The P-F-D Bell

During an afternoon slumber after an unusually heavy meal, I slipped into the dream zone, and was reading an inscription on a huge tower.
It read like this!


Ambition.. Whatever you do - go all out in doing it.
Half hearted attempts only waste time. Do not try - Do it.

Discipline yourself. - Everything needs to happen at a correct time and in a correct way.

Prioritize tasks.. - Some tasks are more important than the others and need to be done , regardless of the mood, will etc.

One task cannot take the time slotted for the other. - Once in a task , keep in mind that there are other things to be done and the earlier work has to stop.You cannot be an engine that takes hours to start and hours to stop.

Start and stop at an instant..

Forget the bullock cart - Become the jet plane. Do not wait for things to happen, make things happen.

Understand that there are some things that will happen at a later time. Do not fret over something that you want to do now, which will happen eventually later. There is a time for everything. and once you have set your priorities right, you will realise that the things that you missed out were not actually missed out, but were only a little later on the priority list.

Do not get miffed by things not going your way, things have a way of sorting out all by itself, if you give it a chance, if you meddle you can make it more difficult to resolve. If you have to take steps towards an issue, there will be some task that will present itself before you.

If too many things occupy your mind, breathe slowly and get one thought out at a time. Anything that happens in a fit of anger or stress will not be a good outcome.


No tasks come at a higher priority than health. In good health anything can be done.


Focus on a task at hand. When on a task, the integrity on that task should be unwavering.


Kill out multitasking. Understand that even when you multitask- for a small instance of time, you are doing only one thing. Concentrate on that one thing and do it well.
Multitasking kills concentration, it kills focus. Work on one thing and do it well.

Become the Jack of all trades and master of most.

Imbibe the P - F - D principle.


Prioritize every task you have. at every single point in time.
Always uni task, dont multi task, If there are 10 things you need to do, think which one is the most important at a current point in time, and understand why that task is the most important at that point. Once the understanding is clear. the importance of the task becomes clear and you would be able to devote more energy to it.

Once the task is decided according to the priority, ---

Focus. - Concentrate, become the magnifying glass and burn the task apart.
When on the task you should see only the task.
No way should you be looking elsewhere.

Look at the way Nadal plays his tennis. He has a single minded goal of winning.
You should not be thinking of your other goals while working on a current goal.
That will only make your job harder. Look at your goal only and then you ll find that the destination is one straight road rather than a crossroad of multiple highways.


Once the Focus is there - You need Discipline to finish it in the time that you decided. If there is no discipline , any task will go on for ever and then there will be no value if the task was finished or not.

Here You have to take special efforts to make sure that you keep your time lines correct. Time is the most important part in the Discipline wheel. If you respect it, your task will happen beautifully, else, they will only happen. If you are taking the effort, you d also want the dividends. You dont cut open a juicy apple only to test your strength. Results matter.


At difficult moments, when all seems lost and the will seems broken, keep the faith.
Have hope, since that can get you out of your greatest despair.
With hope your perspective changes, the half empty glass seems half full.

Believe in yourself,trust yourself, you can do it only if you yourself believe in it.

When you begin a task thinking that it is a priority and you need to do it,
ensure that you have the focus and the discipline to finish it and finish it the way you desired. Not the way it finally turns out.


Once you have made up your mind about something, do not look back on it and circumspect. Firmness is an important part of a great personality.
Think twice before committing. But once you have committed, there is no looking back.


Relate this entire anthem as a bell that keeps ringing for you and keeps reminding you to work hard. Only if you can keep this bell ringing, can you be successful in life.


Yeaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaah! With a groan resembling a wild boar, I woke up and stretched about, The dream was still vividly imprinted in my mind.


As I slipped out of bed and watched the sun set from my balcony - I just hoped then, that this dream stays on with me for ever.

P - F - D

Control + S

The other day, I was watching a computer game review show where they were reviewing the different games currently in the market. They had different varieties of games where people could muscle their way through, guns in hand or would race their way ahead with the best car of the lot.

Its a great way to live your life, isnt it? Fight your problems the best way you know, the daredevil approach. Face it head on and destroy your opposition. If there is something/someone troubling you, just pull out your .32 bore pistol and shoot the problem down. Now there is another thing to this. If the opposition kills you/wounds you, you just go back to the menu and reload from the previous saved version of the game and begin bam! bam! again.

