David vs Goliath - Who was the real underdog?

The Giant stood at the valley, dressed in full armor and carrying weapons for close combat. The short sharp spear, a javelin and a shiny sword made of bronze. An attendant stood in front of him.

“Choose a man and let him come down to me. If he prevails in battle and strike me down, we shall be slaves to you. But If I prevail and strike him down, you shall be our slaves," shouted the Giant, standing almost 7 foot tall and as thick as the bark of the thickest tree in the world.

 Nobody moves, the Giant was intimidating; they had no chance in front of him. That is when the underdog shows up, an unassuming shepherd boy with a sling for weapon –David. 

 The king is not willing to send David to his death, but David’s words are very persuasive “I've slayed wild animals to protect my sheep, the Giant can’t be worse than that."  It doesn't matter to David that the wild animals were unarmed. David prepares to face the ultimate favorite – as the world will know.

Goliath bellows, “Come to me, Come to me.”

David runs down the valley, with a stick in his hand, and sling in the other hand. As he runs forward, he whips his sling several times around his shoulder, Goliath moves slowly, his movements are particularly slow for a warrior. His attendant warns him of the impending danger, the Giant doesn't heed to his attendant’s words - after all he is the ultimate favorite against a puny shepherd.

Goliath is amused, “Am I a dog that you should come with sticks?”

 In few minutes Goliath will realize what a sling can do. The speed of a rock from an expert sling projector is almost equal to a modern short gun, the closer he is to the Giant, the harder the impact. David is running in as fast as he could, he is taking his aim at the only vulnerable spot of the armored suit – Goliath’s forehead, for he had a prominent forehead.

The rest is his history. That’s the story, but what if we are missing some crucial links? What if David was the favorite to begin with?

  Modern medical science says that abnormal size of human beings can be connected to Acromegaly – a disease caused by uncontrolled pituitary gland secretion. The side effects include - vision problems such as blurring and double vision apart from abnormal body size and clumsy movement control. Goliath was probably a gentle Giant with partial vision, the attendant was his visual aid – the opponent’s strategy was not to fight the battle, but to win by intimidation.

 Acromegaly explains Goliath’s words at the battle field – both his strengths and his weakness. What we perceived as his strength - his enormous size, and what we didn't know about him -his weakness - the poor vision.

He said, ‘Come to me, come to me,’ because his vision is blurred and he couldn't see objects far away from him. He doesn't see David, he just sees a blur.

He said, "Am I a dog that you should come with sticks?” But David had only one stick, unless he had another hand to hold the sling. Could it be double vision?

What’s in it for me?

 This is a profound story of perspective change - a complete shift in basic understanding of a well- known scenario in new light. Imagine you are trying to convince a very stubborn person to look at alternatives. What if he is completely closed to options outside his own? Now, I’m assuming that you are able to tell this story to the stubborn person with enough flamboyance to eke out some reaction. It doesn’t matter if the reaction is overly aggressive or defensive; a reaction is all that matters. He may not even fully accept the shift of David’s character from an underdog to the favorite. He might even question the validity of the modern extrapolations on a biblical story. 

    

      Nonetheless, this story will definitely open a small possibility for an alternative to your original problem.  Subconsciously, this story will prepare him for the other alternatives. He will begin to question his options; can there be another way to look at his options? That moment of doubt is the perfect place to present your alternatives. Such is the power of a good story, the fastest way to get in touch with the subconscious of the audience. 

Conclusion:

It is true that history is written by the winners. The more dramatic the story is, the better the longevity of the characters. The story of the underdog David against the Giant Goliath is much more appealing and inspiring than a gentle giant slayed by a clever trick on a battlefield.

We often forget to compare the strength and weakness in terms of known factors. The sling made David the real favorite. Goliath had as much chance as a knight with a knife against the revolver of a rebel.

At times, what we perceive as strength is the source of the very vulnerability that is hidden at first sight. Complacency and confidence are just hair-strand apart.

Reference: “David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell”

Disclaimer:  What’s in it section is based my own assumptions and understanding. If you have time and money, you are welcome to conduct experiments to disapprove that. 

Troublesome tables

There was this girl who worked with DBA team in my company. 

