10 year anniversary

As the year comes to a close, I did forget to mention one point all through the year.

Yes, its been 10 years since I started blogging. I wish I had started early, at least I could have got in more posts plus and I would have been much better at writing and communicating.

But it is what it is. So happy 10th year to my blog. It is so much fun to write whatever I want, considering only max 5-6 people know this blog url. Rest all are random hits from google!

In the last 10 years life has changed, and believe me, I haven't written about most of it. I just have written about stuffs which I felt like writing. There were days when I was extremely happy and days when I was extremely upset. None of which figure on this blog. But yeah, I wish to continue writing. Some day, I shall have a small diary which shall have stories inspired by my experiences or travel with fictitious characters and real ones, inspired by none other than Ruskin Bond,. Until then,. this blog shall have short posts of mine!

Cheers,

Best story of Ruskin Bond (as per me)

I have been reading Ruskin Bond for quite some time now, probably two years. Ruskin Bond has written over 500 short stories and I probably have read more than 150. There are plenty of them which I love and adore. But one particular story catches my mind instantly.

Its called - "The Man who was Kipling"  Rudyard Kipling hasn't been a very popular names amongst Indians. Though he wrote masterpieces like Jungle Book, but it isnt that which he is remembered for. But for other works which have rubbed Indians in the wrong way.

This story is a short attempt at justifying Kipling was a great guy, its just that age that made him write stuffs which hasn't gone well with we Indians.

Never mind, what Kipling wrote about, but what Ruskin Bond has written is just a brilliant masterpiece. There are so many stories of his set in the hills which I love and adore, this one, sets standards to another level.

Hats of to you Ruskin bond,

Cheers,

Why I love 80's

One more reason why I love 80's.
The song portrays the essence of my early childhood days, simple songs, great  music, lesser complicated plots, minimalistic technology.

By the way one comment stands out over here from the rest. Will show that one too.

\

I myself do not remember seeing so many henchmen in one screen all grooving to a song, whilst rubbing law enforcement in the wrong ways. 

Years later I remember seeing so many, but they were different, less mature and more childish, though they were powerful in all the bad ways possible, it never lent any impact because, acting was overshadowed by stupid plots and heightened technological interference.

Technological interference reminds me of a naturally aspirated engine versus a turbocharged engine. Never mind.

Cheers, 

Of friends and facebook - unfriending!

Today somehow made the concrete decision of reducing my FB friend count. I have stopped accepting new requests unless its my trek friends. But since the number was hovering at 202, which is probably huge and I am not in touch with almost 100 of them since last one 3 years, took a bold decision to do a friend count revisit and cleanup.

Had time in the morning and deboarded few of them from my friend list. The count now stands at 150, though 100+ of them are still under restricted list, rest 30 of them, I'm not following them.

Reason why I chose to do this, was not only that, I was out of touch, moreover, I am in peace with my own life. I'm least bothered as which part of the world others are, whether they are sleeping eating drinking or driving, it makes least difference to me. I really do not have time to admire others' day to day activities, I wish the same in return too. So it was high time, I took a concrete decision.

So, all in all, I get to save lots of time, by not browing feeds on facebook. One way to be more productive and do things which I like to do the most!

Cheers to life!

Weekday off

After working for 20 days on the trot, I decided to take off on a weekday that is Monday. Every since I started working, taking off on a weekday has been the best guilty pleasure.

I had no other option I was exhausted to the core, unable to think about work, because I had worked so much, written so much code, unit tests that, I had enough. This in addition to meetings, helping out others plus facing all those negative energy and forces at workplace!

Somedays, I think we should be paid not only for our work but for enduring the dirty politics and negativity others bring which we have to face, which stresses you out.

Watching the world go by while you just listen to music, read a book or blog or play on PS4 can be nothing short of heaven.

Cheers, to one more such a day!


On reading reminded me that, I have to start reading
Kim by Rudyard Kipling - audio book as well as kindle.
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen - audio book as well as kindle.

