Sridhar Machani | My World

[1-Mar-2015] Solo Bullet Ride to Lepakshi

2015-03-05T09:01:00.000+05:30

Going Solo
Anyone who has tried to organize an event can expect last-minute drop-outs. Legitimate or otherwise, the organizer has to respect the decisions. Priorities change, unexpected things come up, life happens on the sides.

Some take it personally, some might be hurt. Some might withdraw into a shell. Some go ahead with the event, as they get crazy, rebellious, philosophical, Zen-like, or just to prove a point or two to others and more importantly, to self.

Every now and then I popped the idea of going for a Bullet ride. It never materialized. Once even I was guilty of last-minute drop-out. The longing for the ride used to build up, and I used to take my family along to Art of Living, the NICE Road, or Kanakapura. But it felt like having a breezer when you felt thirsty for a Scotch.

The Week Before

A week before, I declared to myself that I will take my buddy (Royal Enfield Bullet Thunderbird 500) out for a ride to the long-pending ride to Lepakshi Temple, Andhra Pradesh, 140 KMs from my place in Bangalore - even if I have to go solo. Sent notifications to a few folks, some agreed, some didn't respond.

The Night Before

All dropped out the previous night. I expected it, and welcomed it. Packed my backpack with the puncture kit, first aid kit, spares, documents, cash, phone battery power bank, and kept an offline copy of the map on phone. I had filled fuel a couple of days before, checked oil, air pressure, and applied lubricating oil.

The Morning of the Ride, Sunday 1-Mar-2015

I woke up early as planned and informed my wife that I was going on the ride alone. She understandably refused to let me go. I tried to convince her. There was a huge churn inside my head and stomach. My kid was sleeping blissfully, it was so easy to change my mind and go back to sleep. No one would mind it, in fact people would expect me to cancel the ride, the right thing to do, to not take risk. When I told her this last bit, she sort of got the hint of the enormous struggle I was having within, with myself. She still didn't agree, but she said I should go. I asked her if she was sure, she said she was angry but I can go. She made coffee, packed some fruits and snacks, got my son to bid me bye, and I started the first solo ride at 6.45AM instead of the planned 5AM start.

The Ride

Even after starting the ride, it felt like I could still turn and go back. After a couple of KMs, things changed for the better. It was the morning after a night's rain, and the sky was overcast for most part of the ride, just the perfect weather! I was just riding, what else can I say. Clarity, purpose, calmness, confidence. They all took over. God, why hadn't I done this earlier. Missed you buddy! Passed through the early morning vehicles onto the city outskirts by 7.30AM. The green sign board read 48 KMs to Chikkaballapura, the breakfast spot I reached at 8.45AM. Saw a few biking groups, with Harley-Davidsons, Triumphs, and Bullets as well. By now, it was half-way mark at ~78 KMs. Spoke to my wife, who was now completely mad at me!

Being solo meant some degree of self-indulgence. Took selfies, which I never do.

Highway got boring after some point. Reached Nandi spot at 9.45AM, the first destination 1 KM before Lepakshi Temple.

Was blown away by the old-world rock sculptures at the temple, took easy nice stroll around the temple complex, clicked lots of pictures.

I was ready to start the return journey in about 40 minutes. This time I decided against online reviews and some people near the temple, and headed to Hindupur, 15 KMs away. It was supposed to lead onto Gowribidanur and to Doddaballapura, with bad roads. But to my pleasant surprise, the road was in good shape with playful twists and turns, lined up for the most part with huge scenic trees alongside. I had to be careful as there wasn't any median in the middle of the road (it was a State highway). Soon I switched on the headlight on my bike, which prevented most opposite vehicles not to overtake, leaving me with safe, easy path to move forward at good speed.

The Finishing

The mark of a achieving something worth is how hard the finishing is. The weak-hearted ones give up right there. Instead of the planned entry to Tumkur Road and then onto the NICE Road, I somehow ended up at Yelahanka. It was 1PM, exhausted from the slow moving and annoying traffic from Doddaballapura, 25 KMs. The choice was between going another 30 KMs to the NICE Road entrance (plus 31 KMs to reach home), or pass through 35 KMs of city traffic via Hebbal, Sankey Tank Road, Kasturba Road onto Kanakapura Road. I took the latter, and focused on taking it one road at a time, on reaching home safe, which I did at 2.20PM, 280 KMs mark on the Odometer. If you take a risk, it doesn't mean you can't take precautions and be careful. There is no point of taking a big risk if you can't finish what you started, and reach home in reasonable shape. Fun is to live to see the odds beaten, dreams fulfilled.

