राम सरूप तुम्हार

I am posting this here as its one of my favourites from ramcharitmanas sung by lata mangeshkar and since its in hindi, whenever i have to read it it takes a ton of time to find. Besides she has not sung all the doha's and i wanted it here in one place.

Starts at Ayodhyakand - doha 126 - ram swarup tumhar

* राम सरूप तुम्हार बचन अगोचर बुद्धिपर।
अबिगत अकथ अपार नेति नेति नित निगम कह।126॥

भावार्थ:-हे राम! आपका स्वरूप वाणी के अगोचर, बुद्धि से परे, अव्यक्त, अकथनीय और अपार है। वेद निरंतर उसका 'नेति-नेति' कहकर वर्णन करते हैं॥126॥

* सुनहु राम अब कहउँ निकेता। जहाँ बसहु सिय लखन समेता॥
जिन्ह के श्रवन समुद्र समाना। कथा तुम्हारि सुभग सरि नाना॥2॥

भावार्थ:-हे रामजी! सुनिए, अब मैं वे स्थान बताता हूँ, जहाँ आप, सीताजी और लक्ष्मणजी समेत निवास कीजिए। जिनके कान समुद्र की भाँति आपकी सुंदर कथा रूपी अनेक सुंदर नदियों से-॥2॥

* भरहिं निरंतर होहिं न पूरे। तिन्ह के हिय तुम्ह कहुँ गुह रूरे॥
लोचन चातक जिन्ह करि राखे। रहहिं दरस जलधर अभिलाषे॥3॥

भावार्थ:-निरंतर भरते रहते हैं, परन्तु कभी पूरे (तृप्त) नहीं होते, उनके हृदय आपके लिए सुंदर घर हैं और जिन्होंने अपने नेत्रों को चातक बना रखा है, जो आपके दर्शन रूपी मेघ के लिए सदा लालायित रहते हैं,॥3॥

* जसु तुम्हार मानस बिमल हंसिनि जीहा जासु।
मुकताहल गुन गन चुनइ राम बसहु हियँ तासु॥128॥

भावार्थ:-आपके यश रूपी निर्मल मानसरोवर में जिसकी जीभ हंसिनी बनी हुई आपके गुण समूह रूपी मोतियों को चुगती रहती है, हे रामजी! आप उसके हृदय में बसिए॥128॥

* प्रभु प्रसाद सुचि सुभग सुबासा। सादर जासु लहइ नित नासा॥
तुम्हहि निबेदित भोजन करहीं। प्रभु प्रसाद पट भूषन धरहीं॥1॥

भावार्थ:-जिसकी नासिका प्रभु (आप) के पवित्र और सुगंधित (पुष्पादि) सुंदर प्रसाद को नित्य आदर के साथ ग्रहण करती (सूँघती) है और जो आपको अर्पण करके भोजन करते हैं और आपके प्रसाद रूप ही वस्त्राभूषण धारण करते हैं,॥1॥

कर नित करहिं राम पद पूजा। राम भरोस हृदयँ नहिं दूजा॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जिनके मस्तक देवता, गुरु और ब्राह्मणों को देखकर बड़ी नम्रता के साथ प्रेम सहित झुक जाते हैं, जिनके हाथ नित्य श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) के चरणों की पूजा करते हैं और जिनके हृदय में श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) का ही भरोसा है, दूसरा नहीं,॥2॥

* चरन राम तीरथ चलि जाहीं। राम बसहु तिन्ह के मन माहीं॥

भावार्थ:-तथा जिनके चरण श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) के तीर्थों में चलकर जाते हैं, हे रामजी! आप उनके मन में निवास कीजिए। जो नित्य आपके (राम नाम रूप) मंत्रराज को जपते हैं और परिवार (परिकर) सहित आपकी पूजा करते हैं॥3॥

* सबु करि मागहिं एक फलु राम चरन रति होउ।
तिन्ह कें मन मंदिर बसहु सिय रघुनंदन दोउ॥129॥

