The Peace lies within us only....We just need to find it

Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit 2023 10 16 17 31 42

2023-10-16T05:07:00.000-07:00

Book Review : March 19, 2011

2011-03-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

Few book reviews I have been reading or completed last week

It Happened in India
by Kishore Biyani, Dipayan Kashyap

A very bold narrative about Kishore Biyani's journey while building Pantaloons and Big Bazaar. Gives a clear picture about how the EDLP based model started and succeeded in India and how foreign brands could not really realize the Indian middle class psyche

One thing that struck me about Kishore Biyani is that despite all negative remarks he always made a point to spend money on marketing and branding, probably because his target was the middle class whose decisions are mostly taken not logically but on emotions, feelings and liking. Low price was always there to support that fact

This book was with me for almost 2.5 years, but never read it completely. Last week decided would finish it.

Assholes Finish First
by Max Tucker
The mere mention of the name of this book might raise eyebrows and that's what exactly what reading this book does. The author Max Tucker claims that every incident in this book and the previous book "I hope they serve beer in hell" are real life incidents that happened with him, or to put in a better way, he did them

Rash, in your face, full of abuses and absolutely hillarious but still filled of crap stories, that actually make you laugh and think what kind of a person this guy is. He fully owns the books and incidents in it, and a guy needs balls to do them and them write a book on them

And to see why I read this book, you should read wikipedia page of Max Tucker and his success story. These books sold over a million copies.

If you want to read something crappy but still entertaining in your spare time, read this book

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larrson
Just started reading this book a few days back. Not just another mystery/crime book as per resources. The last book has been a bestseller and been transformed into a movie. Although I haven't seen the movie, nor do I plan to, until I read all the three books in the Millennium Series by Steig Larrson

Stieg Larrson is into intricate detailing when it comes to characters and plots. He doesn't leave any threads loose. I have never read his earlier creations, probably because I never knew about him till I started reading this book

Decisions, Character and Knowledge

2011-03-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

DECISIONS
You may take decisions in life and a lot many of them. Decisions taken very fast, on the blink of an eye

It is very easy to take decisions, what is difficult is to stick by them and fulfill the rational behind taking those decisions.

If you do not fulfill the rational, does that mean that you were wrong in taking it. NO, but yes you were incompetent to take those decisions at that time, but not totally wrong

Making those decisions worthy of themselves is probably difficult. Most of us do not make the decisions worthy of the time and reason they were taken.

A lot many more times, the decisions are taken in awe of something bigger than yourself and which defines your next future overall strategy about life

A lot many many more times decisions are taken on half or less than half knowledge.Knowledge hampers the quick decision making process and creates chaos

CHARACTER
Hidden most of the time from ourselves

We in fact never ever can know what our own character is. In fact, the least we ever think about ourselves in our entire lives are is our character.

The easiest thing is to pass quick judgement about other person's character

Building a character does not take a lifetime, its built by few early life events and incidents, one's level of exposure and one's countering decisions

A characterless person still has a character but he/she realizes that it cannot be changed

Most truthful fact in the world is that one cannot change one's own character ever in a lifetime. Its a hardcoded sequence in one's brain

KNOWLEDGE
The truthfulness of a person is partially dependent on his knowledge but more so on how much he spreads and shares it

What we know is seldom used as a means to decide what we should know.

This anomaly or a contradiction is what fuels capitalism and the abuse of being wealthy or becoming wealthy

I would like to quote from Nassim Nicolas Taleb's "The Bed of Procrustes" : Wealthy is meaningless and has no robust absolute measure, use instead the subtractive measure "unwealth", that is, the difference at any point in time, between what you have and what you would like to have

Sums up greatly what a lot of people think that being wealthy is all that makes you big in life.

Also, apparent presence of knowledge is not necessary the qualities of a wise person. He may be stinking of a half baked vision of growth.

Dhobi Ghat - A Blurred Memory of Unfinished Events

2011-01-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

Dhobi Ghat doesn't blow your mind off, nor does it make you say the "Awesome" word at the end of the movie
But it does make you think for a while after you cross the "Exit" door. There is no hidden message in the movie. DG is like a lullaby that fails to make you sleep

Dhobi Ghat, not at all for the masses. Agreed there are some funny moments here and there, but its definitely not an awesome movie. Its a narration of 4 different lives, which do not culminate at a point, but stand in their own paths, waiting for something..

Movie doesn't leave a mark in your mind, after its over, very unlike other Amir movies. Kiran Rao, could have done a better job. Movie lacks the appeal. Background score remains an anonymous and sleeping beauty that doesn't hit your ears. At times, it seems that the movie has become very silent, with silent moments also rendered, music-less

Characters of Amir, an artist; Prateik, a dhobi+rat killer+wannabe actor; and Monica, a banker on sabbatical. Do they really gel together? NO... They do not. They seem rather absurdly distinct and disconnected. With four stories, running their own course and without no reason, why they should culminate, it seems rather odd for the audience to figure out if there is going to be something crucial happening as the movie progresses.

Almost all the characters, in the movie are loners. Including the ones, who are shown to be socializing.

I personally felt that almost half the scenes in the movie were unfinished, and NOT at all in a way where audience can think of finishing them. The movie has nice cinematography and nice views of real mumbai (as we love to call it). Yasmeen is also an unfinished part, although she is shown to have died after having come to mumbai, but that doesn't really mean the part was finished.