It's Full of Fights

If you are sure of something, you have to expect the roadblocks, the fights with the norms, the well wishers, friends, family, and with yourself - for your safety, fear of being lonely, physical and mental constraints/impediments. That's what it takes to go after a dream. Chase, go after it, fall, rise, and get there. Every little battle counts. Every big fight hurts. There are no wins, or winnings. There's just Life, as you want it to be.

PS: My friend shared this link (http://qr.ae/j7beA) of a 22-year old going on a solo ride on a 20-year old Bullet from Bangalore to Himalayas, over 4000 KMs. He fell sick after that, but then did this stretch for another 6 times. Amazing! Read more stories on "How does it feel to travel alone?" at http://www.quora.com/How-does-it-feel-to-travel-alone.

Links:

Here are the pictures in Story form: http://goo.gl/AjN23f
And here are the pictures in Album form: http://goo.gl/s0xCMF
Here's the route map: https://goo.gl/maps/VNrry

Swaraj's Got Many Friends Now!

2014-09-08T23:25:00.002+05:30

Please note: The non-obvious reason for sharing this story is that someday you might also think about organizing this sort of thing at least once a year. More than that, we want you to experience the true meaning of the expression "filled with joy and happiness." Let your heart/soul be stuffed with a sumptuous meal of satisfaction and contentment. Go with your family and friends. Return with a bag full of memories that live for ever. We don't know how much difference we made to these kids in a few hours, but they have made a huge dent in the way we perceive materials and life in general.

Amidst broken relations, we find reasons to fight, argue, avenge, lose hope/sanity, and flood ourselves with negativity. For a change, visit Jeevarathni (or a similar home) and hear out the stories of how each kid fought the odds from within and outside of his/her family.
I mean, WTF are we cribbing about? Enough said, read on for our story.

It was a lazy Saturday morning like any other. The only thing to be done for Swaraj's 4th birthday the next day was to order a cake for a simple ceremony at home. His mother came up with an idea that we should celebrate it with special kids, just like my friend Deepak Artal had done a few years back. It was an impromptu decision. And it turned out to be a day like no other!

I realized Michelle is associated with Jeevarathni Foundation, off Nellur near Hosur, about 50 KMs from our place. A few calls, and it all fell in place. A few friends immediately agreed to join us. We wanted to carry lunch, but it wasn't allowed. They had an in-house kitchen and they tempted us with a special Onam lunch. For more than a reasonable amount, we could sponsor lunch for all the 33+ kids and us the visitors. The wonderful host Meena encouraged us to bring as many friends and family we wanted to, but we limited ourselves so as not to burden them.

It look us close to 1.5 hours to reach the destination. Swaraj was eager to cut the cake, he kept asking for it all along the way. We decided to take the Hosur Road next time and avoid the tiny packed roads of Sarjapur town.

First thing the kids did after we arrived was to wish Swaraj and present their hand-painted greeting cards.

Handshakes between them and Swaraj were a delight to watch.

Kids circled eagerly around the cake. And just like that, I was going to be the guy lighting the candle. I'd thought I would stand out and shoot a video!

Happy birthday to you Swaraj! The kids sang thus, and the cake was cut. Right there. The magical moments.

Thanks folks for coming down and making this happen!

Left to right: Karthik, his wife Sowmya, their daughter Adya, my family, Swathi with her daughter Tanu, Mahesh with their son Jaikrith (Swaraj's classmate). Jai wondered that Swaraj now has such a lot of friends :-)

Swaraj and his school mates from JSPS

The special Onam lunch on banana leaves! The mats were spread out and we sat with each group of kids, chatting with them as we relished the Kerala specials.

There are mothers allocated to a group of kids - they share love with each other. Lunch was prepared and served out of in-house kitchen. At this point, we were feeling awkward to show affection to our son, while the kids watched. That one is heart wrenching.

Good and vast play area for the kids, our little ones had fun after lunch.

Group photo with the kids. Look at Karthik with the kids posing as Lord Krishna!

Kids with books, pens, pencils - sponsored by Karthik and family.

This bus drops and picks up the kids to a nearby school everyday. The white brown dog is called Lucy. She came along where ever we went, so sweet!

Swaraj liked the chicken/duck farm out in the backyard.

The host in-charge/caretaker Meena lives here. A gracious lady who is loved by the kids.

