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Sunday, December 1, 2013

Deep Thinking


What deep thinkers men are.

I washed my car today, and after getting tired, I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking. My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing, and I said, "Nothing." The reason I said "nothing" instead of saying "just thinking" is because she would have said, "About what."

And then I would have to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics, which would lead to other questions and the purpose and effect of beer would have waned away!!!.
Finally, I sat down in quite contemplation and thought about a very deep philosophical question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in your balls? Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the groin.

Well, after another beer, and some heavy Invert analyses, I have come up with the answer to that question. Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason, two years or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child." On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the BALLS." I rest my case.

Time for another beer. Hic

Monday, November 25, 2013

Enterprising Young man bridges the gap.


For all you driving enthusiasts. I have some very good news. For the first time in India, we have a company providing high quality LED lights at never before competetive prices.


While abroad, have you ever wondered what on earth is lighting that monster truck. Or have you wondered while watching discovery, or TLC the white beam light emitting from the vehicles. That is what I am talking about. These machines are powered by LED lights.

Leave alone the off roading and style quotiont for a while, how many times have we faced a road with zero or dim lighting and a realization that our current lighting system is inadequate. Dipper or no dipper, the current lighting system can do only so much. I know I have faced this insecurity nth number of times and have jeapordized the safety of my family.

In India, while we can buy SUV's like land rovers etc, but to procure and mount a safe, reliable, show stopper bright lighting system you have to import it or wait for a friend or relative to go abroad or buy it from your unprofessional car accessories wala at an exhorbitant price.

Not any more my friends. This company has definetely bridged the gap. www.carledindia.com have a wide collection of LED light bars available in the Indian Market, ranging from 3W, 4W, 5W or 10W options in single or double rows and work lights.

Icing on the cake is that they provide customization to suit your taste ranging from imprinting custom logos, color of LEDs and color of housing.

The guy who is running the show, 'Abhey Thareja' is an auto enthusiast off road driver himself who is passionate about what he does and trust me, that makes all the difference. I would rather buy a product from an expert in the field than any body who is working on commissions.

All their products are industry certified for IP67, IP68, CE, RoHS or CE compliance and come with a 1 year no cost to you Warranty.

Don't take my word for it, go ahead and check it out yourself.


www.carledindia.com







Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Vishy Anand Teaches Process Vs Outcome.


I was reading Vishy's article in times of India today and realized that the dude has an amazing clarity of mind.

What he basically  emphasized on was the same thing I have been harping about all these years. The same thing, I am trying to practice in my own professional and personal life. The same thing somehow which appears as a foregone conclusion to all the accumulated wisdom and knowledge so far
be it spiritual or personal grooming.

The ability to reach a stage where you concentrate on the process without getting bothered by the outcome. To work for the sake of work itself. To be system driven and be monotonous in execution. To reach a stage where it appears that you are not even a doer, it is as if things are getting done thru you. A trance like situation where you are having trip of your life. In sports terminology it is often termed as 'being in the zone'

In spiritual terms, its called a 'state of no mind'. Different expressions to say the same thing.

However it is easier said than done.

Vishy says that a loss does take a lot out of you. In fact it is such a huge thing that even a legendary achiever like Anand conceded a second defeat under the influence of first one.  I relate to this in my profession. A drawdown in a system results in all kind of psychological pressures. you second guess the system, you get frozen in time and choke, you move your stop losses, you start working without a strategy, you create the foundation for your own ruin.

He sums up the article by saying, I gotta do, what I gotta do. And that has a touch of class as far as I am concerned. Warren Buffet does not make investments with the outlook of making a million, sure he does earn more than that but the intention is to find an investment which qualifies his process.

Sachin Tendulkar takes pride in every shot he practices, it is a process of waking up at 5 in the morning, going through the grind every day without an off. he doesn't do it to score a century, sure he has scored a 100 of them but concentration is on the process.

It doesn't matter if Anand is able to defend this tittle or not. The idea is to stick to the process, without thinking about the lead, the score-line, the outcome.