In the end, Amir's character is shown to be just a wanderlust, with no idea what exactly to choose between going to home and choosing a new place to stay. His family in Australia is just another loose end. Prateik just ends up moving from one place to another, still wanting to chase the girl who is confused. Monica ends up trying to understand whether she loves or doesn't love Amir. Yasmeen's story makes Amir, feel bad, but about what? Loneliness?

ALthough so many questions remain unanswered, still at the end, you are not left with a mark that "Oh is this Mumbai?", or "IS this how the life in mumbai would be?"

Dhobi Ghat is a noteworthy try by Kiran rao, to try and make a not-for-the-masses, art-type movie. I would not say its a must watch, but it surely is a good watch.

Quora and Why It Is Different

2011-01-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

Quora and Why It Is Different

Let me start with the three major building blocks on the internet that are building not just networks but also relations

Facebook quenches the thirst of humans for social interaction
Twitter enables to shout endlessly and whatever they want
Quora tells them, if you have something worth to share to what people want to know, make a knowledge base out of it

What are the main center points or pivots on which all above three reside?
A pivot is what the whole concept relies on and has taken a leap from there but in all the cases, the pivot will always stay the same, as it creates the foundation for each of the above entities

Facebook (www.facebook.com)
Pivot is people.

Revolves around people and their networks and their wants, doing, opinions, thinking, mistakes, changes etc
Signifies the early stage of human evolution when we wanted to be in groups.

Internet taking over as a parallel life form for all of us, we all want to be there. So we evolved here too. In groups, n in network we stay happy. Believe me for the depressed person, or one who is alone, or thinks nobody cares about him/her is given facebook, it would really ease up his feeling of seclusion and depression. You wanted to be known, and recognised as a face and as a person, and more by your friends and what they also do.

Twitter (www.twitter.com)
Pivot is temporal relevant/irrelevant events/happenings/cribbings/sharings

Signifies a human being basic need to shout and let others know that I also exist, and I have lot of share, take what you want, or don't take, it doesn't matter to me

Revolves around nothing, truly nothing. Just like a shoutcast where you shout what comes to your mind. Place/time/purpose/audience is irrelevant unless the tweet is targeted to a specific "tweeple". In this case there is a mention of the specific tweeple while tweeting. So if the particular tweeple gets back to you, its good, its nice and useful.
Tweeple is what a person who is in the twitterific-universe called as.
Overtime, twitter gathered huge noise and useless tweets. Everybody wanted to shout even if nobody was listening. Next phase was that nobody is listening to what you are saying. Everybody just wanted to shout. When a lot of API's started automation of tweeting from other platforms, it became a "shout-hub"

Quora (www.quora.com)
Pivot is Authentic and Voluntary creation of knowledge bases, that will have multiple touch points (questions) but will still be connected sematically to each other

Quora has a clean interface and simplistic design. It is not re-inventing the wheel, by having its own user base, but is relying on already authenticated networks of Facebook and Twitter. And anyways, every sane guy in this world has opened their doors, to FB and TW integration, because if they don't they are gonna lag behind
That way, it is trying to ensure that the userbase is going to be authetic since current user creation onf Quora is on invite basis.

Here you will find that although your answer is getting voted, or can be voted, you are not driven by that fact. But you are driven by the fact that you need to put authentic opinions and information in the conversation.

What is the difference? Isnt wikipedia better than this?.Wikipedia is a fact-building machine. Whereas Quora is a authentic conversaton building machine, that focuses on semantic connections.

Although there are various other ways to interpret Quora. One being the fact that it does help you get in touch with people who think, read, write and are interested in similar things as you are. Which in terms means that even if there is no hidden agenda of creating a social network, it will still get created, making sure authentic people who share similar interests contribute effectively

Another thing that went dead was Google Wave. If you closely see Quora, it has similar looks of that of GW, but more clean and less cluttered. Had GW made itself open to FB and TW integration with a better interface, who knows it might have been a success

Did we forget LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is there to stay. As I was FB-iscussing with a friend today morning, LinkedIn is more business focused and hence premium memberships are there on it, and it will never go away. Because the purpose of LinkedIn is pure busines connections and networking and promote ones professional status.

You can never have premium memberships on Facebook, Twitter and Quora. This would entirely defeat the purpose of all these networks and collaboration tools.

Views and comments are invited

Cr** That I Sometimes Ponder Upon

2011-01-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

cr** that I sometimes ponder upon

Life and the various aspects of it that doesnt fit with it at all

Living and the "myth" that life has to be lived only in "happiness"

Pain and its different avatars, sometimes humanoids and androids

Love and the chaos that it generates when it happens, and our so much liking to it

Decision making and y logic is so rarely used to do it

Necessary evils and vices of life and the so much ignorance about them

Sex and the seclusion of it from the mainstream living, to make stupid people look more intelligent

Phenomenon in which people's intention and attempts are about not getting successful

You wanna add yours?