She was so bad at her work that she replied, 

‘I’m not good with carpentry,’ to a request for creating a simple table with five columns. 

 Her next question to the requester proved to be much more insightful about her capacity to surprise the most calmest, ‘Why do you need five columns in the first place?  The tables usually come with four legs.’ The requester is still rolling on the floor and has never been able to come out of the terrible trauma. 

  She was not joking; she also didn't realize that the joke was on her. Poor soul, within a week, she was so fed up with troublesome table related queries that she stopped eating on dining tables and decided to take her life standing on a large table. Regrettably, she couldn't even do that, for she forgot to commit the suicide.

Disclaimer:

It is just a joke. Please don't sue me. I have no tables at home.

Look up ! Into the clouds

On the very first day, I realized what I’m going to love about Florida, it is not the people, it is not the weather, of course it is not the work. It is the clouds of Florida.

  The clouds in Florida are like fluffy white cotton candy balls held from an enormous blue hanger of sky. Shape shifting polar bears roaming so close to the ground, so close that you can almost touch it with your bare hands.  At times they are scary, the times when they feel like  monstrous white cloth waiting to engulf your tiny being. See the first photo, don't they look like a monster?

  Some of the clouds are angry, and they cry aloud with tantrums– it rains with thunderstorms and lightening. Once they stop crying, they become as white as dove in a blue field. Some of them turn red  and pink with the mood of the sun at dawn and dusk. The cloud in the second photo might have been in a romantic mood, blushing in baby pink.

Of course not everyone enjoys cloud watching or appreciate it,I did n’t enjoy gazing at the clouds for more than a quarter of a century, I did n’t even know that it could be a serious hobby. Is there something called a serious hobby in the first place? 

There is always atime and place for everything, after all appreciation is just an extension of your life experience, the reflection of your perceptions. Why don’t you look up into the clouds next time you are out in the streets?

    

Are you a puppet or a puppeteer - Playing the victim

There are no two kinds of manipulators, only one kind – the kind who plays the victim. It is incredibly hard to spot them, because they appear so much like real victims.

  At times even they are unaware about their poisonous skills, but they take pride in achieving their goals. They always work with the end in mind  - one of Stephen Covey’s seven effective habits. Every little action, often done slowly and steadily takes them closer to their ultimate goal– to extract something from someone.

  "Playing the victim" type of manipulation involves the manipulator telling the actual victim that he feels guilty about the bad things he did, although he will continue to do the bad thing, and constantly crib and repeat how guilty he feels for doing that.

 For eg: He will tell you that he had a poor upbringing, bad relatives and a difficult life all along- the reason why he is taking drugs or the reason why he did that terrible thing to a friend.You get hooked because his troubles are much worse than yours. 

  You feel bad for him, nothing wrong, it is only human nature to feel bad and sympathize when you hear a sad story. But often their stories are not true, or they are embellished versions of a small incident, or a stroy borrowed from a real sufferer.

 In reality the manipulator feels very little to zero guilt, but the actual victim feels sorry for the manipulator, thinking that the manipulator is the victim. The actual victim slowly falls for the whims of the manipulator, the web of the manipulator grows slowly and steadily. He will take things slowly, never rush you into things, and probably behave in an admirable way at unexpected situations. 

  That way he builds a sense of awe and in turn develop the most important trait of a manipulator - credibility. Rarely do we associate credibility with a manipulator, as a converse anyone with credibility has even fewer association with manipulator. That's the strength of a master manipulator, and that makes him very difficult to spot.

 Once the credibility is achieved, he will begin his manipulation with a renewed vigor, by this time the victim has reached a level of hypnosis - the inertia moves the victim forward. 

  As with Newton's First law, without an external force - a third person or an awareness about such manipulators, the victim continues to remain in the grips of the manipulator. The only exception is the completion of the goals of the manipulator. 

  At that instant, the victim is unceremoniously dropped out , and often ostracized by the manipulator. The victim continues to be in dark about what had happened.     

This is from one of the case studies

This is about a man who had actively participated with two others in the vicious bludgeoning of his victim. When questioned about the motivation for his act, he complained that he had no idea how the vivid memories of the event had haunted him and that he would probably have to live with them for the rest of his life. 

