Use Your Mind to Grow Professionally

When I was a kid, I saw plenty of goldfish in the houses of my friends, and I remember wondering why so many people would want to keep such small, unexciting creatures as pets.

Then one day, when I was about ten years old, I went on a school field trip to a botanical garden that had a pond stocked with fish. One especially large, brilliantly colored fish stood out to me.

"What kind of fish is that one?" I asked our guide.
"That's a goldfish," she replied.
I was confused. "Aren't goldfish supposed to be small?" I asked with a note of 9-year-old sarcasm.
"Not at all," she replied. "Goldfish will grow even larger than these. It really just depends on the size of their environment."

I took in the information and determined to never again show myself so ignorant about goldfish, but it was years before I understood the broader lesson.

How often have I been like a goldfish in a fishbowl? How often have I limited myself by my perception of my world? Worse still, how many times have I put others in a small bowl in my mind? How many times have I written off someone as insignificant or unexciting? How many times have I failed to see others' potential to grow?

How much more could I achieve if I forgot my perceived limitations and dared to swim beyond the boundaries I've set for myself? And what would happen if I moved others from their small bowls into the ocean of limitless possibilities?

Just imagine a world full of people with that perspective, who truly believe that anything is possible and reach out to claim it. Together we could do astounding things. Apply this same principle to your professional life and see how things around you will suddenly start to bloom with more possibilities and success.

You are no goldfish. Even the world is not big enough to be your bowl. The limitation of your mind is the only thing that sets you apart from a successful achiever. Will you be one too? All you need to do is believe that you can.

Source: Timesjob - HR Dialogue - http://www.timesjobs.com/Mailers/HRDialogue/sep09/landing/in_focus.html based on excerpts from www.activated.org

The Dell Story: Most Troubled Consumer Awards - Send in your nominations now!

Summary: Dell thinks that its customers are the most jobless and useless people in the world. Dell thinks that its customers are born only to call up the Dell customer care. Dell also assumes that its customers are as dumb as they can be.
Conclusion: I won't say think twice before choosing Dell. Don't ever think of purchasing anything Dell.

Harddrive Crash:

In less than 8 months of purchasing Dell Inspiron 1525 my harddrive crashed!!! It was a nightmare for me. Lost lots of office data, personal data. All my business plans and necessary information that I had prepared for starting own business venture was lost. Well! Dell did replace the harddrive with no help for data recovery.

Battery not charging:

My power adapter stopped working. It did not charge my battery anymore and the result was I was using a Dell Inspiron 1525 desktop of small size (without mobility due to zero power back-up a laptop is as good as a desktop) of small size. I think the desktop was actually better in many ways. With desktop after a sudden power cut you have UPS to save your work, with this laptop there was no such option available as battery won't charge.

Automatic system restart:

You seen magic, you believe in magic. No!!! Use my dell laptop I am sure you will have secondary thought. You leave the system ON for sometime, it will automatically restart and then re-restart. You click on hibernation, it will hibernate and start automatically, you again hibernate, it will hibernate and start automatically. Imagine this, you need to hibernate your system as you are about to move out of your house, you hibernate and hibernate and just hibernate for next 15 minutes till it does not stop starting automatically after a hibernation. Also, bear frustration of your friends waiting for you meanwhile.

Bluetooth Not Working:

Then comes the Bluetooth not working which did not allow me to back up my phone data. I would say this was a minor issue as more was to come soon.

Overheating & Hang:

Here, Dell offered me a new set of problems. Dell replaced the Heat Sink only to give rise to increased heating and frequent hang. Now, I couldn't keep the LAP-top on my lap just to avoid heat burns. Not to talk about the hang issues because all of us are aware how much it frustrates and puts someone in mental stress if the system you are working on hangs for a minute in every 10 minutes.

Power adapter stopped working:

The worst had not come yet. After adapter replacement, for a moment I started feeling that all electric sockets/ power outputs in my house had stopped working, but fortunately that was not the case. With-in a minute of connecting power adapter to any power output, the green light indicator on the adapter would go off and the system power supply would be cut. It was worse than battery not charging. It just meant that I could not use my system any more. No data recovery possible either. To continue working while traveling I had to resort to beg and borrow.