आरम्भ है प्रचंड…

2010-12-30T03:21:00.000-08:00

Trying to decipher my way

आरम्भ है प्रचंड
बोले मस्तकों के झुण्ड
आज जंग की घडी की तुम गुहार दो
आन बाण शान या की जान का हो दान
आज इक धनुष के बाण पे उतार दो
आरम्भ है प्रचंड

You have to have a big start today, but there are many thoughts. This war demands you to sacrifice love, life and lust. But dont let those thoughts deter your decision making. Let it be a one shot decision, let go of the inconsistencies and uncertainties and just do it

मन करे सो प्राण दे
जो मन करे सो प्राण ले
वही तो एक सर्वशक्तिमान है

कृष्ण की पुकार है
ये भगवत का सार है
की युद्ध ही तो वीर का प्रमाण है
कौरवों की भीड़ हो या
पांडवों का नीद हो
जो लड़ सका है वोही तो महान है

Although whether there is God or not, the power of life lies absolutely with the one who has the ability to create. Power is not to govern or rule, but to be able to differentiate yourself from the weak. One who wins in the end has the power to showcase, but one who fights till the end is the most powerful, from the inside.

जीत की हवस नहीं
किसी पे कोई वश नहीं
कया ज़िन्दगी है ठोकरों पे मार दो
मौत अंत है नहीं
तो मौत से भी क्यूँ डरे
ये जाके आसमान में दहाड़ दो
आरम्भ है प्रचंड…

Winning isn’t everything. Because you can’t fix winning. So what if you see a failure, you aren’t supposed to give up at all. Die but die gracefully, Bapu did that. He knew he was gonna die in that period of 2-3 weeks. He made up his mind for the “Hey Ram”. But he did not leave what he was doing. He made a point to get the voice, not his own, but of his followers reach the white ears

हो दया का भाव
या की शौर्य का चुनाव
या की हार का वो घाव
तुम ये सोच लों

या की पूरे भाल पर
जला रहे विजय का
लाल लाल ये गुलाल
तुम ये सोच लों

रंग केसरी हो या
मृदंग केसरी हो या
की केसरी हो ताल
तुम ये सोच लों

जिस कवी की कल्पना में
ज़िन्दगी हो प्रेम गीत
उस कवी को आज तुम नकार दो
भीगती नसों में आज
फूलती रगों में आज
आग की लापत का तुम बघार दो
आरम्भ है प्रचंड…

If your friends tell you that this life is just to be “enjoyed” leave that friend. He is not a friend. He is a foe is disguise, unknown to you and unknown to himself, because he does not know the facts of life. Life is to be lived with the war, the war to accept failure and keep fighting for the win.

Let the brave inside you come out time and again, to bring about change, revolution and revolt. No matter how small, but if it is changing or creating a new path, it is significant.

A road, that is less of thorns and rocks is a road that is just not made for the man, its made for the snails and make sure you are not one of them.

What you may not have thought while watching “The Social Network”

2010-11-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

I saw “The Social Network” yesterday. Brings out quite fiercely that what we are is sometimes a result of some kind of occasional hate or apathy or revengeful nature we have due to some incident

Facebook was an instant success, because it gave me power to be boastful about myself without talking much by my mouth.
You could literally say what you wanted to say on it, keeping a lot of what you are intact.
You could show a thousand people what you are doing in a single click

Social network is the defining entity. FB success adheres to the fact that we are constantly in need of attention.

We are attention seekers by default.
We want recognition, acceptance and confirmation.
This applies not only to those who have internet access, but also to everybody else. Anyways, internet did not happen at first. We happened and our wants and needs happened

Being an entrepreneur takes guts and lot of stomach to digest the ill side effects of it. If Mark had to start his own, he would dot it anyways.

If the Winklewoss’s were waiting for 4 weeks (or whatever) for Mark to get back on something concrete, then they were either absolutely crazy or absolutely intelligent enough, to have guaged that Mark has already stolen the idea and working on something of his own
They could either confront Mark any how at earlier stages or could wait for the baby to get born and then ask for a partial claim on the grounds of IP theft

I personally felt that Mark was a victim of the 2nd situation explained above

Nevertheless, movie was very much focused on the lawsuit showing flashbacks of the journey of Mark while developing. But doesn’t leave a huge mark on your minds on the aspect of entrepreneurship

A better movie would be our own "Rocket Singh" that has all the elements of being a pro-entrepreneur movie.

TSN is still one of the best combination of out-of-the-court settlement drama and journey of a high-school grad who built something.

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Talk less Do more

2010-11-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

Talk less
Do more
Keep doing
You will get results
One day
Small big no matter
Keep going
Tread the way
Walk the road
Take a leap of faith
Take people alongwith
Pick them up along the path
Make them learn, learn from them
Do mistakes, analyse them
Cherish their existence
Thank them for having visited once
Work to create value
Value what you are doing
Cherish the company of good people
Who understand you
Who share your success and your failures
Who understand why you do what you do

Rajanikanth Fever – One Liners

2010-11-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Every once in a big big while, there comes this one person, actor and a legend who people just idolize for all the fun he does on camera

These days this idol is Rajanikanth – the undeniably, undisputed king of all comic action flicks that are made in India

Now I am not a fan of him, nor do I idolize him. But like everybody else, I have taken a special liking to his comic action flicks and dialogue scenes. More than that the long running list of Rajanikanth-Idolizing one liners that have taken a leap these days after release of Robot

There are these mails floating around that states “100 things about Rajanikanth”

If you are reading this, I don’t need to tell you to go and read it, as you have already read it. If you haven’t, you have no right to read this post

Today after visiting Palladium, I was coming back and sitting in the train I felt like creating some new ones and adding to the list. I know this is a worthless job but it titillates me and made me happy

So here are few of them:

Indian Railways will soon be adding a new bogie to all its trains which will be for ONLY RAJNIKANTH

When rajnikant travels abroad, he doesn't need a visa. He automatically becomes the citizen of that country

By 2011, McD will start selling McRajani for Rs.-20 and BigBazaar will start selling at "Every day Rajani price"

In 2020 world's best selling book would be authored by Rajanikanth and it will be called "How to become Rajanikanth"

A hundred years from now, people will fight over a big issue at that time : "The Rajanikanth Janma Bhoomi"

BitTorrent, Jobs’ Apple and Dying Technologies

2010-10-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Came across few nice articles today. Worth reading at least once. Huge information in all of them.