 All of a sudden, don't you feel tempted to feel somewhat sorry for him. Here he was, a vicious killer with a long history of cruelty to others, and he was beginning to appear as a victim of post-traumatic stress. 

That's playing victim. Only a very experienced manipulator can pull it off. And some of us might have even played it at a very innocent level.

  When the manipulator casts themselves as a victim, they don’t really see themselves as victimized, they just really want the other person to see them as wounded, injured, or suffering in some way in order to elicit sympathy, cloud the picture about just who is the victimizer and who is the victim.

Have you met anyone like that? 

Case study reference:

http://counsellingresource.com/features/2009/03/16/playing-the-victim/

The sound of color

   When Neil Harbisson failed to note the difference between the national flag of Italy and France, he knew he was different, he had color blindness. I’d have quietly quit living life for real and backpacked to the North Pole where it is black and white anyway. I would have missed many beautiful things, like the setting sun over Marina beach, the lush green forests of Malappuram, and the flaming deserts of Rajasthan. What a waste of life if all you can see is a black and white all around you.  A black and white TV?

  Unlike me, Neil Harbisson was no muck to give up on life for a thing as difficult as color blindness. He made up his mind to perceive color with his other senses, what about hearing the sound of a flag or the sound of an indecipherable Picasso painting. Doesn’t that sound nice? Or does that sound like an idea from science fiction story?

   Now, close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Imagine your most favorite person. Take another breath. Imagine listening to the music of the beautiful brown eyes of your favorite person. You can do that at any place, especially if you are ever caught up in a never ending tunnel while travelling in a train with no power supply. With practice, you will gain expertise to hum the song of the eyes of your favorite person with your eyes wide open. This is an after lunch office trick that can come in handy in conference rooms.

    What about composing music by looking at a face? What if you can feel the face of your mother through the sound of her face? That serene sound can peel away the loneliness that is all too common in our ever demanding life. That alone can weed out every inch of stress from your mind.

     Have you ever been chased by a dog? Never? But then you never threw stone at an unchained canine, did you? Did you know that a dog can chase you down an alley with his eyes closed? True story. Like dogs, most animals survive in this tough world with the help of pronounced sense of something. It may be sound, sight, touch or even a sense that is yet to be uncovered by sloths like us. I don’t mind becoming a Tommy, that dog who chased me like only a dog can do, if I had that super power of smell. I’d probably smell the chicken soup in the cafeteria while I compiled programs sitting on the broken chair in my cubicle.

  Why am I writing about weird things? Because all the ideas are weird until they catch on. Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012, and one of the most fascinating ideas came from Neil Harbisson. If music becomes color, hearing radio will become a colorful experience, we can hear paintings, and then begin dress in a way that sounds good rather than dress that looks good. Harbisson explains about using technology to achieve all these -the idea of Cyborgism- integration of technology and human body.

  The Cyborg foundation provides free Cybernetic extensions to make all these things happen. They explain how to build it at home –and read this carefully- the software is open, and there is no sales pitch to buy a heap of trash.

  What I liked best about being a cyborg is the idea of getting old. The cybernetic extensions become easy to use with time, like any technology, it takes time to become accustomed to it. As Neil Harbisson said, ‘If I had only human senses, my senses would deteriorate as I grow older, but if you are a cyborg, the older you get the better your senses become.’

  Possibilities are endless, and the idea of Cybernetic extension is the first step in bringing equality among the human race. Nobody will miss that setting sun over Marina beach, the lush green forests of Malappuram, or the flaming deserts of Rajasthan.

I want to be a Cyborg. What about you?

Come aboard, If your destination is oblivion

 ‘Come aboard, if your destination is oblivion - it should be our next stop.’

That's a fine sentence from the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  This is how Pi Patel invites Orange Juice, the orangutan to his boat.

  

  I thought hard about this - Why did I like this line so much? As usual I have come up with a theory - as always a bizarre one, something even the hyena in Life of Pi would find hard to digest.

  First of all, it has a lot to do with my mood, for I didn't notice such a beautiful sentence when I read Life of Pi for the first time. And for that reason no one else can derive as much happiness as I did on reading that sentence, never. May be there is someone out there who can extract much more happiness out of that sentence than me, but not the exact amount of happiness if happiness could be measured with two decimal places.

