Life, happiness and Societal Roles

What is happiness and who are the people who are truly happy ?

Happiness is a state of contentment. It is a state of acceptance of yourself and your role in society. It is a state of accepting limitation on what you can or cannot do.

Hence is being happy truly being happy ?

There are various roles we play in society. Some at a personal level - a wife, a father, a husband, a friend etc.. And there are some roles we play at a professional level - A sales person, a lawyer, a consultant, a government servant, an analyst , a secretary etc.

How does a person get into a certain role ? Society, environment and lack of information play a major part. One does various things according to the inputs and guidance they receive all their life. Then once they have sufficient training in a facet of life they are pushed forth to play their role...

Socially - they get married, they have a child , they make relationships etc..

Professionally - people get into job roles according to the skillset they are able to portray to a group of people to convince them to let you join their kind. Hence it is not by a pure choice buy by the choice of a set of people they you get into a role.

e.g. out of a B-School a person can get to be a sales guy, a marketing professional , an advert guy, a finance analyst, a mgmt consultant , a manager in a firm , an entrepreneur etc. but mostly he has only limited scope to make a choice, but instead he parades his skills and wares to all the professionals who are willing to look at him and then lands into a given role.

There are various people who have trouble adjusting to their roles in the first year of being in it. It is a time of frustration , exploration , looking at change opportunities etc. Hence it a period of mental trauma and turbulence.

Coming back to the main thread, accepting a role is the only way of contentment or happiness. Else this will lead to depression and could show as aggression (passive or active) and you will be antisocial in some ways.

What should one do ?

- a person could accept a given role by controlling his/her mind. else can make changes to the way they do things, This can me manifested by a change of role by changing a job. Quitting and exploring life to understand it better. Taking education as a route to change your skill sets and hence job role. Do a drastic change in profession.

- One should remember that any harsh action in one role will definitely have an impact on the other roles that you play no matter how separated you keep them.

- Every decision is a choice. Every choice has an impact. One should be willing to accept the implication and live with it. Else happiness will be an eternal delusion. -

CYCLING: My first 50+ Kms on a my Merida 880..

 

 

Today was my first ride out to Nandi Hills (base).. 

It was my first 100K+  attempt , and formed a part of the TFN training.

 

My route:

Indiranagar - Outer Ring Road - Hebbal - Met the gang (names below) - Nandi Hills base - Bfast - Return Airport Exit (then i had a flat)

 

The ride was great. By far my best experience on the road. I started from Indiranagar @ 5:50 am. Reached Hebbal by 6:30 and Nandi Hills base by around 8:30 -8:40am . Except for a 10-15 min wait at Hebbal it was a non-stop ride.  At Nandi base i had some idlis for the breakfast.  Saw a car with the cycle attachment, guess it must have been Nupurs. Started back to bangy by 9am.

 

The morning drive in the outer ring road was an awesome experience in the back of trips to Hoskote where i need to keep dodging the traffic. The Ride to nandi is definitely recommended over Old Madras Road.

 

The return trip was not so pleasurable. I got a flat near the Airport exit. Then had to hop onto a Truck carrying stones till the nearest town and then take an Auto all the way back home.

It is here i realised the handicap of not  having a standardised Tube. It needs a special valve to fill air and hence couldnt get the tyre repaired at any of the cycle shops on the way.

 

At home i checked my speedometer. It read 81+ kms in 3hrs 15 min. With an average speed of just below 25 KM/ Hr.

Still short of the average 27-28km/ hr that Venkat says could be the average TFN speed on a road bike.

 

A failed attempt to join the 100K + league. Can't wait to get my bike repaired and give it another shot.

 

Reached home by 12Noon in time to have lunch with my visiting parents.

The Credit Card Creep

 

There is an interesting phenomenon i noticed today.. mostly by chance..

 

I was looking at my Credit Card due date and suddenly realised that it was for the first of the month. i.e 1st Dec 08.

It was periliously close to my salary due date and it got me thinking if i may miss by deadline as i was travelling. But then i was never this uncomfortable between my due date and salary remittance date !!

 

Something was up and i was not sure..

I quickly looked up the statements for my past 11 months, and saw the creep in due date.

 

Month	Bill from	Bill To	Due date	Max Credit Period	Payment Period	Billing Days / cycle
January-08	17-Dec-07	15-Jan-08	2-Feb-08	47	18	31
February-08	16-Jan-08	15-Feb-08	No payment	#VALUE!	#VALUE!	29
March-08	16-Feb-08	16-Mar-08	3-Apr-08	47	18	31
April-08	17-Mar-08	16-Apr-08	4-May-08	48	18	30
May-08	17-Apr-08	16-May-08	3-Jun-08	47	18	31
June-08	17-May-08	17-Jun-08	No payment	#VALUE!	#VALUE!	30
July-08	18-Jun-08	17-Jul-08	4-Aug-08	47	18	31
August-08	18-Jul-08	15-Aug-08	2-Sep-08	46	18	31
September-08	16-Aug-08	13-Sep-08	1-Oct-08	46	18	30
October-08	14-Sep-08	14-Oct-08	1-Nov-08	48	18	31
November-08	15-Oct-08	13-Nov-08	1-Dec-08	47	18

There was a constant fluctuation in the credit period extended and the number of biling days. This was not linked in anyway to the number of calender days in a month.