Karthik, the kid, and yours truly :)

Karthik with his daughter Adya and the kids

More Pictures

Update: Here's a beautiful photo story created by Google+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SridharMachani/stories/a9d82c0f-20d8-3b96-b6ba-6ff5426bc2f31485c70b6cf

All photos: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106796492829299466767/albums/6056663496438917233?authkey=CIqFs8yWgeeyMw

Jeevarathni Foundation

Website: www.jeevarathni.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Jeevarathni-Foundation/133462053402731

Start Protecting Our Girls

2014-07-18T11:23:00.001+05:30

Friends, is there nothing we can do to stop crimes against women? Can't we think of a reasonable deterrence (technologically or otherwise) that works for young and elder girls?

Last night my mind went sick over multiple news coming from all over the places - it was about 10+ rape incidents. I think the news channels have become Bad News channels. There must be stats that say every 30 mins or less, there's a rape reported in India.

My blood boils. If there is one thing I'd like to make a difference in my life, this might be it. If we can't even try, what is the point of living, we might as well call it just existing. We, including me, are letting these things happen – and we care only if the problem comes to our doorstep.

Ping me if you want to join for a discussion this weekend – 1-1, in group, in person or on Google Hangouts.

Dear Sridhar,

This petition is gaining a lot of support on Change.org and we thought you might be interested in signing it.

Karnataka Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar: Issue directive to all schools in Bangalore to impose security measures for the safety of children

Pavithra Shetty
BANGALORE, India

Sign Pavithra's Petition

[Ride+Trek, 18-May-2014] Chennarayana Durga

2014-05-22T20:36:00.000+05:30

The ride wasn’t decided until late in the night on Saturday, the 17th May 2014. I was trying to ensure chores are completed. Shashi was entrusted with finding a place to ride, the backup option being Nandi Hills and Lepakshi (oh, the time is yet to arrive for that).

Finally we decided on Chennarayana Durga, a small village near Madhugiri off Tumkur, about 120 KMs from my place in Bangalore. Trekking was out of the equation as soon as I saw the pictures online. The hill is steep with an inclination of over 60 degrees. And I had become overweight, the last time I trekked was about 10 years back (from Sringeri to Agumbe, 25 KMs via the forest – oh, that’s another legendary story we keep telling everyone!), and this was supposed to be a ride, what the hell. Reasons. They were flowing thick and fast in the mind. We told ourselves that we’ll ride up to that place, and decide to climb up the hill or not depending on our risk appetite (and my stamina, I thought to myself!).

When was the last time you did something for the first time?
That’s one my favorite question, and Shashi took illegal advantage of it. He popped the question, and I could not go against the spirit.

Onward Ride
The ride started a bit late, at 6.50AM, in the morning, owing to Sunday morning laziness on my part. We filled fuel at Shell, JP Nagar, and picked up Madhu (Shashi’s cousin, the pillion rider) from Kumaraswamy Layout. The early morning on Sunday was laid back en route Tumkur Road, near Nelamangala. A breakfast stop just before Dabaspete was brief.

After the deviation from Dabaspete, the road up to Chennarayana Durga was under construction, dusty, rough, and patchy. However, the countryside views and trees along side the road for most part negated the bad road conditions. In any case, after my previous ride to a spot near Cauvery river bank (off Kanakapura) along the non-existent and treacherous paths, this ride proved a cake walk. The pathetic optimist that I’m, all bad roads are considered preparation for the mother of all rides, the Himalayan Odyssey that we are dreaming of for the next year.

Trekking
We parked our Bullets in front an old lady’s house (trivia: it seems she played host to Late Vishnuvardhan and Bharathi for a meal when they were shooting for the movie “Bangaarada Jinke” in this village a few decades ago) and left our bags as well. The steep climb proved how misfit I’m.

Agree that it was a steep hill to climb, but that was no excuse I thought. Just after climbing for a few minutes, we evaluated whether to continue or go back, the risk was too high. I realized the shoe I was wearing had little grip, wasn’t meant for this sort of an adventure. But we moved on along a different path. I stopped to catch my breath every few minutes, and Shashi/Madhu were waiting on me, egging me on, teasing me, and singing inspiring songs.

At one point, I felt dizzy and at many times, asked them to carry on. But they claimed there’s a trekker’s code that no one gets left behind. Finally I drew on all my strength (ah, so dramatic, ain’t it) to reach the top of the hill. All along, we were powered by bananas and a lot of water. There were a couple of extra forts up above, which they explored by themselves. I had about an hour to myself, all alone, on the top, with a lovely view of the villages. It looked like a perfect spot and time for meditation, and I seized it. The cool breeze enhanced the experience, and a lot of things ran through the mind, many of them trivial, and at the end, there was renewed energy, clarity, and positivity. The climb down the hill was enjoyable and relatively easy.

