Clean House and Shop !

Catharsis is a Greek word meaning "purification", "purging", "cleansing" or "detoxification"...

I absolutely adore the "Whole Body Cleanse" System and indulge in a semi-annual detox with khichadi, lemon juice and honey and the whole body cleanse for a week...I feel refreshed, renewed and pun unintended "whole" again.

The organized me loves even better when I "spring clean"...throwing away things I didn't need that were not usable, donating or selling other stuff and generally cleaning house...I love the feeling of emptiness, organization and space that activity gives me

The one thing I haven't been able to do is mentally cleanse my mind of attachments. Over years, one of the banes of being a dedicated/committed product manager is to treat your products/services as your offsprings...it is very difficult to mentally dissect and detach onself from one's hard work, execution and creation...for me that is true Catharsis...cleaning shop...learning to move on. This new year brings for me an opportunity to engage in an exercise of complete catharsis and I am accepting it with open arms...it won't be easy or comfortable but I am definitely welcoming this new change and hope I can adapt, rejuvenate, renew and excel...after all one wise person said - the one thing that is constant in lfe is Change...

Hope Floats...

I was watching some mindless talkshow on the TV yesterday to keep my mind off things and Deepak Chopra was on the show saying - you hope when you are beyond the point of despair...I changed the channel and started watching Food Network...I just don't buy that...life is about a few things - Family, Happiness and a hope that when things go wrong, there is still hope and the chance that Life will rebalance and set things right...

The past 5 weeks have been a roller coaster ride - a constantly sick child prone to colds, coughs and most recently a tummy virus, a loved one having a major health setback and surgery, the constant uncertainity of external parameters...just when I thought things were settling down, fate threw me another curve ball with K2 falling sick and my mom and me catching the same virus...(yeah!merry christmas to you too...)...yet amongst all this there was hope still that things would get better.

And yes things did get better...after 2 days of feeling run-down...I slowly got my Qi back and life slowly seemed to seem straightened out again. We (Bapa, Ma, K1& K2) went out for a long walk on a chilly day today and really enjoyed the feeling of togetherness. We watched " 3 Idiots" yesterday and it was wonderful watching this "feel good" movie together. What struck me in the movie was something Aamir Khan said - We humans are scaredy cats...and eventually in the rat race really become afraid of everything...the heart really fears and expects the worst...take a deep breath...put your hand on your heart and say Aal izz Well !!! and you can cheat your heart into becoming more brave and really believing all is well...Life is slowly getting back on track...slowly and I keep my hand to my heart and say - Arrey Bhaiya! Aal izz Well.

P.S: Here is a picture from 15 days back from our drive from SFO to Irvine

What Dilbert taught me about Management?

Eight years back, I was sitting in my office all depressed about a business meeting where I was trying to stop our SVP from investing in packaging a feature as a product and failing miserably...I saw this wonderful Dilbert clip that made me smile and get out of the funk...

Aesop reports to the Pointy-haired Boss that the company's strategy is driven by a typo:

Aesop: I discovered a typo in the market forecast that is driving our company strategy.
Aesop: Where it says, "Everyone would want one," it should have said, "Avery Wong would want one.
Aesop: Worse yet, I called Mr. Wong and he said he was joking.

Pointy-haired Boss: What if we gave him free delivery

1. I learnt my first lesson in Management 101 from the above clip - Sometimes even when you know it is the wrong call...let go !!!


2. Tell me what you need, and I will tell you how to get along without it -- Life in Product Management has been about resource, budget and time constraints and I did realize that once you learnt how to do without, you figured out how to deliver a quality service/product under cost, ahead of time and on scant resources.


3. Humility - Dilbert put it succintly - Accept that somedays you are the pigeon and on others the statue...dust off the crap and remember tomorrow is a new day...


4. The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get - So one of the key lessons I have learnt as a part of my career learning is not to put up with crap.


5. Be realistic about your skills and ambitions, it is so true that...A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the ass.

Its true that I have grown with Dilbert...he has taken me through rough times in business and helped me find humor in every situation. I have learnt to laugh at my mistakes, grow and learn from them...What I have learnt from Dilbert is to be a -- Good Human Being with strong principles , humility and a whacky sense of humor!