  Don’t go away; the bizarre part of theory is not yet over, because the sentence works at another level- with word association and context of the story. For the context, the situation is bleak with Pi losing hope over being lost in the Pacific Ocean. He has a tiger, a heinous hyena and a crippled Zebra for company. He has almost lost all his hope, that' when Orange juice, the orangutan floats up on a pile of banana.

  Do you see the connection between oblivion, horizon and hope? You wouldn't, because I made that up.Horizon rhymes with oblivion, and it also rhymes with hope.

  To Yann Martel's credit, he has used one word to evoke three different images; hope, horizon and mental blankness. Was it his true intention? Or a piece of genius, we will never know, nevertheless he chose the perfect word. For Pi, the statement is an absolute truth; there is no hope of a horizon, only blankness and fear of being forgotten by the world. 

The result is a sublime multi-layered sentence, the context of the story makes it all the more better.

 ‘Come aboard, if your destination is oblivion - it should be our next stop.’

 Sounds weird and unbelievable?  Try giving me a better story, I will gladly accept. After all we believe in miracles not because it is true, but because that is the better story. At desperate times, even despair is romanticized. Aren't we always a foot away from imaginary despairs?

  

What happened to your new year resolution?

In an earlier post, I had proposed to write more about why we fail to follow up on our New year resolutions.

  There are three kinds of people when it comes to resolutions: The first kind who still believe in resolutions, the second kind who stopped believing in resolutions because it didn't work out for them, and the third lucky group who probably wouldn't read this blog - those disciplined kind with enough self-control to achieve their resolutions. I’m definitely not in the third group.

 Now what has self-control got to do with resolutions?

  When resolutions are made, they are often in different realms, like doing more exercise and following a new diet plan. You might think there is a connection between exercise and a diet plan. Yes there is, but a Big No when it comes to resolutions. Often two or more resolutions are packaged as if it is a combo meal at McDonalds.

  You say, ‘A veg burger please’

  The vendor says, ‘ Do you want Pepsi?’

  You reply, ‘Ya, a Pepsi too.’

  ‘Sir, shall I make it into a combo? ’

  Without thinking much, you say, ‘Okay, Combo then.’

There you go, you went there to take a Burger, and finally ended up raking a lot more calories.  That’s how resolutions are made, one sticking on to the other. You are better served if you had struck to just the Veg Burger, so is with resolution, it is better to stick with just one resolution at a time.

What happens when you have more than one objective?

  Let’s say you start your day with some exercise early in the morning. As long as exercise is not a habit, you are exercising considerable amount of self-control to get up early in the morning and go for that jog. It is a different matter when it becomes second nature.

  Let’s say you have 100 self –control points in your kitty, and as you exercise, it comes down to 50 in one hour. Then you've to follow the diet, the diet is new for you, and there are some bland items on the menu. There you need some self–control again to stick to the tough new regimen. But you are not fresh, and your self-control score is on the wane. The waning self-control is a big bane, and that tempts you to drop your diet plan altogether. And that creates a ripple effect, your confidence on the other resolutions are affected, and eventually affect the attempts of developing the exercise routine. In the end, all the resolutions come down flat on your face, and you wait till the end of December to make your next plan.

So what’s the way to tackle this?

  The best way to handle the problem of waning self-control is to take just one resolution at a time. By having just one resolution or one objective at a time, you are allowing optimal consumption of self-control. When I say one objective, I mean one clear objective across different facets of your life, personal and professional.

  Even a tough deadline at office is going to impact the process of building a new habit, because even that takes up a lot of energy – in turn self-control and that means a lower self-control score. This is because, we have only a certain amount of self-control (Say 100) and the self-control score changes based on the activity you perform. (When does your self-control score reset to the highest value? That’s for another day.)

  Agreed we cannot control every external factor, especially when it is a professional commitment. Knowing that the external factors interrupt our good effort, it is only prudent to decide the execution time of your resolution; the new resolution need not be a New year resolution.

