Sunday, May 31, 2009

IN CONVERSATION WITH THE ALCHEMIST

The creative process must be revered as a spiritual search, says Paulo Coelho, one of the world’s best-known authors. His quest straddled the conventional pilgrimage and hippiedom. But the answer was to be found in a basic humanity and social entrepreneurship, he tells Bachi Karkaria



Where do get your spiritual underpinnings? How much of this influences the way you are and the way you write? How much of Paulo Coelho, the man, and Paulo Coelho, the writer, can be attributed to your Roman Catholic upbringing?
I grew up, like almost all Brazilians, in a strictly Catholic family. Later, at the age of rebellion, I doubted Catholicism, and felt that I must try something new. Then I became a hippie. During this time, I travelled a lot, met people of different backgrounds, and learnt different paths to come closer to spirituality. After I did a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I returned to the Catholic faith – just because it is in my blood, not because it is the best religion. I am a Catholic, but I don’t think you can put God in a church.
In the end, all religions tend to point to the same light. In between the light and us, sometimes there are too many rules. Some of these rules are important, other should not blind us or diminish the intensity of this light, the soul of the world.

You write a book once every three years. Do you spend the intervening time on researching the book or doing other things? For instance, how long did you take to pick up all the details of the film and fashion world which make your latest, The Winner Stands Alone, almost a work of faction?
Regarding the creative process, I only allow myself to write every two years because I feel that I’ve gathered enough emotional energy to come up with a story. Every time that I write a new book, I am experiencing the sensations of death and rebirth. When I write, I am a woman. I get pregnant from life, and I don’t know what the baby will look like.
My pregnancy cycle is what takes two years. During this time I don’t take notes, I don’t make plans. The only thing that I know is that life put inside me a seed that will grow when time comes. Then, when the time comes, I sit and write. Every creative act demands a respect for mystery, and I respect the mystery, without trying to understand it. For my latest book, The Winner Stands Alone, I was inspired by the Cannes Film Festival that I
attend every year. There I had the possibility to understand the “behind-the-scenes” mechanism of the movie and fashion industries.
You’ve described yourself as an “internet junkie”. Is that a hip term or just New Age egotism?
An internet junkie is neither a hip term of a new age egotistical thing – it’s just a realization. I spend hours in front of the computer surfing the web and chatting with friends and readers.

To what do you attribute the huge success of The
Alchemist? (At 67 languages, it holds the Guinness record for being the world’s mosttranslated book). Given this,
are you weighed down by its baggage?
I really don't know why my characters are so popular in different parts of the world and in different cultures. I don’t have a ready-made formula to apply when I embark on a new book, but I’m always controlled by many elements: discipline, compassion and a sincere eagerness to understand myself. When I start a new book, I try to approach myself from a different angle. In The Alchemist, for example, I was trying to explain to myself what writing meant to me. The way I found to do this was through a metaphor. In Eleven Minutes, I started with the question of why sexuality is considered one of the major issues in life. But I had my doubts. And that’s why the hero asks if it's true that the world could revolve around 11 minutes. In The Zahir, there is a kind of a snapshot of my present moment as a famous writer. In The Winner Stands Alone, I wanted to explore the world of fashion and unravel why we tend to adopt dreams that are not our own so easily.
What difference does a book, even one that has sold millions of copies and is the most
translated, make to the
scheme of things?
First, I think you should define “the scheme of things” — what for you is the scheme of things.
For me, the scheme of things is to share my soul through writing. Books have always made a lot of difference in my world. They set me free when all those around me said that life had to be in a certain way and not in another. They enabled me to dream when all around me was trying to lure me to the great illusion of “security”.
For some people, music holds this sacred place, for others, medicine or gardening or cooking or religion… At the end of the day, the great scheme of things is the
consequence of every individual choice.
In India, even mainstream
media is obsessed with celebrity culture, and the public, while pretending to be
snobbish about it, laps it up.
What does this say about a
society more interested in the divorce of a distant singer
called Madonna than in the
poverty it sees under its nose? Do you think “celebrification” is seen as part of a nation’s
entry into the Big League?
I am not here to judge the priorities of any given society. What I don’t understand in your question is the correlation between “celebrification” and “Big League Nations”. I don’t see how buying gossip magazines may raise the GDP of a country…
Furthermore, I don’t subscribe to the view that there are “Big League Nations” and “Minor League ones”. I grant that there are huge disparities but I think there is also an international community (despite the constant effort of the media to diminish this reality) that thinks and operates beyond this simplistic way of seeing the world. Not mentioning the string of social entrepreneurs that actively work towards a better equilibrium inside their societies.
Rio de Janeiro, like many big Indian cities, is undergoing
major change, physical and
social. Which of these disturbs you and which do you
celebrate?
In today’s world, disparities cross every single city (may it be in Brazil, India, the US or Europe). So in regards to the changes we see in all great cities of the world, I would say that:

