THE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

Mario Gotze scored a solitary goal for Germany in the extra time during the Football World Cup finale at Brazil. The kick that he gave the Adidas's Football catapulted the 80 million Germans into a frenzy of happiness and unparalleled joy. The ball flew into the Argentinian Goal Post and the entire German population exploded. Their world came to a standstill and their happiness touched its zenith. The happiness of the German Team's Captain Philipp Lahm knew no bounds and he announced his retirement from the international football at the ripe age of 30 years to continue to soak in the joy of this remarkable victory. The now united Germans  further strengthened their bonds as 11 Men in their national colors swept the Globe's largest watched sport.

           

Happiness comes from within and surely has a large role to play in human lives. The happy humans keep the Numerator value high and always minimize their Denominator values. The quotient of happiness multiplies many folds with a big and strong numerator.

           

Way back in time, we were happy children. Our ancestral house had large courtyards and we had wooden toys. These toys had various shapes and there were moving variants also in the shapes of bus, carts and train models. The lack of pollution and simple food habits kept our energy levels high  and we stayed chirpy the whole day. Another happiness for us those days used to be ant fields in the courtyards. Most afternoons me and my friend would get around under the Guava trees and see the ants at work. We would keep a piece of bread in the middle of the ant fields and then see the various types of ants coming over to gather their food. The groups of ants which reached the food faster would swell early and try to move the bread piece towards their home. Soon it would be fight for survival and the bigger ants would invariably pull the piece away. We would then drop another piece nearby and see the amazing turn of events of these small creatures. Moving their antennas we would watch various ants carrying out multifarious activities and the common aim was to move the bread piece closer to their home. At the mouth of the ant home, they would give a massive push and the food would disappear inside. The work of these ants rarely finishes and they are always active and walk large distances to make their lives meaningful. Probably, they keep the Numerator Value (Food in their case) very high and Denominator Value (lack of will to work) very low and keep their happiness quotient at a high pedestal.

              

In the courtyard, the Guava trees were always under an attack from the chirpy parrots. These birds would keep attacking the Guavas and many a fruit crop was damaged by their sharp beaks. The parrots would only attack the guavas on trees and not which would fall down after their attack. We would keep an eye on these birds and use our Diwali guns to scare them away. Our happiness quotient used to be high playing and enjoying with the parrots, ants, crows and sparrows. We would excitedly look forward to the next day and the next noon time play after the school. The frenzy of the large happiness quotient is unparalleled. The Germans are basking in it and so did we all as young children. The quotient starts shaking as we grow big and when we start increasing the value of the Denominator in our lives. Our demands and desires are the first shake-up points for the small denominator of our childhood. The Happiness Quotient's graph plunges up and down as we fiddle away with its fragile values.

              

The 11 men kept their momentum up and met the challenges of Lionel Messi and his 10 men with grit and determination. The barriers could not be broken by both the sides for the first 90 minutes. The eyes watching these 22 men kept glued to their antics and waited for that miracle moment. The moment did arrive but after 113 minutes into the grand finale. Mario Gotze controlled a cross with his chest and in one fluid motion volleyed the ball past the Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero and inside the far post from five yards out. Germany were world champs after 24 years!! The Happiness Quotient soared high as all the denominator values crashed and crumbled to almost zero. 

Our endeavor must be to keep the Happiness Quotient on an upswing. Keep the chin up and take the challenges head on with grit, determination and courage of conviction. Candor is the need of the day and is surely an add on for the Numerator of life.

THE BLACK FOX NIGHT

18 Jul 2014 witnessed yet another rocking night for Foxies. Foxies in dashing Black conglomerated at DSOI, New Delhi and raised the Fox Spirits yet again.

               

The evening began on a sombre note as Rudra Jadeja/61 led the remembrance for his venerable course-mate & CSM -61 Late Gp Capt AK Dwivedi. Foxies also paid homage to Foxies who have faded away in 2014.

                

The event then turned towards the Fox Release of VIRENDER KAPOOR/FOX/40's new book "THE WONDERFUL BOSS". The senior most Fox on Ground Zero was SP VERMA/FOX/29 and the youngest Fox was AMBUJ KUMAR/FOX/97. The book was released by the youngest Vixen SONIA FERNANDES w/o AMIT OSCAR FERNANDES/FOX/94.

