Shubh-Hub

Durdledoor

2011-09-02T17:28:00.001-07:00

Durdledoor
Originally uploaded by shubham.singal

The beautiful coastline ... a wonderful drive, a wonderful trip, a wonderful place to visit!

Bordeaux Sky

2011-08-16T01:08:00.001-07:00

Bordeaux Sky
Originally uploaded by shubham.singal

The amazing view of Bordeaux ... the moving clouds in the sky ... the river ... the bridge .. a nice afternoon well spent!

Majestic Sea

2011-08-14T12:12:00.001-07:00

Majestic Sea
Originally uploaded by shubham.singal

The waves from the sea coming and hitting the pacific coast ... a beautiful view from the pacific coast highway ... a drive to remember ...

Photo Selected by Schmap UK

2009-05-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

Thames & London Eye
Originally uploaded by shubham.singal

I got this mail a couple of days ago ....

Hi Shubham Singal,
I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the seventh edition of
our Schmap London Guide, to be published late June 2009.

One of my pictures selected :) Feels Great!

Golden Gate Bridge

2009-05-07T09:07:00.001-07:00

Golden Gate Bridge
Originally uploaded by shubham.singal

Just uploaded the picture of Golden Gate Bridge on Flickr! Remembering the time I spent in San Francisco. The Beach was perfect, the company was perfect, the weather was perfect and I guess though the picture might not be perfect, it is quite nice :)

If you like the picture then do comment on the flickr page! I look forward to your comments / suggestions.

Shit Happens!

2009-04-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

On 26th April 2009, Sunday, a play was held by Desires Unlimited Productions in the heart of Delhi. Just besides Kamani Auditorium a group of youngsters conducted a fabulous play called Shit Happens! A good number of them were from my batch from IIT Delhi.

The play was truly awesome! It took me back to the IIT days. The acting, the sense of humor, the stage setup, the practical jokes, everything was perfect. Director Himshwet has done amazingly well and I must congratulate him. I should also congratulate the rest of the cast.

The play also had me thinking how wonderful it would be to have a hobby like this. To work during the week and participate in some activity like this over the weekend. May be the new working life might provide such opportunities.

FeedBurner Mistake!

2009-04-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! This really has me a bit irritated :(

I am trying to setup feedburner for my blog at strat.in and guess what, google has completed messed FeedBurner. Just go to to the FeedBurner Support Page for self hosted Wordpress Blogs.

And when you click download the plugin, it shows a failed page :(

The page says "What to do" and I am actually wondering what to do :(
I have searched on the net and everywhere the plugin should be available redirects to this link only. One of the many problems faced with centralization.

Strat (dot) In

2009-04-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Though I have blogged a little bit during my IIT days, but I think the only time I have done some serious blogging was during 2006-07. I was working, was online a lot of time and basically could pen my thoughts on my blog quite easily. Shubh-Hub became decently popular also during that time.

In the past 2 years, I have being quite dismal. I did a lot of mistakes including losing my domain name, my hosting and most of all did not post much. This time however I am trying to learn and bring out something better.

I feel I can blog better if the blog has a theme. That is reason why Strat.In has been started! I along with a couple of friends from IIM Calcutta have started this blog and want to post our business thoughts and ideas on it. Slowly we hope to grow it out and include many more writers! Lets see how that goes, but if you do read my blog I would encourage you to subscribe to Strat.In as well. It has some really nice posts and a lot more is expected. Your support will be highly appreciated!

Sensex at 1,00,000!

2009-04-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

I just read a report which claims that according to Technical Analysis, Indian sensex can reach 1,00,000 by 2025. Wow! Can this really be true? Well the opinions will definitely vary but I am quite doubtful.

According to Wikipedia, "Technical analysis is a security analysis technique that claims the ability to forecast the future direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume."

Although this form of analysis can probably predict the markets very well but can it predict something which is 16 years away? What about fundamentals? What about the state of the country?

Technical Analysis can basically look at the history of Indian markets and make prediction based on reasonable assumptions which they make. But they probably have not heard the famous dialogue "It happens only in India!"! India is a country which has not been able to provide roads, electricity and clean water to every citizen, forget about providing education! India is a country where elections are still won by saying 'roti, kapda aur makaan'! India is a country where scams like Satyam are still happening!

If these factors don't seem enough then think about this, India is still short of power, companies don't get power and also pay higher price for it. Roads are pathetic, and cities are dying. The infrastructure is crumbling.

To me this seems impossible, but then lets see ... Miracles do happen and they do happen in India :)

Flickr!