• What disturbs me the most is the violence — which is the consequence of a profound rift in society: when those who are at its base are denied their intrinsic dignity.

• What I celebrate is the constant battle of the warriors of light that work without rest to shorten the disparities.
I met in the 90’s a mother and a daughter who were taking care of underprivileged children in a slum next to my house in Rio. They firmly believed that by granting these children chances they were changing the spiralling-down dynamic of poverty. I decided to join them in their fight to bring hope and change to these children and their families. The project today, called Solar Meninos da Luz, grants to more than 450 children education and many extra-curricular activities.
I think that changes start at the individual level and slowly tend to gain a social one: at my level, I’m trying to make a difference and this in my eyes, is reason enough for celebration.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I'm employed

Yes... I got another job with the same pay and perks as my present job. Thank God for the miracle and the only snag is that I have join this company by the 16th of June 2009 and my notice period is up to 01st July 2009. Looks like I have to go for a pay cut and I can't afford to miss this opportunity as this is my dream job. I would be on a 6 months contract but I guess it shouldn't be a problem as I just want to get out from my present company.

I'm so happy today.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Holy smoke!

Photo was taken from my site and God only knows what was burning as the sky turned dark.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Is this good news?

Global economy to recover by year-end


Madrid: The pace of contraction in world economic output appears to be easing and recovery could begin at the end of this year, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday. “I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I am uncertain, a realist. Clearly the fall has been interrupted. I think there’s a good chance that while we face declines, they will be smaller in size. The majority expect a recovery at the end of this year, at the beginning of next year,” Zoellick said.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Zoellick said financial market conditions were improving and urged developed countries to boost support to poorer states to
ensure a truly global recovery. “What you’ve seen is financial markets clearly showing signs of recovery in developed countries,” said Zoellick. “It’s not enough to focus on markets. If we don’t look at unused capacity in the global economy the recovery will be slower, so we have to make enough resources available to those who are weakest.” REUTERS

Do as your wife says to be happy: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN


New Delhi: Husbands wanting to lead a happy married life can rely on some useful tips given by the Supreme Court, the most important being: “Do what the wife tells you and never question her authority.”
The words of wisdom came from two ‘Bhuktbhogi’ judges — Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma — during the inconclusive hearing of a 17-year-old divorce litigation between a serving lieutenant colonel and his wife. The vacation bench comprising
these two judges asked the counsel whether there was any scope of compromise between the two and both in unison gave different reasons to say that there was no possibility for a happy ending to their dispute.
The wife’s counsel said that the Rs 10 lakh offered by the husband for complete settlement of the dispute and divorce was too little as it
was not easy to bring up a teenaged daughter. While the trial court dismissed his divorce plea, the HC had allowed judicial separation. But on her appeal against this order, a division bench of the HC had granted divorce to him. Terming this order as erroneous, she had moved the apex court.
Justice Katju, while adjourning hearing on the case, decided that it
was time for the husband to get a few tips from him about how to lead a happy married life.
“You should always agree with her. When you agree to what she says, you will always remain happy. If she tells you to look this way, do that. And if she tells you the next moment to look the other way, again do that,” Justice Katju said much to the amusement of the lawyers who were waiting to argue their cases before the vacation bench.
And to convince them about the usefulness of his advice, Justice Katju said: “We are talking from experience (Hum sab bhuktbhogi hain).”

Monday, May 18, 2009

Started my Earthwork




Yes, this is my last project for my company. I have started the earthworks and it was my first day of site clearance. It seems they had seen a long cobra while clearing the site. Anyway I have taken some snap shots to share with you and the first photo is of a baby snake, dead though but it looked cute. It had black with white strips and could you guess what type of snake it is?