Of Ruskin Bond and commercialization - A conversation on goodreads.

Recently had a conversation with one stranger on goodreads. It was about Ruskin Bond autobiography which had come out recently, "Lone Fox Dancing". Somehow the conversation tilted towards stories of Ruskin Bond being printed again and again under different titles or for commercialization.

I deeply felt offended. I could not figure out as to why I was offended, but I was. Later after a long period of contemplation I wondered why.

There were many points, Ruskin Bond and his writing is close to my heart, obviously I was offended. But bigger part was how less equipped was the person who was trying to tell me that Ruskin Bond was more or less having a mindset of commercial writers these days.

Good thing was, I let the stranger sink in his own ignorance, meanwhile, I just figured out what I could take away from this conversation.

Well, Ruskin Bond now in his 80's, can he be indented towards commercialism these days? I'm pretty sure no. When he wanted money via writing he has made sufficient. Though he struggled too during his days.

Plus the stories of Ruskin Bond should be published again and again. I guess, its not because I like them. But its because they are all about celebration of India as a country. What our country was during that golden era, when there was no commercialization to worry about. Just plain simple life. Plain simple stories. No fuss, no complications.

Why shouldn't our country be glorified in such ways? I bet it should, so more and more stories of Ruskin Bond should be published again and again.

I get to relive those days once again, if not in real but atleast in fiction and if not in personal words atleast via words of Ruskin Bond.

Cheers,

Wish I could quote some Kipling poetry, I'm afraid, I will have to do some more reading to mature!

Technological advancement or derailment - Alter thoughts 18

Recently in a conversation someone spoke to me about a song which is rather 10 year old and which used to be in the radio countdown at #9, or #10. So this put me into a kind of nostalgia.

These days I have stopped listening to contemporary music and every song which I like dates back to few years. I was wondering if these days such songs have been written or produced or sung.

Then I went back few years again and there you go I could get Billy Idol singing eyes with a face, Billy Joel singing Vienna, and this was 1980's and 1970's respectively.

I was just wondering what has all these technological advancements done to the music industry? where the essence of it still remains song writing and singing which have been the same throughout.

I feel its just the social media and marketing which have turned this industry too into a kind of gimmickery and capitalistic centered market, where emphasis has been taken away from good lyrics and song writing skills and turned it towards marketing and presentation skills.

So is this technological advancement or derailment where I need an optic fibre network over an undersea link just to provide me the data which comprises of what my neighbor is doing over his weekend, which comes all the way from a server located half way across the world?

Irony is I still complain, my internet is slow :) (I'm so curious to know what my neighboring is doing you see, just that I hate to go to him and ask him directly, I believe in snooping).

Pardon my sarcasm though :)

Same goes with writing, for inspiration, is there something which I can look to in the contemporary alternate rock music or any genre for that matter? Not sure!

Here and there I do find songs which I can relate to, but it isnt the same as the good old days, thanks to the derailment caused by technology, consumerism and capitalism :)

Am I correct in judging/assuming, help yourself with comments :)-

Cheers,

An ode to my place of worship - 2017

It was the second year in succession for me that I attended Ayudha Pooja at our gym. I missed out during 2014 and 2015 owing to other reasons but 2016 and 2017 I made it. I even had blogged about it last year.

This time it was raining and I managed to somehow reach the gym. Many people were not there, but still the pooja started a bit ahead of time too. One of my friend called up during the same time and asked as to why was I actually attending the pooja instead of sitting at home amidst the rainfall.

I did not have an answer that day but yeah felt kind of weird having left the thought of going to gym for the pooja unjustified. So thought today will do justice to it plus so many posts seem to be bottled up due to this one plus me being too busy with work and client's visiting Bangalore office!

I made it to the gym in the rain because, I felt it was necessary. I am whatever I'm today because of the gym. I wonder how will I continue it for a lifetime. A day without exercise makes me feel sick. It just feels so good to amidst those equipment, those machinery which have helped me achieve my goal whatever I had set.

