Culture relativity

When you are living in a foreign Country, your mind is always in a "Relativity" mode-meaning you are always comparing the culture, the people, the food, the social life etc.

Basically comparing anything and everything.

The "standards" that we set are from what we have seen back home. Yesterday while returning back from work, i witnessed a small incident which made yet another dent to those "standards".
On my rather longish walk back home, there is this narrow stretch of road which is a one-way only for vehicles excluding cycles. Usually unlike India, drivers here are more law abiding.
But yesterday i saw a car approaching from the wrong side. He probably did not notice the one-way sign.

But thats not the point. What happened next completely flummoxed me!

All of a sudden a cyclist dude coming in the opposite direction, stopped mid road facing the car speeding from the opposite direction.The car braked hard and screeched to a stop, literally centimeters away from the cyclist.

Now i thought this cyclist dude has had it. My mind started churning out pictures of a street fight and volleys of curses. I was ready to shoot the scene for a icaught moment.

But hang on, this is not the streets of Bangalore or hyderabad or Delhi.

The cyclist dude in a very polite manner informed the guy in the car that this is a one way and he is driving in the wrong direction. The driver apologized profusely and thanked the cyclist and turned the car back.

eh! Thats it? No "tera baap ka road hain kya"(Is this your father's road?) or "tu saale, kya commisioner hain kya" (are you the commisioner here?) dialogues??

But Having seen hundreds of duels on the roads of Bangalore just coz people don't want to let go of their ego, this small incident was a welcome change. And sure did make a deep dent to my "standards".

The "Other" Reason.

I read Rajesh Shetty's Life Beyond Code a month back. I must say it has influenced me in more than one way. The book explains in a very fluid manner, 9 different ways to distinguish oneself and how!

Hats of to you Rajesh, you can't get it more simple and effective than that!

One of the thing Rajesh explains in his book and also in his blog is the "Second reason". He says, for any activity(apart from building relationships) to do he needs a second reason, however significant or insignificant it is.

Since reading the book, i have rather unconsiously started thinking about the second reason for most of my decisions i make!
One of those decision was coming back to Tokyo. Apart from the learning you gain at work, i think 2 reasons have prompted me to come back to Square one!

One of them is to learn Japanese!. As soon as i arrived in tokyo, i signed up for the classes and have been slogging out the past 3 weeks! Must say its fun tho' tough!

So far this "other" reason has also been a catalyst for my primary reason and the effect has been great! One keeps pushing the other.

As far as the other "other" reason goes, well, thats for another day's discussion!
Well, there are some books that you read and move on and there are some books which stay with you for life..Life beyond code will stay!

Thanks Raj!

-Karth

Oz gotta wait!

“Here I am,This is me, There's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am,It's just me and you; Tonight we make our dreams come true

It's a new world,It's a new start; It's alive with the beating of young hearts
It's a new day,It's a new plan; I've been waiting for you
Here I am”….

H-Hullo? Karth here…

The sinister voice on the other side growls…”What took you so long to answer your phone? Master has given the orders…its time now, Make sure the task is completed”

Click

Shaken more by the tone rather than the order, I manage to mumble…”y-yes” and hang up the phone.

The Master has given the orders finally, the task has to be done, no matter how difficult the path leading up to it..i am the ONE, the CHOSEN ONE...there is no one else better than me to do this gruesome task…the master has smiled upon me….

The End does justify the means finally…

I step into the swanky new Airbus A380 plane that will take me to “THE” destination, the “FATEFUL” destination.

The plane and the plan is about to take off….Suddenly,

“Here I am, This is me, There's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be
Here I am, It’s just me and you; Tonight we make our dreams come true

It's a ...Hello?!..Karth-on-the-plane here….

The same “Sinister-voice-on-the-other-side-of-the-phone” growls….”ABORT MISSION”

Click

Trrrrrrrrring..Trrrrrrrrring..Trrrrrrrrrring.. I see the casio next to my bed..8.45 AM..Just when i was sitting on my bed and thinking whether it was a dream or a nightmare..the phone rings.........
"Karthik, this is your manager calling from Sydney, Dude your trip to Oz Gotta wait!"
Click!