Return Ride
We had lots of water from a villager’s house, and sat under Peepal tree for a long time. The ride back to Korategere for lunch was sublime. Now I don’t recall why, my guess is, it was due to the fact that the tough part was behind us. The feeling of having won over a great fear. The wind against the sweat. Huge happiness. After lunch at around 4.30PM, we had a relaxed visit to the famous Goravanahalli Temple (Goddess Lakshmi). When we’re travelling, we should seek out the local specials – be it the food, places, and activities. For, every place has its own charm.

The ~30-KM road up to the Tumkur highway NH4 was a toughie and took as much time as we took to cover the remaining ~100 odd KMs. It was dark, raining, and the drivers in the opposite direction had high beam headlights due to the bad road conditions. It was finally a relief to reach the highway at 7.45PM. A sip of hot tea was in order. The rest of the ride via Nelamangala flyover and NICE road to my place off Kanakapura Road was surprisingly easy and quick. A hot shower followed by a tight sleep over the night ended the journey.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? I just did!

Map: https://goo.gl/maps/FDLGH

Full album: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+SridharMachani/albums/6014976915709054753?authkey=CLyT-cDTwpaAcw

Photosphere (a new kind of photo to capture 360 degree view): Thanks to the Google Camera app, the Photosphere images are nice - check this and this.

2014: A New Year Starts

2014-01-01T21:17:00.001+05:30

The year 2013 had a lot of trials, with none making it big – how could they, I never gave it a decent run and focus.

The goals for this year are:

Write everyday (someone who doesn’t, is probably not a writer)
Build a community of people who I can guide and help in some way
Treat fitness effort as high priority, which might actually add a few years to one’s life
Celebrate more – with or without reason or occasion

As far as career goals are concerned, they are already in motion. The thing I need to keep reminding myself is that you grow with roles, not with hikes or changing jobs. And you get into a role by already performing that role.

What about you? If you’re still making up your mind, try having a theme for the year, be it health, prosperity, or both. Good luck!

On Reading a Great Book

2013-10-28T16:25:00.002+05:30

This is the first time I ever wrote on Medium, hope people make sense of it. I had just finished Steig Larrson's Millennium Trilogy, the first of which is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

P-R Depression

Be careful what you fall in love with.

https://medium.com/writers-on-writing/acc13a1861e4

Plain Cake

2013-02-25T10:41:00.001+05:30

For the first time, we tried baking a plain vanilla cake and here's how it turned out:

It was a little too sweet and felt the taste of raw eggs. In hindsight, maybe we should've used more butter rather than oil. But, overall, not bad for the first attempt!

Drive to Chitradurga - 22 Dec 2012

2013-02-03T12:47:00.001+05:30

An impulse decision to drive to Chitradurga with Kashi and his father turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. A good way to spend a Saturday, indeed. We started in my Swift car at 4.45am and took turns to drive on the beautiful NH4. Had breakfast at around 8am and started the light-weight trek around the Fort - built to withstand enemy attack by way of seven levels of increasing robustness and strategy.

A good thing we did to hire a guide to get a gist of the history, including the Onake Obavva bravery. We then stopped over at a cave and hired another guide to dig deep below 80 feet. The cave was used by a monk to meditate and spend the rest of his life. You have to literally stretch and crawl to go down many levels and rooms, but amazingly built to have enough supply of Oxygen - so none of us collapsed. At the rock bottom, we switched off all lights and witnessed the meaning of pitch darkness.

We came back to Bangalore by 5pm.

You can read my friend's account of the day on his blog and view all the pictures at https://plus.google.com/u/0/106796492829299466767/posts/76GnEz5t4KA.

[30-day Challenge] Fitness

2013-02-03T09:44:00.001+05:30

It’s been a very good day so far today.

Woke up early, went out for a 20-minute walk and then headed to the gym for a 15-minute workout.

The challenge is to go out of the house and do some fitness-related activity for the next 30 days. No matter what.

Hope is that it’ll become a habit, as someone said we need to do something consistently for 30 days to make a habit out of it.

Encourage me, and push me so this doesn’t become yet another start!

Karwar Trip

2013-01-25T12:19:00.000+05:30

Part 1 - Karwar trip planning via +Karthik C S:

My dear friend Sridhar sent an email sometime in 3rd week of December proposing for a trip for year end or 1st week of Jan. At the same time even Sowmya and I were thinking to get out somewhere. It so happened that none of the other friends could make it. So it turned out to be both our families.