How wonderful it would be if I could stretch this concept to real life. if I could Control+ S my life and blast my way ahead and not worry if my choices are irrational or outright silly. I could rewind and come back to the last saved version and nothing would ever go wrong, I d be in control.
Picture this! I have 10 minutes to reach a place and I am late. (The usual thing with me, you d say!) And I cannot miss this appointment and cannot be late. What would my normal course of action be? Practice an imploring line and beg for forgiveness for being late. Sounds wise? I d have rather driven my pulsar at 120 kmph through busy traffic screaming past citizens and vehicles alike. And if d hit a rampaging truck, I d do a reload and from the saved version, roadrash my way again.

But then there is one thing to note here. When you age, they say you become wiser and smarter and cleverer since you experience life, commit mistakes, suffer setbacks and learn. Learning makes a man wiser and such issues do not worry him anymore. He knows it from his previous lessons. So a Control + S may not teach you much. It may entertain you but not enrich you. Which is probably why, we d say - Life 's much more than a game.

The Hour Glass.

Sometimes I wonder who is your greatest strength and at the same time is your greatest weakness. Is it your confidence, your loved ones, your will ? At this point my mind is a little biased, My answer is Zeit or Time.

It can be your greatest strength if you can master it. befriend it and respect it. It can be your greatest weakness if you dont. But what should happen, if you befriend and respect it and understand it's value but you cannot master it. We are mere mortals and only incarnations would possibly hope to master it. But is being a good slave, an obedient one a bad thing at all? It should not be, isn't it? . But Hell! It is. The moment you are a slave of time,the word suddenly highlights itself like this - SLAVE.

There have been so many times that I have wondered, how did God come up with this 24 hour day algorithm and why didnt someone review his code and change the duration?
To say - 72 hours? Would I have mastered time then? Maybe not. I would still be upset that I cannot fit in what I want to, and keep praying that the sand from the hour glass falls slowly, But the sand granules rush through the small neck and Voila! A days is over and there are many things undone. Where you d want to take more care of your loved ones, work more for them, make them feel more special than they feel right now, do things close to your heart. Look at the azure sky and breathe a few breaths without having to think if this will compromise on the time meant to do something else.


All right! Enough said. So what do I do then? There is something called Zeit or Time management in which I would score zilch out of hundred seven days a week and twice on Sundays. I guess, am being harsh on myself, am not so worse off, But then if a diplomat would graciously address my concerns he would probably say ' A Development Area'. How I wish I could have various forms and each form could be assigned a role which would mean, My scheme of things would fit in Gods 24 hour algorithm. Or If I could live life by the Clock and not by my heart. Since both these options hit the wrong answer light: there is something which I ll have to do to conquer Time. I ll have to sharpen my will and will need to balance all types of food in smaller quantities, will need to find a way to eat a spoonful of each kind of food than eating a bowl of one and missing out on the other since I have no room. Will need to break my tasks into smaller chunks and try and get all tasks enough small chunks in a day. There is a saying that goes like this " Life s battles are not won by the faster or stronger man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can. I think I can. One day! someday!

Punefied Unification.

This is a story of 2 ducks - Tilu and Dilu. They were well known in the ducking circles -- whatever that means -- as cheerful and unique. They had this awesome friendship between them and used to go hunting together, eat the fishes together and look at the rainbow together. Tilu was a drake and just like Dilu the duck, was a true vagabond. He loved seeing new places, doing new things and taking care of Dilu. And Dilu was this truely talented duck with artistic hunting talents.She liked Tilu too and they used to happily spend hours together, enjoying the warmth and the fun.
One day, while doing a play at the All Ducks Water Festival titled "When Tilu met Dilu", they realized that there was more to this chemistry, than just buddyship. Both Tilu and Dilu explored this thought further and realized that both of them were in love with each other, love that cannot be measured by their Quackometers. Both of them professed their love for each other and the bliss was there for all at Duckland to see.

Just to complete the story, Tilu and Dilu lived happily ever after.

The Great Indian Spoofomania.

There are times when I watch television, and am amazed at the sheer silly creativity of the script writers, the absolute audacious way of giving birth to a crazy idea and the patience in stretching it five hundred times beyond its tensile limit.

