Nomadic Notes #1

7:30AM. Local Time. Frankfurt International Airport:
I have 2 hours before my flight from Frankfurt to Chicago starts boarding. For someone who has spent the last 8 hours in a metal cage at 38,000 ft and the 12 hours before that sitting in the same spot at Chennai (Anna) International Airport, I feel pretty good, not outstanding, but definitely good. The German coffee is helping. It only seems appropriate to take a few minutes to key in my thoughts at this random place/hour. This is my fifth transcontinental trip this year, and I can almost hear my body screaming in protest. Work engulfs everything, or at least I’d like to think it does, and the balance with life seems to be swinging the wrong way. The wins and the losses from ’07 seem to be adding up the wrong way as well. Yet, as I think about it, “Travel”, my newfound friend, has helped me gain a better insight into life and its mysteries. Here are some of those insights…

·Faith: When the massive Boeing 747 shudders in the turbulence at 38,000ft, like a powerless toy, and you still make that smooth touchdown. Faith, in the outcome of events you cannot control or influence, faith in people doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, faith that the Universe will take care of you, as you try your best to take care of the Universe.

·Joy: When the German Lufthansa employee said “Merry Christmas” and gave me a free upgrade to First Class. Joy, at all those little surprises in life.

·Patience: Sitting inside a plane on the runway for 3 hours, waiting for a software glitch to disappear, watching a few people at their worst, unreasonable selves. Patience, where aggression was of no help.

·Goodness: When R, an airline employee my mom met on a bus she takes to work everyday, went out of her way to help me get an alternative flight when the original one was cancelled. When V, R’s colleague, went out of his way to get all my flights rescheduled, when he had no obligation to help. People are good and helpful, and that’s more the norm than the exception. I wonder if I always thought otherwise.

·Appreciation: When on a crazy Christmas night, after 2 hours of trying to get the engines to work, after half the passengers walked out, and a quarter screaming in protest, I told the tired co-pilot that I really appreciated what he and the others were doing to get the plane to fly…and he smiled a grateful smile. That flight was eventually cancelled; I still meant what I told him. Appreciation, where it’s truly deserved.

·Friendship: When 4 best buddies get me through a long, horribly depressing 12 hours at an airport by chatting incessantly on gtalk, despite having their own stuff to take care of. One of my lowest “mental” moments, and yet these 4 had me in decent shape by the time I took off. Friendship, unconditionally. V, M, D & N, Thanks!

·A Higher Force: When I ran into friends and acquaintances at random airports, when the statistical probability of such occurrences was negligible and yet they occurred. “The Alchemist” taught me that if I desired something a lot, the Universe would conspire to get it for me. My travels and my life in general has convinced me that the Universe is a friend, an omnipresent force, that looks out for me even as it conspires with me. Everything happens for the good.

Safe Travels! May the Force be with you!

Version Nomadic

Sunday afternoons have always been tough, at least for me, for as long as I can remember. And sitting in a mostly empty but elegantly built corporate office somewhere in the wrong part of the world, I am amazed and somewhat amused that I still feel the same way about Sunday afternoons. It’s a strange feeling, a mixture of loneliness and despair and I find myself questioning my normally bullish attitude to life. My still school based life-attitude and philosophy comes under intense scrutiny and I seem to notice clouds I don’t normally see on the horizon. But this moment too shall pass, just as surely as it will come back to haunt me again. And as I channeled the power of the web in an attempt to get through the afternoon, I found myself looking at my long forgotten blog with its one single post, written about two years ago. That was back when I was bitten by the blogging bug, but right after the first post, a total lack of confidence in my writing skills killed any future posts. Till today. And I think, today, I am just posting to myself. The writing skills be damned.

So I decided to do a self-appraisal, a validation of sorts, to what I had deemed as logic points for my life operating system – The Buddha OS. And as with any operating system, release an upgrade. Launching, two years after inception, The Buddha OS – Version Nomadic

Logic #1: You can have no contradictions in life. When you encounter a contradiction check your premises, one of them will be false. Eliminate all such false premises. Keep life contradiction free.

Logic #2: You must always have faith in the process in everything. Life takes care of the betrayals.

Logic #3: You must prioritize your battles. It is futile to try and fight all the battles at once. And make sure you only fight the right ones. Sometimes you win by walking away

Logic #4: The best form of deception is the truth or a version of the truth. Just stick with the truth. And stop deceiving yourself.

Logic #5: Every force has an opposing force. To win you must always fight a certain force with its opposing force. Use logic #3 first to determine battle priority, win conditions and use of force. Then apply logic #5.

Logic #6: That which does not matter, you must let it pass. And when it doesn’t pass fast enough, look at the night sky for a cosmic perspective.

Logic #7: In matters of offence, you must strike swiftly ,forcing your enemy into indecision and thereby giving you a chance to make swift gains, which you then use to negotiate from a position of strength and decisively and eliminate the opposition forever.Keep a high bar for what can be deemed a matter of offense. Fully integrate with Order of the 9th Dragon.

Logic #8: There is no pot of gold happiness waiting for you at the end of the rainbow. The gold happiness is scattered all across the rainbow. Gold is not equal to happiness. And happiness isn’t limited to any one color in the rainbow. Take your time, enjoy the ride and make sure you experience all the colors.

Logic #9: System Scalability Balance - Never grow up at the cost of core values and dreams. If it seemed important in school, it’s still important. Disregard arguments and advice built on words like “sensible”, “practical” and “economic sense”.

Logic #10:: Reusable system blocks - Respectful. Simplicity. Passionate. Honesty.

Logic #11: Fuzzy logic – Make your highest exception(s) for the one(s) you love the most. So when all other logic points lead to a fuzzy conclusion, make the exception. At this point, contradictions disappear, faith is rewarded, winning and losing don’t matter, deceptions vanish and happiness is experienced.