The smart-mover Dell Customer-care The Smart Cheater

First Dell told that they would do all the necessary required services to keep the system running. After explaining the obvious to one of their managers, Mr. Harinder, that it was not about Dell providing free service rather it was about the business downtime that I was facing and the hassles - time and energy it required to call up Dell every time the system breaks down, the manager in context promised for the whole unit replacement if the service provided this time wouldn't work. Having previous bad experiences with customer care, I demanded him to give me in writing, he said, "I have given my words for the whole unit replacement, you don't have to worry about it now. Be rest assured." And, all I was praying for that I wouldn't have to waste time calling Dell again for the whole unit replacement.
But not always, it happens as you wish. System broke down again and this time I did not even want a complete replacement. All I wanted was total refund for the money I had paid. The manager, whom I had spoken earlier, did not agree on refund but promised the replacement and told that I would receive mail from Dell explaining the procedure for complete replacement. It is already long enough time that I haven't heard back from Dell and after calling the customer care they have refused to give complete replacement. Moreover, the manager who made all the large promises has refused to come online.
In this whole procedure, since first time Bluetooth not working to power adapter not working and system hang, Dell wasted months, only to come closer to the end of warranty period. Such a smart firm, first they give you poor and temporary services only to pass the time and then when the time comes to full-fill their promise of complete replacement they retract by saying that you are at end of your warranty period.
Take a call, next time you want to be a Dell customer unless you are aiming at the Most Troubled Customer Award.
P.S. Thanks Dell for giving me an opportunity to write after a long time and thank you so much for playing memory games of remembering countless names of your executives.

Why some people have all the luck?

Why do some people have all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve?

I set out to examine luck, 10 years ago. Why are some people always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune? I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, have been interviewed by me. I have monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments. The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50'.

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.

As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

I wondered towards the end of the work, whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 per cent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky. Finally, i had found the elusive 'luck factor'. Here are four top tips for becoming lucky:

1) Listen to your gut instincts ^ they are normally right.
2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine.
3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well.
4) Visualise yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call.

Have a Lucky day and work for it.

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.

The author of `The Luck Factor' teaches at the University of Hertfordshire.


Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3896391.cms?frm=mailtofriend

Hence, "Opportunity is for Opportunists" - source: Moron Life Thoughts

P.G. Wodehouse: Ring for Jeeves - "But a woman can always tell."

In chapter 6, author, describing Mrs. Spottsworth's contemplation, during her drive to Rowcester Abbey, of the recent unscheduled rendezvous with Captain Biggar, writes:

"...it may seem strange that Mrs. Spottsworth should have known anything about the way he felt. But a woman can always tell. When she sees a man choke up and look like an embarrassed beetroot every time he catches her eye over the eland steaks and lime juice, she soon forms an adequate diagnosis of his case."

Author makes further effort in next paragraph to emphasize a woman's observation powers:
"She had not failed to observe the pop-eyed stare in his keen blue eyes, the deepening of the hue of his vermilion face and the way his number eleven feet shuffled from start to finish of the interview. If he did not still consider her the tree on which the fruit of his life hung, Rosalinda Spottsworth was vastly mistaken."

PLEASE VOTE, EVEN IF IT IS TO NOBODY

Note: Following is based on an e-mail forward doing rounds during 2009 General Elections in India. Not sure about the autheticity of the following.

The section 49-O reads:

“49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.”

P.G. Wodehouse: Ring for Jeeves - Fatal "Confusion of Ideas"

In chapter 1, author, describing how Mrs. Spottsworth "was almost immediately widowed again", writes:

"It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A.B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't. The result being that when he placed his foot on the animal's neck preparatory to being photographed by Captain Biggar, the White Hunter accompanying the expedition, a rather unpleasant brawl had ensued, and owing to Captain Biggar having to drop the camera and spend several vital moments looking about for is rifle, his bullet, though unerring, had come too late to be of practical assistance."

What is any Businees?