TED Talk - SuperBetter: Can Gamification Solve Your Problems?

2012-12-02T18:28:00.001+05:30

I was meaning to watch a TED video regularly, hopefully this will be a good start.

I'm going to watch this brilliant talk by Jane McGonigal again, and frequently - it's about how you can introduce gamification to fix any kind of problems, and avoid regretting things when it's too late.

Here it is - The game that can give you 10 extra years of life #TED:
http://on.ted.com/lGxQ

Also on: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106796492829299466767/posts/Kdf7wjpGYK7

Eega - About unfulfilled love and revenge

2012-07-26T21:19:00.001+05:30

Yesterday, on my way back home from office, I made an impromptu decision to dash into a nearby theatre to watch the Telugu movie, Eega.

It’s been a day now, but I still feel ~~sad~~ depressed for the hero for his unfulfilled love. Of course, there’s revenge, but it won’t do much for the amazing life he could have lived with his loved one. It’s been a while since I felt this way, at such a raw level. Keeps reminding me about death and how we mind silly little things!

On a lighter note, I was surprised about the special background music/chorus when “Kitcha” Sudeep’s name comes up on the screen. And loved his intro scene, in Kannada

This was also the first movie my wife saw on screen after our son was born (of course, I forced her to watch it while I was babysitting the kid). She absolutely loved it!

PS: There is a rumor that this movie will be released in Hindi this December, in 3D. Am game for it, are you?

Until then, here's the trailer:

Thinking of Mortality is Good–You Think of the Big Picture (Called, Meaning of Life)

2012-03-01T22:36:00.001+05:30

You might be wondering, OMG, what happened to this fellow? Why is he talking about death/mortality, and why does he think that’s good?

There were a lot of times I thought about what to do next. Typically, I came up with an idea for an app, a get together plan with friends, or – the most common thing – writing a book.

Well, this time it’s different.

It started with a simple/honest/common question, what would I want in say, 10 years from now? Oh, I’m 32+ now, wait a minute. Steve Jobs died at 56 years (or somewhere close). That means, I have about 20 years to live, rather live a reasonably healthy life. Worse, I’m already too late to do something cool with my life, to make it count.

That’s it. That’s when it struck me.

It’s most likely that I’ve lived more than half of my life, and I’ve almost nothing to show for it (that is, of course, if you consider making a lot of money/fame/power as the top criteria for success. But the definition of my success is a little different, but that’s a topic for another post. For example, deciding to spend most of my time with my kid after he was born, for over a year now – I did that, and I call it a huge success).

Right, back to 20 years in the future. What do I want then? What do I have to do now to get there? The answers to these questions seem pretty straight-forward, but not for me anymore. My thoughts are like, ‘OK, you’ll slog for next few years. You get your fancy house/SUV/world-tours, you become a celebrity. Is that it? What after that? What happened to people who got/have all those things? Do you want to get there?’ Well, in short, I don’t know if that’s what I want. But, I’m figuring it out these days.

Thinking about my mortality is a huge drum roll, sometimes fearful, sometimes emotionally overcharged. But accepting it brought me a lot of peace inwards. Things are beautiful. I cannot tolerate an hour gone waste. I drop everything, even though there are deadlines, and still go play with my son every evening. That’s what matters to me. I’m sure that at any moment, I’ll hit upon a wish that will take me on an amazing journey, a journey which itself will be a huge reward. It just has to be a big thing this time, something I want to be able to say in 20 years from now that, hey, this is what I wanted, more or less. Pure inspiration for an artist’s soul!

Now, I recommend you think about your life, backwards. Make changes. Throw away useless things/behaviors. Make a meaning out of your life.

I’ll leave you with the following excerpt of Steve Jobs’s speech at Stanford. Do try to keep it in some corner of your mind. I have it in front of mine, and I think about it often, with optimism and inspiration:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

What about you? Do you ever think of these things? Let me know!

WordPress 3.3

2011-12-20T21:15:00.000+05:30

Just upgraded my sites to WordPress 3.3. I know, I'm a little late to join in on the excitement, er, is there any such thing going with this release? I'll find out soon enough, but, the welcome message brought out a pleasant smile :)

Is that what we call a nice user experience?

The Kolaveri Post

2011-12-13T14:08:00.001+05:30

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled into this “Why this kolaveri di” video, now famous all over the place. Until then, I had heard about it, but wasn’t sure why people were crazy about it.