भावार्थ:-और ये सब कर्म करके सबका एक मात्र यही फल माँगते हैं कि श्री रामचन्द्रजी के चरणों में हमारी प्रीति हो, उन लोगों के मन रूपी मंदिरों में सीताजी और रघुकुल को आनंदित करने वाले आप दोनों बसिए॥129॥

* काम कोह मद मान न मोहा। लोभ न छोभ न राग न द्रोहा॥
जिन्ह कें कपट दंभ नहिं माया। तिन्ह कें हृदय बसहु रघुराया॥1॥

भावार्थ:-जिनके न तो काम, क्रोध, मद, अभिमान और मोह हैं, न लोभ है, न क्षोभ है, न राग है, न द्वेष है और न कपट, दम्भ और माया ही है- हे रघुराज! आप उनके हृदय में निवास कीजिए॥1॥

कहहिं सत्य प्रिय बचन बिचारी। जागत सोवत सरन तुम्हारी॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जो सबके प्रिय और सबका हित करने वाले हैं, जिन्हें दुःख और सुख तथा प्रशंसा (बड़ाई) और गाली (निंदा) समान है, जो विचारकर सत्य और प्रिय वचन बोलते हैं तथा जो जागते-सोते आपकी ही शरण हैं,॥2॥

* तुम्हहि छाड़ि गति दूसरि नाहीं। राम बसहु तिन्ह के मन माहीं॥

भावार्थ:-और आपको छोड़कर जिनके दूसरे कोई गति (आश्रय) नहीं है, हे रामजी! आप उनके मन में बसिए। जो पराई स्त्री को जन्म देने वाली माता के समान जानते हैं और पराया धन जिन्हें विष से भी भारी विष है,॥3॥

* स्वामि सखा पितु मातु गुर जिन्ह के सब तुम्ह तात।
मन मंदिर तिन्ह कें बसहु सीय सहित दोउ भ्रात॥130॥

भावार्थ:-हे तात! जिनके स्वामी, सखा, पिता, माता और गुरु सब कुछ आप ही हैं, उनके मन रूपी मंदिर में सीता सहित आप दोनों भाई निवास कीजिए॥130॥

* गुन तुम्हार समुझइ निज दोसा। जेहि सब भाँति तुम्हार भरोसा॥
राम भगत प्रिय लागहिं जेही। तेहि उर बसहु सहित बैदेही॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जो गुणों को आपका और दोषों को अपना समझता है, जिसे सब प्रकार से आपका ही भरोसा है और राम भक्त जिसे प्यारे लगते हैं, उसके हृदय में आप सीता सहित निवास कीजिए॥2॥

* जाति पाँति धनु धरमु बड़ाई। प्रिय परिवार सदन सुखदाई॥
सब तजि तुम्हहि रहइ उर लाई। तेहि के हृदयँ रहहु रघुराई॥3॥

भावार्थ:-जाति, पाँति, धन, धर्म, बड़ाई, प्यारा परिवार और सुख देने वाला घर, सबको छोड़कर जो केवल आपको ही हृदय में धारण किए रहता है, हे रघुनाथजी! आप उसके हृदय में रहिए॥3॥

* जाहि न चाहिअ कबहुँ कछु तुम्ह सन सहज सनेहु।
बसहु निरंतर तासु मन सो राउर निज गेहु॥131॥

भावार्थ:-जिसको कभी कुछ भी नहीं चाहिए और जिसका आपसे स्वाभाविक प्रेम है, आप उसके मन में निरंतर निवास कीजिए, वह आपका अपना घर है॥131॥

Go Set A Watchman - I want to eat my hat

(these are my personal views, they are not aimed at hurting any business or sentiments, but based more on experience of what has happened in such events)

Harper Lee's latest book was discovered in attic after 50 years. The entire publishing world and especially the publishers are electrified.

The cover tells us the more about the readers than the author. If people have to be told who harper lee is by mentioning "to kill a mocking bird", on the cover, either the quality of reading has gone downhill, or the publisher didn't want to take chances. 