Friday, May 15, 2009

Going Through Suffering In Anticipation Of Joy

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda


Where and how do we search for God?
Remember that God is within you, but you don’t see Him because the one place you will never look is inside yourself. You will search everywhere, but never within yourself. Paradoxically, you lose sight of God because He is in you.
Now look at what God has given us. Our intelligence, buddhi, is a precious gift. Yet, are we loving and grateful enough to God who has given us all these?
Do we have even a little of the
gratitude a dog has towards its master? No! That is why Dattatreya considers the dog as one of his gurus. Dattatreya draws four lessons from the dog.
A dog doesn’t count its misfortunes or grieve over them. A dog doesn’t live in the past.
It doesn’t make long-term plans either. It doesn’t live in the future. It lives instinctively, from moment to moment.
A dog’s life is one unbroken straight line marked by love, devotion and gratitude to the one who sustains it. Devotion is its defining property.
Can we, like the dog, be always grateful to our Creator and Sustainer? Can we give up being miserable about our past misfortunes and mistakes?
These are disciplines we impose on ourselves. When we reach this stage, we will have achieved a mental state that looks with equal ease at happiness and sorrow, at misery and luxury; in short, we will have seen God in ourselves. This is the essence of the Sanskrit saying, Tat Tvam Asi, You are That. That is, you are the object of your search.
Why do you say we should learn to enjoy adversity?
When something is inevitable, when its occurrence cannot
be prevented, it is better to go along with it rather than to resist it. The word “enjoy” here means, “make the best out of” something. Let me illustrate with an example.
A person is walking along a mountain ridge. He stumbles and falls. As he tumbles down the cliff, he sees the branch of a tree projecting from the cliff-face. He catches hold of that branch. As he is hanging there precariously, he sees his Guru standing on the top of the mountain. He asks the guru what he should do. There is no way the guru can help him physically. Instead, he tells him, “The
left side of the valley below you is dry and thorny. The right side is lush and green. Look to the right and try to fall there. Now that the fall is inevitable, and you may be plunging to your death, enjoy the scenery during your last leap.”
Your assessment of any situation should be realistic. You must muster all your resources in protecting your interests. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your adversary and be prepared to put up the stiffest resistance you can. At the same time, if you find yourself overpowered, try to work out the best bargain. In corporate parlance, for example, try your best to fend off a hostile takeover bid against your company. But if you see that it is unavoidable, try to get the best terms of a takeover.
At least some kinds of enjoyment involve a willingness to suffer some unpleasantness. You go for an Ayurvedic or any other kind of massage. Massage is good for health. Sometimes the masseurs use foot massage, using their body weight to apply different degrees of pressure on your body. It might be uncomfortable or even painful, but later, you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. You are bearing the unpleasantness in anticipation of the joy.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I finally did it

After careful consideration and contemplation, I did what I ought to have done quite sometime back....I handed my resignation letter yesterday to my HR Manager. Boy what a relief it was, I got up bright and cheerful at 5.00 a.m. this morning, no baggage to carry or worries about work, delays or datelines. Later in the day I sent out faxes to my company secretary to relinquish my post as a Director for two companies and I have one more to write in too.

I know the economy is not good and I still haven't bagged my next job and my resignation notice is three months and I can offset it with one month of my leave. I took the bold step of resigning as I felt that dignity comes first and I am not going to elaborate on this but the fact is I did it finally.

What's next? I am sure that something good will come along the way if I start to look for it.

If anyone has a job for me....I'm available and willing to travel....anything in Project Management for a Civil Engineer with MBA....with 20 years experience....

I'm releasing my intention.....and I hope the Universe would respond.....

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Power of Belief

By Peter Shepherd

Our beliefs strongly influence our behavior. They motivate us and shape what we do. For instance, it is difficult to learn anything without the belief that it will be pleasant and to our advantage. What are beliefs? How are they formed and how do we maintain them?

Beliefs are our guiding principles, the inner maps we use to make sense of the world. They give stability and continuity; they are stable data that helps us to make order out of confusion. Shared beliefs give a deeper sense of rapport and community.

Our Map of Reality
Beliefs come from many sources - upbringing, imitation of significant others, conclusions as a result of past traumas, and repetitive experiences. We build beliefs by generalizing from our experiences of the world and those of other people. Some beliefs come to us ready made from the culture and environment we are born into. When we are young, we believe what we are told about ourselves and the world, because we have no way of testing, and these beliefs may persist unmodified by our later achievements, because they had parental authority.