2009-04-21T13:15:00.001-07:00

Hilton in NYC, originally uploaded by shubham.singal.

I have had a Flickr account since way back in 2006. But I never really got to using it. The main reason behind this was because I never really arranged my photographs!

Since I have started using a macbook I have started categorizing my pics and I believe that I do take some good photographs once in a while! A picture which is worth preserving, worth commenting!

I will try to take more such pictures in the future and post them to Flickr regularly. Some of them might also be published in this blog! Hope to see your comments on the blog & Flickr!

Just 44K Applications for H1b in 2009

2009-04-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Isn't it surprising that a problem which has been occurring since the past 3 years actually gets a remedy in 2009, the year of global recession! The problem of H1b visas, which have been limited to just 65,000 per year.

This year in the first few days of April only 44,000 applications were received for 65,000 seats! To give some comparison inspite of the Credit Crisis over 150,000 applications were received last year in the first 2-3 days! What has happened this year that the number has dropped by such huge amount?

Firstly the use of TARP funds, all the banks using these funds are not really hiring anyone on an h1b. But can this just account for the huge deficit? I don't think so.
The Technology Companies in US, most of them have hiring freeze and a good number of start-ups have also gone bankrupt. The big companies are also not hiring big, spending less on recruitment and hence prefer to hire local talent.
Foreign Technology Companies, I have a feeling that companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro which used to file for 5,000-10,000 H1b applications every year have probably reduced this number. Firstly the number of clients might have reduced and secondly this also might be cost saving!

The whole situation seems like in times of growth the number of applications is just too high, and in times of distress the number suddenly becomes too low (although 2 data points might not be enough to give this result).
However it seems like the number of H1b applications is a high beta stock, or a function of the US Economy (like it should be)! Alas why did this number cross 65,000 in 2006. May be it was all for the best.
Anyways congratulations to some of my friends who applied for an H1b this year! Way to go US Government, you were right that 65,000 H1bs are enough!

Who says India is poor? just count the Black Money

2009-04-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well since Slumdog Millionaire, a good number of Indians also believe that money is green like the US Currency. But actually if you look at India, most of the money is probably Black! If anyone ever thinks that Indians are poor I would just ask them to see the declared assets of contesting candidates for elections or just get a list of Indians having swiss bank accounts (obviously the 2nd one will be very hard!)

Ghar bhechna hai? Aadha white, aadha black!

Dukaan main bill mango to mana karte hai? Kyun tax nahin dena and black money kamana hai!

Police, Sarkari Daftar (Government Office), har jagah rishwat (bribe)? black money!

India is a different country and it works quite differently. Khosla ka Ghosla se ek scene yaad aa gaya jab Anupam Kher ko police lockup main band kar deti hai and uske bete Inspector se milte hai :)) Sometimes I think that if Government makes a scheme such that people can pay 30% tax and make black money into white then all politicians, government officials will instantly apply for it.

Today this cause is being championed by BJP and it is indeed a noble cause. Reading an article on this in The Economic Times I feel that the argument BJP is making is just amazing! UK, US, Germany, France and many other countries of the world are today looking towards putting curbs on tax havens! BJP wants India to become a part of that league! The question about a list of individuals with the German Government is ofcourse a must act situation that Congress is not addressing. Why can't a media agency actually take up this challenge? Why can't they get us the list from Germany somehow?

Till now the world knows India like Slumdogs, well lets just have the Swiss Bank Accounts opened and I pretty sure that the Forbes Richest List will change quite dramatically, and India will start getting recognition as the Millionaires & Billionaires. Keep this in mind when you vote this election!

Speciality Restaurants - Making full use of the depression

2009-04-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

They say that with each depression comes an opportunity, though very few companies are actually able to use it. But reading this article about Speciality Restaurants, I feel they are doing an amazing job!

Like the article states, Speciality Restaurants is diluting 10-15% of its equity to raise around Rs 150-200 crores. With restaurants like Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta and Sigree in its kitty already, it plans to add a South Indian restaurant chain and an Italian restaurant chain from the money it will raise. What a wonderful opportunity for them! Investing into a South Indian restaurant chain from Delhi, and an Italian chain reminds me of a good number of restaurants in Delhi but I guess I will not name them in this article.

Oh! Calcutta and Mainland China were two of my favorite restaurants in Calcutta and I have been to them a good number of times. With the global slowdown and all that recession talks, the valuations have gone down significantly and acquiring companies as this point is a wonderful idea. Specially since this is in the food sector and people have to eat. Couple of restaurants are in luxury league but I am sure the South Indian restaurant chain will not be a luxury one and should not feel much impact of the slowdown.