The real fun will be to watch all the "literary critics" falling over each other to proclaim it as the next classic, and how harper lee still has it, why harper lee is harper lee. Criticism of the author would just be like spitting at the sun. 

Once a decade such and event happens when a book  is a sure bestseller in the literary world before it's even published, just riding on reviews. No one will talk of the reorders that will come, just the number of copies in print. 


This is what will happen.The only winner here will be e-books. People will flock to the store to buy their showoff physical copy. Go to coffeeshops and read it there. Sit and read it on the trains and airports . Will quote from it. 

All in effort to create that perception of taste and intellectualism. The book will reach NewYork Times best seller list, as anyways Harper Lee is a brand name when her books have been prescribed reading in entire america. Some rumours will also surface from "real literati" if this book too is authored by Truman Capote, and in rarified atmosphere this will be a good topic of discussion for 3 months.

After that the machinery will stop. The rumour mills and the world will move on to the next hip thing. Re-orders perish. Stock stuck. A brief surge during year end when the best books of the year list comes out, or harper lee is given a second pulitzer. Some push for the Nobel prize in literature given all the racism in news and political focus. But i am sure that publishers would have bet on a HUGE print run, and even after all this, i feel You will be buying this book for 2 dollars next year for sure.

Very possibly another "Rhett Butler's people" in the making. If the author had not published it for 50 years, may be there was a reason. You just don't write a book and then just forget about it.

I hope that for such an author my predictions turn out wrong and i eat my hat. But in the world of 50 shades of grey, i doubt that will happen.

What's the Dollar Value of Your Linkedin Profile?

What's the Dollar Value of Your Linkedin Profile?

Now this seems like a strange question isn't it? I agree. But I think, it has an answer, or at least a rough way of estimation for a feel good factor, so read on.

Linkedin is influential

Linkedin has been the single most influential platform to connect with professionals all over the world. One of the ways in which you can use Linkedin to the fullest is by buying premium accounts which means access to In-mail, and a little more reach via special features + metrics on how are you faring in profile views & rankings.

This directly means spend, if not Investment.

In my last pulse article, I tried to say that the subscription services are too expensive, unless you are making more back (unless its a corporate account in which case accounting is complex). By the end of this page, you find more reasons, and a different way of achieving the same objective.

How do you calculate a dollar value of your profile?

Which leads us to the question, How do you know the dollar value of your profile?

And to answer this, lets use a Linkedin feature itself. Its called Linkedin Business Solutions. 

Using this, you can create SUPER Targeted Ads. Its almost  sniper accurate, if you know what you want out of it. And it even proclaims so.

So, while fishing around it, i checked out the pricing models and what were they charging for a profile view. (Since at present i am in Tokyo, around 100yen= 1 dollar for a rough approximation)

Right now, 1000 ad views on Linkedin = 2 to 4 USD

The CPC (cost per click) on an AD = 2 to 4 USD.

Here is a screen shot from the Advertisement tool.

Let's calculate

So, If you bought the premium account and your profile views jumped, it means that for every 1 click, to visit your page, is getting 2 dollars in your virtual piggy bank.

Dollar value of profile = 2 dollars X number of additional view your profile got

You can easily check the growth from your profile metrics page. It looks something like this.

Linkedin also provides you with your own vanity metric which you can keep trying to push up.

So if you are getting 100 profile views a week without doing anything, then thats 200 dollars of virtual value. So your profile is worth 200 Dollars a week. 

Remember, to reach your profile, your profile tile had to come up in a search or another page, and make the user click. If you were trying to do that using Linkedin Ads, linkedin would charge you 200 dollars.

You can also take a different approach and say suppose you had a commercial message on your profile. In such a case your profile would generate 1000 views = 2 dollars in 5 weeks. So your page value is 0.4 dollars.

Which means, if you are buying, its worth 200 dollars. But if you are selling, its worth 40 cents. (sorry to break it to you, but thats how advertising works).

An Arbitrage exists to benefit without Linkedin premium

Bottom line is that if you are paying 7-10 dollars a month for basic subscription, and you managed to get 5 extra profile views in that particular month, then you are even (by Linkedin standards). 