No body knows that better than the 5 time World Chess champion.

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Vipasana Using Tools of Influence.


Vipasana and the powerful tools of Persuasion and Influence.




I attended the Vipasanna centre's much coveted 7 day meditation session to figure out first hand how human psychological misgivings can be exploited in order to convince anybody to comply.

This has been a topic of interest for me since last 02 years now and I thought what better place to witness the action than in a cult following set up.

I need to add a disclaimer that I am not here to judge the intention of the Vipassana centre run by Mr. Goenka. A lot of good work can be achieved by using the powerful tools of persuasion and on face value, it seems this centre is doing good work for humanity.

The reason for this disclaimer comes from our root tendency to look an institution in bad light if it is revealed that they have been able to receive the audience's approval by Psychologically working them.


Back to the topic, Vipasana guys were able to get such high rate of compliance because of some time tested amazing psychological tactics which are almost full proof due to human minds limitations.

  1. Pavlovian Dog association. Well, for the uninitiated, Pavlov was a Physiologist who became famous for his experiments with dogs. He made a living hell out of their already Dog life.
Click here

In a nutshell what he figured out was that if you do a set of things along with a given action, a dog's mind starts associating that action with that activity. For example every time you ring a bell, and give dog the food, next time you ring a bell dog will start salivating in anticipation of food.

Turns out there is a dog in every man. Coca Cola uses the pavlovian association beautifully in their Ads. You will find coca cola associating themselves with moments of happiness, festivals, celebrations, wins, world cups. So the next time you feel happy, you doggily ask for a coke.


Vipassana guys beautifully used this syndrome by ringing a big 'GHANTA'(BELL) for every time they wanted us to wake up. That Bell had an echo to it and it would ring in our psyche. Some people were actually scared of it and boy did that work.

In a couple of days itself mind was conditioned to BELL = Wake UP. We became pavlovian dogs responding to the sound of a 'ghanta' How else do you justify lazy bums waking up at 4:00 AM walking like programmed zombies in queue to meditate.

2. Expert Bias: It is given for humans to simply give in to the expert advise. No body is sparred from this. Your educational qualification is not a shield. Even Doctors fall in this trap by quoting WHO verbatim (not realizing that WHO made those stupid rules sitting in the confines of an AC office, not aware of ground realities of third world).

If the expert has said it, It must be true. Every time some body revolted in Vipassana, the guards (volunteers, ex students) gave them the ample doze of expert bias saying GURUJI expects you to do this. GURU JI this and GURUJI that.

No body and I mean no body even bothered to ask the credentials of this 'GURU JI'. People simply gave in. That is another bias by the way, giving in to the story and not relying on the fact. If somebody builds a story around a person, event, company, religion or anything for that matter. People have a tendency of believing it on its face value and not really go in the details of back testing it, verifying it, questioning it or analysing it.

This is one of the reasons that a lot of crooks (non enlightened people) end up having a huge fan following.

Type 'Milgram Experiment' on You tube and see what comes up. It will open your eyes to this BIAS.

  1. Social Proof Bias. Vipassana guys use this wonderfully to get the compliance.
Click Here 
    People unless educated against this bias are basically sheep. They will do what the majority is doing. Even when they know for sure that this is hell and that this is shit, they will still do it. They don't want to be standing alone being right. It is better to be wrong in group than right all alone.

Vipassana volunteers would come and tell you in a condescending way, every body has reached the meditation hall, you are late. Every body is doing that. Everybody this and Every body that.







  1. Pain Threshold Bias. There was this amazing study done by Nobel prize winner Psychologist Mr Daniel Kahneman.
He figured that human mind is divided into remembering self and Experiencing self. The remembering self does not care about the duration of a pleasant or unpleasant experience. Rather, it retrospectively rates an experience by the peak (or valley) of the experience, and by the way it ends. Further, the remembering self dominated the patients ultimate conclusion.
    Kahneman demonstrated the principle using two groups of patients undergoing painful colonoscopies. Group A got the normal procedure. Group B, unknowingly received a few extra minutes of less painful discomfort after the end of the examination, i.e., more total discomfort. However, since Group B’s procedure ended less painfully, the patients in this group retrospectively minded the whole affair less.