On this auspicious day, all those equipment get cleaned, worshiped and in essence that's what is Ayudha pooja all about? Felt so good just being there. Yeah felt a bit emotional too, visualising my own  journey in the last 4 odd years. The treadmill on which I have been running since these years, the mirrors into which I have been looking checking if I have gained anything or lost anything and all those people some of whom are coming some of whom are not coming to gym anymore, reminded me of all the nostalgia which has happened in this place called gym. Just wondered, what would have happened if I had not been to the gym, if that trek to Gingee fort had not made me realize how tiny I was in reality.

I'm glad I did it, and yeah, I have so much more memories to cherish and many of which got re-kindled during this Ayudha Pooja and guess what, how blessed I'm that I got to the gym and exercised all through these 4 years. Hopefully will keep the momentum :)

so, Cheers,

Great Indian debate - Alter thoughts 17

Saw this wonderful piece of article on IBNLive.com. On Gandhi's birthday saw this disagreement between the two legends of 20th century.

I just loved the opinion of Rabindranath Tagore where he thinks of awakening each Indian soul instead of going for freedom. Just a thought, would that ever have been possible?

I guess not, spiritual awakening leads having loads of insight into lots of things and facets of life. I'm sure some people even at the age of 80 cannot comprehend some of the things of life, forget earlier.

So I'm doubtful, whatever Rabindranath Tagore is saying over here, whether it can be achieved. So I take Mahatma Gandhi's side. who says the below lines aptly :)

By the way, can each individual be spiritually awakened in a materialistic society, I bet not! I hope this is what Rabindranath Tagore intended, am I right or wrong?

Irony of two stares - Part 2 - Alter thoughts - 16

I forgot to write this as a part of previous post, I guess that post grew too much longer for my liking to put more words into it. Hence abruptly ended it.

The post was about a boy who could not afford gym membership staring from outside the gym window, looking at others working out with amazement.

If I can go back in time some 20+ years ago, I myself knew one more boy who used to stare at the gym from outside. This boy used to stare at the gym from outside while going to school or coming back from school and always wonder, when would he ever get to exercise. He was too naive as to what it takes to exercise and what gains one gets out of exercising. This was the 1990's a time when only the purists exercised and there was no much brand marketing involved with exercising, or supplements.

The boy used to stare at a gym which was located somewhere close to Vivekananda college, Rajajinagar (white horse vicinity). I'm not sure if the boy could afford a gym membership or not. I'm even not sure, if the boy knew how much hard work it took to continue working out day in and day out. All he was staring at in amazement at the people working out.

He resembles the construction laborer which I have written previously. Does this resemble a simile in place, just separated by 20+ years of time? Need to confirm.

The boy in contention over here is none other than me. I was the one who was peeping into the gym from outside. I couldn't help myself with exercise because I was too naive and young.

I think, that habit of peeping into gym shall never go, because, I still do where ever I find a gym while going to office or elsewhere I still give it a good stare. Though most of my stare is met with their marketing gimmicks each time instead of people working out.

Reminds me of the good old days when it was all about exercising instead of gym memberships and discounts. A peek into the gym would leave you with a picture of people exercising. Now it leaves me with pictures of sculpted bodies, which are most likely due to steroids and supplements and of course gym memberships/discounts. Such is the irony.

There you go, simile, irony, nostalgia all in one post :) (How about a metaphor please? thinking!)

So much of Malleshwaram nostalgia guttered by ever growing urbanization; feels bad. (this calls for another post as to how people react when I put such words in front of people who cannot understand it, like about nature for that matter. so I chose to write here!).

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Alter thoughts - 15

Staring at something, means looking at something for a period of time most likely with eyes wide open. So here I try to write about two different instances of staring each one representing its own dimension.

I am trying to pitch in irony (not sure successfully), I am also trying to pitch in as to where do I stand between the two different ironies which I try to describe.