Now you can always claim that Linkedin advert is overpriced, but thats not the point here. The point is to achieve the same objective for less.

If you are an advertiser, you can see that there is an arbitrage here. The cost of an In-mail also happens to be around 4 Dollars each. 

So instead of buying an in-mail, its always better to create a tightly targeted ad on a CPM basis, and get your 1000 views.You will get access to all the same metrics, if you have targeted it to your profile page.

Want to reach out to Bill Gates?

In mail lets you write stuff, and guarantees a response, but if i have to reach out to Bill Gates, i would rather create an AD that would follow him everywhere on Linkedin and get a 1000 views than buy 10 In-mails via a premium account and then send him one. (if we wanted to do this just by spending money and nothing else)

Crazy right?  Do you think it will work?

A Note on Linkedin like subscriptions

I am a premium member on linkedin, and have been pretty active this month. This resulted in a nasty surprise today.

Today, Linkedin suggested that my activity is reaching "commercial level" of usage, and therefore i cannot search more unless i update to the next level on my monthly subscription.

The entire tech industry is working like a big classroom, where one solution is being copied endlessly by everyone. A decade ago, everyone was selling Software, and now every one is intent on selling subscriptions to help their top line. This is making companies make mistakes and ignore the bigger picture.

Strengths of a subscription based model

There are very simple reasons why any corporation wants to go into subscription based model

- Making sure that the income is steady and predictable

- Higher price can be charged on the whole, over a year, once price is converted to Byte sized amount. This is same as taking an instalment for a loan.

- The pricing can be flexible and can be easily changed for the exact same product and affected on a monthly basis. This means inflation can immediately be built into the price, rather than waiting for the next version of the product or going into a complex real world price changes.

Issues with subscription based models

But there are some issues, and they are more from Customer centric perspective

- The biggest being that customers do realize that they are paying more than they should.

- Inadvertently an organization on subscription model starts competing with random companies for the same share of customers wallet. Let me explain this phenomenon a little bit more.

- A company might delude in thinking that they are just charging 7 dollars a month, but a customer knows that he/she is paying a pile of 7 dollars every month.

- A customer is constantly evaluating his/her purchase decision on a monthly basis, and a call to opt out of subscription has a long effect.

Customers are making purchasing decisions every month : BAD

Suppose you bought linkedin as a lone standing product with a yearly subscription paid out once. In such a scenario, you would have made the decision to pay once. It would have been similar to deciding to purchase a car. But now that you are paying it every month, you are thinking of its viability every month.

This is bad for business. This means that even though the service might look affordable, you are constantly evaluating it and that leaves no margin for mistake, plus requires you to be useful + Cost effective every single month.

One can always argue for a premium pricing with better service, but with technology and technology products getting commoditised, this differentiation is getting harder and harder to achieve.

A Service ends up competing on product AND share of wallet.

Also now a service like linkedin would be competing with my netflix subscription, spotify subscription, car payments, rent, cable subscriptions, phone bills, Onedrive subscription, magazine subscriptions and virtually everything that i pay for every month.

If i had paid once, there was nothing that i could have done. But now if on a particular month, i want to cut down on the expenses, i can do so by unsubscribing. Think for a minute, what would happen. Which service would get the boot.

Also, with the low cost of exit from a subscription, if i have dropbox subscription, i may not go ahead and buy any other storage service. At least not in that particular month. So a company has my loyalty, but only till they are price competitive and don't make mistakes.

Acquisition costs are real, but no lock-in guarantee on retention

Which means dropbox has me till Microsoft doesn't lower the price on one drive. In such an economy, cost of customer acquisition is real without substantial control on customer retention. The lock in period is just 4 weeks.

You can't compete against free

In a bullish economy with flaky customers, there would be a VC fund out there willing to invest in a new start-up and there would be a service who would give what you are doing for free or at lower price to get your customers. If its not happening right now, means that there are other problems being solved.