Why: A business plan may have one of the three primary objectives
- To make money/ To be independent/ To work for oneself
- Two-fold: Social Entrepreneurship- To make money & to contribute to society; e.g. open a school, hospital, set-up a rural BPO etc.
- To contribute to society

What: Involves the following activities
- Get money from a lender
- Hire experts and get other assets in place to work for you
- Pay out salary/ wages and other expenses
- Sell the product/ service
- Pay back the lender

How: The detailed business plan specific to one's business - explaining how one would carry out each and every step of the business including but not limited to Operations, Sales, Admin, HR, Finance, IT etc. The business could be
- A pharmaceutical company (to make money)
- A private equity fund (to make money)
- A library (Social Entrepreneurship)
- A self sustainable business model with sole aim of contributing to the society; e.g. open a school in a child labour prevalent area, pay kids for coming to school which compensates for their income from child labour, give them a vocational training along with education, e.g. teach to make pottery, cane basket, handicraft etc. sell their products into the market which would provide cash in-flow for the expenses to run the school and pay-out to the kids; Obviously this process involves one to borrow money for the initial set-up, hire experts for teaching/ vocational training and incur expenses, sell the products and pay back the lender

Is it Life...(contd)!

Forgot to include a fact:

"What I do...as creepy as...dark dungeon...diffuse out...in the vacuum."
To ensure my incessant survival, which is endangered due to above parameters in place and additional nonindulgent temperature and pressure conditions prevailing these days, I have been strongly advised by more than many to exhibit a demeanor that can only be practiced with the aid of a persistent pestering. Hence, every hour or two the alarm goes off only for my mobile screen to read as, "You are an Ass :-P!"

And preserving all my aplomb I respond, "Well! Nothing new."

Stretching Exercise

Life has been, of late, very hectic - read, friends (delusion), write, draw, hobbies, sleep and one also has to work on weekdays - that one hardly get any time for exertion. But, I have decided to stay fit this time by regular stretching for a stretch, for I haven't really stretched for more than an year and half with exception being those days that witnessed stretches of Age of Empires (a strategy computer game)/ movies.

My stretching plan is as following:
- Wake up at 8:00 am, start from office for home
- Get ready, start for office from home
- Typical work hours are 9:30 to 8:30
- Study till 3:00

There have been a few variations in the stretching steps practiced above:
- Go home at 2:00, stretch for another hour
- Do 3 chairs trick and crash at 2:00 till 3:00 in office, stretch for another hour before crashing

3 chairs Trick - have you ever been privileged of sleeping on a bed of chairs?!
If the answer is No with a gape, then you are probably destined to score a low on adaptability matrix and you need me to tell you the 3 Chairs Trick. I don't have a ready image available but I have practiced enough mastery on the skill at hand(y) on various occasions that include family marriages, hostel nights and the current stretching stunt.

ha..aa..aaaa.aaaaa (yawn)

Being able to practice it successfully from Monday to Friday, even-With-a-suspicion-of-not-being-able-to-do-so next-day, has resolved that I can still stretch on occasions if needed.

ha..aa..aaaa.aaaaa (yawn)

Stretching done for the day!

ha..aa..aaaa.aaaaa (yawn)

P.S Thanks to Deloitte Healing Room that they have beds in there for the days when there is no mood for 3 chairs trick

P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves in the Offing - Love and the Male Sex

In Chapter 12, while Bertie Wooster is conversing with his aunt Dahlia Traver about his past relationships with Roberta Wickham:

"The snag in this business of falling in love, aged relative, is that the parties of the first part so often get mixed up with the wrong parties of the second part, robbed of their cooler judgment by the parties of the second part's glamour. Put it like this. The male sex is divided into rabbits and non-rabbits and the female sex into dashers and dormice, and the trouble is that the male rabbit has a way of getting attracted by the female dasher (who would be fine for the male non-rabbit) and realizing too late that he ought to have been concentrating on some mild, gentle dormouse with whom he could settle down peacefully and nibble lettuce."

Speech that I never gave :-|

Thank you Bob and thank you Raj. I would also like to thank the jury for selecting me as one of the recipient of the first ever Community Impact Awards 2008. As I understand that Deloitte is a truly meritocratic environment where to excel one has to continuously raise the bar, this would have not been possible without the constant support from the year round Reach Out team, whose persistent enthusiasm kept the fire burning through out the year. The dedication that the team has shown is commendable. I would like to express my special thanks to Pankaj Jalan who believed in my capabilities and handed over the charge of coordinating the thread activities when he had to go for a project onsite. Thanks again to Raj for connecting me to Pankaj who will soon be starting a new journey of life with a mate this time as he got engaged just a week back. Congratulation Pankaj! I am glad for you!