This incident relates to the gym where I go everyday to workout. The entrance of the gym is a wide vinyl door with a huge class where visibility is two sided. One can see outside and outsiders can see inside. Also all along the wall there are posters of good body builders lifting weights, flexing muscles.

You can stare at these pictures for minutes together looking for some inspiration. Thats what most of my friends do. I too do sometimes. These pictures are meant for inspiration.

But one day a stranger was staring not at the picture but at the people exercising, and not from inside but from outside. He was a small guy a construction worker or a laborer or some kind. He was amused by the people exercising within closed enclosure. He might be wondering, what he does as a day job for living, these people are doing it by paying money. Let aside his thoughts.

What I felt was, he was someone who wanted to exercise but could not afford. He might be thinking, "When will I too get to exercise". On the other hand my friends who exercise stare at the posters and think "when will I ever get such a muscular build up".

Irony is both of them are unsure of making it. The construction laborer in order to visit the gym regularly has to change his line of profession to earn more to afford a gym membership.

My friends who stare at the picture, have to exercise more and eat correctly for months and years to come which I'm certainly sure they can't. So its a tale of two never ending aspirations.

In the middle, I'm there, the silent observer, adding to the third irony of sorts. I can afford myself a gym membership, but I can't even think of getting a extra ordinary build up as in posters, because, my primary focus area is cardio and secondary being strength training. So as of today happy to observe.

Cheers,

PS - I hope and pray that one day the guy staring from outside, gets his chance to exercise in gym too.  The sparkle in the eyes of the observer is never to be missed. If you ever need to look for hope and inspiration, on how to lead a great contented life, you gotta look at these people, I'm sure you will get a plenty.

The best part of being in the gym lies in the fact that, sweat has no economic status of its own. Sweat is not measured by monetary terms. This should go into another post altogether :)- May be some other day. 

Alter thoughts - 14

Division of Labor, or is it division of power?

I recently changed jobs, earlier I was working @ Cessna Business Park, Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli, for about 3 odd years. Now I shifted to Global Village Technology Park on Mysore road. Since it was my first week at work, I was literally jobless, I could observe few things around.

So what did I observe, well let me try to put it as my thoughts. My parents called me an idiot to even think about such things. They told me to mind my own business instead of these thoughts, since I was getting paid!

Over at Cessna Tech park, I would see loads of high end cars in the parking lot. A few Toyota Fortuners, Innovas, Hyndai Verna and other sedans were pretty much a plenty. We had our own share of BMW, Audi, Mercedes vehicles for the top executives of few companies. I also saw a Porsche Cayenne SUV within our campus.

But in the first week at Global Village, all I could see, was hatchbacks, the whole parking lot was filled up with hatchback vehicles, occasionally a Honda City. Self owned Toyota Innova is a rarity and high end cars, forget them, they do not exist in this tech park. Or I have never seen them in my first week.

So why such a difference. Let me put it in few lines and close the blog post.

- It could be because, the people who sat at Marathahalli tech park were all high profile executives who could afford to own or come in or even be driven in high end cars. But over here, high profile people aren't sitting I guess.
OR
- It could be, the companies located over here, do not pay as much as salary as the one's in Outer Ring Road so that, people over here cannot afford.
OR
- It could be, the roads leading to Global Village aren't penetrable enough for high end cars?

I will leave the thinking to your own brains!

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 13

Alter thoughts 13

On reading.

So this is about reading, I'm just trying to find if similarities exist between reading and poking nose into other's business. Sometimes we end up reading so much about history, fiction, fantasy and other genres.

Why is it that we read, we read to gain more insight into facts, learn about what people, process, things exist around us or probably about those imaginary characters coming out of people's head.

I'm somehow trying to convince myself that people who read literature, outside a student's textbook, are more or less interested in other people's business. They turn to reading to interfere in lives of other people. Even though those people may be imaginary only.

