The Coconut Promise

My dad had always been a busy bee. Though his daily job made him spent about eight hours a day at the bank he worked, he was equally busy before and after the normal working hours and even on weekends with some or other engagements. He was one of those unique souls, who knew everyone in the whole family and at times even other families as well. Hence, he will be invited to all functions across those families, and managed to find time to attend them all.

A couple of years after his retirement, dad obviously had even more time on hand. He decided to further explore, his love for plants. He bought a small piece of land next to our home and started planting many kinds of trees and plants. While the veggies took major portion of the middle of the land, bigger trees were planted through the border of the plot. Among them he planted a few coconut trees as well.

Unlike traditional coconut saplings, he got a special variety which grew much shorter in height and yielded faster. The waiting time was much less, that you could expect the tree to start producing coconuts as early as three years. He was extremely excited about the prospect of a coconut tree that would be only as tall as a fully grown man with branches on which would rest bunches of coconuts that can be plucked while standing on the ground. Something which was impossible with traditional coconut trees as they grew to heights of a four-story building.

It brought a lot of happiness to dad as he promised my kids that he could soon let them stand right below a coconut tree and enjoy the feeling of plucking coconuts with their bare hands, like how you could pluck an orange or an apple.

He watered and nurtured the trees with this sole objective. Little did he know that before even the trees yielded coconuts he himself will be plucked from this world, by Someone mightier, from up above. Nevertheless, four months after he left us, we were back at the plot where he nurtured the plants and trees. The coconut tree was ready for my two kids.

They stood right below the tree which was once planted by my dad. There were a couple of bunches of coconuts hanging and they did exactly what their grandpa once told them. The tiny hands reached out and easily plucked the coconuts with their bare hands, while standing on the ground.

Promises are meant to be kept. Just that, some are realized while you are around, and others, maybe after you are gone...

കണക്കുകള്‍

എന്റെ തെറ്റുകള്‍ എണ്ണി എണ്ണി ലോകം കണക്ക് നിരത്തുമ്പോള്‍,

ഞാൻ ചെയ്ത ശരികൾ എവിടെ എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ പരതി.

തെറ്റുകള്‍ മാത്രം ചെയ്തവന്‍, എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ആരോപിക്കപ്പെടുമ്പോൾ,

എന്റെ ശരികൾ എന്നെ ഒളിച്ചു കളിക്കുന്ന പോലെ.

അന്ന് നിനക്ക് ഉണ്ടാവുന്നു ആ തിരിച്ചറിവ്,

ശരികൾ നിരത്തുവാൻ നിനക്ക് ആവാതെ പോയത് നീ ചെയ്ത വലിയൊരു തെറ്റ് മൂലം തന്നെ.

ശരികളുടെയും തെറ്റുകളുടെയും കണക്കുകള്‍ സൂക്ഷിക്കുവാന്‍ നീ പഠിച്ചില്ല എന്ന അക്ഷന്തവ്യമായ തെറ്റ്.

ചന്ദ്രനോളം എത്തിക്കുവാൻ രാജ്യത്തെ പടുത്തുയർത്തിയ പ്രിയദര്‍ശിനി നീ,

ചിരപരിഹാസ്യയായി തീരുന്നതോ അടിയന്തരാവസ്ഥ എന്ന തെറ്റിനാൽ അല്ലെ?

രാജ്യത്തിന്റെ നാഥേ, നിന്റെ വിധി ഇങ്ങനെ എങ്കില്‍,

വെറും ഒരു കുടുംബ നാഥന് ദുഃഖിക്കാൻ എന്തർഹത?

അറിയുക മാനുഷാ ഇതാണ് ലോകം,

കാലമെത്ര ആകിലും മാറുകില്ലീ ചിന്തകൾ.

നീ ഏറ്റ കര്‍മ്മപഥം നീ തന്നെ തുടരുക,

നിന്റെ വിധിയാളൻമാരെ അന്തിമ വധിക്കായി വിട്ടു നല്‍ക!