We become predisposed to believing what we are told, what we read and what we see on television, and try to adapt new information to fit our existing system of beliefs if we can. If we cannot fit information to the existing pathways, we refuse to believe the information. These are the filters and biases through which we perceive our reality.

When we believe something we act as if it is true; we have then made an investment of effort. This makes it difficult to disprove; beliefs act as perceptual filters - events are interpreted in terms of the belief, and 'exceptions prove the rule.' Beliefs are not just maps of what has happened, but blueprints for future actions.

Positive beliefs are permissions that turn on our capabilities; they are permissions to play and explore in the world of possibility. Limiting beliefs on the other hand, usually center around, 'I can't...' This may have seemed a valid statement at the past moment in time, but believing it is a description of your capability now and in the future will program your mind to fail, as it will prevent you finding out your potential capability.

Beliefs can be a matter of choice. They change and develop; we have new peers that we listen to, new authority figures and influences. We think of ourselves differently, we marry, divorce, change friendships and act differently because our beliefs change. We can create new limiting beliefs or we can create new empowering ones; our life is not fixed in stone - we retain our freedom to choose. We have each created many beliefs about our possibilities and what is important in life, and we can change them.

Beliefs do not of course just apply to other people's statements or to dogma, they may apply to our own judgments about other people and situations... "This is intolerable!" "I can't stand this any longer!" "She is simply awful to be that way!" "Everybody's against me!" When they are exaggerated and over-generalized, they are irrational and harmful beliefs to hold. In particular, they are self-defeating.

Our interpretations drive our emotions. When we have habitual interpretations they become beliefs that we identify with, and then our emotional responses become equally fixed and often highly stressful and inappropriate, and our actions follow suit.

Yes, We All Make Mistakes
We all do things we aren't proud of, we wouldn't be human if we didn't. Something that affects others in a way that we wouldn't be willing to experience ourselves. Sometimes we chose to act in a way that we know at the time isn't being true to ourselves, but it seems like a solution to our situation. Or maybe we are tempted to put our own interests first. Other times we may be carried away by emotions of anger or jealousy and do something out of spite we may later regret.

Or we don't do something, like helping a friend in need, which we know we really wanted to. Alternatively we may have the best of intentions, but things don't go as predicted, we make a mistake or realize something we have done was harmful, even though we didn't mean it to be.

These sorts of actions can leave us feeling ashamed and depressed, and we can end up carrying our guilt for years, but if we want to live happy lives, we need to take responsibility for the consequences of our behavior and move on.

Taking Responsibility
Feeling guilty shouldn't be confused with taking responsibility for our past. Responsibility means that we make a concerted effort to change the behavior pattern that resulted in the mistaken choice, and the beliefs and feelings that empowered it. We need to move on by making peace with the past.

The natural tendency when we do something without integrity is to try to justify our actions, to make ourselves right. Or we may say the action was deserved, making the other person wrong. Both of these are avoiding the reality, by denying our own sense of truth and our own responsibility for our actions. We avoid our feelings of guilt by pretending it wasn't a mistake or misconceived choice that we acted on, indeed it was 'right.' We avoid our feelings of shame (feeling bad about how others perceive us) by pretending that it is the other who should be ashamed.

The problem isn't the harmful action or making a mistake - that's happened and can't be undone. The problem is what we tell ourselves afterward. Whether we are honest or if we lie to ourselves. It is that lie which causes all the damage to our own integrity and to further relationships with the other we have wronged. We need to drop our defenses, drop the lies we may have told ourselves to hide the truth, face up to the reality of our actions and their consequences - and forgive ourselves.

There is a big bonus to being realistic and truthful - we can learn the valuable lesson that the experience offers us. Indeed, it's only when we have learned that lesson that we can let go of the past error and live our life as truly ourselves in the present. To forgive ourselves we need to learn the lesson. Forgiveness has nothing to do with feeling sorry or apologizing, neither of which actually changes anything. From a higher perspective there is no right or wrong. There are choices and experiences. There is cause and effect. And neither can forgiveness be given by another; it has to be granted by ourselves. Unless we can truly forgive ourselves, we can never really move on and be free of the past.