 

I am not sure why firms are not consistent with the billing. Is there any scientific or business logic behind the changing and fluctuating due date on the creit card bills.

 

Some thougths:

 - Depending on credit requirement of Citi.

 - Strategy to confue gamers , as every cycle will be a diff date. And if this is followed by all the credit card firms then a person cannot predict in advance the due date.

 

If you have any guesses just shoot.... while i arrange for funds to pay off my bill for the month.

Online shopping and opening new vistas.. COD (Cash on Delivery Option)

I am completely new to using online shopping as a serious tool.  Like any other ardent reader I have heard and 'test experienced' [when you do everything till the point of purchase except give the credit card details] the purchase of many products online.

Today I did not commit myself to one but 2 things online..

Firstly,  I was browsing for news and spotted a rediff shopping thingy. It was a tool kit, with drill. I was in one of the moods when I though what the heck lets give it a shot. Went ahead with the forms, filling out contact details ect. Then I was surprised to see the option of COD (Cash on Delivery) I was pleasantly surprised. For a small fee, of Rs 20 /- , I was able to avoid the risk of online payment and get a delivery assurance guarantee.  I liked the experience of online purchasing, I got a call from an executive about 1 hr after the online transaction, I was pleasantly surprised at their promptness.

This experience got me thinking …

The second experience happened just 30 min after the first one. I got a mailer from Irctc promotions about a sweepstake contest. Which I could enter , it also had an offer to purchase:  16 CD pack fastive pack(Rs 2499) +Free Reebok shoes (rs 2699) + Exciting holiday for a couple (Rs 5000) + Booksbuddy membseship i yr (Rs 300) all for Rs 2499/- I went through the details of the offer, and I felt really good about it and the promoters of the offer i.e. India Today group. I applied for this too with the same COD option ..

 I feel more empowered and better about placing orders and transacting online after experiencing the COD (Cash on Delivery) available.

 The links to the offers I subscribed are below, if there is anything I should know, update me on the same.

1.       http://www.offers.indiatodaybookclub.com/c054/page_6.jsp

2.       http://shopping.rediff.com/shop/productdisplay.jsp?prrfnbr=10307871&source=browse&frompg=frompg=supersale_rdhmpg

Paragliding - A week long Sojourn

This week long break from work and routing was one of the most relaxing of all breaks that i remember taking. The trip to Kamshet between Pune and Lonavala came at a good time, hey i had not taken a break for the last 3 months.

How did Paragliding happen ?
Well flying was a long standing desire and i was on the lookout for avenues to pursue the same. Among Manali & Pune (the 2 main places where flying happens in India) the latter was closer to home and an unchartered location for me. I went to this website (http://www.templepilots.com/) and got inspired by what the couple Avi & Anita were doing. I also had a chat with a couple of people who had done paragliding earlier and before i knew it the deal was finalized. I had signed up for both the P1 & P2 courses , running a duration of 7 days.

Location and Experiences

I was put up at Japalouppe equestrian centre (also called More Stud Farm.), this is located around 30 Kms from Pune towards lonavala (near Talegaon). Here i had dormitory type of accommodation , sharing it with the instructors and the other co-pilots who had come down for the course.
This was a very beautiful place full of dogs of all breeds and i had a really fun time playing with them. i also got down to some serious Horse riding sessions, and is it painfull on the ass !!
Times spent chatting away at the sitout, sleeping on the 'charpai', going for a walk throught the entire 30 acres of the farm , making havoc in the name of cooking in Aarthi's kitchen, playing around with the dogs & pups and spending numerous hours talking and dreaming about paragliding gave a feeling of a continuous 'high' in the place.
[Pics: Horse Riding Session , Pups Playing Around , Newly Born Kitten ]

A Typical day

A day is typically divided into 4 parts.

The Morning session - Waking up at 6AM. And leave for the flying site by 7:30. Mornings typically used to be for shoring up the basics and learning new techniques for ground handling of the glider. It was a continuous learning process. We went on till around 10 AM after which the sun got unbearably hot and the rumbling in the tummy too loud to ignore. It was usually followed by breakfast either at the location itself or at base camp. It was typically followed by a debrief session for around 30 min.

The lunch Period - This was a time for resting, relaxation, story telling and most importantly Theory classes. The Theory on various topics of aerodynamics and flying were taught primarily by Dhawal the assistant instructor, but were complimented by words of advice from Avi the chief instructor (He basically had left Indian Air Force after doing his NDA and being a pilot to pursue his love of flying and traveling at leisure).
We usually settled in for a short siesta to get the much required rest or pic up the phones to catch up with the running world. (You had no sense of date or time at this place)

Evening Session – We usually get ready to leave by 3:00PM. Reach the flying location. And have the session till it becomes dark. Evenings the winds used to be stronger and more favorable for flying. Also it becomes progressively cool and you get to see the great sunset. This was followed by yet another debrief , to make us aware of our mistakes and learn from others.

Dinner Time – Was a time of fun and frolic. Carom board game. Chatting away on all topics under the sun. We also took over the kitchen a couple of times. It served as a good time to unwind and know more about the various people in the group. We had people who were apparel designers, IT professionals, advertisement designers, Businessmen, A farmer ! , senior sales people among others in the group. Apart from this each of the instructors had their own stories on how the came to be.