Selflessness Vs Selfishness

Dictionary answers:-

Selflessness: It the act of sacrificing ones own interest for the greater good.

Selfishness: It is the act of placing one's own needs or desires above the needs or desires of others.

We generally perceive Selflessness or Altruism to be the greatest code of morality. Is it really true? Why are some of us perceived to be altruistic and some self-centered? It just depends on depth to which we analyze or view certain situations. Any altruistic behavior when analyzed to a greater depth will end up in selfishness (knowingly/unknowingly) and any self-centered behavior when analyzed to a greater depth will end up in Altruism (knowingly/unknowingly).

For example, take a small scenario; you have two friends Tom and Dick. Tom takes care of himself, doesn't involve much in your private space, doesn't offer solutions either; Dick on the other hand not only takes care of himself but also listens to others problems, offers solutions to it and shows due care and concern. Generally we perceive Tom to be self-centered and Dick to be selfless. This when viewed at a greater depth will disprove all our perceptions - Tom who is not helping others is actually making people to handle problems by themselves, making them self sufficient and making them realize not to depend on anyone else other than their own self. [Of course this is not his motive, his motive is neither not to help them. In fact he has no motives for others; he just wants himself to be self sufficient]. Dick on the other hand though solving problems of the day is not providing them a long-term solution such as making them self-sufficient, in turn he makes them dependant on him [Of course this is not his motive, he has not realized that it would make them dependant on him].

Coming back to the question, is self-sacrifice the greatest code of morality? 'Altruism' will answer "Yes", self-esteem would answer "No" (Courtesy: Ayn Rand). Altruism advocates you to take the decision of others; self-esteem advocates you to take care of your own 'self' and only yours. It's up to the individual to make a choice here. One might opt for any of the above, as their actions and reactions are not intentional in either case. But one should understand he/she is not an altruist because he/she is not, there is a blend of altruism and selfishness in his/her action; one should understand altruism/self esteem/any other code of morality should be in it's purest form to become the greatest.

Irony

Scene1

Marshal: I love u
Lily : ohh but I don love u..
Marshal: no no u love me. U r not understanding that. U r not realizing tat u love me. Blah blah..


Scene2 on phone

Lily : hiiii.. (starts narrating everything).....
.................................................................
..................................................................
Any updates?
Rose : Err no, nothing, nothing interesting. Have fun take care. [ as confident as possible ]


Deep inside Rose thinking of scene0. here it goes..

Scene0

Ted : hey hi..
Rose : I love u
Ted: No no this is NOT love. U r confused, v r just friends, u have never seen me more than a friend. Blah blah..
Rose : ok friend goodbye. :) :(

Mistake

This is my fav dialog from my fav serial..

There are certain things in life, where you know its a mistake, but u don really kno its a mistake, bcoz the only way to really know it is a mistake is to make the mistake and then look bac and say "Yup tat was a Mistake", So really the bigger mistake wud be to not make the mistake, bcoz then you go your whole life not really knowing if something is a mistake or not....

Does it make sense?!?!?!! :)

One more Shift Del

My close friend resigned her job and this made me write this post - One more shift+del from my contact list. Sigh..

Small rewind
First day at office, a thrilling pleasure though we know for sure there is nothing adventurous waiting for us. All of us got our official Mail ids. People started shooting mails like - “hey this my official Mail id. I will be checking this id regularly. Mail me here Keep in touch. Take care” - Shalini_V04@infosys.com, Aravind_Nair@wipro.com – Our yahoos and gmails were filled with these kind of mails. All of us very keen in noting down all other mail ids and more keen in sending their official mail ids to every one.

Looks like all these happened just a few days ago. But then i realize its been nearly 1 and a half years since i got stuck with this industry, when i started getting 'Farewell' mails from my friends who joined teh company with me. Some quit for higher studies, some for better pay, some for better profile, some for marriage and it goes on.

Initially i missed them all a lot and felt a kinda lonely(not exactly) when my contact list was increasingly filled with official contacts than friends. But then I realized this is practicality and one day even my id is gonna get changed from someone@somecompany.com to someone@nextcompany.com So get new friends every moment and enjoy your life where ever you are!!! :)

Software Engineer Vs Sandwich Maker

I always used to envy the life of the sandwich maker at our office. A small incident tat happened at the sandwich counter made me write this post.
After completing loads of work (still having loads and loads of incomplete tasks) I jus felt like having a break. So I jus called my team mate for a tea break. She suggested sandwich, so we went to the sandwich counter which is quite nearer to my cubicle. She ordered for a sandwich and I was sipping my tea. We were discussing about our dead(ly) lines, bugs, audits and so on till I finished my tea. It was at this stage we realised that the sandwich has still not come. My team mate went to the counter and asked the sandwich maker (will be referred as SM here on) “why is it taking this long?? How long can I wait? I have lotsa work”, he politely replied “Sorry madam this is not computer, it’ll take time”. It was at this stage I realised the SM was envying a SE’s (Software Engineer) life.
Here I list some of the comparisons between the life of a SE and SM.

An SE doesn’t have night lifts they call it night outs. We’ll have to slog for a long time and a SM is expected to be with us at least till 9.00PM in the night.

A SE is not sure about his code. He doesn’t know the output of his code (exceptions are not examples here) but an SM is sure of getting the sandwich whatever be the input, be it cheese or butter with onion or capsicum.

