Reverse Logistics-Where the new opportunity lies

Introduction:

Logistics is defined by The Council of Logistics Management as: The process of planning, Implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.

Reverse logistics includes all of the activities that are mentioned in the definition above. The difference is that reverse logistics encompasses all of these activities as they operate in reverse. Therefore, reverse logistics is: The process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal.

Therefore, it clearly follows from the above definition that reverse logistics essentially start from the point of consumption, and the objective of the same is to recapture the value of the product.

Rapid advancement in the complexity of the technologies, and the increasingly growing uncertainty on the business environments have forced the organizations to keep changing rapidly in order to survive. What were order winning qualities yesterday have become the bare minimum qualifying attributes for today.

Reverse Logistics or the reverse supply chain (R-SCM), features greater uncertainty as compared to forward supply chain flows or forward logistics. An easy way to resolve the excessive uncertainty is to introduce greater level of flexibility in reverse logistics (RL). Increased flexibility increases costs and complexity. Information technology is a key enabler in improving the supply chain; however most of the solutions today are designed keeping the forward logistics (FL) in mind. The reverse flow is different in a number of ways. First, product arrives whenever customers decide to return an unwanted item, or a retailer decides to pull slow-moving product, or a manufacturer institutes a packaging change, or any number of other possible causes. Second, the product is not all in new condition. Third, much of the packaging is damaged or shelf-worn.

Reverse Logistics can therefore be considered to be the process of completing the Supply Chain model which starts from the consumer/customer goes back to the manufacturer or a reverse logistics partner.

Literature Review

Reverse Logistics is a growing concern for almost all industries, primarily because of the large number of options available; the buyers are becoming more and more unwilling to buy something without the guarantee of return in case they do not like the product post purchase.

 “In recent years there has been an increasing need for companies to manage the reverse flow of materials in their supply chains. One reason is the increased frequency with which customers change their minds and return goods shortly after purchases. Firms have dealt with such returns for many years, but growth in mail-order and e-business traffic has increased the volume of such returns—customers unable to see and touch the items they are purchasing are more likely to return them.” (Gregory A. DeCroix and Paul H. Zipkin-Inventory Management for an Assembly System with Product or Component Returns)

Reverse Logistics, is not a new field, some of the products that we use have already have a stable reverse logistics process, e.g. soft drink bottles, expired medicines and drugs etc. a product recall, countries environmental norms that dictate the recycle of environmentally hazardous waste and so on. However in case of ecommerce the organization faces the following challenges that make the reverse logistics process a little more difficult than others:

a.       Inconsistency: Unlike in case of a soft drink distribution it is difficult to come up with a prediction model for the amount of Reverse Logistics that shall be generated in ecommerce. Also the forward and backward channels for a soft drink industry or a pharmaceutical industry are well defined, which is not the case in ecommerce.

b.      Lack of Standardization: The weight/ height/shape etc. vary across a very wide range of values in case of products in ecommerce. It’s a common phenomenon that the returned package in case of a sale made online may be tampered or incorrectly packed, incorrectly packaged items may sometimes lead to quality degradation in transit too.

c.       Quality Check: A Serious Quality check is required for the returned products in case of a return. The point of sales and point of exchange are different in the case of an online purchase, which adds further to the complications.

d.      Dissatisfaction among the customers: The returns if not handled properly can lead to serious dissatisfaction among the customers deterring them from making future purchases.

“The lack of good return channels is the main reason for the customers to give up on-line transactions. Many well-known foreign companies take reverse logistics strategy as an important tool to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and strengthen the competitive advantage. As a result, ecommerce development cannot leave the support of reverse logistics and the efficient operation of the reverse logistics also need e-commerce”.(Jian Xu - Study of Reverse Logistics in the E-commerce Environment.)

e.       Additional cost of restoring the product to the customer in case of a return.