Quoting them below

BitTorrent's Bram Cohen Isn't Limited by Asperger's

When I read it I couldn’t understand how it would be to think having the syndrome. BitTorrent has single handedly pushed the P2P architecture to grow exponentially

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_43/b4105046863317.htm

Being Steve Jobs' Boss

John Sculley talking about how it was being Steve Jobs’ boss and reiterating the fact that Apple is not brand without Steve Jobs being there to handle it, nurture it. It gives me immense pleasure everytime I read about Jobs. There are so many stories about him, some true, some not. Some untold and some secret. This article not only deals with the p.o.v of a CEO who himself quotes the job was much more suited for Jobs, but also deals with how the competition and other biggies in Japan like Sony was an inspiration for Jobs

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_43/b4105046863317.htm

Twenty Dying Technologies

Reading this was a pleasure, with WiTricity being my most favorite tech that would and should probably take over conventional electricity. As a child, 10 years old, I used to think we could have electricity that would travel not thru wires but wirelessly. I was never exposed to so much that could know that there were places where I could have gone to research

This set of 20 tech that would soon get extinct is a nice morning read for tech-enthusiasts

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/10/1021_dying_tech/index.htm

I’m OK

2010-10-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'am OK

Simple phrase. Three words.
Weight of each indicidually is so nil

Together they are powerful

When you hear them, you may not know what else is going on in the mind of the one who says it

Sometimes, its just a way to not let small talk take place

Sometimes, it may be the end of a long fight

Sometimes, it may be the 3rd response in an IM chat. A response that triggers so many questions in the mind of one who reads it

Sometimes it also depicts a state of mind, that makes other perceive you as disinterested

Sometimes, its a motivator for oneself to lift up from a state of dejection.

Sometimes, it just depicts that you are not interested in any further discussions or you just don't wanna listen to any excused anymore.

You may wanna ponder that when on phone, you say "I'm OK" to a friend who calls you after a long time, you may be hiding something either from yourself or the person on phone

If you stress more on "am", it may describe some sort of frustration inside.

Stressing on "OK" may signify that you are just not concerned at all about any thing or least interested in listening to the other party.

The most powerful, most difficult and the simplest thing

2010-08-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

What is the most powerful thing in this world?

An Idea

What is the most difficult thing in this world?

To Think

Which is the simplest of the things to create?

Rules

Think….. Which of these things are common for schools that are run these days?

“ALL!!!”

The schools today do not teach the most difficult thing above, because then it would be responsible to create tons of the most powerful thing above, which in turn would easily destroy the most simple thing that has been created by them.

THINK….

When You Accept Yourself and Take a Leap Of Faith

2010-08-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

I Am What I Am.

Be What You Are

99.99% of us have been taught this, bombarded with these statements since childhood.

What they have forgotten to tell us is about what to do when you want to incorporate this in your life, how to do it, and what are the consequences of doing what you want to

You will know this by not reading books, or talking to people.

You will know this only by Accepting Yourself.

I accepted myself. I used to say, I am different from others. When I asked myself what I am doing to make myself worthy of saying this, I had no answer

And then not just for the bloody sake of answer for this question, I took a leap of faith

Almost 2 months back, I was spending my whole day at Crosswords reading AGK’s Ten Much and my mind changed.

First question: Why I am I sitting at crosswords whole day? Don’t I have work? Yes I did. But I did not know what to do with that work. Because I did not like what I did.

The next day too I did the same. It was 15th of June and I made up something in my mind. I had a job and it was gonna pay me well, if I stuck to it

Before than let me tell you what I think, a/c to my perception is right and wrong

Right: Something you do, that makes sense in the short term as well as long term and still manages to keep you happy

Wrong: Something you do, that may not make sense, and may keep you happy in short term, but long term, you are doubtful about it

So then I took up a very important decision of my life. To choose between being Right and Wrong. I Quit that job and made a call to the founder of my company, that I did “it”.

You know what is difficult? To become a variable that is the part of the equation and the solution too. When you are ready, you become both and start the search for yourself.

A leap of faith is what is required, when you start believing in yourself. I work now for Redquanta and its absolutely, being working for myself. Leap of faith, may not always pay off and may have its own consequences. Consequences, like being detached from friends, not able to give time to family, meet personal chores, forget what day it is, dream about work work work… and a day that starts at 7 a.m. and ends at may be 1 a.m but being happy about it.

So this leap of faith, seems to have its own consequences. Here I am on this blog after almost 2 months. Last two months have passed like a jiffy, with so much accomplished, learnt, experienced, that I would never have, had I stayed in that job for years.

Life gives you chances and opportunities. Take it. How mine happened, will talk about that later. This post is a result of partially satisfied mind, after sending off a major deliverable to our client. Similar day may not be possible tomorrow again.