Server down, SE not able to execute a piece of code. Oops electric heater not working and SM not able to ‘deliver’ a single piece of sandwich.

SE will have loads and loads of work during the delivery time and will be relatively free the rest of time. SM will have loads and loads of work during our lunch breaks and tea breaks (though there are no company rules for a tea break we all have it a standard time at 10 to 11 in the morning and 4 to 5 in the evening) and will have al most zero work during he rest of the time.

A SE should have bottom line responsibility of a deliverable and any defect in the deliverable has to be mended by him. We should eat the sandwich however it is delivered.

An SE thinks “No dead lines, no bugs, no audits, no ties, no shoes. Lucky SM, wat a life!!!!” A SM thinks “No good salary, no ties, no project parties. Lucky SE wat a life!!!!”


well am not here to lecture u all tat “get contented wit wat v have”, but it jus striked me as I wrote it.

long time no see..

Hi hi hi.. bac again. Wat I did till now?At last got the call letter stating join on june26th. There are 3 parts here on:-
TRAINING PERIOD:
As any software company my job started wit the training period. I wrote an elaborate mail at the start of my training period, but unfortunately I was not able to post it as there was a problem with the blogging.
Now a small gist of it..
"training period was FUN" - there were hardly some ppl who told this and we were one among them. Our day starts at 10 in the night(v sleep all the day during our sessions :p ), and we go to bed usually at some 3 rarely at some 4 or even 5 in the morning. "Wat do u do til then?" I still remember the puzzled voice of my dad. There is no game tat v left untouched. Shuttle and table tennis are the ones v play regularly. I have tried all others like basket ball foot ball for the first time in my life. "Basket ball at 4'o clock in the morning? don repeat this. go to bed early" this is my mom!!
Rock climbing and squash are the ones which I din try.
There was a muliplex cini theatre in which they screened the football worldcup match. We really got the feeling of seeing a live match there.
Hey forgot to mention about my room. We were given a 3 star kinda accommodation during the training period. The rooms were air conditioned and I always slept only at 18 degrees.Man, I never expected the training period would be an extension of my college life enjoyment.

BACK TO CHENNAI
At last I cleared all the tests successfully and was posted in Chennai. Back to home is always delightful though we enjoyed a lot there. It was here I got the feeling I'm working and no more a student, training was more like college - module tests, integrated tests, sports and movies.

ON THE BENCH : I really enjoyed this period. My schedule was as simple as this:
Morning 8.00 - at FC chatting wit other bench mates till 9.00
From 9 till some 11 - reading all kinda magazines and news papers in all the building receptions.
From 11 till 12 - cheking the mails.
From 12 till 2.00 - at FC eating eating chatting chatting
In the afternoon the schedule will be random. we may go to the dorm n sleep or we may put a confrence chatting in the intranet messenger or bac to magazines.
"Y SHUD I LEAVE SUCH A COMPANY!!!! which pays me for reading newspapers and chatting wit my friends"

another interesting work tat i did wen i was on the bench : taking pics of all interesting things happeneing there. (well i got a new moto L7 mobile u see!! :p)
one of the happening thing was the GOLU. this is a very very small golu in a tiny cabin of my colleague..

there was a small golu at the FC also..


Next was onam celeb. there was an excellent flower arrangement for this followed by lotsa tradional games. this was one memorable day!!!


PROJECT : at last i was into a project tat marked the end of all these enjoyments :( well tats my job and have to enjoy it..

i'm bac

loooooooooooong time tat i came online, read some interesting posts (some mokka :p ), wrote some mokka posts ( some interesting) many reasons attribute to this:-

1. my exams -> though v don start our prep till the day b4 our exams(this time even worser), my parents does'nt like me sittin online in the exam season..

2. exams over on 24th.. wat then?? LASIK surgery for my eyes -> i did laser surgery for biddin farewell to my 3.5 soda boodi. un fortunately i doubt tat some 0.5 residual power is remaining in my eyes. Well its a very common phenomenon, laser does not bring down the power to zero always :((

well here goes the whole procedure at Shankara nethralaya :

it costs 16k per eye totally 32k.. had my power been 7 in one eye and zero in other eye, instead of 3.5 in both eyes i cud have saved 16k :(( totally 3 prelemenery tests. after each test i met the doctor and she always says " your eyes are perfectly alright and ready for the laser surgery.." and i was very happy. :)

finally on the day of surgery after paying the total sum of 32k, the doctor who is gonna treat me said " look here miss gayathri laser is a cosmetic surgery. if u ask me whether u should do laser or wear glasses i would suggest u to wear glasses..." followed by all the risks involved in it.. finally i walked in to the operation theatre and laid down, no anaethesia i was completly consious. i was asked to look at a green light. the procedure was not very painful. they opened the flap on my cornea, directed laser light into my eyes and burnt some tissue. this changed the curvature of eyes so tat the image of the objects tat i see fall exactly on the retina. thus power corrected.

post operative instructions were even more terrible. no face wash for 2 weeks(tat too in this hot summer :((), some 4 times eye drops for 2 weeks, always wearing karunanidhi glasses even at home, and no tv no net no books no paper.. i survived with suryan FM, radio mirchi and FM rainbow for a week.. FM ki Zindhabadh :p
After a long toil for 2 weeks hoping to remove my glasses (if no 0.5 residual power) SIGH..