That is what I have been telling myself over and over again since yesterday. Since news broke about the act perpetrated by nameless, faceless cowards at a sporting event. An event that celebrates the resilience and strength of the human spirit, as it overcomes the frailty and limits of the human body.

It was a lot easier to buy into the spirit of defiance against the terrorists after 9/11. What else was I going to do? And maybe it was the folly of youth. Because yesterday when I thought this to myself, a different thought entered my mind.

I want to get home to my kids.

There are many things that show you just how much kids change everything. And stuff like this does that in a big way. I remember not understanding folks who went to live on Long Island after 9/11, and never moved back to Manhattan. I do now.

It feels like our logical side is more at war with our emotional side than ever before. It’s hard to react with a call for reason when you hear of an 8 year old destroyed by a pipe bomb, as he waited excitedly by the finish line to watch his dad finish a marathon. I instinctively imagine the face of my 5 year old, innocent about the evils of this world, his biggest worry the loss of toy privileges. The rage and despair I feel is a repeat of the emotions I experienced after Newtown. I want to scream, and shout, and find someone to blame for the twinge of doubt that enters my mind every few days as I’m dropping him off at school, for the thoughts that go through my head every time I board a plane.

But somewhere inside I know that no solutions can be found in that dark place, which simply paralyzes the mind, leads to a bunker mentality and creates twisted ideas of what constitutes justice, retribution and safety. And I need that thinking to win out. We all need that voice inside to guide us.

In the end, I decided to continue the day as I normally would have. I met some folks after work for some laughs and to swap stories. I got on the subway a few times, and ignored the police and military presence we’ve had since 9/11 like I usually do. Did the Twitter and Facebook thing as normal (suppressing anger at the disconnect between people’s actions and their words). And I got home in time to tuck both kids in to bed.

But at least this one night, I did hug them a little bit longer than I normally would have. And I hoped that somehow, the resilience and strength of the human spirit will overcome the frailty and limits of the world we find ourselves in now.

Tags: Boston Marathon, Terrorism

The occasion was a visit to New York City by Laure Lignier of the Lignier-Michelot winery. Joining her at the dinner was Peter Wasserman, a global wine consultant (whose awesome business card simply says ‘Head of Antimarketing and Sales Prevention’) and expert in Burgundian wines. The chef at Public had worked with Erin to prepare an incredible meal to pair with the fantastic Burgundies of Virgile Lignier. And Erin had even put together a supplement to the menu with a map of Burgundy highlighting the places the wines were from.

At the beginning of the evening, Ranjeet and I shared concerns about feeling a little out of place there. I mean, we love a good wine, but we can’t even begin to pretend being connoisseurs. The phrase “fish out of water” kept running through my head. But as the evening progressed, we found ourselves immersed in a fascinating world of good food, great wine, history and passion projects. Laure really brought us into the world of what can only be described as artisanal wine making. No question went unanswered, and we really got to understand the passion and dedication it takes to create wines as art as opposed to commodity. Peter was part translator, part professor, giving us an education about Burgundian wines in 3 hours that we could probably not get anywhere else – everything from understanding the special geological circumstances that gave Burgundy its unique soil characteristics and the tiering of its different regions to the family traditions, laws and techniques of wine making in Burgundy. And not in a stuffy Crane brothers type style either. Let’s just say that salty language was used on more than one occasion, to great effect. Through it all, Erin was the compere extraordinaire, conducting the evening with precision and warmth.

Another element that made the evening special was Ranjeet breaking out the French (why am I surprised by anything he does at this point). Laure was visiting NYC with her friend Caroline, and she happened to speak no English. And with no fear whatsoever, Ranjeet proceeded to charm everyone by not only breaking out what was apparently pretty workable French, but going beyond polite lip service and carrying out entire conversations that evening. It was typical Ranjeet. Oh yeah, Alice was there too, charming folks with her knowledge of wines, though she kept trying to make a case for California (I kid, I kid).

By the end of the evening, I had a thoroughly new appreciation for the art of wine making. Some of the most fascinating discussions of the evening centered around the mix and also separation of science and art that goes into a more natural, artisanal approach to traditional vinification – one that is primarily focused on letting the wines speak for themselves, and for the land they came from. And there are more than a few comparisons to be made between running a winery and running a startup. There are no vacations, no off-days. Every detail is important. And you have to have passion for what you’re doing.

It was a truly fascinating, unique evening. And the kind of evening I hope to keep having, so I can continue to learn more. Can’t wait to see what comes next (Erin, challenge extended).