I find myself fortunate that I am associated with Deloitte which offers a strong platform and encourages employees for community service initiatives. For someone like me who is straight out of the college, Deloitte not only provided an excellent environment for professional growth but also for personal growth and building relations as well.

I enjoyed every moment of my community service. The satisfaction I could draw was tremendous. Tomorrow it is Rakhi which reminds me that last year when I was looking for someone to tie me a knot I was blessed with two sisters from 7th grad I was teaching. Not only that, at times, when I was low in life the activity gave me a purpose to extend.

Just a quick description of the activity would include: we visited an orphanage and aged elders home "Sathya Sai Vidya Mandir", an institution near BharatNagar MMTS railway station. They also run a school till 10th standard and have a few resident undergraduate students as well. Our activity involved teaching maths to class 1, 2, 3 and 7, help college students with their end semester exams, help the institution create and manage records for all the members and spend time with orphans and aged elders.

Before I am asked to loose the control over the mike, please allow me to quote Late Dr. Randy Pausch from his 2008 commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon, "Find your passion and in my experience no matter what you do at work, or what you do in official settings, that passion will be grounded in people. It will be grounded in the relationships you have with people and what they think of you when your time comes."

Thank you.

Hitting the Iron Hot

There are times when movies have had 'Hit the Iron Hot':
1. Kal Ho Na Ho
2. You've Got Mail -
Kathleen: When I'm confronted by someone I get tongue tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend the rest of the night tossing and turning over what i should have said.
Joe: ... when you eventually have the pleasure of saying the thing you want to say at the moment you’re wanting to say it, remorse inevitably follows.
3. A Walk to Remember -
Reverend Sullivan: "Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful nor conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes."
3. Om Shanti Om - yet to write here
4. Jub We Met
5. Dil, Dosti etc.
6. Bachna Ae Haseeno
7. Little Manhatten
Love is an ugly, terrible business practiced by fools. It'll trample your heart and leave you bleeding on the floor. And what does it really get you in the end? Nothing but a few incredible memories that you can't ever shake. The truth is, there's gonna be other girls out there. I mean, I hope. But I'm never gonna get another first love. That one is always gonna be her.

Is It Life...!

What I do for my living is not what I like the most which is as creepy as people finding themselves in a dark dungeon and on the first sight of a ray of hope coming though an orifice they would diffuse out blithely without thinking of what could be on the other side in the vacuum.

The people whom I live with I do not enjoy that much!

In pursuit of higher studies I am and I am not sure if I am ready for it yet.

What I am in pursuit of is not what I am sure of being interesting in.
Just that some of my close relatives, whom myself and my female sibling, which happen to be the only one that I have, call maa-papa, have been pushing me to be fit to catch a CAT. What makes me wonder is that even if I catch the CAT will that catch that lost mouse of enthusiasm.

So called friends have been picked up and winged out of the city, though they did buzz me an alarm well in advance, but I have already mentioned about the creepy dungeon, haven't I?

It took me a little more than 2 and a half years to realize that how, at that time, I screwed the biggest of all the times in my personal life, something that occurred to me mere 2 weeks back. (I wish YOU happen to read it)

But for all I know is that I need to 'Give Some Time to Time' and have my full faith supporting it!

Imagine...

...this!

Sitting in the room below, and it rains for the whole night! :)
(Image is clickable for a large view)

(You have to wait untill Monday when I get a better picture of the room clearly showing the window view, I just had this picture somewhere already)

Spending 6 hours time doing what was procrastinated for more than a month! :D
(Spending 6 hours time doing what one wanted to do for more than a month!)

Speaking to a dear friend overseas for good 2 hours after a long 8 months! :D
Speaking to a dear friend overseas for 1 hour after 5 months! :D
(I will dwell on it in more details if I ever finish another of my semi-written blogs)

Coming back by company cab at morning 8 am that drops right at home, and it is still raining! :D
(When one have not registered for regular company transportation)

Writing this post! :)

Telling you good night now! :)

Sweet Dreams! :)

5 Steps System to Speed-Read

Combine or omit below steps to suit the material

1. Prepare:
- Why you reading, what's the purpose?
- what you already know?
- What you looking from the book to know? What you want from the book?

