Everything happens at it's appointed time.

This is not a worthless post.

I have been guilty of myself feeing at times that I do things, that I make them happen. But a clear looking at things, shows otherwise. I have never done anything, it is the circumstances that induce the happening, and I act as an agent of circumstance.

If I have goals as of now, those goals might have a utilitarian purpose of giving me motivation towards something. But it ends there. Beyond, goals just give me suffering.

I say it because I have seen it. It is true.I still cherish many a fantasies. But I am sure that they all must go for good. They have no existence in reality. They are fearful projections and hopes. I guess the ego does this because it feels that by making such a projection, it might be realized. What's that, the mind's version of the law of attraction? Clearly, it is not working.

When this nonsense hope and fantasy go away from the mind, I can then have an honest look at my real situation and take action. Before that, I am just passing time.

And as such, if something were to be realized or manifested in front of me, it will all dictate it and it will happen. In that, I have no say.

There is absolutely nothing to do...

Faux meeting

"Dude, will you come to a meeting with me? I am the marketing manager of my company and you are my freelancer friend who is our critical asset." said Aditya, whilst we were sitting in our office. I looked at him, confused. We, actually are lowly and insignificant coders. Programmers in the ABAP language. So I had no clue what he was saying.

I asked him what it was all about. He told me that his friend Kausubh(a.k.a KP) had told the CEO of his company that he was busy for a company meeting, when in reality, he was going to do something else, concerning his own freelance work. The CEO said that he too would like to attend this meeting. KP got caught in a bad situation, since off-course there was no actual meeting.

So he called Aditya for help. They decided that they would have to arrange a make-believe meeting in which Aditya played Chief Marketing Manager of a company we didn't actually work in, and I would act like a freelancer friend who was a "precious asset" to the company for the multiple valuable customers I hypothetically got.

I thought about this whole idea for a while and considered the risk.

"Dude, let's do it." I heard myself say.

So much fun.

We got ready, and went downstairs to a plush restaurant. I waited there as Aditya went out to get the CEO who was with KP. A vacant lemonade that Aditya had ordered, stood there, lonely. I sat on the other side of the desk, half nervous. The waiters looked at me suspiciously. Or maybe that was just my imagination.

The minutes passed, as there was no sign of him coming back. I decided to play with the apps in my cellphone, in an effort to make myself less awkward.

More than 10 minutes later, Aditya arrived with the two men. Quite recognizably, the CEO was dressed in a light blue shirt and overall formal look. KP had a less formal look, maybe since he was exceptionally well built.

We shook hands warmly. I tried to exude an air of confidence and sophistication. The CEO looked at us with gladness. We were his new customers. The four of us took our seats and Aditya started showing the websites made by a firm he had previously had a brief stint in. So we were a web designing firm that catered to big-fish clients such as a famous Indian football club, and a Paris based cosmetic company. He explained on while I gave some counter-productive interjections.

"So, you make websites" said the CEO, " why are you now interested in education?"

Aditya froze for a moment. Then he started.

"So... err.... we are a company.... who.. supplies to it's clients with premium quality UI-UX solutions and now we are thinking of doing this education thing...So that...err....we can get in touch with people who know about UI-UX ... and we can know who all are good at this thingy..."

"Basically," I ventured "we're looking forward for some quality talent acquisition...."

The CEO smiled politely at me and quickly looked away. Did I screw up?

Aditya then went on going on the same lines for quite some time. The CEO, who finally seemed to have lost his patience started explaining the services that his company provided. We tried to look assertive, yet casual to some degree. I couldn't pay much attention to the details he was delving into. The situation in which I was in was hilarious and beautiful.

The restaurant had a beautiful and mellow ambience, the air-conditioning was mild and soothing while a gentle music was playing in the background. Many successful looking people were all around us. But I wan't paying attention to them.

I thought about how this guy I had just been introduced to, KP felt about this whole thing. Did he regularly face such scenarios?

Aditya started some serious negotiations now. The CEO was listening sincerely.

"So what kind of people can you attract to us?"

"That depends on the kind of institute that you choose from our list. You know, actually what we give you is a platform to attract students.... err..."

I felt like talking again: "You know college students typically have much overconfidence when it comes to UI-UX.... They think they know everything while in reality they have no idea of industry standards."

I basically described myself.

The CEO looked amused, and smiled as he nodded at me. Cool.

Five more minutes of Aditya followed. He is an expert negotiate. I was wondering whether to tell that we were getting late. The longer we spoke the more the chance that our cover got blown.

The discussion now turned to quotations and payments. Aditya was asking for good deals. My brain was hardly working. In the end I said, "Maybe we'll let Jugal take the call here." (Jugal was some guy who actually worked in the company we were pretending to be in.)

"Off-course" said Aditya "I shall be forwarding all this to Jugal."

There was some chatter that I didn't follow. The CEO wanted another meeting. They started discussing timings. KP insisted that the next meeting should be with Jugal.

"Dude, we need to leave" I interrupted.

"Yeah you go and call Jugal"

"Yeah, give me Jugal's number"

......awkward......

"Oh, Huzefa, why don't you go to Mr. Sharma up and I will catch up."

