Perfectionism Vs Being Human

Most of us would have come across someone in our life whom we consider “perfect”. For me, one of our professors was one such with his exceptional academic brilliance, amazing sense of humor and a great strength of character. I will always remember Dr. Narayanan as a “perfectionist”. It is natural for us to strive towards becoming a perfectionist too. Though I am not saying that we would become “perfect” one day because perfection is not a destination but a manner of doing things.

Some days back I read the following paragraphs, which made me think about the same issue again with a different angle.

“Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for PowerPoint slides and abstract data. Stories with a little drama seem to be enjoyed by our feelings and, more importantly, are remembered far longer than any dry slide filled with analytics. Personal stories also create a more intimate atmosphere. Intimacy suggests friends. Friends suggest people who are not trying to take advantage of one another.

Our logical minds worry about awkwardness in a presentation. But up to a point, most people seem to feel more comfortable with less-than-superman speaking qualities. It makes the speaker more human. It makes the speaker look more vulnerable. Vulnerable means he is less likely to aggressively attach our decisions or beliefs, and that makes us more comfortable. A little awkwardness also feels real, not slick or phony. When we feel someone is being slick and phony, we are much more likely to reject the message.”

Ref: P54, John. O. Kotter, A sense of Urgency.

The first paragraph would still sound doable to a student of perfectionism as it tells that at places using the right brain would be more appropriate than the logical left brain. It tells about the learning pattern, which each perfectionist would also understand. Not everyone is blessed with very accurate memory and engagement activities in the form of stories etc. are very effective in achieving higher retention by our brain. But how should we take the second paragraph?

Should we then purposefully make some mistakes in our PPTs or make some fonts appear bad in contrast? Or should we fumble during our delivery or at times fake losses of memory or slips of tongue? If such things happen by mistakes, should we grin and smile? Should we borrow some words from the kids or street children or should we also drop some tea over our neckties? I hope I am making my point clear, though I am a bit exaggerating.

What do you say? While I don’t doubt the second paragraph, I am more worried about the implications. Should we keep it as “comforting” words for those who don’t achieve the “perfect” result, or should we actually look forward to practice it? If we agree with the later, are not we planning to make a mediocre world?

- Rahul

Omar Abdullah on his divorce with Payal Nath

Some time back, the present J&K Chief Minister and son of Farooq Abdullah (I think this is the introduction), Omar Abdullah joined the micro-blogging site Twitter. I am not sure if he took blessings of Shashi Tharoor, the former UPA minister of state (I think this is not his introduction though) who lost his ministry due to his Tweets (his famous ‘holy cow’ address to the reigning dynasty of India). But Omar seems to have made a quick progress. He has now divorced (I am neither saying Twitter-wallas get divorced, nor that divorcing is any progress) and he is making use of Twitter. I don’t say whether he is using right use of it or wrong, because by the time you understand if it was right or wrong you are either sent packing or forgotten, but I am just saying that he is “using” Twitter. That may sound like a useless usage of use, but I hope you would conclude something only funny after following his adventures with the tweeting:

“J&K CM Omar Abdullah and his wife Payal Nath have separated after 17 years of marriage. This was confirmed by the chief minister on Twitter on Thursday.

Reacting to the report, Omar tweeted: "While it's true my wife and I have separated, speculation about the motives and my future actions are unfounded, untrue, I appeal to the media to please allow me and my family privacy. Am sure you will appreciate that I have not let this affect my work."

"Stories about my remarriage are completely false, concocted. It's a pity, while repeating these lies, no effort was made to ask me the truth," Omar tweeted.

He further added: "My family and I will not be issuing any more statements or taking any further questions about any of this."”

Source: TNN, Sep 15 [Link]

There are many inherent issues here.