                

Soon, the buzzing Foxies were narrating tales of the yore and immersed themselves in Fox Spirits.  Foxies from 40th Fox (Virender Kapoor, Subir Ahluwalia and Davinder Singh) met with a 43rd Fox (Rajiv Khanna) after 43 years!! Mates from 76th Course (BR Singh, JS Rana and Sameer Kanwar) met after 1989 when they had left the Fox portals!! Fox from 52nd Fox (Alok Bajpai) and the Fox from 53rd Fox (NS Bawa) met after 1977!! The event headed late into the night and in the end -THE FOX JOSH eclipsed the weather and Delhi did not witness any rains!!!
              

As Foxies melted into their dens for the night immersed in ever cherubic FOX nostalgia, the one slogan again rocked the mind- SODA, LEMON, GINGER,POP- FOX SQN ON TOP. 

              

Kindly click the link below and enjoy the nostalgia:-
  

https://plus.google.com/photos/101238588481972006061/albums/6037639205800786225?authkey=CM6OhrHlvoenWg

THE HIDDEN TRUTH

From the good ol' days two things are common amongst many of us- The Phantom Comics and The Horlicks (Novaltin for some). 

Phantom was a classic character- The Ghost Who Walks. Mr Walker, as he was known in Denkali, was an avid milk drinker. Clad in a long coat, trademark hat and dark glasses, Walker would walk into the city's Bar, order a tall glass of Milk and then beat the hell out of goons. His trademark rings would leave an indelible ink mark on the face of the goon and the print of the punch always remained. Walker would then merge into his jungle den where his trusted friends including the Dwarf King Gurran and majestic Diana would energise Walker into their own Phantom. We never saw the eyes of the Phantom and his occassional forays without his mask (and of course with lovely Diana into his private beachfront!) only revealed his chiseled physique and muscular frame. The beauty of the Phantom episodes was that each Phantom deeply resembled his predecessor and the theory of genomes never mattered! Who , then does not want to be a Phantom and have a progeny which is an exact copy of the father.

           

The stories of Phantom and his strength Milk became legends of our childhood. Each Phantom Comics was read many times over and then excahnged with seniors in school who would then part with their older Phantoms. A glass of Milk with Novaltin/Horlicks was cherished as we imagined the Phantom episodes. Novaltin/Horlicks were prized products and were preferred over the Coca Cola. All families could not even afford these products and at times the parents had to be pestered to get the new box. The unadulterated milk appeared great when the Novaltin/Horlicks mixed with it. The empty metal boxes of Novaltin/Horlicks were then used for storing the kitchen items. I wondered, how the ladies could open the correct box to take out the required item!! It is also true that those days , the boxes were limited as the kitchen items were limited and food choice was limited. But still, the credit goes to the kitchen managers for identifying items even in dark and stored in the same novaltin/horlicks boxes!

         

A visit to relative's house where Novaltin/Horlicks was not served was a pain as the milk had to be taken without the flavor. On such days, only the image of The Phantom forced us to gulp down that milk. Milk remained the paranoia for Indian mothers from times immemorial. We grew on the milk and continue to drink milk, but now added with other variants like Mango, Roohafza, Badam Powder, Coffee et. al.

          

Times are changing again. We have become Phantoms in our own rights and in our own lives. We have our own dens and our own dense jungles where we live in our own caves. However, we could not emulate The Phantom completely. Our food and drinking habits are very different from him. We idolised him but did not follow his habits. As Phantom always said- It is never too late to become good. It is now the time to get back to The Phantom habits. The Novaltin is not coming back to the Markets but Horlicks has surely made a return in various avatars. A glass of Milk is surely not available in today's Bars, but it is very much available in homes. The jungle King's habits are refreshing and energising. Phantom did not have a Smart Phone either- still he reached at the Right Place at the Right Time and delivered that Big Punch. Phew, Phantom- You Rocked Man.

      

So, time to change and get back The Phantom Habits- albeit with the Smart Phone in tow because today's jungles are more denser and it is difficult to find our addresses. So, get that glass of milk with Horlicks-if it is good for children, then surely it is good for adults too.

Cheers

THE OVERTAKING EVENTS

The quantum of operations in various units and formations does have a tendency to overtake the motley humans. The events start overtaking the life as most of us end up planning more than we can actually complete. This happens when we get sucked into the "Yes Boss" category and keep reinventing wheels whilst the actual capability hardly gets challenged.

               

During my days in the field, I closely watched many a colleagues ending up saying Yes to projects and programmes which never fructified. However, they ended up spending a large part of their productive time into somehow struggling to either terminate the accepted jobs or just botching up other operations. At times, their prayers were aimed at the Boss's transfer or promotion so that the target could be then re-defined! This was an ever occurring exercise and happens in many organizations worldwide. The bite is bigger and the chewing capability is lesser than the bite. Before one can finish the next bite has already arrived. Thereafter it is a vicious circle of managing things, events and human beings. The beauty of things, events and human being managements is that all of these are sciences and specialized fields at that. Very few humans have the ability to handle things, events and human beings in a balanced fashion.