Difficulties in Inventory mapping: returned goods are basically inventory in transit, provided they are in good re-sellable condition, but the uncertainty about the quality of the product returned to be resold makes the process of inventory mapping and valuation all the more complicated. “The insights and solution methods for traditional inventory systems (without returns) may no longer apply.” (Gregory A. DeCroix and Paul H. Zipkin-Inventory Management for an Assembly System with Product or Component Returns)

Outsourcing and development a Reverse Logistics ecosystem

There are many firms that have ventured into the business with a core competency of providing Reverse Logistics solution; some examples in India include GreenDust, MasterWorks etc. In some develop countries like United States there are firms like Seneca, WiseTek (Ireland, Finalist of E&Y Entrepreneur of the year 2013) etc that aim at creating a secondary market for the returned goods that are not in re-sellable condition.

These ecosystems consist of pooled resource which provide for a common return/exchange platform for more than one ecommerce companies. They have successfully made use of many statistical tools like control charts etc, for determining the amount of reverse logistics that are generated due to incorrect sales and have helped the companies to develop a FTR (First time right) sales model by continuous reduction of variance and increased conformance to the customer requirements.

For the goods that are broken beyond repair or are spoilt beyond the Minimum Acceptable Repair Quality (MARQ) they propose breaking down of the electronic goods received from the Reverse Logistics to extract the valuable metals like gold, silver copper etc that are use up in the manufacturing.

 As per a research from United Postal service (UPS)-Recovering Lost Profits by Improving Reverse Logistics: “One of the starkest examples of secondary market opportunities lies in the mobile phone industry. Every year, there are about 1.2 billion cell phones sold worldwide. The return rate for mobile phones in 2010 was 8% or 96 million phones that weigh about 16,000 tons. The average secondary market value for refurbished mobile phones ranges between 35% and 75% of the original value. The average retail value per phone is approximately $150. If liquidated on the secondary market, the manufacturer would recover on average $82.50 per phone. If a single manufacturer were able to resell only 250,000 of the phones returned to them, it could equal over $20M in additional revenue.” (Curtic Greve and Jerry Davis- Recovering Lost profits by Improving Reverse Logistics)

However the problem of reverse logistics in India is a lot different than those in the developed countries, we propose to identify the constraints in the existing system of Reverse logistics in the ecommerce industry of India. We therefore propose a model which may help reduce the (Cost of Quality Failure) CQF-External failures, without affecting the CTQ parameters for the reverse logistics of unaccepted goods sold through an ecommerce website. The model involves not only a slight cultural change to ensure its effectiveness but also requires IT support to understand and forecast the amount of reverse logistics that shall be generated at the point of exchange for the goods.

Growing importance of reverse logistics

Reverse Logistics is a least used differentiator for companies, when it can serve as a strong instrument for building customer loyalty. Companies can no longer afford to treat reverse logistics as an afterthought.

Ecommerce is growing at a remarkable pace in developing countries particularly India (due to high youth population and increased consistently growing IT sector). The paper aims at analyzing the use of statistical processes like Lean or Six Sigma can be used to improve and reduce the costs due to Reverse Logistics.

The size of reverse logistics markets in various countries is as shown in the Appendix-1.

Re-engineering of the existing business process for reverse logistics in India:

 Diagram below shows the existing process (As-Is) of a reverse logistics in India.

The flow chart (Figure 1) above shows the regular process of reverse logistics.

Bold arrows show the forward logistics for the product and information flow, and thin line arrows show the various steps involved in the process of returning the goods back in case the customer dislikes the delivered products.

The return process consists of minimum 8 steps numbered 1 to 8 (as compared to a simple forward logistics that completes in 3 steps only) in the diagram above, for the sake of simplicity we have not included the other major stake holders like suppliers etc, who shall play a vital role in case of defected products, also we have included a warehousing model and not a trading model, which is very common in ecommerce these days.

The major issues that can be seen in the model that exists include:-

a.       Excessive material movement for the purpose of quality verification.

b.      Correctness of the returns, (i.e. if the return is a valid return or not) is realized much later in the process.

c.       Quality of the product entering the reverse logistics chain is determined after the product has already entered the chain thus the decision of re-routing these products to the correct point of operations is delayed.

