There certainly were occasional disagreements and the rare skirmish, but the wise in the subdivision were able to resolve them. News of this special land spread outside and trade began.

A few of the residents would venture out to neighboring lands but this was out of curiosity rather to win something. Some curious outsiders visited this strange place, found a wealth of knowledge about inner and outer sciences and took some away to share in their lands. Yes, as the population grew larger, there were of course some unsavory elements where some thought they were better than others.

Over time, some new people with entirely different beliefs started coming in. They were absorbed into the land without much ado and left to do what they wanted. And as centuries went by, they had some new visitors — ones who wanted to capture this land and rule it. These new visitors found their beliefs and practices in contradiction to their own beliefs and sought to demolish them. Very few of the citizens succumbed to the new beliefs. The numbers weren’t enough since the majority resisted.

A think tank was formed and after months of market analysis, discovered that the root of this resistance was this unexplainable phenomenon! To attack this root, some resorted to violence, some to money. Some savvier folks resorted to badmouthing this unexplainable phenomenon. Their tactics were so successful that many succumbed. Many converted to the new belief.

Remember, the ones who didn’t convert still had the unexplainable phenomenon. They could not in their hearts think of badmouthing their conquerors, they still said “every path is valid” and watched mutely as the conquests continued. By not defending, they made themselves even more vulnerable. Ironically, their leaders kept defending the invaders rather than residents. The onslaught continued -the potential harvest was huge and the invaders with interminable resources kept pounding on the door.

After a few generations of these goings on, the subdivision’s new generation woke up. After a few hesitant rumbles, the roar began. The original descendants of the subdivision said “Stop”.

They said it because what the invaders were demolishing were not families. Not wealth. Not even some beliefs and traditions.

They were destroying the “unexplainable phenomenon” their DHARMA.

It was time to stand up. Because this DHARMA was worth saving.

For them. For mankind.

And of course, when a tiger that has been told it’s a sheep by the whole forest and wakes up and realizes its a tiger, nobody likes it, even some of the other tigers.

Its my choice.
Its my choice to empower myself. Not through my body.
But through my mind. My intelligence. My skill.
My compassion. My leadership. My passion. My love.

Its my choice to rejoice in serving my family. My children. My society.
Its my choice to seek happiness — not by following my whims but through mutual give-and-take.
Its my choice to do my duties. Sometimes as the leader and sometimes as the follower.
Its my choice to do it at home or at work. But also my choice to adjust to the situation.
Its my choice to win respect. Through understanding. Through wise compromises. Through maturity.

Its my choice to look at myself as beyond my body.
Its my choice to ignore vacuous statements from those
Who only identify themselves with their bodies.
With their sizes. With their body parts.
With the color of their skins or the shapes of their eyes.
With their clothes or paucity of them.
Who mouth and sing words that are only about a woman’s body.
Who objectify women for their living.

In order to
Have clothes, jewelry and cars that can fund an entire school.
Buy shoes at a cost of what a fellow woman may make in an entire year.
Throw parties that can take all women out of debt.
Its my choice.

A LOT!
Let’s say you are on a African safari and see a leopard chasing a deer. To (photo) shoot this fast-moving leopard, you need to increase the shutter speed. If not, as the leopard speeds up, the photo gets blurrier. (see background picture) However, even in the priciest cameras, the shutter speed can be only increased to some extent. Beyond that, blur is inevitable and your leopard looks like a badly smudged drawing of a toddler ☺

Now, think of your email inbox and social media feed. The speed in which emails and posts arrive is exponentially increasing And the shutter speed, which is your available time/attention span, can only be increased to some extent (unless you want to give up entirely on your beauty sleep!)

The increasingly fast-moving information feed is getting blurred. Your users have extended themselves to their maximum shutter speed. Can they read and retain your fantastic emails or posts always?

NO.

Events, last-minute reminders and time-based deals are getting lost in this avalanche. Unlike cat videos or silly polls, these have a short shelf-life.

Save them from getting lost.

Ensure they get read, retained, remembered.

WotNow — the social local calendar app is the simplest yet most effective way to put events right in your audience’s calendar.

While we wait (endlessly) for our law enforcement to be trained better and to forsake prejudices against colored or non-English speakers, it may be safe to give a letter to visiting parents.

It is better they keep the letter in a laminated cover in their top front pocket of shirts/coats and ask police to take it themselves (rather than in pants pocket and have the letter mistaken for a gun)

LETTER TEMPLATE TO GIVE TO VISITING PARENTS — PLS. SHARE

I do not speak English. (or I speak little English). I speak <Gujarati/Polish/Telugu/Chinese, etc>

My name is <name>. I am a legal <visitor/resident/citizen> to the USA. I hold a <US citizenship/Resident card/visa type> <number> issued on <date>. It is valid until <date>. I am a law-abiding citizen of <country>. I do not have a local ID.

I am visiting my <son/daughter> who is a legal US <citizen/resident>. They live at <address>. They can be reached at <home>, <cell>, <cell>. If they cannot be reached, please call our close friend at <cell>.

