan of this car pool thing as I only have a sedan and had to cram 3 boys in the back seat, but going by what I heard (Overheard), I can't wait to do this again.

Who knows, I may soon know everything I need to about the Fiscal Cliff...