              

An average human requires multiple supports from his environment and especially humans in his/her environment to manage the events called Life. Early in the mornings, the streets of Delhi start filling up with more and more vehicles which start finding their space with the already flowing traffic. If you are walking in the Cantt area, you better be careful and especially if you are near a speed breaker. Suddenly you would notice vehicles running in at F-1 Speed and with the human forms crouching and sitting in various positions-most of them close to the steering wheels!!. The brakes would be applied all of a sudden and the cars would certify their strength tests, gears would be meshed half way through the clutch and pedal would be pressed hard again. Even Sebastian Vettel would not try this stint in his Formula-1. If you carefully look at the clock, these events generally happen between 0720-0745 hours. If you are fortunate, you would also see the driver holding a sandwich in the right hand and talking ferociously inside the air conditioned cabin on the mobile which is on a speaker mode on the co-driver's seat!! The poor vehicle pays the price for the event which has taken over the life of the human being in this state.

            

A little later and closer to 0900 hours, one can see the various colors and avatars of humanity inside their vehicles. Along the 28 kms drive from Delhi to Gurgaon, one can see various variations of breakfast right from Idlis, Vadas, Sandwiches of various kinds, juices and the ever dependable aqua. Finally, at the first possible jam, you would notice a leisurely smoke emerging from the cracked open windows and the feeling of satisfaction as the event has been finally captured. In the evening leg, you can again witness humans talking animatedly or ferociously (if it is their better half on the other side and it is a matter of his/her family!!) on their mobiles without caring for the other vehicles and in turn struggling in their low gears on a high speed road. Single hand drivers keep their vehicles on wrong side of the highway and the result is an overall slow traffic. Somebody's event surely starts taking over from hereon again.

           

A painful tooth is a problem but a Blue Tooth is a boon. A mere connect with the Smart Device and it can free both hands to do many other better activities in a moving vehicle. The car makers in India now need to provide a Blue Tooth connectivity as a basic WANT of the Indian Driver. Get into the car, flip the button and your car audio is now your phone audio. This would help Indians to capture a few events before they overtake them and pin the day down hard. Indians are talking and they are now holding the talks far and wide. The talks need to be simplified and actions need to be taken early to keep the cost of negotiations at their lowest end. The events need planning in advance and we cannot be oblivious to the writings on the wall. A Blue Tooth is a must for an Indian on move and one who has to keep pace with the events in a self driven environment. So, cheer up and get that Blue Tooth to keep the vehicle in top shape and save precious lives on the busy highways.

THE DATE TRAP

When we were young we were taught to respect Time. When I joined the Navy, I first hand experienced that Time and Tides do not wait for anyone. As I am moving on with my life , I am convinced that Tides, Times and also Dates do not show any mercy to humans who do not respect these three identities.

              

Times and Dates are intertwined heavily. They both move in tandem and at a great speed. From times immemorial, human beings started keeping a close watch on time. The various activities of mankind started revolving around time as the value of time grew with the rising thinking prowess. An opportune time was all that human beings in various capacities depended upon to strike their desired bargains. The faith around the opportune moment became so overpowering that humans also evolved Astrology. The prediction of dates and times catapulted marauding warriors into Emperors and reduced Emperors into mere fugitives. The vast regions of planet Earth were scourged to meet the predicaments of dates and times.  New states and countries were carved out at the stroke of a particular hour and as the stars crossed the designated paths. Many a destinies were created with the predictions of Dates and Times. At the turn of the last Century, the hype around the Date and Time lead to an Earth wide chaos and many a software and hardware businesses kept ringing the fortune bells of their owners. Such is the brutal power of Date and Time that even a slight disrespect can create havoc into lives.

             

Today, we depend on various mechanism to keep track of the Date and Time. It has been a rather quick journey from the first spring driven watches of the 15th Century Europe to the various technological marvels that adorn humans today. The word "watch" came either from the Old English word woecce which meant "watchman", because it was used by town watchmen to keep track of their shifts at work or from 17th century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches (duty shifts). Come what may, no one alive can deny the rush caused by Date and Time in their lives.