2. Preview:
- Read the Front and back cover and inside flaps, TOC, index, scan the bibliography
- Flip through the book, determine the structure of the content/ book - heading, subheading, picture, graph etc.
- Eliminate what you sure you not gonna need/ read

3. Passive Reading:
- Scanning of the book, spend few second on every page
- Look for the keywords, bold and italicized words
- Understand the writing style,: too techie, non-tech, jargon, difficult language, familiarity with content/ language

4. Active Reading:
- Read first para of each section/ chapter
- Read first line of each para and last line too if para is very long
- Mark out the useful stuff and/ or useless stuff

5. Selective Reading:
- You know why you are reading, you already have a brief idea of the structure, language and content of the material and a good understanding as well
- Read the earlier marked relevant stuff
- If needed, read the whole book, it will much faster with this system than otherwise


Overriding rule of the speed reading - "Always know why you are reading something."
The reason could be, "you are interested in such stuff", "someone recommended that to you", doesn't matter, but do have a reason

Based on the book: Speed Reading In A Week by Tina Konstant

...that's where my solace comes from - Late Dr. Randy Pausch, Prof. at Carnegie Mellon

Written below are the excerpts from Prof. Randy Pausch's speech at Carnegie Mellon University Commencement 2008 which is then followed by actual speech video

"We don't beat the (Grim) Reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully."

"It's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not."
"Pretty much any chance I had to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that's where my solace comes from."

"Honors and words are nice things but only to the extent that they regard the real respect from your peers and to be thought well of by other people that you think of even more highly of..."

"Find your passion and in my experience no matter what you do at work, or what you do in official settings, that passion will be grounded in people. It will be grounded in the relationships you have with people and what they think of you when your time comes."

---

Late Prof. Randy Pausch, CMU Commencement 2008

---

What follows is an attempt to transcribe above marvelous speech

I am glad to be here today. Hell! I am glad to be anywhere today.
President Cohon asked me to give the charge to the graduates. I assure you, it is nothing compared to the charge you have just given me.

This is an incredible places. I have seen it through so many lenses. I saw it when I was a graduate student that didn't get admitted and then somebody invited me back and said, ""Ok! We'll change our mind". I saw as a place that hired me back to be on the faculty many years later and then gave me the chance to do what anybody wants to do which is follow their passion, follow their heart and do the things they are excited about. The great thing about this University like almost other ones I know of is that nobody gets in your way when you try to do it and that's just fantastic. To the degree a human being can love an institution, I love this place and I love all the people. I am very grateful to Jared Cohon and everyone else for all the kindness that has been shown on me.

Last August, I was told that I have 3-6 months left to live. I am on month 9 now. I am not gonna get down and do any push-ups. (Pause)...but there will be a short pick-up basketball game later.
Somebody said to me in light of these numbers. "Wow! So, you are really beating the Grim Reaper." What I said without even thinking about it is we don't beat the Reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully — for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up. Because when he shows up it is too late to do all the things that you always gonna kind of get around to.

I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember, it's cliche, but I love cliche, it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not.
Because I assure you I've done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don't matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: pretty much any chance I had to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that's where my solace comes from.

The second thing that I would add to that and I did not coordinate on the subject of this word but I think it is the right word that comes up. It is passion. You will need to find your passion. Many of you already done it, many of you will later, many of you may take till your 30s or 40s but don't give up on finding it. Because then all you are doing is waiting for the reaper. Find your passion and follow it. If there is anything that I have learned in life, you will not find that passion in things, and you will not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more money you have, the more you will just look around and use that as the matrix — and there will always be someone with more. So, your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside.

Honors and words are nice things but only to the extent that they regard the real respect from your peers and to be thought well of by other people that you think of even more highly of, is a tremendous honor that I have been granted.

Find your passion and in my experience no matter what you do at work, or what you do in official settings, that passion will be grounded in people. It will be grounded in the relationships you have with people and what they think of you when your time comes. And if you can gain the respect of those around you and the passion and true love. I have said this before. But, I waited till 39 to get married. Because I had to wait that long to find someone where her happiness is more important than mine. If nothing else I hope that all of you can find that kind of passion and that kind of love, in your life. Thank you.

(and his eyes were wet)

Random Thoughts 3 - Life is a 'Thought'...