Vipassana does that beautifully. They end the session on a high note. Every body hugging each other, breaking the silence vow; Positive energy emitting all around. You can make a person go thru hell and give him a hug and a kiss and a chocolate and all is well. Our politicians by the way are not as dumb as we think. They apply the same bias by doing some work in the last few months before elections. All is well that Ends well.

I hope you found the article interesting. Please bear in mind my intention here is NOT to demean the Vipassana centre. They seem to be doing a wonderful job, (I don't know, and I won't judge). My job was to find the use of persuasion and influence in getting compliance.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Non Dual Awakening meditation.


This is what I picked up from Vipassana Thing that I did. This gentlemen is doing the same. He is supposedly Enlightened. Has reached a stage where the blah blah network, or system 1 as called by Daniel Kahlnmen or Fred as called by Ed Seycota has stopped.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Reflexion. 02 years since I jumped.



Today I complete 02 years of my freedom. This week, 24 months ago, after contemplating till eternity I finally took the leap of faith.
To be honest, it has not been all roses, being on your own never is.
 
Looking back I realize that I have done myself a HUGE favor by jumping in the unknown.  In fact taking my odyssey with the U&U situations, my trading and investing philosophy also revolves around that. Real riches or achievements are in the unknown and unknowable. People who remain within the confines of knowable and known are just another brick in the wall, run of the mill existence and since life is so short, they die before they learn 2 live.  (Do u know that your probability of dying during a given year doubles every 8 years)

Not that I achieved a whole lot monetarily. I earned ROI of close to 2% per month on my corpus, which comes to slightly better (40%) than my last drawn salary.  But that is because of a low base affect (Amex was paying peanuts).  

 Anyways it was never about money, all ma close friends can vouch for it. 
I would like to quote Ed seycota here,

 I don't judge success. I celebrate it. I think success has to do with funding and following one's calling regardless of financial gain’.

The kick I get out of what I do is priceless, the learning in these 02 years have been stupendous, the potential (I have just scratched the surface) is mind boggling and more than anything else no piece of shit tells me what I have 2 do. My day starts when I open my laptop and ends when I close it, and both the things can happen any time of the day I please!! (Irony is u tend to work more without much fatigue when u like it)
It has been a great decision in other perspectives as well, I have more time for myself, I play with my son Zohan and actually get to see him grow on a daily basis, I attend the workshops and seminars I wish, I go out interview and meet interesting people from my profession, I get time to meditate and exercise, I watch all my favorite programs and yes I read about 2 books a week, every week.

I couldn’t do even 1 of the above mentioned fancies earlier due to erratic work schedule and more than anything else as vouched by my family and friends I am a lot more cheerful and jovial since I left jail and I am sure over the years it will start reflecting on my health.

Read a book by Robert Skidelsky, “How Much is Enough”. (recommended by Vishal Khandelwal of Safal Niveshak) .

The book starts with an quote from Greek philosopher Epicurus – “Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” The book argues that a person’s wealth should be calculated on 7 parameters and not just the paycheck increase (although even that was a question mark in Amex). They are

1.  Health
2.  Security
3.   Respect
4.  Personality
5.   Harmony with nature
6.   Friendship
7.   Leisure

I read this recently and so was not aware of these parameters when I took my leapof faith but in hindsight I realize that I was not doing justice to even a single one of the 7 back in corporate slavery days. 

I would like to take this occasion to once again urge the readers to find their calling in life and then JUMP. Just look around and see the no of people (your friends, family, neighbors etc) dying daily. It is inevitable, our days are numbered, make the most of it by doing what you are cut out 2 do and not what society expects of u.


As Mark Twain once said, “
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

The Eureka or AHA!!!



The Eureka !!