Three cheers or rather jeers to Indian television -

The best or the funniest part is in watching Crime serials, which feature investigation trails. Now picture this!

Mr Ratan Ramsukhani is murdered in broad daylight at his palatial bungalow in Bandra. Before the first commercial break, The CID team reaches there. Now bear in mind, this is a team of 8 to 9 people all dressed to kill and with a keen talent to ask the most unexpected questions just before the next commercial break.This team will have so many ego hassles and individual compatibility issues that you 'd doubt, whether its just the producer's paycheck that glues them together.


With this team, you will have a forensic expert who dabbles with as many pipettes, colored waters,microscopes,and powders as would your neighbourhood pathologist.
And gullible viewers are taken back to a school chemistry ride.
"Sir, If we put his adipose tissue in potassium permanganate and it turns cadmium red, it means that he took the ecstacy drug 7 and a half hours before suicide"

What would you call that? Switch channels and come to the soaps, you now see so much color that, even a blind man can be bedazzled by the grandeur and the pomp of the fabrics.You 'd love the respect and the love oozing out of the huge studio bungalows, only that the respect fuels envy which fuels jealousy which fuels hatred which fuels villany which fuels repentance which fuels forgiveness which fuels love which fuels respect. Phew! After three hundred more episodes, its time for this cycle to repeat with a different character, and knowing that you 'd have more than a hundred such protagonists with several thousand distant relatives, the script writers can churn out stuff till seventeen generations after Eternity.

For people with sports on their mind, you have games/sports of any kind, always on.However I wouldn't be able to spoof away much here - am a true sports enthusiast, but I wonder who would care to watch a football match in far off Manipur, especially if, apart from the players, there are 2 people watching the game - the two football coaches - Isn't Sports about the crowd, the spirit, the fervour, the excitement and the noise? But maybe Doordarshan Sports, follows a different dictionary.


Television cannot be complete without the mention of The news. This is a view of the the world from within our homes, Our window to the vast unparalleled space outside us, The real or reel picture of everything that can be an event or probably not.Here we have men in gelled hair speaking to revered leaders, sportspersons, spiritual gurus - like they 'd address their dog, We have every News channel screaming that this piece of news is exclusively captured only on this one channel. If everyone shows you the same picture as an exclusive report, The word 'exclusive is a gross misnomer'. To get their news channel higher on the ladder, We see journalists treading on the sensibilities of the hapless victims, where the news is not about them - They are the News!. Oh yes! You also have very hairy bearded men who scream like their lungs dont care, like the microphones were not invented and go on about how a crime was committed giving you the most grisly details, killing your appetite for the day.


There 's so much more to spoof upon, but the lights have just gone out and with the television switched off, Sleep wants to spend time with me. And to her, I must listen, and I whfdjdf dfegedg , zzz zzz zzz zzz !

Inji and her story

A true story that never happened.