Tags: Burgundy, Lignier-Michelot, Public Restaurant, Wine

The world of technology lives on the edge, and challenges many norms. As Tim Lee points out, all the greats – from a personal hero, Richard Feynman, to the celebrated like a god Steve Jobs, and famously portrayed in a movie Mark Zuckerberg – pushed and often went beyond the boundaries. And what exactly did Aaron do that was so bad? This kind of ruthlessness and zealotry in prosecution is, quite simply, obscene.

I leave you with the eloquent fury of Larry Lessig. And I am furious for not knowing and therefore speaking up before.

I’m sorry, Aaron.

Tags: Aaron Swartz, Bullying, Justice

Tags: Curiosity Rover, Mars, Mars Curiosity, NASA, Science, Space Exploration

Years ago I read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, his autobiography about his escape from life as a child soldier (you can read my immediate reaction here). It shook me to my core. Growing up in India, I was well aware (and scared to death) of stories about children being kidnapped into slavery. But this was the first time I understood how children were being converted into weapons of war, and the sheer horror of it all was overwhelming.

This was before Arav was born. Before those nights when I would walk over to watch him sleeping peacefully in bed, gaze at his angelic face (well, they’re always angelic when they’re sleeping), and shudder at the mere thought of what if…

I have struggled ever since, trying to figure out what I could do to make a difference. It’s been easy to donate money to various causes. And I’ve participated in forums and given whatever voice I have to different efforts at various times. I wish I could go off and volunteer my time, but the few times I’ve looked into it, I have found the requirements to be impractical for me to take on. And I’d always assuage my guilt with the thought of “some day”.

That’s why I found the Stop Kony movement so compelling. If you haven’t seen the video yet (um, really? Where have you been?), see it below first (be warned, it’s about 30 minutes long though).

The promise of making a difference through small, manageable actions is incredibly seductive, and the video does a great job of tapping into that allure. There are some that criticize this approach as meaningless, coining the phrase ‘slacktivism‘ in response. But the first wave of attack in any campaign is raising awareness. We need only go back a few months to see citizen action work in the recent brouhaha over SOPA/PIPA.

The key though was in the kind of citizen action that made change happen. It wasn’t a bunch of tweets, avatar tweaks and website overlays that made an impact. It was the way in which all that activity channeled people’s fury into a single call to action – getting in touch with our representatives in Congress and making them hear our concern. It’s ironic that in the current election season, where we constantly hear how disillusioned the country is with their government, the best course of action to affect change is still the age old method of writing a letter to your congressman/congresswoman (updated for the times, of course).

What I have found fascinating is not just how ultra-viral (is that redundant?) the beautifully orchestrated social media campaign for Stop Kony has been, but also the speed at which thoughtful and soul-searching critiques of Invisible Children, the NGO behind the campaign, emerged and become incredibly visible. Critiques like this one literally stopped me in my tracks, because I was definitely getting swept up in the emotional tug the video created. It’s a sobering reminder that research and fact-checking is becoming a rarity instead of a rule in the social media fueled frenzy around causes. Hearing about that thing from friends naturally erodes the skepticism we should feel. Call it cause phishing.

So I am going to watch carefully to see what emerges from this campaign. I truly hope that Invisible Children’s response to these critiques is genuine and holds up, because there can be no greater cause than saving and rehabilitating children from the atrocities of slavery, rape and war. And if it does, and the campaign is able to overcome the critiques and be successful, then we will have opened a whole new chapter in the way we combat the ills of this world. Even if it only succeeds in raising awareness about the need to act and galvanizes people towards other channels, it would be worth it. But if it’s a money grabbing scheme couched behind a social cause, then it could poison the growth of a powerful tool in the people’s arsenal to affect change, and that would be a very bad thing. Because there are so many causes that we need to fight for, in our own small ways.

[ Update - 3/9/2012 ]

Below are some interesting posts I’ve come across about the StopKony movement since I originally posted this.

• Unpacking Kony 2012
• A Partial Defense Of Invisible Children’s Kony2012 Campaign
• African voices respond to hyper-popular Kony 2012 viral campaign

[ Update - 3/16/2012 ]

Oh, for crying out loud:

• ‘Kony 2012′ filmmaker arrested in San Diego “after he was found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something,”

Tags: Charity, humanity, Kony 2012, Kony2012, Social Media, Stop Kony, StopKony

People in the so-called Political Intelligence business (who aren’t classified as lobbyists) sold access to members of Congress at $10,000 a pop to hedge fund managers, who used the (non-public) information they gathered about bills not yet passed to make millions. In other words, insider trading. And members of Congress themselves are legally able to take positions in the stock market based on information they know about bills they will pass that will impact those same stocks – doing exactly what Gordon Gecko was espousing in ‘Wall Street’. In other words, members of Congress are somehow exempt from insider trading (criminal) laws. And people like Eric Cantor, when asked to support a bill that would correct this glaring loophole, say “eh!”

