Fly High - Startup India!

Wohh... It's Sankranti. As a parent of daughter, naturally I yearn to expose the kid to varying experiences. So, the desire to fly a kite was rekindled. In Marthahalli, Bangalore, it is little difficult to find kite selling merchant. Intuitively predicting this situation, my wife, had carefully safeguarded the kites (donning Akshay Kumar!) & accompanying reel of nylon string, from the past year's kite flying feat.

Manas from adjoining building also had the same exploit in mind. With few kites in the weaponry, here goes couple of warrior troupes on their respective war fields - terraces!

Initially, with wind blowing nicely, one of the kites quickly soared up. After being aerial for some distance, it developed some snag & had to be pulled back. Another kite was deployed on the task & there started an arduous effort to make this one airborne. Neither the wind nor the new kite was helping. New kite, being smaller compared to previous one, needed continuous jerks to be afloat. Similar was the situation with Manas's troupe. There was notable confusion about the aerodynamics of kite, wind direction, etc. Few notes were exchanged between the two troupes. Efforts were still on, but were not bearing the expected results. After much efforts, the smaller kite was airborne & was able to be afloat without much jerking. Manas's troupe showed tremendous grit & succeeded in flying high!

Once the kites were airborne for a while, Ram, partner in crime, came up with an innovation of attaching one spare kite to the string & then letting it go, just for fun. After the second kite went some distance, surprisingly, it also started flying! Now, if both of them were in the upward direction, the accent was significantly faster than with single kite. On the flip side, if they looked in different directions, they were negating each other. On few such negating occasions, the kites were almost going to be grounded. By some trickery & luck, they were brought back to air-life. Now, to make things even more interesting, Ram tied the third spare kite & let it go. This kite did not meddle much, but was floating purely because the first two were well air-borne. So, once the kites were well in the air, it became easier to keep them afloat.

With Startup India being the hot topic off late, this kite flying experience looked like an apt analogy. It takes good deal of efforts to show an idea its air-worthiness. One needs to keep talking to peers to understand the space better & learn from it. Once the idea passes first phase, you need more ammunition - more people. If people vie in the same direction, the upward journey is accelerated. There would still be few fringe elements who you may not be able to move in the expected direction. But, if you are well ahead in your game, then it is easier to be afloat. If, at times, the going gets tough, some passionate trickery would be the required dose.

In the end, though neck, back, shoulders may have pain, mind will enjoy a well deserved state of fun!

Go Starup India!

Linking Power

We always say, Children learn very fast. Today, I encountered one incidence to back this, with daughter, Saachi.

Off late, Indian Air Force is in full force & is practising hard. I stay in Munnekolala which is very near to the landing strip of HAL Airport. Hence, the sound of the fighter planes is too loud in our area. (Latest Engineering Grads (Amit?) have an opportunity to invent a better silencer for these fighter planes :)) Saachi, being just 365 days old finds it hard to hold her ground when these fighters, with such tumultuous sound, pass by. Naturally, she runs to whoever is nearby to get a comfort cover. To make her more self-sufficient, her Maa, Swati, is teaching her to put hands on ears to shield her from the raucous sound. During such fighter visits, in (Laturi) Marwari, Swati tells Saachi, "Kaan Pa Haat De" (Put your hands on your ears). Swati has been telling this to her for a few days now.

Today, Saachi was playing with the drawer below refrigerator. Potato & onions were stuffed inside it. Like other drawers in the house, she started exploring this one. She removed an onion from it & was playing with it. I was watching & told her "Kanda na Vapas Rakh De" (Put the onion back). Suddenly, she sprinted towards me & hid herself between my legs. I was surprised to see this behaviour. Unable to fathom the reason, I was about to discard this as an odd one, but suddenly realised a link. Probably, to Saachi, "Kanda na Vapas Rakh De" sounded similar to "Kaan Pa Haat De". Her brain seems to have linked "Kaan Pa Haat De" to sound of fighter planes & her brain also knows to sprint for comfort cover during such times. Hence the behaviour!! It was a funny incidence & Swati & myself had stomach-full of laugh on it.

At the same time, it shows that though kids do not have language power, they do have a good linking power!

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder!

Whoever said, "It is never too late" was an ardent optimist. And definitely, he did not foresee the developments of this century.

I look at myself, my wife, my cousin. Everyone is short of time. Everyone is driven and over-driven by deadlines. My this post is an attempt to understand the effects of this "Mad Rush" of defying the age old adage "It is never too late".

I see good sides in this. In my professional life, I have understood that most of us work at their best brains near the deadlines. When a customer demo is round the corner, the adrenaline flow increases multifold and the accelerated work pressure results in better productivity most of the times. Take case of most of the students. They will tell you that the study they do during last few hours is more that what they did in last week. Strange but true! If our mind is handled in a positive manner during such pressure situations, it is most likely going to give very encouraging results.

But, this may not be case with less-confident people who cannot hold their nerves in such times. I have seen people doing all kinds of chancy stuff and pray that something will turn their way. This is like an agnostic praying to god to air lift him during a Tsunami. As you know, it does not pay out. God hardly helps such one-timers. Life is no different.

Everyone needs to be pressurised. Pressure is to mind what food is to stomach. It keeps mind going. The ability to handle pressure may vary from you to me. Your cousin could handle professional pressures but hardly can withstand family pressures. You could deftly handle family pressures. So, check out the pressuro-meter of yourself and your dear ones and make sure everyone is tested upto the brim.