             

In-spite of the values associated with the functions of Date and Time, humans end up confused in their race with these identities. The renowned Management Gurus have earned their recognitions around the simplification of the concepts of Date and Time. The essence of each and every facet of Management is the correct analysis of Date and Time. Strike the deal at the correct point and the strategy pays off. The development of the Strategy at the correct point in essence is again a function of Date and Time. The source of correct funding and the correct expenditure/ revenue generation is also a function of Date and Time. The identification of the best manpower also features Date and Time (The Interview!!). The beauty of the victory is celebrated at that Date and Time and a moment later it becomes history. The war continues from thereon again. A botched Date and a wrong Time can lead to dastardly and barbarious acts. The outcome of such horrible acts is again a penalty of lost Dates and Times. The victory is a short feeling of deja vu in terms of Date and Time, however, a wrong act culminates into a great loss of Date and Time.

           

Every human comes at a cross road again and again in his/her lifespan. It is that cross road where the Date and Time take a lead as they are both tireless identities. A good decision and an energetic sprint of life is all that is required to start tracking the Date and Time from the cross road point. Humans need not be Usain Bolts to catch up with Date and Time. It is just a matter of will power and focused approach to meet the situation of cross road head on. Respect thy Clock as Date and Time are the most valuable and most perishable of all our possessions. Check and Mate with Date and Time.

LIFE- THE GAMUT OF OPERATIONS

14 April 1912, at 2100 Hours Captain John Smith set out from the First Class Party Room on-board his massive passenger liner towards the Bridge. He climbed the ladder to the ship's behemoth bridge. The ambient temperatures outside had plummeted to dead zero. Captain Smith had been a seafarer for 40 years and this was his last voyage and a historic one. After all, he was the man chosen to Captain the TITANIC on its maiden sea voyage from England to New York. The Titanic had left Cork,Ireland on the early afternoon of 11 Apr 1912 with 2200 passengers.

 

Titanic was a technological marvel albeit with many operational blunders. She was designed to keep speed and comfort in the fore-front. However, the safety aspects of this machine left much to be desired during her design stage. There was an illusion of safety about the ship and she was declared as "virtually unsinkable" thus testing the theories of operational hazards. She had a Marconi Wireless but it was utilized as a commercial tool to satiate the desires of First Class Passengers, for whom the information of stock markets (even whilst at sea in 1912!!) meant more money and more business.

                 

Titanic received almost 10 warnings from neighboring ships about the presence of icebergs but all of them unfortunately did not land at Captain Smith's table for his remarks and guidance as the Ships's Wireless Set was being constantly utilized for commercial operations and the Operator's focus had shifted. The last warning came at 2140 Hrs and the Captain missed it also. At 2100 Hrs, Captain Smith entered the Bridge and gazed into the clear night ahead. His sea trained eyes clearly saw the ship's fox'le (Forecastle). He gazed deep into the Big Ocean ahead and retired to his Cabin at 2130 Hours. At 2340 hrs, lookout sailor Friedrick Fleet reported a floating iceberg and Sixth Officer James Moody ordered the rudder to hard port (left). The massive ship did turn to port but not before the iceberg had ripped its hull open by a 300 feet long gash on its starboard (right) side. Titanic sinks at 0220 hours on 15 April 1912 just 2.40 hours after hitting wandering iceberg. Finally, the sea belongs to its natural inhabitants, seafarers are merely the tenants of the seas.

                 

 The Titanic clearly relates to the vagaries of life. At the design stage, someone surely must have observed the design lacunae but his observation would have been subdued. The Ship went into its operational role as a brand and within no time touched the bottom of the sea in-spite of a perfectly synchronized machinery. Life also has its operational limits. We end up with many observations but subdue them under various pressures. The timely acts are thus avoided and we eventually meet the collisions of our life on clear nights but with plummeted temperatures. There is no recovery when the big sea of life engulfs the panic stricken soul. The hard decisions that are avoided at the opportune moment come to haunt as the soul sinks into chilling confines of the moment. There is no recovery unless a miracle happens and this miracle has its own operational cost. It is hard to assimilate, but it is better to believe the instincts and do the needful at the right time rather than regret the missed opportunity.

                  

These days, we are in for hard measures in our respective lives. These measures are a must for better future operations. Let not the rhetoric deny them as the struggle of today is better than tears of tomorrow.

                  

The nearest ship to the sinking Titanic was the Californian. She was equipped with a wireless set too but alas, its Captain had ordered the set to be taken off the watch after sunset. Her Bridge Officer reported many a times to the Captain about lights going up and down into the sea. The Captain of Californian dismissed them as shooting stars!! The liner Carpathia rushed to rescue Titanic from 58 sea miles away and picked up 705 passengers from the icy coffin of the Atlantic Sea. Carpathia docked at New York on 18 Apr 1912 with the survivors. Carpathia was sunk by a German U-boat Torpedo off Ireland in 1918, but most of her crew and passengers were rescued. She had exercised her operations well and the life boats sailed away before the hull broke into two and hit the bottom. Rise and shine  and take your decisions at the right time to maximize your lives and its gamut of operations.
              

