Duality - Fate or Action?

Think about it, we have a fragile body. With all the arms/ammunition, bombs, planes, motorcycles/cars/trucks, heavy machinery, etc. around us, the elements - fire, rain/floods, earthquakes etc, the new mutated viruses/bacteria, any excuse, and period, it's over. Not that we're born with super abilities to always stay safe from death the lurks around us. I'm beginning to sincerely believe that everything is foreknown, written, and we are simply "actors in this staged drama". No matter how deeply we believe we've done this or that, it probably isn't our doing, we're just experiencing the life made for us. We just happened to be at so-n-so place at the right (or wrong) time.

Those who believe in action, in creating their own destiny, may also be right, simultaneously, I cannot deny that more straightforward cause-n-effect view to life. Maybe both, believers in fate and action are right, like light's wave-particle-duality, simultaneously. For each, his/her own.

I'm also beginning to believe, it's not what we do, but how and why we do it that's writing our Karma. That's the only way I can reconcile fairness into this otherwise skewed distribution of conveniences and comforts. I'm also beginning to believe in the power of desires. It's ultimately our desires that are taking us through life. Desires don't manifest immediately, nor do they always manifest in the form we envision, but many, the deeper ones, are realized, and when they are, they remind us of what we asked for. So we should be grateful for what we have and careful for what we ask for.

Promoter Run Firms and Inheritance Laws

Inspired by discussions, and not factually verified, but Inheritance Laws seem to be an important reason why such a large number of Indian firms continue to be promoter controlled. Laws in the US cap what can be bequeathed to offspring/relatives, and force excess possessions to be governed by trust. Because of this, capital returns to the system instead of being at the mercy of someone born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth. A sizable portion of Indian cos. are promoter run, and barring some big names, most have stunted growth/existence because of the same reason. Promoters are weary of letting go of their share of the pie, seldom realizing the pie can grow very large with more brains, eyes, hands and vested interests managing/ governing/ monitoring, from different vantage points, the health of the organization.

Compare this with US firms. Even small/mid sized firms have more professional processes/ standards/ practices/ protocols than some large firms in India. It's because ownership and control are properly separated, the shareholders dutifully play their role and the management plays its. ESOPs were used to align management/ employee and shareholder interest and came by virtue of service/ performance and not birth or lineage.

How We See the World

Amazing how different people see the see world in different ways. Education forms/shapes, however, most is just curiousity, observation and the way we're wired up there. Hence, our selective vision.

A scientist would go to a store and ask for a fountain pepsi. He'd contemplate pepsi's ingredients, or how it's made in the machine, or how it's kept cold or aerated-on-the-fly, or how much acid content is in it etc.

A businessman would ask for the same drink and consider the costs to make it, fixed/variable, consider how labor, equipment and raw material were sourced, determine the margins per glass, extrapolate the market size from the customer traffic, and calculate how much returns such a business gives.

A psychologist would take the same glass and consider how our consumption patterns form and why we choose to drink pepsi, what role brands have in our decision process, how shopkeepers consider potential customers, how they consider staff less like humans and more like resources and costs, how staff is incentivized to follow instructions, and how staff become loyal to employment and sincere towards work.

A sociologist would take a fountain pepsi too and consider the customers, shopkeeper, and his staff and how the staff are from similar demographic who migrate in groups in search of permanent jobs, what attracts customers to form a cue to consume these non-essential brand name multi national products and how this is changing/homogenizing our very cultural fabric.

Then there are those observers with no tag attached to them. They are simple/silent observers of this mela (festival) of life. Their view isn't tinted/biased. Reminds of something Ghalib wrote in Urdu: "Bazaar se gujra hoon, khariddar nahi hoon".

Evidence that the Rich are Getting Richer

The top 10% are getting rich at a much faster rate than the remaining 90% of the population. Why? I think those who own capital are busy, not in working 9-5s but in applying their capital to maximize RoI. So if the economy is growing at X%, the top 10% grow at 10X the rate!

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_USA

Career?

8 years since I graduated from college and I'm still looking around for a profession I'd like to spend time doing.

Figured one thing, if you join a place and find you're working on the same thing that's been done for years, you're learning the basics from people 5-10 years older than you, and you're repeating the same process any Tom, Dick or Harry could've done and you're doing it no different or better than your neighbor, you won't find yourself going much further than your own apartment in the evenings.

In search of that ray of opportunity to fly over the cuckoo's nest!