Proposed re-engineered process (To-Be)

The proposed model for handling the returns is as shown in the diagram below:

The model includes a step of Customer Quality Verification, in the forward logistics directly, thus making provisions for reverse logistics in the forward supply chain. It stands with a philosophy proposed by many researchers that forward and backward supply chain should not operate in sedition.

The purpose of including a Customer Quality Verification step, is to ensure that the quality of the product is not determined after the product has already entered into the reverse supply chain. The person who makes the delivery of the product shall help the consumer to immediately verify the product quality at the point of exchange and in case if the consumer is dissatisfied with the offering s/he can immediately call for a return. Since the product has not been with the consumer for much time before s/he asks for a return the Quality check stage as used in the As-Is model becomes redundant.

Other benefits that the proposed system has includes

a.       reduced movement of goods from the consumer to the quality centre etc,

b.      Since the repackaging of the product is being done by the delivery staff(in case of immediate returns), the probability of goods being spoilt on transit due to incorrect packaging is also reduced to a very large extent.

c.       Also, since all the stake holders involved in the process of forward and reverse logistics involved are connected via an ERP system the inventory mapping becomes easy (See Inventory disadvantages of the As-Is process).

d.      Customer satisfaction shall improve as the process aims at providing speedy returns to the consumer, the time to pick up the product from the consumer and perform the quality check on the same before moving the replaced goods (in case if the returned product has passed the quality test) is reduced to almost 0.

e.       The process efficiency shall improve, and the delighted customers shall make more and more repeat purchases thus helping the firm to improve their sales.

Limitations of the proposed Process

The process has certain obvious problems, the Customer Quality Verification stage, shall to some extent have a bearing on the speediness of the forward logistics, (Consider a single distribution van who could have covered say x distribution points can now cover, say (x – δ), distribution points only). Calculations below try to estimate the cost benefit analysis for implementation of the model.

Training Costs of the people delivering the products at the distribution point cannot be neglected. These professionals need to be trained in packaging the product back correctly and making the decision whether the return is a valid return or not. The degree of leniency to classify a return as a valid return may vary from a company to company and even from a product to product. However, for the sake of simplicity we can say a valid return is a return that is made for a genuine reason like:

a.       Product does not meeting the promised standards

b.      All components/items promised on the portal are not available

c.       Product is spoilt in transit

d.      Incorrect product etc.

The proposed model shall stand beneficial if:-

Total Cost of implementation of the proposed model < Losses due to Reverse Logistics 

Total Cost of implementation of the proposed model is the sum of the incremental cost that the firm shall have to bear if it plans to implement the process and the Opportunity cost that shall arise if the company discards the existing process.

Consider a single distribution van that could have covered say x distribution points can now cover, say (x – δ), distribution points only, thus there shall be a loss of covering δdistribution points.

We consider this as a simple queuing model with one server to understand the process further, the arrival of the products to be delivered is say λ (at the start of the day when the van leaves for making the delivery) and µ is the average rate at which the delivery van can make the delivery to the consumer.

Now, the reduced rate of delivery due to implementation of process is say µ_new will be

                        (x – δ ) / x * µ = µ_new  

The average number of orders that the van can now process can be given by:

L_q(new)  =  λ²/[µ_new(µ_new - l)]

As compared to the existing process where the average numbers of orders that the van can process are:

L_q  =  λ²/[µ(µ - l)]

Therefore the average number of orders that the new process will fall short of is: Lq-Lq_(new)

Say cost of falling short of one order is Rs. S thus the Overall incremental cost that the company shall have to incur is = (Lq-Lq_(new))*S

If the training costs are Rs. T, and the say the losses that the company is facing due to Reverse Logistics is Rs L.

