Hari's Corner

This might sound oddly counter-intuitive, but I find many of the "success" stories out there in the market of people who've made it big, strangely uninspiring. I'm not going to get into a long and philosophical debate on the topic but I have some practical reasons why success stories are almost always useless as "inspiration" material, whether in a material or spiritual sense. Not that I've read too many of them, but even the few I've read over the years seem to be enough.

In the first place, I put (auto-)biographical success stories into two broad categories: One is the "Oh-I-was-born-as-an-orphan-everything-against-me-sold-newspapers-as-a-kid-made-it-big-through-sheer-hard-work" kind. Put simply, a rags-to-riches kind of story emphasizing on how the person who achieved the success had everything against him or her from their childhood and how, through sheer hard work and persistence, and in the face of big odds, they made it big in life. The second is the "I-worked-smart-throughout-my-life-and-have-a-secret-to-share-with-you" kind. I will come back to the second type later on. First I will take a good look the first type.

I find these "against-all-odds" stories annoying at two levels. From a purely rationalistic viewpoint, while most of us weren't born with silver spoons, neither were we born into broken families or abandoned as kids in a hostile environment and made to battle for our daily bread. Thus, the identification with the main character is switched off right at the start, at least in those stories where the character isn't from a middle-class family background. Secondly, analysing the effort-reward ratio can be demotivating as well. What! You spent three-fourths of your life struggling and fighting to achieve that level of success finally at an age when you are probably concerned about the quantity of sugar in your coffee (if you drink coffee at all that is!) Wouldn't you rather spend a lot more time at the prime of your life leading life a little more calmly and achieving a fraction of that success? From a spiritualistic point of view, those of us who are of a fatalistic kind probably wouldn't believe that success was entirely due to that hard work alone. Call it dumb luck, opportunity knocking at the right time, right contacts, being at the right place at the right time, or if you are of the more religious kind, divine intervention, there is always some "turning point" in the life of these ultra-successful people (however well deserved their success might be) that seems to evade the rest of us no matter how hard we work. Yes, go back and read those success biographies again.

The second type of "work-smart-secret-to-success" are a bit better from a practical point of view, but again fail to deliver specifics. Most of the advice given in such books are of a very generic and unsatisfactory nature. Practical, real-world tips are rare; and if they do work at all, they might work in a particular cultural context only (notice that most of these success stories are by American or first-world authors who make large assumptions about the role and recognition of merit in society, and the underlying base of free-market capitalism that makes it possible). Then again, putting many of these "practical" tips to use so consistently and correctly in the real world is a different story altogether.

I find that reading about the success of really big people is not a solution to the real world, practical problems and issues faced by the large majority of people in the world trying to lead ordinary lives with moderate success and happiness. What is required is a scientific and practical study of an average middle-class man or woman, who goes through life leading a steady, suitable career path without too many dramatic ups or downs, achieving reasonable success, accumulating a little wealth for a rainy day; AND has the time for ordinary pleasures and happiness within a family structure. Nothing in these extraordinary success stories gives us a clue about realistic dreams and leading a balanced life in terms of our own economic, social and cultural background.

From this point forward,

1. All comments from sources without a proper human-readable name affixed to them will be deleted.
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Needless to say, this is just an expression of what I have already been following recently, due to an increase in spam comments. Regular commenters and friends naturally need not bother about this post as these policies have no bearing on them.

As I enter into the legal profession, I have come to know that there are fundamentally two methods of learning the tricks of the trade (or to be more formal, the practice, the procedures, the technical and legal aspects of the profession).

One is to dive in head first and learn without fear from day one. Get your hands on a case, learn how to do it from start to finish and be prepared to commit mistakes and profit from them.

The second is to get into the everyday routine of the job slowly and steadily and learn the different aspects of the profession in a piecemeal fashion while working under the wings of a more experienced advocate, under supervision and without undue risk.

I am not saying either is better, but naturally a vast majority of law graduates prefer the second option; because for one thing, getting your own client to practise on (to put it in the proper perspective) is rather a tough ask and you cannot experiment with other lawyer's clients. On the other hand, the second method is definitely a slow and inefficient way to learn the practice and besides, you are restricted to only those fields of law that your senior practises in. A lot of freshers have no choice but to accept this reality.

I think, however, that the first method definitely has its merits if the opportunity of handling a case entirely or at least substantially, presents itself. It offers a rare, first-hand experience of courts and all the procedures followed therein. And there is no hand-holding process either. There is no question in my mind that handling a case from beginning to end, however simple, will definitely go a long way in bridging the gap between theoritical knowledge of law, as imparted in the law school and the actual practice (including clerical and procedural aspects). So I will definitely not say 'no', when the opportunity presents itself.

I've written a simple command-line, menu-driven, interactive DVD ripping and video encoding script in Python using MEncoder and FFmpeg.

Background: I created this script because I found myself using both MEncoder and FFmpeg alternatively to rip and encode from DVD videos. FFmpeg's drawback is that it cannot access DVD chapters directly and it cannot combine multiple input files to encode into a single file, while MEncoder's drawback is that the lavf MP4 muxer is currently broken and the resultant MP4 file generated from MEncoder is faulty and works only with MPlayer. So a two-step process is required to generate a fully functional and correct MP4 file. This script simply makes the process more convenient and user-friendly.

Check the project page for more information.

Well, if I spoke about files now, most people would immediately understand it in the computer sense, so I use the term real-world rather reluctantly. Of course, physical files are very important in spite of the world going the electronic way, as a lot of official documentation and forms still involve paperwork. And in a sense, getting your personal stuff organized is a very important step before launching into a career as I am finding out.