I love eating out! and I love having good restaurants and with Speciality Foods opening up all their chains internationally, I really like their current move! Way to go guys, all the best!

The IIT Life

2009-04-20T04:11:00.000-07:00

Just saw this video on Google Videos .... Missing the IIT life ....

P.S. The video is from IIT-M and the main guy is Niteesh Joshi

The Exam Effect!

2009-04-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Reading the experience of a student about how clearing CAT and securing admission into IIM Calcutta helped him grow at Youth Curry made me write this post. First of all I would like to congratulate this anonymous person. Way to go my friend and welcome to IIM Calcutta. Welcome to Joka!

I personally feel that I got the same feeling of growth and self confidence from a different exam, it was from IIT JEE. Clearing IIT Entrance gave me the confidence that nothing is impossible to achieve and I still believe it. If you work hard enough, with the right guidance and direction then an exam is a cakewalk.

When you clean an exam after such preparation it not only gives you a high and confidence! It gives you discipline and direction. The next time you face a tough situation you can easily get back into the mode of preparation and give your best! The exam gives you all the ammunition you need for a lifetime!

So my friends, if you are looking for such an experience go challenge yourself! Push yourself! Prepare and give your best and I am sure you will come out winning!

ICL is the Rebel Indian League

2009-04-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

I just read this article on Times of India and the headline reads "ICC rejects rebel Indian League's Application". Reading this headline the thoughts which came to my mind were:

Is this refering to IPL? I know there was some clash of IPL with some inter-country matches. But what exactly did ICC reject?
Can this be actually refering to ICL? Indian Cricket League?

The 2nd thought was actually correct and the article is about ICL's application to ICC to give it the 'authorized unofficial' status. I think ICL might be doing this to ensure that the rift with BCCI gets a little closed, so that ICL can get access to more players and more advertising.

The most surprising fact however was the newspaper does not want to name ICL in its headline. They could have written "ICC rejects ICL's application" but they didn't. This is something ICL should really be worried about that their brand name is being completely dissolved.

I think ICL will be feeling sour, they were the first ones to bring the Cricket League Concept into the market and then BCCI just walked in and took away everything from them. I guess the first mover advantage was not there because of BCCI's control. Will they succeed? I don't know but in the current scenario it seems bleak.

Indian Premier League 2009 in South Africa!

2009-04-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

Just got up after watching the first match of IPL 2009, Mumbai Indians vs Chennai SuperKings. The only difference from last year was that it is being held in South Africa and not India. The whole debacle of moving IPL has been talked about so many times that I won't really go there.

What I will discuss is if the game really felt different. Sure there were some differences in it.

The boundries do seem a little smaller.
The crowd consisted of a lot of foreigners, and lots of good looking ones as well ;)
The cricket pitch definitely seems different.
It seems a little less sunny.

But to the common man watching it on television, did it really seem different? I don't think so.

Did I enjoy IPL and feel it was not so different? I enjoyed thoroughly.

Has Lalit Modi succeeded in saving IPL? Yes, most definitely.

Is IPL 2009 going to be a big success? Yes!

Who is going to win? Delhi Daredevils!

P.S. Mumbai Indians won the first match! Way to go!!!

Volunteering for BJP

2009-04-18T00:59:00.000-07:00

An article from Times of India, Calcutta

IIM-C Grads in Business of Politics by Somdatta Basu | TNN

Kolkata: If you thought that B-school and politics don’t mix, here’s news for you. A handful of B-school graduates are applying their management wizardry in the big, bad world of politics. Parties are hiring them to draw up their poll strategies, and the youngsters are picking up valuable lessons in politics through their association with political stalwarts.

As many as three students from IIM-Calcutta are either pursuing their political internship or volunteering for BJP in Mumbai and Delhi in this election. And, none of them is ruling out getting actively involved in politics at some point in the future, though not now.

“If not a full-time career, I may end up being involved in politics even in the future,” says Ankur Gattani, an IIM-C graduate of 2008 who runs his own business in Mumbai, named Lifeinlines. “I will have enough in my kitty before I take a plunge into active politics. Moreover, there is always the option of pursuing a side business. Even if political parties don’t pay a salary, they take care of a lot of necessities,” Gattani said.

All three students from IIM-C are volunteering for BJP, observing the nations electoral process from very close quarters. Though they are not contestants, they are involved in assisting the BJP high command in wooing voters, specially the country’s youth who are Internet geeks.

