The Infamous Nike Ad

Embedded here for posterity

the secret powers of time

The Surprising truth about motivation

Really cool - the message and the presentation

The Return of the Tiger

This was written in April. A delayed upload. The message remains valid still

This weekend saw me being a part of the latest mania to hit television – The Return of the Tiger. Tiger Woods returned to Augusta Masters after 5 months off the field. Could he do it, couldn’t he? In the end it was a lot of the same. Tiger came and did what would have been expected of him 5 months back. He was in contention right till the last day only to have an average last round. 5 months back it would have been allright. What was special this time was the focus on Tiger. And it was here that it got really weird….

Ever since the Tiger Woods saga unravelled itself, Tiger has been expected to be apologetic about himself. Makes sense if its to his family (and probably even his mistresses) but on the field?? At the start of the tournament the chief organiser of the tournament had a swipe at Tiger with his reprimands for what essentially was Tiger’s private life. Now what has golf and Augusta masters have to do with it? Absolutely nothing.

Why are sportsmen expected to behave like entertainers. The core reason for a player to be on the field is his desire to win the game before everybody else and to do it in a sportsmanlike fashion. Tiger swears at the ball, does not smile at the patrons, throws his club around but so what… he is the best golfer of his generation because he wins games and tournaments and he does those at a rate that nobody thought was possible before. So why is Tiger now changing himself to be a “better person” muttering his thank yous and cap doffing when he should be zoning into his next target.

As spectators, we have come to a point where we want our heroes to be spotless in everything. We attach too much of importance to them, we want our children to be like them and when they start showing errant behaviour, we get angry at them and promptly and publicly chastise them.

Tiger Woods – No. 1 golfer in the world is a person, a package which includes personality traits and it is these traits that makes him successful. So I think its time to let him be and as the old Accenture line went – “Go on .. Be a Tiger”

Sansar se bhaage phirte ho.. A Gem

A gem from the past. Really good. Heard about it on Radio 4 again yesterday.

My favorite line - Ye paap hai kya, ye punya hai kya; reeton per dharm ki mohrein hain
Har yug mein badlte dharmon ko, kaise adarsh banoge

Sansaar se Bhaage Phirte…

Film: Chitralekha, Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi, Music: Roshan, Singer: Lata

The sitution is something like this: Meena Kumari is a dancer and the man she loves, rejects her and becomes a monk. This is the song where she tells the monk that living away from the world and trying to find God is not great, the important thing is be in this mess and find Him. Just the first line says it all: “Sansar se bhage phirte ho, bhagwan ko kya tum paoge”. And I love this line: “Apman racheta ka hoga, rachna ko agar thukraoge”…So true! Some say that she is justifying her way of living…maybe, but if you’ve to justify yourself – this is the way to do it. Hats off to Sahir Ludhianvi.

Sansar se bhage phirte ho, bhagwan ko tum kya paoge
Is lok ko bhi apna na sake, us lok mein bhi pachtaoge
Sansar se bhage…

Ye paap hai kya, ye punya hai kya; reeton per dharm ki mohrein hain
Har yug mein badlte dharmon ko, kaise adarsh banoge
Sansar se bhage ….

Ye bhog bhi ek tapsaya hai, tum tyag ke mare kya jano
Apman racheta ka hoga, rachna ko agar thukraoge
Sansar se bhage…

Hum kehte ye jag apna hai, tum kehte ho jhootha sapna hai
Hum janam bita kar jayegne, tum janam gawan kar jaoge
Sansar se bhage…

If

Thinking of Invictus led me to ‘If ‘, by Rudyard Kipling. To be read slowly. Any suggestions on other classics are welcome.

IF

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 wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With 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!

Invictus

Saw’Invictus’ the movie yesterday. Got stuck on the poem. Decided to reproduce it for posterity. Some information about the poet here

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

An idea for easing the traffic condition

Coming to work yesterday I had a flash, a brainwave. Much of our problems with traffic is due to the lack of information of whats happening ahead. Its specially true when one has options to make alternative route decisions. What I want is something like a friend in front of the traffic constantly telling me about the status of the traffic. So this is the idea.

We are increasingly having GPS systems installed in our mobiles & cars etc. There should be a system wherein information keeps being sent in from the traffic and fed into my GPS route map telling me the traffic condition on the route ahead. Traffic information from every road in the city might be picked up by special units set in taxis. These would relay information relating to location and traffic speed on a real time basis. My assumption is that at any point of time, there would be at least enough taxis stuck up in traffic to give me an accurate enough picture of the traffic conditions. The system can be jigged up to broadcast data only when a passenger sits in thus ensuring that we don’t see a taxi parking lot as traffic jam. The error in the readings due to taxis going slowly or not moving on traffic free roads will be quite minimal. Secondly data points will increase in peak traffic giving more information in the time period we require it most in.

The cost of installing the location transmitter and aggregating the information by the taxi firm can be offset by a paid subscription service that Im sure people will be more than will to pay for. Augmenting this might be advertising revenue that could be generated by ads from companies located on the routes the subscriber is looking to move on.

From what I know, google is already working on a system of this sort however, the key driver needs to be the owner of the vehicles that generate the traffic broadcast

Anybody to try it out?

Note to people travelling from Dubai to Al ain and Jabal Hafeet.

Note to everybody travelling from Dubai to Al ain and Jabal Hafeet.

We headed out to Jabal Hafeet yesterday and had been forewarned about the notoriously confusing route (especially once you enter Al Ain). But we have made it back almost on our own and would like to note the tips that helped us through.

Up to Jabal Hafeet

· From Dubai – Take the Al ain Road - E66 towards Al Ain

· Once you enter al ain through the Tea Pot round about (named by me), keep moving ahead following the “other tourist attractions” signposts. In the intial rounds you will have difficulty finding Jabal Hafeet written on any of the signposts and hence this feels like a little leap of faith. You will find yourself moving in the general direction of the town center.

· Just before the town center, you will find signposts that start mentioning Jabal Hafeet & Green Mubarazah. Keep following the signs from then on.

· Landmarks in case you get lost (not in any order)– Hili Fun City, Town center, al ain sports club

Back from Jabal Hafeet

· This route is trickier you don’t get a signpost to Dubai till much later, so there is a possibility of you moving around in circles.

· From Jabal hafeet move towards al ain

· Once nearing al ain, take the route towards town center.

· Somewhere along the way you will start seeing signposts showing routes to jimi mall. move towards jimi mall.

· As you near jimi mall you start getting signposts showing directions to Dubai

· Landmarks in case you get lost (not in any order) – Town center, Jimi Mall, hili border post, hili fun city

Hope this helps. Al ain though is a beautiful city and a wonderful city to get lost. So feel free to chart another way if you feel adventurous