He said Mr Sharma in an urbane accent that softens the 'r's. I felt stupid. It was time for me to leave.

I said a quick 'jaldi aa' in order to make myself feel important. Then I left the place and went upstairs in the office....

The whole thing lasted about 40 minutes.

Five minutes later, Aditya came in with some khachoris and samosas in a small packet. As we sat there, and ate, we laughed like crazy. We recounted details of all the faux pas and the successes we had. He had done it all to save his friend's ass. I did it because I thought it would be thrilling.

It was so thrilling !

You don't have any questions. All you have is answers.

Our Greatest Delusion

Life vs. The Internet

A great part of our personalities and a huge part of our life stories today can be attributed to the Internet. This is not a good thing, I have realized, off late. The internet, in my honest opinion, has done more harm than good to me personally. I want to elucidate a few things here, and express what I have been realizing in bits and pieces.

An illusion of being connected:

The internet, through social media and messaging apps, gives us a comfortable feeling that we can contact anyone we want, anytime we like. It also gives us a feeling of being in touch. However, as I realize, it is a big illusion.

Social connections online, in my experience, does't increase communication between people, but counter-intuitively reduces it. It, in my experience, it puts a chasm between people who would otherwise feel nostalgic about each other. Miscommunication over text and passive aggressive behavior online, opinion feuds, and false judgement over tastes and culture are other things that go on over the internet social scene.

In real life, we depend on one another in intricate and complex ways. Communication is rather smooth and we see other points of views more clearly. In real life, we try to get in genuine touch with another person by actually taking efforts to get in touch. We get influenced in our decisions, and tend to have less of a herd attitude.

The internet is an illusion of connection, when everyone is separate. Life is the illusion of separateness, when everyone is connected.

The illusion of Smartness

Search engines gave us the power to search anything we wanted when we wanted them. It meant that school and college projects and assignments were nothing more than googleing the term and plagiarizing from one source or another. More often then not, those sources might be plagiarisms themselves. There is usually much unnecessary and impractical information to be found, and this, more often then not, causes an information overload. Ironically, very little of that information is truly retained in memory.

In real life, if we need to know something, we need to study it, feel it and experience it to a more wholesome degree. This might look slow or dumb, but it gives to wisdom and holistic well being of the mind.

The internet gives the illusion of being a smart-ass when in fact, you know nothing. In real life you know it when you know nothing, and thus chances are, you'll make an effort to be open minded to new knowledge.

The illusion of tolerance

If you haven't noticed, everything on the internet, is structured around the way you behave. You views are recorded, your likes and dislikes dictate what you will be exposed to in the future. This is true in both search and media. The result is, the world will seem surprisingly tolerant, since only like minded people are allowed to mingle and express their views.

In real life, we meet all sorts of people and make and effort to accommodate them within our world view.

The internet wears tolerant facade. Real life is tolerance in practice.

The illusion of Abundance

The internet is the home of hype and instant gratification. As is everything is projected in the most flattering light. The lives of people are photographed and uploaded with the best smiles and poses. The best sort of food is always on display. There is food porn, word porn and also porn. There are also cats.

In real life, things are harder to get and are much more gratifying. The food tastes and feels real. The words are more meaningful and come in some context or life situation, rather than just being random quotes.

The internet shows abundance, when truly it is scarce. Real life looks scarce, but is truly abundant.

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But clearly, the internet is just a tool. We are responsible for our own lack of discrimination.

Who is Jed Mckenna?

The teachers we need will always be there when we need them; no reason to track down somebody else’s. -Jed Mckenna.

In March, this year, I was going through YouTube videos on self improvement as I often did in those days. One video titled 5 books that will change your life caught my attention. The guy in the video was a well known pick-up artist, Aaron, from RSD.

Now, like most people, I too was tired of redundant self help books and tips, but lately I had liked David Deida's books just for the heck of it. Besides, I had nothing better to do.

So the first among his recommendations was this strange "Spiritual Enlightenment" trilogy having these 3 books:

1. Spiritual Enlightenment: The danmdest thing.
2. Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment
3. Spiritual Warfare

All three written by a person named Jed Mckenna. And since I had nothing better to do, I went ahead and read these books. And it blew my mind.

I have never felt the same about any other book ever. And I have read hundreds if not thousands of them.

Jed Mckenna

It is August now, and I am still reading and re-reading  those books. They have been of such enormous value.

But this post is not about how awesome those books are(which they are). I only want to know, who on earth is Jed Mckenna?

In the narrative of his first book, he is located in an "ashram" known by locals as the Jed-zone somewhere in the central states of the U.S. In the second book, he's somewhere in Europe. In the third, he rents a house in rural Mexico. In another book he wrote, he was back in America, where he had previously rented a mansion. These days, he's living in Cambodia, where he has an ashram. But nobody clearly knows exactly where. There are no photos of his on the internet, despite being popular. No YouTube videos, no book promotions. Nothing.

But all this secrecy, even though clearly on purpose, seems effortless for him.

How does one do that?

I'm not a popular person, but if you Google "Huzefa Saifee", I do pop up. It's a small world,you know. And Here is an author of 5 very successful books, but not a photo to be found, no video, no biography.

I find that amazing.