Harsh Vardhan Chhaparia has already been a member of L K Advani’s communication team at 26 Tughlaq Road. “I research for him, prepare press releases and am involved in updating the party’s website. Till now, I have keenly observed the way Advaniji handles the media and his press statements,” Harsh says. The party has also found him a bungalow which he shares with BJP national secretary Sudhendra Kulkarni. “I have met political leaders like Siddharth Nath Singh, who is the party’s national spokesperson. Working in close contact with eminent national leaders will definitely benefit me,” Harsh added. He, too, did not rule out chasing political ambitions in the future.

A point to note is that most of these young B-school grads dabbling in politics feel that the root of politicians turning corrupt is lack of financial stability. “It is only after a considerable period of working and earning that I might think of taking up politics as a career option,” said one of the grads.

Ankur is looking after the functioning of BJP’s IT cell in Maharastra. “I help politicians hear voices of our janta (voters). As a team, we worked by sending mails to individuals seeking their recommendations for possible inclusion in the BJP agenda. The mails contained ideas, initiatives and latest issues, if any, to reach out to the masses,” said Ankur from Mumbai. Apart from writing mails, he also helps send mobile updates on various events of BJP in the city. “I upload contents on the website and assist with national research, which the people might find handy,” Gattani explained. He is also working in close association with the Maharastra BJP president.

So, what motivated him to join BJP in Mumbai as a volunteer? “I decided to work for BJP in order to take a close look at the way Indian elections and democracy works,” said Ankur. “The IIM-C tag helps to gain easier access to eminent leaders. Though I’m open to joining politics later, as of now I am only too happy to pursue my business,” he claims.

Shubham Singal, a student of IIT-Delhi and an IIM-C grad, also writes articles and does research work for the BJP website. “In it, we clarify the baseless remarks made against the BJP. If BJP leaders have been misquoted, then we try and set the record straight,” Singal says.

He justifies volunteering for BJP, saying: “I have felt that politics has not been given its due share by the youth. I joined BJP as I don’t like the way Congress has introduced dynastic politics.”

May be they will remove the article from their servers in some days. This is just to preserve this forever :)

P.S. The article also got published in Times of India Mumbai and Chennai Editions. Wow! this is getting some publicity.

Pakistan Bailed Out!

2009-04-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

Just another example of the clout of the South Asian Community. India currently tops the list of countries receiving money from its people abroad and now Pakistan has also managed to go out and get money for itself. Raising $5.28 billion is not a child's play and Pakistan has managed to do it without much effort it seems. But the statements made by Mr Zardari seem more like a fear tactic rather than a nationalist one ;)

Quoting from IBN Live

Addressing the conference, Zardari said: "With all humility, I am asking the world to help us fight this terrorism which if not tackled will not end at our borders only and could spread." According to Zardari, Pakistan, which has suffered a lot from the war against terrorism, cannot afford to face defeat.

Now they are asking for help to fight terrorism? What about the past 50 years when you have funded all your terror operations against India by such money? Kuch log sahi kehte hai, jab khud par padti hai tabhi samajh main aata hai, The power of empathy is not present.

Also, yesterday was also the day when Ajmal Amir Kasab's statement was read out in court. Quoting from Times of India,

An enigmatic character who crops up in Kasab's statement is a "Major General Sahab" who visited a camp at Baitul Mujahid to oversee their progress and skills.

Ofcourse he lated retracted the statement in Court. It seems so strange that the killer of so many innocent people now wants to escape his own trial. Since he has no birth record, he wants to claim himself as juvenile, Wow! Have some guts, stand up and embrace what you did and take the punishment! This just shows his cowardice.

Destiny vs Human Effort - A Report

2009-04-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Introduction
The topic in question has been an eternal debate. Destiny comes from the word Destination, and represents the finality of events. The concept of destiny tells a person that the sequence of events happening in his life, are pre-determined. No one can deny the role of luck and chance in one’s life and these probabilistic events draw ones attention to the presence of destiny. The acceptance of destiny leads one to believe that no matter what he do the sequence of events destined for him are bound to happen. It can lead to the person giving up control of his life. He begins to question the importance of human effort. After all if everything has been pre-decided according to destiny then where is the room for human intervention? In this report we will present an alternate view point bridging the dichotomy between destiny and human effort. We will introduce the concept of karma and how destiny is linked to it. We will also explain how by human effort a person can change his karma leading to an ultimate change in his destiny.