ദുരുദ്ദേശം

കഴിഞ്ഞ ആഴ്ച വീട്ടിൽ പുതിയ ഒരു മൗത്ത് വാഷ് മേടിച്ചു. ഇന്നലെ വൈകിട്ട് കിടക്കുന്നതിനു മുമ്പായി, എന്റെ പ്രിയതമ ഈ മൗത്ത് വാഷ് ഉപയോഗിച്ച് കഴിഞ്ഞ് വെള്ളം കൊണ്ട് വായ് കഴുകുന്നത് ഞാൻ ശ്രദ്ധിച്ചു.

മൗത്ത് വാഷിന്റെ കുപ്പിയിൽ വളരെ ചെറിയ അക്ഷരത്തിൽ, 'ഉപയോഗിച്ചതിന് ശേഷം വായ് കഴുകരുത്' എന്ന നിർദ്ദേശം കൊടുത്തിരുന്നു. പ്രായമൊക്കെ ആയി തുടങ്ങി എന്ന വ്യംഗ്യാർത്ഥം വരുന്നതു പോലെ ഞാനൊരു ഡയലോഗ് കാച്ചി. 'കുപ്പിയുടെ പുറത്തുള്ള ഇൻസ്ട്രക്ഷൻസ് ഒന്നും കണ്ടില്ല അല്ലേ?'

ഓണം കഴിഞ്ഞിട്ട് ആഴ്ചകൾ പലതായെങ്കിലും ഉരുളയും ഉപ്പേരിയും എല്ലാം കൂടിയുള്ള ഒരു മറുപടി, ബൂമറാങ് പോലെ എന്റെ നേരെ ചീറിപ്പാഞ്ഞു വന്നു!

'ഒരു ഇൻസ്ട്രക്ഷൻസും ഇല്ലാത്ത ഒരു സാധനം പതിനേഴ് വര്‍ഷം ആയിട്ട് ഒരു കുഴപ്പവും കൂടാതെ ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നു, പിന്നെയാണ് ഒരു കുപ്പി!'

അടിക്കുറിപ്പ്: ഈ കഥയും ഇതിലെ കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളും, തികച്ചും, അല്ല, പകുതി സാങ്കല്പികം മാത്രം.

AI Avalanche! Business folks, are you ready?

I cannot think of any other two letter word about which the whole world has become so obsessed that not a day goes by in our lives now without someone talking about AI.

Come to think of it, there are hardly any personal or business interests in the modern world where AI is not deployed to bring in efficiency. So much so that IT companies across the world have been rallying to keep abreast with this high-speed train which created lot of frenzy that organizations now feel, missing the AI train is akin to experiencing the apocalypse!

Every aspect of software development is finding ways to metamorphose into this extremely fast and efficient version of themselves using AI. The pace is such that every company puts its best foot forward to enable their IT divisions to be ready to churn out applications one after the other at record speed. If everything proceeds in this rate, I am almost certain that we will see another Modern Times in making, the classic movie of Charlie Chaplin where impact of industrialization was represented very well.

Whether AI will create mechanised tech workers or not, one thing is for certain. IT companies across the world are sprinting ahead in full steam. The bigger question I have is for the business counterparts. Are you really ready for this tech onslaught? You all have been hearing about this new avatar of IT for a while now. Some of you, I am sure, will also be using the capabilities of AI and even enjoy the newfound freedom of defining, designing, developing and delivering technology enabled capabilities all by yourself. The pleasure of bypassing your IT teams is just an added advantage.

From what I understand, business teams across the world are yet to catch-up on this tempo. You will soon reach a stage when your IT counterparts will engage in a rapid-fire round with you, where finished modules and in many cases, completed products itself will reach you at a speed which was unimaginable in the past. If we are to trust all what is going around in the AI world, you will face one of the biggest avalanches of IT deliveries of all time since Charles Babbage first announced his primitive computer!

