Jonathan Livingstonism

You don't have to be a seagull to be "Jonathan Livingston". Anyone who pushes the boundaries dictated by the physical, mental and emotional limitations of their species is "Jonathan Livingston". Evolution itself is a proof of this. Every specie has had its fair share of "Jonathan Livingstons", except perhaps the Dodos. They never got enough time. A blink, and they were gone.

Let us consider the example of this Giraffe, who has to resort to inconvenient postures to be able to quench his thirst:

By the next photo, he seems to have recognized the absurdity of its posture and is asking me "What is so funny? Be thankful that you don't have stick like front legs."

Now what he chooses to do with this realization will decide whether this Giraffe is going to be a "Jonathan Livingston" Giraffe. A giraffe doesn't usually sit down because it cannot quickly get up and get going. This giraffe can accept that this is what he has and learn to make the best of it. Or he can decide to explore whether there are other possibilities. he can realize that he needs to exercise his knees and make them strong so that he can sit down and get up as quickly as a deer would do.

If he chooses the first option, he would be just another Giraffe. However, if he chooses the second option, he will be a "Jonathan Livingston" Giraffe.

In most cases, the choice lies with you. Whether you want to be just another one in the specie or whether you want to be "Jonathan Livingston", is for you to decide. Every challenge is an opportunity to be a "Jonathan Livingston". After all, homo sapiens is the specie that has seen the most "Jonathan Livingstons" till now.

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Phrases that I coined...(contd.)

"There is pattern in all that is random"

Even the most complex of Random Number Generation Algorithms have a pattern. Let me know in case you know of one that doesn't.

The same is true for every other aspect. When the civilization began, very regular events like the sun rising, must have appeared random to the human-kind. Movement of Stars, Shapes of moon, flowing of rivers, aging, birth, everything must have appeared random. But the introspective human mind searched for and identified patterns in them.

In our lives as well, we assume that some things simply happen randomly. However, it is my personal belief that there is pattern and predictable behavior behind these as well. We are just not big enough to understand that.

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Urban Sunset

Even though the landscape around us is rapidly changing, a few things never change. A sunset is as beautiful on beach as behind a construction site. While we cannot do too much to stop our world from changing, we can still keep on enjoying the little things that never change.

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Phrases that I coined (contd...)

The biggest indication of lack of faith is when you start being prepared for disappointment...
If you expect to fail in the end, can you put in your best effort? If you try to play safe to prevent disappointment in case something doesn’t work, do you think you can give 100% to the cause? And if you don’t give in your best, don’t you think that you have lesser chances of succeeding?

Battles are fought and won only when you have complete faith in the cause. Either you want to win or you don’t. If you want to win then believe that you will win. Otherwise give up right now and move on to something you really believe in…

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Phrases that I coined

1) Only when you apply brakes do you realize your speed...
Thought of this while driving on the DND flyway in Delhi. I was travelling at about 80 km/hr (which is the maximum speed limit). I think it is very true for life as well. This is why we feel lost when there are commas in life. It is really hard to get up and get going again...

2) As soon as you cease to value what you have, you lose everything!
There are times in our lives when all of us feel lonely and lost and that life is not worth the effort. When I thought about this and looked around, I realized that we feel this way when we stop valuing those who value us. This happens when we yearn for things that we do not have and in the process ignore everything that we have. So it feels like we do not have anything...

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Our French Mis-Steps

Our Team had completed the basic level of French Language training last year and this year we thought that we would take advantage of the 'lean' period between the projects and go a step forward in French. However, the French Language institute had less faith in us that we had in ourselves and told us that they would need to assess whether we have remembered enough to go for the next level. They informed us that they will hold an assessment over phone for each candidate and then evaluate whether we can go ahead.

Many of us made the examiner's day by providing her enough material to laugh about for at least a couple of days. Here are some snippets of the conversation. All of this happened in French. What you see below is the exact translation in English.

Snippet 1: Examiner talking to Punjabriti (name changed)
Examiner: Do you have children?
Punjabriti: Yes, I have a daughter.
Examiner: How old is she?
Punjabriti: She is three years old.
Examiner: Do you also have a son?
Punjabriti: No, my daughter does not have a son. (Do I need to explain more?)

Snippet 2: Examiner being run down by Car-run (name changed)
Examiner: Can you describe your house?
Car-run: There are 3 bedrooms, 1 drawing room, 1 dining room, 3 bathrooms, and two swimming pools in my house. ((in French, swimming pool is 'piscine' and kitchen is 'cuisine'. My friend here, obvoiusly, meant two kitchens)
Examiner: Two swimming pools?
(By now Car-run had understood that he had goofed up, but decided to stick with it)
Car-run: Yes, one very big and one small.
Examiner: Do you swim?
Car-run: No.
Examiner: Does your wife swim?
Car-run: No.
Examiner: Does anyone else in your family swim?
Car-run: No.
Examiner: You have two swimming pools in your family and none of you swim in them?
Car-run: Yes that's right. (I don't know about the examiner but I was convinced)

Snippet 3: Examiner being led on by Siddance(name changed)
Examiner: Is your home close to office?
Siddance: yes its very close.
Examiner: How do you go to office?
Siddance: I go to office on football. (when obviously he meant that he goes to office on foot)

Snippet 4: Examiner interviewing ChinChin (name changed)
Examiner: Do you have a car?
ChinChin: Yes, I am a car.
(here the examiner corrected ChinChin that he/she should say that "yes I have a car". )
(After a few sentences...)
Examiner: Which car do you have?
ChinChin: WagonR
Examiner: How much does it cost?
Chin Chin: It costs Rs. 40 Lakhs (Hell of an expensive WagonR!! But if ChinChin is the car, then I guess it is quite reasonable)

At the end, may be because of the entertainment we all provided, we all cleared the assessment and are on our way to the next level.

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Change

When I slow down,
the world goes by,
so fast that it's nothing,
but a colorful blur.

I stand still,
and try to make sense,
of all that's happening,
without and within.

All things that I hold dear,
vanish one by one.
Everyone who is near,
is changing with the tide.

And it is then when I feel it,
As slow and quiet,
as the blooming of a rose bud,
the small but sure changes in me.

It is a comfort,
to say the least.
While the world's not constant,
I, too, am changing with it.

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