Forced into this.
So I have been forced to write something. I was wondering about the
state of mind when you dont want to write something versus when you cant
stop the waterfall of your thoughts on to your blogs / chats. I would
like to share with you the most significant thing that happened to me
over the weekend - I dont usually remember much about times farther into
history than that. So I attended a conference http://www.tieconeast.org/
which is supposed to be the largest conference promoting
entrepreneurship amongs South Asians on this side of US. Foremost, I was
most impressed by Ray Kurzweil, a futurist, thinker and innovator, who
predicted that by 2030 roughly, computational power would exceed human
brain; human genome project has helped us to breakdown the structure of
brain into mathematical equations and the total information present in
the human genome to create brain is just 20 megabytes. He uses
scientific models to predict how future would be like. Check him out at
www.kurzweilai.net.
The other interesting piece was my meeting with the Chairman of one of
the largest Hospital chains of India. I found out about his visit to
Boston at a very short notice so he suggested that we could meet up at
the airport. It was interesting to know about the great developments
happening in the Indian healthcare system. If I use Ray Kurzweil's
theories and my study of hospital systems around the world, I am sure
that Indian healthcare system would be able to offer services on par
with the top 3 countries. It does not mean however, that the problem of
access would be solved for the poorer populations but the overall
increase in investments would trickle down to masses - I am researching
this theory.
Parkinson's law
I am a strong believer in Parkinson's law - "The work expands to fill
time available to it". So the procrastinator in me frequently takes
unfair advantage of this law to avoid doing that work till only 33% of
the original time is left. How do you decide how much time you should
spend on a task.
How do you measure the productivity of the day. How do you assign values
to 5 different tasks at hand and allocate your time so that each gets
the fair share.
How much time would you spend photographing the rainbow versus spending
an extra hour cleaning your car or an extra hour doing your work. How
and where do you pull the plug on what you are doing?
btw after a month of incessant rain, its bright and sunny today with the
perfect temperature. And I found a new radio channel www.luxuriamusic.com
Say Cheese
Yesterday we had our class photo. The year is coming to an end and I would not be seeing most of the students representing over 60 countries again in my life. The striking thing about this event was that it was the most chaotic class photo event ever in my academic session which includes 12 years in senior school, 2 in high school, med school, and two universities. And this was the Ivy league.
I am not sure how I would appear in the photo – balancing myself at an angle of 45 degrees, hanging over several students, standing on the side wall.
Does this semi-unprofessional?? approach to class photograph reflective of the intensity of belonging for the institution?? Will find out 25 years from now.
Coordinates 2006-07
So I will be spending another year at the University, and would get paid !!
Interestingly, my office would be at the second most vibrant square in
US (After Times Square)
Career advice
Sometime back I asked for career advice from a guy who had come as a guest lecturer at one of my classes at MIT. He is an MD MBA and has spent 10 years at Wall Street. Here are the excerpts from his reply:
Your note is very kind. As you know, there is really no “right” answer to this dilemma, but there is usually a “best” answer given the “data.”
A career as a … can be wonderful, but so can other careers. Few options, however, are perfect and most jobs have a downside, a view that you might support if you read the news on a daily basis.
The sad truth is that, yes, we probably need more … like yourself. But unless it is what you truly want to do, it is probably insufficient for most people to justify a lifelong career choice as a …. Just make sure that whatever you do, its because you believe it is right and sufficiently rewarding. You will probably agree that non-financial rewards can be more durable than financial ones.
Of course, only in retrospect can one know that a career path was proper. The people giving you both solicited and unsolicited advice may not have a full understanding of the world of options available to you. You will make the best decision you can and alter it as necessary. I tend to believe that families and friends are much better at picking spouses for children than they are at picking careers. Interestingly, people tend to blindly ignore them on the former and blindly listen to them with regard to the latter.
Focus on what you enjoy, and what your are skilled at. If a career does not optimize these two metrics, it is likely to be less rewarding. By the way, on this aspect of career decisions, friends and family may have some appropriate insight.
Think about any role models you may have and what it is about them that you may wish to emulate. Think about what motivates you. Make lists.
Finally, I would wonder what regrets your advisors have about their own career choices or work environments. Most people have them. I would also wonder how their career choices have affected their professional and personal relationships (wife and children being most important with regard to the latter). The answers to these questions may also help you gauge how much credibility their recommendations should have for you, and it may also tell you a bit about why they are making such recommendations and where roadblocks could be hiding for you.
Bro .. where art thou ?