If you've stacked all your important papers with useless and temporary papers in a corner of your wardrobe or a shelf, it's high time to get organized. Let me share some of my tips because I think doing these can really help you get a sense of comfort and a grip on your own affairs.

Step 1: Separate the documents by areas of your life

Make a quick categorization. To get you started, here are some categories you might want to separate your documents into:

1. Education-related papers: your original degrees, certificates, mark statements, achievements, recognitions and so on.
2. Career-related papers: relating to your career; for example, appointment letters, resignation acceptance letters from employers, insurance policies, conduct certificates and so on. Note that this category excludes WORK-related documents. Work-related stuff should never get mixed up with your personal documents.
3. Bank and credit card related papers: your bank account details, forms, pass-books, correspondence with and other information from your bank, credit card related papers and so on, but not including regular bank or credit card statements.
4. Property-related documents: for instance, original land or house documents, documents relating to vehicles you own etc.
5. Bills and other statements: for instance, bank statements, credit card statements, mobile phone or land-line usage bills, bills relating to any other service you use frequently.
6. Other important documents: any other important or permanent one-time original records; for instance: birth certificate, original driving license, original identity cards, Government or local authority-related papers.

Of course, you could make your own categories, but I think the above would be sufficient to get started.

Step 2: Buy files and folders

Now buy some regular cardboard files and a couple of water-proof, briefcase-like folders. The expensive briefcase type folder is for the important original documents. The files are meant for regular documents like bills, statements etc.

Step 3: Make copies of all your important documents

Make at least one copy of all your important papers (education or career related) and preferably get them certified or notarized by a Commissioner of Oaths (or Notary Public) or a Gazetted Officer. This may cost a bit, but at least you have a back up of all your important original documents and you can use these documents as proof whenever you require to produce an original certificate or document.

Step 4: File away the documents patiently and systematically

This is a one-time job, but it takes time. However, doing this correctly will ensure that in future, you have no problems finding any particular document.

In the permanent waterproof folder carefully store your original documents, but separate them by type. If necessary use another folder for the certified copies of the originals, but this is not strictly necessary.

Now the bills and statements can be filed away in the regular files, but again use one file for one type of document. For example store your bank statements in one file, your credit card statements in another and your mobile phone bills in another.

Make sure you arrange them in reverse chronological order and keep the latest dated one on top all the time so that filing the next statement is much easier.

Keep a regular diary or notebook

This is not strictly related to the filing of papers, but a natural extension of getting organized is having a diary or notebook for keeping a brief log of your everyday activities. This need not be detailed or romantic (think Anne Frank's diary), but purely for the sake of business. For instance, if you've deposited a huge amount of money in the bank, make a note of it. If you've received a cheque from somebody, note it down. If you've done something important at work or solved a problem, note it down. Terse and brief, but understandable notes can be really helpful. A diary can serve a dual purpose: as a reminder and engagement book as well as a record of past transactions.

Finally, avoid being an organization freak

I should practise what I preach, but being new to this, I suppose I am a bit overenthusiastic about it at present. But I am sure that as I go along, I will achieve a happy medium between getting oneself organized and achieving peace of mind. Over-organization and control can mean anxiety, restlessness and tension at the slightest lack of organization. For instance, if you haven't made a record or note of something you feel you should have, your mind won't let you rest until you do. I think this is something to be avoided at all costs.

I guess there are levels of organization and getting too deep into it can make one lose sleep and lose sight of larger objectives in life in the long run.

Over the last few weeks, I've been busy as I finally passed out of Law College and now the proud holder of a B.L. degree (that's Bachelor of Laws). But as they say, with great power comes great... paperwork. In recent weeks have had to deal with a lot of official forms, since I have to get enrolled with the Bar Council to practise as an Advocate. Of course, official forms mean spending anywhere between a few minutes and a few hours and they vary in content and difficulty (in filling up efficiently).

Without going into specific details, I have to say that one of the reasons I hate official forms is that they contain so many fields and a bit of information to be collected beforehand, not all of it obvious. Forms with a lot of fields require careful perusal before filling up. You have to concentrate. Mistakes can easily be made in a casual moment. There is also the question of passport sized or profile photographs to be pasted and some forms are finicky about the details, which might mean a visit to the neighbouring photographic studio. Then again, forms require different types of additional documents to be annexed and this means spending time and energy in collecting original documents, taking photocopies and in some cases getting them attested. While many original documents can be easily copied on a home copier, some are unwieldy and large and require to be taken to a stationer's for copying.

The problem doesn't end there. Government forms often require payment of some money to a certain statutory authority and this means going to a bank and getting a D.D. (demand draft) issued in favour of the authority or going and depositing money directly in their account with a deposit slip (a.k.a challan).

Add to all this the ambiguity or complexity you find in so many forms along with lack of proper spacing to fill up certain fields, you can see how filling up official forms can get really frustrating. By the time you're done with a form or a series of forms, it will be a kind of triumph to submit them successfully at the office of the appropriate authority. Then comes the usual official delays and so on, but that's another story.

I am hoping that the future of official correspondence and official form submissions, especially in developing nations will become paperless and a lot more convenient, but I'm not holding my breath. The system as it works now is sustained by paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork, along with a load of supporting documents, most of them originally on paper. Converting this to a suitable electronic system will take a whole lot of concerted administrative effort and shedding a lot of red tape. Governments are notoriously slow. Maybe our grandchildren can dream.