Here is my earnest appeal to dear friends in business and dear friends in IT who work with business teams. It is high time you warm up to the reality. Please be ready on the following two important fronts:

One where you will be required to up your game to speed up your act of testing the products that come your way. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) will still be required and probably be even more critical with AI enabled development becoming a norm.

Second is where, you will need to rewire yourself to think that whatever product ideas or enhancements you come up with, is all going to be developed and delivered by your friends in IT, unlike the past where only a percentage of your wishes were fulfilled. This will be the new reality propelled by the all-powerful AI engine! The game plan should be to treat this as an opportunity for your business to beat your competition on time-to-market than a burden to catch-up with your super-fast IT team.

All of these may sound a bit too good to be true today. But hey! No one believed in Wright Brothers or Alexander Graham Bell when they spoke first, yet can you think of a world today without aircrafts and phones?

The AI avalanche is coming. Be prepared.

AI enabled husbands

One of the most challenging tasks for husbands is to accompany their wives on apparel shopping. While there are a few who actively participate in the selection process, I believe, majority get bored and resort to scrolling through reels or reading a book or even catch-up on some sleep if the couch in the store is good.

I was not a vastly different husband material till the other day, when we were at a new apparel store at Changanacherry, my hometown. As usual, more than the sarees and dress materials, what interested me was the fresh piping hot coffee served by the store which I enjoyed while seated on a sofa when my better half went through half of the collection in the store. I changed my seating position and sometimes even started with my second coffee when she proceeded with the other half of the collection.

After some time, the guilty feeling in me for not helping my sweetheart, got the better of me. I got up and checked where she was. After a quick search I found her near the section where the store kept lovely looking materials that could be stitched to perfect dresses. She was checking at a few materials and were trying to imagine how each one of them will look in certain patterns. As I joined her, she pulled me as well into the imagination duty and I tried my best to imagine and gave certain suggestions.

That was when the idea struck me! I quickly took a picture of one of the materials and asked the AI offering of Google, which is named after a banana, God knows why, to do the imagination duty on our behalf. Believe it or not, I literally went bananas after seeing the result of the imagination done by the AI assistant of Google! Every one of the material my sweetheart took went through an AI transformation process where various dress patterns were easily created and helped with the imagination.

Prompts after prompts were administered and finally as we stepped out of the apparel store, my better half had a bag full of materials with a solid set of options to create the masterpieces she wanted to work on.

AI, you are a life changer!

A love story that keeps flying...

Al Ittihad road is one of the arterial routes connecting Dubai and Sharjah. As we stay in Qusais, this has been part of my daily commute to office. It is no secret that this road is perhaps one of the busiest in the whole of UAE itself. That obviously is not a reason to be excited about taking this route. There indeed is one other reason, a personal one, why I love driving through a particular stretch of this road.

Qusais and a couple of other towns are built around the busiest international airport in the world, DXB. Ittihad road is one of the key roads bordering the airport. After you cross the area where Dubai Police Headquarters is located, you will reach a virtual intersection where the Northern runway of DXB shakes hand with Al Ittihad road.

As I drove to office in the morning today, while nearing the intersection, a majestic A380 of Emirates made its appearance. It was a London Heathrow flight arriving in DXB. My heartbeat increased with sheer joy and numerous tiny muscles on my body worked overtime to manufacture goosebumps in millions!

This isn't the story of today. This is what I experience and happily cherish almost everyday, either on my way to office or way back home. My love for these giant flying machines go way back to the days perhaps when I started taking my baby steps. No wonder one of the oldest memories I have is of running out of my home whenever the humming of an aircraft engine was heard, and looking up the sky attempting to spot the aircraft flying at 30000 ft or above!

The only other entity in my life that could give competition to this sort of crazy love, is my sweetheart!

The love and story continues ✈️💙