The Eureka or the AHA!! moment (as Ed Seycota puts it) is one where the confusion dissolves and you reach a stage in self discovery where you get to the root of the matter. You don’t resolve the issue; you just reach a stage in quiet contemplation where you just know the root cause of your misery.

The problem says Seycota resolves itself; it falls from its own accord. Its success was in its hiding and once that is gone, it ceases to exist. 

Although I chickened out of that Vipassna course half way, I think I got what I went there for. By observing the vibrations and sensations in my body, I was able to find a deep rooted flaw of my personality. It did not happen immediately; in fact the complete feeling has sunk in just now manifesting itself in form of this blog. 

The EUREKA moment for me is the realization that I am a great starter but a bad finisher. I am LAZY and a HUGE procrastinator. 

This is so funny, all my close friends would tell me that they knew this all along; you don’t have to meditate and sweat it out so much to figure out something that is so obvious.

However, what we don’t realize is that all great teachings of the world and all great miseries of the world are all based out of simple, straight forward and obvious. It is the obvious that always skip the mind. And you need deep contemplation to figure out the obvious. 

Our upbringing has been such that we need to sweat it out to reach to the obvious. Not at a superficial level, but as an existential experience. The core of your being should be made aware of your flaw that has been eating you up.


My flaw in my personality has affected almost every sphere of my life; here is an incomplete list of things I have left unfinished due to this huge folly.


  • ·         Passports not updated (delayed by 2 years)
  • ·         Shalini’s last name not changed (2 years)
  • ·         Car repair not done (1 year)
  • ·         Account closure of extra dmat (2 years)
  • ·         Did not read the books bought (20)
  • ·         Car ownership transfer not done (2 years)
  • ·         Car insurance, pollution, cross roads not renewed.
  • ·         My insurance not complete
  • ·         PPFAS investment pending
  • ·         Provident fund investment pending
  • ·         Office space purchase pending
  • ·         I don’t shave daily
  • ·         Started gardening and then discarded it
  • ·         I don’t exercise daily
  • ·         I don’t meditate daily
  • ·         I have stopped jogging
  • ·         I have stopped playing badminton and cricket
  • ·         I skip brushing at times
  • ·         Interviewing interesting people project in the back burner
  • ·         Not sticking to the decided, calibrated and back tested strategy in trading.
  • ·         Not sticking to decided, calibrated strategy in Investing.
  • ·         I have conveniently forgotten my charity targets


Apart from this I have a huge folly of bragging about myself, boasting off my achievements and down playing my failures.   

It is human nature, I know, however the idea is to reach above my  base instincts and be a better all rounded human being.
   

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Duality of cause and effect.






This is no ordinary song; this is a spiritual manifesto. The message penetrates through generations, ages, sexes, geographies, cultures and religions.


This happens to be a sum total of all the teachings of various books I have read, all the religions of the world, organized or otherwise.

It is amazing how books from different topics, authors and genre end up giving the same message. The message of reaching a stage in self realization where you cannot differentiate between good or bad, pleasure and pain, day and night.

This realization comes after a long contemplation, observation and witness of cause and effect nature of things. The duality is inevitable. It is futile and in fact stupid to strive for good by avoiding bad. Good is the other side of the same coin which is bad. Just like death is to birth, night is to day, pain is to pleasure, riches is to poverty, ostentatious is to humble, the list goes on.



The only way to cease this cause and effect cycle is to go beyond it. Or in difficult to understand terminology, to ‘transcendent’ it (this energy) inwards

In not so difficult to understand lingo, it means concentrating on the process and forgetting about the outcome. It has been written in Geeta and people like Warren Buffet practice it daily (Irony intended).

Warren Once said, ‘We are willing to look foolish as long as we have not acted foolishly’. I realize the depth of this sentence. An open declaration that we judge our character though our actions and not our results

Anyone working with this outlook in life becomes a karma yogi. He does work for the sake of work itself. He strives for excellence and then lets it go.

Another interesting correlation can be made to the game of poker. To go through the life’s ups and downs with a Poker face (Poker face is a term used for an expression less face).