The suggested model shall prove to be effective if:

(Lq-Lq_(new))*S + T < L

Concluding Remarks:

The proposed process can serve useful only if the costs for implementing the process are justified also one important consideration that the model strongly advocates is provisioning reverse logistics in the forward logistics process, the two processes cannot exist separately, and planning for reverse logistics should be done at the same time when the supply chain strategies are made. Reverse logistics requires the companies to delve much deeper and understand the reasons of returns and predict the acceptability of the products to the consumers who are making online purchases. Reverse logistics is a by-product of the sales made electronically that shall continue to exist as long as the business of selling goods on internet exists thus the companies must include reverse logistics as a part of corporate strategy, rather than considering it as an afterthought of sales. It’s said strength of the process is how it performs during adversities, and reverse logistics bear tremendous potential to help companies get new customers or lose the old ones. 

Some Fears are true...

Sometimes, reality is a little more than what we contemplate; human thoughts bounded by scientific rationality sometimes fail to see the obvious. What is unknown is not always divine, sometimes it may be demonic. Those who do not respect the line between demonic and divine, make stories and stories live long… longer than the people themselves.

Oblivious of their fate, the three hapless friends, Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun took the room together in the hostel of a reputed engineering college, the Room Number 823, where it all started. I’ve been to this room and what I share with you, is partly the famous stories of the reason why the room is locked today and partly my own observations. We know that curiosity kills the cat, but how many of us would still deter from exploring something that is unnatural or at least appears to be unnatural? Thanks to our scientific acumen, we need a reason to all occurrences, that’s how we declare something unnatural as natural, its only human too search coherence in some randomness when there is none, and no wonder humans could discover patterns, in climate or the stars in sky.
It was a cold winter night, when Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun moved into the Room, it was their “Day 1” in the hostel. Vineet was regularly surfing the internet when he saw a mail from Manad Khandelwal, it had a link to download a movie. Considering it just a random mail from some promoter of a movie, Vineet clicked it. Movie started downloading and to Vineet’s surprise the download happened in just 10 minutes. Which is almost 20 times faster than what it took him to download a movie of same size, from an under loaded server.
It was a horror movie, “The cadaver from Daman”. Some movies do have a strong impact on lives of individuals, little did Vineet know, that movie would have such a permanent impact on his life. Vineet invited Vishwakarma and Varun to watch the movie and they joined. Movie was about the life of a person who had lost his family in an accident and had used demonic powers to connect to his family members. To all the rational minds who doubt this idea, yes it is possible. There have been many theories that explain the existence of disembodied sprits around us, who are sometimes silently watching us as our guardians and sometimes as an indifferent observer. One famous theory claims that these are some un-explored forms of energies and as the fundamental law of energy conservation states, energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. The body is burnt/buried and thus undergoes a transformation but the sprits? Sprits have left the body long before its burnt/burried, where do they go? Hell? Heaven? Hell and Heaven are but myths, exploited by some religious leaders to influence us to do, what they describe as “Good Deeds”.
The movie showed how the man successfully established a connection between his long dead family members and himself. The stories ended on a positive note, a rare thing to be seen in horror movies of late, but this was not the end. The three were rendered bewildered, confused and perhaps with a thought that what was shown was not fake. The way Vineet received the movie, from a random mail addressed by Manad; there were too many co-incidences to ignore. A month passed by, but these three somehow could not get over the movie. Sometimes movies do have a very strong impact on one’s life, there are movies that make one’s life, there are movies that make one hate his or her life and there are also movies that KILL!