As I said, accepting yourself is the most difficult challenge. Then each challenge thereafter is a learning.

Accept Yourself

2010-08-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Unanswered questions:

You may be on the right track but you may not be towards the right destination.

How do you know what you are doing is right or wrong?

What is it that hints you to change?

Which successful person in this world who has not been subject to criticism?

Everyone has. Criticism in not what is wrong nor is being wrongly crticised. What is wrong is that one not taking efforts to find out why one is being crticised and making peace with it

Accept yourself.

You may not be always right, nor you may be wrong always. But then you have to decide between wanting to be happy being wrong AND wanting to be unhappy being right.

Mind you the right and wrong here are just the perceptions and not the actual deeds. Do the right deeds, but the perceptions others may have may be of wrong ones.

They say find the right path towards success. What I have seen in past few months tells me there is nothing like right path. You make your own path, and walk on it. And if you can, take along others too, of course with an intention to share it.

Biggest obstacle in accepting yourself : YOU

You have to let go of the stickiness of external perceptions, logic, measurement base. You may want to change, but you yourself set limits and rules for yourself.

Break them.

There will be consequences.

Face them. Thats what you are supposed to do.

If being happy means, paying a one time or recurring cost in terms of money, or association, or friends, or luxury… then do it.

Biggest challenge in life is not making money, or rising to success.

Biggest challenge in life is Accepting yourself.

Gulaal – A Powerful Intense Depiction of Dirty Politics

2010-06-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

वो कहें हैं की दुनिया ये इतनी नहीं है,
सितारों से आगे जहां और भी हैं,
ये हम ही नहीं हैं वहाँ और भी हैं,
हमारी हर एक बात होती वहीँ हैं,
हमें ऐतराज़ नहीं हैं कहीं भी,
वो आलिम हैं फ़ाज़िल हैं होंगे सही ही,

मगर फलसफा ये बिगड़ जाता है जो वो कहते हैं,
आलिम ये कहता वहां इश्वर है,
फ़ाज़िल ये कहता वहाँ अल्लाह है,
काबिल यह कहता वहाँ ईसा है,
मंजिल ये कहती तब इंसान से तुम्हारी है तुम ही संभालो ये दुनिया,
ये बुझते हुए चाँद बासी चरागों, तुम्हारे ये काले इरादों की दुनिया,

ओ री दुनिया

….is how Gulaal ends with a “Pyaasa” movie song spin-off

Only God knows how I missed Anurag’s movie “GULAAL”. May be I was unknown of the brilliance of this movie. There was a time, when I had just confused this movie with some other low grade movie without even taking a look at what it was. I never checked the plot summary ever before I saw it yesterday.

Gulaal is an intense depiction of dirty politics happening in a town in Rajasthan, spanning off from the an anti-nonrajput sentiments. Plus a race to capture the leader position for the fictional Rajputana revolution gang. Anger, hunger for power, rebel, revolt, broken relations, sexual harasment and violence color the frames of this movie.

Be it the sexual harassment of a young female teacher who joins the college or the ragging of a newly joined law college student Dileep, or the keep-your-mouth-open kind of acting by Kay Kay menon, you arre glued to screen by the powerful gripping drama in which dirty politics eventually win, and sacrificing brothers, sisters and fathers.

With songs like “…Door des k tower me ghus jayo aeroplane…”, Anurag has taken a funny take over the dirty politics around the world. Afghanistan, Bush, Uncle Sam… sabki bajayi hai is gaane me. Or take the scene where Kay kay is outrightly challenges the state rulers to jump in the revolution bandwagon. Or the cold heart Kiran for whom her goal of becoming GS of the college is way above emotions, relations and ethics.

Is movie me dum hai.. Dum us baat ka k jo satya hai use usi gehraai se pesh kiya hai Anurag ne. I was always a die hard of Anurag for making DEV D, which is a true to the heart, contemporary, bold and highly melodramatic depiction of love, hatred, betrayal and doubt ridden minds.

Anurag, Hats of to you!! SOmeday I will work with you…

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“The Invisible CEO” Puts Together 10 Simple Processes for Success

2010-06-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

A.G. Krishnamurthy who is Founder, Chairman and MD of Mudra Communications and Founder of MICA, has come up with his new book “TEN MUCH”. Picked up this book at Crosswords today and liked it a lot, completed it. Took me 3 hours to finish it, as against 2 which AGK says it should ideally take one to complete.

What’s special about the book? The book is about 10 simple processes rather 10 simple disciplines which AGK puts forward as something we all know about but sometimes just don’t get it right. He has tried to exemplify these 10 principles through various success stories – some known, some unknown – in very simple language which connects to you the moment you start reading through the prologue.

Simple basic processes need to be followed is the gist of the book. Dream Big, Be Positive, Master your trade, Be ethical, Believe in yourself and your team - are few of the basic processes he mentions. Not just talk, but do is the mantra.

TEN MUCH is a must read for budding entrepreneurs.

AGK’s previous works include Dhirubhaism, Against all odds and others.

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Management Guru With A Different Take Towards Life– Ram Charan

2010-06-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

For the two years of my life in my MBA School, there were a lot of Management Gurus, Consultants, Authors, Harvard Professors, CEO’s and Presidents who we came accross. We read about them and praised them in unison. With few of our professors idolizing American names and their feats which drove companies on a breathtaking accelerated path of growth.