What gets in the way of this forgiveness is judgment that I am a bad person. I need to separate my inherent worth from my actions. I am basically a loving being, I know that. We all are. Actually I am not even my thoughts and feelings. I create these and sometimes through ignorance or misguidedly I create them inappropriately, and my consequent actions can result in hurt for others. Then the best I can do is to learn from that so in the future I can create more truly to my nature. I need to realize that my earlier choice was a result of my ignorance - I didn't know what I can now see to be the lesson from the experience.

Moving Forward
Personal transformation occurs when we free ourselves to reflect upon and revise our beliefs. This becomes easier to do when existing solutions, assumed truths and past decisions have been exposed as unrealistic and self-defeating. That's why each error, mistake or failure that we make presents an ideal learning opportunity.

Life is a journey of learning and the most worthwhile learning is derived from our personal experiences. When things go as we want, because we have good information and appropriate beliefs, then our learning is reinforced by this positive feedback. When things go astray, because we have faulty information and inappropriate beliefs, then we and those at the effect of our actions suffer. But here we have a chance to learn something new. Much of our new learning and personal growth does therefore come about as a result of painful experiences; provided we are willing and open to learn those lessons.

If we wish to grow and to use our experiences beneficially, it is vital that we focus on what we can learn rather than resisting the reality of what occurred. Find something you did (or failed to do) that you still feel bad about, which you regret, or that makes you feel ashamed. Now begin to take meaning and value out of this experience. Ask yourself: "What has this taught me about myself, about others, and about my life?" Based on this lesson, work out what beliefs you need to change, what fixed ideas you can let go of, what assumptions you made before that are no longer helpful.

Monday, May 4, 2009

S U B V E R S E SECOND OPINION

Times of fear

Jug Suraiya


Beware. This newspaper that you are reading is a carrier of the most infectious and contagious, as well as the oldest, disease known to humankind: fear. Thanks to the so-called swine flu — now renamed H1N1 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) — fear is having a field day. Newspaper and television headlines blazon the dire prognosis: the world could be facing the gravest health threat ever since the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 which claimed over 50 million lives, more than the death toll of both World Wars combined. With 13 countries — from Mexico and the US to Switzerland and New Zealand — having reported cases of the disease, WHO has raised the global health alert to a phase five level, just one short of a pandemic. The Mexican government has virtually shut the entire country down for five days in a bid to stem the spread of the disease.
It’s enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone. And even if H1N1 blows over with
little or no real damage done, as happened in the case of the almostequally dreaded SARS, the media is full of ancillary stories of the financial harm it’s doing to an already ailing global economy. In other words, even if H1N1 doesn’t get you directly, it’ll get you indirectly, through your bank account. Or rather, your lack of it.
If all that still doesn’t scare you, don’t worry. There’s even more fearful news. Taliban militants in Pakistan could seize control of that country’s nuclear weapons with catastrophic consequences, not just for the subcontinent but for the whole world. And that’s so scary that for a moment we forget to be scared by H1N1, or the global economy.
Fear — of anything, of disease, death, destruction, financial ruin — is the biggest, oldest and most self-sustaining epidemic of them all. There is a popular conception that the media create this fear and pander to it to propagate themselves on the basis of the dictum that
bad news sells and worse news sells even better. This is not true. While the H1N1 health scare is indeed being exploited on the internet by peddlers of quack medications claiming to cure everything from impotence to baldness, mainstream media by and large have long realised that while bad news certainly can sell more copies of a newspaper or attract larger viewership of a news channel for a while, scare-mongering is a losing proposition in the long run. This is because those who cry ‘Wolf !’ too loudly and too often are subject to the law of not only diminishing credibility but also — and more importantly — diminishing advertising revenues. Advertisers don’t like their products to be associated in the public mind with doom and gloom. It’s bad for business.
Fear doesn’t sell because of the media; fear sells despite the media. Fear sells because all of us want to buy it. We are programmed to do so, not by media-generated paranoia but through millions of years of evolution, which favoured
the survival of those of our proto-human ancestors who were swiftest in their flight-or-fight response from any real or anticipated threat. Fear is genetically encoded into us as the key to survival and the continuation of the species; evolution has always selected in favour of the fearful, those who had the sharpest antennae to sense danger and avoid it.
That said, the fear instinct does make us vulnerable to political chauvinism (Scared of Pak nukes? Let’s bomb them before they can bomb us!), religious hocus-pocus (Sign up for the True Faith and make H1N1 your passport to Heaven!) and pseudo-medical mumbojumbo (Take Brand X Snake Oil and protect yourself from all ailments, from rhinitis to recession!). We need to choose our fears as carefully as we choose our enemies. In fact, our choice of fear determines who our enemy is: Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, or H1N1. Or both. Or neither, but our fearful dependence on fear itself.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Did swine flu originate in Mexico-based US pig farm?