Your face and outlook should not give away what cards have been given to you by God, cosmos etc.

The only difference is that while poker face is a make shift arrangement, whereas self realization beyond the duality of cause and effect is a permanent blissful state of being.



















Tuesday, May 14, 2013

150k Per hour. Beaten for sheer pace.


Played cricket after a long while. Played against the bowling machine. I was fine till 130-140k mark, however the whole world changes on its head at the speed of 150k +.

BEATEN For PACE. 

Click here to view my Humiliation.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A Sunday with Swami Parthasarthy




Last Sunday, I had a privilege of attending a lecture by Swami Parthasarthy in kamani auditorium where he demystified the chapter 12 of the sacred ‘bhagwat gita’. Its very rare to come face to face with a living legend. 

At 85 this guy is fitter than a lot of my age athletes I know. There is an eminent glow on his face and he is very candid about answering when asked about its secret.

“ I do not sweat about the past and I don’t worry about the future”. 

When u live in the now for long, it starts showing on your body.  Past and future is all we think. In fact that is the only function mind is used for. Think about it, I can count on my finger tips the rare occasions where my mind was away from both these acts. Otherwise this is ALL I use it 4.

During the 02 hour period he spoke eloquently on the subject he has spent his life ON.  

35 qualities of a spiritual person

In his own peculiar sense of humor, he mocked people who go to temples, cram the mantras, sleep a particular way, build houses in accordance with vaastu, follow parrot, tarot, cards, ganesha and other shit.

All these are excuses of an escapist.  'Jiddu' said the same thing in his days, ‘Going to a brothel, movie, temple, guru, meditation, bar, smoking weed. Well they are all the same thing, different excuses to fool the mind. Just because the shape is different doesn’t mean shit would taste any different.

He emphasized on age old ‘Geeta’ adage to be a person who is unaffected by pleasure and pain, since they are the two sides of the same coin, he advised the seer to be a witness. Who does work for work’s sake!

One of the lessons I derived out of the lecture was this beautiful maxim that never once should you think that you are doing something. Who are you to do anything, cosmos is using you as a medium to play the game which was there before you and will be there once you leave this body.

You call your baby your own, what have you done to say that. The semen that produced the baby came from eating food and fruits which were originated elsewhere, the process of life and death is longer than your intermediate existence here.  You are just a medium, an actor. Just because you dipped your kamandal in Ganges twice does not mean you inaugurated it. Ganges was there before you, it will be there after you. You are just a brick in the wall in the overall scheme of things. Why would you ever get possessive about your family after knowing this?

Difference between animals and humans is that animals are intelligent enough to let go off their children after the first year. Humans get attached to their kids, moms, dads, moms in laws, grand children, friends and almost anybody that walks.

This insecurity leading to attachment is the root cause of all misery in the world.

“Marriage is like pillars of a temple, For the pillars of the temple stand apart, if they don’t the temple would collapse”. Khalil Gibran

He beautifully describes as to who is Poor and who is Rich. Think about this question in your mind.

Rich and poor can never be calculated as a matter of quantum. You can never give a figure to it. It is impossible to say if you have 100 crores you are rich, else you are poor.  The rich line is a relative paradigm.

Then how do you calculate it. By following a simple maxim that ‘If your desires exceed your limits (savings), you are poor and if your desires are within your limits, you are a rich man’

Going by this definition, many an affluent people are poor and many a paupers are rich. As Charlie Munger says, it is all about where you set your anchor.

An acid test to this is if you find yourself or anybody saying, 'if ever I just had this, I would feel I have reached my goal and achieved it'. Consider yourself/that person as poor coz that desire is ad-infinitum. It will never be quenched, it will manifest itself in a new form every-time you fulfill the previous one.

Poverty or richness is a mentality and not a matter of quantity. Of course he urges the youth to work hard and earn money, but not get owned by it.

Its like saying, live in a palace for all I care, but reverse mortgage it so you don’t get overtly possessive.