Yes I am in a rat race!! Tch! Tch!

Last night a friend called up - wierd he was calling after three years - and after usual round greetings the discussion turned to career, family, and life in general. I was surprised (in an after thought) that almost all the time we discussed careers, organizations, bosses etc etc. And the rants were all about how someone else was promoted, the appraisals did not come through,late nights and weekend meetings and to top that sudden cancellation of long planned vacation because somthing more important has come up.

As I still reeled with the headache as a consequence of late night and early morning (no morning pills for this... ah!) my wife asked me one simple question - Can u and your friend take an unscheduled off today and stay home and just do nothing? My answer was equally simple - NO. But wait a minute, why not? I called up my friend only to be reurned negative - meetings lined up back to back; last month of FY so target pressures on the high; working weekend as well to meet the deadlines - hey man! a day off would do no harm to you - this year appraisal yet to happen, can be promoted and get that raise; dont wanna loose it - but I remember last year you missed our picnic for the same - this year different, will call you back (click! end of conversation)

Well i am sitting at home and enjoying the day at leisure but these thought criss crossed - We all running towards the famous cheese, for if i dont take my cut somebody else will - and the cheese is like that proverbial carrot - we keep running - ever wondered why? Our hunger for growth, our hunger to outdo others, be the king - the competition to grow faster and faster or be left behind....

Did not take me long to understand a few things - if your are not in the rat race you are good for nothing; if you are not famous or known for your achievements- man you are good for nothing; if you fought and loose man you are good for nothing

the world is quite mean to under achievers, and loosers... yes we all bow down to rising sun and just dont care/deride the setting one...

I dont want to be a looser, I cant be the one who got slow and was left behind... when a tiger attacks a herd of buffaloes, the slowest one gets killed.... thats the system of the world....

Man, I am just getting up, having have called my boss that am coming to office... chao! 'Rat Race' begins again... vrooooooom!!!!!!!!!!

The beginning!!

"No discussion of the interrelation of stock prices and business conditions would be complete without emphasizing that in the clash of speculative forces on the exchange, the emotions play a part which is not paralleled in the normal process of commerce and industry. The golden mean is non-existent on the Wall-Street, because the speculative mechanism does all things to excess; even the reactions from the heights of fantasy and from the depths of despair are accompanied by convulsions which are distinct from the calmer tenor of business. Those who seek to relate stock movements to the current statistics of business, or who ignore the strongly imaginative taint of stock operations, or who overlook the technical basis of advances and declines, must meet with disaster, because their judgment is based upon the humdrum dimensions of fact and figure in a game which is actually played in a third dimension of emotions and a fourth dimension of dreams."

(Ten Years of Wall Street: Barnie F. Winkelman - as quoted by Barton Biggs in his book ‘Hedgehogging’.)