But is it a common phenomenon for a human to intervene in other people's lives. Do all humans do it or do a specific set of people do it?

If only a specific set of people tend to interfere in other people's lives or business where and what are the rest of the people interested in? is it materialistic things?

So do people interested in materialistic things read less, or less bothered by whats going on in others lives?

Just curious if there is a fine line of similarity drawn between reading and interfering in other people's lives.

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 12

i haven't written much on my blog, reason being, I am reading, busy with few things. One more thought always runs in my mind.

Is success is needed in any venture? Are there business whose main intention is to sustain and emphasise less on profits? or there are none.

Lets assume a company is started afresh. Private partners pool money and start running the business. After few years it turns profitable. The company goes public and then stocks of the company are brought by general public.

So now this company, has it got to be profitable all the time to pay dividends to the share holders? Can't it be that it sustains itself year after year doing same amount of activity?

If the company is not public and in the hands of private stake holders, do they opt for profit after profit or are they happy with uniform profit all through the years.

Why I'm writing this post is, the company in hope of turning more profits makes more investment into assets and manpower and other stuffs. In the end, if the company does not get much contracts to service and turn a profit or if the goods or services made or provided by the company are not sellable, there is no chance of profit, then what the company will do?

Will the share holder either public or private be ready for a loss. How many years can they run in loss, who will fund them, in the face of too much competition, is there a chance for turnover. To take over competition the company has to invest more and more, can they get back the invested amount atleast forget profit.

Also what I saw in Bangalore is that, the infrastructure is so so poor that, anything which has to sell has a heavy dependency on infrastructure. Now there is  mall which sells high tech stuffs at this so called place. With such traffic during the day, do you think I would venture out into the mall or would I stay indoors peacefully.

So does infrastructure play a role. and if the service provided by the company is of a minimal cost, to make a profit, how much should the company sell to make profits?

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 11

Over the internet, on the television and in the books, papers I have time and again, read, seen, that laughter is the best medicine. Loads of good things happen when you laugh out loud. I do have read few books pertaining to spiritualism, I'm not that expert in scriptures, but I have touched a bit of its surface.

What thought comes to my mind is, in many of the books written by these spiritual masters, emphasis is laid on knowing oneself, mastering oneself. There is no mention of this laughing out loud technique anywhere. Did not the ancient masters of spiritualism laugh out loud, why did they not advocate them to others via their books? Why is it that they told people to be calm amidst wildfires, but not laugh out loud amidst wildfires or tight situations?

Has it been mentioned anywhere in Bhagavadgeeta or elsewhere, is that I am the one who is ignorant? It might be so, but at this moment, I do not see many places where the so called laughing out loud has been mentioned as a healing therapy or something to master.

In the modern day scenario where in I tend to keep to myself, without expressing my emotions, would I be considered someone to be  of a strict personality, where as I may be the exact opposite. I may be calm, trying to navigate around my thoughts, but just because, I do not laugh out loud in the crowd, do I get judged to be someone who is sad or strict?

Well, I do not know.

Cheers,

PS - I may be trying to compare two different dimensions over here, but somewhere, I feel the two things are related or irrelevant. Just my words seem to be inappropriate
Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 10

I had hidden this post, but strange co-incidence, I started reading Murakami book - " What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" and believe me few lines in the first chapter echoed the same sentiment of this post, I still am clueless, how I blogged about this and simultaneously picked up Murakami book (and started reading this after hiding the post)

Cheers, co-incidences exist!

Here it goes!

******************************************************************

Solo time, alone time!

There are times when I needed time off, every day I do, most weekends I need time off to myself. I do not wish to meet anyone, nor talk to anyone, have minimal interaction.

What I do, I read books listen to music, do some clean-up cook some food, buy some groceries and vegetables and yeah, see the world go by!

I may have written about it, but yeah writing again. This time generalizing or stereotyping. Do people really need time for themselves where in nobody disturbs them. Do they get it finally?