Destiny
Destiny can be thought of as fate as decided by the divine. Belief in destiny exists in many ways and unknowingly we make statements which express our belief in destiny everyday. It is destiny which lies in a soldier’s fatalist image of the “bullet that has your name on it” or that you will die the moment your number comes up in god’s books or a romance that was "meant to be." [1]. Even in the Indian belief of “every grain has the consumer’s name on it” and “marriages are made in heaven” are actually beliefs in destiny. Let us try and understand why do people actually start believing in destiny. The human psyche is based on control and we always want to believe that we have power and control over everything around us, our lives, our surroundings, our future. However at various points in our lives we cannot deny the existence of chance or luck. Although we can deny this as mere coincidences but many times we also start feeling the presence of a bigger purpose, the finality of things and this leads to the ultimate belief in destiny. We need to rationalize the occurrence of events in our lives and from this stems the belief in destiny where we pass on the reason behind activities to destiny.
Destiny can be seen existing as two concepts - Destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable, or that individuals choose their own destiny by choosing different paths throughout their life.
Destiny as a fixed sequence of events believes in the existence of an ultimate purpose. The entire universe, planets, living beings, humans, and everything that surrounds us are bound to have a reason for existing. This ultimate reason or purpose defines a fixed set of events occurring in our lives and irrespective of our attempts the sequence is bound to continue. This belief in a supernatural power over and above your own existence can be termed as destiny. The age old sayings of India also promote this way of thinking. For example the old saying, “samay se pehle aur taqdeer se jyada kisi ko nahin milta” meaning nobody gets anything before the right time and more than fate has decided. This way of thinking can be attributed to the human psyche of comforting themselves on their failure by passing the blame to something external. Thus when a person fails he can conveniently pass the blame to luck or fate in the above context. It is believed that even creation of God lies in this attribute of mankind, where he can’t understand the reasoning behind a particular thing and needs a comforting factor and thus the concept of god gives him what he needs. This concept of destiny also gains strength from the concept of astrology. It is believed that the positioning of the planets at your birth can predict your entire life ahead. The concept of palmistry, astrology, horoscope and other predictive sciences all are based on the concept of destiny. These concepts again lead to the fixed sequence of events and the interconnection amongst all things in this universe.
The second school of thought regarding destiny maintains the importance of sequencing of events but also gives the power of control to the individual. Destiny plays a major role in one’s life and its importance cannot be neglected, however the individual by his own actions puts his life into a trajectory for a destiny. The individual at any point has choices regarding his future and dependent on these choices his future life is determined. The concept deals with Karma and concept of good & bad deeds. We will explore this in detail in the later sections in this paper.

Human Effort
The human society is based on the results one gets from his/her efforts. Our very existence if based on the concept of effort. Right from our childhood, schooling, and work we are taught that our results are almost directly proportional to the amount of effort we put in. We do factor in factors like talent and chance but we do not give in to the concept of unchangeable future. The concept of human effort does not directly deal with the concept of destiny.
From our childhood the importance of human effort and persistence is emphasized. A story told to almost every child is how a king who lost his kingdom and tried twice to gain it back but failed. The king lay in a room feeling disheartened ready to give up, then he saw a spider trying to climb a wall. The spider tried to get up but fell down. The same thing repeated 4 times and now the King expected the spider to give up. But the spider did not give up and it succeeded the 8th time it tried. This gave the King the push he required. The King again united his army and attacked to re-gain his kingdom and in the end he succeeded. The learning from the story is to inculcate the spirit of the spider and never give up even when you face failure. Another story told often to us is how a child is told that he has no line in his palm for education and thus he cannot learn. The child becomes highly depressed because of this and later takes up a knife and cuts his hand to create a line for education. But later his father tells him that doing so will not make him learned rather hard work and persistence will. The studies extremely hard and becomes a learned scholar of his time. These and many other stories are told to instigate the fire for hard work and try to establish the belief in human effort within us.
The saying “Practice makes Perfect” again deals with this aspect of human effort. Hope is our biggest strength and by putting in effort and not giving up hope we can achieve anything. This is the message which is taught to us and our younger generation in order to give them strong willpower. In many ways this is against the spirit of belief in destiny and tries to deny it. In the next few sections we will try and look for a relationship between the two concepts.

