...non periodic oscillations...

#Entrepreneurs and #Business owners: it is absolutely fine to feel pride in the business that you are building or have built but please stop "talking" about setting up #systems and #processes within your org if you think they are only for your team/staff/employees to follow. Stop talking about #accountability, #delivery and #results as if only the team/staff/employees are responsible for it. Stop talking about #attrition, lack of #passion or #enthusiasm unless you are willing to #introspect, and honestly at that. Stop believing that all #rules, #policies and #regulations are only meant for the team/staff/employees while you are not accountable to anyone. Your accountability to “yourself” is pure #convenience, so let us not even go down that path. Stop #blaming everyone else. If you pay #peanuts, you will get #monkeys. If you encourage #sycophancy, you will get your #shit worshipped. If you treat your team with #disrespect, you will be left with #unmotivated and #pass...

We were in a mall on Christmas Eve (I know, right!) because we had to get something. While passing by the otherwise dull inventory on sale everywhere, we chanced upon a tiny kiosk run by Scooboo (https://scooboo.in/) selling stationery and we just had to take a look. You know what happens when you stop at a place selling stationery? You tend to lose money quickly. That is exactly what happened. We saw these lovely gel ink pens in two varieties - one was a black ink with a big bold alphabet on it, and the second was a box of ten with nine colours. The black and white body pens both have black ink. This box is also available as a set of twenty pens. The Initial Pen with black gel ink Anyhow, long story short, pens were bought and money was handed over. I was so enticed by the beautiful, black satin finish fountain pen but held firmly to my resolve of not hoarding any more stationery. It feels good and bad - at the same time. So here is a random piece that happened as part of...

This very interesting piece of research - "The business value of design" ( link ) by Benedict Sheppard, Hugo Sarrazin, Garen Kouyoumjian, and Fabricio Dore, published by McKinsey Design - talks about how design affects a company's bottom line. What I found interesting while reading it was that I have seen a lot of organisations whose core business is design yet they do not understand it entirely. They make the same mistakes or lack the same commitment towards a design led approach to their own business as mentioned in the article. Design organisations get tied down by the lack of design in their own internal processes and business outlook, all the while trying to sell a “design product” to a client, claiming how it will improve their life or business. This is one of the main reasons why most designers live a chaotic and disoriented life, taking pride in their utter inability to streamline even the basics. This attitude is sold to the world as the romantic...

Wake up from you slumber. The slumber of complacency. The slumber of mediocrity. Wake up from throwing away your gifts every day, every moment. You came into this world not out of your own wish or maybe, you did, did you? Do you wake up each day with hope? Do you wake up each day with despair? Do you wake up each day with the will to make a difference? Do you wake up each day with the thought of grinding through the day? Wade not within the sea of mediocrity. Waste not this gift of opportunity. Discount not the love that you have been blessed with. Rise. Spread those wings. Shake off your lethargy. This world won't come to you. You need to take what you need. You need to give what you can. Rise. Spread those wings. Be not afraid to soar above the noise and chaos. Be not afraid to fly. Be not afraid to fall. Be not afraid of pain. Love heals. Pain teaches. What holds us back? What binds us down? Love? Pain? Fear? What holds us down is ourselves. For we hav...

Architectural internships, for most practicing architects I know, are either an unnecessary headache or a means to get some affordable “hands on deck”. For the students looking for an internship though, it is a critical juncture of their lives. Many are of the opinion that internships aren’t required at all while many consider it a rite of passage to professional practice. The way I see it, I believe it is a good thing to give students a flavour of what professional practice feels like, before they step in to the big bad world. Academia is such an insulated, cocooned life that for some students, internship can be a pretty harsh awakening. For some interns, working in an architectural practice helps them to understand what skills are more likely to get them employment quickly. For others still, applying their thoughts in a real world scenario is a thrill. The problem with internship though, is the manner in which it is implemented. The Council of Architecture (CoA) is, of cour...

A friend shared a link to an Instagram video today, of a bunch of riders who decided to rip through the streets after attending the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. As most you might know, the DGR is a charity ride where they ask you to dress up and ride "dapper". While I have my own reservations against big group rides, DGR or otherwise, I support the idea of such a ride as long as it is for a good cause. However, I have a problem with riders like these who, in the spirit of being “dapper”, wear minimal protective riding gear and then go speeding through public roads. These guys were riding at speeds in excess of 160 Kmph on public roads. I remember that video where a group of riders were doing close to 300 Kmph, in full gear, on a public road and then they crashed. I have seen the entire video and trust me, it was not a pleasant sight. Imagine if, God forbid, they had an accident? People will say that the DGR encourages unsafe riding habits. Yes, I know that is stup...

01/01/2007 Moving into another new year, I look back today and reminisce about the one gone by. A year that was full of hope, anticipation and of utter helplessness. A year which distanced me from a lot of good people and at the same time brought some close. Of times spent with my solitude and of living in the silence within. A beginning with hope of achieving a goal and then watching it disappear along with the promises on which they stood. Of finding hope once again and learning to hang on to it no matter what. Of pain that knew no limits and of love that knows no bounds. A year of lost faith and of rediscovering it in the most unexpected of places. As the new year starts I hope once again that it will be good to all of us and I pray that each one of you start it with a hope and a strength that will carry you through the inevitable highs and lows of life. I thank all of you for being a part of my life and for always teaching me something new about it. Have a happy and p...

Everytime I listen to The Masterplan by Oasis , something inside relates to it so strongly that I drift into the song from whatever I am doing. The need to make sense of it all resonates deeply. Why do we need to make sense of it anyway? I sometimes wish I could also carry on numbly like most people do but then I wouldn't be honest to myself and that is a very difficult thing to do. I can "sleep" over it although that hasn't been very successful in the past. So here it is. Listen to it if you can. It's a lovely song. The Masterplan Take the time to make some sense Of what you want to say And cast your words away upon the waves And sail them home with acquiesce On a ship of hope today And as they land upon the shore Tell them not to fear no more Say it loud, and sing it proud today And then dance if you wanna dance Please brother take a chance You know they're gonna go Which way they wanna go All we know is that we don't Know how it's gonna be ...