---

One, night Vineet, Vishwakarma and Varun had both drunk a little too much to keep them sober, somehow the movie stuck them again. It was demonic and somehow demons are the new “cool”. They wanted to try the idea of contacting the decreased. Unfortunately all bad ideas do not come with a caution sign. Vineet drew out an Ouija board on a sheet, it was an easy job, the design was explicitly shown in the movie they had watched.
An Ouija board is a very simple arrangement that can be made by writing all the English alphabets on a white sheet of paper or a cardboard, along with the alphabets write numbers 0 to 9 and two words “Yes” and “No” on extreme ends of the page. Place a Re1 coin on this sheet, sometimes people do it with bare hands, however using a coin is advisable, run the coin around the planchette in circular pattern till the coin warms up a little, Make the place dark with maximum one candle burning, concentrate by thinking only about the person whose sprit is being called. One is expected to extremely patient in the process, It takes usually more than three to four trials before success, when the coin moves it’s an indication of the connection being established and one may ask questions thereafter.
With the ambience all set, the three of them sat around the table concentrating.
They tried, and tried and tried for many times…. but to no success, when finally they saw the coin move.
Vineet, popped up at the very sight and asked, “Who amongst us dies first?”
The coin moved to character “V” when the three got frightened to their cores and removed their hands from the board, good friends, as they were, they perhaps did not want to know the answer to the question. The half minded, impatient generation of ours, starts flying before learning how to land. The three of them quietly moved away from the board, they were scared, sweating and could probably hear each other’s heart pounding almost at thrice its normal pace. Not a word spoken, each one of them took the cue, and it was mutually decided that they talk nothing about it and quietly go to sleep.

---

A week passed by and the three friends had almost forgotten about the hard night. It was a sunny afternoon when they decided, planning for an outing. It was a beach party they were going to, the three friends oblivion of the curse that time had lit on them reached the place. The party lasted till midnight, and they finally moved out to get back home.
The roads were clear, unusually clear, as they drove past at a speed of around 90 kmph pumping up the volume of their stereo surround in the car. They were singing along to the tunes of the stereos and were having a great time.
There was skidding, there was a crash and they had hit against a pole. None of them survived, they all died on the spot. And perhaps the Ouija Board was not wrong, among the three of them all with names starting with “V” died, together, but the story doesn’t end here: - The pole they stuck to, ironically had a tourism advertisement, which read, “Come to Daman, Life is beautiful here”.
This is the popular story, of Room No. 823, as I said earlier, I’ve been to this room personally, and I did feel some eerie vibes in the room. There is a spot dark, very dark in the room, like the tar of something that was burnt, people say they were so scared after the incident that they burnt the Ouija Board, but the mark of the same did always remained, somewhere in their hearts they already knew something has gone terribly wrong, but perhaps men chose ignorance against fear.
There have been people who moved to the room later, all died an unnatural death in a less than 3 month period. And since the second such incident and increasing rumors, the authorities decided to keep the room locked.

---

Rationality is a choice, one may call this mere co-incidence but I would like to point out some weird things about the whole episode. Firstly: The room number: Room No. 823: the digits sum up to 13, which is considered to be an unlucky number in many cultures. Secondly: The movie:  there has been no such movie as “The cadaver from Daman”, that has been made or at least registered till date. Thirdly: The sender of the mail with the link to download the movie, “Manad”: if you rearrange the alphabets it comes out to be “Daman” (The receipt of the mail has been verified form Vineet’s email account, the link to download the movie, however shows a “Page not found error”). Fifthly: They hit against the pole with a tourism advertisement to Daman Sixthly: The burn mark on the floor, which I have seen and I can’t deny and finally: Why would someone ask who among us will die first? Usually people ask things that keep them bothering, why would they be so worried about their existence?
A rational argument against all this can be, that usually beach parties are followed by alcoholism and drugs, may be they had had a little too much of either or both of them, and were not in their complete senses. Accidents in such situations were bound to happen, but usually the people dying in an road accident have their eyes closed, all three of them had their eyes wide open- like perhaps they had seen something unnatural.
To believe or not to believe, I leave on the readers, but the college authorities have decided to demolish the complete wing where the Room No. 823 is and reconstruct it to be made into classrooms.

The Good and The Evil are but a part of this world and they exist in coalition, One should not discriminate them projecting one as better than other. They are perhaps the two sides of a coin, and it makes no sense to say that the Heads are more important than the Tails, both of them have always existed together and will continue to exist, when The Good needs courage The Evil needs strength. But one thing is certain, playing with things beyond the purview of humans is a crime, it’s a breach of the natural discipline, and one must not do it. Those who claim to be talking to Gods or the popular “Gods men” (considered to be The Good side) are equally a criminal to the natures order as are the people who practice voodoo. As a writer all I can wish for is that the natural order of the world prevails, so that we live a balanced and a happy life!