Some people tend to ignore the fact that such a thing exists. Extroverts tend to be amidst people and yet be comfortable!

But for somebody like me, I find no interest in meeting people even over the weekend. So why do people like me prefer solo time.?

There is so much of information overload during weekdays or in a day in general that, it takes much needed effort to declutter our brains from this info. I still have not processed all the recollected memories over the years and here again I make memories yet again.

To put things into place I need solo time.

Additionally I do not want to get caught up in the rat race where people compete with each other in a bulleted list called life where at 20 you complete studies at 28 you buy home then by this age get married have kids and then die!

I go by textbook where each essence each attribute has to be enjoyed deeply not superficially. So sometimes, following my own pace makes me feel like avoiding such people who are in the race to do things quick.

I get so much turned off by traffic that, I need more time just to get into traffic again!

Loads of reasons for me to sit quietly in a room and do absolutely nothing. I have been practicing this form of meditation for years now (yeah I call this meditation). wish to continue for years to come,
Cheers

Alter thoughts - 9

new ventures or so called startups!

Recently there have been a splurge in startups in Bangalore, many of these startups are offering services and few others products.

I do not want to speak about those offering products, but I wish to think about those offering services.

So my doubt is, will these start ups scale up in order to make enough profits or will they too go off or rather vanish?

I just tried to think about 3-5 startups which provide services.

Let me take the startups
1. For food delivery.
2. One which targets fitness.
3. One which targets online selling/marketplace.

Assume I have a startup idea, there is a high chance somebody is going to copy the same idea, so there you go, your chances of making profit just got halved.

Take for example the city of bangalore where infrastructure is just pathetic and yes its getting even worse. So assume you have a fitness based startup. Most people crawl at snail's pace to reach their workplace and come back home. Do they have sufficient time to attend to fitness startup considering it might or might not be closer to their home. They might make it to fitness center, but for how long, eventually they will get caught up with time and laziness and responsibility. So your target audience just got reduced. Your fitness startup has now to target people who stay at home and not get to crawl through traffic. People at home ma get sufficient exercise by doing household chores, so will they join? I may be wrong in coming to this conclusion, but, I'm just guessing.

Lets now come to the startup giving great discount on products,one which is an online market place for buying/selling. So, for this startup to sustain, it has to sell more goods and make profits. All population needs to cram more goods into their homes in order to keep these startups profitable. Is that going to happen in near future. Is there a chance the small tiny homes of people run out of space to keep unwanted items and they realize its no more healthy to buy unwanted items.

Going by this trend, I am trying to understand which startup is going to be profitable and sustainable. Probably education startups providing online tutorials? Is that? I doubt.

Am I advocating too much of negativity in saying startups wont be successful or is it my plain logic? Why can't I think startups will be successful? I just can't, everywhere I get to see peoples' greed rather or capitalism, so that's what prompts me to think otherwise. fingers crossed!

By the way a successful startup is decided by media. Going by paid media, I can get a article to circulate saying my startup is profitable, even though I may be running on investor money.

So, concluding, how do we get to know about a startup which is profitable and sustainable in a cramped infrastructure like bangalore? Is it providing a product or service?

Well,not sure, bring your thoughts!

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 8

where is the privacy?

I still remember the incident which happened in Hubli, when I was a kid. We were visiting a temple and my mother happened to meet one of her schoolmates in Hubli after 20 odd years. She had come there with her son. So how was it,like meeting someone after so many years. There was no good connectivity before, people could not add each other on facebook as friends, could not message each other on whatsapp, forget that, they could not speak to each other over phone line as many of them did not have access to private phones.

So this being the scenario, we did not necessarily have to spend time attending to the virtual social life and we could be discreet from people as well.

Growing old was so much more fun, doing things slowly your way instead of catching up with everybody's facebook/instagram posts, trying to ape them.

Anyways, this was one such alter thought which came to my mind!