The only international guru of Indian origin that was talked about was Pankaj Ghemawat, that too during an International Business session by Prof Shareif. Never once was Ram Charan mentioned. Although being an avid reader of a lot of books, I was knowledgeable about him but did not read much about him till today. I wonder why is Ram Charan not included in the countable-on-my-fingers list. Reading about Ram Charan is like visualising a fast-track jet travelling through space.

So today I was spending my time relatively more productively at Crosswords, where I picked up his latest book called “What the Customer Wants You to Know”. Right from the first page, the book catches your interest. If you are into the business of selling (which generally everybody is, most of them at least), this book is a must read for you.

His previous books are

Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs To Ask (2009)
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation (2008)
Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't (2007)
Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis (2007)
Boards That Deliver: Advancing Corporate Governance From Compliance to Competitive Advantage (2005)
The Source of Success: Five Enduring Principles at the Heart of Real Leadership (2005)
Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right (2004)
Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning (2004)
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (2002)
What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works (2001)
The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company (2000)
Every Business is a Growth Business: How Your Company Can Prosper Year After Year (2000)

He is called as the most influential consultant alive on earth by Fortune and some of the top CEO's in the world. Most interesting is he didnt have a home till recently, used to stay at hotels or stay back at Client’s home and his laundry was flown to and fro by FedEx.

Came across a very intriguing article on cnn website by Fortune's David Whitford, that talks about history of Mr. Ram ad his daily life. Recommend to read this article. Please read it till the end. Extremely interesting.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/30/8405482/index.htm

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The Stupid-neeti of Rajneeti

2010-06-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well as decided yesterday was supposed to be the "Rajneeti" night it didnt happen fully. So just completed it. First of all let me first congratulate apni pyari Kat for the hilarious speech on the stage. I was literally rolling on floor trying to control my laugh. What an ishhtyle madam-jeee..(gaowalo aur sheherwalo, jao aur us speech wali clip ko bar bar dekho aur pura anand uthao).

Its not that the speech was funny, although nothing katty does sounds or looks ever funny which is another problem, but this speech had so serious words which jab apni katty was 'uvach'ing felt like she shuda been awarded the funniest commentary award. Topi band!!!! (yane hats off!!!) She recites the speech as if an 8 year old has been made to by heart it and made to reproduce it word-to-word on the stage for a national-day ceremony. tab jaise bachcha bolta hai, ekdum waiseich

Few mins before this you realise that Universal Amma has just found that uska pehla beta, uski pehli "santaan" is alive. So Mahabharat ka realization hua. All other maaramari is typical Godfather ishtyle. Isko maro , usko bam se udao

And yar, kshama chahta hu Jha-saab, par ek baat bataiye, when all this happened were all the condom-factories closed down, or the birth-control companies gone bankrupt? Every incident of random sex creates a new dialogue "mai maa banane wali hu". In fact the movie starts with it and ends with this(katty also gets one)

and hey hey, mr script wroter, atleast show some respect to the guy who goes to London to do PhD. Dude do you even know what kinda guys go to do PhD and apna Jr Hrishi Kapoor comes back and suddenly knows everything about politics. Chalo ye bhi maan lete hai ki bhaiyya ji Arjun ka kirdaar nibha rahe hai and Nana's (as always in his - he he he - ishtyle acting) is Krishna who's keeping everybody around on tracks making them aware of their "Dharma", aur Ranny is trying to now become the all-vighna-harta kinda 'dawg' who's got everything clear in his minds and behind those innocent looking eyes and spectacles of this slim trim guy, lies an evil minded + good spirited protagonist who wants to keep his family line on the political upfront whatever it takes for him to do so.

Chalo is fillam me sab kuch posshible hai.. no issues brotha. I’hv seen much worse movies.

With a huge starcast, it becomes difficult for the scriptwriter to write extremely good dialogues for every character. Thats what happened in this movie. Take an example, Katty is a pagal-in-love girl, who’s suddenly at the end of the movie given the wholesale respo to be the face of the party. WTH, the speech was a disaster and i mean it. It looks as if, trying to imitate modern day modified version of draupadi and script-wroter-given tint of “bitiya” has taken its own toll on the brains of audience. (Anyways Indian audience is brainless and stupid, thats what i have seen for all these years I have seen and heard people talking about movies, so it doesn’t matter much coz recent Bolly-movies have trained the audience to go and watch a movie without carrying brains inside the theatre) So what happens is that you are not able to connect whether katty is draupadi or ‘bitiya’. Nevertheless the overall script of the movie doesnt have any major resemblance to our congress story.

Problem is that when the movie ends, you wonder what was the moral of the story

Whether it is that one should always wear condoms whenever you have an extra-whatever kinda sex?

Politics is just a stupid mindless game that can be played by a guy who comes back from abroad pursuing studies and undergoing PhD?

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Super Freakonomics – Go Read It

2010-01-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading "Super Freakonomics"... Freaking awesome it is.. Absolutely entertaining,mind-boggling,insightful and full of information..

What a read it was, right from the first alphabet of the book till the last note. Riveting, absolutely informative. A person like me who likes to read out of the box things, this was an aphrodisiac. Lately I have taken a huge interest in economics and International business. This book literally adds a flavor to these interest levels.

The first one "Freakonomics" landed in my hands, when I was in TCS. I read few chapters but could not complete it. And now post Super Freakonomics, I am sure I would complete it too.

