No News is Good News?

So MJ got acquitted just like OJ before. Strange as it may seem it's so easy these days to get acquitted even for the most heinous crimes. Maybe I'm over reacting. But that's not the point of my discussion.

For those who watched the CNN or BBC coverage of the verdict proceedings against the King of Pop it seemed to be an utter waste of time. They covered the entire journey the MJs cavalcade of four black SUVs took to reach the courthouse which lasted for nearly an hour, then they covered security checks for MJ and family at the entrance for another 20 minutes, the verdict proceedings took 10 - 15 minutes, where 'Not Guilty' was the common word across all 10 counts that MJ was charged with. Then they left back to the Neverland Ranch. I for one didn't have a patience to see whether MJ reached home safely. It seemed that the last four months of following the proceedings was all a waste. Newspapers, Television, Magazines, Internet had something to write, talk, gossip, growl about. But come to think of it, do we have enough that happens? Are we are just making something news so that our media has stuff to run their channels and print. Its no longer No News is Good News, but Any News is Good News - doesn't matter, we need to print something, we need something to show, if that means up skirt of a leading women’s tennis player so be it (Keep track of the sports page of leading dailies during Wimbledon if you don’t believe me). So we have nothing interesting to write, nothing to talk about. Look at me, I’m trying to write a blog here of something that most of you will consider trivial. This is what our world is coming to, and we are getting carried away into it without even realizing it.

I have always believed that media makes cultures and sometimes even religions succeed. The power of the written word or spoken word is so huge and impressionable, that it doesn’t take time to believe it as reality. And if what we see read is reality I wonder what is the ‘real’ reality.

Thoughts!

Thoughts that are confused
Thoughts that are sure
Thoughts that are perverted
Thoughts that are pure

Thoughts that are distributed
Thoughts that are near
Thoughts that are forgotten
Thoughts that are dear

Thoughts that are diffused
Thoughts that are core
Thoughts that are mild
Thoughts that are severe

Thoughts that give joy
Thoughts that give hope
Thoughts that give peace
Thoughts that give love

For good, bad and the ugly
This is what I have
Thoughts that make me
The man that I am

Like I have written in my blog description, I guess this pretty much defines the thoughts that I have. Maybe I have missed some - Maybe I chose to miss some. Frankly it doesn't matter. My thoughts are mine and they will remain mine till I tell them. Even this wouldn't have seen the light of day hadn't I penned it down 2 years back. I know this conversation is incomplete but I guess it's the state of mind as well.

Going North

Ideas start in strange places. The more romanticized ones start in garages. Then be it rock bands or corporates, they do make their famous journeys through garages. We went a step further, took the car out of the garage and had an idea. An idea whose purpose was to do something big and to think different.

Hit the road up north in a continuation of birthday celebrations and decided to implement the idea. The idea germinated in a certain bungalow that had the old Bombay legacy attached to it. You don't make bungalows in Bombay anymore. It had everything that a garage would have. Empty cartons, stockpiles of books, old chairs, dusty and misty ambience, and also rats. There was no disparity, everyone used plastic chairs, and everyone sat close to each other, ate, drank, argued, discussed, and had cup loads of chai both in the office and in the hotel opposite the road that epitomized our nationalist fervor as well, appropriately named 'Jai Hind' (Hail India). Germinated ideas also get branches and that where the fledgling branches were formed. Romance of a different kind, it’s like those courtship days, all happy and immensely volatile.

Couple of months later our team size started going north and so did we. Bid adieu to our ‘garage’ rather abruptly and just vanished one night. We had set our sights on a defunct warehouse and that’s where we moved. The romance continued, because it still had the smell of the classic success stories. The ones that start humbly in garages and eventually go on to own a whole parking lot. We now had a nearly well designed office and adequate seating space. We still argued, discussed, and drank cup loads of chai either in our conference rooms or outside with the trees being silent spectators. From 12 to 60 we grew in this warehouse we called home. Saw happy and turbulent times, made our alias permanent, did business and continued going north. We even faced the threat of having our office sealed on account of our landlord’s bankruptcy. And like Frank Sinatra sings, “We faced it all and we grew tall, and did it our way.” (modified to suit context).

Soon it was time to grow out of the warehouse, so we moved north again. And for the first time our office had the smell of a true corporate. Parking lots, multiple conference rooms, cabins for our senior management, a proper reception area, a swanky board room, and eventually we got fire extinguishers as well. Still a long way to go to having our own parking lot, but we are getting there.

A lot has happened in these four years since the idea and we’re still going north. Maybe someday we will also achieve our purpose of doing something big and thinking differently. The last line in the ‘Think Different’ ad by Apple (our original inspiration) still resonates in my mind, “Because the people, who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” and therein lies my hope for our own parking lot.

Reminiscing.......

Read in a papers about a couple who celebrated their Eighteeth wedding anniversary. Inspite of it being something so rare, it's great that they still remember their wedding day with so much love and happiness.

Anniversaries are strange, some are remembered and some are conveniently forgotten. Some don't hold as much importance for us to remember. Some just pass us by and we don't remember even though it is very much a part of our daily lives.

Albeit an afterthought, nevertheless Happy Fourth anniversary!