CHANGE- THE ONLY CONSTANT

Change is the only constant. It is bitter to begin with in most of the cases but its overture soon blends into lives. Change hits everyone at every stage of life and is inevitable. My paternal grandfather got uprooted during partition from Rawalpindi. His job as the Branch In-Charge of erstwhile Lloyd's Bank (then Grindlays Bank and today's Standard Chartard Bank) took him to Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Murree Hills. The bank would shift its branch operations depending upon the "change of weather" between Rawalpindi and Murree Hills. At Partition, he was offered a change to Dacca to manage the branch operations. The fissures of partition and leaving back the hard earned assets took the wind out of his change management capability. He was 48 years of age , but, not ready for a change. The magnitude of shifting over to Dacca (back to new country) took its toll and he resigned his job. The Partition Claim Commission offered him a 500 Sq Yards plot at Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. A broken spirit brought him to Delhi and the mere sight of the then forested Vasant Vihar did not lift his spirit. He changed over from Vasant Vihar to a 450 Sq Yards plot at Rohtak where his brethren lived. The change was happening too fast and not settling down. The job was gone, the lands had been left behind and the future looked forlorn. Back at Rohtak, his savings got wiped off in constructing a decent house for his family. The change was the only constant till he lived as it had unsettled his plans. Probably their generation never expected the divide at the stroke of midnight!!

 

His untimely demise catapulted my father's life into an early job with the Grindlays Bank as the bank honored its trusted branch in-charge's family. Change hit my father hard and he landed into a job running as an under-graduate leaving his passion Music which he shared with his counterpart competitor Jagjit Singh in the erstwhile Punjab University. Shuttling between bank at New Delhi and Rohtak, he completed his graduation through the Evening College. Change kept him moving and soon his life moved on. The family stabilized but to capture the lost pre-Independence stature- there was a long way to go. My father had two wonderful friends. For the sake of simplicity, I would call these two grand Punjabi gentlemen as RS and GL. They were younger to my father by a decade but the bonhomie of daily commutership on Rohtak-Delhi-Rohtak train, passion for music and badminton brought them firmly together.  The times and tides started changing in early 80s. Delhi started expanding and Rohini started to emerge as the largest colony at Delhi. Traveling from Rohtak to Delhi, one day, the Roadways Bus suddenly turned left and we encountered the Ring Road for the first time. The sheer magnitude of the Road was a sight in itself and passengers excitedly spoke about Rohini and Delhi's expansion. Vasant Vihar had by then moved on to be Delhi's hot spot.

         

My father's venerable friends also were excited at the changes engulfing the Country. GL uncle bought a Maruti Omni and we would excitedly wait for Sunday evenings to visit Tilyar Lake- the picnic spot near Rohtak. RS uncle and his father saw the change coming in fast and soon they converted their cloth business at an Old Delhi market into a electrical switchgear factory. The change hit them hard and in the face but they plunged into it. GL uncle also moved on and started an independent garment production unit. Both uncles migrated to Delhi along with families. They impressed hard upon my father to move on to Delhi but my father was contended with his circumstances and change hit him slowly but surely. My father continued his tryst at Rohtak and was contented with his changes which kept him engaged surely enough. I moved on to NDA and my father moved on to the next world. The Change hit all of us hard enough and we were in whirlpools of its quagmire.

        

Now, yet another change is engulfing the Nation. We are moving on finally. The date with destiny is set and the change has to be embraced. Someone has to rise above the change and meet its challenge head on. In each one of us lies a change agent and he/she has to act at the right time to face the change. The future beckons only to those who face the avalanche called-Change. Change needs to be welcomed and embraced with a smile. A change agent needs support from the other members of his/her family. The umbilical chord has to be cut to let the change agent swim ahead and gain a foothold at the new destination. The agent would help others to reach ashore before another change moves in to explore the uncharted territory. Its a relay race and someone must take the baton to embrace the new change and lead from thereon. It is my time  for my share of changes and the baton is firmly in my hand. The bandwagon is moving and the change agents will keep their running shoes on to scale the distances. I have tied my laces up and I am running to meet the challenge of the Change bandwagon. Love thy Change as God Loves Those Who Love Changes............