My Biggest Learning

The lights are dim, the AC strong and the conversation incoherent for my unresponsive brain. The stale coffee is my solitary refuge. Why I am doing this? My mind trails off in a chain of random thoughts ranging from my current crush to the BCG Matrix. My few minutes of solitude are broken by a request to do something I don’t even understand. It’s like answering a question when the question is in a language unknown to me. This time around the language is a computer one. I nod and trudge back heavily to my cubicle. It’s going to be an uneasy time... all over again. This is happening far too frequently for my liking. I look at the watch… it will be over soon... I assure myself.

Here I am. My typical work day is summed up in endless java commands and the much to my anguish the omnipresent IE500 error screens.

Flashback a couple of years or even less than that. I am surrounded by theories of manipulating the 4P’s to achieve marketing excellence. My mind absorbs all of what I read and parallelly my heart subconsciously paints a future for me… a life content with selling toothpastes, cola drinks or potato chips. It seems like the perfect picture.
Fate however has other ideas. I finish b-school and end up with code review, code rework; patch installation and loads of excel sheets thrown in for company. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning strategies are thrown away.

I have two options… sulk or make most of it. Sulking seems easy and comes naturally to me. Wait a minute… the code is running just when I am going to give up.... Some up there likes me. I am finally getting somewhere.

It must be a sign (I am the kind who lives his life by these signs). Its coding that I must do… it seems the correct option.

I have just learned the biggest lesson of my life…. “Unlearning is the biggest learning” Kotler and his theories will always be a bitter-sweet memory.

Sweet Memories!

“Whenever you go for ice-cream, let the lady choose the flavor. That way it’s not just the ice-cream that seems sweet to her”

It was not even in the scheme of things and yet it seemed perfect as it unfolded. For the outside world, it didn’t seem too much. For the two people it was the happiest moment of the day.

Let’s have ice-cream was the unanimous verdict that was reached even before lunch was ordered. Lunch was a delightful combination of great food and each other’s excellent company. The conversation was carried through not just by the words that were spoken.

His mind was in an eternal quandary. Should he finish the lunch fast and move on to ice-cream… something which would bring that beautiful smile onto her already pretty face or eat slow and enjoy few more minutes of her company. The Pasta she was having made up his mind for him… or rather the black pepper seeds in it…. There were far too many of them to let them continue the meal. So the pasta abandoned… they moved onto sweeter things.

She could never make up her mind…. How he liked the confused childlike expression on her face. It seemed to have the magical property of transporting them back to their childhood, when life was so easy, where life seemed complete with just an ice-cream cone in one’s hands.
Narrow your choice down to two… he pleaded to her. She would of course take her time…. And in the end chose her ice-cream and unknowingly influence his also (not that he ever complained… it was always sweeter to eat what she chose for him).

The difficult task over, they found a place to sit in the food court, which was not difficult since most people were back at their desks. Ice-cream then it was for the two out-grown kids in a world of adults. She invariably preferred the ice-cream he chose. He loved this part the most. He would leave the best part for her… always. It seemed the best thing to do… her smile was what he enjoyed the most… the ice-cream by comparison a distant second.

Like unwilling kids, they went back to their desks. But they knew they would meet again…. And there would always be ice-cream and the beautiful time all over again.

Illusions!

It has been an unusual day, an unusual Saturday. I have spent a major part of the day in office and then at the gym. Tired and wary of the sun that that seems to shine at its prickly best even though it’s almost time for it to pass on the baton to the night sky, I seek refuge in the air-conditioned environs of the on campus departmental store.

The strong A/C is enough to numb my senses and ignore the wise adage “Never enter a shop without a list or at least a purpose” and I soon find myself walking the endless aisles lined with products that promise me a “better life”. I succumb eventually and as I turn to the stationery section, I have consumed almost the whole of a high calorie chocolate effectively negating my entire gym session in a matter of minutes.

I turn my attention to the writing material on display. I haven’t had an idea to pen on paper for some time now and yet I’m drawn to it almost for some kind of inspiration.
It’s the name that catches my attention. I ignore it but it seems to be all over the place. Some marketing manager has decided to name a particular series of registers “Illusions”. What an absurd name I think to myself. However on second thoughts it seems extremely appropriate. We do really live in a world of illusions or rather we live our life through a maze of illusions. The meaning of our existence on this planet will always be clouded by the illusions painted for us by the people who chose to live theirs in them. Let’s begin with this piece of writing material itself. Market it as a ladder to success and some gullible student will fall for it, brainwashed that a good academic career ensures success in life. Somewhere down the line he will mistake success for happiness. Thus even before he can understand the meaning of “Illusion”, he would have started living his life in one.

My train of thoughts is interrupted by the store-owner who is looking at me impatiently. Its past closing time. “Do you want anything or you just wanted to enjoy the A/C” his eyes seems to ask me accusingly. I hurriedly buy myself one of THE registers and another of those chocolates. I smile as I do so. Atleast I have worked past one of my illusions..”..I will never be the next Sylvester Stallone”