  For a successful resolution, we need to choose the most comfortable time, and assign the highest priority to it, no matter what. Awareness on how mundane chores impact your important habit-building activities will go a long way in overcoming the obstacles on the way.

 Go try this at home! Come back with success your story, Good luck.

Ordinary people; extraordinary obedience

  
  Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority" (Milgram, 1974) 

   Milgram's experiment attempts to explain why reasonable people do unreasonable, irrational things when instructed by an authority. Would we, ordinary people, doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on our part, kill thousands of people in a war situation? Especially if prodded by a charismatic leader? Milgram says yes, there is a good chance that we'll end up doing things beyond our imagination if ordered by someone in authority.  

  Although obedience to authority is a watered down answer to how leaders managed to persuade followers to perform heinous crimes without an iota of guilt, the hard question remains why would someone consider such leaders as an authority? How did such leaders manage to prevent an internal uprising among educated individuals?

 A German movie, The wave has some interesting answers to questions on authority and autocratic leadership. Although the leader is the initiator of a movement, the followers are the ones who keeps it alive, they are the ones who make the thought of a leader into a full fledged movement. 

  Just like the greed of the leader, the followers become addicted to the movement, they believe that the movement is bigger than them, and they begin to identify themselves as a part of an elite group focused on a unique goal. In the process, they lose their own identity - they are thinking for the group - they are more worried about the so-called greater good than themselves.  

   In fact, we don't have to travel back to the past. There is no dearth of charismatic leaders’ closer home, occupying the front pages of national newspapers and primetime hours of the TRP hungry TV channels. How did they achieve such strong followers even while their leadership style is far from the ideals of democracy? 

  Will we do it again if there is another audacious authority? You mock me; you think such audacious authorities are a thing of the past. Wait for a moment, think about this. 

  History is full of repetitions, full of charismatic leaders, who thought they were entitled to everything, who thought greed was natural, but none of them lived forever, they fell for their own charm. They may be long dead but their crimes still lives in the pages of history books; some printed, some never printed. Some proven, some unproven. 

   The obedience to authority, unswerving obedience to authority has stood the test of time, and nothing has happened in the recent past to indicate a different future. 

The Pendulum clock - Part 2/2

 Read Part 1 here.     

    It soothes me to believe that a neighbour wakes up hearing the twelve second sweet drum roll at somewhere after midnight - remember our antique clock has no sense of time and purpose, although it did not forget its purpose on purpose -  it saddens me that its chimes are as useless as an index-less encyclopedia.

     On a tangential note, my mom says that as the dawn approach, at about six in the morning, the chimes are so unbearable that even the dumb donkey of the nearby dhobi runs around flapping its long ears - it doesn't bother me at all, I mean the ding-dong of clock, not the donkey. 

    That's when my dad's dear friend told us the secret of the antique clock. Dramatically, as if in a Shakespeare play, he said,  
  
  " It's far from a mere machine, and so close to a living being, 
    It seeks attention, like the children at dawn bed-peeing, 
    A stopped clock is correct twice a day,
    An unwound clock is never correct a day."

   Ha!...The antique clock needs rewinding - an act of kindness and attention to keep up the top performance. I can only exclaim at the coincidence - it is just what we want in our life. Unwind and reflect - a small act every day to keep us on our toe, and at our peak performance level. 

  After all, rewinding is the act of telling yourself the story of the person you want to be, and if you can't remind yourself of that ideal person every day, no one else will do it for you. And you will soon forget the person you wanted to be - just like the purposeless antique pendulum clock.

   You see, all the adults are like antique pendulum clocks, we need to unwind, rewind and let go of things at times, although it is often more cumbersome and tiresome than allowing chance to take its course. Why take a chance? 

The Pendulum clock - Part 1/2

  We have a new member at our house, an antique Pendulum clock-- if you can bracket fifty years under the term 'antique'. The clock is sturdy, and the clock led me to the history of pendulum clocks, and on how even moving a pendulum clock to a higher floor is bound to influence its accuracy. 

  Gifted by a very dear friend of my father, it is absolutely useless in terms of meeting the purpose of a clock, keeping accurate time; it goes slow by five minutes every eight and half hour. The lag-factor is accurate; calculated after intricate notes and calculation during the long sleepless hours I spent in my bed in the last two flu-struck days.

