Why I love the Incredible Hulk

If the world we live in were to take sides based on loyalty to iconic superhero characters, we would most likely be split into two: those that swear by Superman and those that would turn their back on good old 'red and blue' for the Batman. But I like to think that there would also be a third group; a small, green group that would eat anger and spit rage. The HULK fanatics!

I'm no expert on this, but I think that most people consider the Hulk an interesting character, but wouldn't swear allegiance to him like they would to Superman or the Dark Knight. Perhaps it is his brutish persona or the fact that, more often than not, he is more anti-hero. Or maybe because he just comes across as another muscle-bound, dim-witted oaf. But ever since I picked up my first Hulk comic, I have absolutely, unreservedly, shamelessly idolized the green monster!

Superman is goodness personified. Batman is all shrewdness and steely resolve. The Hulk...is human!

Though the Hulk is a classic case of multiple personality disorder that is larger than any Jekyll or Hyde, this schism is a reflection on most of humanity. Every one of us has a dormant Hulk within us. In the comic books, the Hulk alter ego proves to be the stronger, getting the better of Bruce Banner at the slightest provocation. For many of us—and thankfully so—our own Bruce Banner alter ego is stronger. When faced with provocation, we bite our lip and swallow the bile that rises in our bellies because we know too well the outcome of releasing that green giant within us. On the rare occasion that he has risen, we've lived to regret our tempestuous actions! The comic books capture the clash of our own Banner/Hulk alter egos pretty accurately: while the Hulk enjoys the sweet catharsis of his rampages, the guilt of his action is all for Banner to deal with!

At the risk of sounding like I have unresolved issues, I sometimes feel I would love the mindless freedom that the Hulk enjoys! The freedom to unleash your fury at everything that hurts you, to beat down to a pulp every adversary that ever crossed you, to stare brazenly at every possible kind of disaster and flick it aside saying, "HULK SMASH!"

Convergence: Updating my blog from Microsoft Word 2007!

I've just recently started working with Office 2007 and I just came across the new blogging facility in Word! If you're reading this, it means I've successfully posted a new log, directly from Word 2007! I didn't have to open Firefox, login to blogger, and then create a new post using the blogger interface. This maybe old news for some, but it's new for me and I'm happy!

Dealing with Grief: Losing a Job/Losing a Loved One

I came across a somewhat interesting discussion on one of my LinkedIn groups: "I know losing a friend or a loved one can be devastating but how does the feeling compare to the loss of a job? Do we go through a similar grieving process?"

At first glance, there's just no question of a comparison, right? The loss of a loved one is far more painful than the loss of a job. Like one woman posted, "I lost my husband. Between that and losing a job - I'd pick losing a job every day for 10 years."

A lot of people felt the same way and posted similar responses. But some saw through the question: it wasn't so much about comparing the two losses as it was about looking at the loss of a job individually and asking if we go through the same stages of grief. When you lose a loved one, you lose a lot more than just their physical presence in your life. You lose whatever they brought into the relationship: a confidante, a sense of dependability, a sense of knowing where to go when you needed them. But can we say the same about losing a job?

If we're going to answer that, we have to ask ourselves, "Does my job give me more than just financial security?" We spend more time at work during the day than at home, interacting with our family members. So, of course, we forge bonds and form work-relationships that come to mean more than just idle chat at the water cooler. Losing your job could mean losing this support structure you created for yourself. I saw this when my mom was one of the hundreds of people who were laid off from Philips. It was the company my mom had started her career with and she'd been a part of the company for 20 odd years. I still remember how hard she had to struggle to come to terms with her loss, even battling depression. Over those 20 odd years, she had associated herself with her work and not being part of the company any more had made her feel...unwanted.

A couple of weeks back I got to know about an ex-colleague who passed away in a motorbike accident. I later heard that a lot of people from my old organization attended his funeral. Though I had never worked with him myself, or interacted with him personally, I wished I had been able to attend the funeral simply because he was part of an organization that I had come to love in the 4 years I had worked there. I'm guessing a lot of people who did attend his funeral would have felt the same way. Some would have been there to pay their respects to the individual but for others, perhaps, the bond they shared transcended any individual.

So my response to the LinkedIn discussion would be, yes, when we lose a job (or give one up prematurely) we do go through a similar grieving process as when we lose a loved one. The intensity would vary greatly, but the grief would probably go through the same phases: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance; denial that such a thing happened to you, anger because you didn't deserve it, bargaining over whether you could have avoided it, depression because you cannot come to terms with what you've lost, and finally acceptance because you realize it's time to move on.