Karma
Human beings are a subject with a consciousness. Every phenomenon appearing in nature, everything that happens to us is saved as a seed; it is saved in our consciousness. This consciousness remains as our spirit and even when we meet death the spirit remains independent by separating itself from the body. Once our consciousness disappears we are reborn. Although the consciousness disappears, however its effect remains forever and it will continuously cause a reaction & impact in our lives going forward. The Karma keeps your deeds with you forever; it maintains your consciousness, your past with you. Thus Karma is a part of you. Karma is formed by your words and actions. [2]
Thus without realizing the thousands of events which happen to you and which you do, you make your own Karma. This Karma makes the destiny which controls you. A person does not do tasks atypical of him. This is because of the Karma which exists inside him, in his consciousness which influences his actions. “The nature of a sip of water changes depending on who drinks it. If a venomous snake drinks it, it becomes poison. If a deer drinks it, it becomes antlers. If you give a snake water and tell it to make antlers, it is impossible.” [3] The very unique existence of a substance exhibits its karma. All substances and forms of life which exist carry their own individual Karma. Whatever actions you take form your karma and accumulate within you, irrespective of whether you want them to or not.
The human being is similar to a plant in many ways. One of these ways is that the formation of both happens from a seed. The seed of a plant performs according to the foundation, whether it is good or bad, fertile or infertile. Based on its foundation the seed can become a fruitful tree or can perish into non-existence. Humans are also like plants. Although they don't bear fruit, they make the consciousness, the soul which is inside them. When the human dies, the soul still survives and appears as life again. The soul does not die and it remembers all the past activities, the past history and when it is reborn it continues from where it left earlier. A soul combines with its foundation and repeats the same activities as its previous life. Therefore, the essence of destiny is the activity which has existed in ones basic nature and the newness in his foundation. This activity in his basic nature is made by what has happened to him and becomes the origin of all the activities of consciousness which makes him accept, reject, judge, or think of things. [3]

They say to protest one lie you will have to say a 1000 lies. The circle actually starts from the human consciousness. When people do something wrong once, it is put into their consciousness. Next time they will again make the same mistake and take the easy path out. Thus if they fall into a mistake once, the strength of that mistake will force them to do wrong things. Like this, the influence of what is inside you brings forth the result which makes your basic nature weak or strong. In this way, the basic nature of your destiny is decided. The essence of destiny is determined by what exists inside you. [3]
Thus when you realize that wrong things are happening to you, when you are failing then don’t look for the reason outside. Try to look inside yourself, into your soul. Try to realize the wrong things which you do or have done in the past. If you change yourself and start doing good things then your karma is bound of change. If things change in that way your destiny will change and become better.

People often wonder how can they change their destiny. The answer does not lie too far. It lies within us, in our consciousness. In the world of phenomena we can see both good things and bad things. These good and bad things don’t happen without any reason, they happen according to a problem. When it comes to changing ones destiny, one needs to analyze their consciousness. Once someone knows what is in their own consciousness, anyone can change themselves easily. Therefore, if a person is having a bad destiny and if they understand correctly their consciousness then they won't do things depending on their thought and will slowly change their consciousness and their karma. By doing so they can redeem themselves, free themselves from their bad destiny. Changing one's destiny is possible by knowing exactly what is inside you, and through being enlightened about it. Through Enlightenment one doesn't accept one's destiny and one makes a new destiny. No matter how much somebody is eager to change their thoughts, if they don't understand properly what is inside them and they just go around relying on their own thoughts they can never change their thoughts.
Anyone can change their destiny if they just understand themselves completely.

My tryst with destiny
I personally have a very strong belief in destiny and the role it plays in our lives. Earlier I used to believe only in the power of human effort and did not believe in destiny. I used to believe in the power of human will however over the years my view has changed. When I was in class 10th I got instilled in me the wish to study at IIT, the best and the toughest institute in India. There was a coaching centre in Delhi which was considered to be the best in its preparation. The coaching centre had an entrance and I prepared really well for it. Due to some reason I was not able to get in the course and was quite disheartened. My parents told me that I should probably try for medical as my sister had already cleared its entrance and was on her way to become a doctor. I also took up medical, however after a few weeks in school in the medical section I decided to give preparing for IIT another try. I don’t know where did it come from but I took that decision. I prepared extremely well again for the 2nd test of the coaching centre and excelled in their tests which resulted in them offering me to join their course. From their on I never looked back and studied really hard and ultimately got into Computer Science at IIT Delhi, which is one of the biggest achievements in my life. When I look back I still feel that although a huge role was played by human effort but I cannot deny the presence of external factors, this is what I term as destiny.
After getting into IIT again destiny caught up with me. I believe it was my destiny to enter computer science. My rank in IIT was 140 and previous year the computer science admission had closed at rank 99 and the year following my admission it closed at 112. During my admission year computer science closed at rank 143 and I managed to get it. Even during my final year at IIT destiny helped me a lot. I gave Common Admission Test for IIMs and also managed my admission at IIM C. At the same time I had managed to get a job offer from a company based in New York. Although I wanted to join the job my parents were insisting on joining IIM. Ultimately I did not join IIM and went for the job. Somehow due to some sequence of events I did not get the work visa for US and worked with the same firm in India for the year. Although it was decided that next year I will be able to get the work visa and shift to US but somehow I still filled the CAT form again and again gave the test. At the time of filling the form I remember my mother walked up to me and said “Why are you filling the form? You already left the admission and next year you will go to US?” I really did not know why I was doing so and replied, “Just in case.” Over the year my focus shifted and I managed to secure admission at IIM C and IIM B and currently am a student at IIM C.