If you think any of the following questions interest you even a bit, go and read this book.

Why walking drunk can be fatal as compared to driving drunk?
How is a street prostitute like a department store Santa?
What is a "PIMPACT"?
What the similarity between prostitution and real estate?
Why a May-birth in Uganda can have 20% increased chances of hearing or learning disabilities?
How a failed act of terrorism can still levy a huge tax on the common man?
What is relation between cognitive drift and death of patients?
Why chemotherapy may not be helping cancer patients at all?
Why people are altruistic and selfish at the same time?
Why the death rate post delivery was high in the doctors’ section in the General Hospital in Vienna as compared to the midwives’’ section?
Why "cheap fixes" or "jugaad" can be much more effective than solutions worth millions?
Why is ammonium nitrate so much of a vital chemical?
How pushing warm water down into the ocean will help reduce the formation of life threatening Hurricanes?
Why Co2 may not be the prime reason for the Global Warming?
How a hot air balloon and a long pipe hose can reduce the average temperature of Earth?
Why big-fat volcanic eruptions are good for the planet?
Who is "Nathan Myhrvold"?
How "Geo-engineering" may help reduce the threat of Global Warming?
Why "incentive" is the single most important factor that decides the behavior of a human irrespective of whether it is good or bad?
How a bunch of researchers taught a group of monkeys the value of money and how the first Monkey-trade happened?

Steven J. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have done a marvelous job with this book. Apologies for putting few points out of the book on the blog, although I haven't quoted anything that takes away the sheen, it will only build curiosity. All credits to the original authors.

IDIOT = I DO IT

2010-01-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

3 Idiots is one of those rare movies, in bollywood, that actually has a morale from a student perspective. One never knows what a so called “idiot” might do or become.

Lot of times, they are the so called “IDIOTS” who do a lot of things in life.

They are idiots, for they are unconventional. They look for an inherent value add in everything they do.

I was attending my sunday session( which has become a normal thing for me now) in college. As always my mind was randomly struck by the word IDIOT, And I realised that…

IDIOT = I DO IT

Just an anagram, but has a powerful meaning. Nobody is an idiot. It may really not be about the potential. It is about the ‘will’. Idiots may just want to do, speak, activate, try, reach out to, experiment something different which the regular “folk” is not able to fit into the routine. So for the folk, people like the formers are idiots. A person, when called an idiot, must be in a position to double up what he is actually saying. It may happen, that the person is seriously an idiot, but that should not deter one from pushing oneself back.

Those who don’t push themselves back and still are able to sustain the word are DOUBLE IDIOTs. Idiot++ or simply 2+ idiots.

DOUBLE IDIOT = BE LOUD (when you say) I DO IT

By now you know that it’s not about the literal meaning of word “idiot”. It is really necessary to be loud at times when there are forces around you, that are ready to curb what is being said. It does not mean, one has to be rude. Being loud is about taking a more focused approach to communicating what one has to say, finding out the ways to do it. Loud is not be decibel, but by the buzz-bel that you generate.

And then when you are done being loud, and then you have said it all, outright, clear and straightforward, you are on the way to becoming a CANDID IDIOT. Then you question yourself, about a lot of things, about what you said, what you did, what you did not do. Question yourself, question the very existence of what things are, how they work, why they work the way they do.

CANDID IDIOT = (you) CAN (ask yourself) DID I DO IT?

The biggest reality in life is that we all are situational idiots and circumstantial fools. And we must accept the fact.

The 4th IDIOT

2010-01-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

I am generally not much keen about watching bollywood movies, but since Munnabhai, have become a great fan of Rajkumar Hirani (For few of you who may not know, he was also there in the very first of Fevicol Ads “Jor laga ke….”, a slim “aam aadmi” standing and smiling). “3 IDIOTS” has been subjected to so much publicity that even I cannot avoid to know about it. And being a Hirani film, I was also looking forward to watching it.

Lot to talk on this movie. It grips you till the end. Life is just not about securing marks and trying to bag the first position in a race that has been started long back by people who make us run and run. At a point I did not really think that trying to gun the first position is wrong. Everyone wants to win. So do I. 3 IDIOTS refreshed my memories of what my school and college life was like.

My early school days were also filled with always being first in class. I was always a topper till I reached a stage when I realised there is much more in life to study. I used to read a lot of philosophy then. Being first became no more a regular affair. But I now think back and laugh at people who thought that my slipping rank on school-walls was equivalent to me going down. Thanks to my parents who were always positive on everything, I have learnt to a great extent that in life what matters the most is the respect you have. And thanks to professors who have till date been inspiration for me that life is about learning and trying out new things.

My first three semesters during engineering were also a race. Against time and against self. To hit for the 1st position again. But yes, I was pretty unconventional. I had learnt the power of “Mindmaps” way before engineering. I used them during my X and XII exams and then used them in engineering too. I was being looked upon as a genius at a point (only I knew, I wasn’t one. For then I thought I would have been in one of the IIT’s :-)) Race against time stopped after my 2rd trimester. I took up to reading a lot. I was mostly found with my books. Read biographies, read books that a lot of engineers would not even know or would not even touch. Bought myself books whenever I went out. Yes had parties, spent on food, and watches, but still loved the books so much that even if I felt I wouldn’t read them, I would buy them and bloody hoard them.