"Mom, I'm leaving for work; and will be late".Before her mom could react, Inji had galloped down the stairs of her fourth floor apartment. You wouldn't call her a workaholic, but a talkaholic or a eataholic.A day in the life of Inji would revolve around gossip, food, sleep and little or no work. When the day began, she thought that this would be one of her stereotyped days.. But!
Inji was 22, a thin, tall young girl who liked wearing heels the shape of stilettoes. Her height would give any man an inferiority complex and so would, her attitude. She was this -in your face- kind of a girl, who had an answer to every question, and if not, She had a question for every answer. Inji vroomed away on her scooterette, a bright red machine, which rarely saw speeds of less than fifty.
The speedometer was her adrenaline rush in the morning and even today, barely ten minutes after leaving her house, she had screeched into her office parking space.
People at the workplace greeted her with loud hellos, something which was commonplace. Everything around Inji had to be loud and noisy. And there was a special reason for the noise too. It was her birthday today. Inji had loads of sweets to be given off to her folks at work. This was her fun day.After a whole day of answering the phone, and the cake smearing ceremony- Inji decided to leave for the day .
But the day had not ended for her, she was to meet her other friends whom she had promised for dinner.
The dinner was just as she had planned.Music playing in the background, sumptuous food and an even better company. It was just getting better.Star sign talk was the order of the day, it seemed. "Injo!, But whatever you say, you are not a Scorpion - I mean, the characteristics do not match", said Arpita. "Oh, yeah Madam Linda Goodman you are the original" That was Shaurya, with a sarcastic smile. "That was rude, Shaurya, I do not get into the Schumachers and the Alonsos, Do I?" "Hey, Hey, Hey- Why are we fighting" interrupted Inji. "And such a trivial topic at that!"
"This isn't trivial Injo!, Seriously, you dont fit the part - You should have been a Libran, everything about you is so so Libran!". But one thing was certain, nobody could dispute the fact that after Linda Goodman and her shadow, if it was anyone closer to the signs - it was Arpita Chattopadhyay. A bookie to the core, and with a special inclination towards stars, tarots, numbers, palms. Her character analysis was immaculate. Inji smiled, "You are right, my birthday is actually on the 5th of October." There was deathly silence all around. Even the singer with his guitar on the stage paused, he was actually finding his next song. "Heehaaha", guffawed Inji. "Wait a minute, Jo - What is the 18th of November then"? "People, there was an incident that happened years back", said Inji, barely able to contain her chaotic laughter. "My school records show my birthday as the 5th of October, a definite mistake". Even the 200 pounder Arijit was now listening intently, having stopped slurping now. "What 's going on?, 5th October"? That voice was Tiara's, the detective in the group. She was not much of a reader, but the criminal psychology major had had too much of an effect on her. She loved the killer movies and forensics was one of her pet interests. "Let me explain" said Inji, who had now regained her composure."We had a goof-up, the birth certificate got exchanged with a certain Mr Pinto's daughter". And you all know the absent minded Mr Rasmus Pinto , my dad. He never checked the birth certificate until I was in the second grade". Stunned silence again. No one spoke a word. "What! Why are you people staring at me. That's the story. So in school, I wore colored dresses on the 5th of October. Children sang me the Happy birthday song on this day. That was school.." Tiara was the first one to break the silence. "There is something fishy here, This is not as transparent as it looks. What if, you are actually born on the 5th of October and not on the 18th of November"? Arijit moved the plate away to keep both hands on the table. Knowing him, this meant a serious moment. "Come on, folks - there was a goof-up, but you all know me since college right?" she paused for effect. "18th it is!". "But the Libran characteristics?" I dont have to tell you who that was. "I guess, your parents owe you a creditable explanation Miss Inji, No absent minded parent forgets to look at the birth certificate until his kid is 7 years old." Tiara seemed agitated and excited as if she had just started off on a murder trail.
Oops. That was some statement. Symbolically, the singer announced a 10 minute break from the live music and left for a pint of beer.That did set Inji thinking, If you see Inji and not hear her, she 's definitely thinking hard. The rest of the dinner saw Inji very subdued. "You may well, be Inji Ramanathan for all you know", remarked Arijit. Those words were not well chosen, Inji smiled a wry smile."Or What if, you are the maid's daughter and you were adopted by the Pintos ". "Oh, stop it! Tiara, Jo! Have the tortillas, You seem to have stopped eating".
Inji reached home and found her parents away. The plot thickens. Her parents were away on a late night movie show. She spent the next 2 hours like a prisoner doomed to walk to the gallows. Needless to say, the doorbell was louder than ever before.She waited for her parents to settle down and then confronted them. "What was the birth certificate issue, Dad?, Why the 5th of October?". "Err, Why this question, now?". Dad questioned. His forehead was all wrinkled now.Mom smiled a very casual smile. "Inji, We have to tell you this, It had to be out someday". "Bring it out, Mom" Inji almost shrieked."See, its not a case of absentmindedness on your Dad's part. We were warned that your birth had to be in an odd numbered month or your school career would have a lot of issues. October was even, so we got the ceritificate doctored to make it November. This was suggested as a way out for this problem" "And we did not want you to get worried about this unnecessarily". Dad added.
Inji was not entirely convinced, but was relieved. She reached her room and soon enough, Sleep conquered her- She had had a long day.
The next morning, while she was getting ready for work, she saw that her mom's bedroom was latched. Her Mom would normally not close the door. She heard her Mom talking on the phone, very very softly. She tried to put her ears to the door.
She heard her Mom speak, "We should not have lied to her yesterday".