Hard work that beats genius ..

Being a tennis buff, I do wait for grand slams, very eagerly ! US Open being the last slam of the year, does boost that anxiety a bit more.

However, since I got the news, that Rafa is out of the tournament because  of ligament issues in his knee, I am not getting that urge to dip me in to the couch to watch the match.

Not fiddling my fingers on smart phone to check how the draw progresses. The interest has remarkably dipped.

And not because, I am Rafa fan or I do not have respect for the games the other greats play. Its more of connection to the game is missing.


After all Roger is a genius. Joker is perfectly programed machine. But it is Rafa, who wins over the genius, by pure hard work and perseverance. And that gives hope the common man. They don't have to be genius !!

Civility ..

Not a single day goes by where we do not hear the comment on how we Indian's behave in comparison to advanced economies, such as USA.

Be it in media, your show off manager at work who worked there for a few years,  or celebrity talk show host like Oprah - " They still eat with their hands !!".

And true to it, we see people sleeping on the floor of railway stations,  fighting to go ahead in the ticket queues, throwing left over food or beverages in public places.

Last Tuesday, when I was stuck in a New Jersy airport, in a long long check-in queue created by "system failure", I had the true measure of civility.

The queue was long. People standing for 2 hrs plus in their positions with luggage, family etc.

Fist 20-30 minutes were very very civil. As the time went on, the patience stated toiling !

People started first sitting down, then sleeping on the floor. The line squeezed uncomfortably, for a culture that takes offense in physical proximity to the person ahead of you. Food was trashed right on the floor, so that they don't have to leave their position and walk up to the trash can.

Swearing was audible and in the air, even though it was a family place. So much for civility, that took a clear back seat when a the extra comfortable life, became just a tad bit un-comfortable.

I felt home :)

And to sum it up, when the line moved after 3 hours and started backing up at security check in, one real gentleman in business suit was instructed by the security to throw the left over water in his water bottle before he can pass through the x-ray machine. And irritated he was, he dumped the water right on the machine. A momentary loss of control of anger, and was instantly an outlaw with cops cordoning him off.

Nevertheless, the security line got delayed 15 mins more to clean up the mess for all others behind him.

Desperation ..

Stuck in one of the worst airline check-in system failure event !!! The great United Airlines flight from Newark to Frankfurt and the dreaded system failure.

Over reliance on technology. The check-in systems went down in the middle, and the queue built up. Built up for more than half kilometer, and by 2.5 hrs. Standing in the line, for 2.5 hrs, I could hear a lot of sighs ! Lot of anxiety of missing the flight, although UA started announcing that the flights are not going anywhere without people in the line. But the snag continued.

And then the announcement came, where they offered free upgrades for people who can travel the next day, free change in plan - no extra charge for extra luggage - so on and so forth !

In an attempt to save face, make some people with flexible plan to go home and come back next day.

During this packed event of unilaterally standing it out, forever, I over heard this couple ! The wife was traveling somewhere. The husband was in the queue with her, supporting through the delay.

He was definitely jittery, and so were most who feared missing the flight.

After, un-intentionally following the conversation, I could easily understand that the husband really wanted to be alone for a few days :) Desperate.. and the thought of his wife flying out was making him happy inside. But the system snag got him !

His wife kept saying, "I really dont have to be there tomorrow. I can go even 2 days after. Free upgrade, more luggage !!" She was getting excited around it. While the husband was smooth talking her in to having patience and wait it out !

Finally, the line moved ! And the husband looked relieved although the wife was OK.

As it moved a few feet, I could not avoid the guy sending a iPhone message - "She is goin dude .. plan is on. will meet ya in 20".

Scale blind-spot ..

My flight to SFO from Frankfurt was not the regular one. This time, I was kind of excited to get in to the new A380, humongous airbus.

They have done a nice job of keeping all the economy (950 seats) in the ground floor, broken in to many compartments, with multiple sky bridges connecting. So that boarding and un-boarding becomes parallel.

Upper deck is entirely First and Business, creating enough separation between cattle class and rich class.

Good so far. So the kind of scale issues one would expect in boarding and un-boarding the airlines have taken care of well.

Now, when the journey finished and I had to come out to stand in the immigration line, I realized the scale blind-spot. All of a sudden 1200 people (more than twice of what one plane really carries) together queuing up at the same number of counters.

It took more than 2.5 hours to clear the line up.

My experiments with truth

Something I should have read a long time ago !! Long long time ago. Being a book lover, I feel ashamed that I ve not read the "experiments with truth" - auto biography of Mahatma Gandhi for so long !

So, when I had the first opportunity to sit on a 24 hrs flight, I picked this book up. Much to my surprise, its so refreshing after 90 yrs of being written. Nothing has really changed.