Being unconventional, going against the norms, challenging useless conformism was something that developed in me unknowingly then. My class mates were afraid of me asking continuous questions in class and that too out of the world kind of. Used to call me stupid. At times, my profs were pretty bugged coz of me bugging them a lot.

Thing I have noticed is that in engineering colleges, they don’t teach you to challenge, they teach you to conform and standardize yourself and listen to what is being said (not taught).

So this unconventional attitude remained when once I was denied, during a lab experiment, the power supply kit, and I ran to another lab and picked one and started walking, when the caretaker told me that I couldn’t possibly take it like that (mind you it was Govt College then) and that I need to write an application to borrow it. WTH, I told him, I am taking it, ago and complain to Principal if you want to. Yeah, but this does not always remain all the time.

After being a TCS-er for almost 3 years, am a am back to college to learn more, this time about business. Will be a holder of a degree called MBA in a couple of months from now. But the learning in these two years has been much more than just the degree.

Everyone who must have watched this movie, must have seen his/her own image somewhere there embedded. I too saw mine. May be I was reassured that being different, unconventional and absurd is not that bad. Having a thinking that is too out of the track than what the mob thinks, may not be so bad at all..

Hoping for the best.

FACEBOOK Status trends of 2009

2010-01-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

Facebook has come up with top 15 status trends of 2009 based on what people update in their statuses. Facebook calls it the study of ‘memes’, ideas that are in minds of people which they want to share.

Facebook says

To generate the list, we started by looking at how many times each phrase with length from one-to-four words occurred in U.S. Facebook status updates, then we computed the rate at which each phrase occurred in 2009 compared to 2008. Using some data-mining methods detailed here, we analyzed important bursts in activity around words and series of words to find the key trends for the year. All personally identifiable information was removed from the status updates to conduct this analysis, and no one at Facebook read the individual status updates.

The top 15 memes were as follows

For detailed explanation of all the 15 memes, click here

Facebook has done a great job by posting this whole analysis. This kind of data will be much helpful to a lot of marketers. Looking at the trends, and getting more deeper into the data may help the marketer to know what kind of communication messages need to be created.

Specific area/country wise data and analysis can be sought from FB, to use it effectively to generate online strategy on FB.

Amazon Kindle’s viability in India (Wharton Article)

2009-11-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

A really informative article on Knowledge@WhartonIndia about the viability and market potential of Amazon Kindle’s entry into Indian Market caught my eye.

Post the launch of Kindle DX, which was much fanfare, it hasn’t gained much a momentum. Indian market doesn’t seem to have given an open arm to this new ebook Reader on the shelf.

"There is no plan to advertise the Kindle," says Laura Porco, director of Kindle Books, who was in Mumbai last month for the launch. "We will rely on word-of-mouth publicity."

But who is going to create a word of mouth. Indians are pretty stiff about talking good about something. On top of that, connectivity in India (on the fly) is not much to support Amazon’s vision of “download any book in 60 seconds”.

At a price of $350 it is really difficult for an Indian consumer (the regular 9-to-5) to imaging buying a tablet that only reads books and newspaper. The same price brings her a laptop, with many more features. At the same time, the biggest enabler to Kindle is connectivity, which will take much more time to make it possible for the “60 second download”.

For the full article jump here

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The World's Most Powerful People – FORBES

2009-11-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

Forbes in a special report on Nov 11, has released a list of 67 most important people in the world.

Here is the full list.

Obama for the most obvious reasons stands on top of this list. Four of them are Indians. Osama bin laden also takes a seat in this list (God knows where he is now)

1. Barack Obama	24. Kim Jong Il	47. Dominique Strauss-Kahn
2. Hu Jintao	25. Jean-Claude Trichet	48. Zhou Xiaochuan
3. Vladimir Putin	26. Masaaki Shirakawa	49. John Roberts Jr.
4. Ben S. Bernanke	27. Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al Nahyan	50. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
5. Sergey Brin and Larry Page	28. Akio Toyoda	51. William Keller
6. Carlos Slim Helu	29. Gordon Brown	52. Bernard Arnault
7. Rupert Murdoch	30. James S. Dimon	53. Joseph S. Blatter
8. Michael T. Duke	31. Bill Clinton	54. Wadah Khanfar
9. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud	32. William H. Gross	55. Lakshmi Mittal
10. William Gates III	33. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva	56. Nicolas Sarkozy
11. Pope Benedict XVI	34. Lou Jiwei	57. Steve Jobs
12. Silvio Berlusconi	35. Yukio Hatoyama	58. Fujio Mitarai
13. Jeffrey R. Immelt	36. Manmohan Singh	59. Ratan Tata
14. Warren Buffett	37. Osama bin Laden	60. Jacques Rogge
15. Angela Merkel	38. Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani	61. Li Rongrong
16. Laurence D. Fink	39. Tenzin Gyatso	62. Blairo Maggi
17. Hillary Clinton	40. Ali Hoseini-Khamenei	63. Robert B. Zoellick
18. Lloyd C. Blankfein	41. Joaquin Guzman	64. Antonio Guterres
19. Li Changchun	42. Igor Sechin	65. Mark John Thompson
20. Michael Bloomberg	43. Dmitry Medvedev	66. Klaus Schwab
21. Timothy Geithner	44. Mukesh Ambani	67. Hugo Chavez
22. Rex W. Tillerson	45. Oprah Winfrey
23. Li Ka-shing	46. Benjamin Netanyahu

For the full report click here