Several disappointments later...

On my return flight home last month, I happened to sit right next to an exec working for a top Silicon Valley company. Let's just call him Mr. X. The good thing about him was, he had enough anecdotes about his work and life to make sure that I never had a dull moment in the long flight. He was kind enough to tell me that he was traveling to start an offshore team that was to work on a project that would revolutionize the way we use mobiles in the near future. The concept itself was quite amazing. I don't want to go into the details as it would be a breach of confidence. But coming back to the point, wish I met such people more often when I take these long arduous trips. I recall one of the anecdotes he narrated about his company's CEO. It went this way. As any self-made millionaire who might have a taste for good things, this CEO is an avid car-collector (Seems he collects cars just as one would collect bottle caps). To make sure his execs also follow in his footsteps, he conjures up events and ideas that require them to be up-to-date with what's in their garages. One such event was to host a dinner. Now, if you ask me, a dinner where you are invited with a fancy invitation card is no big deal for men of his stature. But what was interesting was the dress code printed in the Invite. It was "911". No mention of any black jacket and tie, just the 3 digits 9-1-1. Mr. X laughed out loud seeing the bemused look on my face, and explained that the dress code meant the invitees were supposed to come to dinner driving a 911, that's right a Porsche 911. Otherwise, they had to make alternate plans. Wow! Some CEO, this!

In addition, Mr. X had other interesting stories that described how his friends turned their humdrum life into rags-to-riches story. He was also quite modest in describing how he used his technical skills to manufacture a machine for a fractionth of the cost of the original and thus saved a big expenditure for his elder brother's workshop. And so it went on for almost the entire duration of the flight. On any other day, I'd have said he was a bore. But he had my entire attention for the entire flight. After sometime I was not even aware that I was stuck in the middle seat for 18 long hours!

The learning I gained by sitting next to Mr. X was unique and I'm sure I might not have got if I was sitting beside someone from my own professional community. Anyways, this goes to show that life at the top or with people who think differently can be quite interesting.

Speaking of which, during the same trip, I also picked up this interesting book "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman" by Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman. I'm not a big fan of non-fiction and scientific works but this book surely got me hooked. The book was about Dr. Feynman's views about the world, his life and his research and is a real page turner. Long back, my friend had suggested me to read this book, but at that time I detested anything that had too much Physics or too much Math. Well, better late than never. I suggest this book to anyone who would like to just have some fun while getting an insight into how Science and Engineering developed in institutes like MIT, CalTech and Princeton in mid 20th Century. And yes, this first person account is full of interesting and funny anecdotes, incidents and tidbits to hold onto your interest.

Sometimes, it is anecdotes like these that spurn you into the tedious activity of thinking hard. And it usually starts with, "What would I do if I were him?" or "Yes, this seems to be a great idea, but will it work?" And then you go through a funny and not-so-funny roller-coaster of thoughts. I have had my share of inspirational thoughts but everytime I put them to practice the ideas just fizzle out or the plan gets scuttled by my well-wishers who say that its never going to work. Very disappointing. Several disappointments and failures later, Mr. X and Dr. Feynman surely changed my perspective about smart and successful people. Some day, I would really like to do something that I always wanted to do (though I first need to figure out what I always wanted to do). I might not be smart and I might be a spectacular failure but I definitely would love to try once.

Someday, for sure. Surely, I am not joking, Mr. Feynman.

Tears in Heaven

A decade ago, if you had asked me what the national pastime of my country was, I would say movies and cricket without hesitation. Today, a decade later, if you ask me the same question then my decade old answer will no longer be applicable. My answer would be mobile yakking. Yes, jabbering away on mobile seems to be the latest fad. Nowadays, you cannot have a face to face conversation with anybody for more than a couple of minutes. After your two minutes are up, either their mobile rings or they tell you to call them up on their mobile to continue the conversation later. This is what I call the "conversation hang-up". Just the other day I saw 4 people in a car all glued to their cellphones. For all I could guess, they might have been talking to each other using the cellphones out of force of habit. Or they just hated each other with a passion!

I heard somewhere that DWT (Driving while texting) is a traffic offense in Boston. Makes sense. So is talking on mobile while driving illegal in many countries. This is illegal in my country too. But as the saying goes, laws are always made to be broken. There is no exception to this rule. What an irony! this is one rule (the rule to break rules) that never gets broken. How many times have you seen people yakking away to glory while driving, crossing the street, in movie theaters (despite the request to switch off before the show begins), in restrooms and God knows where else! For some, turning off their mobile is like switching off their life-support system. You can see the person fret, fume and in general behaving oddly.

Recently, I was driving in my own lane and in general minding my own business when I had a bitter experience of this mobile yakking phenomenon. As I was taking a very legal right U-turn (after carefully watching the oncoming traffic), out of nowhere, comes a youth on a motorbike (read moron) with a mobile glued to his ear and a missing helmet. The late Evil Canievel couldn't have managed it better. The path of this mobile youth (in every sense) intersected directly with my turning radius. Perfect. Evil Canievel, bless your heart, are you listening? Even you would have thought twice to do such a stunt. This is where my decade and a half long experience in driving took over and I narrowly averted turning this mobile youth into an immobile vegetable. Funny thing was, the guy felt that I had committed a crime by not going over him (on second thoughts, he was closer to the truth than he had imagined). He condemned me to eternal damnation 'cuz I had cut his call short and he had to outmaneuver me to avoid dropping the mobile. Some nerve! I just can't get to understand why it is so important to take a call while driving. For that matter, 99% of the people I know can't do two things at once and they keep telling me so. So why do people actually talk and drive at the same time??!! Does that mean that they're talking gibberish because they are only driving or are they just talking and not driving? Or does our brain switch between driving and talking in an instant as and when required? Either ways it simply does not make sense.

Well, to all those people who feel that today their mobile is more precious than their dear life or driving, try not to let your mothers have the callertune "Tears in Heaven" on their mobiles tomorrow.