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 ✈️💙

Always Try, Always Fail

For a decade and a half, I have been carrying my office laptop and few other accessories in a trolley bag daily to office. Unlike the typical office trolley bags, which are commonly used by business class travellers, I preferred the one with a single handle. The advantage about my model is that you could hang a lunch bag or carry bag on the handle and let the trolley bag carry that weight.

Many days, on my way back home, I stopped at a grocery store near my place. Milk was a constant purchase and certain days other groceries also got added. Considering sustainability, most often I carried a shopping bag which would be filled with the items purchased, and I kept the bag near the rear seat of my car.

As soon as I reached home and parked, I took my office bag out along with the lunch bag and I hang the latter on the trolley bag handle. The shopping bag filled with items from the grocery store would be next to come out. Here is when the game starts!

Invariably, I always tried to hang the grocery bag the same way as the lunch bag. Some days it worked. But the days when the bag is laden with lots of groceries, as soon as I start walking, the bag will start swaying. It is as though the bag adorns a personality of a pendulum that it starts swinging to left and right. If it followed the exact rhythm of a pendulum, it would have been still better.

The issue is that the grocery bag sometimes goes beyond the curves of the bag and takes a sharp turn and in the process, it even takes me down along with the. Laws of Physics are well applied there. I never knew this harmless looking grocery bag will teach me Physics better than my Physics teachers during my school time! Inevitably, those are the days I end up carrying the weight of the bag, literally on my shoulders. I am not worried though since my worries are nothing compared to how some people walk around carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.

The story continues, so does life…

PS: If you have a solution for this, I’ll be more than happy to hear from you. Please do not tell me to order online. I love the shopping experience at the grocery store and sharpening my social skills by talking to people. 

Secrets of Travel Light

Do you often see yourself dragging heavy bags during your vacation? Have you wondered if you will ever be able to travel light? Do not worry, you are joined by millions of travellers across the world who live with similar dilemma.

We were not that different, though over time there were a few things we learned with our trips that made our lives slightly better. Allow me to pen that down for you. You may find some of these tips useful.

For all of us, travelling to a destination obviously involve getting the required pairs of clothes for the number of days we are expected to be there at the destination. If you are used to buying new clothes for the vacation, this is where you could possibly make a change. Before letting you know what the change is, let me add a disclaimer that this option totally depends on the destination you are headed to and the economic viability of such a change. 

Before you buy all the clothes from your own city for the trip, do quick research about apparel shopping options at your destination. These days, it is a walk-in-the-park exercise to figure out available brands and their prices, including designs of your choice. If these match your preferences, do minimal shopping at your own city and plan a day or two at the destination, depending on your itinerary, to explore the apparel options. This way you have much lesser weight to carry from the beginning of your trip. There is also the added fun of shopping at a new city, especially if you enjoy that. 

Another aspect to be considered is, the weather at the destination. Pack or buy only those clothes suitable for the weather. How many times did you have unused clothes in your bags at the end of the trip because you never needed them at the location? All of those could be avoided, thereby directly reducing your weight. In addition, if you are heading to a winter location, instead of bulky and heavy jackets, try a layered clothing approach. This will, not just help you with packing, but also with effective use of clothes at your winter wonderland.

One other thing many people carry with them are food of different kinds. This is especially true for vegetarians since many times, options for them are quite limited when they travel across different countries in the world, especially in Europe and some places in far East. Even for those who are not used to the European smoked meat and other kinds of food, their options for food are very less. Hence, they carry ready-to-eat and other varieties of food with them.

For many, these not just add to the weight, but can also pose an issue with Customs officers at certain countries. An alternate to this is, in many countries if you could locate good supermarkets, you could get options including ready to grill meat, salads and various other options that you could easily prepare at your hotel room if you have a kitchen or a kitchenette. Alternately you could get a compact grill with you which helps you prepare the food at your convenience and preference.

For those things you necessarily need to carry, ensure that you find light weight alternatives. Get rid of cardboard boxes and glass materials if you tend to carry any items that come packed in these materials. Learn to apply minimalism in your trips, where possible, so that you do not end up carrying unwanted things with you thereby just adding to your discomfort.

Remember, you are travelling to see the world and experience new things. It is not to take your home with you wherever you go. Sometimes the perceived inconvenience gives you new avenues to explore, that may turn out to be one of the best experiences from your trip.

Wish you a happy and light travel. Bon voyage! 

സൂര്യനെ ഒളിപ്പിച്ചവൾ

 പണ്ട് പണ്ട്, എന്ന് വച്ചാല്‍ വളരെ പണ്ട്, നാം ഇന്ന് കാണുന്ന ഈ ലോകം ഉണ്ടായി കുറച്ചു നാള്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോള്‍ നടന്ന ഒരു കഥ ആണ് ഇത്. 

സഹ്യന്റെ പടിഞ്ഞാറ്‌ സ്ഥിതി ചെയ്തിരുന്ന ഒരു വനഭൂമി. അതില്‍ നിറയെ മരങ്ങളും സസ്യലതാദികളും ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. പല തരത്തിലുള്ള ചെടികള്‍ക്ക്‌ ഇടയിലും, അതീവ സുന്ദരികളായ പുഷ്പങ്ങളോടു കൂടി ഒരു ചെറിയ മരം നിന്നിരുന്നു. ചെമ്പ എന്നായിരുന്നു അവളുടെ പേര്. 