Think of it in this way, Whats stopping Facebook (free service) from starting a linkedin kind of a service? Nothing actually.

If facebook does launch a free service, how much runway do you have with a subscription model? May be a couple of months. But with a licence based product like Windows, microsoft has been able to reiterate and find out ways to keep growing.

If facebook is the exact same platform and can be free, why should we be paying for linkedin?

Suggestion? 

As far as on my premium subscription, i immediately cancelled it, as the same search functionality is provided by google.

The suggestion? Right now the premium subscription is more of a tax on the money that you are going to make than an actual charge for value. Premium subscription is not costing linkedin any substantial spend.

So if you want to charge subscription, there has to be an actual difference in value than a tax over my profit.

Also keeping a subscription price comparative to more essential services doesn't make sense. If the prices are high due to lower conversion, and few are paying for many, then linkedin should make sure that they sell to the bottom of the pyramid at even lower prices.

Conclusions

If linkedin was advertisement free, i would have been happy to pay and bear the cost for some free users. I recently checked linkedin ad rates and they are charging around 80 rupees CPC. Then it doesn't make sense. Above all, search is a prime feature on any website, and the thought of putting a price on it, that too to UPSELL you to the next level seems a lot more customer negative. That was the whole point. Linkedin is playing like a monopoly, and i think the time is ripe for FB or others to jump in and increase the competition.

Would love to hear your views

Touched up Profile Photograph

Nothing tells me more about a person than a touched up profile photograph.

When i see such a photograph, its not just  a touch up that i see. I see a person trying to get a perfect shot and then trying again and again till they get the best picture. I then see them taking a look at that best shot with a look of dissatisfaction on how it turned out.

It turned out different from the way you think about yourself. You look different than how you think you look, and no amount of angle or lighting could capture that.

Then i see a dissatisfied person getting an app. Loading that photo on the app, and in more cases than not, adding that glow, removing that blemish, and making the skin look a little more fair.(i came across such a profile on linkedin)

Because these are the important things right? How people look at you and how they perceive you is being determined by the shade of your skin, and you wanted to look your best. Then you would go out in the world and judge everyone who was a little more tan than you.

You also wanted to successfully communicate it to people through a photo that you have made sure that your inner beauty is being reflected on your exterior self. Just in case they misunderstood it as a vain exercise.

People who put in a profile photo of salman khan, are in my world a little better than the people who touch up their photos. Why you ask? I don't know, but that is how it is.

All of this and tonnes of our other actions keep making our world a little more superficial and a little more phony. And a day comes when reality and fiction just crossover into each other.

Successful but not religious? Think again

The aim of any religion in the world has been to make good humans out of us. To bring happiness in our lives to walk on the path of righteousness.

The definition of righteous has changed from time to time, but the essence has remained the same. Don't harm human being. Earlier, the essence used to be that don't harm human beings because i said so. Now the essence is don't harm human beings because it will cause you harm.

To achieve this objective all major religions in the world have relied on stories. Stories that told of a hero or god's struggle, and how they remained righteous and overcame the struggle. The reasons for following and reading scriptures has been to understand what is good behaviour by examples as well as remember these people who walked the right path.

In our present world, the scriptures have lost value, but the human behaviour has remained the same. We still have the stories, we call them case studies.

We still follow lives, they are autobiographies. We still follow stories which tell us how to be good and successful. We think we are doing it to achieve more in life. But in the end, the principles of true success still remain the same.

 People who are successful know it inside them, that there are some things that you simply cannot do without repercussions . Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you are religious you will use terms like "karma".

Check out the life of any fortune 500 CEO. You can't drink to excess, you can't commit crime, you have to watch what you say, you have to be fair to people. All of these are the same values that any religion teaches us. The reasoning has changed.

To be successful, you have to be kind, thoughtful, considerate and polite. These values and behaviours are what oils the wheels of society. If you learn them, you are considered team player, and you grow and you succeed.

No religion explicitly forbids killing. There have been soldiers whose livelihood was to kill. But the reason behind the killing needed to be virtuous. We have had holy wars, and crusades all sanctified.