Cheers

Alter thoughts - 7

There is a general saying which goes, man should not sit idle, instead should strive for excellance. Excellance comes with hard work, meaning an individual must be in continous pursuit, which indirectly means he should not idle time doing nothing. He should always be focused.

I have seen people idling time. Where they do absolutely nothing and spend time, over discussions having tea, or sleeping under a tree. These people are often criticized for not being productive, growing old doing absolutely nothing.

So let me tell you my side of the argument and let me try to convince you why.

I am totally in favor of people who are sleeping under a tree, idling time over conversations and growing old doing absolutely nothing. But why is that the case?

Assume a situation each and every person works very hard. you will not find an individual, who is unproductive. Everyone works their heart out. But have you ever thought, are there sufficient usages of everyone striving hard.

A cobbler can work hard and stitch 100 shoes instead of 10.
A metal worker can work very hard and come up with loads of pressed metal, cut metal polished metal.
A cook can churn up 100 meals instead of 10.
A driver can drive all day long and drive 1000 kilometers instead of 100.

Lets take a step back, a cobbler will stitch 100 shoes only if there is a demand for those many numbers, if there are buyers for so many shoes. Why will a cobbler stitch so many shoes when there are no buyers?

Same way, a cook shall not cook, if there are no people to eat 100 meals.

There it goes, whats the point in the cook, driver, cobbler being so productive and hard working? when there is no demand for his work.

May be there is a way to artificially induce deficit in the market where in people can buy junk.

So, whats the point in everyone being so productive, striving for excellance. This brings us to the point where people criticize idlers, people who grow old doing nothing.

Are we correct in criticizing them, of course NO, as long as they are able to feed themselves comfortably, who are we to criticize the idlers?

After all life is meant to be enjoyed. For some people enjoying may mean through hard work and earning money while for others it might be just idling time.

What say,

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 6

This post is a bit haywire, starting with me, going to he, then me, kindly excuse, just got a bit confused as to what I was trying to write!

Time and again, I have heard, people saying do what you love and love what you do. Some thoughts linger in my head regarding the above two line. I agree you need to do what you love. But when it comes to the question of sustenance, does this really apply.

Lets assume, I love photography and I wish to pursue it as a career. So, I end up doing what I love and I love what I do. Now lets give a thought about sustaining and revenue generation. In order to survive, I need money for my daily needs, food and shelter. Following my dream job can I achieve the same. Well, yes, but how?

Traditionalists say you have to work very hard, day in and day out you have to focus and finally it will yield results. So lets just think about hard work, scope of application and reward in the field of photography.

Just like me there will be 100's of people pursuing their own passion of photography so, its not a niche field. You just cannot tell how one person(professional) is better from the other just by looking at the photo and comparing.

Now, since there are many photographers around who do things professionally, what are the chances of me getting a contract and making money enough to be able to sustain myself? I'm not sure. If I had inherited a fortune from my parents things would have been different. But over here I rely on external contracts for steady source of income.

Does it exist, may be or may not be. Since there are many professionals in the field of photography, you need to charge bare minimum to get contracts. so you end up with some money after all.

So are you now sure that, you are still in the game and enjoying it considering you earn something which is a bit meagre? I'm not sure,

What I would like to tell is, even if you may end up doing what you love the most, you should never expect it to earn you a bread, because the chances of having a non existant market for your interest and high competition might drive you nuts. If it does not earn you a bread, should you still be doing what you love? (is there sufficient market to provide source of income to all, who follow their hearts)

But these days, I see, artificial market generation, in other words, trying to market a field which literally is non existent or is not essential. in order to make people spend money on things (photography) which they are not interested in, there is tremendous aggresive marketing strategies applied, where in the user gets tricked into buying unncessary junk and realizes the fact that he has invested (his saved) money only later to regret!

Is it ethical, just in order to keep one's inventions and interests running, you trick people into the application of stuffs, while you well know, its only leading to capitalism and nothing else. For example buying stuffs using smartphone on massive discounts!

Cheers,