After the first watch, I just fell in love with the music and the unashamed use of silly lyrics. Of course, it will touch anyone who has ever fallen in love, which is almost everyone!

Soon after, there were TV shows trying to make sense of “how” this kolaveri di, and a few parodies as well.

Though the online world is filled with many remixes, I really liked this one by Nevaan, son of Sonu Nigam:

Blogger Now Connects to Google+

2011-12-13T12:11:00.000+05:30

If you've been posting to your blogger.com blog and then manually posting the link to your Google+ stream, I bet you were waiting for this feature.

Now, you can connect your blog to Google+, and after you publish your post, you'll will be presented with an option to post a snippet to your Google+ stream. Read more at:

http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/12/connect-to-google.html

However, I don't think this will be useful if you use a blogging client, such as Windows Live Writer.

Xperia Ray – a Phone or a PC?

2011-12-12T21:59:00.001+05:30

Thanks to my 15-month old son, Swaraj, three mobile phones went broke. I bought a cheap dual SIM phone and am still using it for one of my numbers. After mulling over my first Android phone for a long time, and bugging a few friends, I finally bought a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.

The deal makers for me were Gingerbird (Android 2.3.4), 8MP camera, HD video recording, and of course, the promised Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) update due in March-2012. As soon as I connected the phone to my PC, it flashed a message that Android 2.3.4 update was available and I went ahead with it. The whole process took less than 20 minutes.

The first 2-3 days were spent exploring the apps on the phone and on Android Market, installing/uninstalling many apps. Of course, a good Wi-Fi connection helped. I then enabled 3G with the starter package of INR 100 a month for 200MB data transfer limit. Oh, there’s an app to monitor the data transfer, and set alarms that trigger after a certain amount of data transfer.

Those Days and Now

I remember at the end of my first year in engineering, in Sep 1998. I was getting my first PC and was thrilled with Windows 95, 233MHz CPU speed and 256MB RAM. It had 4.3GB of hard disk space and the PC dealer was questioning several times, “why would you ever need 4.3GB of space?” I remember having fought for it, and had asked him to load mp3s, games, and software.

Today, I see the same scrambling over the which phone has 1GHz CPU and how much of RAM it has. My phone, Ray, is powered by a 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, and 4GB storage (external, micro SD). It cost me 20k less than my first PC, almost 15 years later. My official laptop has 8GB RAM

Clearly, the phones today are what our PCs used to be in yester years. This trend would be blurred, with ubiquous data (on cloud services like Dropbox), Internet connectivity, and apps.

What do you think is the next big thing?

Psst: Sony has bought Ericsson, so I wonder what they make of their phones. Am game for a better camera

Swaraj Pix

2011-09-08T20:32:00.000+05:30

This picture was taken on 29th of May, 2011. He was completing 9 months at that time.

Rights and Wrongs

2011-09-07T22:10:00.001+05:30

Before you continue reading, I need to warn you that this post is cryptic and may not make any sense in many cases. But, I cannot answer any of your questions that may come up. I hope you understand the fact that I don’t know how to explain the perspectives behind a lot of things I did and continue to do.

What do you do when you don’t know what is right and what is not? The thing is, no matter what you do and how much you try to explain, you’re going to hurt one person or the other, including yourself and your loved ones. I guess there is no dearth of such situations in anyone’s life. Certainly not in mine!

How did I and how do I continue to deal with these most difficult choices? Like for a while now, I’ve tried to do what I think is the right thing to do given a set of situations, no matter how much I screw up other things and no matter how selfish I seem to be. I only pray to God that those who get hurt in the process would eventually understand and appreciate my decisions and deeds. I also seek forgiveness from all the affected folks. I think that’s a long shot, though.

As a fallout of one such difficult decision, me, my wife, and my son, Swaraj, have moved to a new residence in Bangalore, far away from the dust and the din of the city limits. That was last weekend and we’re still settling down. But things will never be the same again. A lot of things have changed and have gone beyond the points of no return.

Ah, just before I forget, today (7-Sep-2011) is my son Swaraj’s first birthday. Yeah, he turned one today and we hardly noticed how time flew past us. Right now, he is just about the only awesome thing going on in me and my wife’s lives. For that reason and for all the million smiles he manages to bring on our faces everyday – even in the middle of all the dilemmas, personal mishaps, and unmentionable crisis situations - we’re eternally grateful to the Almighty and to our son, of course.

Happy first birthday, son! You’ve been absolutely awesome. Please stay that way!

