Why do it the same way ???

An Incident !!!

      It was 27^th september 2011, yet another Tuesday with normal day and normal office life. I had the usual weekly client call. I started by 9.20 p.m. from office. My project colleague dropped me at the Velachery, MRTS Railway station. He wondered, at what time I would be reaching home. I made an approximate extimate and told him that I will be reaching home by 10.45 p.m in the worst case.

      The train made it to Chindadripet station by 10.20 p.m and as usual I took my bike from the station parking lot and started my way back to home. It was here I made the first unusuall mistake. I forgot to turn on the bike headlights. I thought I could be able to reach home even before the time I estimated, But things turn out the other way.

      Few thoughts were going though my mind. Just a day before, I visited my friend who was recovering from an unexpected road accident. So I decided to remain caution while I drive and made up my mind not to drive above 45kmph. As I expected, the roads were empty as it was already above 10 p.m.

      Finally I reached, the Langs garden road, where this unexpected thing happened. There were two other two wheelers travelling by my side, one on my left and the other to my right. I was travelling at exactly the same speed as them. Neither did I overtook them, nor  I tried to slowed down. Suddenly I spotted this big ditch ahead of my path. I know I can't stop as the road was a bit sloppy and trying to apply sudden break might be risky. I could not take a turn as I have vehicles on both my side. So I decided to get though the ditch. But to my surprise, the ditch was a bit deeper than I expected. Though the front wheel successfully crossed the ditch, the rear wheel skidded, and I lost balance & fell down instantly.

      Blood starts oozing through my left hand. Both my shirt and pant were torn. As there were no nearby shops and the road was empty, I started again in my bike in hopes that I could reach home and clean up all the mess. But soon after I start, my legs started trembling. I stopped before a shop, and noticed that both my leg knees were badly hurt. I got some water packets from the shop, cleaned the wounds and called my brother for help. The rest is a big story. The funny part was, I finally reached home only by 11.30 p.m.

      Today I started wondering how it all happened. I know I was driving with utmost caution but even then I was not able to stop the approching danger. I tried to recollect the sequence of events that led to this incident.

      The first and foremost was, It was a Tuesday, which mean I had client call, and that I could only be able to start by 9.15 p.m. The later it gets, the lesser the traffic and so I will be travelling a bit faster than usual. I was travelling at around 40 kmph when I met with the accident. If I have started earlier , I could have never drove at such speed in that road because of traffic. So this was the first blow.

      Next, I missed to turn on the head lights when I start driving from the parking lot. If I had the lights on, I might have got more chance of spotting the ditch from a distance. So this was the second event.

      And there are two two wheelers travelling at the same speed as mine on either side, which prevented me from taking a sudden side turn. This was the third cause.

      I could recollect, that just a day before, I refilled my bike tyre air pressure. The higher the tyre air pressure, lower is the surface area of contact of the tyre with the road and lower is the road grip and hence more chance of bike skidding. This was yet another hidden event behind the incident.

      And above all, the most important cause was the big ditch in the middle of the main road. If there isn't a ditch, this incident coultn't have happened. The ditch may have appeared natually due to recent monsoon rain or  because of some man made electrical or drainage work. In either case whether it was natural or man made, I am sure that, that ditch was surely a gateway to hell unless taken care of by the government.

      Therefore this incident happened as a result of a sequence of unrelated events that happen at the same time as shown in the figure below. This doesn't mean that they are the only events responsible for this incident. Their could be millions of invisible events contributing to the occurence of the incident either directly or indirectly as subevents but only a few are visible and can be perceived by human mind.

       Finally I wish to conclude saying that an incident happens as a result of countless, unrelated chain of events that occur at the same time, over which we might have very little contol or sometimes no control at all. Many a time, we used to get a feel that things are out of our hands and some external power is controlling us and deciding our forture. But we fail to realize that such external power were none other than the environment and people surrounding us. Just think about it.

                            Think !!! Decide !!! Think different !!!

My perception on "Think different"

Many people think that “Think different” is just doing things differently from the rest of the people. But according to me, the concept of “Think different” is a not merely thinking different from the rest of the people. It’s lot more than that. First of all you need to think different in order to have a better understanding on the concept of “Think different”. According to me, it is a way of living our life; it is a way of decision making, it is a way of improving self-confidence and lot more.

            In most of the situations we won’t think. We just follow what others do. It is because of three reasons. First of all, we are too lazy to analyze a situation ourselves and don’t want to strain our brain. Secondly, we lack self-confidence. We believe more in others than ourselves. We need to understand that in many situations, decisions taken by millions of people may even go wrong but our decision may be right. Finally, we don't want to take a risk. We just go with the majority regardless of whether it is right or wrong.
            So what actually think different means? According to me thinking different is just using our common sense. It involves completely analyzing all the possible solutions, analyzing the impact of each and every solution and choosing the best out of it. The decision should not be made based on the majority. Rather the decision should be made based on our analysis.
            Now here arises the question. Why we need to think different? I remember the poem “The Road Not Taken” I read in 12^th standard written by Robert Frost which starts with “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood”. Just assume similarly we have two roads in our path and we have to start our journey in one of them. Remember there is no coming back once we start our journey in a particular path. So what people usually do in such a situation? They will just wait and see in which path people are going and start their journey in that path. They don’t even ask them why they are going in that path. As I explained earlier, it’s because they are too lazy to ask what’s wrong with the other path. They may have known that there is nothing wrong with the alternate path but they lack self confidence. And finally they don’t want to take a risk.
            So here you should not misunderstand the concept of “Think different” like we need to select the alternate path just because others are going in one path. Here you need to analyze the situation. We can ask the people taken that path why they have chosen it and what’s wrong with the other path. In many cases even the people going in that path also don’t know why they have chosen that path and just wish to travel with the majority.
            In this situation since there is no adequate evidence to prove that there is something wrong with the other path, there exist a calculated risk. By choosing the usual path, you can reach the destination just like others. But if you choose the alternate path, you have a chance of reaching the destination ahead of others. I am calling this calculated risk taking as “Think different”.
            Now this journey is our life and the two paths are the critical situations we come across in our everyday life. And just as I told in the beginning “Think different” is the way of living our life. If you wish to be ahead of others in life, you need to think different.          

Think!!! Decide!!! Think Different!!!