The "Mahatma" known for Amhisa - non-violence, that is universally known as the greatest ever piece of ammunition to throw British out, tried the meat-eating to be strong to throw British out in the first place.

End of the day - its all experiments ! And some do come true. Help one out and become a trusted tool. Not all tools are perfect for all jobs. For sure !!

Mahatma, before he was known as mahatma, was sure that being strong by eating meat, will make Indian's as strong as British rulers, and was the way to fight them out of the country. And this, when eating meat was a sin for him, his religion and in the view of his family. He tried it in hiding !!





The intention was very much the same. The experiments were different. Some failed, and one clicked. That's all that need to click.

Simple yet profound !

As I go on with this book, I will have few more interesting excerpts here in betaal-speak !

progressive lenses .. regressive technology

Its a master con, that I should have deciphered on my own. With the slightest bit of logical reasoning.

A pair of glasses, that cost a fortune, would heal the dent on the pride when one turns 40. huh !! !

Bi-focal vs. multi-focal a.k.a Progressive lenses. The moment of truth always occurs after its over.. aint it ?


These damned pair of expensive glasses, come with lots of pain - headache, botched vision.

And, it was all so clear - simple logic like "glass once made is fixed, and its the eye muscles that need to do all the work to make sure the progressive glasses progress well".

But the logic failed, once again, on time :)

Warning to all those becoming 40, and I am sure all of you will be. When you go to your ophthalmologist to check your sight, don't buy the progressive lens crap. Never !

Its regressive !! hiding behind progressive .. and painful too.

faith ..

One of my close friends and colleagues, posted this fact (not a story) ! Pretty amazing.


A man got a dream that there is a temple buried in some place, and was asked by the God himself to go uncover it.

He ignored the dream once, and then twice.

Third time - he could not sleep after getting the same dream with vivid details of the land and what he is expected to see when he excavates that land.

He goes and narrates the dream to the land owner (which belongs to my friend and colleague's family). They had trust in his persistence and did the excavation !

And guess what ! There was a Krishna Idol (unique one with mustache and with Rukmini - no Radha),  underneath. Scientists estimate that idol to be 400 yrs old !

There is a subconscious connectivity with the supreme after all.. !??? When the mortal minds can not explain it leaves it to be explained by "faith".

Needle in the eye !!

I have serious needle anxiety. So when the doctor said, a minor surgery need to happen in my left eye to take care of a small cyst, I freaked out !!

And the Dr. was not helping much ! No talk, no explanation of how the procedure is going to be. He just said, come over when you have 30-40 mins, and we will do it.  I kept asking for what the procedure would be.. a run down !

He did not answer the question - but asked, "was there any injury in the eye ?" I thought back and remembered a bad poke in my eye months ago in that portion, by my own spectacle frame !

He asked, was it painful ? I said, yes .. painful for almost a few hours, but then life moved on.
Then he said, were you afraid before that happened ? I said NO.. I did not know it was coming !! So there is no way I would have been afraid :)

He said, this surgery will be almost painless, in comparison to that. Only difference is that, you know when the needle will go in. Of course followed by a warm smile.

I got it done, the next day !!

Limits of need..

We all know that "needs" have no upper limit. Lots of philosophers talk about it.
When human being gets something, he sets the goal for the next. Most of us, live through it - so let me move to the real point I want to make :)

Met a person, via. a close philosopher friend, who used to be a mover and shaker in the IT corporate world. Successful in his career. Who is also a real life case of "The Monk who had a Ferrari" - quit all that, went to periphery of the city, took over a few acres of land that he inherited and started farming for a living. He shares his produce with workers. No money paid. He home-schools the kids. Has a few cows for milk and fertilizer. A small pond in the yard.

Again, nothing unheard of so far. We have seen a lot of people doing that now a days !
However, one thing this person said - which was profound !!

"Just like the need does not have an upper limit, it does not have a lower limit too." Which means, one can take stuff away one by one from his/her list, and will still have something to give up.

Product positioning ...

Betaal has been quiet for a while. Yes ! Focus moved to some other, more private writing. But the writing did not stop. However, I got a few messages from "anonymous" readers of the blog to start putting my thoughts again .. but continued to sleep on it.

My not-so-anonymous friends at the tea table, would suggest not to stop. Ignored those too for a while.

But what woke me up to open "Betaal Speak" after a long while is the creativity of a small business owner, who is trying to advertise his "False ceiling and Roofing" business on the web !! And without paying a dime to "google" :)

I had written an article here long time ago - stake on the roof ! Which of course shows up in google search if one does search on "Roof". He finds the article and sends me a simple comment - "Nice article ! Thank you .. For false ceilings and roof work please contact " ! 

Product positioning, embedding in to the content :) ala a Karan Johar movie !!!