    Despite its flaws and the lack of purpose like most of us, what it does best is that it keeps chiming regularly, very  much like us. We do the same thing over and over without knowing why we are doing it or what we are supposed to  accomplish from whatever we are doing without knowing why we are doing it.

 There is a whole lot of difference between gaining three years of experience and having three years of one year experience - the latter is the type of experience we gain when we do the thing that we did in the first year for three years, and often is the type of experience most of us manage to gain - Just like the purposeless pendulum that chimes without proper rhythm.
  
 But the dear friend of my father came home to tell us the secret - The secret of the pendulum clock.

 --To be continued

A bit of history : If someone sells you a four hundred year old pendulum clock, beware, he surely thinks you are a fool. There is no four hundred year old pendulum clock; the oldest one would only be around 350 years old. 

Why eat curd and sugar before exams and why you should take your food on time?

    Exams are perhaps the most stressful periods in the life of a student. And many of us get nightmares or that jittery feeling of blank mind far too often as the exam date approach. In one of my earlier posts, I had mentioned that self-control is an exhaustible resource, and therefore we can assume that there is scope for replenishing it.

  As the exam nears, we tend to use up immense amount of self-control mainly by doing things that we don’t like: avoid watching TV, restrain from going out, and sit through hoards of unending text book pages. By doing things that we really don't want, we deplete our self-control, and as the self-control depletes, three things happen:

   We become irritable, prone to quick peripheral decisions, and begin to act with reduced perseverance. 

  In short, we tend to give up far too easily, something we don’t want when attempting a tough math exam. Imagine how unfortunate it is to give up just one step before the correct answer, like the proverbial gold digger who gave up digging one foot away from fortune.

  

 A way to replenish our self-control is the need of the hour, and how wonderful it must be to have a quick burst of self-control? What if I say a glass of sweetened water or sweetened curd does just that? Hard to believe? What if it is backed up by scientific evidence?

   To find a way to replenish self-control, the researchers(1) had to find out a way to determine the chemical substance that depleted with decrease in self-control. They found out that the substance, and it turned to be glucose. 

 How did they arrive at this conclusion?

  The difference in levels of glucose before and after various self-control experiments pointed in the same direction, a definite depletion in the level of glucose.

  A simple experiment of forcing someone to make a chain of tough decisions resulted in high glucose depletion compared to relatively lower glucose depletion from someone making a chain of simple decisions. Making tough decisions, decisions that has clear consequences, can deplete self-control considerably; for we use up a lot of self-control when we take tough decisions. 

  No wonder we become irritable and unsympathetic after a long day of small and big decisions at office, we have used too much of self-control, and our glucose levels are so low that we bark at the first person on our way home, and that partly explains why we find it difficult to divide work and home.There is not enough energy to remain polite and civil, a mark of self-control. What we need to avoid altercation at home is a just bite of glucose. 

What does sweetened drink do to your brain and body?

    It turns out that a quick increase in sugar levels in a human body not only increases the energy levels, but increases the willpower as well - the ability of conscious control. With increased sugar levels, we become less irritable, and persevere more – an ideal mindset in an exam hall. 

  What happens when you take decisions on empty stomach?

   At empty stomach, the glucose levels are low and any intent of self-control is already out of the bloodstream, it makes sense to defer a big decision till a glass of sweetened water pushes up the glucose levels.

  We can’t possibly take sugar every hour of the day, in fact that can become a health hazard. Sugar intake can pump up energy levels quickly, but consistent protein intake can do the same job in a healthier way. A regular protein diet helps to curb the urge to take that quick bite of chocolate.

Enough of research, What do all these mean to me?

   It simply means that you should take your food on time, four meals a day no matter what. (which I’m trying hard to follow)  This will ensure that your self-control is at peak, and you don’t splurge your money or time on things that you will regret.

More to follow on self-control and why you didn't stick with your new year resolution (If at all you haven't given up on taking new year resolutions)

Researchers(1): Roy.F. Baumeister and fellow researchers 

What you didn’t know about self-control…

                       

  Have you ever felt that impulse to indulge in an ice cream when you are on diet? How long did you go without that ice cream? And I bet you had that coveted ice cream in the end. The self-control didn’t work for long, did it?