WGO 31-Dec-2010: Ends, Startups, 2011

2010-12-31T07:40:00.001+05:30

Welcome to a weekly series called What’s Going On. I’ll feature a summary of what’s going on in my world.

2010 and 2011

It’s the last day of 2010 and the last decade, 2001-2010. Wishing you all a great new year!

What a year! Personally, the most important thing was my son. The other things are just that – I keep fiddling with such a lot of things, I need to cut down on them.

What a decade! Wait till you see the next decade. It’s gonna rock.

2011 is the year I’ll be brave and stupid at the same time. My risk-taking appetite seems to be peaking.

What can you do in 2011 and beyond?

Dream. Aspire. Think. Plan. Unplan. Start. Do. Create. Read. Write. Travel. Listen. Change. Turn around. Have fun.

What not to do in 2011 and beyond?

Don't wait. Don't give up. Don't fear. Don't stop. Don't be disappointed.

Startups

Hooked on to a lot startup gyan, like Y Combinator: Startup Library and Pmarchive; mostly obsessed with picking a co-founder.

WGO 23-Dec-2010: SM.com, Startups, Reva…

2010-12-23T16:57:00.001+05:30

Welcome to a weekly series called What’s Going On. I’ll feature a summary of what’s going on in my world and in the external world.

My World

http://SridharMachani.com has a new look with a new set of offerings and solutions for businesses, professionals and individuals.
My son is now 3.5 months and gets as naughty and playful as ever. His naming ceremony has been planned on 6-Feb-2010. When I’m in Bangalore, video chat is the next best thing to being with him (he stays in my in-laws place in AP).
Learnt that there are infinite ways to create startups with equally infinite ideas flooding my head all the time. I guess either I don’t care and live in the current state, or go after them full throttle. A mantra I’m clinging on to these days is, “Fail fast. Fail cheap. Apply relentless focus.”
Implemented my own simplistic version of David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I’m fairly happy with it and now want to spread the word, maybe in the format of workshops.
Installed Android 2.2 OS on a thumb drive and made it bootable (occupied about 60MB). Made my laptop boot into Android and was a nice OS hack to do after a long time. I had trouble connecting to the Internet because it won’t recognize the USB modem. Must try with Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection.

External World

The price of the onions is the front page news these days. Last week came the increase in the fuel prices. They give me my next startup idea.
Today’s DNA newspaper has an ad for Reva, called “Petrol free.” It claims a government subsidy of Rs.75,000! It’s very tempting to pick it up and drive around the town for “negligible monthly cost”.

2010 Football WorldCup Matches and Paul

2010-07-12T11:05:00.003+05:30

The final match is over and Spain is celebrating their marginal win over Netherlands. If you've followed the predictions of the psychic octopus named Paul, the result would not be surprising for you. It has 100% record, having predicted the results right 8 out of 8 times. No wonder, TIME calls it the octopus of the year.

Google doodle on the WorldCup Final Match Day

The worldcup final match was dull and silly, with most of the players on either sides getting a yellow card for foul play. I watched most of my matches with my wife and we could barely keep ourselves awake last night. In India, the match analysis starts from 11PM, the match starts at 11.50PM and stretches upto 2AM. With extra time and penalties, it could easily stretch upto 3AM. Thank God, there was no penalty shootouts in the final match, with Spain scoring the only goal of the match with about 2 minutes to spare at the end of the 30-minute extra time.

To tell you the truth, the worldcup was over when Germany thrashed my favorite team Argentina 4-0 in the quarter finals a week ago, with the first goal coming in less than 3 minutes. Argentina had no clue what defending meant and no game plan for the aggressive and the know-no-fear young Germans. My wife had actually predicted, including Paul, that Argentina would lose right after she was disappointed with her favorite team, Brazil, which lost 2-1 to Uruguay the previous day. After the disaster, both of us lost interest in the semi-final matches, having witnessed the exit of our respective favorite teams.

Up until its exit, Argentina played like they were going to go all the way and win the worldcup this time. My all-time favorite football player since my school days, Diego Maradona (now coach) and my current favorite player, Messi, were both associated with Argentina and that clearly explains my interest in the team. Maradona and Messi are like the mentor and the pupil, the past and the future. Both wear number 10 T-shirt on the field and are said to have exceptional skills with the football.

The match of the tournament for me was the knockout clash between Germany and England where the winner would qualify for the quarter-finals. Germany scored in the first few minutes and the intensity that followed until the end of the 45-minute first half was electrifying. Both the teams were amazing in their defence and were in full strike force trying to score goals. Every minute of that first half was tense with several breath-taking attacks and counter attacks, in lightening speed and pin-point passing accuracy. England failed to keep up the momentum in the second half and were eventually knocked out of the match. But they can live with it in the knowledge that they gave their best shot, if only in the first half. What a match!