I am looking forward to Bro coming to Boston. Am not sure how much he would like the place, but I would definitely have a welcome change. I rather have him in California which is any day better than Fenway.
Amnesia
I have terrible amnesia for people’s names, their birthdays or their phone numbers (I think the part of my brain storing phone numbers is absolutely missing, and is severely disabled for other things). People have vouched for memory training books – one day I’ll master them, one day.
Till then please remind me about your birthdays a day in advance. Thank you.
Accomplishments redefined
Two years back if someone had told me that I would have email id as lastname at mit.edu and firstname_lastname at harvard.edu, I would have dismissed the joke. Now I am nearing graduation and am sad to let go of these ids. Think I have to grow over the trivial gratifications.
Chitrahaar special
I have been requested to serve as a replacement in the bollywood dance
for the international night. All these years I have hated Chitrahaar but
now I have to be part of one - the saving grace is that I like the song
- Kajra rey. A group of 4 guys and 4 girls would do the usual hip
shaking routine on the stage. I don't get the sense of showcasing a
choreography when 98% of the audience can neither understand the lyrics
nor associate the meaning of the songs - wouldnt a classical performance
have been better ?
I did that because I greatly respect the person who asked me to
participate. She is quite senior and is very nice lady - helpful, caring
- like a mother to all the desis at the school. Besides the bollywood
routine there would be performances by people from other countries - I
cant wait to see the dance by a national of Benin (!!)
Course work and placement activities have kept me busy for all of last
and most part of this semester. Now that I am nearing graduation, its
time to bring out my rotting social networking skills. I had an
interesting observation about social networking in US compared to India,
but I'll reserve that for another post.
My conversations...
Last semester did not give me much time to learn about my classmates'
experiences but in this semester I am absolutely enthralled to hear the
diverse set of experiences that these people have. Today, Catherine, who
is a pediatrician from Canada, told me about group of natives of Arctic
region of Canada - Inuits of Nunavik (or eskimos). How in early 1900s
there were only 3000 left due to outbreak of TB (brought in by white
invaders), how the temperatures there are usually -40 to -5 F, how there
are no roads and the only means of transport are husky pulled sledges,
and about green northern lights, igloo life - myths, blizzards reducing
visibility to half a foot. She also talked about Inuksuk - large
humanoid pillars made from stones - an Inuksuk may aid navigation,
indicate a good hunting or fishing location, warn of danger, show a food
cache, assist in a caribou hunt or commemorate a significant event.
These are spread all throughout Canadian arctic.
I learnt that Eskimos in North America and American Indians actually
migrated from Siberia - to enter North (and South) America. Their diet
is totally non vegetarian - uncooked meat and the only source of
vegetables is those found in the stomach of fish they eat or occasional
shrubs in summer. Delicacy is fermented meat. Since the only source of
Calcium is fish bones, when artificial diets were supplied to them by
Canadian govt - sometime after late 1960s, they started developing
kidney stones since their intestines have amazing capacity to extract
all calcium. Catherine was interviewing an old lady who told her that in
the 1920s there was a famine with major casualties. This mother of this
old lady told the old lady and her two sisters that she would kill
herself and they should eat her to survive, which they did. And survived.
The children are taken care of by community and are frequently given for
adoption. There are major public health issues to be grappled which I
think have been brought by so called modern civilization destroying
their natural ecosystem. I was trying to draw parallels with aborigines
of Andaman islands.
Another interesting discussion was that some of the populations in the
arctic regions are so different - with separate customs, language,
culture that they have been given independant reserves. The dilemma
faced by these is that if these natives leave the reserve and move to
cities for education or employment, they'd lose their identity and
culture - since most of them have less than 5,000 people in total. So
they stay in isolation - so that they can preserve their identity.
For how long and what cost - no one wants to answer.
Bed, Back & Beyond
I have to get up in the middle of night due to acute back pain. I think
this is because my bed is too soft in the middle causing lot of pressure
in the upper back region. Previously I used to sleep on the edges of the
bed, but since my return from California, I have started to sleep in the
center. I could also feel stiffness in the back today morning during
Yoga and again, it could be due to night before's improper posture.
I am considering sleeping on the floor till the time my bed is fixed up.
The modern day comfy beds seem to be incompatible with my prehistoric back.
Apna Radio
My latest affliction is MSN International Channel Apna Radio.com
Check it out at www.apnaradio.com - It makes up for all the punjabi CDz
that I forgot to bring. Nice mix of Punjabi, Hindi, Sufi music with
occasional ghazal hours.