  People who are asked to make tough choices - such as choosing among many job offers, often find it difficult to focus on puzzles immediately after making that tough decision. Quite obvious, you would say, what’s so new about that? We are aware that our sense of equilibrium is at its lowest point just after a stressful event. But that’s not the reason why people fail to solve puzzles after a stressful event - they gave up too quickly, they did not try enough, they just lost their self-control.

  In an experiment^* conducted by researchers, two similar groups were picked as volunteers. Without revealing anything about the experiment, they were starved for five straight hours. The researchers then placed radish and freshly baked chocolate-chip in front of them. One group was asked to eat the radish, and only the radish, let’s call them the Radish group. The other group was not given any specific instructions; they were free to eat the radishes and the chocolate-chips, the Chocolate-chip group.

 A few hours later, all the volunteers were individually asked to solve an unsolvable puzzle, just that they did not know that it was unsolvable at that time. What do you expect to happen? The members of the Radish group lost their cool too quickly, they gave up immediately, and they were clearly agitated and displayed aggressive emotions. On the other hand, the Chocolate-chip group spent a little more time trying to solve the unsolvable puzzle, more importantly, they were found in a much more relaxed mood.

   What can we infer from this very interesting experiment? That human beings lose their cool when deprived of freshly baked chocolate chips? To some extent that is true, the Radish group had exhausted their self-control by using up all the self-control to avoid eating the tempting chocolate-chips. By the time the puzzles were given to them, they were mentally exhausted, and they had no intention of exercising high chemical consuming parts of their brain. The Chocolate-chip group,though starved for five hours, were in a better frame of mind, for they didn’t have to endure the urge to pick up the chocolate-chips.

  Next time you use up too much of self-control, remember that you are possibly entering a stressful zone because Self-control is an exhaustible resource. That doesn’t mean that you should never employ self-control, but do it as you would with spices, in moderation. And remember awareness is the first step to a clear and a calm mind.

 Reference: Chip Heath and Dan Heath: 

                    ISBN 978-0-385-52875-7

Life goes on

   Noon. Twelve fifteen. The office bus is late. Nothing unusual. The driver smiled when he stopped at my bus stand, he knew the bus will not reach office on time. I sat on the aisle seat just behind the driver. A clear view of the road lay ahead of me. I adjusted the seat, relaxed and looked out to the crawling motorcycles and ant shaped auto rickshaws. Clever quotes on the autos made an interesting time pass during the long journey.

  A girl in a pink and white dress was sitting next to me. An expensive mobile in her hand, she spoke discreetly into her mouthpiece. She covered her sweet nothings with her dupatta, I could hardly hear her. I sat there gazing into the big windshield in front of me, occasionally trying to eavesdrop into what she spoke. Only hearing aids can help amplify her voice.

  The bus snailed through the thick traffic, everything moved at a slow pace. The driver turned onto Cenatoph road. A few bicycles raced past our bus. A motley crowd had gathered outside the Biometric center of the American Embassy. The driver whistled an old Tamil song and took the road below the flyover on a Centoph road. Red signal. A hundred more seconds to go. Why didn’t he take the flyover? I wouldn’t ask him. I’m just an observer.

  Forty seconds more. At that junction where eight lanes converged, a white Honda city turned to its right. Big noise, a man leaped into the sky, fell on the road, tumbled and went out of view. A crowd gathered, the man was out of sight immediately. The driver of the car, a white haired old man, came out of the car. Huge dent. A disfigured bonnet. A few feet away lay the scraps of a motorbike, turned upside down.

  The wreckage still stood in the middle of the road. Vehicles honked loudly. The signal went down. No more timers. Police arrived, drew outlines around the bike and the car with a white chalk piece.  The old man, completely taken back by the turn of the events stood near his car. He looked anxious, but calm enough to stand there amidst all the clamor. He must have faced tougher things in his long life.

   The crowd dispersed, the girl next to me shifted from her accident commentary to the low voice, an auto passed by with a message written in bold, “Thambi helmet a podu, illannae unna sutthi poduvanga kodu.*” Our bus moved forward slowly. Life goes on.