ആ കാട്ടിലുള്ള മറ്റു മരങ്ങളും ചെടികളും എല്ലാം അവളെ ചെമ്പ മരം എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു പോന്നു. ആ വിളി പിന്നീട് ലോപിച്ച് ചെമ്പരം എന്നായി മാറി. വളരെ സുന്ദരമായ പൂക്കൾ ഉള്ളതിനാൽ മറ്റു മരങ്ങളെക്കാൾ, കിളികളും മൃഗങ്ങളും ചെമ്പരത്തോട് ധാരാളം സ്നേഹം പ്രകടിപ്പിക്കാറുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ഇത് ചെമ്പരത്തെ തെല്ലൊന്നു ഗർവിഷ്ടയാക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു.

അങ്ങനെയിരിക്കെ ഒരുനാൾ ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ താഴെ ഒരു പുതിയ ചെടി വളർന്നുവന്നു. അത് വലുതായി, അതിലൊരു അതി സുന്ദരമായ പുഷ്പം വിടർന്നു. ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ പൂക്കൾ സുന്ദരികൾ ആയിരുന്നെങ്കിൽ ഈ ചെടിയുടെ പൂവ് ത്രിലോക സൗന്ദര്യം വിളഞ്ഞാടുന്നതായിരുന്നു. സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ പോലെ വെട്ടി തിളങ്ങി നിന്നതിനാൽ അതിനെ എല്ലാവരും സൂര്യകാന്തി എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു. സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ പ്രശസ്തി ചെമ്പരത്തെ വല്ലാതെ അസ്വസ്ഥയാക്കിയെങ്കിലും ഒരു കണക്കിന് ചെമ്പരം ആ ചിന്തയെല്ലാം മാറ്റിവെച്ചു ജീവിച്ചു.

പക്ഷേ ഒരു നാൾ ഒരു സംഭവമുണ്ടായി. അത് ചെമ്പരത്തെ ശരിക്കും തളർത്തി കളഞ്ഞു. സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ സൗന്ദര്യത്തെപ്പറ്റി കേട്ടറിഞ്ഞ സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ അവളെ കാണുവാൻ എത്തി. തന്റെ ഉജ്ജ്വലപ്രഭാവത്തിനു ചേർന്നവൾ തന്നെ ഇവൾ എന്ന് ഭഗവാൻ തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞു. അന്നുമുതൽ സൂര്യകാന്തി സൂര്യ ഭഗവാന്റെ പ്രേയസിയായിത്തീര്‍ന്നു.

ഇതിനെല്ലാം സാക്ഷിയായി നിന്നിരുന്ന ചെമ്പരം അസൂയ കൊണ്ട് തിളച്ചു. എങ്ങനെയെങ്കിലും സൂര്യകാന്തിയെ ഒരു പാഠം പഠിപ്പിക്കണം എന്ന് ചെമ്പരം തീരുമാനിച്ചു. അങ്ങനെ ഒരുനാൾ വീണ്ടും സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ അടുക്കൽ എത്തി. കുറച്ചുനേരം കളിചിരികൾക്ക് ശേഷം സൂര്യകാന്തിയും സൂര്യഭഗവാനും വിശ്രമിക്കാൻ തീരുമാനിച്ചു. നന്നേ ക്ഷീണം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നതിനാൽ സൂര്യ ഭഗവാൻ വേഗം തന്നെ ഉറക്കം പിടിച്ചു.

ഇതുതന്നെ നല്ല അവസരം എന്ന് കണ്ട് ചെമ്പരം പെട്ടെന്ന് സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ എടുത്ത് തന്റെ ഏറ്റവും സൗന്ദര്യമുള്ള ഒരു പൂവിനുള്ളിൽ ഒളിപ്പിച്ചു. സൂര്യൻ മറഞ്ഞാലുള്ള പുകിൽ പറയേണ്ടല്ലോ? നാട്ടിൽ എങ്ങും ഇരുട്ട് വ്യാപിച്ചു. എല്ലാവരും പരിഭ്രാന്തരായി ലക്ഷ്യമില്ലാതെ ഓടിത്തുടങ്ങി. ലോകം തന്നെ അവസാനിക്കും എന്ന ഘട്ടം എത്തി. മറ്റു ദേവന്മാരെല്ലാം സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ അന്വേഷിച്ച് നാടൊട്ടുക്ക് അലഞ്ഞു.

ഇതിനിടെ ചെമ്പരം സൂര്യ ഭഗവാനെ ഒളിപ്പിച്ച പൂവിന്റെ അകത്ത് മധു നുകർന്നിരുന്ന ഒരു വണ്ട് ഒരു തരത്തിൽ പുറത്ത് കടന്നു. ചെമ്പരം ചെയ്ത മഹാപാതകം, വണ്ട് എല്ലാവരെയും അറിയിച്ചു. ദേവന്മാർ കൂട്ടത്തോടെ വന്നു സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ പിടിയിൽ നിന്ന് മോചിപ്പിച്ചു. എന്താണ് നടന്നതെന്ന് അറിഞ്ഞ സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ ചെമ്പരത്തെ ശപിച്ചു. ആ ശാപത്തിന്റെ ഫലമായി ചെമ്പരത്തിന് ദേഹമാസകലം സൂര്യന്റെ തീയുടെ ചൂട് അനുഭവപ്പെട്ടു. എന്നാൽ ചെടിയോ അതിന്റെ പൂവുകളോ കത്തിച്ചാമ്പലായില്ല. 

അന്നുമുതൽ ആ വനത്തിൽ ഉള്ളവരെല്ലാം ആ ചെടിയെ 'ചെമ്പരത്തി' എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു!