PROVOKE

There are certain professions which are the keepers of "cool", "charisma", "passion" and "creativity" and other such defining keywords of the last 100 years.

Musicians - from the guys with guitars to those mac's have always been the pinnacle of this phenomenon upstaged only by entrepreneurs and sport-stars. Artists, writers, actors, entertainers and philosophers come in a close second. And then the Models, movie stars, politcians and even TV stars fleetingly fit these descriptions.

And then you think what about these people make them darlings of millions, sometimes billions. Why are they able to provide that elusive flight of fantasy to people's imagination which the people fail to provide to their lives. Why the fuck is the world drawn to these assholes of all the possible ones?

PROVOKE!

Its cause the what they do, how they do, and how they spread the word about it is with a single minded obsession to Provoke. Some do it knowingly, some see it as a by product of their work. But all the big names that you can fancy throwing around - do this fucking well - PROVOKE.

The world in its linear way of living needs these lateral shifts across the horizon to a parallel universe where they too can act on this provocation and PROVOKE. But inertia and fear has them bound to thoughts, but the mind needs the journey, it yearns for it, is is fucking built for it. and that's why when  the PROVOKE agent walks in the crowd, there is the gravitational pull to souls and mind - minds jump on it for they must travel beyond the boundary of experience you create for them. thats' why they get laid more than you.

There are obviously the dead lot, who do not react to provocation. Whose soul has died and so has their mind. But fuck that shit, they are tiny in numbers. Most people love the journey of the mind !!

In the future as droids take over the mundane and crappiness of most repetitive jobs, daily commutes, business travels - the world will be the orchestra of provocateurs and those who don't learn this skill, don't create experiences which can provoke others and themselves - they will merely be an audience - eating, drinking and sleeping - while the people who provoke - CREATE THE FUTURE.

In tyler durden's word: They will be all singing, all dancing crap of the world.

Stop whatever the fuck you are doing. Look around. Have you provoked a new thought? new idea ? an ideal soul? a fertile mind. Start provoking things, people, law, systems, ideas, business, music - fucking anything every living second of your life.

DO I provoke you right now! Do I ! Do I ! Do I ! Do I ! I Do! I Do ! I Do!

PROVOKE. 

The Cycle Diaries

Apart from the plain dumbness of this blogpost, their isn't anything great in this post. Its purely my ramblings of the weird reactions you get when you cycle in our cities in India.

So you take out your nice 700$ cycle, strap on the helmet, gloves, ipod and turn the lights on - so the idiots on the road don't hit you. You are now the most bizarre species on Indian roads, the cops, the autowalas, the cabbies, the nuclear family on the bike to drunk assholes in their hondas will gawk at you like they never seen or been on a cycle.

so here's a tale of my conversations with random gawking strangers

Exhibit A: Two teenagers on motorbike chasing me down as I ride my MTB hard at 30km/hr on this traffic road only to ask me "Bhaiya, aap cycle kyon chalate hon?" WHAT ???!!!!!  I was dumb founded and I am sure this dimb witted bandra idiot would have asked me next "Why do I breathe" and I would be stuck explaining big bang theory and universe to him all night.

Exhibit B: This is marine drive and 11 30pm. Drunk clown in his honda city pulls next to me and insists I let him ride for a bit while I drive his car. It was the most bizarre thing to say no to. I had a good instinct to take it and bash his car a bit for he was annoying me. As a drunk driver, I doubt he could have much on me then.

Exhibit C: An amused couple on a scooty pull up, just to ask where the breaks are? and then stare at each other in absolute shock at this 8th wonder of the world, when I showed them the disc brakes. I was actually amazed that they were trying to find my brakes for the last 1km.

Exhibit D: Autowala bhaiya desperately trying to make a conversation as I am struggling to keep my MTB with trail tyres at a speed of 33-35km/hr at peak traffic hours. His intelligent remark "Bhaiya, 35 ki speed hain, aur tez chalao" I mean he did sound like a desi version of a coach saying "Harder, Faster". But all this while he was pulling his auto dangerously close to me. Not cool bro!

Exhibit E: Another drivers fascination as he sees my sweat, " Kitna dor se aa rahe hon?"( How far are you coming from?" All this with a sympathetic look on his face and an expression of sheer pity for my poor state on a cycle. This explains the ugliness and round shape of most Indians. There is something called movement, working out etc. which your body is made for rather than sit and eat that heavy food and fart.

Exhibit F: This is the most common question "Kitne ki li". ( How much did you buy it for ?). A country obsessed in dividing everything by its price and trying to comment on how they know a cheaper, better place and how all these "foreign goods" are all fancy and how atlas cycles come for Rs. 4000. No doubt "Kitna deti gain" was a hit campaign, at least my bike gives away 500 + calories in an hour. Take that bitches.

Exhibit G: The 5 star hotels. One of these nights we decide to break our ride with a 2 am bite at one of the 5 stars in the suburbs of Mumbai. Result: Two 5 stars had no clue what to do with 3 bikers riding into their hotels. They had gaurds chasing us to say "Cycle nahin allowed" ( Cycles not allowed). After arguing with the management that we can well afford the place, our cycles were asked to be parked outside the hotel and a guard assigned to take care of our bikes. This was after tons of drama, walkie conversations and a call to some senior manager or general manager to understand "How to deal with 3 cyclists". Same thing happened at Marriott, 10 minutes of talking to 4 guards and then the manager and then his senior. Finally bikes allowed inside, we were asked the value of these 3 bikes ( above a 100,000Rs. ) and a guard assigned to watch these. Then the manager accompanied us till inside the hotel, probably checking whether we actually eat at his coffee shop or not.

There is tons more but I am tired and its a freaking monday. I got the world to change.

And, if you think this post is rude, or I look down upon people, BE IT. You have never ran or rode a bike in the cities of this country. Every ride across town is like a war medal, you have survived crazy bikers, random brakes, animals - assholes jumping traffic light and every vehicle trying to squeeze you out of the road and the buses - wow - they will squash you without hesitation. To train, to ride and just to have few inches of the road is a nightmare.

Some will give solution of 5am wake up calls or like I suggest mid-night rides but really? Can't I just normally ride to and fro to places.

Being a runner and somewhat a cyclist, I have ran/biked in Bombay, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Goa apart from few international destination like NYC, San Fran and more. Our country ranks so terribly on its treatment of sports or outdoor activities, that we must commit suicide as we are anyway killing our bodies everyday by sitting on our asses.

They Geeked my world

So I grew up in early 1990's and saw more movies than I read books. Somehow they always would show this alpha male guy as a billionaire/millionaire (except bill gates everyone was a millionaire; unlike today)  ; jaw-line intact ; shrewd and piercing eyes ; abundant confidence and this totally bad-ass but committed to his ambition zing. They wore black.

So most of my growing up years I was fascinated with this idea to build a global empire; I tried equally hard also to develop the alpha male in me. It has mostly been a failed attempt I think, but the real fuck-up was when I hit my teens - they decided it was the fall of millennium and it was time to give the uber-successful guys a new look.

If you are staring dumb-fucked at what I am getting at; then its OK. You were probably busy playing video games. But here's my story-line.

Henry Ford

Rockefeller

Howard Hughes

Bill gates

Larry Page

Sergery Bin

So you see the difference between the early 1900's and ealry 2000's. The power changed from the alpha male with guts, smartness and ambitions to the geek with brains, vision and ideas. The geeks were the employees and the business guys the owner, but its fucking all flipped. It confuses my mind - who do I want to be now.

90's I wanted to be an alpha male; 2000's I started realizing that geeks were cool, a growing trend across the world. Geeks have hacked coolness. Don't believe me.

Look around - the indie-music I phone swinging guy with that hot chic is a geek, that complete social media junkie making money selling youtube and facebook content strategies loves his DC comics and clark kent glasses, oh & that colorful half hindi half english T shirt spotting dude with a bad haircut - he is pro with editing software's - all the cool photos, videos and random design posters you share - yeah that's him.

And the best for the last - that guy who cannot walk up to any chic in school is now the centre - oh yes that geek him is an entrepreneur who just sold something for tens of millions of dollars. Hipsters are not cool biker gangs or bad ass guy with dirty russian tattoos but yoga practicing, organic food and cycle riding urban junkies.

They are not tall ; they are barely fit with too much weed, smokes and beer; they have no jaw line and they seem more secure when their parents are around than left alone with real men. Yet, story after story is of another geek conquering cooldom, achieving fame, a billion bucks and the girls.

As technology sweeps everything and gives us glasses and cloud, everything will be online and they will decide. And if you are not on with it, do hell with it. you can find yourself a corner.

Is it ever to late to be Geek ??

Trumbled Life

This is my umpteenth effort to write daily and write a lot.  I always wanted few things in my life - play a lot - I love playing and competing, be a business-guy ( what I call entrepreneur now) and be a writer. There is something incredibly sexy about people who write books and deliver talks. So this is me rambling, writing and almost deciding that my book will come out next year. This is my trying to be sexy.

