Last weekend, on our routine visit to Sankey tank park, an incident made me coin this slogan “Ice cream for all’
Our weekend visits to the sankey tank park our near routine these days. Due to the vacations, the park looks like a crowded shopping area, where kids with their parents queue up in each of the play stations. If you are married and have kids this is ritual stuff. When we were done, we walked out of the park to get an ice cream (a good thing about the park they do not allow eatables inside), that is when this incident occurred.
The ice cream vendors are usually the kwality walls guys in their uniforms, selling ice creams, to the ever so consuming middle class. Me being in this group, got an ice cream and wife was feeding the ice cream to our daughter. Along with the ice cream vendors there are other vendors’ chaat guy, bhutta guy, ballon guys. The incident involves the ballon guys, the ballon vendors are kids I think barely above 10. Sales strategy adopted by them is also pretty interesting; they position the product only to the kids and never to the parents who holds the financial strings. Inevitably this strategy works, the parents buy the ballon end up carrying the ballon home, as the kid was just acting on impulse and has no further fondness towards the ballon.
So I was watching this one kid, who seemed a bit lethargic compared to the other kids selling the balloons. He had his eyes fixed on the ice cream vendor; his dilemma was I guess to I buy the ice cream or not. The positives would have been that he would for 5 minutes actually be a kid of his age and enjoy the coolness and the sweetness of the ice cream on a summer evening. Negatives would have been might be skipping a days food as perhaps the 5 bucks was his commission for the day, which would have fed him for a day. The dilemma was gripping the kid, he just would not take this eyes of the ice cream cart, the he made a bold move took 5 bucks from his pocket and asked for the vendor for stick ice. The vendor pushed him away, saying Hoogua (meaning go away in Kannada). Ice cream vendor did not want any customers moving away from his tall at the sight of a poster boy of poverty, standing there slurping away at an ice cream.
The boy backed of without any resistance; I had half a mind to buy the kid an ice cream, but a lot of things stopped me, one being with my act of philanthropy will the kid think that this is easier, I can just act sad an hungry and people would buy me things to eat and might be some money as well. The kid was actually trying to make a n honest living, with one act I did not want that to change. I am no expert at child psychology, so my action might not have caused the change at all, but I did not buy him the ice cream.
This is were nature as a leveler kicks in, the crowd eased it was nearing eight and the park was closing. The ice cream vendor calls the kid gives him an ice cream, and takes no money. Perhaps he understands the plight of being a ten year old hungry boy, envying the lives of the kids that passed him every day in and out of the park.
At that point all characters involved in this incident moved on, the ballon boy might to some pavement nook, the ice cream vendor to this thatched house in some slum and me to my apartment.
This is when, is it too much to ask there is an ice cream for every kid on a Sunday summer evening?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Occam's razor
If you have watched the movie Contact, you would be familiar with Occam's razor (pronounced AHK-uhmz). Occam's razor is a line of reasoning, where the simplest answer is considered the solution.
There is no simpler theory than Occam’s razor to deal some of the daily or occasional dilemmas life throws at you.
Most of us apply Occam's razor without our knowledge of it; say when you have consulted 2 mechanics regarding the problem in you car. One of them tells you that I think it’s the engine, there seems to some problem with the pistons they are not firing correctly, timing problem, the rings must have got jammed. The other says looks like the rats have eaten your cable that is connecting the engine cylinders that is why they are not firing. The latter is the correct as it’s the simpler answer. In my case I choose the 2nd mechanic and he was right.
Apply it to your interactions with doctors you will see that you would have applied Occam's razor.
Now apply it to a situation in your daily life, let me know a few instance might be we could debate them.
There is no simpler theory than Occam’s razor to deal some of the daily or occasional dilemmas life throws at you.
Most of us apply Occam's razor without our knowledge of it; say when you have consulted 2 mechanics regarding the problem in you car. One of them tells you that I think it’s the engine, there seems to some problem with the pistons they are not firing correctly, timing problem, the rings must have got jammed. The other says looks like the rats have eaten your cable that is connecting the engine cylinders that is why they are not firing. The latter is the correct as it’s the simpler answer. In my case I choose the 2nd mechanic and he was right.
Apply it to your interactions with doctors you will see that you would have applied Occam's razor.
Now apply it to a situation in your daily life, let me know a few instance might be we could debate them.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Destiny with a sense of Irony!
For the past few weeks I have been talking to myself on adding a few more hours into my day, so that I could work on my fitness. The only way you can add hours is by starting early. I had this inner though the last weekend, Monday was the day I decided to jumpstart my day with my fitness activity.
I was up with the lark at 5 AM, came down the stairs, with Anil Ambani in mind, confident that I would do a decent run of 5 km. But destiny is not without a sense of irony; here I am taking poetic license here to connect irony to iron. The reason is that the Iron shutters were locked, I screeched the watchman’s name but with no response. I headed back to the apartment called from the intercom, no one picked up. So I decided to get innovative with fitness, Shwetha was quick to suggest one, cut the carrot and beans. Carrots being the tougher set than the beans, so I did my counts of 12 *3 on the carrot and the beans. That was my workout for day1 of attempting to jumpstart.
Day 2, I was woken up by the alarm at 5 AM, but I cited the excuse that Tuesday was an auspicious day to start a noble activity like fitness.
Day 3, woke up at 5 AM, it was extremely hot, so was up in a flash and down the stairs, my tryst with destiny continued. It seemed like I was a pearly gates pleading for Peter to open the door. I think Peter would have let me in, but Dinesh my watchman was not budging. But I did not like the workout in the kitchen, so headed up to the terrace, walked on the terrace for 30 min, a few sets of exercises. Good start!
So the next time u see someone walking on the terrace of a building, he is not being lazy to go out in the open, but just pause to think about my tryst with destiny with a sense of irony.
I was up with the lark at 5 AM, came down the stairs, with Anil Ambani in mind, confident that I would do a decent run of 5 km. But destiny is not without a sense of irony; here I am taking poetic license here to connect irony to iron. The reason is that the Iron shutters were locked, I screeched the watchman’s name but with no response. I headed back to the apartment called from the intercom, no one picked up. So I decided to get innovative with fitness, Shwetha was quick to suggest one, cut the carrot and beans. Carrots being the tougher set than the beans, so I did my counts of 12 *3 on the carrot and the beans. That was my workout for day1 of attempting to jumpstart.
Day 2, I was woken up by the alarm at 5 AM, but I cited the excuse that Tuesday was an auspicious day to start a noble activity like fitness.
Day 3, woke up at 5 AM, it was extremely hot, so was up in a flash and down the stairs, my tryst with destiny continued. It seemed like I was a pearly gates pleading for Peter to open the door. I think Peter would have let me in, but Dinesh my watchman was not budging. But I did not like the workout in the kitchen, so headed up to the terrace, walked on the terrace for 30 min, a few sets of exercises. Good start!
So the next time u see someone walking on the terrace of a building, he is not being lazy to go out in the open, but just pause to think about my tryst with destiny with a sense of irony.
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