Farm Authority Denies, But Says Samples Are Under Test

Subodh Varma | TIG



Till a few days ago, Edgar Hernandez was an unknown four-year-old boy living in a Mexican village. Today his innocent face is known the world over — he is the first confirmed case of swine flu. But how did Edgar get the swine flu virus? If you ask the villagers of La Gloria, where Edgar lives, they will point to the gigantic pig farm some 12 miles away.
This pig farm is part of a chain of similar farms controlled by one of the world’s biggest pig breeders and pork processors, Smithfield. Each of these has over 50,000 pigs. Reports appearing in the local press say that Smithfield owns 950,000 pigs in Mexico.
After the outbreak, Smithfield, based in Virginia, US, issued a statement saying that their facilities were not the origin of the current swine flu epidemic. But it admitted that its samples were under testing at the University of Mexico. So, the jury is still out.
Is a mega pig farm susceptible to generation of such new virus strains? Professor Vincent Racaniello, a virus expert from Columbia University, told STOI that it is very difficult to identify the exact source of origin of the virus. “The larger the farm, more the presence of swine viruses, and more the chances for contact between pigs and humans, hence more virus transfer likely from pig to human,” he said.
Last year, a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health had also pointed out the dangers of new mutant viruses arising from industrial farms. These pig farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) as they are known in the trade, are not your tiny mom-and-pop farms — they are gigantic cradle-to-grave machines. The animals are packed in huge pens, fattened on a high calorie diet and shot full with all kinds of antibiotics to keep them alive.
The average sow in one of these farms produces 20 piglets rather than the normal six to seven because of artificial insemination and hormonal treatment.
Smithfield’s facility at Tar Heel, North Carolina, could slaughter and
convert 2,000 pigs into tinned product per day.
Each pig also produces about 3 gallons of excreta per day. So, an average farm churns out about 150,000 gallons of toxic poop daily. Toxic not just because it contains all kinds of bacteria and viruses, but also because it is a cocktail of chemicals pumped into the hapless pigs as well as those used to clean up their pens. The excreta, along with dead piglets, is stored in huge lagoons surrounding the farms, causing an unbearable stench. It seeps into the ground water and often overflows during rains.
Such mega factory-farms emerged after the hog industry in the US went through a phase of dizzy consolidation in the 1990s. In 1980, there were 667,000 hog farms with an average of 101 hogs each. In 2006, there were less than 50,000 hog farms with an average of 1,701 hogs each. Smithfield rode the wave and emerged the tops. It owns an estimated 10 million hogs in the US alone and has a market share of 26% in the processed pork industry. It had revenues of over $12 billion in 2008.
Smithfield also holds the dubious distinction of having had to pay up one of the biggest ever penalties for environmental pollution — $12.6 million, in 2000. It was charged with 23 counts of violation including destruction of several river systems in North Carolina. “The processed meats industry is committed to a low-cost, high volume business model,” says writer Paul Roberts, who has studied the sector at length.

CONTAMINATING INNOCENCE : File photo of Edgar Hernandez, the first confirmed case of swine flu, playing at La Gloria, Mexico, about 12 miles away from a pig firm owned by Smithfield

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Drying up

My blog feed is drying up and the number of postings has dwindled like a pond facing the summer sun and there are crack lines all over the pond (even myself). 

How life can be torcherous like the scorching sun, I am facing that currently with my new management. They just don't give a damn and we are expected to execute the work without any soldiers(downline staff) or like the pond which doesn't have any inflow of water to prevent it from cracking. 

Started calling for other openings but things are pretty slow, earlier I wanted to get a new job with a higher pay but now I am so desperate that anything would do. My wife told me that in Oprah (TV show), she had siad there are two myths that we adhere to:

1. That our salary would rise with time

2. That the selling price of house would increase with time

I guess right now, that myth is busted. Our salary is shrinking with the economy and the price of house is also shrinking like our salary but the prices of essential commodities are not. Looks like we are drying up .....like the pond

Friday, May 1, 2009

Quote

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the 
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes 
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Kalidasa