The Man Watching

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.


Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875 - 1926)

RIP Zig Ziglar (Nov 6, 1926 - Nov 28, 2012)

Dear Ziglar, you've been an inspiration to me for the past decade and half. 

Your legacy will always live, because good ideas won't die. RIP Zig. :(

Quotes that Inspired Emmanuel Amberber over the years. 

My To-Do List - 2013

 

This shot clip has encapsulates most part of how I want to live the year 2013.

I want to read More. I want to browse Less.

I want to meet people More. I want to chat online Less.

I want to use bicycle More. I want to drive Less.

I want to travel More. I want to plan Less.

I want to Make a mess. And if it doesn’t work, start over.

Emmanuel Amberber's favorite video clip.

Run Baby Run - Hyderabad 10K

On Thursday my Italian friend has mentioned about some Friday hi-fi party where she was on the guest list. I didn't pay too much attention because I was trying to invite her to come to another event on Friday. Where Nuroantropologist  Paul Mason speaks on "Whats normal?" Here is the gist of his Dr. Paul's talk.

“What is normal?” is rarely given more than cursory attention. “The normal”, as Somerset Maugham wrote, “is what you find but rarely. The normal is the picture that one fabricates of the average characteristics of men, and to find them all in one single man is hardly to be expected.” If the normal doesn’t exist, why is it such a pervasive concept in contemporary societies? Today, fabricated images of normality are th

e central driving force of consumerism. Selling people an unattainable image of the normal ensures ongoing revenue from a customer who continually sees himself as imperfect. This talk takes a look at the history of normalcy and unpacks how normality is a false image worshipped by capitalism and accepted blindly by the masses.

Anyway she didn't come to the event, so i ended up going with another dear friend whom i call Apps. After the talk we went to some new hangout venue where we had conversations for hours on very divers topic, life, work, books, philosophy over yummy desserts. Then i dropped my friend to her place and headed back home thinking my day is done... time to hit the sack. The moment i reached home i received a call from the friend who kinda ditched me today. She called to tell me that i should come to The Clube at Novotel, because for a reason i don't know my name is on the guest list. Since the party is for the city business people I agreed to join 'em despite having tiresome day already (morning meeting at hitech city, lunch at Google office with M.J, afternoon tax law study, evening Manthan D   I thought it might be cool to go and network. I changed the day dress i was wearing yellow t-shirt and black pant with black and yellow canvas shoe. I decked up my slef with shirt and and tie. Went to the party at Novotel. It was organized for the organizers of  Hyderabad 10k Running race and sponsored by the 10K race sponsors. 
Its during this party of my friend who works with the sponsors asked me if i want to come, and I said yes. You might have read on my blog before that i run inside KBR, but am not that professional to run a race, nonetheless i agreed to come since she'll take care of my entry and all. Party was fun we stayed late till 2pm and went home. I texted my KBR running mate that am coming to Hyd 10k  race, she is from California and she has been avid runner at San Francisco marathon/10K, so she was looking forward to Hyderabad 10k race. She's been telling me about it while we run at KBR park. She was exited and we made a plan for me to pick her up and she canceled the taxi she booked that picks her up early morning.

Sunday Morning I woke up at 5:00am and headed to the race venue at Necklace road with my friend. The race venue was filled with people when we arrived. But its at the end of the medals ceremony that something i didn't expect happened on the podium .... The winner of the race both men & women categories were from Ethiopia. As the news paper called it Clean Sweep By Ethiopians at Hyderabad 10K

I met the winners and we had small talk, its been a while since i spoke in my mother tongue Amharic. It was a good chance to check on myself how much of it i remember well. Their dutch manager told me which hotel they stay. After the race i went home, i missed my Sunday church. I was a bit tired so i took an afternoon  nap at 1:30pm.

Woke up around 4:00pm I went to the 5 star hotel where the Ethiopian athletes were staying... the beautiful Indian lady at the lobby gave me the room no 314. When i went to room no 314 i didn't meet the guys i met in the morning. I was greeted with new Ethiopian faces. I told them about how i met the other winner and they told me he stays on the next room. I didn't go to next room, i stayed in their room and we started to chat. There were two of them in one the room and one of the was in the top 10 list of the winners. We started to have very long conversation. They told me how they funded them selves to come and compete here and so on. And they are going to participate in Pune 10 K Race. The came to Hyderabad last night to use this place as their training ground. Their major goal is to win at Pune. They told me they were worried because they don't know how to reach to Pune. So i took 'em to Nampally Station got 'em a bus ticket for the same night.

We called Mosinet Geremew to come to the room no 314. Once he showed up I congratulated him and he stated to tell me his story. His running experience in 5+ European countries. And his 1st Indian impression running in Hyderabad for the first time. We had lots of talks. Its during this time he was telling me about the issues faced by upcoming Ethiopian runners. Suddenly my mind started to think an idea of a web app who to solve their issue. And i told him my idea and i saw his face beam with joy. I just knew it an app will get birthed out of this.  Who knows this might turn out to be useful tool for the athletes back home. I will talk about it on the coming blog post once i've articulate the idea and make a business case out of it. 

Problem Problem Problem

"Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well-informed just to be undecided about them."

— Laurence J. Peter

Lately my life in India has been full of positive & negative experiences. Noticing the sun warming my skin, the small kid learning to walk, and the smiling & cheerful faces around me. Smell of the November rain, and the feel of the wind. On the contrary as Jack Sparrow (sorry, i meant Captain Jack Sparrow) said The problem is not The problem but my attitude about the problems i see i myself surrounded with, professionally, spiritually, socially almost in every angle i looked at. I know its a seasonal thing that human beings go through in life at some point in life. I know it will past, i don't know when... and that pretty frustrating feeling. 

Am trying to live my life to the fullest potential by reveling in the beauty of these experiences, and letting them inspire me to be the most positive version of ME. What would happen if I approached each day intentionally, with a positive attitude? What would happen if I embraced life’s challenges with a smile on my face? What would happen if I am surrounded yourself with people who makes me better? What would happen if I paused long enough to appreciate it all?

Am a kind of person who find it very difficult to talk about what i feel. Every problem i face, i face it by my self. The last thing i want is talking about it. But yesterday night i made a phone call to a friend. Just to say about what i feel. Not for advice, not for sympathy or empathy. That call went for almost whole two freakin' hours. Phew. Lets see how the story unfold. 

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. — Theodore Rubin

Dignified Man - Manifesto

The Dignified Man is Making a Comeback!

~via Emmanuel Amberber

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

©Rudyard Kipling

Emmanuel Amberber's fav.