But all religions have considered it as an extreme solution. And when you have taken this path as the first option, there have been penalties.

Similarly in business, the tools of deceit, manipulations and frank underwoodian principles are deemed acceptable, but not as the first choice. Because any successful person out there will tell you, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you live by deceit and manipulation, they will get you ahead, but only in the short run. Remember 2008 financial crisis.

You can think whatever you want. All religions punish you on your actions and not thoughts, and if you have had to change your actions, because of a company policy, or your greed, or your realisation or ambition, its all the same. Action matters, not the reason .

Of course the available business literature doesn't give you these learnings in biblical language. All career focused books, and businesses looking at long term vision use similar language to explain it.

We use terms like skills development, communication, transparency and equality. We talk of equal opportunity, Corporate social responsibility and other things, which in my opinion is the new way of saying what's good and what's not good.

Be it a secular or a religious environment, we as people have taken a long time to realise that there are some truths that have to be held in high esteem to ensure survival. We have tried all other solutions to eliminate differences including wars and genocides, and the only solution that has come back and worked is the solution of acceptance.

Accepting people as they are and working on ensuring a fair and equal system. In business and In governance.

In My opinion, all successful people have had this in common along with many other things . All of them really old learnings, but with new branding. No actually strike that, the same learning minus the branding.
Thats all religion is. Following a path. Not the name by which you call it. The path still leaves, the name , may be not.
So look at your corporate behaviour again, with this new light. Do you think there is some truth to it?

Deconstructing American Action Series (Arrow series 3 actually)

After going through 16 hours of american TV series Arrow. I am a champion on the corny dialogues. I am sure the entire series is being written by some nascent script writing computer program, as there is no other way that the human mind can be so devoid of creativity.Its not just our saas bahu serials that have corny dialogues,but hollywood has them too.

Arrow season 3 explained in 10 sentences (for that matter any action series)

- How could you do this to me

Something shitty will happen, after which 5 episodes will go into hiding it, and then some one will eventually come to know about it, and this is the dialogue that will be delivered.


- I am doing this to protect you

Used to justify any irrational or inconsistent actor which is just being done by the character to further the plot and complicate things, so that after this they can mope around in one on one conversations for 3-4 episodes.

- I trusted you

Again after the character says this, go to the kitchen make your coffee, and when you come back after 10 minutes, you have not missed anything. Generally the 10 minutes will go into a volley of all the dialogues listed here in no specific order.

- (any random reasoning) + Because you are family

For example: I was lying to you because i love you and you are family. I did not come home for 5 years because you are my family. I lied to protect you because you are my family. You get where this is going.

- (illogical choice) + That is my decision to make

This means that the next episode is going to be this character moping, some water works and long flash backs. Example : This character after 5 boxing lessons wears a fancy superhero costume and gets beaten to a pulp on the streets by the thugs. The next time when all the heroes are rushing out, she is still going back the reasoning being "Its my choice to make"

- (some dead person) + Would have(or not have) wanted this

I am wearing costumes and going out on the streets to fight crime without any training as "x person would have wanted it". 2 episodes later, i am not going out on the streets any more as the same "x person would NOT  have wanted it". Bravo.

- i know you are hurting right now

I know you are hurting right now directly leads to heavy arguments + anger issues with one person storming out on other. So if you want to keep the issues unresolved and the communication NOT  to progress or may be you want to plug something in the next episode while you are thinking on the arc, this is the line to use.

- I know what you are going to say

This is a substitute for " i know you are hurting right now" line


- You are keeping secrets from me

Well when the character has been keeping secrets for arbitrary reasons and needs to kill 10 minutes in random dialogue before the next action sequence can happen throw in this line. The moment this line comes out, expect some pouting or storming out. Only once has this line successfully forced the person to actually go ahead and reveal the secret.


- I have to do this

When the writers have literally given up on writing any logical reasons, or know that the character's action can not be explained by ANY explainable reason, just throw in this line. This line is the epitome of lazy writing.

That's all for now, will add more if i find any.