Thanks!!

Marketing... Indispensable yet dangerous.

Avery old, shortest yet the most apt definition of marketing is the art of “Meeting needs profitably”. But my question today is marketing only about meeting needs? Is profit the only motive to drive marketing? And of course do all the marketing strategies actually meet our needs?

Times have changed, marketing has become an important concern for all companies, and as a result we can clearly observe that marketing has grown beyond just meeting needs to creating new ones. Were we Indians that unbearably stinky some 12 years ago when the deodorant and perfume market was just 3% of its current worth? From a luxury item suddenly perfumes and deodorants started to be projected to people as a necessity and thus a need of the same was created, to an extent that people who did not use them suddenly started feeling less confident about themselves.

Marketing has been in our culture since inception, consider the various dressing styles and dance forms in our country, they were our methods to advertise our culture/state. And that in turn attracted people from other states/countries to come over and thereby increase trade. How do you think Portuguese came over to south India to trade for spices if there was no marketing for the same?

Marketing as a broader concept aims at increasing sales, and if the process demands creating a need/hype for a product, then that’s how it’s done. However sales alone cannot be a driving factors for marketing, brand building is another very important aspect that a marketer needs to take care of. Some famous researches show that it takes almost 5 times as much to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Customer loyalty has got a lot to do with the product quality and pricing too, thus marketing cannot really operate in sedition to the operations/manufacturing cycle, in fact there has been a consistent focus in this direction too and the term “complete marketing campaign” has become commonplace. Marketing campaigns ensure production to delivery to exist in a chain closely linked to each other and not as independent activities.

Many eminent personalities have already sung praises for marketing and it’s not completely incorrect to say that it is perhaps the most important activity that drives sales. In such uncertain times such as ours when the buying habits have become almost impossible to predict, the ethics in marketing are an equally important concern and should not be neglected. If it comes to a particular brand of perfume or deodorant, and one claims to better than other, it may not have long term adverse effects, but imagine if such ideas are applied to life saving drugs or other medicines? A very simple example of the same is the growing culture of having carbonated drinks, or eating fast food, marketers have managed to show it as “cool” and “hep” and perhaps if you are a part of our countries youth you should better be drinking more and more of a particular brand of carbonated drinks.

Having said all this, obviously we cannot really judge the right and wrong in marketing. It’s an indispensable concept and perhaps shall always be on the top priority till we have needs,(both real ones and ones created by the marketers), I would only suggest that all marketing campaigns are backed by strong ethics keeping the larger good in mind.

Education and Modernization.

Education makes people  easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern but impossible to enslave”: This not only serves as a famous saying from the Scottish lawyer Henry Brougham, but also as a definition for education itself.

                Ever since the first idea of formal education was introduced around 200 years ago, education has undergone tremendous transformations, from just enculturation and socializations which have always been the primary objective of education to analytical and rational abilities. These objectives give you the sanity to discriminate the correct from incorrect, again the exact definition of which has never been understood.

                This reminds me one of Shakespeare’s’ plays “Julius Caesar”, how the supposedly illiterate and therefore fickle minded mob (around 60 BC) of Rome are driven by mere speeches, from supporting Pompey to Caesar, from Caesar to Brutus and finally from Brutus to Antonius.

                Educated minds are rational; they make their own decisions which are usually backed by strong reasons, either emotional or analytical. In fact I’ll like to take it a step ahead to say that those educated people who lack these abilities are perhaps a failed product of our modern education and societal system. Educated minds are flexible, adaptive and open to ideas, they know what their rights are, and are not ignorant to allow themselves to be enslaved. Democracy, I believe is the true outcome of educated minds as it gives the people liberty to choose the head to bear the crown. In one sentence the educated people are easy to lead because they choose to be led; obviously all leaders and no followers shall lead to a state of anarchy.