As an entrepreneur, a marathoner and a tri-athlete, a seldom blogger and a few articles published here and there, I am building towards my dream. I am broke fairly often, and I am not great at any of these three. I am far too distracted with little other things through my 20's. My teens I was thinking too much and doing too little. I mean I did play tons of football and some other sports, I did think about a lot of these things, did start blogging. But I wasted a lot of time, a shit load - a truck loads. Yet, somehow magically the choices I have made are the same ones my 6 year old brain would have made two decades ago. Sports over alcohol decadency, being alone and lost in ideas and problem solving than with a large crowd, scribbling circles ( which seemed like writing to me then) than I don't know what else. This makes my choices simple, I have always wanted these things.


But I ain't the best at anything I do.  Have you ever had that feeling, that even if you truly discover your passion and not became really good at it ?  That my potential much like my youth will pass my someday without making full use of it ! There is an absolute storm in my mind, and sometimes a silence in my action. But in all this chaos,  passion and struggle I have learnt few things, things I am glad I know firsthand.

Everything is possible if you begin and make an effort. More often than not fear stops us, not our potential. I have learnt to fear less with everyday and make more effort on my beginnings.

They say don't compete with others. But my friends are getting married, having babies and buying houses and assets. I am figuring out my relationship status.

I am fighting hard, I know how I can make Letsintern into a global platform connecting students and organizations around skills and opportunities. I dream a billion$ in the valley, and walks by the alley. I also dream of my pending IronMan 70.3 in Taiwan. I also dream about world cup in Brazil or a birthday in Paris.  There will be lots of beats skipped, moments lived and mostly passions ignited and time burnt. I have some time right now and I want to do things, things I like, which make sense to me, things that will change something, a lot of things.

I have this massive book idea about a bunch of guys pushing out into a roadtrip across India, some random journeys and how travel is the most amazing discovery and strangers your best friends. I think it will work. I think I have the idea so very clear now.

I have to still meet the most incredible people in my life and I still have to meet the best ideas, my best life.

Why I want to change the world !!

Change is the only constant is the bullshit you have all heard, I am saying we can change the change.

So scratch your dimwit brain, coffee is changing in the meanwhile; growing cold. The food is getting stale, refrigerate it. You just changed the change.

You can do this with anything. Sip. Strawberry shake. Sip. and I look up. A stupid pop song on on speakers blaring. A crowded coffee ship.  All these able people with pretty clothes and same lives. Then you think. Do they have potential? Are there any great people here?

They are middle generation of tyler durden. Even the pain of mediocrity is numbed by shopping malls. Fallen dreams, average love, and absolutely boring source of income has made them facebook slaves staring at internet to provide the answer or the next moment of wow and share. Idiots. No, wait. They are not.

They have brains. Good. Brains can be trained. They have been trained for 20 years, 30 years or more on this linear way of life - School, next grade, someday college, someday job. job. promotion. do something. look relevant to society. teach kids the same cause we know no better.

This is the change I want to change. There is non-linearity to life. There is madness to genius. There is potential to human. This is why I want to change the world.

 Right now we are running slave houses - training an entire generation's brains to suit the work-force requirements of their slave drivers. Can we free them! Can we tell them a secret. Oh fuck! I want to be the guy to tell you the secret, to scream to the world a secret. in the ear of every human - you have potential - you can do something!

You will be fine not going to college. or getting a job. if you don't. You will face an enormous question - What to with your time.  You will watch TV. More Facebook. More youtube videos. More silliness. Thats great. Someday you will be bored and say hey lets do something.

You will start doing that something. Since you chose it. you like it. You will start figuring out like minded people. Collaborate. You will became better. Since you like it. You will try to be even better at it. Since you get better, you would love it. And soon your something will mean lot of things to a lot of people. you will earn. You may not own the business. you may work for others who value your something. Doesn't matter. Its your something. you will grow. you just changed the change. The decay of your potential and metaphysical existence changed. Changed. Changed. Forever. you will teach your kids that. Changed.

Everytime you feel its a drag. Stop. Quit everything. Face the question again: what to do with your time. Change the change again. Grow where you are decaying.

This is the purpose of my life. This is why I want to change the world.

Leaving you with a simple idea: Richness is owning a limited resource ( Gold, mines, land etc. ).  Money and things it can buy are infinite. Money is infinite. (Ask any economist). Hence, not limited. Time is limited.( Ask anybody that). Own time. You will be rich.