Conclusion
In this theme paper we have tried to give a basic understanding of the concepts of destiny and human effort. Destiny represents the finality of events in one’s life. Destiny originates from the human need of having an external source for comfort and support in life, similar to god. He blames his failures and events which he cannot understand upon destiny and god’s will. We have also established destiny’s relation with the age old saying of the world. After destiny we have tried to explain the power of human effort and how it is emphasized in our lives. Humans effort is what distinguishes us from the rest of life on earth and thus it forms a basis of teaching for children through stories, through education, through all their activities.

There also exists an eternal conflict between destiny and human effort, where if destiny has already decided everything then there is no need for an individual to work and put in human effort. On the other hand if human effort is to control everything then there is no predetermination of events and hence destiny can be ruled out.

We have tried to propose the solution in karma. Although human beings die and are reborn but their souls remain the same forever. This soul contains all their experiences, all their actions, all their deeds, their learning. Since the soul continues thus a person carries his past with him and it is his past which makes him take his decisions. Our future actions can be predicted by our past and this is how destiny is formed. By changing our karma, our thinking, our actions can also be changed and this can change our future.

REFERENCES
I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destiny
II. http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_what_is_karma.htm#ka
rma
III. http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/destiny.htm
IV. http://www.al-islam.org/mananddestiny/6.htm
V. http://sibbia.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/do-you-believe-in-destiny/
VI. http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/YogaPlus/Article.aspx?id=528
VII. http://new-ecopsychology.org/en/books/ecopsychology/eco-7.htm
VIII. http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_what_is_karma.htm

An Experience of Bribery

2009-04-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Somebody who once said that “The purpose of life,after all,is to live it,to experience it to the upmost,to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences” must have had surely not been reconvening over some not so cool experiences….After all,the term ‘experience’ in itself encompasses a multi-array of adventure, fun, drollery, fret, melancholy, angst and a whole lot enumeration that can probably just keep going on.Each experience with the entwining of mind’s reckless thought process leaves you teaching a new lesson or atleast making you think over a little deeper.

This Wednesday afternoon,with my intuition already scrambling in favour of something bad happening, I went to Patel Chest,Delhi University for completion of my postgraduation programme joining formalities.I parked my car outside it,just as I always did before, and for precaution asked my friend’s driver to heed it and inform me if anything goes wrong. Murphy’s Law, it seemed,had set to prove itself right that day only.

After a little while,I got a call from the driver informing me that my car had been towed away.My clairvoyance was working which I would have had preferred remaining in dumps,atleast for this one.Quitting the work, me and my friend ran down seven odd floors and travelled some 2 kms amidst narrow lanes and traffic to reach Sabzi Mandi P.S. to catch hold of my car,again little knowing about how the arcanum goes and just praying not to get dodged of money for this trivia.What an experience we were chanting,since experience is usually the name everyone gives to their mistakes and I sincerely do affirm to that.

Some minutes after,we were negotiating under the sun over the amount[bribe] to get my car released,giving all genre of excuses which we people,as doctors,are accustomed to whenever caught violating the traffic norms.And that’s why we even keep our stethoscopes and white coats handy most of the times to prove our point.Alas,this time I didn’t have them.Starting from Rs. 1500,he descended down to Rs.300 which was something to be cheerful about.Afterall who doesn’t want saving some extra bucks in the time of recession.And everyone is of same religion when it comes to money.

While driving down back,I did rue a little for two entirely opposite things which might sound hilarious.One,on not being able to save those 300 bucks.I guess,I could have bargained more :).Second,on a more serious note thinking tha today I acted like someone who supported a corruptive malpractice which I am condemning in my usual social circle most of the times.I know ethically what I did was wrong but truly speaking,even despite that I don’t see myself strong enough to be acting the other way if the misfortune strikes again.

Paying bribes to get our work done has become a matter of convenience for middle class people like me,an almost incorrigible habit.And may be a food for greediness or avarice for upper class officials and politicians.And there seems to be no respite,to we almost being ‘towed’ towards this chagrin which is sad indeed.