Thus education gives you the confidence, to allow, being led or governed but at the same time enough fire not to be driven or enslaved.

Keeping Emotional Detachment... pushing your boundaries by miles at ones.

I usually begin all my blogs by asking questions, so here are my new set of questions:-

Have you ever felt that your are so frustrated that if you get a chance you will run away from life? Have you ever felt that since nothing is working in your life, you have no confidence to pick up any new idea in life?

To all those people who feel this, what you need is Emotional Detachment. To all those people who say they have never felt this before, well you are doing great, Life is easy for you, this article is not meant for you, you may stop reading here.

For all others, thanks for your time to read further. Now what is Emotional Detachment?

Emotional Detachment is not bearing a callous attitude to your work, Its nether the middle-path/work-life balance shit that many people will offer you. I agree to Buddha's middle path philosophy for most of things but sometimes they are too ideal to be used in the real life situations. Life's penury can often render you crestfallen, what middle path do I chose after reaching such a dramatic state in real situation?

“Emotional Detachment is the state of being detached to your job thinking of something big to happen and as far as possible taking necessary steps to ensure that big thing happens. “

Sounds nice but any philosophy is of no use if one cannot preach how to practice it. So here I list the methods that will help you be emotionally detached to your work in life, but before that we need to analyze the reasons for we being in the technologically up-fired yet emotionally unhappy race.

The “All Problems have solutions” philosophy.

Why do we try to find solutions for all problems we encounter in our life? Cant we just let go? Time... my readers is the answer to many problems in our life, Its we the humans who try to run ahead of time. Why is it so difficult for us to understand that human abilities are limited to present and we have no control over past and future. Why do we get so impatient that we want all answers to our questions now?

Its like, I want to put 10Kg sugar in a 2Kg box, I know I cant but I keep thinking why can't I? And then end up unhappy and dejected.

The “Fish can live without water” philosophy.

Can a fish live without water? Exactly fun and celebrations are extremely important. Why is time waste considered so taboo? Well its the free mind that produce the creative Ideas. Have your share of fun its as important to brain as water is to a fish, all work will make you even more dejected. So next time your over dejected, keep your calm and go for a break, have fun. Waste some time get back and try it again.

The “Life is Transitive” philosophy.

The law of transitivity says, if a=b and b=c then a=c. And the rule of life says LIFE IS NOT TRANSITIVE. Please stop putting everything in life on a balance and analyze analytically, life does not work that way. Its completely ok to have some equations unbalanced. To those scientific folks who are reading it, well there are too many variables involved in the function of life and so far scientist have not been able to identify all of them. So function is something that comes much later, we humans are yet to identify all the variables involved in it.

The “My current job is Ultimate” philosophy or commonly known as “This is what I want to be” philosophy.

Well no job is ultimate, keep pushing your boundaries in life, Think of something bigger and make a move towards that. Keep a safe foot hold in your current job and try something bigger in life, Dream of the time when you achieve the big thing you have thought of. It will obviously bring in detachment to your current job.

The “Life is Permanent” philosophy.

Friends life is temporary, this point can be considered to be an extension of the previous point, If you keep moving towards a bigger thing in life it will make you feel your current job is temporary and so are the troubles associated to it, and will help in detachment from your job. Life is a short wonderful experience, Live your life its a one time opportunity.

Well now that we have identified the reasons that keep us disappointed and the old philosophies that we have not dared to challenge so far. Its time I reveal how to reach the state of this emotional detachment.

Forgo the above mentioned five common philosophies or I may call/refer to as cancers and you shall reach a state of emotional detachment. This explains what is emotional detachment too. And that's what I define as Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Thanks!

The Spirit of being BLANK

How many times have you been rendered quizzical by, things happening around you? How many times do you feel, “What should I do now?”.

To all those people who say they have never had such feeling I've just two things to say:-

1. Buddy! Please stop doing the same mundane work and try something new, and then you shall feel what I've said above.
2. Stop reading further! Because you cannot value it unless you feel it!