First of all, he is speaking all this on such a public platform like Twitter and he is speaking all this on indeed a private matter (divorce). Yet he desires to be granted “privacy”. Even people with no interest in his family life would have got to know about his marital affair (not used in conventional sense) due to his own Tweets. Secondly he claims to have kept his work life unaffected by this separation. What kind of a husband would remain immune to such a tragic happening like a divorce with a wife of 17 years? Thirdly, while he is complaining that “no effort was made to ask me the truth”, he adds in the end that he and his family (excluding his now divorced ex-wife I guess) will not be making any more statements. Forget about making statements, they will not even be “taking any further questions about any of this”! Yet, his complaints persist that the media didn’t ask him “the truth”! Well, for any such matter people are not expected to tell the “truth” and would rather be making political statements. And on the top of that, people of India (of which his home-state J&K is a part of) have given up believing on politicians’ words (I hope he remembers that he is one politician) a long time ago!

I don’t really think his statements and Tweets needed such a serious dissection. But blame Twitter, as even I hang out there some times.

- Rahul

Won First Prize in an E&R Kaleidoscope Event

E&R (Education and Research) is the team at Infy which facilitates learning (facilities like library, certifications are all included in that). They have been celebrating a week as E&R Kaleidoscope, every year. Out of the many events (like code writing contest for s/w engineers), they were conducting this time, there was one contest which was a glossary creation contest. We had to create glossaries (under different segments like manufacturing, retail, software engineering etc) – I chose “ES” as the category.

On Friday, I received a mailer informing me that I have won FIRST PRIZE in the contest. The second position is also occupied from Pune DC and the third belongs to an Infoscion based out of Houston, US.

Today from 9.30 to 11.30 AM we had a prize distribution ceremony. The winners from Bangalore DC had the privilege to receive the prize from the hands of Kris himself who gave a closing speech asking us to keep “learning”. Other senior management people gave away the prizes in other DCs. The whole program from all across the DCs was telecasted on V/C. I received a certificate of appreciation and a small gift.

Happy to have won my second "award" at Infy. The first one was a C-LIFE award. Hope to get more such occasions.

- Rahul

Shocking News from Alumni Group

This is a shocking piece of news one friend posted in our Alumni group. These are exact words with names removed for privacy:

(...) (2000-2004) beaten and injured by some Pakistanis in Edison, NJ

Hi Friends,

I heard a shocking news yesterday and thought would share the same with you.

Our beloved mate of NIT Durgapur Alumni ‘(...)’ was in trouble yesterday with some of the Pakistanis in Edison, New Jersey.

While he was returning from a Pakistani shop after office in Edison a Pakistani crook punched in his leg on his way.

He fell down with the heavy baggage he was carrying and got a fracture in one of the hand. He did not indulge himself with any confrontation with them.

Somehow he managed to get admission in hospital and got released in late night.

Today his health condition is good.

Flipkart: Fuelling a Revolution

I have done shopping of books on Flipkart.com for a number of times. I have always found it very user-friendly and convenient. I have even availed discounts in the range of 30-40% on the website. More than satisfactory, I would say I have experienced customer delight through Flipkart.

Flipkart has employed technology for better user experience in a wonderful manner. For example, it always ‘remembers’ my shipping address and asks me if it can use the same. I have now realized how well it makes use of analytics.

During my last shopping session, I had bought a book from the brilliant author Devdutt Pattanaik. Today, I received an email from Flipkart, informing me about two ‘forthcoming’ books from the same author, titled, “7 Secrets of Shiva” and “7 Secrets of Vishnu”. 

Many of my friends have bought electronics items from Flipkart too. All of them feel very happy about their experiences.

I think Flipkart is really going good to great. I hope they keep up the momentum. What pleases me more is that it is an Indian venture based in Bangalore (its founders are Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal).

Flipkart is now being called India’s Amazon.com.

While I hope more Indian websites and entrepreneurs take some leaves out of Flipkart’s growth story and take “Made in India” brands to greater heights, I also think that Flipkart in a way has fuelled a new “reading revolution”. By making books conveniently available at our doorsteps (Flipkart delivers books through couriers at a lightning speed), it has helped a lot of readers and made a lot of regular book-buyers out of occasional buyers. I am sure its contribution from this angle is immense and would grow in the coming days.

All the best, Flipkart!

- Rahul