I have medical conditions <list>. I have allergies <list>. I am a vegetarian/vegan/kosher.
Thank you.

As a Gen-X parent, I roll my eyes as my grade-school children run a search on Google or copy a fact from Wikipedia and call it “research”!

However, the powers that measure and survey every detail of life have found this as a ubiquitous fact. Less than 18% of students ever crack open a book for research purposes, be it a text book or otherwise.

http://searchengineland.com/teachers-say-students-equate-research-with-using-google-138542

Yes, he found his needed facts in a few minutes and had found enough information in the links Siri gave to fill up his half-page.

Still, I wonder! Our “research” journeys in youth were unhurried (and slow, as my son might grimace!) — Visiting the musty library, interacting with the librarian, hunting for the right book, turning the pages of a fat book or encyclopedia and taking copious notes would eventually yield the necessary facts!! However, I do remember serendipitously* learning new things, building vocabulary and getting inspired. The journey also taught us patience, cooperation, seeking/bestowing help and teamwork.

What does Siri give other than time? Even the time it gives, it seeks back when it attracts my son to play a game or text a friend.

#musingsofGenX

*serendipitously — Medium says this word does not exist. I think it should.

Can you pass a day online these days without stumbling on a top 5 or top 10 or top n list these days? Publish a “Top something” — guaranteed to be top of feed and virally shared.

I was discussing this trend with a friend. She suggested this could be due to the increasing number of “attention-deficit” symptoms (4% of adults). Really? I went to check with my erudite friend Google. She threw up no less than 3 Top n lists in the first page itself. Go, check with her yourself. After going through each list, I am quite convinced that I and atleast 7 of my friends have ADD too.

Such is the lure of these lists that a smart entrepreneur has created a business out of it — Listverse! Since the credential of the authors seems irrelevant for these lists than for other articles, hundreds of bloggers who would struggle to write a coherent middle school essay happily pull in their version of “Top n of topic” in a jiffy! Even experts, who could produce beautifully crafted, insightful articles, instead opt for these shallow lists, with an eye on the number of views.

The Top lists reduce the content to bare skeletons. The nuances that come from experience are lost. The commentary and the rich essays of yore are redundant. The beauty of language of idioms and metaphors is superfluous.

The lure is definitely there — with time at a premium, with ADD lurking nearby, with the fear of missing out on something important, with the need to pull in some lingo to impress others — we follow these baits faithfully thus increasing their ratings.

Does somebody really care to vet them out? Do any of us dare to point out the errors in the list? Does it have to be the top 5 or 10 or will 7 be as good?

It is possible that these lists are driving business strategy, product decisions, buying decisions and even health diagnoses.

As a McKinsey consultant, I was drilled into the Rule of 3. Every idea or problem or solution had to have 3 bullet points to it. It didn’t matter if there could be only 2 or even a 4 or 5 legitimate points. The rule of 3 could not be broken! The stream that McKinsey possibly started has become an avalanche that seems to have a magnetic hold on us.

What do you think? Is this a trend you think could be beneficial or lead to shallow thinking? Chime in (while I go work on a Top n list)

If there is one skill I have consistently had in life, it is the ability to sleep well — I have looked on puzzled when people complained about sleeplessness. If that made me a baby, so be it.

But since the startup bug bit me, the said skill has been shaken in its hold on me. The designs, the issues, the vision for future, the marketing, the adoption — these play like a movie all day and all night long.

I wake up in the middle of the night to check on a feature and visualize how users will like or not like it. I dream of the glorious successes and of course, the potential disasters. I worry about this baby more than I worried about my human babies.

Is this normal? Is it adrenalin?

Can other citizens of Startupville console me and assure me that I am not alone?

Would you want tweets in your email? Emails in your Facebook wall? Texts in your Twitter feed?

No? I assume. You want them to nicely land in their “natural homes”. You want

• Text messages to drop onto your texting app.
• Facebook posts to land on your Facebook wall feed.
• Tweets to show up on your Twitter feed.
• Emails to... you get the idea?

Then, why do you put up when events don’t show up at their natural home — the calendar?

We enter events manually in our calendars — in our phones or online. Do we really want to struggle through entering/copying dates, times and locations? Do we not vastly prefer instead commenting on Facebook posts or tweeting or writing Medium blogs?

Just think.

Unless you have an elephant’s memory, you have to note down events. Especially when you are busy, involved in many activities and organizations.

But, as we see these event emails or Facebook posts or tweets increasingly in our mobile devices, in the car, while waiting in line, the more we forget to note it down. The more things we have to remember, the more events we have to attend, the more likely we are to forget them, miss them and regret not attending them.

Out of this predicament arose the idea of WotNow, the first-ever social, local calendar app — that brings to your phone events of interest automatically rather than you scouring through websites, wading through the mountain of emails, searching through old and evaporated feeds and tweets or God forbid, even skimming through brochures and paper flyers.

Let’s give events their natural home. Download and try WotNow.

www.wotnow.me

WotNow on Facebook

WotNow on youtube

WotNow on Twitter