And they wonder why people hate Congress so much. Infuriating!

Here’s Jon Stewart’s opening segment explaining what’s going on:

And here’s his interview with Representative Louise Slaughter who has been working to ban congressional insider trading:

Tags: Congress, Corruption, Epic Fail, The Daily Show

Just got back from picking up my brother at JFK (forgot how much I hate having to drive out to that airport, especially in rush hour). He’s in town because his latest project, Greater Elephant, will be premiering next Saturday (Nov 12th) at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York City. It’s an interesting little indie flick, from a very talented director. My little bro is playing Shiva, the God of destruction (how appropriate). You can check out the movie’s Facebook page here.

Chalk it up to one more advantage of living in (near enough) this great city. It’s great to have Naveen in town, as I don’t get to hang out with him often, living as we do in completely different worlds halfway across the globe from each other. And he’s been pretty busy with different projects since his star turn in Rocket Singh. I’m looking forward to hearing him regale us with tales of life in Bollywood. And I wonder what the film festival experience will be like. If you’re in the NYC area and can make it to the screening, be sure to come. I’ll be there to watch the film and support him.

Tags: Greater Elephant, Indie Film, Movies, Naveen Kaushik, New York City

Except that we do. A deeply personal one. Steve Jobs touched our lives in ways that are hard to quantify. He was King Midas – the entrepreneur and visionary that all of us techies at the table count among our greatest inspirations. A legend. The gold standard for turning vision into uncompromised reality. He was Walt Disney – the driving force behind the world of magic at Pixar. He believed in it and pushed it through when almost everyone else would have bailed on it. His DNA is very much alive in the creative vision that rules there. He was the Pied Piper – changing the way we live our daily lives in fundamental ways, almost dictating it to us. None of us can imagine not having our iPhones (or the smartphone that followed suit) to get through the day. And my son, who lives and breathes all things Pixar, is a bona fide member of the iGen (or should that be Gen-i), having grown up from day one playing, learning and enjoying our iPhone and iPad. He is a tech savvy 3 year old who has never touched a keyboard or a mouse. The world he will grow up in has been forever shaped by Steve.

As we slowly recovered and started to talk about him, discussion turned to the stories we had heard, and the impact his loss would have on Apple products, stock and roadmap. Such was his genius, that the fate of a company with the size, success, capital and talent of Apple is still so singularly tied to one man. I have no doubt that he built Apple to last, but today is a great loss for Apple, the Tech industry and the World. His clarity of thought, vision and drive will be missed.

Apple’s tribute on their home page is fitting: larger than life, simple, elegant, complete. There are no words…

Tags: Apple, Pixar, RIP Steve Jobs, Stand Up 2 Cancer, Steve Jobs, Thank You Steve

Tags: Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees

He is without a doubt the best in the business. Before this season is over, he will have surpassed Trevor Hoffman to become the all time leader in saves. Baseball purists argue about the relevance of the saves category. As someone who has witnessed Mo’s contribution to the incredible run the Yankees have had since he came into the league, let me say two words – Enter Sandman.

Any time the opposing team heard that song, they knew the game was over. And it was a disheartening feeling. Knowing that you pretty much had no shot. And at no time was this more evident than in the postseason, where Rivera simply loomed large over every single game. Opposing teams knew they had to tie the score or take the lead before the start of the 8th inning (has anyone had more 2 inning saves ever?), because if they didn’t, the game was over. And it made them press and make mistakes, which worked to the Yankees advantage. And the few times teams managed to overcome Rivera stand out simply because they were so rare. Luis Gonzalez’s career highlight will always be hitting a bloop single over shortstop to win the 2001 World Series, an especially heartbreaking loss for every New Yorker, partly because it won the series, but mostly because it was against the great Mariano. There is no doubt in my mind that the Yankees win none of those championships without Rivera contributing large to the mystique and aura.

And in the age of Lebron, Kobe, A-Rod and Peyton, has there ever been a less heralded and hyped superstar than Rivera? He always carries himself with dignity and grace, forever humble and a team player. Can you imagine what the coverage of A-Rod’s approach to 700 HR would be? Just compare it to the complete lack of hype around Rivera’s approach to 600. I guess it’s fitting for someone who would enter the game, get 3 outs, and walk off the mound before you even had a chance to get your heart racing. He was just that good, that dominant, that matter-of-fact.

He is the master. He is the Sandman. And there will never be another like him.

Tags: Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees, The Greatest