It has been a great 1 month of exciting football and I'll miss all the action. The next worldcup in due in 2014, but in the meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the next season of the European league matches, where most of the best players appear for their clubs (similar to the IPL clubs). I'll be specifically following Messi when he tries to score for his club, Barcelona.

Checking Posterous Autopost

2010-07-07T11:39:00.001+05:30

...to all my sites with this one email.

Quote for the day:

"Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you have not planted."

~ by David Bly

Posted via email from I'm Sridhar Machani

[30-day-challenge] Gym

2010-07-02T08:46:00.004+05:30

Welcome to my next challenge - well, this will be the second for this month, though I'm hoping to continue with the gym for a long time.

From the next week, I'm going to enroll to the gym at office. Though it was on my mind for a long time, the long working hours had made it inconvenient so far.

What has changed now is the need for fitness, which is fast deterioting. In the last 2 weeks, my body indicated as much by way of headaches, ear pains, and upper back pain.

Moreover, I've getting too lazy with no physical activities and low energy levels that it was beginning to have an impact on my tons of goals and ideas incubating in my mind.

The final factor that convinced me was my wife - she almost threatened me! She is carrying now, which makes it obligatory on my part to fulfill all (or most of) her wishes (that's a traditional duty of the father-to-be). Her cravings/wishes have been very little in number and that makes it harder to say no. Hopefully, I'll carry on with gym for more than just 30 days!

[30-day-challenge] Reconnecting with Friends

2010-06-30T08:20:00.009+05:30

Welcome to my next 30-day challenge. I've felt a strong desire to reconnect with my past and it has been really good so far.

One thing I've been doing, albeit unwittingly, is to call up old friends and colleagues. There is no objective or agenda, but just a desire to say hello, talk to them and see how they're going on. I've not been doing it for the sake of 30-day challenge, so I'm not feeling guilty but really good about it.

So far, I spoke to the following folks:

Bhavesh - my lead when I started my tenure at HP, the only guy to call me "Mac". Luckily, he hasn't changed his cell number, so we connected on the call after over 5 years. We later met near my office and spent about 40 minutes. He now has a 5-month old daughter, Dwitha (not sure if I got the spelling right). Delighted with the meeting!
Sudhir Raykar - ex-colleague at HP. I've been in touch with him on and off, but it was still good to speak to him on the phone.
Mahendran and Karthik CS - we studied engineering together and worked on multiple projects. Both are expecting their first child in November this year, sweet isn't it? Karthik is in to professional photography and I make it a point to follow his amazing work.
Jayaprasad - another engineering classmate. We connected briefly on GTalk.
Fred - my ex-manager at Siemens PLM. I consider him one of my mentors, so it was wrong on my part to have stayed disconnected so far. Hopefully, we'll engage in a collaborative project sooner than later.
Atanu and Moumita - my ex-colleagues at Siemens PLM. We used to have tea at about 2.40PM everyday and I recall the discussions we used to have in those times of recession, lay-offs and swine-flu in Pune (2009).
Manohar and Srinidhi Koushik - my ex-colleagues at HPshopping.com. Manohar is my colleague currently as well, so we bump into each other sometimes. Srinidhi got engaged recently (23-May-2010), so made it a point to attend his engagement and meet his fiancee and family.
Christ School friends - Deepak Artal, Biju, Vinod B, K Deepak, Hemanth, Umesh Kumar, Niraj, Jayaprakash, Manjunath, Dr. Nagaraj, Lohith, Nagendra - met them at V Girish's wedding (6-Jun-2010) and had a great time talking to all. The interesting part is that they came in the same groups that they used to hang out with in school. I guess somethings don't change and for good reason in this case!
Kashi - my buddy who got married in Jan this year. After that, we've hardly met, but I did recently, only for a few minutes. I'm sure we'll catch up big time when we do catch up.

Tried calling, but couldn't speak to them:

Vinay Prabhu - my ex-lead at HP and a close friend, but we're hardly in touch.
Randhir Hebbar - my engineering classmate and entrepreneur. I'm sure we'll collaborate on something, sooner or later.

Will keep you posted on this list. I highly recommend that you give it a try and I'll bet you'll not regret it at all. I'm even thinking of building a small network so we can all hangout and make our journey ahead a little less stressful and enriching. What do you think?