A guest post by friend. To maintain anonymity will not tell the name :)

Varun Gandhi Released!

2009-04-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

So like I said in a previous entry, applying National Security Act (NSA) on Varun Gandhi was seen as too harsh even by the Supreme Court. Quoting from Indian Express,

“We feel such drastic action is not required,” the bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam observed, virtually coming to Varun’s aid, who has challenged the imposition of the NSA as “political vendetta”.

Thank god that there is atleast some authority in India that still is unbiased and gives good decisions. I just hope that it remains this way, atleast one last resort for all of us.

BTW this news was even covered by BBC as "Court orders Varun Gandhi release" and the WSJ as "Varun Gandhi Gets Parole". This is the way politics goes! A hate speech & a scandal can make you world famous and doing good will get you nowhere!

Twittering - the online social party

2009-04-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

I just joined the Twitter bandwagon a couple of days ago and I must say that it is quite addictive. I had often heard about Twitter as a website which asks users to answer just one question "What are you doing?" and I could not understand how it could become so popular.

Firstly why would people want to let others know what they are doing all the time? Won't it be like privacy intrusion?
Secondly with all these social networks already present, what is the main difference?

But as I have discovered in the past couple of days Twitter is not ur conventional social networking website. It breaks so many rules of current social networking that it should be renamed as something else, I would like to call it an Online Social Party.

On Twitter there is little privacy. You post your updates and people read them. You can block other people or make them private but most people don't. People are using Twitter as a way to get to know more people, just like a social gathering, a club, a party.
People are not always answering The Question, rather they are putting on Twitter anything which they find interesting, be it a web link, a quote, a movie, anything.
People are using Twitter for marketing, for promotion, for putting the word into a big community.
And many many more things which I don't even know for now :)

This is my Twitter Page, http://twitter.com/shubhamsingal. In a short span of 2-3 days I have 60 followers and 57 updates. I guess I am also twitting!

The Party Matters!

2009-04-14T02:53:00.000-07:00

I have been saying that the whole Varun Gandhi debacle is bad. But one thing that I still support is although what Varun Gandhi said was wrong but sending him to jail and then all that followed was also wrong. Yes, Varun Gandhi said wrong things but then he is not the only one saying wrong things, is he?

Raj Thackeray said and in fact did a lot of things which should not have been done. Regionalism has been given a new meaning and they even beat some people in this cause of theirs. Yet nothing was done against him? No arrest, no jail and definitely no NSA (National Security Act).

I have never even heard any such act being applied to CPM or Trinamool when they do all these bandhs in West Bengal. In these bandhs so many buses are destroyed, revenue of a working day is lost and lots of other malpractice takes place. Yet nothing is ever done.

Then why is Varun Gandhi being treated like this? I think it is because he is a Gandhi and not representing Congress. "His sister Priyanka Vadra said in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, that Gandhi would one day become India’s prime minister, The Economic Times reported." from LiveMint. Although Rahul Gandhi will himself criticize dynasty in politics, yet he will accept all posts. Why is Rahul Gandhi being considered as future PM except dynasty? Politics will never change.

"Making an observation that NSA was too drastic a provision to be invoked against the petitioner" from Statesman.Thank god there is atleast one authority left in this country where political parties don't have complete control. The Supreme Court will probably save the day. Lets see what happens tomorrow.

VCs Investing in Social Applications

2009-04-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have started Twittering today. It is not like I have not heard about Twitter before but I never really gave it a serious thought. After registering today it felt different but good. Why did it feel good? Because I got to connect with so many people.

This got me thinking about when did I feel like this before? I felt like this on Facebook, and before on Orkut. But then I felt that may be these social application sites are just like fads, using bandwagon effect to get many people on board, getting a good valuation, getting acquired or something and then slowly going into oblivion. I got some help from Technorati when I found this pic on its homepage.

I opened Alexa and started searching for trends for these social applications and the results are not really positive. I think the best example social applications can be digg.com and mys pace.com and I am including the alexa pages here.

Both show a considerable drop in usage during late 2008 and early 2009. What can be the reason behind this? Have people stopped being social? I don't think so. Its just that people have probably moved into other social apps like facebook and twitter. I will also paste the alexa graphs for these sites below and also Orkut.

The one question which keeps coming to my mind is that whether VC funding for such startups is justified? I mean yes because you never know which such application may be the next Google or YouTube. But funding based on just future potential which seems to be drying up as people move to newer applications seem strange.

This article might be totally wrong and such applications might sell for billions of dollars but it was just a thought! Something I considered worth mentioning :)