of ideas and execution

There are great ideas and there's execution. And they don't go hand in hand always. I may have fantastic ideas and visuals in my head, and may go about town ranting away about what a great thinker I am. I may make an impression and people may recall my blabbering and identify me for my creativity and brilliant thoughts. But that's not even the drawing board. I am nothing but words.

Then there's execution. But there's bad execution also, sadly. I may be hard working, unquestioningly go about a task and whir and spin away till the conveyor belt presents what your majesty ordered. And that is such a dangerous way to work, init? So what do we chase? Well, it's the potent combination of a great idea, a zeal to working hard, how we conduct ourselves in seeing through the deliverable, right till the feedback. This is the holy grail, which solidifies the random figments into real space, dust, metal and glass. The figments that zapped around in your skull are tested, twisted, prodded and real physics shatter your cloud 9 castles. You rethink, revisit the drawing board or worst still, have all your plans scrapped. It dawns on you that you are not playing with dough anymore. You have come too long a way off to turn around. So you stick with your dreams and decide that the only way out is through. So you get real. The homework starts. You are an ant, a horse, a mule and a thinker. Time flies. The castle now has a solid, reliable foundation. It's strong. And believable. It will hold anything on it. Now you start dreaming again, but this time around, others are with you. Their abilities also come through and your dream becomes others' aspirations as well. Next thing, everyone is working together to make this a reality and scrapping this or looking back is so not an option anymore.
The marriage of idea and execution makes you the point of contact for dreamers and sloggers. You want to do bigger and better. The dreamer and the slogger is now the true creator.

Retire when you WANT TO

I have never really understood the concept of retiring at 60. What if you really enjoy your job and actually get better at it even after this golden number? People in creative, HR and advisory professions get better with years in these fields. At 60, if I am in good physical and mental condition, and don't see or show any signs of hanging up my boots, I may want to continue and actually get better at what I do. Three to four decades of experience brings great insight into the field. Employers will always benefit from all that experience, plus the connections and network created over years. I have spent hours chatting up with elderly people, and am only amazed at why I am the only recipient of the insight and knowledge.

Traditionally, retiring, or being made to retire, has other psychological effects. Even youthful and energetic people are made to feel old, which I have always thought was unfair. This is followed by making one feel the need for support from others around, making one feel helpless and dependent. Let retirement be an individual option. People in their youth can be made to feel old and helpless anyway. It's all in the head.
Let's say we take 'retirement age' to 70. That way, 60 becomes the new 50. We are psyched into feeling younger and being accepted as part of the contributing population. This brings new energy to society, lesser strain in health and medical resources. If you feel younger, you feel less dependent.

Hey I may think differently when I reach 60. But I will approach that age differently. If I want to continue in my field for the rest of my life well past 60, I'll do that. Working from home, increasing bandwidth and other forms of communication tech are only paving the way for knowledge dissemination, irrespective of who it comes from. So why are we not tapping this huge resource - a grand evolved mindscape of people who have accumulated the wealth over the years, and can only offer so much more? I say we can reach pinnacles in our expertise levels, if we take forth the senior knowledge base to the next level.

Retire when you WANT TO

I have never really understood the concept of retiring at 60. What if you really enjoy your job and actually get better at it even after this golden number? People in creative, HR and advisory professions get better with years in these fields. At 60, if I am in good physical and mental condition, and don't see or show any signs of hanging up my boots, I may want to continue and actually get better at what I do. Three to four decades of experience brings great insight into the field. Employers will always benefit from all that experience, plus the connections and network created over years. I have spent hours chatting up with elderly people, and am only amazed at why I am the only recipient of the insight and knowledge.

Traditionally, retiring, or being made to retire, has other psychological effects. Even youthful and energetic people are made to feel old, which I have always thought was unfair. This is followed by making one feel the need for support from others around, making one feel helpless and dependent. Let retirement be an individual option. People in their youth can be made to feel old and helpless anyway. It's all in the head.
Let's say we take 'retirement age' to 70. That way, 60 becomes the new 50. We are psyched into feeling younger and being accepted as part of the contributing population. This brings new energy to society, lesser strain in health and medical resources. If you feel younger, you feel less dependent.

Hey I may think differently when I reach 60. But I will approach that age differently. If I want to continue in my field for the rest of my life well past 60, I'll do that. Working from home, increasing bandwidth and other forms of communication tech are only paving the way for knowledge dissemination, irrespective of who it comes from. So why are we not tapping this huge resource - a grand evolved mindscape of people who have accumulated the wealth over the years, and can only offer so much more? I say we can reach pinnacles in our expertise levels, if we take forth the senior knowledge base to the next level.

Leave home, baby.

Why must we travel and see the earth well beyond our needs? what good comes from pain endured, hard-earned money spent on fleeting moments we cannot take back? Who else other than the traveller remembers or cares about moments on expeditions and pointless walks through a forest? When will the wanderer be at peace? Where is that spot of calm that we set out for, with that organised backpack? what satisfaction exactly is derived from a visual captured on a device to take back as memories? For all the W questions we ask in retrospect, the answer is another set of Ws- We would Wishfully Wander where whereabouts whisk to world's wonders.

So set forth my neighbour, you, of this beautiful planet of a fragile, perishable ecosystem, and explore pointlessly with no agenda. You will find the answers to a lot of things that bother sometimes. How important were they, really? I take inspiration from a Satyajit Ray piece called Pather Panchali. One translated dialogue meant 'Staying in one place too long makes you mean.'

So leave behind those irrelevant little nothings that mean so little, especially when you see a picture of this planet from outer space. Why do we hang on to things in this life of .16 seconds? Thank you- Carl Sagan, for putting things in perspective.

Dwell not further on pointless posts such as this- concocted in a state of restlessness, itching feet for the next trip to a landscape unseen. Explore, and inspire me.

Leave home, baby.

Why must we travel and see the earth well beyond our needs? what good comes from pain endured, hard-earned money spent on fleeting moments we cannot take back? Who else other than the traveller remembers or cares about moments on expeditions and pointless walks through a forest? When will the wanderer be at peace? Where is that spot of calm that we set out for, with that organised backpack? what satisfaction exactly is derived from a visual captured on a device to take back as memories? For all the W questions we ask in retrospect, the answer is another set of Ws- We would Wishfully Wander where whereabouts whisk to world's wonders.

So set forth my neighbour, you, of this beautiful planet of a fragile, perishable ecosystem, and explore pointlessly with no agenda. You will find the answers to a lot of things that bother sometimes. How important were they, really? I take inspiration from a Satyajit Ray piece called Pather Panchali. One translated dialogue meant 'Staying in one place too long makes you mean.'

So leave behind those irrelevant little nothings that mean so little, especially when you see a picture of this planet from outer space. Why do we hang on to things in this life of .16 seconds? Thank you- Carl Sagan, for putting things in perspective.

Dwell not further on pointless posts such as this- concocted in a state of restlessness, itching feet for the next trip to a landscape unseen. Explore, and inspire me.

Kerala 2010

For all the crib of a lack of Industry in Kerala, if there were, would it be God's own then? A naturally rich state is on the brink of losing its treasure- the flora and fauna we take for granted. From Thekkady to my back yard- this is the heaven that has become a memory in other, so called 'developed' areas. A glimpse at the Pandora that still is.

Kerala 2010

Kerala 2010

For all the crib of a lack of Industry in Kerala, if there were, would it be God's own then? A naturally rich state is on the brink of losing its treasure- the flora and fauna we take for granted. From Thekkady to my back yard- this is the heaven that has become a memory in other, so called 'developed' areas. A glimpse at the Pandora that still is.

Kerala 2010