   

After dark and patient Dogs

      It is dark, the street light shedding just enough light to show me the bright bulb at the fast food center half a kilometer away. For a first timer, it may appear to be the end of the road, but the road curves ever so slightly to the right. 

   As you walk forward, you can see an auto rickshaw stand. Autos of various types parked there meekly, probably brooding about their long day on the road. A few homeless people sleep on the pavement under stitched up sacks, so quiet and static that tomorrow is no bother to them. The mosquitoes are having a time of their life sucking the blood of the homeless people; they don’t seem to bother either.

  As you walk further, you reach the fast food center with makeshift chairs placed around the small blue painted shop. Some old Hindi song is blaring from a mobile on the table. At this time, the chef is waiting for his last customers to finish the Seizwan fried rice and Chinese noodles served on paper plates. The chef, a young man probably from a north eastern state is restless; he wants to hit the sack. He looks at me with an accusing eye, shaking his head as if to say nothing is left on the stove, don’t come to my shop. His boss would come now. The vessels need to be cleared, the chairs have to be folded, and the accounts have to be settled. The day is not yet over for him. He must be feeling jealous about all those people walking home. 

   Dogs sit around the shop patiently, waiting for the left overs at the end of the day. They remain motionless, as if they are dead for the time being. Why are they so patient? Is it because they know what is inevitable? The leftovers has to be cleared, there is no other way, there is no competition, the food will be served cold. The way they like best.They just need to wait patiently. 

   Isn’t it true even for us? The weak are not patient. It is a virtue of the strong. You are patient if you are confident; you are perturbed and irritable if you are not confident. Even the corollary is true; a perturbed man is often impatient. Most of our confidence comes from the vision we have, the farther we are able to see at that moment, the better we feel about handling the present. 

  The street dogs remain patient. They see themselves devouring the end of the day meal, the reward for their patience. I walk along the pavement, on the ever so slight curve after the Fast food center, leaving behind patient dogs and the impatient chef. A good night sleep is all that I want.

Entrepreuners at the bus stand

    Waiting for the office bus is what I do at twelve in the Noon every day. A year ago, I waited for the bus near the Subway in DMS. Now that the Metro construction has submerged the subway, I have moved to the big tree near the Teynampet Fire station. The big burly fire engine at the Fire station is always ready for action. Held at its tires by two small stones on a sloping pathway, the fire engine can jump to action with the ease of dividing fractions. The old bus stop had one thriving business. A fruit seller selling gooseberries and guavas. With the new bus stop, came new business men.

1)      A lime soda seller

 The Lime soda seller has a blue three wheeler with the price of lime soda advertised all over it. Why are all the lime soda three wheelers blue in color? Probably to tell us that lime soda is cool. I might get into trouble if I say blue is the coolest of all colors, what if I hurt someone's sentiment. Or may be all the lime soda three wheelers actually belong to the same person who had stocked a lot blue paint to paint his porch. Or to paint as Lord Krishna during a fancy dress competition that did not happen. It might even be a big brand without a name, a nameless brand marked only by blue color.  

2)      A tender coconut seller

The tender coconut seller is never tender to any of his customers. He has a head like a shaved coconut, and he behaves as if the entire place is his own. I once bought a tender coconut from him, and he charged me an exorbitant 40 Rs for it. Probably because "Illichavayan" is written in italics across my forehead. In spite of the hot weather, I never felt thirsty at the bus stand again. Come to think about it, it is far fairly priced than the coffee I stopped drinking so long ago at Saravana Bhavan.

3)      An underwear seller

  The most interesting business enterprise in front of a Fire station should definitely be awarded to this gentleman. This underwear seller has a great affinity toward reading and applying daily newspaper in his everyday life. He makes use of the newspaper for everything in his little roofless shop. Every day morning, he sweeps his working area, a ten foot square foot area just in front of that huge Fire Engine, and rolls out two layers of newspaper on the floor. Then he goes about displaying his goods, the macho underwear in unimaginable colors and patterns, the hankies with myriad flowers, and vests as colorful as rainbow.  But what fascinates me most is the value addition of the quotes on the underwear he sells? 

Pearls of wisdom on your ass.