Well the situations described above, I call it being “BLANK”. Now being BLANK is good, Its very different from being confused. Well I should first explain why being confused and being BLANK is not the same.

Suppose a problem is posed to you:-

Three things can happen:-

1. You know all possible solution and have tried them all and know whats the best way out.
2. You know all possible solutions but you have tried only some of them.
3. You have never seen a problem like this before and you know nothing whatsoever.

Case1: If you have tried all the possible solution, your job is mundane I repeat again, Stop reading further and try something new.

Case2: This is an exact case of confusion, should you try the age old tested methods that you have tried already in past? Or do you try something new? My Dear reader “You are CONFUSED”.

Case3: “You are BLANK”, you know nothing and will try seeking help from people who according to you are smarter/or have done it before.

Being BLANK is good! Being CONFUSED is bad! But its extremely important to know what state are you in?

Why is Being Confused bad?

When you are Confused you tend to start making Assumptions. Well I'll go an extra mile to say “A confused man is a useless man!” Now as per your assumptions you shall accept one solution as more viable and discard the others on those grounds, Unfortunately in your hear of hearts you know, that what you have made the base criterion of selection and rejection is but an assumption, direct consequence of this will be half mindedness. You shall be doing the more viable solution, but would not be able to stop thing about the rejected alternatives. Which is dangerous! Again, heaven forbid what decision you chose goes wrong you shall repent even further thinking wish you had the other alternative because its only human to consider assumptions are closely linked to your fate. :)

Agreed, but how is being BLANK good?

Well certainly this would not be the best state to be, in a real life situation. But its better than being confused. Firstly:- Congratulate yourself that you are doing something that’s not a mundane activity for you and that you are doing something that you have never done before. Secondly:- When you are BLANK you shall be open to ideas, you shall make no assumptions as you know nothing and you shall be over cautious in each and every step you take.

Also the main secret of the universe, Taoism one of the oldest philosophy describes: If something is meant to happen it will happen, so Chill! Just try and device new ways of making sure that the others around you know nothing about the BLANK space inside you. Rest will work out automatically!

Well now that you know the secret of success, Let me tell you, We are all but at some point BLANK about the things or problems in our life, its high time we give this state its due credit. Why being BLANK is bad, its at least better than being confused in life! And to all my confused audience chose a side which you are clueless of, this will bring you to the state of being BLANK, and as the rule says:-

“BEING BLANK IS GOOD”!!



Being Blank!



Thanks!!

My Nation, My Generation!

The “Generation Y”, the adjunct for the “Generation Youth”! What does it mean and how is it different from the “Generation X”. Well certainly, the more stubborn,sophomoric generation, which shapes the future of our country... was never so rebellious before. Is it the new events or the frustration carried from ages which against as expected fails to deplete?

I think its but the combination of the two... The frustration carried since ages in them that they could not defer anymore, and the current set of affairs that provide the vent for this fury to come out. Never seen my nation in this much action before... The “The Jessica Lals' case”,”The Anna Hazares' Movement” or “The Delhi Gang rape Incident”, there is one thing that is common among all such cases, the youth participation!

The jocose youth has now chosen a different path, they are not scared of any edict or punishments that that their actions might bear, in a so called, “Democratic” country of ours. They have risen and aye, don’t consider this to be any less of a revolution, its the uprising of the youth supremacy! A paramountcy that can be controlled to no decree! Its this revolution that shall give the threadbare “Democracy”, a complete turn around!

The intrepid “Generation Y” is in making, and at its apogee it shall forgive none! My nation is shining, and it should not stop to do so. Youth is the lifeline of my nation and now that they have realized it... We are not very far from being the superpower.

So come join the “Generation Y” and shape my nation, I'll quote Frost to the, 'would-be stars' of our nation:-

                         “Woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I've my promises to keep;

                              and miles to go before I seep, and miles to go before I sleep”