Life is a 'Thought'...let's think through it!

A thought which can be momentarily long or as long as a saint meditating for whole of his life; a thought which can sustain large disruptions or disturbance as small as minor chemical interactions (miscarriage) can end a Thought before it would even start.

I recently escaped a small disruption while going from Pune to Mumbai. My friend whom I visited at Pune, got more impacted than me as he was sitting in the middle of the back seat of the Honda City Cab. Cutting it short, I heard a loud screech of tyres and the moment screech stopped, my head banged against the back of the driver seat. Our cab had bumped into an Indica Cab. :)

For me all above implies that I need to get back to my roots, which in turns means:
1. Live the Thought to the fullest before it seizes to exist
2. To enable above ensure that I continue to extract happiness/ thrill from small things happening around me

1. 'Live life king size'/ 'Living it to the fullest' doesn't mean, live with no tensions and have all the so called 'fun'.
Do as much as you can - putting fight/ struggling for career is also an attempt to live it to the fullest. There you ensure that you are trying to make the best out of whatever life is left by ensuring the best utilization of your capabilites with a fit to your interests.

2. Big things never excite me, few recent examples that thrilled me:
- On the way to Mumbai while crossing Vashi bridge a train entered the parallel rail-road bridge almost at the same time as our cab travelling at ~ 110 Km/Hr. I was unmoved for that quarter minute when train and the cab were pitted against each other head to head to cross the bridge. Racing at that high speed was thrilling. What really held me back was the fact that I was witnessing a rare event which also had a very small chance of witnessing (Scientifically expained it is a poisson process, with infinitely large no. of trials and very low probability of success in each trial)

- It was 7:00 pm and the train was about to reach at Ahmedabad in an hour or so. During the day I could afford to sleep for 7 hours out of 12 hours long journey, but had missed out on traveling at the gate of the coach. So, decided to utilize the remaining hour. It was drizzling and the fine drops felt like not so sharp needles piercing on face due to high relative wind, resultant of moving train. That coupled with the song going on ear-phone, "Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechara, Kadam Na Hote Aawara...To Khoobsoorat Koi Apna Humsafar Hota" created worth remembering moments.

- Everytime I go and visit the dumb tailor in the vicinity of my home, I am surprised by the desire to live he has (doesn't it come out as obvious by now). Each time I go to him and detail him the specifications of the repair that I want for a cloth, I find myself many folds challenged than him. Because he is what he is, I Need to learn a way to communicate to him. The worst thing is that I cannot even confirm if he got 'it' if I said 'it'.

To be continued...

Freakonomics Conquered

* Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them-or, often, ferreting them out-is the key to solving just about any riddle, from violent crime to sports cheating to online dating. Alternatively, every problem has a solution, all one is required to provide is the right set of incentives.

* “Experts”—from criminologists to real-estate agents—use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda. Alternatively, information is a commodity, and if used rightly can be turned into a weapon.

* Dramatic effects often have distant, even subtle, causes. Alternatively, known as 'Butterfly Effect'.

* The conventional wisdom is often wrong. Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through, but it can be done.

P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves in the Offing - Goofiness in the Opposite Sex

In Chapter 3, while Bertie Wooster is hunting for Bobbie (Roberta) Wickham at his aunt Dahlia Traver's house and is encountered with a sight of Phyllis Mills:

"One learns, as one goes through life, to spot goofiness in the other sex with an unerring eye, and this exhibit had a sort of mild, Soul's Awakening kind of expression which made it abundantly clear that, while not a super-goof like some of the female goofs I'd met, she was quite goofy enough to be going on with."

...and that's what friends and parents have to comment! :)

A junior: Mitesh! You don't have that spark in your voice anymore!
Myself: Hmmmm...

Friend: What do you want in your life? (A week back)
Myself: Nothing! (Without a thought)
.
.
.
Myself: Wait a minute! Actually, there is something that I want. I don't want my parents to know what I answered to you just now!

Few years back:
Mom: Can't you stay at home?
Myself: What do I do then?
Mom: Do something, read etc or just do nothing, sleep!

Now-a-days:
Dad: Why don't you give a break to your non-stop alternate sleeping and reading and may be, step out of home for a while?
Myself: Hmmm...

...there are many more incidences which constitute an unending list ;)